A team led by 7 X Adventure Race World Champion and Guinness Book World
Record Holder Ian Adamson and Jeremy Rodgers set off via kayak from the town of St. Andrews
on Passamaquoddy Bay into the Bay of Fundy, past the Bold Coast &
Downeast Maine, and through the Penobscot Bay archipelago. In these
extraordinary surroundings they come to enjoy not just the adventure but
also the true spirit of teamwork.
Join NBC's World of Adventure showcasing this Canada to New England expedition of epic proportions!
As I eluded to last year, the field of competitors has deepened
directly proportional to my waistline and inversely proportional to my time
spent in river as Heather and I start a family. We (as in Heather) already discussed where any
prize money would be delegated and in contrast to past years where it went to
new kayaks, bikes, and travel expenses; this year’s top line items were (in
order of payout): 1) new Honda Quadcut lawnmower for the yard 2) new Burley
kiddo buggy for little Delany on the way 3) diapers. This speaks loudly to
where we are at in life as my 40th birthday is in less than 20 days.
Kayakers and climbers in training. Go Pro has fun for every age!
Colorado’s runoff is in full swing and that brings Heather,
the Mazz, and I to the US’s biggest mountain festival in Vail, Colorado, the
GoPro Games. As the economy heats back up so do races prize purses and
sponsorship dollars and that was certainly reflected in this year’s Go Pro
field in every discipline. The start of the mountain biking races were back to
being a who’s who list of every dominate male and female rider I’ve ever
followed over the years. It wasn’t just the racers that were out in force with
bigger payouts. The mountain kids and dogs sure knew where the action was this
weekend and I even hopped into the kayak pool to cool off with the
next generation of US kayakers. Climbing, kayaking, running, slackline,
photography contests abound, Go Pro Games is still growing every year.
Prijon Capri vs Taifun back to back.. and our favorite camping spot on club level!
We parked the Sprinter in our favorite spot on the Vail
Village parking structure after trading KEEN hats and a crisp $20 bill with
some fellow van dwellers who held our spot with their tents while we did practice runs.
We sampled KEEN and NUUN product from the back of the Ultimate Multisport Van
as a way to get to know our neighbors and get our leash reactive dog Mazzy used
to little kids walking up to “her van”. (photo). Ear plugs are a must on “club
level” at Vail Village Parking Garage and after a good nights sleep, we were
ready for the hustle and bustle of Go Pro Games.
The crisp Vail breeze brought in the morning for the Bud
Light Downriver Sprint with 200 kayak and SUP competitors all vying for the rush of 17 minutes
in Gore Creek’s 40 degree F water rumbling down the mountain with it’s own
agenda to wreak havoc to forward progress. I brought two kayak options for this race, the Prijon Taifun that found
it’s way to a 2nd place finish in 2012 and a Prijon Capri that is 10
lbs lighter but is a bit twitchy and less forgiving in choppy big water or
exploding waves but faster in lower volume flows. As always, thanks to the US Prijon distributor www.wildnet.com for allowing me access to the warehouse full of the worlds toughest kayaks every year.
My plan was if flows were over 1000 cfs, I’d take the higher
displacement Taifun. Flows were just under 1000 cfs, so I saddled up the Capri
and asked her to have the run of her life today. For the kayakers out there, a
warm up downstream is ALWAYS better than a warmup paddling upstream so Heather
dropped me off well upstream and I pulled into the start eddy with minutes to
spare waiting for the laser eye to give racers the green light. A proper warm up is one that you get your heart rate all the way into zone 5 then recover back to zone 3 within minutes before you go back to zone 5. Training intervals in your workouts improves your "kinetic VO2 max" ie your ability to go up and down between zone 3 and zone 5 very quickly and efficiently which is some sports is more important than your V02 max.
