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| 2008 Summer Season, Colorado |
The TEVA Mountain Games were held in Vail during the first week of June and I got to the games on the 7th and 8th to see some of the events. The games are timed to coincide with the peak of the melt season, when snowmelt has swollen all the rivers making for the perfect venue for the world's best kayakers to throw down in a variety of river events. In addition to the kayaking, other extreme sports enjoy the spotlight, including mountain biking, bouldering, fly fishing, rafting, paragliding and trail running.
Starting off with the kayak pro rodeo event, the finals were on saturday afternoon in the heart of Vail Village. The Gore Creek flows through the Vail Valley, and the river has a significant 'feature' (to use the river jargon) where the two pedestrian bridges span the river. The feature is a hole, which is caused when a relatively shallow section of river upstream flows over a ridge and plunges downwards, causing a standing wave of churning water that experienced kayakers can surf. Furthermore, the town of Vail invested in some mechanised flaps on the edges of the river upstream of the hole, and when raised the flaps increase the volume and size of the feature significantly.
Vail village brought a great festival ambience in the warm afternoon sun, as the crowd gathered all around the shores, balconies, bridges and stands, young couples, dogs, families and kids, the scene was set for the finals. Soon the female competitors begun warming up, and I'd never imagined such things were possible on a kayak. On either side of the hole downstream by the shore, eddies formed where water sucked back towards the feature. One at a time, the girls would paddle up the eddy and into the hole, bouncing around and then dipping forward and launching into a front flip, or swirling around in a 180 and rolling, appearing to be out of control until they suddenly popped back upright. Sometimes they lost their balance and flipped, but they expertly would flip back upright and paddle for the eddy before being swept too far downstream. The girls each competed to perform as many tricks earning points against the clock. The young girl in the pink boat, who was the daughter of the previous year's male winner, won the event, and then the male competitors entered for warmup. Some of the guys floated downstream and busted straight into the hole doing trick after trick. One guy was particularly impressive, easily dominating the aerial moves, able to get his entire kayak completely out of the water for the entire rotation. Another competitor was a 15 year old kid! He had a huge grin on his face the entire time, knowing he was competing against the same guys he probably idolises. After a couple of rounds of competition, the intensity of the sessions were ramping up with awesome displays of power and control, however the father of the female champ, who had won 2 years in a row, had to give up the title to Justin from Buena Vista, who my friend Mike knows.
After the kayaking freestyle finals we headed over to Golden Peak where the first ever international bouldering competitions were about to take place. Bouldering is like rock climbing but without ropes, so padded mats are placed under the walls, which are tall, but not so tall to cause serious injury when falling. Patches of snow still lay on the slopes behind the crowd as the field of American, Austrian, British and French competitors came out to survey the four sets of problems laid out on the walls. Combinations of overhangs, tiny moulds, big moulds and wall edges made for incredibly challenging climbs. The competitors collectively had a few minutes to discuss and plan their climbing strategy, which looked kind of funny as they all stood there waving arms over their head, pointing or mentally going through the grips and positions they'd use. For all their planning though, when it came to their turn, I think the plans mostly went out the window as they struggled for grip on each mould. Sometimes, particularly with the males, when they lost grip, the tension in their body flung them spinning away from the wall, while the girls weren't too shabby looking and still had more strength than the average guy. The crowd favourite was the second wall for the guys, where they would start out under about a 40 degree overhang, and have to jump sideways and reach around the overhang edge, grabbing for a big circular mould, resulting in their whole body swinging almost horizontal into the air, legs flailing drawing cheers from the crowd and praise from the announcer.
The final day held the kayak 8 ball competition, a crowd favourite, and one of the more dangerous events of the games. A few years earlier a kayak competitor had dreamed the event up; a team of competitors start upstream of the feature, just where the river bends and goes out of sight. They race downstream against the clock, however lying in wait to thwart their progress, are the 8 balls, kayakers in black vests ready to ambush from eddies and with tactics of ramming, blocking and basically whatever goes, to slow the competitors down. Bumpers are hung from the bridge to tangle and knock the heads of those who aren't watching out, and finally the hole provides one last opportunity for carnage before the finish line. Competitors from the other kayaking events, including the females, served as 8 ballers, and seemed unfazed by the roughness.
After the first round of 8 ball, the rafting finals were on, with two guys each with a paddle in rafts custom designed for this event. They had to go around a series of 3 gates that were located on the edges of eddies, meaning they had to go downstream, behind the gate, back up the eddy and around the gate back into the mainstream. The greatest moment of the day, was when first place came down to the last gate behind the hole but went wide and had to paddle furiously to stop going downstream. Then second place came in and bumped in ahead of first, taking the lead, but also losing their momentum. Then last place came in on a perfect approach, and snuck infront ramming the two struggling rafts, rounding the gate to come from behind and take first place as the crowd went crazy.
The 8 ball finals were epic, every round had eight 8 ballers, meaning two to one on the competitors, and they always had two 8 ballers stationed down at the hole. Every round, four competitors and up to six 8 ballers would come racing down river, and two 8 ballers would head straight into them as they plunged through the hole, ramming boats, clashing paddles, sometimes going over the top of one another. I saw several competitors and 8 ballers cop a kayak bow in the ribs, getting their paddle caught in the bumpers which then hits them in the face, and even another guy took a kayak bow to the face. Amazingly there were no serious injuries.
Hope you enjoyed the photos and video!
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| 2008 Summer Season, Colorado |
