Where: Wausau Whitewater Park – Center stage at Little Drop, right behind the Park Department

When: 10am – 5pm; Saturday, August 15 & Sunday, August 16

Best times to watch: 10:00 – 11:45am and 1:15 to 3:30pm – all events are based on competition numbers and will extend time with larger numbers or end sooner with smaller participant base.
WAUSAU — The 6th Annual Midwest Freestyle Championships — freestyle “rodeo” kayaking takes place this weekend at Wausau’s Whitewater Park from 10am to 5pm. Competitors will vie to win a new Jackson Kayak whitewater kayak during Saturday and Sunday’s freestyle action.

Cole Jacobsen, a Green Bay freestyle paddler and Chair of the 2008 and 2009 Midwest Freestyle Championships has worked hard to build an exciting event that will continue the tradition of excellence for Wausau and the paddling community.

Paired with Jackson Kayak, the event kicks off with a first time ever two-day freestyle clinic on August 13 and 14, with Jackson Kayak instructors, Colin Kemp, Brian Tupper, and John McConville. Kemp, an experienced instructor who formerly ran a kayak school with a fleet of 35 boats, promises to give the students an in-depth knowledge of freestyle moves and how to execute them on the Wausau course. McConville, 22, (featured in the above photo) is an amazing example of rapid growth in the Whitewater world. He has only been paddling for two years. In that short time, he has become a favorite of Midwestern paddlers and is now a Midwest Representative for Jackson Kayak. Tupper is an expert instructor recruited by Kemp when the overflowing class needed to expand to 3 instructors.

Hosting the popular event is Wausau Kayak / Canoe Corporation, aka Wausau Whitewater, the non-profit corporation which manages Wausau Whitewater Park operations. As the clock ticks, competitors pile on the points with spins, cartwheels, pirouettes and “blunts” that resemble end stands. Expert paddlers will try to pile on the points with moves like the Phonics Monkey, Space Godzilla, Lunar Orbit, Air Loop, Tricky Wu, and McNasty. Full schedule can be found at the end of this release.

On Sunday, The freestyle finals will be run in most classes and fun events like “boatercross” will take place behind the county office buildings near the VFW on River Drive. Boatercross is more than a sprint down the river. Heats of between five and eight racers all start at the same time on what is converted into a very wet obstacle course. The racers must pass through gates and do certain maneuvers. As the event progresses, an announcer will explain such moves as boofs and splats. Rules allow contact between the racers in this event for Wausau.

Top paddlers in each class will take home a custom-designed belt buckle and all participants will receive a memento medal. Terry & Company will return with food for everyone – Brats, burgers, fries, and hot dogs for a start.

Nora Whitmore, Red Wing, MN writes in her blog, http://seaboopugs.blogspot.com/2009/08/double-wausau.html “There’s a lot of excitement in the air…The Midwest Freestyle Championships are this coming weekend and everyone is practicing hard. Over the years the regular paddlers have gotten so good…it’s great to see. It used to be a loop could win it…now it looks like you’ll have to pull a Phonics Monkey out of your pocket to win. There’s a few that can do it! Little Drop can be a fickle place. Your roll needs to be quick or you’ll flush down stream”

Throughout the clinic and event, the course will be open to paddling in the non-event areas for recreational paddlers. Registration information can be found on the event page of http://www.wausauwhitewater.org/Events.htm#MFC

Jackson Kayaks will be available for spectators to view, sit in, and learn more about. You will see a high percentage of Jackson Kayak boats on the river. Bear Paw Outdoor Adventure Resort, the local White Lake dealer for multiple whitewater brands will be at the event Saturday and Sunday.

· Full season event listings may be found at our website, www.wausauwhitewater.org, with events remaining including:

1. Four recreational releases, September 5 and 6, September 19 and 20

2. Basic Whitewater Paddling Instruction at each of the above releases – Three hour classes fill up quickly, includes boat, gear, instructor and insurance for the small fee of $35! Morning and afternoon sessions available all days.

Volunteers are always needed and spectators are always welcome to Wausau Whitewater events and recreational days. But this season, the message is don’t just come see it, come be part of it! We thank the many sponsors that make this event possible, including Wisconsin Public Service, City of Wausau, Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin, Liberty Mutual, Greenheck Fan Corporation, Siemens Water Technology, Noodles & Company, World Kayak, Esquif Canoes, 89Q, Eastbay, Jackson Kayak, Jefferson Street Inn, Bear Paw Outdoor Adventure Resort, Rutabaga.com. US Trail Maps, Sun Printing, Deffner Law Firm, Wausau Paper, Abby Bank, TD Fischer Group, Green Bay Packaging, Wipfli LLP, and many more great sponsors.

