Tao Berman’s lines at Austria’s Adidas Sickline Extreme World Championships were nearly perfect. He lost hundredths of a second by scraping too much of a rock here and absorbing too much of a hole there. And that cost him the title he spent $4,000 on air fare, registration fees and lodging for a chance to win.

Berman was .03 second behind the third place finisher, but ended fifth out of 160 October 4.
“It might sound a bit cocky, but I didn’t fly across the world to not win,” he said. “That was my goal. I’ve won every timed race in the last few years. But there were a lot of really, really good paddlers there.”
Berman was the top American at the event.
Jesse Shimrock, the only other American to compete, didn’t qualify for the final heats.
Berman was beaten by Germany’s slalom champ Niklaus Schmitt, New Zealand’s Sam Sutton, Italy’s Michele Ramazza and Slovenia’s Dejan Kralj.
Sutton and Berman clashed in Hood River, Oregon, during the Gorge Games. Sutton came away with the edge over Berman in the boatercross event on the White Salmon’s Class IV Maytag rapid and Berman got the edge over Sutton in the extreme race on the White Salmon.
“He paddled really well,” Berman said of Sutton.
This was the first-ever extreme world championships. Last year was supposed to be its inaugural year, but organizers had to cancel the entire event due to higher than normal water levels.