August 24, 2008

By Clay Wright

Semis went down yesterday and boy the competition stepped it up while the rain poured down again!

2 of our biggest players, Stephen Wright and Nick Troutman were eliminated despite throwing HUGE tricks with massive pop after missing a few Mcnasty's for angle - as the judges are very strict on the touchdown angle of the big air ricks and seem more easily swayed by a flurry of ends into the smaller, faster tricks the Euro's in the little boats are prone to. Peter Csonka linked about every move in the book but missed a few, while the French Euro Champ Mathiew D... threw the ride of the event - staying vertical nearly the whole ride after a brief mis-step and linking everything on the sheet in this fast, tricky spot. EJ's mix of air and ends scored well. Dustin waltzed through too, but the 'space godzillas' just aren't scoring like we are used to while they are easy on the cleans and tricky-woos - so some ride adjustments need to be made.

In the women's class, a sick Emily was able to make the cut while the technician from Brittain Fiona Jarvis, WC Juta Kaiser, and Japan's Motoko had some unlucky rides to just miss the cut. Adriene and Nicole could not keep the loops straight enough this time and Devon barely missed the cut. Ruth Gordon followed a dismall first ride with an incredibly second ride to score one of the highest scores of the women's event, but then was topped by this skillful French Marlene's ride of the day. Nina Halasova, from Slovenia, also advanced easily. We will see who's got the top ride from these ladies later today.

In Jr.s we lost Jonothan Shales by one small trick (he got too focused on his huge loops to cartwheel) and the French technician Maxim but Dane, Jason, and LP all advanced with Sabastien from France once again taking the top spot.

A great party was had up at the clubhouse till the wee hours of the morning and we awoke to a bright sunny morning across the mud and puddle-ridden camp.

JEz just got a silver in OC-1 and C-1 men are taking the water now. More to come if the internet stays up . .