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< July/August 2001
	Features
The State of Slalom extra bonus: 15 Top Local Slalom Races Jeffrey Moag

It was an odd twist, an athlete rushing to save an organization whose purpose is to serve the athletes.

When the whitewater slalom World Championships first came to the United States in 1989 more than 10,000 spectators crowded both banks of the Savage River, raising a roar that seemed to transform the Western Maryland hollow three hours from the nearest city into a college stadium on game day. They came to see a U.S. team that was a vital part of the whitewater community, kids who’d grown up on local rivers and gone on to dominate international canoe racing, who off of the racecourse were likely the first to run the unrunnable, and sure to shred the hole at the bottom. In those days, when roto-molded plastic was new, before glossy magazines discovered extreme boating or rodeo had a name, nothing was bigger in American whitewater than the slalom World Championships. Jon Lugbill and Davey Hearn took C-1 gold and silver, as they had at every Worlds since 1979 except 1985, when Hearn won and Lugbill was second. In 1992, slalom returned to the Olympic program for the first time in 20 years, back when a youngster named Jamie McEwan fueled the sport’s growth in the U.S. by winning the bronze in C-1 at the ’72 Munich games. "You felt that if you were a part of the U.S. team you had a five-second advantage going in," recalls Joe Jacobi, who with Scott Strausbaugh would win the C-2 gold medal at those 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.

Now fast-forward a dozen years. The World Championships are returning to the U.S., this time to Tennessee’s Ocoee River in September. Paddlesports are riding an unprecedented boom in popularity, with no end in sight. While slalom boaters played a pivotal role in that expansion, the sport itself has slipped from the vanguard of American boating to its margin. America’s competitive fortunes began to ebb after the Savage worlds, as European organizations pumped money and talent into the newly Olympic sport. The decline culminated at last fall’s Olympics, when on the eve of the 2000 Games in Sydney, USA Canoe Kayak’s Executive Director Terry Kent, whose job was primarily to boost the U.S. medal performance, abruptly quit to take a better job. When the smoke cleared, the federation was left without a financial sponsor. Worse, the Sydney squad returned home without a single medal.

Slalom has taken the Olympic disappointment and organizational disarray like a prizefighter absorbing body shots—no one in the sport is reaching for the towel. American slalom is dazed, of that there’s no question. But it still has legs. Last year 1,400 Americans entered slalom races, nearly twice as many as in 1989. Boat sales are up, and efforts to build new courses are gathering momentum in Charlotte, N.C., and Montgomery County, Md. Four American kayakers —three men and Rebecca Giddens—finished in the top ten of the world cup standings, and one of the world’s top canoe coaches is coming to Atlanta to guide a talented group of young canoeists. If U.S. athletes aren’t winning as consistently in international competition, that doesn’t mean America isn’t producing good paddlers; it means the level of competition is up across the board, nurtured by the money and organization that Olympic sports attract. And if slalom boats seem impossibly outnumbered on America’s rivers, it doesn’t signal their impending extinction; it merely reflects the massive growth of recreational boating. In addition, it remains those paddlers with slalom backgrounds—such as Jamie and Tom McEwan and the late Doug Gordon—who continue to make their presence known on the international expedition scene.

Within the industry there’s no doubt rodeo is king. Companies that support slalom, such as Dagger and the Nantahala Outdoor Center, do so out of deference for what the sport gives to the boating community, not what it can do for their bottom line. Dagger is the last major U.S. boat manufacturer to make slalom boats and sponsor slalom athletes. The company expects to sell more than 100 slalom boats this year, up from 41 in 1999. The growth speaks well of slalom’s health, but the industry sells as many plastic boats every few hours.

Rodeo and extreme boating capture the market’s interest, and hence the bulk of the industry’s sponsorship dollars. Whether freestyle also draws the best young athletes depends on whom you ask, but many top rodeo athletes came from slalom, among them marquee names like Eric Jackson, Allen Braswell, Sam Drevo and Aleta Miller. USA Canoe Kayak slalom director Brian Parsons sees freestyle’s popularity not as a challenge, but an opportunity. Slalom officials scheduled this year’s slalom team trials to coincide with the Ocoee Rodeo, one of the biggest draws on the freestyle calendar. "It all boils down to paddling," Parsons says. "All slalom boaters love to play in holes, and a lot of rodeo guys love to run rivers." Parsons hopes the shared billing will create a buzz for September’s World Championships on the Ocoee.

