The Annual Ottawa River Rodeo
By Ken Whiting and Kevin Varette
Sept 3rd, 2001

Every Labour Day weekend, a large portion of the North American freestyle community gathers at McCoy's Chute for the Ottawa River Rodeo. Renowned for its large, intimidating holes, McCoy's is one of the most anticipated and exciting stops on the NOWR circuit. With water levels at a near record low, the competition was held on the left side of the infamous "Screaming Beaver" or "Horseshoe" hole for the first time since 1995. It was a refreshing change from the right side, which has provided such smooth and repetitive rides over the years. The left side is big, bouncy, trashy and flushy on the corners. The rides were dynamic and unpredictable throughout the event, offering the crowd both impressive performances and disappointing upsets.

Saturday kicked off with the Men's and Women's Sport classes, novice through expert and masters. This was an entertaining, inspiring and impressive display of talent, both future prospects and old heroes! The munchy left side hole is a scary place for anyone, especially those who chose to get initiated in front of a large crowd! Congratulations to all the athletes - we look forward to seeing more of you in the future!

Sunday began with the squirt competition up on the infamous eddy line above McCoy's Chute, aptly named "Smoothie". Down-time is the crowd-pleaser at this site, with its perrrrfect whirlpool formations and deep riverbed. The only thing to consider is when to pull out and up so you don't head into McCoy's under water! After a display of sick mysteries and dancing fibreglass, the USA's 17 year-old Dustin Urban walked away with the 2001 squirt title. It should be noted that this was a co-ed class and third place went to Deb O'Keefe from the USA - nice work Deb!

The first competitors in the hole were the C-1 athletes, who put on a great opening show. With extended leverage from their kneeling position, these guys were able to throw their boats around freely in the pile for some huge vertical ends as well as clean blunts and back-stabs, big flurries of clean cartwheels and the only trick-whu of the event. Canada's Graham Harada enjoyed his first NOWR victory after fending off the USA's Luke Hopkins (2000 Ottawa Rodeo C-1 winner) and a field several other top C-1ers.

Next was the Pro Women's class, which took to the big left side hole with impressive aggressiveness. Almost 20 of the best female athletes in the showed up to try and take home one of the biggest titles on the circuit. The field was cut in half to 10 semi-finalists after two 45-second rides in the preliminaries. Taking the best ride out of two, the final cut was made down to three for the head-to-head elimination round. In the end it came down to a one-ride duel between Canada's Julie Dion and the USA's Brooke Winger. With big blunts on the left corner and lots of vertical ends, Brooke ended up taking the gold in style. Not a bad showing for a competitor who couldn't train all week because of a shoulder injury.

The Men's Pro class was the grand finale, with 35 competitors vying hard for their spot in the finals. The variety game is a tough one in this hole, with its frothy pile and flushy corners, but it was played pretty well by the top boaters. Funky entry moves, huge blunts and back-stabs, under-water cartwheels and the occasional loop made for an impressive show. Using the same format as the women, the field was narrowed down to three finalists for the elimination round. The show-down ended up being between Canada's Billy Harris and USA's Jay Kincaid (2000 Ottawa Rodeo winner). Billy stayed with his successful routine of technical ends on the left and big loops on the right, but it wasn't enough to edge out "All Day Jay" and his flurries of enormous blunts, backstabs, splits and cleans - this guy is powerful! So Jay walked away with his second consecutive Ottawa Rodeo title and the event finished off Sunday evening with dinner and awards back at the organizers' (Equinox Adventures) facility on the Quebec side.

Thanks to everyone who participated in another sweet Ottawa River Rodeo - see you in 2002!

Ottawa Rodeo Videos:
Billy Harris loops it out
Brook with a key run
EJ and Jay bow to the pressure and duke it out
Oh man did Jay rock
Luc Hopkins shows his stuff



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