EJ Posts from World Cup

August 31, 2006 - The Inaugural World Cup for Freestyle Kayaking is only 1 day from being officially open. While most competitors are here training already, it seems that people are pulling in every day.

Last night at 2am there were about 5 cars parked at the Garberator and people training like it was noon. The main organizer, Sharky, put up a generator and flood lights to extend training times from daylight hours to 24 hours. At the 2001 World Championships in Spain the Semi-finals started at 11:30 pm under the lights. At Graz, Austria for the 2003 World Championships the streetlights were bright enough to paddle at any hour and that was well taken advantage of.

But here in the middle of no-where, literally, on a wilderness river in the trees, a mile off the nearest road you can find paddlers hooting and hollering for each other in the wee hours of the night with no other sounds other than the roar of 15,000 cfs ripping through the Lorne Rapid into the Garberator Wave.

This is summer low water on the Ottawa at -1 feet on the Gauge, which is perfect for this wave. In the spring next year the water will be around 16-18 feet and running at 100,000+ cfs and the roar will be even louder on the same rapid for BusEater which is only 50 yards downstream of the Garberator.

Read more at www.jacksonkayak.com/jkstories06/.