By CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
FORESTERS FALLS — Nick Troutman. Matt Hamilton. Kalob Grady. Joel Kowalski.
These names should sound familiar, especially if you are in the kayaking sport or community.
All of these men are on the Canadian team for the upcoming 2015 World Freestyle Kayak Championships, which are being held Aug. 30 to Sept. 5 near Foresters Falls on the Ottawa River.
Dane Jackson is another familiar name, although he’s not Canadian, he is the reigning world freestyle champion.
While all of them were on the Ottawa River Wednesday, there was one who wasn’t there to practice and have an opportunity to meet the presses.
JOEL KOWALSKI
“I’m working today,” said Kowalski, who is a river guide for Wilderness Tours, which is his family’s business.
However, whitewaternews.ca caught up with him during lunch break.
“I’ve been on the Canadian freestyle team for about 10 years,” he said. “It’s a nice opportunity to be competing with some home-court advantage.”
The 26-year-old Beachburg resident said the competition is on the Garburator, aka The Garb, which is “more or less in my back yard.”
Kowalski noted freestyle kayakers use kayaks that are about six feet long and the bottom is shaped like a surf board.
“The idea is you can surf on the river waves, bounce around and do all different kinds of tricks,” he explained.
This year’s world’s will focus on who can do the most tricks within a minute, he said. Tricks include names like airscrews, panams and helixes — basically, a variety of rotations in the air. A kayak can accelerate down the face of a wave, bounce in the air and do a full rotation in a barrell roll or do a 360 degree flip or a 180 air pivot, land, and keep surfing, he said.
“There are a bunch of different ways to do your tricks and rack up points,” Kowalski noted.
He said this is a fun sport to practice and there are enough people who do participate that organizing people and doing a competition is quite easy.
“There is no other fun way to enjoy the sport,” he said.
There was no question Kowalski would some day be in a kayak.
“For me, my parents run Wilderness Tours, so getting into whitewater was not an if, but a when for me,” he said.
He began kayaking with Nick Troutman, back in high school and they have always pushed each other to become the best, but also to have fun.
“Since we were young, we have always wanted to do this,” Kowalski said. “Now we’re competing together at world championships and at different events.
“I’ve been going to world championships and making the Canadian team since 2004. I’ve competed in Australia, Switzerland, Germany, North Carolina and now on the Ottawa River,” Kowalski said.
His best rank so far is fifth, and he’s hoping for a higher placing at this event.
NICK TROUTMAN
Husband and father Nick Troutman is “pretty excited for the world championships to be held here, being a local and all.
“I’m going out and do my best and see what that brings.”
Paddling for 13 years, he’s looking forward to competing in his back yard.
Troutman recalled that he had only been paddling for three weeks when he challenged The Garb. And to have the world championship on this same wave “is pretty cool to me. I’m pretty exited.”
In 2009, Troutman was a world champion for Team Canada and is hoping for a similar finish this year.
“Being Canadian, being local, and the fact this is my most favourite river and wave, and just the combination of everything, I’m really excited for the world championships to be here,” he said. “I’m honoured to have the world stage and have all these different athletes come and check out the wave and the river.
“I’m pretty honoured about the whole thing.”
Troutman is married to Emily Jackson, who is also a world champion and the couple has a son, Tucker, who recently turned two.
“Emily is pretty awesome,” Troutman said. “We actually won world championships in Switzerland the same year, right after we got married and bought a house. It was a pretty big year for us.”
The two now have Tucker and truck him around, taking turns watching him and paddling, so that has added a new dimension to their kayaking world.
“Emily’s looking great out there and I’m excited for her.”
She competes for Team America.
DANE JACKSON
Current world championship Dane Jackson is hoping for a repeat this year.
And, with the Ottawa River being like his adopted home, it’s familiar territory.
However, many of the competitors are familiar with this river, so the competition will be pretty tough, he admitted.
It’s no surprise Jackson is a world class kayaker.
“When I was born, dad was already a world champion and established kayaking as his main sport and passion,” he said. “Growing up I was already around it.
“I always knew I wanted to be a world champion kayaker.
“That motivation allowed me to really train hard and get as good as I could.”
He noted his mom used to kayak, but she was the one trekking her children and husband to various events. He noted his sister Emily is a world champion and his younger brother Keegan now kayaks.
“We’re a family of kayakers, it’s a fun way to live,” he admitted.
Jackson likes nothing more than to be on the water whenever he can, which means he is relaxed and calm, even during competition.
Kayaking is fun, whether it’s a world championship or just a day on the water with friends, Jackson said.
He believes this is going to be one of the most difficult world championships held in a very long time, because the wave is really good and once people figure out how to handle the wave, they’ll be able to paddle well.
To win the championship means he will have to be consistent and go move by move without stopping, he explained.
Explaining how the worlds works, Jackson said there are three judges who know each trick a kayaker can perform.
“Each trick has a definition and those judges know what to look for,” he said. “They will each decide if the competitor has completed the correct trick. The more tricks you get, the more points you get.”
However, each trick has to be done in different directions, he said. If the same trick is done in the same direction, you get no points for the second trick, he noted.
In the preliminary rounds, there will be four tries and two will count, Jackson said. Advancing means the next event will be three rides and two will count and then two rides and one count.
The championship round will allow each competitor three rides and the one with the best score wins.
He said while it’s great to have a home field advantage, once a competitor learns The Garb, it will be that much easier to perform the tricks.
“It only takes about a week to go from figuring it out to being able to win it all,” he added.
