Making a living as a kayaker is tough going, it usually involves traveling a lot, spending extended periods of time living out of a van, or some other decrepit vehicle, eating cans of beans and stag chili, and drinking the cheapest beer / booze available. I attribute this “Skid” lifestyle to the fact that there are few companies out there that are putting serious money forward to try and help promote and grow our sports image, and in turn allowing “Athletes” (I use the term lightly) to earn cash, money. But is our sport changing? Recently I attended a creek race near Quebec City that changed my whole perspective on the shit. After following instructions given to us by JP (the Red Bull Rep in Quebec City, and all round good guy), myself and Lou finally rocked up to the address given, expecting some old student housing, we were pleasantly surprised to see a brand new, pimped out condo. The next surprise came when the door swung open and we were greeted by a hand full of good friends, who had already begun the nights festivities. We got the grand tour and the surprises kept coming. The condo was big and beautiful with all the amenities such as the huge 10 person hot-tub on the deck, x-box in the chill out room, turn tables in the living / Break dance room, a fridge that was continuously being filled with food, beer and 60’s of Vodka, a red bull fridge stocked to the rim with cold delicious Red Bull, and of course no condo would be complete with out a cool French-Canadian to cook, clean and pretty much just hang out and party with. Also included with the house were two Ford 350 turbo diesel trucks to be used for shuttles. So there we were with this great crew of lads, (Myself, Lou, Dave Nieuwenhuis, Pat Camblin, Ben Marr, Rush Struges, Brooks Baldwin and the BC Boys - Dylan, Max, Mica and Logan) all these great toys, free food and drinks and to top it off we were there to paddle some classic Quebec whitewater. The race was originally set for the Basse Cache river but after our first day of practice runs the river was starting to run out of water, and some of the lines were looking a little messy. Pat nearly bit his tongue off after landing a boof on a shallow unexposed rock, and Lou folded the front of her boat after pitoning into an under water rock shelf. The organizers did a great job of quickly reorganizing everything to move the race to the nearby Neilson River, B section. After a quick practice run, where our local guide / probe swam out of the final rapid on the race section, we knew we were in for a classic race. Showing up to the put-in on race day we were all surprised to see the banks of the river covered in spectators, video crews and journalists of all types. A true testament to the organizers as the put-in is a good hour drive out of Quebec City on shitty dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. Instead of going for our practice run we decided to chill out in the crowd, eat a few sausages and try to re-hydrate which was the number one priority of the morning. Skipping the practice run meant that Pat, Lou and Logan were going to have to race the class 4 course blind depending completely on the line of their partners. Because of the length and difficulty of the race, it was formatted as a 2 person, timed, team race, meaning your time didn’t stop till the last person in your team crossed the finish line. Each team got 2 runs and the quickest time was kept. The race went off perfectly as 12 teams raced down the 3 km section of river containing 5 major drops and a hand full of smaller rapids mixed in. The grand finale was the last double drop, a boof into a boily cauldron pot that flushed into a large sticky hole below. A dozen or more competitors swam out of that hole and across the finish line 10 m down stream, all to the cheers of the mass of spectators clinging to the shoreline. Of honorable mention among them was Pat, who hung in there like a champ but in the end needed to breath air like the rest of us. Another shout out goes to Brooks who swam on a rapid upstream after flipping and pining. After all was said and done, my Boys Dave and Ben took home the winnings, a pair of tickets to any kayak destination they wanted, with a time of 7:53. Rush and Pat were a mere 3 seconds off in 2nd place, Brooks and Logan landed in 4th and myself and Lou (the only female in the race) picked up a respectable 8th place. However, with event sponsors like Red Bull who are willing to put forth the time and money into an event such as this, everyone wins. Well the party at least! Tyler Fox Photos: Lou, Dylan and *Eric Johnson (for more photos of the Rip Cup by Eric visit (rickbiker_1@hotmail.com) mailto:rickbiker_1@hotmail.comshapeimage_1_link_0
Red Bull Rip Cup
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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