My run went much better than last year affectionately labeled "the year of the Titanic" and Heather knew it from the
smile on my face and how dry my cockpit was as a clean run means a dry skirt as
every wave hit to your waist creates friction. Unofficial race results were
posted within the hour showing me in 2nd place behind British 2013 extreme
kayaker world champion Joe Morley which was a shoe in for
the podium and definitely had the skills to relegate me to the diaper category making
my hopes of a spanking new Honda lawn mower just out of reach. After several
hours, some confusion arose that 2 seeded racers, Isaac Levinson and Dane
Jackson both missed their start times and were given a alternate start which is
a whole other topic but after calculating their new start times, US slalom
standout Issac Levinson won in 17 min 5 seconds in 1st, Brit Joe
Morley took 2nd in 17 min 9 seconds then Dane Jackson and I finished
3rd and 4th just tenths of a second apart while Dane’s father needing
no introduction Eric Jackson rounded out the top 5. Issac and Dane also went 1-2 in the Steep Creek race the day before so they can buy any mower they want I say.
"Maneater Rapid" under construction in back yard.
Heather + Photoshop = Anything We Want
So the saying close only counts in hand grenades and
horseshoes applies and the good news is I ordered the lawnmower, Bob stroller,
and diapers anyway as there are some perks with having a real job and one of
those is prize money is just gravy in life and it’s time spent with family and
building a full on raging white water course in my back yard this month that matters more to me now. Heather and I still made the cover of
Outside magazine winning the “most days spent pregnant sleeping in a hot RV
with your dog” category this month so we’re stoked just to be a part of the Go
Pro Games.
Next Up...www.fibark.net next weekend then finish up the whitewater feature in the back yard. Little D comes on Labor Day.
Ryan Ognibene (left) and Jeremy Rodgers (right) win both the solo 12 and sprint races.
2014 Buena Vista Gravity Play Adventure Xtreme Series kicked off with a bang. Heather and I rolled into town with the Mazz in tow looking for a warm up race for the Go Pro Games the following weekend. Heather and I are 6 months along expecting our daughter in September so Heather sat this one out but is riding and paddling her way right into the delivery room!
Heather showing our biggest surprise to fellow racers.
Fellow DART racer Ryan Ognibene and I both entered as soloists in one of our favorite Gravity Play races consisting of run ride paddle orienteering and climb sections. Ryan held off up and coming Tecnu racer Jason Popilsky from Idaho by a coin toss margin after Ryan made a bold choice to clear all of the orienteering points while Jason's strategy was to lay down blistering speed on foot and bike which left them less than 5 minutes apart. Ryan's been paddling with Gary Lacy and I since last fall and has really came into his own on the swiftwater paddle legs in adventure races. The paddling section on the Arkansas from Buena Vista to Browns Canyon put in was at super high flows so racers had their
hands full keeping their kayaks upright in the endless class 3 chop. My personal race highlight was watching one husband get flipped out of the kayak followed by his wife waving to him while she carried on down the river just fine without him! Ryan won the overall 12 hour race and I won the overall sprint race so DART nuun times deux is the punchline for this weekend.
Serving up gluten lactose and spam free burgers post race on the Beach!
Ryan, Heather, and I served up burgers post race for racers on the new "Beach" in Buena Vista while racers compared all the wrong turns, flips, swims, chaffing, and crashes.
Next up....www.mountaingames.com in Vail, Colorado next weekend where 40,000 spectators and athletes vie for king and queen of the mountain in every mountain sport known. Ryan Ognibene and www.dartadventure.com head to Untamed New England next month so look for them and Tecnu to battle it out yet again.
Mike Dawson (NZ) 1st, Jeremy Rodgers (USA) 3rd.
Martina Wegman (Netherlands) and Mike's girlfriend
I think? won the woman's overall and Steep Creek.
.
So those of us that thought the longtime Teva Games becoming
the Go Pro Games in 2013 would result in some degree of contracture of the
event were seriously wrong. The biggest multisport festival in the US held in
Vail, Colorado, now with Go Pro as the title sponsor, took another massive leap
in the direction of growth. Registration and spectatorship was robust in all
events with particular expansion of the slackline and stand up paddle board
disciplines. Where else can the action seeking kayaker to the dog lover to the
climber to the shopper find all their heart desires in one weekend in 2 square
miles?
