Nikki Rekman Sales: Chilliwack River World Kayak Hometown Throwdown

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Chilliwack River World Kayak Hometown Throwdown

A couple of weeks ago I along with many others had the opportunity to participate in a World Kayak Hometown Throwdown (WKHT) on the Chilliwack river. For those of you who are not aware WK Hometown Throwdown’s are an awesome way to encourage fun community activity and skills development while promoting the sport of whitewater kayaking. Without our world kayak ambassador for our region these events would not be possible. Thanks to Kay from Purple Hayes School of Kayaking for taking the responsibility of bringing World Kayak programs to our area.

Paddler Sam Fletcher going bow down. Photo: Rob Fletcher (Rfort Foto's)

We had a good group of Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced paddlers. The scoring system is simple; do anything to make the crowd cheer and you even get points just for catching a wave! At the end of the day, it’s all in the name of fun and everyone gets a prize, raffle style. Gotta thank WKHT sponsors for that! @Jackson Kayaks @Kokatat and many more!

The premise of our local WK Hometown Throwdown is for friendly competition and skill development for all levels of whitewater paddlers. On Sunday, May 5th our WK Hometown Throwdown took place at the Osborne Rd Wave train on the Chilliwack River. It’s the perfect spot for both beginners and experienced paddlers alike. There is a huge first wave and a couple others in behind with huge eddy service for swim recovery and let me tell you, there were lots of swims including myself.

Having a good fun time! Photo: Rob Fletcher (Rfort Foto's)

Photo: Rob Fletcher (Rfort Foto's)

I myself participated with my Jackson SUPerCharger stand up paddle board. It is an unusual form of paddle craft for a throwdown although it’s wasn’t the first time for me. Even though the waves here are not ideal for a 10’ long board I did manage to stay on one of the smaller waves for all of 15 seconds before my graceful dismount. That is if you can dismount a stand up paddle board gracefully.