After such an amazing summer of hopping all over the US, I have come full circle to my winter home of Chattanooga TN. The spring started off with competitions on the east in Connecticut and North Carolina, then rallying the RV all the way to Reno and back to Colorado for the summer Circuit. After Teva Mountain Games I traveled to Germany to compete in Worlds which was a huge highlight of the year. After jumping off the plane and going to the OBX for a quick surf vacation, I traveled to Iowa to sell smoothies for a road biking tour and then headed out to the OR show in Utah to check out the new products for 2012. As soon as the show ended, it was back to Salida, CO to finish up season on the Arkansas river. When the water started to run out in Colorado the Gauley was calling with warm weather and good friends. The Gauley is an awesome place for relaxing and getting to paddle world class whitewater.

To kick off our time at the Gauley, we hit the New River Gorge at 6 ft and 9ft. At 6ft, upper and Lower Railroad had great potential to throw wave moves and it was a great level to run the whole river and catch a ton of waves on the fly. Although 6ft was a great level, 9ft was better. Listening to local beta, we heard that the play was not the best, but we hit the jackpot when we arrived at Greyhound bus wave. The wave was big, glassy, and surgy and allowed for any big wave tricks. The river left side of the wave formed a monster hole, but the shape of the wave kept paddlers from getting kicked into the meat. Getting the opportunity to paddle the New was a great way to warm up for our month in West Virginia.

The Thursday before Gauley fest, we got the chance to compete in the first ever SUP event on the New River Gorge. It consisted of an attainment race up river about a mile above Fayette station and back to the beach, as well as a 3 mile downriver race to Teays landing. Paddling down Fayette station was defiantly the most exciting part of the race because I got to work on my whitewater swimming with about 20 other people swimming at the same time. It was awesome to paddle with so many people that are excited about SUP on the river. Look for a bigger and better event there next year. Check out the video of the race SUP WAZOO.

The Gauley River is a magnet for all of our friends from around the US and is a great time for us to paddle big water with good friends. With extra water releases this year, I was able to get in a bit more training than I have in previous years. I playboated for 6 about hours each day working every playspot until I was exhausted. One highlight of Gauley Fest weekend is the Upper Gauley Animal River Race. This year I had the opportunity to paddle my “new” dancer and had the chance to get in multiple practice runs in the week before. The race starts at the put-in and continues about 9 miles down to sweets fall, where racers looked both exhausted and happy to finish the grueling race. My dancer treated me well through both the big rapids and the long flat water stretches. This was another great way for me to broaden my paddling skills and I look forward to being even fasted next year.

2011 has been a great year in kayaking and I am excited to see what 2012 holds. I have been able to push my boundaries as a kayaker and broaden my horizons in the outdoor industry. Now that I am in Chattanooga, Tn, there will be plenty of paddling left in 2011, but I have my sights set high for 2012.

It has been an awesome summer and its only July. I have just gotten back to Salida, Colorado where the water is still raging and shows no sign of coming down. Just a week ago I was in Plattling, Germany competing in the Worlds for freestyle kayaking. I trained for this event since this time last year and rearranged my life so I could paddle as much as possible before the event. I spent about two weeks in Germany at the worlds feature training and working on my routine before the actual competition began. My routine was to get my huge clean air loop, both huge godzillas, mcnasty, felix and cartwheels. I spent the first week dialing in my loop tricks and spending a ton of time working on my mcnasty. My training revolved around getting on the water before the lines got to long, so getting up and being on the water before 6am was a must.

During all my sessions I had my personal coach and boyfriend Mike Tavares watching my rides and giving me feedback on what was working and what was not.  We also used video to help me see how my training was progressing over the weeks. As the competition grew closer I came to the realization that my mcnasties were not enough to count in the competition. As the competition grew closer, I had to change my routine to make sure that all my tricks were going to count.

With just four days out, we started team training. The training sessions were split so each athlete would receive about three minutes per day. The US was one of the largest countries, so we received 75 minutes to train each day. We split into two groups to maximize our time in the eddy and we all focused on our 45 second rides during team practice. I was nervous about team practice, but it turned out to be the most crucital part of my training.  It was nice to have other team members helping out and watching each others rides.  It was helpful to see how my routine was progressing and I was able to make changes based on what happened in team practice.

The competition was my longest and most stressful one to date. With 45 women competitors, the prelims was a tough and stressful cut down to 20 women.  After battling it out in the prelims, I was sitting in 13th place.  It was a perfect place for me to be because it allowed me to move on, but motivated me to improve my scores.  With fear of rising water at the venue, the semi finals were moved to the following day and the stress of the next round began.   After much deliberation, I decided to take some rest time instead of practicing for the next round.  I knew the tricks i needed to do and I knew that I needed to be fresh and rested.  The next day, the semi finals went off, and I improved my score landing me in a solid 10th place.  I was happy to be improving my scores and excited to keep moving on.

Next up was the quarter finals.  I knew that i needed to have a bigger score in order to land me in the finals.  After throwing some of my best rides in the competition yet, all I could do was wait and see how the rest of the women did.  Watching the rest of the heats from shore, tons of thoughts and emotions were running through my mind.  The rest of the women were paddling very well and I knew that the scores would be close.  Before the scores were posted, I thought that I was sitting in 6th place, but as I saw Kristine Jackson post the scores she gave me the look that I was hoping for.  I made it into the finals in 5th place and I could not have been more excited.

Making it into the finals at the Worlds felt like such an honor.  I finally felt a payback for all the hard work and training that I have been enduring over the past years.  Getting to this point was not an easy task, but I felt like all that weight had been lifted coming into finals.  The final round was a tough one.  There was a little more pressure and all eyes were watching as we battled it out to try and take a spot on the podium.  Over the course of my three rides, I had one ride that I was happy with.  I didn’t get all the tricks I was hoping for, but it landed me in a solid 5th place at the Worlds.

After the whole experience I have learned an overwhelming amount about myself and competition. Here is just a few things that I learned of the course of worlds:
•    Listen to your body.  Rest can be just as important as practice
•    Have fun.  After all, thats why we started to paddle
•    Booty Shaking music makes life better
•    Listening to your coach and taking feedback is a good thing
•    You can’t always paddle your best during competition
•    Be Happy with how you finish

Coming out of Worlds, I feel more prepared for the next competition and I am looking forward for the chance to make it on the US team the next time around.  This year has been very successful and I am happy with where it has taken me.  I could not have done this without the help of many people including my great list of sponsors.

The NOC shootout was a awesome event with unexpected high water for the event. The day of prelims the water was super high compared to the normal flow of about 650 cfs and it was running at 1,700 cfs. Saturday was great for the ladies because we only had 5 women so we did not have to make cuts before finals so it was a stress free practice for finals. The men had to make a big cut to 10 moving on to prelims and them 5 to finals. The water came down a bit for finals on Sunday though the feature was still difficult to figure out with a lot that made the feature flushy. After a close finals rides I made 2nd place with a huge clean loop and space godzillas. 1st place Emily Jackson 2nd Haley Mills 3rd Adriene Levknecht. The wave at the Nantahala will be holding the 2012 World Cup and US Team Trails and 2013 World’s for Freestyle kayaking.   Now after driving for days I am in Reno, NV getting ready for the Reno River Festival the freestyle comp starts tomorrow for prelims. Exactly like NOC the water is huge here because of the warm weather an the sow rapidly melting. I have been in reno training since last week but since the water is rising and no one has paddled here at 3,400 cfs which is the projected level tomorrow should be more than exciting on who will move on to finals. I am hoping for a goo feature to train on today and get ready for tomorrow.