Wausau Release

Last weekend was back to Wausau for my second release of the year. The weather was great for a record-breaking crowd of almost 150 paddlers on the course. Caleb, Aaron, and I put on early and had the course to ourselves for nearly an hour. By lunch time, though, the eddies were filled with kayaks and canoes.



We camped by the course Saturday night, along with Nora, Paul, John McConville, Melissa, and a whole bunch of others. Aaron set up a slackline for us to fall off of, Nora brought some blackberry wine, and John put on an awesome show by fire dancing - it's really cool to see. On the course it was great to see the rest of Team Pabst, Dan and Dave ripping it up in the open boats, some new Canoe U grads, and more.



The highlight of the day was the Hometown Throwdown put together by Dave Lemke and sponsored by World Kayak. Everyone who signed up got 1 minute in the Rodeo hole, with points for every 180 rotation regardless of what axis they might occur on. So, points for spins, wheels, loops, and even windowshades. Dave judged and scored the event and over 30 people participated. The participants at pretty much every skill level from Canoe U grads to sponsored paddlers. The paddling was all for fun and the prizes were raffled off at the end of the day. Caleb picked up some awesome Smith glasses, and I got an LVM DVD. Definitely a win.



The Wausau releases are just getting fired up for the year - they go until the end of September this year, so here's to more weekends of fun!



I took some helmet cam footage of the course that I'll post when I get a chance. In the meantime, here's the pics I got. Look closely at one that doesn't look like there's a paddler in it - you'll see the top of Graeme's helmet while he's doing his fish impression.