The United States will bring to the Ocoee Worlds a home team determined to erase the sting of an Olympic shutout. Scott Shipley went to Sydney as the most consistent male kayaker in a generation. Rebecca Giddens had proven capable of dominating the world’s best on a given day, and even at 41 canoeist Davey Hearn remained a medal threat. Anticipating a gold-medal showdown between Shipley and British World Champion Paul Ratcliffe, NBC scheduled the K-1 competition to broadcast in prime time. When Shipley touched a gate and finished fifth, the network shunted slalom out of prime time without a second thought. "That’s the nature of athletics. It’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world," says Mike Larimer, a former U.S. team coach and athlete who coaches junior team athletes at the Atlanta Center of Excellence (ACE).

Generous government support allows European slalom federations to provide athletes with coaching, facilities and financial support that the U.S. organization can’t match, says U.S. national slalom coach Silvan Poberaj. Some even give athletes no-show government jobs, allowing them to train like professionals. The U.S. system doesn’t provide that level of support, and it’s not likely to in the future. American slalom racers must fit a different blueprint, one that’s more Darwinian than nurturing. The U.S. model demands more than talent, Poberaj says; it requires an irrational commitment to the sport. It also calls for a network of family and volunteer supporters and increasingly, the savvy to attract and keep sponsors.

Whether or not it pays a living wage, slalom today demands the commitment of a professional sport. Top paddlers put in as many as 17 workouts a week, 50 weeks a year, says U.S. team kayaker Brett Heyl. Even during those two off weeks, athletes run rivers and playboat almost every day, he says. Winter training means travel to the southern hemisphere or Costa Rica, World Cup racing requires frequent trips to Europe, and domestic competition forces a succession of long road trips.

All this costs time and money, and without strong financial backing from the national organization, U.S. slalom athletes find their own ways to ante up. Shipley was among the first to make paddling his profession by hoarding prize money, attracting a few sponsors, and living cheaply. His persistence brought him three World Cup titles and three World Championship silver medals in the 1990s. Going into the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Shipley and Germany’s 1995 World Champion Oliver Fix were both medal favorites. Each man was at the pinnacle of the sport, but they could not have arrived there by more different routes.

"I was a spoiled athlete," Fix admits. As a boy he rode his bicycle to train at the 1972 Olympic course, where world-class coaches watched his every stroke. By the time he was 14, the German federation paid all his training and travel expenses, plus a stipend. "I was getting the equivalent of about $100 a month. That was great pocket money. Later, when I was competing in world championships, I was getting $1,500 a month," says Fix, who now coaches slalom at the Bethesda Center of Excellence (BCE) in suburban Washington, D.C.

"The first time I dropped out of school," says Shipley, "I had $1,000, and I was either going to make the team or miss it." He trained that winter in Chilliwack, British Columbia, sharing an unheated tree house with fellow athletes for $30 a month. "Our gear used to freeze at night. We’d fill up a bathtub with hot water, throw the gear in to thaw, and jump in the tub to put it on," Shipley says. "Oliver had a heated dressing room and heated showers."

Fix also has the gold medal from Atlanta. He gives the German system much of the credit for his victory, but adds that the pressure inside that system almost drove him out of the sport in 1995, when he was only 22. Fix approached training as an intensive project, something he endured to attain a goal. In America, he says, slalom is more a way of life. Which may explain why Shipley, who did not medal in Atlanta, kept up his grueling schedule even after slalom was temporarily pulled from the Sydney program in 1997. It explains why David and Cathy Hearn are training today for the Ocoee worlds, 24 years after their first world competition. And it’s the enduring reason slalom is still alive in this country.

Most racers get the lifestyle young, growing up in club programs that still form the bedrock of U.S. slalom. When Poberaj asked for help developing young athletes in the Washington, D.C., area, BCE volunteers Merril and Jeremy Stock spearheaded an effort to make it happen. They tracked Fix down in New Zealand, raised money for his salary, and even arranged for a local dealership to loan him a car. Last year they raised a $10,000 prize purse and organized an international competition on the club’s Dickerson training course—itself the result of a 1991 fund-raising and political effort led by BCE’s then-president, U.S. team veteran Jennifer Hearn. The Atlanta Center of Excellence obtained a U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) grant independent of USA Canoe Kayak to provide coaching and facilities for young slalom racers, while the Nantahala Racing Club hosts a golf tournament to raise funds. Clubs in every region of the country are bringing new athletes into the sport, Hearn says.

The clubs keep slalom’s lifeblood flowing, but they could contribute more if their efforts were better coordinated. Administrators rallying to the newest crisis have little time left to build the foundation for long-term growth, Parsons says. And there has been no shortage of crises.

