Every Year we venture out to Colorado to check out the rivers, explore the wilderness and compete in the Freestyle Kayaking “Tour.” This year was no different as we packed up our GMC Sierra Truck and Grand Design Trailer and hit the road.
We started the CO Tour off with the first event at the Golden Games in Golden Colorado. This was a great opening stop for our whirlwind tour.
The Golden Games consisted of several events throughout the town, and across many disciplines and sports such as fly fishing, whitewater kayaking, SUP’ing, and more. For us, it started off with the Screaming
1/4 Mile creek race. This was a super fun event, as the class 3 race brought in a large group of racers. There were both long and short boat classes for Men and Women. The course was a great set up for a time trail with a large launching ramp at the start. After 2 runs each, the times were set and both Emily and I were able to take home 1st. After the race we headed back into town for the freestyle event in the downtown whitewater park. Levels were a bit low and the hole was challenging, though after watching the junior classes tear it up, I realized that all the tricks were possible. Next up were the Pro Women’s and Men’s classes. Emily edged out Katy Kellogg followed by Courtney Kerin in third, while the Men’s class was a tight battle as Greg Parker took home first with a great ride, beating me out by only 10 points!
That evening we headed out early to Buena Vista while other athlete stuck around for another day of fun events.
Next up was the CKS PaddleFest, in Buena Vista, CO. PaddleFest is a huge river festival as it brings in tons of people for the combination of freestyle events, creek races, SUP racers and big time sales at Colorado Kayak Supply. The festival was amazing as we lucked out with warm weather, which brought us high water levels. The freestyle was the kickoff to PaddleFest. The high water brought ideal freestyle features throughout the whitewater park, which also brought in some big names and huge scores for the freestyle event. I was able to take home the top honors with a winning ride over 1600 points. The following day was the 3rd annual ‘Numbers Creek Race’. This was a record setting year with over 80 racers across the board. The times were tight over this 14 minute race course, though I was also able to push through and take another top finish as I won my 3rd year in a row. We continued having a blast at the CKS PaddleFest with all the vendors and concerts and delicious restaurants in South Main, as well as the opening of the river side Surf Hotel/ restaurant. The final day of PaddleFest was the family fun race to the Grill, with a 20-minute race down the class 2-3 Milk Run section which we have turned into a family tradition. We had three teams up multiples with EJ/KC, Emily/ Parker and Myself/ Tucker. The ‘Race to the Grill’ was the perfect ending to another great weekend and river festival.
After PaddleFest we ventured over to Lyons Colorado for the Lyons Outdoor Games and Burning Can Beer Festival. Lyons is home the South Saint Vrain creek race as well as their freestyle and slalom events.
Lyons was definitely affected with the low snow pack this year, and with it brought a some low water. Lucky for us, the high water peak was during the event, which was still low, but enough water to hold all the events. The South Saint Vrain creek race was first on the schedule and opened up the Lyons Outdoor Games with a bang. This is one of the steepest creek races in Colorado, and with it’s road side location, it has a sharp and rocky race course. The race was held with the format of 2-runs and the single fastest time wins. I was fortunate enough to lay down 2 pretty good runs, both of which I had some small mistakes, but still both being pretty solid runs. In the end I was able to add another win to my race season, with another fastest time. Next up was the slalom race, which was held on the brand new whitewater course which was rebuild on the edge of town. The slalom was a long and tough course, which I ended up in third, as I watched EJ style a smooth run for the win. Freestyle was the final event for the Outdoor Games, which was another challenging feature due to the low water feature. I helped judge the Junior classes and was again inspired by the tricks and combos thrown down in the shallow feature. By the time the Pro Men’s class went the barriers had by broken and the scores were ready to rise. The finals were super tight, though again Greg Parker was able to edge me out with a fantastic winning ride while I took home 2nd place and Clay Wright took third. We finished the event with some sampling of the craft beers and celebrating my good friend Marty Cronin’s 50th birthday at the Burning Can Beer Festival.
Our concluding event for our Colorado Tour was the big finale at the GoPro Mountain Games. The Mountain Games are the busiest outdoor event gathering of the year for us, with several events from climbing, to running, biking, yoga, kayaking, SUP, rafting, slack-lining, fly fishing and more. I decided to test my metal and physical health by competing in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge and compete in as many different events as possible. I did all of the whitewater events including kayaking, rafting, and SUP. Again low water levels made some of the whitewater events a little more difficult. This effected the creek race the most, as the course had to change locations from the steep Homestake creek to the big water Dowdes Chute course. The course was set up with several gates, which made for an incredible race, and super tight times with many of the worlds fastest extreme racers competing. In the end I pulled out with a respectable 5th place and a couple seconds behind the winning time by Gerd Serrasolses. Next up was the Freestyle which was spread out over the next couple days, and finished with another crowd pleasing, high flying finals and I was barely edged off the podium by Hunter Katich in 1st, Dane Jackson 2nd and Gregg Parker 3rd. Throughout the 4 day event I ended up competing in 16 different competitions as I went for the title of Ultimate Mountain Champion. After the dust settled I finished with a couple podium finishes, including 1st in the 5K mountain sprint, 1st in the Amateur climbing comp, and top 5 in both the freestyle and creek race. After all the points were tallied I was beat out by 2 points for the UMC challenge and finished 2nd overall.
All in all the Colorado tour was another series of great events, fun times, good friends and lots of travel. Just because our “CO Tour” is over doesn’t mean the fun stopped there, Monday after GoPro we rallied to Idaho for the next series of events and festivals!
