NZ Freestyle & Extreme Kayaking: Teva Mountain Games 2009

From Louise Urwin

The Games finished on Sunday... today is thursday and I'm finally starting to feel like I've recovered.
Reflecting on a fantastic week, it's almost like a blur.

The Streets of Vail from hotel balcony

HOMESTAKE STEEP CREEK RACE

Mike takes the Podium - Steep Creek Champ

The week began with the Homestake Creek extreme race. The water was a little low but rumour had it that we would get more water on race day. However, the level stayed the same and so there were a few more rocks to avoid than previous years. There were 46 male competitors and 6 women. The race begins with a ramp into the river and you're off for 2 mins of intense paddling before you hit the finish line. The times were so tight that to get through to the next round, you needed smooth, fast lines, no room for error. Even if you weren't fast, there was no room for error because if you flipped, chances were you would lose teeth (as Kelsey found out last year).

LU Homestake Racing

The day kicked off with the womens heats and we were all a bit bummed at the bottom as we had all made mistakes shaving precious time off our runs. Lucky for us, we all got to go through for the next run and our combined times would determine our overall placings.

LU Sprinting down Homestake

The mens runs were tight as a camels arse in a sandstorm... 10 seconds separated 1st & 23rd place who were to continue to the next round....Our very own Mike Dawson took the fastest time heading into the next round but closely followed by Pat Keller & Tao Berman.
Sam also went through to the next round in 14th place, Tyler in 19th and Josh missed out by .04 of a second, which is probably less than a paddle stroke and so ended up 24th overall. Unfortunately Brad spun out half way down the course which cost him the cut too.

Tyler dropping in on Homestake...

Sam tearing through his race run - pic by Anna Bruno

Josh cleaning "Best boof in the world" - pic by Anna Bruno

The womens second run was pretty intense, the times were less than a second apart for the top spots. I was having the best run I'd had but unfortunately near the end of the run, came off a drop with pace directly at a rock and split my boat open which put me out. The fight for top three was fierce between Nikki Kelly, Tanya Faux & Aidrienne Levkneckt. In the end Nicky took it for another year pocketing US$2k, followed closely by T Faux and Adrienne came in third.

Nikki Kelly, Womens X-race winner - pic by Anna Bruno

The pressure was on for the mens final, also with US$2k at stake. It was hard enough to be consistent let alone step it up. Sam improved hugely on his first run, making up a huge 7 secs but it wasn't enough. Pat Keller kept his third place after his run and it then came down to the last two competitors Tao & Mike for the top spot. Tao had a good run, slightly slower than his first run but enough to hold second place. It all came down to Mike to top Tao... He had a few seconds on Tao but he needed to go fast without any errors, one mistake could cost him a placing. Mike finished his run and looked good, the suspense in the crowd was huge as we waited to see whether the underdog Kiwi's time beat out the previous champ. Mike beat Tao by a second overall and we didn't see much of him for the next day as the paparazzi took over...Congrats Mike!! Way to represent!!

Mike, on his way to Victory - pic by Anna Bruno

Mike & Nikki - pretty much Rockstars!

FINAL RESULTS - HOMESTAKE STEEP CREEK:

MEN:

1.Mike Dawson
2.Tao Berman
3.Pat Keller

WOMEN:

1.Nikki Kelly
2.Tanya Faux
3.Aidrienne Levkneckt

PRO-FREESTYLE

The next two days were Freestyle time for the Kayakers, none of our crew had playboats so we took to the sidelines to enjoy the show. The first day were qualifiers and although the hole/wave wasn't big, Nth Americas best with some Euro, NZ & OZ ringers were pulling off big scoring rides. We saw some of the biggest loops ever, thrown in with Space Godzillas, McNasty's, Phoenix Monkeys, Cartwheels and even the occasional blunt.

Mike pulling some Freetstyle out of the bag - finished 19th!

Rush showing he can rip it just as hard the day after as the night before

Casper stepped up the pace, like a man possessed.

Anna Bruno hucking her hide.

The top 10 girls and 15 guys made it through to the next round with Emily Jackson & Dustin Urban topping the heats.
The second day of competition was huge, as the cut was made to top 5, there was no way of telling who would take the mens with Dustin, Andrew Holcolme, Stephen Wright, Casper, & Nick Troutman, all killing it. Emily Jackson was clearly dominating the women with consistently high scoring rides....although Tanya & Ruth looked to come close, Emily took it easily in the end. Stephen pulled out a huge ride in the mens with biggest loop & Space God I've ever seen, Nick & Dustin both came back with high scoring rides but couldn't quite top Stephen who took the home the big money in the end.

Stephen Wright on one of his Hugemongous loops

Emily knows exactly what to throw to win every time.

FINAL RESULTS - VAIL FREESTYLE

MEN:
1.Stephen Wright
2.Nik Troutman
3.Dustin Urban

WOMEN:
1.Emily Jackson
2.Tanya Faux
3.Ruth Gordon

KAYAK 8-BALL

The final Kayak event of the competition was the 8-Ball. Basically you line up with 4 other boaters and race down a 200m stretch of class 2 water, easy right... Now you add 3 topo-duo's and half a dozen other "8-Ball" paddlers hiding downstream waiting to take you out. No amount of speed, Skill or strategy can really help you win this race. You're gonna get hit no matter what position you're in, the further in front you are, the more you're gonna get hit. What you do need for this race is elbow pads and preferably a full-face helmet...it's a riot. Personally, I got railed into the trees on the shore by EJ & Dane in a duo and that was game over for me.
Both Tyler & Sam made it to the mens final and this had to be the spectator event of the whole games, 8 of them went at once, and since it's the final, the 8-Ballers just keep paddling downstream, trying to take out the competitors all the way to the finish line. I was one of the line judges and it's tough figuring out who came where since pretty much all competitors & 8-Ballers cross the finish line in one big tangled bunch.
In the end though, NZ did it again with Sam charging through first!! yeah boy!

FINAL RESULTS - 8 BALL

MEN:
1.Sam Sutton
2.Geoff Calhoun
3.Nick Troutman

WOMEN:
1.Ruth Gordon
2.Nikki Kelly
3.Emily Jackson

The Teva Mountain Games was a wicked week of competing, Reuniting with paddling buddies from all over, partying and checking out all the events. They also had on the World Bouldering Champs, Various types of Biking, Running, Dog Events, bands & DJ's, heaps of gear/vendor tents all in a beautiful town surrounded by snow capped mountains. There was plenty to do and I would reccommend anyone to check it out, be one of the 20,000 people to flock to the city even if it's just to chill and soak up the atmosphere....Roll on next year....

Big thanks to Ron Fischer for letting us occupy his hotel room & Anna Bruno for the x-race pics :)