The biggest thing Jackson loves about the Ottawa River is he can come back every year and never get bored because there are so many different water levels.
“In the spring the water level is 16 feet and there’s a massive wave,” he said. “The Ottawa River so easy to come back to
MATT HAMILTON
Matt Hamilton, who resides in Foresters Falls is competing in the squirt boat.
He moved to Foresters Falls from Hamilton to work at the rafting companies in 1989. He liked it so much he purchased a home 14 years ago and is currently a paramedic for the County of Renfrew.
“The squirt boat was the evolution of freestyle paddling,” he said. “At one time, everybody on the Ottawa paddled with a squirt boat. Then the boats got smaller and different over the years. While the squirt boat is comfy, there’s not much room.”
The Squirt boat category will compete on the McMcoy rapids, which is a smoother rapid than The Garb.
The Squirt boat is smaller and slimmer and when in it, the squirt is sitting under the water, which allows for interesting freestyle moves on the surface, Hamilton explained.
He began paddling when he was nine years old and this year he turns 40. He had his first squirt boat when he was 14 and has made the Canadian team every year since 1999.
His best finish is 11th in the world, he said, which was in Spain in 2000.
Hamilton’s squirt boat is custom made for him. He noted weight affects how the boat performs and he’s hopeful of losing another 10 pounds by the time the world championship begins on Aug. 30.
The squirt boat is eight feet long.
KALOB GRADY
Twenty-one-year-old Kalob Grady grew up in La Passe, and the Ottawa River is his back yard.
“It’s one of the best places in the world to go whitewwater kayaking.”
He made the Canadian men’s team following last summer’s team selection.
“A whole bunch of men and women from across the country came to the Ottawa River last summer and were training and some were fortunate to grab a spot on the senior men’s team,” he said. “I’m one of five men to represent Canada at this upcoming world championship”
The son of Brenda and Kevin, Grady admits he is “super fortunate” to have two parents who love the outdoors.
“My parents were kayakers, my dad still kayaks, and my older brother Keegan was on the Canadian team as well in 2009 and 2011.
“He’s my role model and motivator.”
When thinking about why he likes kayaking, Grady said it’s gets him outside away from the real world, away from a structured way of life, even if just for a while. It’s great to be free and be active and out on the river with friends.
“Just the whole package of being outside, happy and active is a reason,” he added.
Competing “is a whole different animal than going out and kayaking with your friends,” he said.
There is no other competition like the world event, Grady said. Whoever wins in the next few weeks will be the world champion, which means everyone’s stress level is rising, but it also makes it more exciting because everyone wants to be in the running to become the next world champion, he added.
“Competing can be one of the most exciting and fun things, but if you don’t handle it very well, it can be stressful on you, make it less fun. I’m really excited for it.”
In 2011, Grady was the Canadian National Junior champion for 18 and under and represented Canada in the worlds in Germany, returning home with a sixth place finish.
Grady said what’s nice about freestyle kayaking is the community, because they travel to each other’s countries, they know each other and there’s no real dislike for one another.
“On competition day, we’re rooting each other on,” he said.
This year, there are some pretty big names at the event, including Dane Jackson and Nick Troutman, Grady noted.
“Nick Troutman is projected to do very, very well.
“Hopefully the whole Canadian team will take advantage of the home river, the home waters here, and bring home something, and have a lot of fun,” Grady said.
MATT MCGUIRE
Matt McGuire, one of the organizers, noted the Ottawa River is the only river in the world to host the world championships more than once.
“This is the third time,” he said. “It’s a testament to the quality of freestyle features on the river.”
In 2007, Wilderness Tours hosted the event, but it was at the Buseater rapids and in 1997 it was at the McCoy Chute.
There are challenges to hosting such an event in the wilderness, McGuire said.
“All other event sites are easy access and have everything right there, such as internet access, power, hotels, places to stay, airports and public transportation,” he said.
He believes this could be the final time the world championship is held on a free-flowing river, noting there are whitewater parks developed, which makes it much easier to host world events.
Created events means there is a guarantee flow of water, but it’s not really economically feasible to pump as much water as there is at a world-class feature like The Garb or Buseater.
“In the spring, people travel from all over the world to come to the Ottawa River because of its natural features,” McGuire said.
“They don’t have opportunity to compete or paddle on features that are this big and this powerful,” he said, adding, “We’re spoiled rotten brats here on the Ottawa River. We have world class whitewater at our finger tips. Other people who come here to compete and visit are blown away.
“Each and every rapid has a world class feature on it that isn’t the same calibre as that at every other world championship,” he said.
The 2015 World Freestyle Kayak Championships are on The Garb, which is the wave, and the rapid is know as the Lorne, McGuire said.
It’s expected there will be about 200 to 210 competitors from upwards of 40 countries.
McGuire said organizing this world-class event hasn’t been without its problems. The biggest being access to internet so the event can be live-streamed.
“We’re in the middle of no where and in a bit of a valley,” he said.
The nearest internet connection to stream is 7.5 miles away on the Quebec side, he added. The provider in Campbell’s Bay will forward a signal to the tower on the silo at Whitewater Brewery, which will ping it off to a tower on a crane on the island. The crane was provided by Pembroke Crane Service.
He noted Wilderness Tours has fibre optic connection to the door of its business, but it’s 15 kilometres in the opposite direction of the event site.
“To get a line of site to here, there are a significant amount of trees in the way,” he noted.
McGuire noted Heliconia Press of Beachburg is also producing a television episode for Facing Waves of the world kayaking event. It’s expected to be aired on various channels next winter in about 44 different countries and broadcast in various languages.