Start with Executive Director Terry Kent walking out of his job just days before the Sydney games. With Kent gone, no one was left at the federation to showcase to sponsors what they’d been buying for the last four years—the Olympics. Communications Director Lisa Fish stepped in as acting director, but she had a job to do handling the press in Sydney. So Joe Jacobi, the 1992 C-2 Olympic gold medallist and 2000 trials runner-up in C-1, went to Lake Placid to do Kent’s job. It was an odd twist, an athlete rushing to save an organization whose purpose is to serve the athletes. In the end it may not have mattered, because USA Canoe Kayak was already well into its next crisis.

Longtime sponsor Champion International fell victim to a buyout in May 2000, and the new management never seriously considered renewing the relationship. Champion’s base sponsorship was worth $300,000 to $350,000 a year to USA Canoe Kayak, and some years the company also underwrote a whitewater race series to the tune of $150,000. The series was crucial to U.S. slalom development because it brought to the States top international racers and the opportunity for prize money. Eddie Bauer sponsored the whitewater series in 2000, but declined to support this year’s edition after weathering worldwide layoffs. Eddie Bauer still supplies team uniforms, and Dagger and MTI Adventurewear provide boats and gear. But slalom now relies on the USOC and member dues for its entire 2001 operating budget, which at about $260,000 is little more than half its 1993 high-water mark.

The good news is that slalom may emerge from the chaos in better shape than it started. Working on its own initiative, slalom’s volunteer development committee secured a grant from the USOC to lure one of the world’s most sought-after canoe coaches, Frenchman Yves Narduzzi, to the U.S. team. With kayak specialist Poberaj staying on as head coach, the U.S. now boasts a coaching staff as good as any in the world, if not nearly as deep. After seven months in the interim job, Fish takes over this month as USA Canoe Kayak’s permanent director. She says a new corporate sponsorship is likely, though it’s too early to announce details.

As the first dedicated canoe coach since 1996, Narduzzi fills a gaping hole in the U.S. coaching staff. "If you take all the positions on the men’s team in the world championships, seventy-five percent of them are in C-1 or C-2," Jacobi says. "But if you go to the junior worlds trials, seventy-five percent of the boys are racing kayaks." Even so, this year the United States has its strongest group of young canoeists since the late 1980s. As with the current crop of young kayakers, the canoeists come from every part of the country. That wasn’t always the case. When America dominated canoe racing in the 1980s, almost the entire team hailed from the same Washington, D.C., suburb. Under the guidance of legendary coach Bill Endicott, athletes from the Canoe Cruisers Association Racing Team, which later became BCE, netted more than 50 team and individual world championship medals.

Endicott likens those athletes to a commando unit, a small group of outstanding performers who pushed each other to levels none could have approached alone. Though Lugbill and Hearn took home most of the world C-1 medals, any one of five canoeists could win the daily training skirmishes. The constant internal competition also bred world champions in C-2 and women’s kayak.

In those days before slalom racers trained year-round, Endicott moved his commandos’ grueling sessions indoors for the winter, to a massive enclosed pool the navy used to test new ship and torpedo designs. "It was like getting two seasons of training for every one the Europeans had. We would race against each other all the time, year-round, in the gates," Endicott says. "I can’t imagine a better situation for a coach. It was like I was King Arthur and they were the Knights of the Round Table."

The key was year-round training and world-class competition in the athletes’ own back yard, Endicott says. Changes in the sport make a return to that scenario unlikely, though building artificial courses in big urban areas is a move in the right direction, coaches and administrators agree. Sydney’s Olympic course showed that such facilities can be built at reasonable cost and later turn a profit by offering raft rides. Groups in Charlotte and suburban Washington are building support for new courses within the local governments and business communities. If they are successful, the courses will attract talent and recognition to the sport. But travel demands at the sport’s top end are here to stay. Though it recently cut back its slalom program, today, even many juniors live the paddling version of endless summer, spending six months of every year on the road. Woodstock, Vt.’s Academy at Adventure Quest is a roving high school that allows U.S. paddlers to follow warm weather and competition around the globe. So far the results have been impressive. Since its inception in 1996, Adventure Quest athletes have filled 40 to 50 percent of the U.S. junior slalom team roster, says coach Lee Leibfarth.

The opportunity doesn’t come cheap–tuition at the non-profit academy is $22,000 a year. The school offers some scholarship relief based on financial need, but as Leibfarth says, the program is very costly to operate. Even without the tutoring and southern hemisphere training camps, junior team athletes can amass $8,000 a year in equipment and travel costs, Larimer says. For senior athletes the figure could be half again higher. The expense of competing internationally, like the increased training and travel demands, reflects the Olympic influence. "The standard of paddling across the board is light years ahead of what it was before this became an Olympic sport," Larimer says. "Is that a good thing? If you love the sport, you’ve got to feel that it is."