With most of the debate settled over my custom kayak creation 2 Teva Games ago, Heather and I once again loaded up the Mazz and
headed to Vail in the Ultimate Multisport Van. Heather entered the 4 sport Ultimate
Moutain Challenge in the Pro Class where she’d kayak class 2-3 Gore Creek,
mountain bike, run a trail 10k, and finally time trial on the road bike up Vail
Pass. Quite a full plate in any one’s book and I was proud of her for diving in
such a competitive field. After the kayak stage, she sat in a comfortable 3rd
place (queuewith all the elite Xterra multisport females salivating for the
mountain bike stage that afternoon. Heather rallied through the remaining
stages and learned a lot about herself and the stout female competition at this
year’s Go Pro Games. When the economy bounces back, sponsorship dollars and
prize money comes back and boy did it ever with uber multisport athlete and
past Ultimate Mountain Challenge Gretchen Reeves barely getting edged out for
the title by less than 1 minute and only 2 minutes separating the top 3 females
in over 255 minutes of multisport head to head racing.
My Heather recapping a tough mountain bike leg in women's
Ultimate Mountain Challenge.
While Heather was running all over Vail Resort, I focused on
the kayaking events.The BudLight Downriver Race is my favorite 16-18 minute race down 4 miles of Vail's fast flowing Gore Creek. Because the river is only class 3, it leaves lots of options for trickery that us adventure racers love bending the rules till they almost break. Well this year, the rules didn't break but they nearly sank:) The Prijon Capri is only 12 feet long and 43 lbs. Well under the 13 foot limit and not as long as the best in class Liquid Logic Remix Stinger, it's the best choice as long as the water level stayed medium to high. With it's sea kayak keel and minimal rocker, I've got just as much length in the water but significantly narrower and much lighter at 43 lbs. For the sake of head to head racing, I loaned my ringer Prijon Capri to slalom and freestyle legend Eric Jackson after some intense prize money reallocation negotiations. His run went smoothly until he took out at the wrong bridge and had to re enter his skirt costing him some unfavorable time. The Prijon Capri made it back just in time but I missed my warmup and had to sprint to the start line and make a Superman dive start then skirt up while under way. In all the confusion, I had zero time to check the kayak and the stern hatch was loosened when the kayak got transported and dropped on the starting area grass. This rapid increase in pressure combined with me leaving it loose the night before while emptying bulkhead allowed the normally bomber designed hatch to remain unfastened so halfway down the 4 mile course, I noticed a) I was beating my split deadlines to each river landmark b) I was losing control and sliding through the turns on rapids like high schooler practicing drifting in his sports car. After the rear bulkhead filled half the kayak to the brim and I began to pop a wheelie full time, I looked back over my shoulder to see the hatch cover dangling beside me knowing there was no way to reach back and close it or empty the tanker I had become.
Hotel Hybridlife at GoPro Games. Room service was first class.
I limped through the bottom half of the course doing a mega crunch to weight the bow enough to keep me operational and crossed the finish line at Covered Bridge in Vail. A NBC sports reporter got a chuckle asking me what happened out there as I emptied the bathtub I just paddled downstream and the best response I could muster was "pre flight checklist ignored". Total rookie mistake but somehow I mustered a podium finish but well off the pace it would take to dethrone New Zealand slalom and extreme paddler Mike Dawson's flawless run.
As soon as we unloaded the Ultimate Multisport Van, it was time to clean it and repack days later for the 2nd biggest whitewater festival and race in the US at FIBARK in Salida Colorado, one of the oldest, longest, and most debacherous whitewater races in the world actually.
FIBARK is quite a different race than the Go Pro Games which restricts paddlers to sub 13 foot and plastic 50 lb kayaks. FIBARK lets the river decide what kayaks may pass safely along it's marathon distance course from Salida to almost the Royal Gorge. The kayak of choice is a 23 lb 15 foot long carbon fiber wildwater racing kayak which incidentally is my primary kayak design of choice for FIBARK's 26 miles of class 3 and 4 rapids.
