Race Day For Nick

Hello again its Nicholas!

Getting ready for Race Day

 This past wednesday was race day for us keeners. I was in a group with Clay and Juan and a whole bunch of other keeners and we were all really excited for racing! Our first race was held on the Iron Ring. This rapid is super awesome with challenging moves and eddies to catch. Clay Juan and the rest of us eddied out above the rapid to get out to scout and find a fun and exciting race line. Finding a race line can be tricky as I found out, there are a lot of things to take into account like, what eddies to catch, what landmarks do we need to touch with our paddles, and time penalties for missing them. After we all decided on a suitable race line, we started to head down one by one. When it came to my turn I was a little nervous as to how fast I could go and wondered how well I could do. After I heard Clay yell "GO!", I launched in and started paddling hard. As i dropped into the rapid, I threw a hard stroke on my left side which propelled me forward and I suddenly found myself in the first eddy. To move past the eddy, you must use your paddle to hit this big chain on a rock. As I went to attempt this, I found myself spinning completely around and immediately dug deep with my paddle to get myself back to the chain. After successfully hitting the chain, I paddled as hard as I could back into the current to reach the opposite shore to end my time. as I looked back at Clay, he signaled to me that I had done it in 47 seconds. This was enough to win and I was extremely thrilled with my performance, although, next time I hope to improve it!