Apologies for the delay, I seem to have gotten caught up in the rain. Not really but it would be a good excuse since it’s been raining like crazy in Colorado! They should call it the wet state.

After leaving the ladies in Moab I busted over to Buena Vista and the CKS PaddleFest. There are many reasons I love this area; people, proximity to whitewater, trails etc. BV is a beautiful little town with the new urbanism community of South Main. My good friends Katie and Dustin Urban allow me to poach camping in their backyard; riverside (Sweet!). I love catching up with this gang after a winter away. And it’s fun to see the growth of South Main from year to year: this year the major new addition was the Brew Pub (boasting excellent wood-fired food). Paddle Fest weekend was combined with the BV Pro Rodeo so after clinics and helping in the shop it was competition time. The feature was a small hole but all tricks were possible. I didn’t paddle my best and spent most of my time paddling up the eddy (oops). I could only be happy with third since I didn’t paddle very well.

Exhausted it was off to Steamboat for the Paddling Life Pro Invitational for the Monday. The Paddling Life event is a horse of a different color. A one-day, two event masterpiece: creek race in the morning, freestyle in the afternoon. Winners are best overall. Tanya Faux won the ladies category for the fourth year in a row. I found success in another place this year.

Driving up to the creek there was talk of high water and I could feel my stomach start to tighten. Scouting the lines I convinced myself I shouldn’t do the race. I didn’t need to. What if something happened? With the support of some good friends (thank you Andrew Holcombe) I did a practice run. Phew. And in the end I ran the creek for the race, though based on my time you would say I was more of a floater than a boater. My goal was more to ‘get down’ than compete. For me, that was success; to overcome an uncomfortable situation, face the fear instead of flee from it.

Wrapping up my time in Steamboat I paddled Pink with locals Dan and Sarah, who were ripping up their backyard hole (hope those backstabs, blunts and mcnasty’s are still going huge!). Big thanks to them for hosting a bunch of paddlers after the event.

No pictures due to rain L