Riot paddlers at the National Surf Kayaking Championships

Click here for the video, by Effort.tv

The National Championships of Surf Kayaking were held a few weeks ago on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. East and west coast surf kayakers competed in High Performance, International, K-1 Plastic, and Waveski classes.

The waves were pretty substantial all weekend, with chest high sets on saturday and over-head- high surf building all day on sunday.

Riot paddlers did well at the event. In the International Class (long boat) I took 3rd and Spencer Cooke earned the title of National Champ, getting many nice lip moves in the head high shore pound during sunday's final.

Spencer and myself going out in the International finalSpencer, lip move in IC

Me going for a barrel roll in the closeoutSpencer, going for it in IC

In the High Performance division, Spencer made quarter finals, and I made semi's.

Spencer in the HP division

The K-1 plastic class features whitewater kayaks and is judged on a trick based system. Competitors who link up the best tricks using a combination of green face and white break score the highest. Good rides featured combinations of Helix's, airblunts, McNasty's, green face cartwheels, and loops. The finals featured three Riot boats, Spencer in the Flair 47, myself in the Flair 57, and 16 year old Alan Young in the Astro. It was a close heat, and a lot of fun to compete in. I finished 4th, Spencer 2nd, and Alan had impressive rides to finish first.

K-1 final blunt by Spe
Me blunting in the K-1 final

Alan also won the Junior International Division, AND the Junior High Performance division, in which he surfed the Riot Boogie.

Me and Spe holding our winnings

It was a really fun event, and OBX is a really awesome place.

--Joey Hall

If you'd like to read more about the National Championships of Surf Kayaking, check out
http://www.eskasurf.com/2006/09/full-report-and-results-from-2006-us.html

And for more info on surf kayaking, visit http://www.eskasurf.com