Andy Corra, 2013 FIBARK winner, executes a perfect line through the exploding
hole of Cottonwood Rapid
Durango's Andy Corra, 9-time race winner and Guinness world record holder in distance kayaking happens to own this race and is probably going to retire before any of us develop enough to beat this American paddling standout. Andy mentored me in my early wildwater days and I crewed for him on his world record attempt on the Yukon River in 2010 so it was a race for 2nd place with past race winner Gary Lacy, Spanish slalom champion Jordi Domenju in a C2, and Salida's own Steve Holmes.
I regressed back to my adventure racing roots again and rigged my kayak with a custom bilge system for this week's trickery. In a 2 hour race, most of us raced in years past with a Hydropak hydration bladder inside the cockpit. This year I rigged a bladder hose from the floor of my cockpit to a hose leading to a bite valve holder on my pfd allowing for me to both hydrate with my favorite race day drink, Nuun Kona Cola, and empty my kayak all along the way. Other than loosing my bite valve going through Bear Creek Rapid at mile 4, the gadget was flawless and the river water that got through my skirt turned into Nuun Cola which had me smiling all along the 26 mile course. For those neahsayers who subscribe to the seed not the soil theory, I did add 2 iodine tablets as well but no telling if they had enough contact time to oxidize my nemesis...Giardia...but at day 7 post race I'm still solid...no pun intended:)
Yours truly "reacting to cold water" aka carping for the photographer
at Cottonwood Rapid. My cockpit full of Nuun was the only thing
keeping me afloat.
So after 24 miles sitting in second place by a slim 3 minutes behind Andy Corra, I came to Cottonwood Rapid which is the scene of many lead shuffles over the years. While a straightforward Class 4 rapid with 2 distinct line choices, bad and worst, it's just a slap in the face after paddling 2 hours at anaerobic threshold in a tippy racing kayak full of water (except mine of course:) As I approached Cottonwood, I couldn't get a handle on whether to take Andy's left side line (which requires laser like precision but certainly the fastest) or Gary Lacy's right side line (which requires luck that only Gary has). I hesitated at the top setup wave and exploded off the main hole pointing right instead of left. Right it is and I greased that thing like a bull in a China closet followed by getting maytagged like dirty skivvies in the washer on heavily soiled setting.The hilarious photo above showed up on the front page of the paper with the caption "Jeremy Rodgers from Boulder reacts to the ice cold water" which is just hilarious as any kayaker knows that's "carping" after I did a back deck roll through just enough to grab a few oxygen to clear the rapid turbulence before finally returning to forward progress. I like paddling the Arkansas right side up or right side down I say...two completely different rivers.
So FIBARK ended at mile 26 with Andy Corra in his usual slot uno in 2 hours 20 minutes with me about 4 minutes back followed by Steve Holmes and Gary Lacy, who incidentally chose the same sideways upside down side stroke down the right side line of Cottonwood. Mike Freeburn, another standout US paddler was injured and had to set out FIBARK but certainly deserves acknowledgement in any FIBARK writeup.
Next up, swiftwater paddling camp for Colorado adventure racers Sunday July 14th 10am at REI Denver and Confluence Whitewater Park. Email me directly for details gang. Jeremy_rodgers AT hotmail dot com.
After Checking out the conditions of the course Saturday and
fine tuning all of our gear we settled in for the night and got ready for our
not so early morning. Everyone on the team really enjoyed the 10:30am start
time which left us plenty of time to sleep in, eat a good breakfast, and get
mentally prepared to race.
At 10:30am the gun went off. Ryan Took off up the snow
packed trail for a 10min accent. Ryan moved quickly into second place pushing
hard. At the top he ripped his skins and took off down the only fun section of
skiing on the course. With fresh soft snow the downhill went very quick,
rushing through the trees and out onto the flats. On The flats Ryan pushed hard
alternating between skating and double poling down the track. Towards the end
when the snow turned in to more dirt then snow Ryan quickly switched to his
Vasque running shoes and ran out the last mile of the course. This did not
prove to be faster than his competitors but it did leave Ryan with the
satisfaction he was not literally skiing on rocks and ruining his skis on the
last mile of the race course and a faster TA time. In the TA Ryan quickly
passed on the timing chip to Heather and she took off.