Note to editors: Reporters are welcome to photograph or film. Lunch break runs between 11:30 and 1:00pm. Julie Walraven can be reached at 715-574-5263 for additional information. Michael Schroeder is the current President of Wausau Kayak / Canoe Corporation (Wausau Whitewater) and will also be on river on Thursday or can be called at 715-323-3751 for comment. For information on events, training camps and recreational releases, interested persons can go to www.wausauwhitewater.org or contact Julie Walraven, Operations Manager, 715-574-5263.

Midwest Freestyle Championships

August 15th & 16th, 2009 Wausau, WI

Welcome to the Wausau Midwest Freestyle Championships! Over the weekend you will see whitewater paddlers from the Midwest will be competing in the classes below. In freestyle competitions competitors score points based on the difficulty and precision of moves made in a hydraulic feature on the course.

Please join us for an exciting Wausau Tradition. Times below are approximate.

Saturday 15th

9:30 Boater Meeting

10:00 K-1 Beginner Preliminaries

10:30 K-1 Intermediate Preliminaries

11:00 K-1 Women’s

12:00 Lunch

12:30 OC1 / C1

1:00 K-1 Expert Preliminaries

(there will be pro boaters competing in this division)

2:00 K-1 Master Preliminaries / Finals

3:00 Big Gun Shootout (time permitting)

7:00 Kayak Video’s at the VFW (basement)

Food can be purchased at the VFW prior to video’s

Mountain Khakis giveaway

 Sunday 16th

9:30 Boater meeting

10:00 Team Rodeo Preliminaries

10:30 Boatercross

Sponsored by World Kayak

11:30 K-1 Beginner Finals

12:00 Lunch

12:30 K-1 Intermediate Finals

1:00 K-1 Women’s Finals

1:30 K-1 Expert Finals

2:00 Team Rodeo Finals

3:00 Clean-up / Tear down (All competitors must help)

4:00 Award Ceremony

Please see the following open water, clinic and competition details.

8/13/08 Freestyle training camp 8:30 am to 6pm Water 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

8/14/08 Freestyle training camp 8:30 am to 6pm Water 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

8/15/08 Midwest Freestyle Championships Water 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

8/16/08 Midwest Freestyle Championships Water 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

Wausau Whitewater Midwest Freestyle Event List:

Freestyle events:

Big change to this event this year is women will be allowed to enter the K-1 beginner, intermediate and expert categories. We made this decision because there are not enough women paddlers to have separate skill levels within the women’s division and we want to give less experienced female boaters a chance to win a division. Scoring is based on best of 2 – 1 minute rides.

Team Event for MWFC:

The big change to this event in “09″ will be that the teams will be chosen at random. Teams will be selected Saturday night at the VFW video showing.

Team consists of three registered boaters. Competitors must participate in individual events to qualify for team eligibility. The team with the highest score wins. There are no classes, any and all mixed boat, gender and age groups are allowed to complete a team. All boaters must pre-register and pay event fees prior to Saturday 15th for eligibility.

Team Rodeo Scoring:

Standard rodeo scoring applies. Team competes as a three member team. Each team member must enter the wave or hole feature. Each team has 2 minutes and the score of one run is used for point totals. Again there will only be an award for 1st in this event.

Awards:

Top three winners in each event will receive the following, Gold Belt buckle 1st place, Silver Belt Buckle 2nd place and Bronze for 3rd place. The team event will only have an award for 1st place, 3 Gold belt buckles will be awarded to the top team.

Please see the Wausau Whitewater park home page for the 2009 rodeo scoring trick sheet.

Boatercross Event:

All boaters to line up out of the water with boats near the start line. We will send 5 boaters at a time into the water to race. The winner of the heat must line back up immediately. You must use the same boat you compete with in the other events. If you are not competing in the freestyle event only river running and freestyle boats are allowed.

Other event notes.

Bring a water bottle. We will have a cooler full of Gatorade to fill your bottles. We will not be providing any bottled beverages.
Free Camping next to the Whitewater Park (no camp fires allowed).

Julie Walraven, CPRW, Design Resumes

Mobile: 715-574-5263 or Fax 270-514-5263 (e-fax)

E-mail: design@dwave.net  

Website: www.designresumes.com  

Twitter: http://twitter.com/JulieWalraven  

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/juliewalraven

Blog: http://designresumes.com/blog

Operations Manager

Wausau Whitewater

Website: www.wausauwhitewater.org  

Blog: http://wausauwhitewater.wordpress.com  

Office Location: 1202 Elm Street, Wausau, WI 54401

See more here: 
Kayak School Study – Calling all educators!

Go here to read the rest: 
Kayak School Study – Calling all educators!

