Crowds gather for the opening night concert- Xavier Rudd
Homestake Creek
Me coming into the last drop on the course 'Leap of Faith'
Female Podium for the Downriver Race- Martina Wegman, Myself, Natalia Grey
The first event for the Gopro Mountain Games was the Steep Creek Championships which is held on Homestake Creek. It is a short race course around 2mins long and this year it fortunately had plenty of water! The competition was hot, with around 50men competing and 9Females from around the World. I raced consistently but lost time in all of my runs in the middle section of the course with varying lines. The top 5 went through to the Finals and it was here that I finished in 3rd after holding together a solid enough run, Martina Wegman had a clear lead ahead of Sage Donelly and I was just a second down on Sage. Issac Levinson threw down a really smooth run to take 1st ahead of Dane Jackson and Joe Morley. There were a lot of upsets in the final drop 'Leap of Faith' which can be a tricky crux move.
The next event for me was the 17minute downriver event which is held on the Creek that runs through Vail township. It is class 2 and very gruelling. Martina once again took the win, I was second and Natalia 3rd. Issac Levinson took the win for the mens ahead of Dane Jackson and Joe Morley.
There are heaps of awesome events going on each day here at the Gopro Mountain Games and it was really fun checking out the mountain biking slope style, freestyle and slack lining.
The final events for me were the SUP Cross (Slalom SUP downriver) and the Kayak 8 Ball! Going into the SUP event I was a little unsure what to expect as there were a lot of pro SUP paddlers. The slalom gates and obstacles on the river were to my advantage as I was able to cut into the gates nice and high...even though I was a bit slow on the flat water sections! Stoked I took out 2nd place.
The Kayak 8 Ball is always a pretty random event with people trying to take out all the head to head races. This makes it quite random as to who wins as the people out in front first might get taken down first. I was stoked to see Kiwi Soph Moulder take out this event!
Really glad I came and I am definitely going to try and make it back next year. Thanks a lot to everyone that has helped me out this week, especially Rafa and Rush who picked me up from the airport etc.
Photo Credit below- Gopro Mountain Games
No comments:
Post a Comment