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Australian Jez
Jezz wins Bronze at Freestyle Worlds
WAs Joshua Singleton
came 61st in the K1 class,
Check out this short
video of Josh paddling the Murchinson River:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4nTpjN-NFI
Australian team member
Jez Jezz has won bronze in the OC-1 event at the Freestyle
World Championships in Nantahala, USA.
Australia’s efforts in sending a team to the ICF 2013
World Freestyle Competition held in the beautiful Nantahala
Gorge USA, has been rewarded with Jez Jezz, the team's most
senior athlete and coach taking home a Bronze Medal in the
Men’s OC-1 class, narrowly missing out on silver by only
3 points. 1st place went to Jordan Poffenberger (USA) who
won with a score of 283. Poffenberger was followed by US teammate
Dane Jackson who took silver with 103 points.
Australia’s Liam Corr put in a
solid performance coming in at number 6 in the OC-1. As well
as his medal performance in the OC-1, Jez took part in the
championships as an official and as a commentator, as well
as placing 10th in the C1.
Dane Jackson lived up to his prodigy
status, taking four medals from the four events he entered
in, adding silver in the K1 squirt, 3rd in C1 and 1st in K1
to his aforementioned silver in the OC-1. Claire O'Hara took
out the women's K1 in both squirt and freestyle, adding to
a long list of world titles.
The Australian K1 boys paddled valiantly
in a strong field with Joseph Dunn finishing in 35th, followed
by Liam Corr in 40th, Joshua Singleton in 61st, Tim Mann in
64th and Richard Cass in 67th.
Rosalyn Lawrence, Australian Canoeing
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The New Wave
at Nantahala
A word from Eric Jackson
(Jackson Kayaks)
I still can’t express just how
fired up I am about having the 2013 World Freestyle Kayak
Championships in the USA again, and here at NOC! The last
time as world-championships was held in the USA was in 1993
at the Ocoee at Hell Hole. I attribute the growth of whitewater
kayaking and the evolution of the kayak to that event. In
1992 you could paddle a Crossfire, Pirouette, etc.. and the
design cycles were 3-10 years for a design. For that world
championships Dagger made a prototype Transition (which was
truly the RPM), Perception made the Pirouette SS, Prijon the
Hurricane, Pyranha the Acrobat, Eskimo the Diablo, etc.. Everyone
was hoping to have the World Championships winning kayak.
In 1994, 95, 96 and beyond these companies were in high gear
trying to out design each other and the kayak improved each
year. It was awesome. The world championships being outside
of the USA for the past 20 years has insulated many of the
biggest kayak companies in the world from arguably the biggest,
most influential event in whitewater kayaking, the World Freestyle
Championships… Dagger, Liquid Logic, Pryanha USA, Jackson
Kayak are all in the Southeast. The impact of the world championships
being held in North Carolina, only 1 hour from many companies,
4 hours from JK is going to be huge. Ignoring it would be
futile and not pay dividends. We, as paddlers, will be better
off as the companies focus their energies on making better
boats and truly connecting with the sport out on the river
again. It will be another evolution, another inflection point,
another chapter in whitewater kayaking, and kayak manufacturing…
Awesome.
Jackson Kayak employees will get a chance
to see the action first hand. They’ll learn just how
important each boat is to the athletes that come from all
over the world, training for years in hopes of winning their
first world championships, or second, or in my case my 5th..
(yes that is my goal, it is fun to have a goal, as long as
the journey isn’t compromised) They’ll be energized,
committed, and better prepared to serve you as a customer.
Just like I am every time I see our product in action, used
to its full potential…..
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Nantahala Gorge
Nantahala, in the Cherokee language,
means “Land of the Noon-day Sun.” Over the course
of centuries, the river here has carved out an eight-mile
gorge that is so deep that many parts of it see direct sunlight
for only a short time each day. It is an area beloved for
its natural beauty and its outdoor recreational opportunities,
and is located within the Nantahala National Forest, approximately
five miles south of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Nantahala River has a history of
attracting adventure seeking tourists, but in truth, year-round
whitewater recreation on this river is a by-product of power
generation at Duke Energy’s Nantahala Hydroelectric Project,
which has served the far western North Carolina counties since
1942. Dam-controlled flows facilitate dependable adventures
ranging from commercial rafting trips to private canoe and
kayak outings and regional, national, and international whitewater
competitions. The river water comes from Nantahala Lake –
the hydro project reservoir – which has an elevation
of 3,000 feet, and so is refreshingly cool, even in the heat
of summer. The river is also a nationally-renowned favorite
of fly fishing enthusiasts, particularly the cascades above
the power plant, where trout abound in the fast, cold water.
Nantahala Lake
Nantahala River location
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A Short History of
Whitewater Boating on The Nantahala River
In the mid-1940’s, campers from
several WNC-based summer camps began running the Nantahala
in wooden canoes. As word spread, the river became increasingly
popular with canoe clubs, Boy Scout troops, and other groups
interested in developing whitewater skills. By 1972, the growing
community of boaters, combined with local training opportunities,
had attracted a significant number of US National and Olympic
Canoe/Kayak Team members to the Nantahala area.
In the 1970’s as water releases
became more predictable, recreational use of the river had
grown large enough to support commercial outfitters. The first
of these was the Nantahala Outdoor Center, which began operations
in 1972. Today, there are more than a dozen outfitters in
the Nantahala Gorge. The river is the nation’s third-most
popular river — and the busiest per river mile —
hosting over 200,000 visitors each year and the site of numerous
national and international competitions, most recently the
annual Bank of America US Whitewater Open, and the 2011 USACK
Slalom National Championships.
According to a 2009 study
conducted by researchers at Western Carolina University, whitewater
recreation on the Nantahala contributes a total of $85.4 million
to the local economy annually, and represents a total of 1,061
jobs.
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Building the Wave
for the 2013 World Championships
The first step of the job was building
a makeshift dam to dewater the river channel around the work
zone. Next was the rather unsightly job of excavating the
river bottom.
They dug down about four feet and poured
a big concrete slab or the waver shaper to sit on. Crews also
dug out a deeper pool below the wave where paddlers end up
when they are flushed out of the wave — either voluntarily
when their turn is up or if they wash out.
Before, the pool was too shallow and
if kayakers flipped, they could hit their head. It’ll
be safer now, and it will also give the water flowing over
the wave shaper more downhill momentum. Now there will be
a little bit more energy from the water as it drops down.
The wave itself will be deeper than
the old one, which is good for the aerial acrobatics of the
freestylers. To get loft, paddlers burrow their boats below
the surface then let their own buoyancy eject them from the
water. For light paddlers, they could get ample lift without
burrowing too deep. But heavier boaters have to burrow deeper
to get catch the same amount of air, and the wave as it used
to be wasn’t deep enough.
Upstream, rock jetties on both sides
of the river will angle toward the wave channel to concentrate
the water’s energy right where they want it: up and over
the wave shaper.
They first built a wooden form for the
wave shaper — a giant box about the size of an ambulance
with irregular stair steps and blocky protrusions. The contraption
will be pumped full of rebar and concrete. Once dry, the wood
form will be removed.
The wave shaper was a custom job, designed
for the flow and particular nuances of the Nantahala by a
specialized river design firm out of Colorado, McLaughlin
Whitewater Design Group. They’ve learned that a wave
shaper created for one river can’t be plunked down in
another one and expect similar results, so they built a scale
model of the wave shaper and the Nantahala to test their design
before finalizing the blueprints.
http://www.sportscene.tv/whitewater/freestyle/news/new-feature-on-the-nantahala-river
http://www.freestylekayaking2013.com/
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