Canadian team trials for the 2009 World Championships in Switzerland took place over the weekend in Chambly, Quebec. The event boasted excellent water levels, unseasonably warm weather and the most impressive wave competition I’ve ever seen.

Lefty Pan am right off the bat

When I found out that team trials were going to be held on the Chambly wave I was super excited. I had only paddled on the wave a few times but from my experiences it had consistent water levels, great access and was a really good wave. Although I haven’t been there it also seems to closely resemble the feature paddlers will be competing on at the next worlds.

Clean blunts were the norm

I was shocked to see how well some of the Canadians are paddling, don’t get me wrong I knew we had mad skills on big waves but the competition was fierce! Everyone in the top ten managed to throw a trick on every pass down the wave and in some cases managed to get well off the water without one making for many scores well over 200 points. For those not familiar with the scoring system it takes a minimum of ten of the hardest moves to reach the 200 point mark and in most cases competitors were getting upwards of 15 moves in. I had originally thought that I was going to be able to show up and breeze my way onto the team but this was not the case. I obviously underestimated the boys a little but managed to squeeze back on the team nabbing the last spot.

The headless Helix

This years team looks like this:

Men K1

Nick Troutman
Billy Harris
Patrick Camblin
Joel Kowalski
Kelsey Thompson
Alternate: Tyler Curtis

Women K1

Carly Harris
Dominique Gautier
Marie-PierreCôté
Alternate: Emily Lussin

Junior Men K1

Keegan Grady
Devyn Scott
Scott Borthwick

Junior Women K1

Katie Kowalski
Alex Shalhorn

C1

GuillaumeLa Rue
Paul Danks
Glen Warner

OC1

Philippe Morin
Vincent Normandeau

Event website: http://kayakauquebec.blog.com/

Kelsey Thompson