Spring has already sprung in the East

GearBobby Kuepper
Spring has already sprung in the East

With the flowers blooming and warm weather in the southeast, I packed it up to head north back into winter for Tariffville, CT Triple Crown. This was my first year to compete at T-ville, this year it was part of the US Freestyle Point Series and a great excuse to see friends and get some more practice competing. This event was extremely tuff on the body. We started the days early with the downriver sprint which took about 4-5min depending on how fast you can paddle and how fast the boat was. Most boats were wild water, but I used a fast slalom boat since I didn't have much experience in a wild water boat that takes some time learning how to maneuver the beast of a boat. The course for the sprint was easy except for a gnarly bridge piling in the middle of the run which was easy to avoid and went through the slalom course for an easy finish.




Then on to slalom with a long hard course of 23 gates and 2 timed runs. A few moves made the course a little more interesting and multiple boats had been broken through the course in the first day. Everyone was sharing boats and cheering each other on.

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Then finally my favorite, freestyle, but by the time it came around everyones muscles and energy was pretty much toast but we rallied on to put on a great show with 2 rides in semi-finals and 3 rides in finals. With the levels dropping the feature was pretty good. It was a little shallow and not that wide, but it was still possible to throw down especially in the Project X 48


Now for the results! I got 2nd in the freestyle which is one of the point series events. So far I am in second place for females on the US Point Series! Then on Sunday we did all the events over to compete for the Triple crown Championship in which I placed 4th overall. After awards Mike and I jumped in the car and we drove through the night to get to TN to gear up for NOC shoot out comp which is this weekend. I am exhausted, but excited for how well I paddled and how great

of a workout I got this weekend.



At the moment, I am watching everyone train at the hole here at NOC comp that starts on Saturday. This season is going to be exciting and busy. Mike and I leave for Reno River Festival on Monday. Then BV Pro Rodeo and Paddle Fest, Steamboat, Teva Mountain Games, Worlds for Freestyle in Plattling Germany, and maybe Kelly's Whitewater Park. We will be traveling in style in the Eldorado.




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