Youth Movement
At the 2001 U.S. Slalom Team trials on Tennessee's Ocoee River, Gwen Greeley took 6th place in Women's K-1, earning herself a spot on the U.S. "B" team. Gwen turned 16 in April, making her the youngest athlete to make the team in over a decade. Here's how the rest of the team shaped up:

K1W
Rebecca Giddens
Sarah Leith
Renata Altman
Cathy Hearn

C1
David Hearn
Austin Crane
Adam Boyd
Joe Jacobi

K1
Scott Shipley
Scott Parsons
Eric Giddens
Jason Beakes

C2
Scott McCleskey/David Hepp
Frank Babcock/Jeff Larimer
Ethan Winger/Kyle Marinello
Jamie McEwan/Devin McEwan

Competition in Your Back Yard The Country’s Top Local Slalom Races
"...Bib #16...gate 16, clean; gate 17, touch; gate 18, clean..."

"...and then we reversed gate 9 so that we could set up for the ferry to gate 10..."

"...well, after I missed the gate and rolled in the hole, I figured the rest of the run was for practice..."

The sounds of local slalom races are heard around the country every weekend as scores of paddlers take to their neighborhood waterway for friendly competition. Slalom is about precision boat control; the skills you learn by doing it are immediately applicable to river-running and will help you put your boat where you want it, when you want it, with minimal effort. It's also about competing against your friends in an environment where it doesn't really matter who wins because there's always next weekend to do it all over again.

You don't need an ICF-spec slalom boat to compete in most of these races; your plastic kayak or open boat will do just fine. And organizers usually set up separate classes for different boats. A lot of races also include training camps and clinics ahead of time, so you can learn the basics or refine your technique. These sessions are often taught by some of the best paddlers in the country, and they're well worth attending. Some races are combined with downriver and rodeo events; others are part of river festivals celebrating the sport of paddling. But what they all have in common is that they're put on by enthusiastic volunteers working hard to create a fun event for everyone. Here’s a look around the country at a few top slalom selections.

New England
H.A.C.K.S. Covered Bridge Slalom, West Cornwall, Connecticut
The Covered Bridge race is put on each May by the Housatonic Area Canoe and Kayak Squad in West Cornwall, Connecticut, on the Housatonic River. It's a beautiful location, complete with a covered wooden bridge, a riverside meadow for camping, and pastoral countryside all around. It's part of the New England Slalom Series, and draws some of the top open boaters in the Northeast—including a number of former national champions and U.S. national team members. In 2000, it also had more C-2 Mixed teams competing than any other U.S. race. Hint: If you're planning on attending, get your entry in early, because it's hugely popular.

Blackwater/Snyder's Mill, Webster, New Hampshire
These races are usually held on consecutive weekends in April. The Blackwater Slalom is an intermediate race that's part of the New England Slalom Series, and features a zippy start and a classic upstream move that's always there, year after year...but doesn't get any easier. Hint: Sonny and Amy Hunt have been known to spice this race up with throwback "mandatory reverse" gates just to see who still practices those skills. Snyder's Mill is one of the hardest races in the country; it's often used as a qualifier for U.S. National Slalom Team Trials. The Blackwater River thunders through a narrow gorge, off abrupt ledges, and over boat-crunching boulder fields, making this a hard run even without the gates. Hint: Bring a bombproof roll, a precision eddy turn, and a spare paddle.

Northeast
KCCNY Esopus Doubleheader, Phoenicia, New York
The Kayak and Canoe Club of New York puts this one on, not far from historic Woodstock, N.Y. This race is always the first weekend in June, and is timed to coincide with the scheduled water releases in the river. It's held in Railroad Rapid, a long Class III that culminates in a narrow and fast drop with small eddies on either side...which is, of course, where they hang the upstream gates. You get two chances to race on two slightly different courses in two days, plus the opportunity to do team runs (three boats at once). Hint: Take time to run the river (Class II-III) while you're there.

PSOC Bellefonte Slalom, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
The PSOC Bellefonte slalom is the finale of the Pennsylvania Cup Championships. It's held on the Sunnyside Slalom Course in Bellefonte, PA, and features an ingenious course devised by the long-time slalom paddlers of the Penn State Outing Club. Hint: PSOC likes to use "flush" gates, i.e. gates which are parallel to the current. If you've never done one of these before, your first attempt is likely to be comical.