Heather powered through the 15 mile mixed forest service
road and single track descent with wreckless abandon shaving 10 minutes off her
2012 split on the bike leg finishing in a solid 1 hour 9 minutes just minutes
off the lead male soloists. Her technical riding skills have really blossomed
in the last year and the packed sand couldn’t slow down the Schwalbe Racing
Ralph’s.
Jeremy took the pass off from bike to paddle and weaved his
way through record low water flows to win the paddle leg by a respectable
margin with Colorado multisport powerhouses Shane Sigle and Evan Ross close on
his heels.Never had running shoes been
so important in a paddling race! He even ran his boat over numerous stretches
that he deemed unpaddle able from scouting runs the day before. Colorado’s
snowpack is finally recovering from last years drought and this years low flows
were more reflective of conservative releases in early season than potential
runoff in the upcoming 4 weeks.
After a hard fought race we waited in suspense to hear how
we had placed. Not really knowing how the other teams had done. As awards went
on we discovered we did not take the entire race. A few 3P veterans had
finished just before us. Finally our time had come to learn our fate. We were
not 3rd, we were not 2nd, we had Won!! The announcers states
that Team Dart-nuun not only won the Coed team division but they had beaten out
all of the men’s teams also. What a great experience and race. We will
definitely be back next year to race the PPP again.
Looking back at the race we also discovered we had put the
fastest TA times up of any team or individual. This was just icing on the cake
for our great weekend.
So 2012 ended on several high notes preceded by several medium notes.
Sprinter making some watts while we were out burning some watts1
In July, Heather and I raced the Breckenridge Gravity Play 12 hour adventure race in the 2 person team class. We've race on 4 person teams before in last years Glenwood Springs race but never together by ourselves. The paddle leg was defined by what ourselves and another Colorado adventure racing couple coined paddling "divorce boats". I'm certain we don't argue like non paddlers going in circles in these awkward inflatable kayaks designed more to create angst more than move forward but we certainly had some colorful team communication on the water:) We actually paddle a hard plastic 2 person whitewater kayak called a Jackson Dynamic Duo alot on class 3-4 so we've gotten used to having 2 ambitious spirits in the same watercraft going downstream. After some lightening storm spiced time on the mountain bikes above treeline, Heather smoked the orienteering course bringing us across the finish line in a cool 1st place.
In September, we split our forces and I joined up with old teammate Gretchen Reeves while Heather joined up with Colorado's multisport patriarch Gary "Let's Get This Fire Started" Lacy in the Gravity Play Glenwood Springs 12 hour race. Gary's son Mason Lacy was under our radar screen as we're always looking out for his talented brother Spencer Lacy who recently suffered yet another shoulder dislocation. Mason was back in his pre college form and laid down a brisk pace on the initial run straight up to the Glenwood Adventure Park where we rappelled into the cavernous cave system. After a 3 hour singletrack bike leg and a mandatory flat tire on my cyclocross wheelset, Gretchen and I could see Mason just ahead of us but couldn't reel him in before the rowdy river boarding section down the Class 3 Shoshone section of the Colorado River. Mason's strength is certainly in the kayak but he laid down a solid pace on foot and bike to take the overall win with Gretchen and I on his heels paddling mandatory (punishment) inflatables. Gretchen was using this race as a tuneup for a race in China the following week so mission accomplished with no hospital bills and some champagne to boot.
Next up...crewing for Dart Nuun's Cyril Jay Rayon at the US 24 Hour Mountain Bike Nationals in Colorado this year!
Classic video footage of Heather Prentice and I running ahead of peloton of US Pro Cycling Tour final climb up Boulder's Flagstaff Mtn. That's yours truly in the Top Gun Maverick jumpsuit with the air horn and Heather in the wig and disco get up. Not bad for running in Keen flip flops!