See original here: 
WK IT Tour Begins in Texas

See more here:
WK IT Tour Begins in Texas

But first, a review of our goals.  For those who know me, I’m a pretty stubborn fella when it comes to goals and measurement.  WK is no exception. This first full year was all about stoking up the fire in our communities.  Our goals were to bring programs in that helped communities get more active, then use that activity to show our favorite sport to non-boaters and finally drive those suddenly interested to those who are ready to welcome them into our sport… help them find the clubs, instruction etc. in their region.  To do this a few things had to be put in place:

• A network of WK Ambassadors needed to be engaged and brought in to help connect to as many regions as possible.
• Those Ambassadors needed the tools to be able to develop and manage a central place on the web for all that region’s information… descriptive, news, articles, events and more.
• We needed to create tools and programs that stirred up excitement and further demonstrated our sporting culture to the rest of the world.
• We needed to deliver those programs through the ambassadors who, in turn, had to engage their communities to help with these projects.
• We needed to gain the trust and assistance of the paddlesports media to help deliver the message of World Kayak to the masses and to more and more communities.

Well… a tall order I thought, but truth be told, the communities rallied excellently and helped bring all of these goals to fruition.  My first volley of thanks has to go to Colin Kemp, our Program Manager.  His job is to … well… know everyone, everything and do stuff… lots of stuff.  His attention to our sport and his knowledge of pretty much anything and everything to do with our sport make him a great community building guy.  He was our main man on all this and he needs that virtual round of applause.  Thanks to him and his Ambassadors we got results.  Our results continue to filter through, but here’s the nutshell:

• We now have 55 ambassadors spanning all continents.  It started in the US and Canada as these were closest to us, but quickly spread to South America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific … awesome.  Our Ambassadors typically are those guys and gals who have always been there stirring up the community activity, booking the road trips, volunteering to run festivals etc.  It is entirely their passion that drives our successes!
• We now have two major web portals:  www.worldkayak.com and www.worldkayakblogs.com that represent our industry quite well.  Worldkayak.com is now a portal that anyone can quickly use to find regional based information.  Worldkayakblogs.com is a space that allows you to create full web sites for free… not just blogs!  We have 5000+ members with blogs and sites.  Combined they are the highest visited web space in our industry.  It is thanks again to our Ambassadors who keep their regional pages up to date and thanks to you, the paddler, who keeps our personalities visible and active at the blogspot.  Our www.worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown space was used to cover our events and most major US pro events this past summer.  Wow.  Who says rodeo is dead!  Traffic was incredible during the events, and thanks to Chris Wing of H20 Dreamin and the National Center in Charlotte, we had amazing coverage in text, photo and video!  The end result is a great source for paddlers and an effective source for potential enthusiasts to see our community at large and find a means to join us in our fun.
• In 2008 we introduced the WK Hometown Throwdowns (www.worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown).  This was our first foree into event delivery.  We took the model of a very successful, fun, free freestyle rodeo (The Maryland Chute Out) and put it in a box.  Scoring was easy, points for front surfs and paddlewaves, prizes given out via raffle (not for points) and much more.  These rodeos encouraged skills development, fun, and helped the average boater find incentive to play, learn new moves, compete vs a friend and helped bring a community to the river… all in a low stress setting.  It rocked!!!  We set up online registration, promotions, signed all the gear sponsors you’d need and got 15 of our Ambassadors to try 4 to 6 of them in their region over the summer.  WOW again!  The final tally was 63 events across 15 paddling regions and in three countries.  Attendance ranged from 15 with the worst of weather, 80+ as a high!  The single largest freestyle events series ever.  Again special thanks goes out to our Ambassadors and their volunteers!  This was very cool.  Check out our results posts at www.worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown for samples of what went on at these events, photos, videos etc. are all there!    We need to thank MION, Jackson Kayak, Smith Optics, Immersion Research (IR), Mountain Khakis, Kayak Session Magazine, Red Bull and AW for all their help this year in providing prizes of all sizes to our Throwdown participants.  We gave a TON of stuff away.  Help us thank them by buying their goods… all top knotch and all caretakers of our sport throught their continual support of stuff like this!
• Our media has basically opened their doors to working together.  WK has working relationships now with most of our print and web media.  I’d like to thank all of them for helping us out and spreading the word on our initiatives.  Much appreciated!  Our media are the spark that encourages our enthusiasm… special thanks go to all:  Kayak Session (really really kicked in!!!), Rapid Mag, AW Journal, Canoe & Kayak Magazine, Paddler, Boatertalk, Playak … all you have done is appreciated!  Subscribe now folks!  It is important to keep our media healthy.

