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April 25, 2005
I'll Start Over Tomorrow
Friday I drove over to the South Fork of the American for the American River Festival. I showed up at the freestyle competition site to find that it was a wave instead of the hole that it was going to be for the competition. That was no problem though as it looked like a fun wave, so I went out for a session.
After about an hour of paddling I loaded up my gear and drove down to the River Store. They were having a big party for the event complete with a food, a movie premier and a pool clinic/demonstration, courtesy of myself.
After eating some great food and visiting with friends that I hadn’t seen in a while it was into the pool for me. I spent maybe 30 minutes going over different moves, explaining how I do them, giving tips, taking requests, and answering questions. It was a really great night and thanks to the River Store for that.
The next morning was the freestyle competition. I was up early as I always am on competition day. I went straight to the river and started practicing.
I felt good in the hole and spent maybe 45 minutes total on the water before calling it good. Later in the morning Steven Wright and myself helped get things organized with a competitors meeting and a judges meeting. We then started the judging off making sure that everything was running according to plan, and it was.
Next it was competition time for me. My first ride in the hole was pretty much what I expected. I stuck most all of the moves that I wanted and probably had one of the highest scoring rides of the day. My second ride was completely terrible. From the second that I entered the hole nothing seemed to work and it seemed like time sped past me until my ride was over. I ended up 6th place which is the worst finish that I have had at any event in almost five years. This is not a position that I am used to and to be honest I am still trying to figure out what that means.
I believe that I will be more prepared in every aspect for my next competition. It isn’t time for me to panic after one placing that isn’t up to my standard, but it is time to get back to training hard on the water. After the competition was over everyone headed to a party in Coloma. I stayed out for a while and had a great time with old friends but called it a fairly early night as I didn’t really have anything to celebrate.
Sunday morning it was back down to the river to meet up with the forty people that had showed up for the Lotus Designs clinic. There was a women’s clinic headed up by Lisa Beckstead and then there was a guy’s clinic headed up by my self with help from Taylor Robertson and Macy Burnham. The clinic turned out to be a great time for everyone and after words we all went back to the River Store for pizza, drinks, and a raffle, courtesy of Lotus designs.
All in all it was a great weekend. I am glad to be home but am ready to get started on the river again tomorrow.
Posted by Jay Kincaid at April 25, 2005 09:50 AM