Teva Games Bud Light Downriver Podium: Jeremy Rodgers USA (2nd), Mike Dawson NZ (1st), Eric Jackson USA (3rd)
So many of you remember the the coup d' etat of Teva Games 2011 and thought the story couldn't get better. Well, for the most part you were right but it was all smiles on race day after a last minute rule change that became known as the "Jeremy Rodgers rule" that kayaks cannot be customized in any way and must be a mass produced production kayak. Rather than debate the minutia meaning or origins of this rule, I called up my go to guys, Landis Arnold and Trung at the North American Prijon distributorship in Boulder, CO and told them to troll the warehouse relics for anything under 13 feet, plastic, no rocker, and light as possible. They scored a gem in the rough with a 1986 Prijon Taifun (pronounced Typhoon) at 12 foot 9 inches, 10 lbs lighter than a Dagger Green with less rocker. Rocker, my friends, is the upsweep of the front and rear of the kayak which allows it to turn or not turn easily and when it comes to downriver racing rocker is not your friend as we've only got one place to go and it's not left or right:) The only kicker of the deal was I had to wear the original 1986 rainbow striped skirt (see closeups below) to make the package complete!
With last year's controversy about my custom creation, the Wavechopper, need I say more?
After chumming it up on pre race practice runs with Ultimate Mountain Challenge favorites Travis Macy, Josiah Midaugh, and Sari Anderson, we ironed out all the nanosecond saver moves on the downriver race course from East Vail into Mountain Village. With record flows last year producing my winning time of 17:30 seconds, we weren't so lucky in 2012 with record low snowpack producing a technical paddlers dream race....the lower the water the harder it is to read the fastest lines. In high water years any line with a kayak right side up is a good line and the field gets compressed into closer times. In short...keep in the middle, paddle like hell, fastest time wins. In sparkling contrast, low water years spread out the field as you just have to weave magic to avoid running aground or wave friction.
Post race cool down in the Prijon Taifun....take a gander at the rainbow striped skirt straps and grab loop aka Garmin 310 anchor! Guys in 1986 wore this? Classic! Lost a few letters on my fellow racer message sticker as well but quickly repaired!
So the story played out that New Zealand Olympic slalom paddler Mike Dawson, who finished second to my Wavechopper last year by same margin, edged my time of 22:57 by 3 seconds in a Liquidlogic Remix Stinger and US whitewater freestyle and slalom icon Eric Jackson finished in 3rd by the same margin. It seems it's not about the boat but the rule change will live on:) Complete results subdivided by classes and story linked here in the Denver Post. Mike Dawson is on fire this spring leading up the the Olympics in London and his checkbook after Teva Games shows it with a sweep in all events! Good job Mike.
On a side note, we saw a power output of almost 400 watts! No, not from a paddle blade but from the latest addition to the Ultimate Multisport Van! Heather and I had a 600 watt wind turbine added to the van this spring via a partnership with Keen and Southwest Windpower. The adventure van is now officially self sustainable just in case we have to make a fast getaway and leave the world behind. Combined with the solar system, we never have to start the engine to make it through watching Top Gun and Braveheart back to back. Even better, NO annoying generator noise or fumes for our fellow free spirited campers.
New to Teva Mountain Games in 2012 was the Gibbon Slackline Amphitheater and what a show these guys and gals put on. I thought how entertaining can balancing on a slack line be but man was I wrong. Big air back flips to straddle landing to double front flips was the theme of the day. Good thing the Nuun tent was only a few yards away as these athletes were sweating up a storm with their aerial performances. I think all boisterous 40,000 spectators were piled around the slack line venue all at once so find the lack liner in my photo from my cheap seat in the nosebleed seats.