South
Locust Fork Invitational/Locust Fork Classic, Cleveland, Alabama
Alabama now has its own series, the Alabama Cup, and these races are part of it. Held early spring on the Locust Fork of the Warrior River, paddlers converge from all over the Southeast, glad to compete early while their more northerly colleagues are waiting for rivers to thaw. Both decked and open boat classes are hotly contested—in 2001, the top two boats in the K-1 Master Class at the Invitational were 0.1 seconds apart! Hint: Don't be surprised if your decked boat time winds up being more than some of the open boat times.

New Braunfels Spring and Fall Series, New Braunfels, Texas
These races just started a couple of years ago, but local paddlers (including top US C-2 Mixed team Caroline Peterson and Mark Poindexter) are now holding half a dozen races a year. Turnout keeps steadily increasing and the scores keep decreasing, so this series and the paddlers who emerge from it are both worth watching in the future. Hint: Team runs are very popular here, so bring two friends (or four if you paddle tandem).

Midwest
Missouri Whitewater Championships, Fredericktown, Missouri

Springtime Ozark whitewater on the St. Francis River can be fast and cold, and if the water's up, the "Big Drop" near the end of this course will demand just the right strokes at the right time...or a solid roll. The Missouri Whitewater Association puts on this race each March; it's a two-day event (one-day race boats, one day recreational) that includes a downriver race as well. Hint: Don't burn all your energy in the start sprint, or you’ll get to float over The Big Drop with no momentum.

WACKO Slalom, Wausau, Wisconsin
The Wausau Area Canoe and Kayak Organization takes full advantage of the facilities right in downtown Wausau—plus some great local paddling talent—and puts on an event that's sometimes combined with the Badger State Games. Take time when attending this one to also paddle some of great Wisconsin rivers a couple of hours away. Hint: the hole at Diagonal Ledge is very, very, very sticky.

Rockies
FIBArk, Salida, Colorado
Fifty-plus years of this June event ("First in Boating on the Arkansas") have seen it grow into a multi-day, multi-sport event. There's a raft race, a freestyle competition, a hill climb, a parade, a funny "Hooligan Race," a 26-mile downriver race, and oh, by the way, a slalom. Hint: Bring every boat you have, plus your running shoes and mountain bike.
Animas River Days, Durango, Colorado
Four Corners Riversports and friends put on this multi-race event each summer (usually in June). Slalom, downriver and rodeo events are intermingled over three days in one of the most beautiful locations for racing anywhere in the country. Hint: Depending on which class you're competing in, you may be racing against the entire Wiley family.

Yampa River Days, Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Home of the late, two-time Olympian Rich Weiss, the Yampa Slalom Series is held every Wednesday evening for five weeks in May and June after the gates are hung. Old schoolers and new-schoolers compete side-by-side in all types of craft during this long-running local favorite. Hint: Bring you’re A-game—there’s a lot of talent in town.

Gallatin Whitewater Festival, Bozeman, Montana
The Montana Cup series kicks into June high gear with this one. Add a wildwater race through the "Wild Mile" plus a slalom on Squaw Creek plus a novice slalom plus a party plus a raffle and you've got plenty to keep you occupied. Hint: If you don't live in the mountains, show up a few days early to acclimate to the altitude.

West
Kern River Festival, Kernville, California
This is another multi-race event; it's also part of a festival put on by the Kern River Council. There's even a raft race and a head-to-head race through rapids. In 2001, the slalom will be a qualifier for U.S. Team Trials. Pre-event training camps and some of the best paddlers west of the Rockies make this the one to look for each April. Hint: Take advantage of training camps, which are often taught by current and former U.S. Team members.

SkyFest, Index, Washington
This race is part of the Northwest Cup Series, which includes a LOT of slalom and downriver events the entire year. Jennie Goldberg and company have been steadily growing the sport in the Pacific Northwest and so expect lots of tough competition at this event, held on a Class III section of the Skykomish. Hint: If you have a K-2, bring it and see if you can keep up with the locals.

Riverhouse Rendezvous, Bend, Oregon
Another Northwest Cup Series race, this one is held right in the middle of Bend, Oregon, one of the most outdoor sport-oriented towns in the West. This is a Class III slalom held on the Deschutes River—which also provides some great paddling on the sections upstream. Hint: The brewpub in Bend is terrific and is within walking distance of the race site.

—For a comprehensive schedule, results, rules, U.S. rankings, links to race sites, and other information, visit www.whitewaterslalom.org.