After accepting a surprise invitation to the 2012 Whitewater Grand Prix, NRS ambassador Nicole Mansfield learned a few new things about kayak racing while enjoying some amazing new experiences.
If I could use one photo to sum up my Chilean Whitewater Grand Prix experience, it would be this one. (Yeah, I know the photo isn’t that great, but the memories it provokes make it my favorite.) Here we are dancing to dubstep in the middle of the street beside the Puesco River. During the five-stage event, some people won, some people didn’t – but for everyone that had to compete or set safety in the frigid cold that day on the Puesco, the best bet for staying warm was joining the dance party.
I came to Chile this fall with no expectations of competing in the Whitewater Grand Prix, which I consider to be whitewater kayaking’s most innovative and progressive event. When asked to participate, I could not decide whether I was most shocked, stoked, or nervous. Ignoring all reservations, I couldn’t be more thrilled that I chose to travel and compete with the WWGP. What began as a two week competition series quickly morphed into an insanely large group of friends on a bus-driven kayaking tour. The logistics were insane, and cheers to Pat, Emily, and everyone else for keeping the WWGP circus rolling.
Well, my eye was huge, but the cut was small, so fortunately after two days of clyclops-style stumbling, I recovered my full vision and was able to race Stage 2.
The initial day of training for Stage 1 on the Rio Gol Gol coincided with the arrival of the heavy downpours that would dominate the next two weeks. What started as a stout creek to race only became progressively stouter as the river continued to rise. I am not trying to bore you with my daily lessons learned, but there are three key points I would like to share from my Gol Gol race experience.
#1- If the water looks like it’s flowing from a volcano, even if you’re ridiculously thirsty, don’t drink it. I haven’t felt the same since.
#2- If you have limited racing experience and people are talking about “race lines,” maybe you should pay attention. Eddies, giant pools, and boils aren’t fast. Being upside down isn’t fast either, but I think I already knew that.
#3- And, just because you’re within seconds of the finish line doesn’t mean you’re there yet. I guess this is pretty obvious, so perhaps this is just a reminder to myself to boof rather than to think about how nice it will be to float through the Class II just downstream. In case you have not seen a photo of my black eye, I still have it as a friendly reminder of the time three weeks ago that I plugged Princessa with a hit so savage that I thought I broke the chin piece off my full-face helmet.
Well, my eye was huge, but the cut was small, so fortunately after two days of clyclops-style stumbling, I recovered my full vision and was able to race Stage 2 on the Rio Puesco. Different from the waterfall, pool-and-drop nature of the Gol Gol, the Puesco course was continuous, technical boofing and siphon dodging. But, similar to the Gol Gol, the Puesco was unpleasantly frigid and experiencing rising water levels due to heavy rainfall.
Here are a couple of photos LJ Groth took of the race.
In keeping with the theme of this Chilean-style WWGP, the giant slalom on the Marimon was too high, so a sprint was substituted on the Rio Nevados. AND the sun was shining and we were all warm.
Adrian Kiernan shot this one of me flying down the Nevados slide during practice.
After two days of transit to the Patagonia region, it was such a relief to finally paddle the much-anticipated Rio Futaleufu, which was to be the venue of the final two Grand Prix events. Needless to say, the water level was high and rising. The Stage 4 boatercross was ridiculously fun, even when I was eaten by a rogue wave, and Stage 5’s Enduro was obviously tiring.
Overall, I tied Louise Jull for 6th and/or last place, but I couldn’t be more stoked to be a part of the event.
The rivers were great. The parties were fun. The races were stout. The people were the greatest fun stouts around. Congrats to the winners, Nouria Abou-Newman and Dane Jackson! Thanks Pat! Check out the Whitewater Grand Prix on Facebook for Grand Prix results, stories, photos, etc. https://www.facebook.com/whitewatergrandprix