2013 Summer Tour Wrap Up

I left home in North Carolina on May 22nd.

Myself, my dad, and my brother

After a 22 hour drive, we arrived in Buena Vista, CO, on the morning of May 24th. 

The drive...

CKS Paddlefest was the first competition - I competed in Junior Women and in C1.

Second place in Jr. Women - 420 points

Second place in C1

While in Buena Vista, I slept in the back of the car with the backseat folded down. Fairly comfortable.

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The second weekend (May 31 - June 2) was the Lyons Outdoor Games. I again competed in both Junior Women and in C1.

First place in Jr. Women - 420 points

Third place in C1

Sleeping arrangements were the same in Lyons as in Buena Vista - backseat of the car!

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During weekend number three (June 7 - 9) the GoPro Mountain Games took place. 

I met a personal goal, and ran a lap of homestake creek; a class V steep creek, and probably the most technical creek that I've ever run. 

Stoked!

I competed in the Pro Women's division at the GoPro Games, due to their lack of a junior's division.

Third place in Pro Women - 400 points

Sleeping arrangements in Vail were much more comfortable, because we shared a hotel room with some other team Pyranha guys. I even got to sleep in a bed for a couple of nights!

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Weekend number four (June 14 - 16) was FIBArk, as well as my 17th birthday. Again, I competed in Junior Women. 

First place in Junior Women - 366 points

While in Salida for FIBArk, I managed to get a hardcore eye infection. I went to see a Doctor on Saturday morning before competing in finals, and was told that it was from the grit in the river water and my contacts. The doctor gave me some antibiotic eye drops, and the eye infection was looking better within the next couple days.

The most attractive photo of me in existence

Three or four days later - thank you antibiotics!!

For FIBArk, we set up camp down in East Salida, and I slept in a tent! My Shiva acted as a camp chair, and for my birthday, we were up late, watching The Avengers.

It's like a sofa, but multi-purpose!

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On June 16th, I got into an RV with three other kayakers, and rode to Cascade, ID.

My view for the drive... I read the entire first two LOTR books!

We made it to Cascade on June 18th, and had a few days to train for the Payette River Games at Kelly's Whitewater Park - weekend number 5 on the road.

And goof off around town in Cascade, of course

I entered three divisions at the Payette River Games - Women's Freestyle, Sprint, and Boater Cross. 

I took 10th place in freestyle, with 100 points.

I made it to the semi-finals in boater cross.

I took 6th place in sprint, with times of 12 minutes 31 seconds, and 12 minutes 19 seconds. 

Waiting with the boys for the shuttle to begin sprint

While in Cascade, I got the privilege of sleeping in the back of a truck on an awesome paco pad with one of my best friends. 

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I left Cascade for McCall on June 23rd - a month and one day after leaving home.

On Wednesday, June 26th, I flew from McCall to Boise to Denver, and began the drive back to North Carolina with Adriene Levknecht.

Our flight from McCall

North Fork of the Payette from the plane

The town of Cascade where the Payette River Games were!

Adriene and I made it back to North Carolina at around 2 pm, EST on June 27th. A very successful trip!

This last month has been amazing. I've gotten to do so many ridiculous things, and made such awesome friends that I don't know how I'll survive without them. 

Best friends ever.

Luckily, it's only around two months until World Championships, near my home in the Nantahala Gorge. Time to start training!

I owe a gigantic thank you to everyone who has helped me out in some way this summer...

My parents, Dad especially, for driving me out to Colorado, and allowing me over a week on my own in Idaho. 

Thanks to my sponsors, Pyranha Kayak, Astral Buoyancy, Immersion Research, Watershed Drybags, Rapid Straps, and Terravida Threads. 

A big thank you also goes to Jackson Kayak, as well as Dane and Kristine Jackson, for helping me get out to Idaho, and bringing my kayak back to the south east for me.

My last thanks goes to Adriene Levknecht for enduring me for the entire drive back from Colorado to North Carolina! 

