Catching up!

This year my vagabond ways have allowed me to paddle on two continents (Europe and North America), three countries (USA, Canada, and Germany), and seven states (Colorado, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina).  So by being able to travel where the rivers are running has allowed me to paddle pretty much every day.  Here is a list of the places where I have been paddling since the Alabama Mountain Games:

• NOC – competed in US Open in slalom and NOC shootout in freestyle.

• Slalom training on the Potomac and the artificial slalom course in Dickerson, MD

• Running the Cheat river in West Virginia.

• US whitewater training center in Charlotte, NC.

• Clear Creek, CO – Colorado High School whitewater championship.

• Arkansas river, CO – Buena Vista Pro-Am rodeo.

• Colorado river – surfing the Glenwood wave at 20,000cfs was awesome.

• St Vrain – Lyons Outdoor Games and Junior Olympics.
• Video of my runs at the Lyons Outdoor Games where I took first place in Men's Open scoring 380 pts in the second run.
• Video of the Junior Olympics freestyle competition.  My heat is from the 3:14 until the end.  This was my first competition using the Jackson Star.  I am in the blue boat wearing a red WRSI helmet.

• 2011 World Championship in Freestyle in Plattling, Germany.
• Video: Team Sweden presents Max Karlsson
• Video of the Swedish freestyle teams training session.

• 2011 junior slalom pre-world championship in Wausau, WI

• Ottawa River – spending a month paddling with the Jacksons and competing in Canada Cup on the Garb.
• Video from Push Button where I throw a huge loop.
• Throwing it down on Garb and Push Button. 

• Getting initiated on the infamous M-Wave outside Montrose, CO.
• Video of me surfing the wave.

See you on the river.

New Video from Alabama and AMG!!!

For those of you who were wondering "Where is the video????"  Well my friend and I have it right here.  I would like to thank my great friend Bennett Smith for making this.  It was a pleasure to paddle with him and become his friend.  If you would like to see more of Bennett's videos check out his channel on YouTube, where he goes under the name of realcrazystuntmen.

My last paddling escapades!

Alabama Mountain Games (AMG) was awesome!  A four day festival starting on Thursday and what better way to start a festival with Huckfest.  Huckfest is a hour and a half free-for-all freestyle going off a 20 foot water fall trying to do as cool of a trick as possible.  I placed 3rd in the Men's expert division and I hope to come back and do this event again.  Next up was boater-cross where every one starts above the water fall and races to the bottom using a mass start.  I placed 2nd in Juniors and had blast going over the waterfall.

The Throw-Down and Big-Trick events were held on Friday.  The Jacksons had arrived late that night as they weren't going to miss AMG for anything.  And as usual they dominated every aspect of the sport so you can imagine who placed?  Dane placed first in Junior Throw-Down while I just missed out on the podium by coming in fourth.  I had the same score as the 3rd place finisher, but I lost the tie-breaker.  The last kayaking event of the festival was the Big-Trick competition and I was competing in the Men's Expert class.  I really surprised myself by taking first place which definitely made up for just missing out the podium in the Throw-Down competition.  I felt AMG was a huge success personally and I am planning on coming back next year.

                                                We camped I was very tired and very cold too!

                                                       Putting in

                                                   Just kickin' back

                                               Paddling our way to Ender Hole

                                           There was a Huge Bonfire there as well

                                          Awards are always great.

More on the Bank of America US open coming soon plus more video!!!

Adventures in the great state of Alabama!

It been raining really HARD down here in the south.  Because of this the water level has been rising and more water means MORE FUN!

When I was paddling on the Mulberry, practicing for the Alabama Cup race series, I was interviewed by the Birmingham News.  He asked a couple of questions, took some pictures and filmed a little of my work-out.  I did not think any of it, but to my surprise I made the front page the next day of The Birmingham News.  Here are the links to the video of my interview as well as the front page:

http://videos.al.com/birmingham-news/2011/03/the_mulberry_fork_canoe_kayak.html
http://photos.al.com/birmingham-news/2011/03/mulberry_fork_2.html

I thought I did really well in the race.  They did not have a championship junior class, so I was moved up to the championship men's division for both slalom and boater-cross.  I got 5th in slalom and 3rd in boater-cross, but I was the most proud of the fact that my slalom time was the fastest but my six touches bumped me down to 5th.  Overall I was very happy with the results and I had a lot of fun mowing down people in boater-cross :)

I hope to see all of you other whitewater vagabonds out on the water!

Becoming a Whitewater Vagabond

The summer of 2010 was my greatest kayaking adventure so far.  It took me from the river festivals in Colorado, to the U.S. Team trials in Montana, and it ended with the Junior Olympics at NOC in North Carolina.  Besides being able to paddle every day with some of my best friends I also got the opportunity to paddle with some of the best and most famous paddlers in the world.

Lyons Outdoor Games is very special to me because St Vrain is one of my "backyard runs".  To make sure I had the home field advantage I trained throughout the spring on the slalom course below the October Hole and in the Black Bear Hole for the freestyle competition.  So I was kind of upset when they moved the slalom and freestyle competition upstream to Meadow Park because of high water level.  But it turned out just fine as I finished 1st in cadet slalom and 2nd in cadet freestyle.   

At FibARK I got to paddle and hang out with some of the best and most famous paddlers in the world like the Demshitz and Team Jackson.  One of my favorite things about FibARK is that it is such a large festival and the kayaking events are so popular. So I was really proud of myself for winning both the cadet freestyle and cadet slalom.  It really helped that I got to work out with Scott Shipley just hours before the slalom competition started.  

At the US team trial I was the only cadet so I guess I am the US team trail cadet champion :).  Instead I competed in the junior class and I became "bubble boy" as I finished 7th and the top 6 advanced to the finals.  I really wanted to advance to the finals, but I am still very proud of my 7th place.

A kind of cool thing that happened at the US team trial was when Jeff Cambell (the US team trial announcer) saw me running around barefoot.  He felt I needed a pair of shoes so we ended up making a pair of flip-flops out of some excess foam and a pair of zip-ties.  

After the US team trials we drove across the country to compete at the Junior Olympics which were held at NOC in North Carolina.  I won the freestyle event and placed 3rd in boater cross and downriver sprint, but I did not do as well as I wanted to in slalom.  Oh well, there is always next year.  One of my favorite things about this years Junior Olympics was that I got to help out with the freestyle clinic.  

2010 was a great year for paddling, but i think 2011 will be even better.  This year I have already spent two weeks in Alabama training with Jeremy Adkins.  In March i will be heading back there to train with Jeremy again and to compete in the Alabama Mountain Games.  My dad says that I am becoming a true whitewater vagabond.