Parents Unleashed 2019: Stage 1, Big Trick on 'Rib Shack'

Unleashed (formerly White Water Grand Prix- WWGP) is a multi staged event held in Quebec/Ontario and has been an elusive one for me. When I applied to compete to the WWGP in 2012 and was accepted, they moved the competition to Chile and instead of competing in big wave surfing (my specialty) I got to scare myself on a bunch of creeks and flooded rivers (Rio Gol Gol, Rio Puesco, Rio Nevados, and the Futaleufu). Then, in 2014, both Leif and I applied and got accepted as alternates, but only Leif was moved up to be an actual competitor (see blog list Live from the Grand Prix). After that, the WWGP went through a hiatus when Pat Camblin decided he needed to do some more soul surfing and less organizing.  Recently, the event was re-invented and re-named Unleashed and is now run as a team by SEND. (Dane Jackson, Adrian Mattern, Kalob Grady and Bren Orton). The younger generation has picked up the torch that the visionary Pat Camblin lit and I am so grateful to both Pat for starting the event, and the SEND boys for continuing it.

For the first few Unleashed competitions (2017 Ontario/Quebec and 2018 Uganda), Leif and I were invited, but unable to make it (making a baby instead- so a pretty good excuse). We were super excited last Spring when we both came out to compete together for the first time, dragging our 13 month son with us, but alas, it was cancelled due to uncertainty in the water levels. So instead, we had a great time just paddling big waves with friends and wrangling our son. (Stakeout with the Gals).

The rib opens it's jaws.

Finally this year, we got to compete on a big wave competition together! Amazingly, this was my first (publicized) big wave event ever and I was super excited to just be here. Well, I did beat Hayden Voorhees two years in a row on our Edge King Contest on the Slave River, but that is a pretty small event with like 5 competitors that nobody knows about. To top it all off, we forgot our 2 yr old son at home with his grandma (good choice). Hence we dubbed our week off as 'Parents Unleashed'. And we did that with the first event.

Davis goes to the zoo on the day I left.  He was pretty sad when he dropped me off at the airport but I think this cheered him up.

The first event was on a new wave discovered because water levels are exceptionally high and have blown out all the normal big wave features. I'm not sure the wave has a formal name yet, but it will include the word 'rib' because there is this nasty dynamic rib that rears up on the smooth face just at the moment when you want to bounce to through a huge move. They call it Rib Shack, or Rib eye, or Rib Buffet, or Rib Steak... I really like the wave because it is so dynamic and fun to surf, you can't just sit passively carving passes, because you could get swallowed up and tossed at any moment. Leif and I spend a lot of time on finicky waves like this one on the Slave River, so this competition really played to our strengths. Also, it was really hard to throw combo moves (two tricks that move seamlessly between them without pause) on this wave, which leveled the playing field a little between those with awesome combos and those of us who are not so great at combo moves.

Leif. Photo by Hayden.

The short of it is that Leif and I crushed it. Leif got third overall and I got tenth out of a field of 20+ guys. Oh yeah, at this point, it is probably worth mentioning that the only gals that showed up this year were me and Darby McAdams, so we decided to compete with the men instead of having a separate womens' class of just two people (lame). Apparently when we decided to compete with the men, Hayden said, under his breath, "Great I'm going to get beat again". But alas, I was unable to rise to the challenge a third year in a row, and lacking a giant airscrew, Hayden came out on top. All in all it has been really fun to compete with the men because it is really fun to be able to compete as part of a pack. Usually it is just a small handful of women, which makes it a zero sum game, especially when there are only two competitors. Every time you win, it means that the other woman has to lose which makes it hard to celebrate when you both compete well. Instead, in this event, it is great and refreshing to compete with a whole lot of people because performance result is more nuanced and less defined by winning or losing against one or two people. It really is a whole different experience. Even paddling against 20 other paddlers feels a lot different than paddling with 10 (which is about the maximum number of females that I've ever competed against).

Natalie. A cool shadow. Photo by Hayden

Stage 1 was a big trick contest so they separated us into two heats of about 10-11 people that got to surf the wave for 2 hrs. Over the course of those two hours the judges would keep your three best and biggest and most impressive tricks and compare those with the other competitors and then rate everyone. No strict grading rubric for this one. Going bigger was better... so if someone threw a massive aerial roundhouse it could beat out someone else's less than impressive airscrew. But remember, standings weren't just based on one trick but if your three biggest tricks. Good, Leif and I are used to going big. I threw some really big PanAms both ways and I am honestly not sure what they picked for my third trick, possibly a nice clean blunt I had or perhaps a backstab that was reasonable. I still don't know what was picked for Leif. Probably his massive Sasquatch, and then... he had so many HUGE tricks it would be hard to pick which three. I am glad I am not a judge!

Here is the Judges Reel from which the results were decided


We recorded a delayed 'live' coverage of the event for those of you who actually want to see us paddle and to see what Leif did to get third. In those few years that we couldn't come, we really wanted to find out how our friends were doing during the event and the flashy re-cap videos just didn't cut it for us (see video embedded below). So, we took matters into our own hands and have recorded all the rides for those crazy fans who actually want to wade through the footage to find their friends. Of course we have some pretty priceless commentary as well.




We will be putting up a link to our 'live' feed as soon as we can get enough time with good enough internet (but it may be awhile before that happens...). Apparently I was pretty funny with my commenting during the second heat. Leif did most of the comments during the first heat. Enjoy. [OK, actually it's 3 hours long and we haven't uploaded it yet.]

Also Seth Ashworth has been putting out some fun little live videos and Athlete profiles if you would like to get to know the athletes a little better. He also has been doing some fun live shit talk videos during the event. Here is Seth's shit talk live feed from stage 1.



If you came upon this blog first and are curious about the other stages, here are the links to those write-ups:

Stage 1: Big Wave Freestyle (this blog)
Stage 2: Big Water Boater Cross
Stage 3: Technical Freestyle
Stage 4: Technical Creeking