Canada Cup by Max Culbreth

It was the morning of the Canada Cup and I woke up with excitement and anticipation for the afternoon. I couldn't wait to show off the new things I had learned in the prior weeks of Keeners and hopefully place well. It was my first freestyle kayaking competition and I had no idea what to expect or how I would handle the pressure. When we got to the event I was feeling confident and even more excited but I knew it was possible that I wouldn't do well so I also mentally prepared myself for a loss. I planned to throw a pan-am in the preliminary round, followed by blunts both ways. These were tricks that I was fairly confident in but garb was very flushy so none of the pan-ams were going. I kept throwing them and they would go big but immediately flush. This meant by the end of my four rides I had zero points. I knew that this was a very real possibility before the competition but I was still very disappointed knowing I could've done so many other tricks. I wasn't able to surf garb for the rest of the day but I still had lots of fun cheering and watching my friends make it to finals and do well. In the end it was a great learning experience and I am very glad I entered.