CANADIAN Team Trials So the Canadian Freestyle Team Trials were fast approaching and all my training was paying off, I was in prime play boating form ... Ha Ha, well not quite, as a matter of fact I hadn’t play boated in 6 months (except for the odd romp in the bottom hole on the Kaituna), while traveling my focus was on creek boating and racing. Too make things worse with one week left I still wasn’t sure whether I would be able to make it to the competition in time. Having already made previous commitments to teach kayaking for a Outdoor Ed class in NZ, I was working up to the day before my flight. The earliest connecting flight I could make from LA to Montreal would get me into Montreal at 8:30 am the morning of the trials, which were set to start at 8:00 am. Thankfully, no matter how much you can pre-plan you will never be able to change the inexplicable ability for kayakers to be late at anything they plan to do... in true kayaker fashion things kicked off at a comfortable 10:00 am. So, after sprinting through the airport, frantically weaving in and out of traffic and scarfing down breakfast in the car on the way, it was nice to be able to chill out before my heat. It was a pleasant surprise to get back into the country and find +20 degree, sunny weather, the water was still frigid but no ice so it could have been worse. An even better welcome home was seeing so many friends gathered in one spot. Once the competition got underway it wasn’t long before the coolers were coming out and a laid back atmosphere to boot. The competition was epic, with some of the smoothest boaters out there throwing down on an amazing Chambly Wave. My rides went better then anticipated, and I was able to throw down a couple beauties placing me some where just outside the top 10. When the dust settled and all was said and done ... Canada had a new freestyle team consisting of Nick Troutman, Patrick Camblin, Billy Harris, Joel Kowalski and Kelsey Thompson. Just missing the mark in a hotly contested line up was Tyler Curtis making the Alternate position in 6th. High light of any good competition is the after party, and Chambly didn’t disappoint. TYLER FOX Photos: Tyler Fox and Blake Mahoney NEW ZEALAND Team Trials Mid-April seemed to be the popular time for freestyle team trials around the world , and New Zealand was no exception. The NZ Freestyle Kayak Champs & Team Selections kicked off on 19th / 20th April and we had a great weekend. Thankfully the torrential rain during the week finally brought the Kaituna river up off 100’s and we had a nice 500’s flow for the Saturday competition in bottom hole. There was a good turnout and we even had almost as many juniors as men who were definitely tearing it up and showing up a lot of the men. After day one Mike Dawson was leading the Mens, Louise Urwin the women's and William Martin the Junior mens. On sunday, we met up and got the surf report which was looking pretty grim with a forecast of 1ft and dropping at the Mount. We decided to head over and check it out anyway and turned out we had some decent 5ft waves and had another good day of competition, we even managed to squeeze in a Wairoa run afterwards to top off the weekend. Sam Sutton Dominated Day two of the Mens, Myself the Women's and William Martin again for the Jr men. All in all a good weekend and the Final results ended up being pretty close, top placing as snap shots as follows: Open Men 1st Sam Sutton 2nd Johann Roozenburg 3rd Jamie Sutton Open Women 1st Louise Urwin 2nd Gina Madigan 3rd Sophie Hoskins Junior Men 1st William Martin 2nd Callum Grove 3rd Ryan Hunt Louise Urwin Photos: Louise Urwin Canadian and New Zealand Team Trials
Tyler Feeling it out
MC master mic,
Ryan Whetung
Words of encouragement
Tyler & his Dad
The old side ways landing... Dohhh
A bit of Pop
Pat not forgetting about style!
Benny cleans it up
getting a bounce
Dave is in the House
Pan-am
Flash Back from
 # 99 the Great One
paddles up
if Dave can do it
So can TC
Helix or Felix? its a no brainer
Tyler’s Step Mom and Dad,
Enjoying the show
Focus Dave
Dave with a huge helix
laid out
laying it down
Up and..
Over
Big Airscrew
The Twin
JAMIE SUTTON
SAM & LU
08 NATIONAL CHAMPS
MOUNT MAUNGANUI SURF
SAM SUTTON
SAM SUTTON
LOUISE URWIN
PETE Getting RETRO
RYAN HUNT
RYAN LUCAS
Bottoms Up Kayaking < SLIDESHOW