Despite the cold, rain, wind, flatwater, killer beavers, swamp zombies and mud, mud, mud, the Annual Cottonwood Club Race outside of Innisfail was a great success! Unfortunately the river course was washed out and some industrious beavers have made a super DAMN and flooded out the river pathway. So we improvised and held a mighty Head-to-Head sprint event on the flat! There was also a grueling DR race where I, for one, discovered I was probably a little out of shape! This was rounded off with some Polo skills, although a game never seemed to materialize...
I apologize to the volunteers-- with the head to head flatwater race and no judging necessary I kind of made your jobs disappear! But thanks for Bruce Waldie, Canada's head official, for coming down and explaining the rules in detail! I'm truly sorry that you then had to turn right back around and go fix the toilet that you were trying to avoid by judging the race! I'm sure Mrs. Waldie was happy! And thanks to Mac and Dan for setting up gates and the polo pitch. Thanks to Tyler Rice for showing all the Alberta Summer Games' athletes some killer polo skills. Thanks to Trina and Mike Cunningham for organizing and Mike for his awesome results program that we never got to use (Again, sorry Mike!) Thanks to Lisa Severtson for standing in the rain writing down all the times and then doing the math! I hope the head doesn't hurt too much after that computational effort! Thanks to all the Cottonwood parents who stood out on the dock and cheered and then had Burgers and Smokies and a million other tasty treats waiting for us afterwards. And finally thanks to Barry and Brenda Allen for hosting the event at their house and giving us a warm place to hide from the rain and dry gear (don't worry guys, that wet gear smell will be gone by next year! Oh wait, just in time for us to come back...)
As for the performances, there were many great ones! Especially the Gillies Brothers swimming-- 3 times!!! Quickly followed by Graham Jobe and AJ Cole. And little JJ showing all the older athletes how to turn properly! And when Courtney Groeneveld made her triumphant return to slalom and whooped her dad! And of course when I DESTROYED Mike in the head to head race! Ha! I was pleased to see that almost everyone raced almost every class, so I won't list the results here because almost everyone won something! Except I will note that there was an obvious error when Mike was handed the Gold Ribbon instead of me in the Men's category! Turns out we really did need Mr. Cunningham's results tabulating computer program so that error wouldn't have been made!
I was impressed by all the cottonwood athletes and I hope you guys all had a great time out there. Please check this web-page regularly for information on upcoming events. Check back tomorrow for info on this coming weekend's Canmore race. This is another slow moving water event perfect for all skill levels. I hope to see you guys all there so you can continue to learn, progress and have some fun! for now, check out the pictures!
Alberta Beef Baby. Fresh off the farm!
Bruce explaining how if you touch a gate he will cut off your ear!
Yummmmmmm! Drive that dirty burger into yo' belly boy!
Who is that darling little school girl on the raft with Jessie and Courtney???
1 comment:
I think I might know who that little school girl is...you will not recognise him since he shaved all of his hair off at the Relay for Life here in the Crowsnest Pass last night!
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