So that was 2008.  2009 sees a shift in program development as well as a shift in targets.  Where 2008 was about engaging communities and setting up models etc., 2009 needs to be about continuing our community fun, but also finding ways to attract the non-boater to those vibrant communities.  So keep an eye out for the following:

• Ambassadors in upwards of 60 to 80 new paddling regions … we just signed on Serbia, Wales and a few more US / Canadian regions.
•  We are introducing a significant Educational program that will take advantage of today’s social media to deliver educational aid to all of our paddlesports educators (instructors, schools, clubs, municipalities, camps and more.)  This will be a global intiative and lead by some of the best kayak educators on the globe.
• Our web coverage will include ‘almost’ live video coverage of many of our Pro events … including the 2009 Worlds in Switzerland… as well as our growing pot of WK events.
• WK will be hosting 120+ Hometown Throwdowns bringing the fun to many  more regions.
• Our new Slalom Survivor series of events will bring our reach to those who want to try out downriver competition in a fun, friendly and exciting way.  Joe Jacobi is our host for this design… so look for it on a river near you! 
• World Kayak will also be helping deliver a revitalized Total Vertical Feet contest (TVF).  With the help of ambassador extraordinare, Wes Bradley, and his friends, this will bring creek boating into our reach as a community building event.  Fun, safe and super exciting… stay tuned for more.
• Our media programs will be reaching outwards to non-paddlesports media.  We are building a network of writers and contributers to enable the development and management of a World Kayak Press Feed.  One that local, regional, national and international news media can count on for Kayak news, articles of interest and competition results… hmmm… imagine kayak comp results next to those dog show scores in your local paper!  Nice. 

So.  Another big year ahead of us.  It is key to remember those who helped get WK off the ground.  World Kayak could not have done all this if it weren’t for our Program Manager, Colin Kemp, and our amazing group of Ambassadors and sponsors.  This was an unbelievable year and 2009 looks even more exciting, but we really couldn’t have done it without you all! 

Let us know if you want to get involved… always looking for a helping hand!

Cheers, and keep yourself dialed to this station… much more to come!

James ‘Pollo’ McBeath

Photo gallery from last year
[Gallery=2]

World Kayak has partnered up with some the paddling world’s best athletes to help answer the age-old question “Am I ready for the Gauley yet?” The event is free and open to registered WK members who have never been down the Gauley before.

TO REGISTER:

1. GO TO http://worldkayakblogs.com/throwdown/register/62/ AND SIGN UP
2. You will be sent a confirmation email. All members should set up a blog.
3. On your blog, post up a brief summary of why you think you’re ready for the Gauley! Give us a creative excuse along with a list of other rivers that you have boated. WE NEED TO SEE YOUR PADDLING RESUME… and we’ll help you decide whether or not you’re ready.
4. Tell us that you’ve posted it all by sending us an email to colin @ worldkayak .com (take out spaces).

Names will be drawn out of the hat and groups of 4 boaters will be set up with teams of 2 experienced, pro athletes. WK will be interviewing all applicants to make sure that we are not going to put anyone on a section of river that is above their skill level. WK requests that if you are one of the lucky participants that you make a donation to AW for all of their hard work.

This year we have confirmation from a good many Jackson Kayak team members, Steve Fisher and Spencer Cooke of Riot and many others.  If you are interested in helping with the guiding, please send an email to colin@worldkayak.com

If you are haveing any trouble setting up an account, please email james @ worldkayak.com (take out spaces).

Good LUCK!

This year’s event is accentuated by the famous Ottawa Kayak School Keeners and their world-class instructors.  Junior development clinics and classes will be held all throughout the weekend.  Join in on the instruction.  Bring the kids, enjoy the weekend in NY’s amazing Watertown playground!

2008 Schedule of Events
Junior Can/Am Freestyle Kayak Championships
Friday— August 22nd Check in/Practice/Opening Ceremonies
6:00 pm Mixer/ Snacks
7:00 pm Toddy’s Ice Cream Café/Opening ceremonies
Music And Entertainment

Saturday—-August 23rd
8:00 Breakfast/Toddy’s
9:00—11:00 (morning kayak Clinic) Basic Immersion
11:00-12:00 Lunch Break
12:00-2:00 (afternoon kayak Clinic)

3:00—5:00pm Preliminaries & Semi Finals
6:00—7:30pm Dinner
7:30—10:00 Live Band / Party/ Video’s

Sunday—August 24th
8:00 Breakfast/Toddy’s
9:00-11:00 ( morning kayak Clinics)
11:00-12:00( Lunch)
12:00-2:00 (afternoon Clinics)
3:00-5:00 Finals
6:00 Snacks/Mixer/Closing Ceremonies And Awards

All classes and clinics taught by Ottawa Kayak School

For More Info: Call Tom or Sara @ 315/486-7884 486-7864
www.blackwaterchallenge.net  

The key to winning is POSTING!  We do NOT look at any previous months posts, just posts in the current month.  Subjects we encourage posting about include:

• Kayak instruction, tips, tricks (with photo and/or vid!)
• Trip journals
• Conservation, eco, and the thinkin’ mans stuff
• Community activity
• Newby kayaker episodes (get your new paddling friends telling us how they  are doing)

We also reward a full subscription of 4 magazines to one lucky new blogger per month… best new blog award.

Join us !