2001 Nationals - Carlton Minnesota |
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Just to make me add a few miles to the odometer of my venerable Voyager,
the 2001 National Races were held on the St. Louis River in Carlton, MN.
Geologically and geographically a surprise to me, the river goes from
a lazy, meandering flat to cutting through a gorge with near-vertical walls
after the dam.
The course was extremely challenging for me. I spent the first days practice in total frustration - unable to keep the boat dry enough for a good run through the whole course. Eventually that changed - just in time! |
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The Start The initial challenge was getting through some pretty "easy" gates - which were either preceded or right over some wave-holes. Placing my boat exactly to avoid shipping water was absolutely necessary, but fairly easy because of the relatively easy entrance paths. |
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Between gate 8 and 9
For me, running this drop - after about 1/3 of the race course - was the most critical. If I took in water here, I could be in trouble for the rest of the course. Consequently, I took a line further right than most , which force me into a rather unstable agressive move to the next gate on river left. |
The second "wet" drop was about 2/3 of the way down the course, after a series of simple flatwater-ish gates. It required precise boat control , not to mention some very agressive moves. If you hesitated, you ended up low in the next gates, losing several seconds.
This is my friend Sam Montague running the second drop pretty much straight-on. I had to run the drop diagonally from right to left and then immediately turn right for the next gate.> |
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The second gate after the drop was the most difficult for
me, and the only gate that I touched. Once through this the water calmed
a bit - and the course finished off with 3 flatwater gates.
< Gordon Black, former Nantahala guide and now an ACA Master Instructor, races in the same class as I do. |
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| The bottom line? I managed to squeeze out a win over
my most worthy opponent. Ray Ingram (Vermont) has won Master's
Short for the last several years, with me coming in second the last two.
He's beaten in every local race for several years too. I was
always pretty close, but Ray runs very clean and he's fast too. This
year, though, I spent a little extra time in the boat, running both whitewater
and flatwater gates to get a better feel for my new boat. Ray, being
the great competitor that he is, will undoubtedly be gunning for me the next
time we race! I should probably retire now!
P.S. Another surprise - my winning score was the 2nd best in OC1 Short Racing, even including the 14 boats racing in Premier class. This was my best finish ever! |
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| There's more medals - in 2006 and 2008! | ||||||||||
