There is only one, Battleship Grey, prototype, Rebound on the water so far. It is getting put to the test, however, with the World Championships, which includes the Senior Men’s class for K1, the Masters for K1, “Worlds Biggest Loop” event, and Flatwater Freestyle Event. Since I am the only one with one, it is up to me to show people what it can do. In the Senior Men’s class, the “big show”, I flushed out of the hole on both rides, with about 750 points on the board and was one move away from making the cut to the next round. The boat was performing well, and I was paddling well while in the hole, but I chose poorly on rushing a move on the flushy corner on both rides. I finished 22nd out in the men’s field. In 1995 I had a rough slalom World Championships result here as well finishing 25 with a 50-second penalty on my second run, which is the last time I competed here in Nottingham, England.
Immediately after my senior men’s rides, I was walking back up the course and was asked if I was ready for the flatwater freestyle competition. After my disappointing prelims, I was ready for redemption, or another black eye, depending on how I paddled. It is difficult to flush out of the lake, so it was up to the moves. I managed to pull off a third-place finish, which I am quite happy with since I don’t do a lot of Flatwater these days.
Masters-Inlet Hole
The top hole on the Nottingham course is called “Inlet” and it is like a hole with training wheels. It is one of the easiest holes in the world to learn tricks in. It is in between two vertical walls, so you can’t flush out the sides and it is symmetrical, slow, and retentive. We had our first Masters event there. three 45-second rides with two that count. I scored 2,800 points for the win in two rides which is much better than 1,450 points I got in two rides during seniors in Twins Hole. The Rebound went big for me, and fast. Clay Wright had two very strong rides as well for second place at 2,100 points.
Masters- Troll Hole and Ferry Wave
Yesterday was a Round Robin Format- ticking off every move you can in 30 minutes. Each paddler got about 6 rides. You started in Troll hole and tried to keep adding moves that you haven’t done yet, and when you flush out, drop into Ferry Wave and do the same. It was a super fun format, and you really had to remember what you did and didn’t do. I pulled off most of the hole moves in my first three rides, except for the Tricky Woo and Right Lunar Orbit. On the wave, which is small and not that Easy to do much on, I did all of the easy stuff first like spins, roundhouses, and blunts, and then tried to stick an Airscrew. It took me three rides before I scored the airscrew and also some flip turns. There wasn’t much else I could do on that wave. Since I was the only one to stick the airscrew (Rebound is VERY good at taking off on a wave, and rotates fast and is retentive), that move helped my score a lot. By the end I almost got a 2,000-point score, but not quite at 1950. Clay was not far behind in second place with 1250. Current Female World Champion, Hitomi, from Japan crushed it with 1550 points and some huge bonuses on her Phonix Monkies to take top score in women’s masters in that event.
World’s Biggest Loop Competition
In inlet Gate hole, they set up a cross bar on a rope that you have to hit with your bow on the loop to count. The bar starts low, like High Jump, and as paddlers hit it, they raise it up. In the Morning from 10-12 yesterday I was able to compete and see what I could do in the “World’s Shortest Freestyle Kayak”. In this event, when you are dead vertical and jumping as high as you can, you also needed to move backwards a lot in order to hit the bar. They didn’t want the stern hitting it, so they moved it back. Many of the paddlers struggled to get the height they needed to hit the bar and the backwards travel at the same time. In the photo below you can see an example of my boat about to hit the bar where the bow is downstream of the bar and still traveling upwards. During the 2 hours I was in and out of the lead with two German paddlers constantly upping the bar. It got ridiculously high and I was wondering just how high was possible. On my final ride, I hit the bar at 1.68 meters, and nobody else was able to get that height. The shut down the competition for freestyle downstream, and opened it back up a 2pm. From 2- 4 paddlers tried to beat my mark and around 3:45 one of the Germans did and then Gavin from England as well. I was competing in Masters and by the time I finished, I was only able to get one ride in and didn’t hit the bar. I finished in 3rd, which I am very happy with. It was a good testimony for the Rebound’s ability to loop big.
Meanwhile- No more prelims for Juniors, men, women, C1, or Oc1. C1 finals was epic with Landon Miller taking the gold and Dane the silver, and Tom Dolle from France for the bronze. Today is the finals for Men, Women, Junior Men, Junior Women, and Masters. I am super proud of my kids, who both made the finals. Dane and Emily will get to paddle to the very end for the medals today. Will Dane become 4 Time Men’s Kayak Champion today? I have been LONG waiting to see how many years it will take him to catch me in that. Dane and I are the only World Champions that have won more than 1 in the men’s class. Pringle from England and Quim from Spain both got knocked out yesterday in Semi-finals, so that record still stands. Both were good enough to win on a great ride. Dane has three wins. In his first Men’s class, 2013, he won and we wondered if he could win 4 in a row. It is a tall order as winning isn’t easy, of course, and every event has its own set of challenges, and challengers. Right now it is Iris Dave, who has this hole on speed-dial and has the highest scores of anyone so far. In the women’s class, Ottilie and Marlene both have super high-scoring rides on the books already. Emily, however, knows how to throw a great ride in this hole and is hungry after her semi-finals rides leaving points on the table. Hitomi is the current world champion and seems to be loosening up and paddling better each round. Her performance in the masters yesterday likely has her feeling pretty good about today. She gets to do the Super Finals for Masters today (all age categories combined) before her senior finals which will give her some practice.
Stay Tuned!
