All the trips I have done this year
- by Dane Jackson
Hi everyone. My name is Dane Jackson, and I
am here to talk to you about all the trips I have done this year.
Let’s start with pre-worlds in Australia. That was a HUGE
experience for me being half way around the world from my home in
Rock Island, Tennessee. The pre-worlds were at a white water course
in Penrith. I didn’t make the team trials 2003, but I went
as an alternate in junior men. I got 22nd in team trials when you
had to get top third to make the team and go to Australia. But it
was expensive to go to Australia. But all the kids that competed
in team trials from 21st to 3rd did not have the money to go, or
the time. So if one kid went, I could not have competed in the competition.
But not one person went so I got to compete. I placed 4th in prelims.
I Got 176 points. Then in semi finals you had to get top 5th to
go to finals. I got 7th, had a lot of FUN. I Got to compete against
a lot of people. I Can’t wait to see if I can go again for
worlds in January, 2005. Next is the Kern River, California. There
is a play hole up the river a little ways that you walk to. Here
was my first competition of the year. I do not know what place I
got. I Stayed up there for a week. While we were up there an awesome
creek called Brush creek was up and running. I Ran that three times.
(once in one day and twice in another day). It is about 45 minutes
to the put in from the Kern River. It is probably a class 4-5 run.
It is like Disney land’s water park in the mountains. It is
all slides and 5 foot drops with one 15 footer and a 12 footer.
Just so awesome! What is next? The American river festival is next.
A nice and steep hole. Awesome for big loops. Flushy on river right
(surfers left). So everything was right. Right cartwheels, left-right
split, just so cool. I wound up getting 6th overall in semi finials.
I had a lot of fun competing against all my friends. Later that
day a friend of mine took me down the river to a play hole on the
way called First Threat. It was a hole-wave thing, a mix. It was
super fun to surf, easy to get out of. One day I was there and I
power flipped, felt a little tug on my paddle from the pressure,
rolled up but then flipped again and lost my paddle. I Had to surf
out. A friend of mine got my paddle. Kept on surfing, had fun. Our
next destination was Bob’s Hole rodeo. A hole with a wave
attached to it on surfers left. You could get some HUGE air on blunts
and backstabs. I Won the prelims. i Got third overall in the competition.
I Had a lot of fun there as well. Also there was a creek called
Canyon Creek that they were going to have a head to head race on.
I Didn’t do it. Mom won’t let me. I Didn’t really
plan on doing it. But ran it once. Nice creek. Had some 12-15 foot
waterfalls, and a 20 footer. All form one great creek. Now what?
We’ve got Reno, Lake Tahoe, Nevada. What we got there is a
nice white water course in the middle of a city. Reno is known as
the, biggest, little city in the world because of all the restaurants
and casinos for big but little for space. It is all packed in. There
was a competition there. But if you were not invited by people you
can not compete. My dad was invited. We weren’t. But we got
to paddle anyways. It was a sticky hole. It was a low level so it
was shallow. But you can do a lot of tricks, starting from spins,
cartwheels, clean cartwheels, splitwheels, tricky woos, loops, back
loops, space godzilas, and the phonics monkey (if you have never
heard of it, go to techniques at jacksonkayak.com). Great place
to paddle. You were able to walk to dinner, breakfast, and lunch.
It was Just a great place to paddle. When that was over, we went
to Vail, Colorado. Up there was a small shallow hole in the middle
of the city as well as Reno. It was hard to do a whole lot being
shallow and all. But the next day they built a wall with construction
boxes to make it better. And it did make it better by a lot! It
was deeper and more retentive. So now you could do loops, cartwheels,
clean cartwheels, splitwheels, and looner orbits. I wound up getting
around 13th. It was a lot of fun. The water was pretty cold, but
it was pretty warm weather. It was a cool place. Next we have is
Salida, Colorado. There is two play holes right in the middle of
the city about a 100 yards from each other. The one below the other
one was the rodeo hole. It was a deep, river wide, medium size hole.
You could do a whole lot of stuff there, starting from spins, cartwheels,
clean cartwheels, splitwheels, loops, back loops, tricky woos, looner
orbits, and the phonics monkey. It was a very cool place to be.
There was a cafeteria right there to eat breakfast at. I wound up
getting 3rd in prelims, 1st in semi finals, and 3rd in finals. I
had a lot of fun there. I got to hang out with some friends of mine.
I roller bladed all around the city. It was so cool being there.
I can’t wait till next year. Now we are back home in Rock
Island. Paddling every day now, had my birthday here on July 19th.
I had a lot of fun up here. I Got to see some friends of mine. I
Hanged around the house playing. It was a lot of fun. Now we are
heading up to Ottawa, Canada for 2 weeks, then we are going to OR
in Salt Lake city, Utah, then we are going to team trials at the
black river in Water town. It is going to be fun! I’ll talk
to you about all the trips next year. It was Great talking to you.
Bye.