May 18, 2004

You have heard a lot about Dane and his paddling and know that my Daughter, Emily is also quite the paddler, but I just learned something else about her. She is really FAST!

The Boatercross is a race with 4 competitors at a time racing and the first two go on until there is only one heat of 4 left for the medals. Well, to make a long story short, Emily busted out of the start to lead two of three heats against women like Brooke Winger, Tanya Faux (Australia, Winner of International Freestyle Champs. 2004), Shannon Carrol, and more. I couldn’t believe it. She had never paddled a boat like the Huck before (only ever paddled playboats) and had a hard time controlling it without it tracking off somewhere she didn’t want to go. So she lost the lead three times on her way down the course.

Well, in the Finals it was Emily, Brooke, Tanya, and Shannon. Emily had the slowest time trial so had the worst starting position(almost ensuring a fourth place start). The Flag went up and sure enough the girls took off and Emily was forced to the back. Well, she surprised me with a grimace and a charge that got her next to Shannon Carrol, and a well timed chest stroke with a lunge and she blew by Shannon. If that wasn’t enough, she made a move on Tanya and Brooke to nearly overtake both of them, but the lack of experience got in her way and she made a bad move that put her back behind them to the finish. Wow!

Check out a couple of the shots from the race. Not exactly a good picture to show the beautiful girl she is, but look out, this is the face of a very strong, fast, competitive girl that at 14, is ready to go head to head with the best of the women Pro’s.

Emily's Dad

Emily almost taking Brook Winger

Emily's big pass