I've been away from home for over a month - 36 days - and it's been as fantastic as could be, but I'm stoked to start preparing myself for the upcoming World Championships.

It's crunch time.

Payette River Games

Kelly's Whitewater Park is honestly one of the most amazing places that I've had the privilege to go while on tour this summer. Free camping, an awesome lodge with a pool table and showers, and most of all, the feature is fantastic.

I competed in three whitewater kayaking categories: Women's Freestyle, Sprint, and Boater Cross.

Honestly, I didn't do as well as I know that I could have, especially in the freestyle. There really are two very different sides to freestyle - hole tricks, and wave tricks - and being from the southeast, I'm good at the hole tricks, and not so good at wave tricks. I feel like I was struggling more than I should have been, but I don't mind. The feature at Kelly's was ridiculously fun to surf, and a fantastic location for me to begin working more on the tricks that I'm not so good at doing, such as roundhouses, blunts, and clean spins.

Cold weather makes hand driers for drying gear totally necessary

While I was struggling to score over 100 points, competitors in some other divisions (such as pro men) were pulling out rides scoring over 2000 points in single rides - some of the highest rides EVER made during a competition.

Prelim results - from two combined ride scores

The sprint was a mile and a half of flatwater. Since I'm on my own out here in Idaho, I left my Shiva with my dad, so that I wouldn't have to figure out how to get it back to the southeast. Day one of the sprint, I paddled a large Pyranha Burn with about four inches of foam on top of the seat. Day two of the sprint, I paddled a medium Pyranha Shiva, and sat on a folded up jacket, using a sponge and an Immersion Research fleece as extra hip pads. My times were 12 minutes and 19 seconds, and 12 minutes and 31 seconds, and I took 6th place in sprint.

Getting stoked for a flatwater race!

The boater cross was loads of fun, and the medium Nano was definitely a good boat to race it in. Though the shorter length compromises the hull speed a little bit, it can certainly still keep up with or ahead of everyone else. The short length provides faster turning though, which turned out to be absolutely necessary to make it around our required upriver buoy gates. Unluckily, I did a little too much turning, and spun out on the eddy line next to the freestyle feature, and I didn't make it on past semi-finals.

I've had heaps of fun out here in Idaho, and I'm stoked for these next couple days of lake time and possibly wake surfing here in McCall. Keep your eyes open for a nice full summer review within the next week - this tour has been sick!

Photos: Philip Robert

FIBArk

What happened this past week?

Well, I turned 17. Celebrated with cheesecake, and ice cream for breakfast!

Very good birthday. Getting older!

The last competition for me in Colorado this year was FIBArk, in Salida, CO.

I'm stoked on scoring another first place!
It's some tough competition out there in the Junior Womens' division with me, but I pulled it off on my last ride.

Right now, I'm without my dad and brother, heading out to Kelly's Whitewater park in Cascade, Idaho, for the Payette River Games.

Photos: Kellogg Show, Sage Donnelly.

GoPro Mountain Games

It's been a long couple days in and around Vail, CO, for the 2013 GoPro Mountain Games.

Immersion Research fleece and shorts at the campsite up at Homestake

Slacklining fun at the campsite as well

We arrived up at Homestake Creek on Tuesday afternoon, and I spent ages scouting lines and watching people train for the steep creek race.

Demshitz go crickin'

The next day - Wednesday - I got to hit up a super clean lap of Homestake with an awesome group of all ladies: myself, Adriene Levknecht, Haley Mills, and Erin Clancey. It's hard to explain exactly how excited I was to hit all my lines and finish the run without any gnarly cuts on my hands, unlike Adriene here...

What a beast...

This is my stoked face! First time I've been in a creek boat in at least a month.

Love my Shiva!

Still stoked. 

Although my lines were good, I decided that racing the steep creek wasn't worth it (maybe next year) and it was time to focus on some playboating down at the freestyle feature in Vail Village.

There's only so much playboating I can watch though

Competition began on Friday, and I made my way into finals with a fourth place.
Finals were on Saturday, and I tied for second place with Haley Mills, but lost the tie, and took third place.

