Hey all in the inter-web. Hope this blog post finds everyone enjoying all likes of water wether it be flat water of Lake Michigan, surfing on the Pacific Ocean or running the Gauley River.
My trip to Switzerland ended only a few days ago and I am already up in West Virginia getting ready to run the Gauley for another season!! Above is what the boat locker looked like at its best. Everyone in the competition left their boats here overnight and there were guards with dogs that will eat you!!!
The opening ceremonies were awesome. All of the countries had flags and they walked around in circles kinda like at the Olympics but not as cool. Or as lighted up. One of my favorite kids in the world Dane Jackson who ended up 2nd overall in the Junior Mens after Jason Craig who is another young ripper.
This is my beautiful mom who is the best mom in the world for all of you inter-webbers that don't already know that. She is my biggest fan and she is my biggest sponsor. Without her I would not be able to do the things I do, like go to Swizterland.
Even though my competition ended swiftly in Thun at Worlds this year, I still enjoyed myself to the fullest. I ended up in 28th place, lower than I would have wished but many people are just telling that it is a big feat to even make it on the US Freestyle Team. So, since I got knocked out early in the competition I had a lot of time to waste. So I wasted my time by going creeking!! Just like I would do at home!!!
This river is nestled in the heart of the Glacier valleys and is glacial fed, super cold and it rained on us every day that we were up there. Gotta represent some Shred Ready with the waterfall in the background, they made me a kick ass helmet for Worlds and they kept me warm with their awesome new styling sweatshirts.
I borrowed a few boats while I was overseas since all I had was a freestyle boat, my trusty Biscuit 45. I borrowed Arnd Shaftlien's Riot Magnum, which was actually a very good kayak, but not nearly as nice as the Jefe that I borrowed from, Phillippe Doux, editor and founder of Kayak Session. I had forgotten how nice it was to boof things in the beautiful Jefe. I went on two runs the first one was with Jessie Stones boyfriend and Clay Wright. I can't remember the name of the creek but it was super cool, really continuous class 3 with a few class 4's.
I also went on a few trips down the White Lachine (I'm not sure how to spell it properly), my wonderful mother came up with me one day to take pictures, and she did a very good job. The put-in down to where the man made 24 foot waterfall is all class 3 read and run that is pretty continuous with tons of good boofs and little eddys to catch. There is a quarter-mile of flat water above the waterfall and then suddenly you are boofing an awesome soft waterfall.
There is this stupid weir right below it that you have to boof, if you don't its a certain thing that you will have to get roped out of the hole. So I guess ya'll get the gist of what the river is like, it is short, an aussie named Lachie and I did it in 21 minutes.
So anyways my mom is an awesome woman and she took all of these pictures from the same creek!!!
On my second run of the day Lachie (an aussie) and I paddled down as fast as we could from thr top and mom hiked up from the bottom to see what the whole creek looked like. She was hiding in the bushes when she took this picture of Lachie and I choosing our line down the creek. This is pretty much how the whole creek was, super fun.
Me in my Team USA uniform representing for Astral, Immersion Research, Liquid Logic, Werner, and Shred Ready. So pretty!!!
The crew coming in after our first run everyone super happy.
I was the happiest person on the river to be able to actually boof some stuff and run something that made me think about moves. I was STOKED!!!
On that note, I will leave the inter-web with an awesome picture of KC Jackson during the opening ceremonies.
Now I get to go run the Gauley!!! YAY see ya'll on the flip side!
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