Leif and Natalie

After finishing up the technical freestyle, boater cross and big wave trick competitions, Unleashed moved on to wrap up the event with a technical creeking section. The plan was to head up and do an Unleashed event on the Nielson River just before the Nielson race, but after running the course it was apparent that the river level was just a tad too low and the rapids not quite up to snuff for a giant slalom race. But we all ran it anyway. Andi got stuffed under a log in the class two, Josh almost dislocated his shoulder, Billy (from Quebec) broke his elbow and Darby hurt her shoulder. It was a rough evening for many. I had a pretty good time on the run - it had been a long time I ran something I didn't know like the back of my hand, so the novelty was great. Darby was pissed because she had just rehabilitated her shoulder and this meant that she probably wasn't going to race in the morning. Kind of a bummer. SEND crew setting up gates Contemplation while the course

Making the event look more hard core with a fullface. Natalie with a nice blunt  during practice. This freestyle event was held on the White Dog wave on the Rouge. For many people, this feature felt like kind of a small feature for a Stakeout Unleashed event, but given uncertainty with water levels we needed to make sure we could fit in another event and it was a perfect wave for a technical freestyle, completely different than the Rib wave from stage one , and logistically easy since it was just upstream of the Stage 2 boater cross. The wave was easy to get set up on with a smooth face where you could basically throw all the tricks in your repertoire. I think if the goal of the event is to crown the best all-round paddler, than this wave was a perfect addition because it highlights different strengths than a more classic rowdy wave. Plus, I think that Dane was super excited to have us compete using his well thought out technical freestyle scoring system (explained below).

Stage 2 of Unleashed was held on the Rouge River on a rapid called the Gauntlet. It is a super fun and rowdy rapid with lots of good waves and then a tough move at the end into an eddy guarded by a hole. It is a great boater cross course because it can really shake things up. The person in the lead coming into the finish doesn't always finish first, and if you missed the eddy you couldn't advance. There were a lot of upsets. Photo by Darby McAdams The night before the event, Leif and I had our big night out (15th anniversary of being together) at a super super fancy restaurant in Ottawa (think five course meal with words 'chaga demi-glace' and 'bonito cured duck egg' and 'cucumber mango-gin emulsion'), which meant that we rolled in around 1 am and missed Kalob's athlete meeting.  Kalob is really good at making you feel like you are disappointing him if you show up late or miss a meeting.  I felt bad, but I did ask permission (sort of) and

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

Brooke Hess, Ottilie Robinson-Shaw and I are excited to offer a women's freestyle development camp  on the Slave River this summer!  Check it out.