Women's Results:
1. Sage Donnelly - 410

2. Haley Mills - 400

3. Rowan Stuart - 400

4. Courtney Kerin

5. Adriene Levknecht

6. Emily Jackson

On the podium, winning $500

Men's Results:

1. Nicholas Troutman - 1330

2. Dane Jackson - 1280

3. Adam Chappell - 1110

4. Jason Craig - 930

5. Eric Jackson - 840

The end results don't matter as much to me as they could. Right now I'm just stoked that I hit a phonix monkey during one of my rides. All that matters to me is paddling as well as I can, and having an awesome time with everyone at these competitions - making new friends!

Bestfriends wear matching pink shorts, right?

Little siblings are freaks.

It's been nice enough spending time in Vail, but I'm excited to get down to Salida for FIBArk this coming weekend. 

Hopefully I'll have an update to this post in the near future with video of one of my rides. 

Photos by: IV Stuart, Tracy Smith, Becky Richardson, Kerry Kellogg. 

Lyons Outdoor Games

The Lyons Outdoor Games were SUPER FUN. Finally scoring a first place in Colorado made it even better.

The Results...

Junior Women:
1. Me - 420
2. Sage Donnelly - 330
3. Kady Kellogg - 230
4. Anna Schehrer - 50

Junior Men:
1. Max Karlsson - 1030
2. Brandon Hepburn - 530
3. Brody Kellogg - 500
4. Grady Kellogg - 450
5. Ben Ghertner - 220

Dembritz Brandon Hepburn representing!

Pro Women:
1. Haley Mills - 340
2. Courtney Kerin - 340
3. Emily Jackson - 260
4. Adrienne Levknecht - 230
5. Natalie Anderson - 130

Pro Men:
1. Dane Jackson - 1270
2. Stephen Wright - 1040
3. Eric Jackson - 990
4. Mike Patterson - 830
5. Bryan Kirk - 780

I'm extremely stoked with how consistent my rides have been these last two competitions, because after scoring 420 points on my first two rides in Buena Vista, I won first place in Junior Women here in Lyons, with 420 points.

Apparently this is my winning ride. 

Due to peer pressure - and the lack of enough competitors for a full C1 division, I competed in C1 again so that Dane and Jordan could compete. Scoring zero points would have been disappointing, but I managed to roll the C1 after flushing out of the hole upside down - surprising the 5 boaters who came to save me. 

Demshitz/ Team Pyranha is representing very well, with all of the men making it into semi-finals, and Mike Patterson making it to 4th place after finals.

Kayaking is heaps of fun. So much fun that I set an alarm and went kayaking with Anna Schehrer earlier than 8 a.m. Unfortunately, that creates exhaustion, and exhaustion causes nap time in the kayaks, as captured in this photo taken by the Kellogg Show.

We are back in Frisco again, in the land of internet and showers. Hopefully we'll be heading towards Vail for the GoPro Mountain Games within the next day or two. 

Photo and video credit: Philip Robert, the Kellogg Show, Iv Stuart

Buena Vista Pro Rodeo

The first competition of 2013 in Colorado was in Buena Vista, during the CKS Paddlefest.

This was my first time entering multiple divisions (Junior Womens, and C1), and I have to say that it turned out pretty well.

In Junior Womens, I scored 420 points, two rides in a row, but it wasn't quite enough to put me on top, so I placed second.

Podium shot - borrowed from Sage Donnelly's FB

C1 was definitely the largest division I've competed in. Not. There were two of us - Dane and I - so I took another second place.

And swam.

(This is where I don't roll up and Dane saves me)

I've learned that I can flat spin and loop my C1, but my roll is still pretty questionable when I'm not in the feature.

After BV, we went down to Salida and spent some time having fun in the features down there.

Right now, we're in Frisco, CO, spending some time with family friends. I'm catching up on showers, and Dad and Iv are on their way to Arapaho Basin for some snowboarding today. 

Photos from IV Stuart and Philip Robert