At 11.am we had the race briefing letting us know what the plan was. The course was as follows.... Two racers go head to head starting river right just above the small weir. The next ledge was a freestyle zone where racers could do a freestyle move in an attempt to get one of the 'Wildcards' available if the race wasn't going in their favor, this would put them through to the next round if they pulled the best move. After this was a gate in an eddy river right which you had to touch with your hand. There was then a gate river left in the flow halfway down the falls, followed by another deep in an eddy river left. Finally you had to ferry to river right and touch a tricky gate in an awkward eddy then make a dash and touch the final gate by the bridge. If you missed any gates you had to do a 360 spin before finishing.
After getting bibs we were shown the start list. Luckily my first round was up against a 12 year old boy, I was confident! Straight off the start line I broke away, doing a deck grab in the freestyle zone and hitting every gate I won with quite a lead. Feeling slightly guilty for the young guy I shook his hand an congratulated him, he was going to receive £20 for being the youngest competitor!
Heat 2 I was against a guy my age in a Stomper. Off the start line I again got the lead (remix pulls away fast!). Doing a roll in the freestyle zone and hitting the first gate I maintained my lead. I missed both river left gates but headed straight for the river right gate and then the finish. At the last gate I did my 720 spin and finished in first again!
Heat 3 I was put against a young girl, I had a perfect run and finished with a big lead, again feeling slightly mean... Heat 4 I was put up against Anton Lippek, fellow Sickline competitor and slalomist. We were both nervous at the start line! I'm still blown away by the remix as once again I got the lead from the start, I hit all 3 gates whilst keeping my lead but on the last gate I fell back in the eddy a little and Anton and I were side by side both reaching for the gate. Luckily I managed to stay between him and the gate, touching the gate I broke away for the finish, I was incredibly pleased!
It was now the top 8 in the semi finals. I was put up against a slalomist in a very skinny Acrobat. I started on the left which was an immediate disadvantage and from the start he managed to pull away into the lead. At the first gate we had a bit of a fight to touch it and I ended up getting pushed away whilst be headed for gate 2. Missing the gate I decided to follow but was at a bad angle to head for gate 2, I missed this as well! As I watched him hit gate 3 and head for number 4 I knew my race was over so I headed straight to the finish line. I wasn't trying to display bad sportsmanship so I hope that this is not how it was taken! I just knew it was over.
Congratulating my opponent I headed to the car to get changed! It was a really fun race and the course was very well set up and challenging! There were a few issues with the race in my opinion. From the start the heats were two people head to head, this made the race very time consuming and it took along time to get through everyone. Communication from the bottom to the top was also not great so there were long waits between heats meaning we all got rather cold standing around. I think having heats of 4 at a time with top 2 going through would obviously speed with up and with radio's to communicate from top to bottom. These are just my thoughts and it is the races first year so obviously it's going to need fine tuning. I really enjoyed it and I was glad to hear that they are trying to make a series next year, I think it will do well!
Well done to all the winners and everyone who took part and thank you to the organizers.
See you all next year!
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