Kern Nationals

Pan American Championships

Whitewater Slalom National Championships

Kern Tripletazo: 3 days 3 races

Kern River, Miracle Hot Springs, Bakersfield, California

August 26-28, 2005 Results

Heyl, Tidmore, Bahn, Kvanli/Poindexter win Nationals

Kern National Championship Results: K1, C1, K1W, C2

AP Photos Ryan Bahn Brett Heyl more Brett Heyl Jamie Tidmore

Kern updates & photos by Davey Hearn

9/8 ~ More Kern Whitewater Racing Photos by Davey Hearn

9/1 ~ Front Range Paddling Association's photo gallery

Pan American Championship country results

8/28 ~ So today's the National Championships. Not only are bragging rights and The Club Trophy up for grabs, but for the K1W and C2 classes, if they race well and meet the qualifying standard*, they can compete in the World Championships in Penrith, Australia next month. There are two positions up for grabs in the women's class and two in the men's double canoe class. Good luck everyone!

* To be named to the Worlds Team the boat needs to achieve a 15.00% or less class adjusted % off leader at Nationals which is calculated off the best single performance from the class to class percentages here: K1 100%; C1 105.54%; C2 110.96%; and K1W 113.70%
The K1s will likely set the standard, so for the K1W class they must have a score that is less than (the K1 score x 1.137) x 1.15 to be under the 15% class adjusted performance standard.

8/27 ~ As Davey's wireless internet is gone at his new pad, check out what's happening at the Kern via some personal blogs (whitewater racing journeys) posted on the following racer webpages:

Butter (Eric) Hurd, Mike Holroyd, Nathan Davis, and Jon Allen. Cheers guys!

8/26 ~ It looks like Cathy and I will collaborate on splits at the races. I will hope to have some of the parents taking video of our Under 23 development group while I do splits on the top or bottom and Cathy does the splits on the other half for all the boats. Silvan will likely do splits and coach the National Team athletes on the half that Cathy does not do.

Here is a list of athletes racing in Pan Ams that gives us an idea of the countries competing. Scott Mann, Austin Crane, Benn Fraker are missing from this race as national team members, and of course Rebecca Giddens, who I saw today with Copper and Lucy at the river with sling on her left arm. Here's the Race List for the Pan American Championships:

Argentina ARG: Tomas Foster K1

Brazil BRA: Gustavo Selbach K1, Ivan Vendemiatti K1, Maira Marques Cotrem K1W, Cassio Ramon Petry C1, Ricardo Dias Pacheco & Alan Annibal Schmidt C2

Canada CAN: David Ford K1, Mike Holroyd K1, Nathan Davis K1, Pierre Levesque K1, John Hastings K1, Derek Beer K1, Sarah Boudens K1W, James Cartwright C1, Tom Hewitt C1, Francois Letourneau & Benoit Gauthier C2

Chile CHI: Pablo McCandless K1

Costa Rica CRC: Alejandro Contreras K1

Panama PAN: Jorge Quiel K1

Paraguay PAR: Gabriela Albertini Oddone K1W

United States of America USA:
K1: Scott Parsons, Brett Heyl, Eric Hurd, Danny Stock, Eric Giddens, Rick Powell
K1W: Jamie Tidmore, Paris Robinson, Zuzana Vanha, Jessica Subido, Michelle Clements
C1: Ryan Bahn, Jeff Larimer, Erik Amason
C2: Bryant Grigsby & Aaron Sarver, Devin McEwan & James McEwan; Nic Borst & Chris Wiegand, Mark Poindexter & Ben Kvanli

8/25 ~ The team from Brazil hit the water yesterday, with boats in all 4 classes. The water level dropped slightly to something closer to race level. We had a big full length course workout with development athletes up against National Team members. Scott Parsons and Brett Heyl looked sharp, and had the fastest times, around 87-88 seconds. Rick Powell checked in with a 95 clean, Jeff Gette had a respectable run close behind, and Erik Amason was nipping at Ryan Bahn's heels.
The course closes at noon today, and everyone who is coming is now here getting to race all three days.

8/23 ~ Cathy and I are off to the river for more training today, halves on the race course.

8/22 ~ Hot, Hot, Hot, but it is a dry heat. Today the forecast called for 101 degrees at Lake Isabella, where we are staying. But it is a dry heat so it is not so bad as long as you don't sit out in the sun. It is fine and comfortable down at the river. This morning I coached Rick Powell, Erik Amason, Jeff Gette, Casey Eichfeld, and Rachel Thomas on the top part of the course where the river goes around the island. The water is higher than in 2000, about 1800 cfs today, where we had about 1000 last time. Lots of snow in the sierra over the winter. Erik gave me his boat to paddle across above the course, and he swam over, because the log jam to the left of the island is gone and there is a fast jet of current too deep to wade across. I timed and coached from river right and the water is pushy and sort of big. Rachel got pinned briefly at the corner on the right when she was late getting into a micro eddy there. Erik paddled down and jumped out of his boat and got a hold of her bow and I ran down and was crouched on the rock above her, and he pulled her into the eddy as I watched from above. She was fine and we continued the workout. They were on the water for almost 2 hours and had a fine time. Cathy and I are going back to the course for a 5 pm workout with the same crew as this am plus Tom Hewitt from Canada.

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