Half an hour before the water reached the bottom of the Nantahala, there were several kids bobbing around in the shallow eddies teaching and learning flatwater tricks. The Junior Olympics held a freestyle clinic today in which several of the more experienced kids took...
Slalom
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITORS AT THE JUNIOR OLYMPICS
by Haley and Selena, Team Popp Yours truly, Selena and Haley Popp, interviewed our international guests today here at the Junior Olympics. We have Canadians and Australians joining the rest of us Americans in the races and events this week. Our ears went to the...
Brynn Benson: Junior Olympic Contender
Team Popp Reporting Live from the Nantahala At today’s Junior Olympic sprint races, we came up and close with cadet superstar Brynn Benson and learned that she is one cool boater chick! Her goals include placing very well (hopefully winning) at the JO’s because she...
TEAM POPP REPORTING LIVE FROM THE 2010 JUNIOR OLYMPICS
The Popp team will be reporting live all week at the Junior Olympics We have “embedded” journalists who will be reporting live for us all week from the 2010 junior olympics being held on the Nantahala River! Haley, Selena and Bryson will be sharing live reports about...
CHAMPIONSHIP SLALOM RACE THE EVENT OF THE JUNIOR OLYMPICS!
brought to you by Haley, Team Popp Friday’s Championship Slalom races has proved to be the biggest event yet at the Junior Olympics! The 40+ competitors were cheered on by spectators lined all the way from the bridge at Slow Joe’s to the end of the course above Worser...
Honing Your Skills Between Gates
by Joe Ravenna Downhill skiing and whitewater kayaking have a great deal in common and it is not surprising to learn that some of the world's best skiers and kayakers honed their skills between gates. As a verb, slalom means to move in a winding or zigzag fashion;...
Kids Rocking the Kayak Race World
In the past few weekends, kids have been rocking the race world! The weekend of March 27th Team Popp styled it up during the US Open Wildwater Event. As reported on the TeamPopp Facebook page: Haley qualified for the 2010 US National Wildwater Team in women’s kayak....
Nantahala Double Header/U.S. Opens
March 27 – 28 is the 9th annual Nantahala Double header and US Open event on the Nantahala River. The US Open is the biggest race in slalom before the US Team Trials. There will be two days of competition, which will include races for both slalom and wildwater....
Team Popp Heads for US Open
March 27 – 28 is the 9th annual Nantahala Double header and US Open event on the Nantahala River. The US Open is the biggest race in slalom before the US Team Trials. There will be two days of competition, which will include races for both slalom and wildwater....
ERA Instruction Goes Slalom
ERA INSTRUCTION PROGRAM GOES SLALOM. Not quite true - we love our whitewater boats!! But our 2010 program is setting new focus on bringing the best of slalom to improving down river paddling skills. Instruction guests will have the chance to work on the flat water...
Boat Angle Management: Gates vs. Whitewater
Presetting angles relative to where you are going next is a concept that does not seem to sink in for the whitewater kayaker immediately. Initially it may have something to do with the “paddle! Paddle Paddle!” mentality which trains a beginner paddler to just take...
Women’s C-1 to be an Olympic Event
Women's C-1 will be a future event in the Olympics. As many times as we've said that women were "too smart" to paddle on their knees, a chance to compete in the Olympics might just make it happen. I sat one afternoon at the takeout on the Nantahala watching a C-1...
Going for the Gold in C-1
I sat one afternoon at the takeout on the Nantahala watching a C-1 boater attain upstream. It broke two of my rules: #1 Going Upstream and #2 Paddling on your knees with just half a paddle! But hey-women are smarter and don't paddle C-1s. But as the C-1 boater headed...
The Pros’ Perspective on Slalom Gates/Running Whitewater
The benefit of whitewater for slalom boaters? The benefit of slalom training for whitewater boaters? As a follow up to the article Spending time paddling slalom gates can make you a better boater, we asked the pros what they think about it about the benefits of...
The Little Girl That Goes Kayak Fast
Sixteen year old Haley Popp is no typical southern girl. While her friends spent the Chattanooga summer shopping at Target and Forever 21, Haley was either throwing down at Hell Hole on the Ocoee River in her play boat or bombing down the Nantahala River with her...
Why there is room for slalom and whitewater to coexist on the river! And what they can teach each other.
Slalom boaters and whitewater paddlers always seem to coexist but not really connect. That should not be as the two can really learn from each other. In running slalom gates there is intense focus on setting specific boat angles and planning moves ahead of time....
Slalom Gates will make you a better whitewater kayaker
One of the challenges an instructor has is making kayaking “accessible” regardless of how far away from whitewater someone might live. In our instruction program we are constantly encouraging the kayakers we train to spend time in a boat. Time in a boat is what makes...
US Olympic Whitewater Slalom Team Headed to Beijing
While no one here at ERA is much at paddling slalom gates....the 2008 Olympic team trials became personal to us when a fellow-paddler from Ecuador, Omar, showed up this spring for the Pan American Team Trials to attempt to win a berth for Ecuador in Beijing. Omar...
2008 FREESTYLE NATIONALS AND THE JUNIORS ROCKED!
Salida Colorado is winding down after a big double billing this past week. The whitewater park hosted both FIBArk�the oldest whitewater festival in the United States (this year celebrating their 60th anniversary), and the 2008 National Freestyle Kayaking...
Ecuadorian Olympic Bound?!?
For those of you who paddled with us in Ecuador this past winter, you may have met and/or spoken to Omar. Omar works at Altar Tours with Angel. And he distinguished himself among those of us who learned that he is a)an enthusiastic whitewater kayaker; b) great river...