If over 8 sports and 40,000 spectators weren't enough, even the dogs had their day in the limelight with dock dog jumping competitions and trail races. Mazzy, our 1.5 year old cattle dog, pulled off a coup d'etat of sorts and outlasted the competition in the Rocky Dog 5K race straight up and down Vail Resorts switchbacks. Mazz even snuck in a few dives into the creeks along the way to cool her afterburners on a warm Teva Games morning with me in tow. My Keen A86 new issue trail racing flats handled the loose mountain trail terrain like a pro and at a slim 9 ounces with lots of retro flashy appeal, I think Keen is onto a winner. Trailrunner magazine agrees with me! The Mazz and I finished a smooth 3rd overall in the 5k to top off a great mountain weekend and Heather snuck in an age group placing as well. .Here's the Mazz strutt'n through town with her medal...does it get any better than this dog lovers?
See you all back on the river and trails with 3 more mountain festivals in the next 4 weeks!
Team DART-Nuun has had another very successful and busy season
of racing. The team not only competed in the biggest adventure races in
the world, but also in foot races, bike races, triathlons, and kayak
races.
Here are some of the team’s key accomplishments: Races:
The team is currently ranked 2nd in the nation – AR Power Rankings.
They had a great chance to be ranked 1st but team member Cyril
became ill at the US World Qualifier and the team finished 2nd. The
runner-up finish has energized the team to work even harder in 2012
to stand on top of the rankings.
Jeremy Rodgers qualified for US Canoe and Kayak Wildwater Team and will represent the USA at the 2012 World Championships.
Jeremy Rodgers won the Teva Games Downriver race – see the race report
Mari Chandler won her age group at the Duathlon
long course World Championships despite coming off a 6 day non-stop
race 2 weeks before and not owning a TT bike.
Jen Segger won Ultraman Canada
Jen Segger won the Whistler 50 mile ultrarun
The team finished 3rd at the US World Championship Qualifier – race report
The team finished 3rd (1st American) at the Canadian World Championship Qualifier – race report
The team finished 7th (1st American) at the Switzerland World Championship Qualifier – race report
The team put on races including the Trioba adventure race and Malibu Day & Night trail runs and hosted events such as ProClub series of clinics in Seattle and mountain bike night ride clinics in Los Angeles)
For a complete list of the team’s race results and events visit the DART-Nuun site.
Happy Birthday Heather! Glider flight over the Rockies looking west from Boulder
Heather and I kicked off the official off season with a glider flight for Heather's birthday followed by a trail day with Mazzers on mountain bikes at Picture Rock. We were up for a sunrise flight after sharing ice cream and cake with her parents Marci and Buck last evening.
Elliot, our trusty pilot from the UK or South Africa ( I couldn't quite place the accent but we finally decided South Africa:), guided us around the biosphere. It gave new meaning to getting outside the bubble as Boulder is affectionately known. I knew we were in the right place when he made us wipe the morning dew moisture off the wings "because it compromises lamellar air flow". I like that in a pilot and I sure don't like compromising lamellar flow on my wing paddles either!
I just returned from the Russel Fork River Gorge in eastern Kentucky this weekend where I was competing in the US Wildwater Team trials. After a great classic race and ok sprint, it seems I'm back off to France next summer for perhaps my last hoorah. Waxing the backcountry skis as we speak....
And A Road Runs Through It...Never Summer Range on Colorado Wyoming border.
So we aren't about to let the summer wind down without a bang but a long season of packing, unpacking, booking flights, entering races, and juggling all things domestic are coming to an end. Perfect time Heather says for a weekend to sneak away to her favorite Colorado getaway...the Never Summer Range in northern Colorado where the aspens paint the landscape with a burning orange and yellow mosaic in the shadows of early season snow sprinkled 13,000 foot peaks.
Long off the beaten path, the Never Summer Range takes you back in time to what Colorado used to look like before the development of it central valleys into ski resorts and highways. The photo above is what we woke up to after arriving well after dark. The Sprinter van just seems to have an instinctual awareness to find the best views even absent of light and she hit a home run this morning.
We spent the weekend scouting by bike backcountry yurts for the upcoming ski season as well as paddling Michigan Lake. Heather continues to develop the best kept secret sport of SUPerFly fishing well into it's second year of development. SUP stands for Stand Up Paddleboard and you get the FLY part hey? The catching seems to be mastered but the release remains a bit tippy. Standby for the production version next spring.
