2012 Open Canoe Slalom North American Championships

I had not been to a Nationals (now called the North American Championships to include Canada) since Jenna and I competed in the Junior/Senior Class in Wausau in (I think)  1989.  But this year it returned to the Nantahala River in North Carolina at a time of the year when I could go.  I mentioned this to Ed Daugherty when I was doing a review of Wilderness First Aid skills for the Davidson Outdoors program in May, and he suggested that we paddle tandem in addition to the planned solo entry.

The race practice runs began the Wednesday after the North Carolina Challenge, with racing Friday through Sunday.

We got to practice for about an hour at the NOC Staff Reunion in September, and we got in several practice runs in the day before the race.  The course was not full of upstream gates in eddys as we anticipated.  Instead it consisted of several sets of offset gates and a crux gate at the exit of Nantahala Falls.

Each of our race runs got better, finishing with a one touch run in our final go in the tandem Race Boat class on Sunday afternoon.  We were racing in the Masters class (Over 40 years old).  We managed a second in the Masters Recreational class and a third in the Masters Race class.  Neither of us finished in the money in solo.  Below are some pictures from the races:

Approaching the Falls.  Photo by Renee Clark

Finishing a low brace in the Falls gate (no I didn't swim!)  Photo by Renee Clark

The following pictures were taken by and are copyright by Colin Moneypenny:

More photos later . . .