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Thanks to a last minute deal with Nick Rader at Teva Games (www.tevagames.com),
USA Wildwater sent a hungry group of 9 wildwater paddlers to do a exhibition race as part of the Bud Light
Downriver Race in Vail, Colorado alongside some of the best kayakers in the US including Tao Berman, Pat Keller,
Andrew Holcombe, and 100 other fun-having sprint entrants. We were super impressed with the huge number of
participants, spectators, and even more impressed with the spot on laser timing system. Perennial wildwater
powerhouse Chris Hipgrave (seen below hanging out with Heather and I) of Bryson City, NC won the overall with
a solid 15:03 with most of the remaining wildwater field within a tight 20 seconds.
Gore Creek, no wider than a cow's broad side, rages right into Vail Village and was busy with lots of boogie
water and channelized drops. Our 14 foot carbon kevlar boats don't exactly turn on a dime so our hearts were
pumping harder than ever in what seemed like an alpine luge at 50 mph more than a downriver kayak race. Trees,
low bridges, and spectators were coming at us like asteroids as we ducked, dodged, and boofed for our way down
the course (see video clip below) in just over 15 minutes. The short boat division winners finished in an
impressive 17.50 minutes with the Dagger Green Boat holding it's throne as king of the plastic boat class.
Post-race chumming followed with stories of dry heaving in the bushes, low bridge collisions overhead, and
lots of eddy outs on the squirrely course. I even caught an eddy overtaking another paddler and gave myself
a 30 second/10 point turnabout detour but all is fun on a race like this leading up to team trials.
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See the great video footage from the starting line from the HeroCam mounted on kayak bow...crazy perspective
and you can see why we love our sport! Yes, we really were having to duck and time our strokes to clear the
bridges overhead and get the boat back up to speed immediately past. Great high water this year!