Team Ripboard Jeremy Rodgers, Heather Prentice, Mike Freeburn, and Ryan Ognibene (missing)
So we finally got the adventure racing Zen master Mike Freeburn out of semi retirement for the Glenwood Springs Adventure Extream 12 hour race and what a treat it was to race with Mike again. Heather, Ryan Ognibene, and I teamed up with Ripboard based out of Denver, Colorado with an all star cast. Mike was one of my original mentors and inspirations to begin downriver kayak racing in 2005 and was one of the best adventure racers in the US for many years. Even better, he's a principal of Durango High School so he knows how to keep the team in ship shape hence the nickname Zen Master.
So 50 teams began the 12 hour race with a 3000 foot ascent straight up on foot to the caving, rappel, and alpine slide. We jockeyed with Team Lifequest Adventure from gun fire to finish line. We discussed pre race that only the first 6 racers, solo or team to the alpine coaster got a carbohydrate free ride down the mountain. After a grueling vertical ascent, the alpine coaster had us all giggling with high G force turns. We came off of the first run leg 1 hour later in a lead with Team LifeQuest Adventure in a close second place.
We began the mountain bike leg with a brisk ascent of Lookout Mountain on our way to Boy Scout Trail which is a gem of a ride for single track lovers just outside of Glenwood Springs. This singletrack has amazing views and even more amazing exposure. Today had no shortage of carnage and just as Team Lifequest caught us on the bikes they crashed trying to keep their small lead.
After several hours of jockeying back and forth and steep descents back into Glenwood, we pulled some aces out of the hat. As team Lifequest rolled into the TA and check out, we traded in our mountain bikes and grabbed road bikes for the bike path ascent to the riverboarding/paddle section of the course on the Shoshone section of the Lower Colorado.
With 2 national kayak team members and all 4 of us being river saavy, we held our position in draft of Lifequest all the way to the river board start. Race director, Will Newcomer, met us at the river board put in to let us know our engineering marval "Ripboard Transport System", which was a fast hauling portage system to run the river boards 2 miles up the bike path, was a no go. With the Shoshone section running double it's normal volume at nearly 2500 cfs, he was concerned hauling the river board portage system down river with us wouldn't bode well as we agreed.
It was clear to us after 5 seconds in the class 3-4 river board section how Rip Boards got their namesake. Heather got a wild ride in one of the holes in Tombstone Rapid after having her Ripboard ripped out of her hands. She rallied back onto the Rip Board and we cruised into the paddle start neck and neck with Team Lifequest with Team OutdoorLife about 30 minutes back.
Heather diving for dollars on the river board section. Nice job hun!
Our strategy played out as the paddle leg was our bread and butter. Team Nuun Ripboard rolled into the finish line in 5 hours 28 some minutes a hard fought but smooth 10 minutes ahead of a solid all male second place Lifequest team. Adventure racing has always been a coed sport and we are hard headed like that and choose to stick with tradition but these all male teams really made us work hard to outwit and outlast the horsepower heavy all male teams that race in the same 4 person elite class.
Team Nuun Ripboard was first overall followed by Lifequest Adventure and Team Outdoor Life then soloist Spencer Lacy. Spencer and his paddling phenom brother Mason duke it out like 2 brothers 1 year apart should and their post race stories are the best in the business. We even got one racers report that he saw them both crash on Boy Scout Trail off the exposed trail only to hear "giggling in the bushes". Priceless!
Team Nuun Ripboard, 1st Overall, Mike Freeburn, Heather Prentice, Jeremy Rodgers, Ryan Ognibene, and of course Mazzers and a curious Labrador.
Hamburgers on our new grill and cool drinks after the race around the HybridVan punch lined the post race events for racers. Special thanks to Nuun, Ripboard, KEEN, and Garmin for their ongoing support of adventure and adventure racing in the US!
Next up, 2012 National Team Trials in Kentucky Oct 15th followed by ski season.
.JPG)
.JPG)
