Winner Takes All Race - Charlotte Whitewater Course

Saturday, September 13, 2008 - Fergus Coffey and Dave Hepp put together a great event at the Charlotte Whitewater Course What made it so great, you say? It was a fast paced grassroots race with a diverse field of paddlers, reggae music, and good spirits.
Fergus Coffey and Pablo McCandless
photo: robin betz

It was cool because we had all kinds of paddlers representing. We had everyone from charlotte park locals, to creek boaters, to olympic slalom paddlers.

Here's the first heat at the starting line:
photo: robin betz

The race began with about 6 mass start heats at the top of the class IV channel. The top 2 paddlers in each heat advanced to the "winner's" bracket, and everyone else to the "loser's" bracket.
There were heroic 'baddles' for first off the starting line...
photo: robin betz

There was raft carnage sometimes...
photo: daniel windham

And there were elegant lines ;) Here i am, stoked! because I'm about to skip over this hole in my Remix 69 :) I might be slightly biased here, but I think the Remix was the boat of choice for the under 9' regulation. It was fast everywhere.
photo: daniel windham

After the field was split the top two in each heat kept advancing, and also the top five in the loser's bracket had the chance to win there way back in. In the end the top paddler's battling it out in the final heats were 1st place - Fergus Coffey, 2nd place - Butter, 3rd place - Chris Gragtmans, 4th - Pablo McCandless, 5th - Daniel Stuart.

Daniel Stuart chasing Pablo McCandless
photo: robin betz

We all pitched in five bucks to race, and the winner (Fergus Coffey) goes home with the loot. I think there was some kind of stash for 2nd and 3rd place too.

photo: daniel windham

Thanks to Fergus Coffey, Dave Hepp, the timers, and the Charlotte Whitewater Center and staff (and whoever else was behind the scenes) for hosting an awesome event!!