When I heard the Freeestyle World Championships were going to be held on the Ottawa River this summer I seriously considered having a go for the team. However, I was in Chile at the time the selections were on and flights were expensive so I chose to stay in South America and come to watch as I’d be in the Ottawa Valley working all summer anyway. Not having too much freestyle experience before this summer I think I made the right decision. Watching the British girls tear up the wave and seeing two of them in the finals I seriously doubt I would have had a chance of getting a spot on the team and the summer was much more enjoyable without the stress of competing.
Despite my employers trying their hardest to keep me working all week of the event I managed to escape quite a few times and take in the atmosphere of the event at Garburator wave and the Smoothie eddyline. The first day was the squirt competition at the Smoothie eddy above McCoys rapid and, although I had a raft trip, I got up early and managed to watch my good friend Anna Bruno along with Claire O’Hara and old river-racing friend Dee Paterson all compete in the squirt heats. Squirting is a fascinating sport where you have to balance winning points by doing flatwater tricks and going for the elusive mystery move (sinking the kayak and body below the water on the eddyline and trying to stay down as long as possible). Claire ended up taking home the gold in the women’s as well as a diamond ring from fiancée Jez Jezz, a great story tell for the queen of squirtboating!
The rest of the competition was held down on the Garburator wave where some huge grandstands had been set up overlooking the river so supporters could come cheer on their favourites. This was only the second World Championships I’d ever been to without competing and my first non-River-Racing worlds. The competitive side of me tuned in to the atmosphere and made me wish I had given it a go, but it was also incredibly nice to sit and enjoy the show without having to stress about performing. Freestyle as a sport is very different to racing, small mistakes cost big in this sport and are un-recoverable on this non-attainable feature (once you flush off the wave you’re done). This led to much heartbreak for competitors who weren’t able to hold it together when it counted and there were numerous instances where athletes destined for the podium were flushed off with zero scores. How they handled these circumstances said a lot about them as both people and sportsmen, at the end of the day whether you go home with a medal or not doesn’t really matter, each athlete knew their capabilities and what they could do on the wave and therefore how good they were.
Watching the top men battle it out was beyond impressive. Different athletes stood out for different reasons. Dane Jackson for consistently pulling off a fantastic routine hitting all the big tricks run after run. Nich Troutman for pure heart in the final and managing to pull it together when it really counted. Matthieu Dumoulin and Joaquim Fontane-Maso for maintaining composure and paddling their very best when it truly mattered and Bren Orton for going bigger than anyone I’ve ever seen albeit too big in the end! Although I didn’t get a chance to watch the Junior Women’s final just reading the results shows how impressive Sage Donnelly is who scored high enough that she would have crushed the senior women’s field getting the highest score by a female competitor in the whole competition. Her and Darby McAdams obviously streets ahead of the rest of the junior field (and most the senior field at that). Garb is a difficult feature and it was very clear here the large gap between the men’s and women’s fields.
It was an incredible event and although I didn’t see any party shenanigans that quite lived up to the river-racing days it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed meeting paddlers from all over the world and watching them bring their A-game to the wave. I’m also a little bit happy they’re all gone and the eddy is quiet again and I get a chance to surf!
It was an incredible event and although I didn’t see any party shenanigans that quite lived up to the river-racing days it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed meeting paddlers from all over the world and watching them bring their A-game to the wave. I’m also a little bit happy they’re all gone and the eddy is quiet again and I get a chance to surf!