Go Pro Mountain Games Final Wrap Up: New Toys and Top Results!

The Go Pro Games has ended as of last night. It was filled with a ton of amazing events kayaking and beyond. From Slacklining World Champs to Bouldering World Cups, to some serious kayaking action.

It started on Thursday with the Homestake Steep Creek Race. This year had the most spectators I have ever seen at the course and there wasn’t even parking available by the time the race was beginning. We had several Karmas on the race course with Dane, EJ, Ben Stookesberry, Chris Korbulic, Hunt Jennings, Nick and Courtney. They changed the format with the race this year with 2 qualifying runs instead of 1, followed by a single run in the end if you made the cut.  The mens cut to 5, women to 3.

Ben and Chris were off first, both known for their insane expeditions and creeking skills, but not necessarily known for being fast. They proved many of us wrong on their first runs and were sitting in 6 and 8^th. Unfortunately their second runs didn’t get them up to the top 5 and Ben had a slower second run with a big back ender that cost him, so neither advanced. Hunt Jennings was sitting in 4^th after first runs with a great smooth run, but had a bit of a turn around on his second run with pushed him out of top 5 and into 6^th.  EJ got spun around on his first run and paddled too fast on an easy flat section causing him to find lots of rocks he usually avoids, this put him in 7^th after first runs, but he knew he could have a clean run after 3 days of practicing. Sure enough he did and put himself into 4^th place right ahead of Bryan Kirk. Nick went through with a solid first run that had him in second, with his second ride added he ended up holding on to his 2^nd place spot right behind Mike Dawson who had a great lead. Last to go from our crew was Dane who everyone was watching as he had some of the fastest and cleanest practice runs. Dane came down absolutely crushing his first run, fastest run I think I saw all day, right until the very last drop. Dane put his bow up on the right wall and it caused his stern to go down into the drop. Dane felt himself pin for a couple seconds and decided to go ahead and pull his skirt. Sure enough he ended up swimming from the drop totally okay but bummed to have ended the race for himself so quickly when he had such an incredibly run. The women all had good runs, but it came down to who had a clean run without messing up anything, that left Martina Wegman in first with a clean final run! The finals of  the race run was equally entertaining, Bryan Kirk layed down a fast run, EJ had a little spin out, Dave Fusilli was clean but not super fast then Nick had a good run but lost time in one of the pools, lastly Mike ended it with the fastest run of the day. Here are the complete results:

http://www.mountaingames.com/media/163563/2013%20steepcreekfinalresults.pdf

1. Mike Dawson
2. Bryan Kirk
3. Nick Troutman
4. Eric Jackson
5. Dave Fusilli

Friday was Freestyle Prelims and sure enough the brand new Jackson Kayak Rockstar arrived just the day before. With only one quick session in it, we had 6 of our top athletes switched. Dad, Dane, Nick, Stephen, Dustin Urban, Jason Craig and Adam Chappell shared it also. The boys had to make top 10 and sure enough mot did, the only one we were missing was Dustin Urban who couldn’t retain the hole. Dane in first, Nick in Second, followed by Stephen, EJ, Jason and then in the second heat we had Adam Chappell. The Womens also cut from 12 to 6. Not sure why they did six, but it was a fun time non the less. We had Sage in first with her JK Rockstar, we had Courtney Kerin and myself moving on to finals.

Saturday was the down river race and freestyle semis and finals. Big day for many of  the boaters. Mike Dawson and Martina Wegman won with Nick and Courtney nipping at their tails.

Semis was heated with the Men’s Category. 4 of the top 5 from prelims advanced swapping Stephen Wright for Adam Chappell by a mere 40 points!

Following was the womens finals, which was a loop off in the sense of who got their loop moves with the most air. One person was adding more moves and that ended up being Sage Donnelly who took the gold in her JK Rockstar. I am very stoked to have her paddling competitively with the women and hope it motivates all of them to continue to push themselves. Sage won by 10 points in the end over Haley Mills and Rowan Stewart.

In the Mens the finals was kicked off with a quick change in water levels. As the water came up the feature got flushy. Adam Chappell went first and scored over 1000 points, then EJ went in and flushed on every move leaving him with only an Air Loop on his sheet. Jason also had a flushy ride leaving him behind adam. Dane went in and had the highest scoring ride yet and pushed Adam into second. From there we had improved rides from Jason and EJ but not quite enough. Nick pulled it all out on his last ride and moved himself into first with a 1300 point ride. He scored several combos and some big air on his hard tricks. But the only person left to go was Dane who knew he could break 1300. Dane came out with a bang and his first move was a loop, lunar orbit, back loop combo that was super impressive. He followed it with several more combos but then flushed a tad early just missing the 1300 mark and ending in the 1200’s.

Here is a complete list of results:

1. Nick Troutman 1330

2. Dane Jackson 1280

3. Adam Chappell 1110

4. Jason Craig 930

5. Eric Jackson 840

Ladies:

1. Sage Donnelly 410

2. Haley Mills 400

3. Rowan Stewart 400 (Haley won the tie breaker)

4. Courtney Kerin

5. Adriene Levknecht

6. Emily Jackson

Sunday was SUP Cross and the 8 Ball. Dad took the gold in his Orange Super Charger on the Sup Cross and  it was super fun to watch!

In the 8 Ball, which is basically a boatercross but with at least 8 other boats trying to take you out, we had serious carnage, and lots of hard hits. We had Hunter Katich take the gold, followed by Dane and then Hayden Voorhees. In the Womens we had the zen zip out in front and Ruth Gordon winning overall, ahead of Martina.

Here is a complete list of results:

1. Hunter Katich
2. Dane Jackson
3. Hayden Voorhees

1. Ruth Gordon
2. Martina Wegman
3. (Slalom Girl) (sorry I don’t remember her name!!)

All in all the Go Pro Games was a Huge success with lots of media, lots of action and great showing of all paddlesports.

It was great to paddle the new boat and it is certainly something you will want to try once available as it does everything easier, and bigger, and just better. Period.

Happy Paddling to All and I hope you enjoyed your summer weekend on or by a river!

Emily Jackson Troutman