NOTTINGHAM FREESTYLE LEAGUE (NFL), UK
Once a month through the spring, summer and autumn, British freestyle paddlers gather at the Holme
Pierrepoint Whitewater Course, the home off the National Watersports Centre, on Friday nights to battle
it out. The NFL is a fun and relaxed affair, with the aim of encouraging more people to get into freestyle.
Each round takes place on a different feature, so you never know where you will be competing. James
Ibbotson set up the league with the aim of leveling the playing field between the pros and the fist timers,
men and women. He has achieved this thanks to a clever scoring system with different score sheets for
different categories. The categories are based on how many points people are likely to score, 200, 500,
1000 or 2000, (though the latter only has a few entrants!) At the end of each event everyone gets points
on how they placed within their category, and at the end of the league these are added up, resulting
in one overall winner. Daniel Whiteley, who consistently showed fantastic paddling at each event, was
the 2016 league winner. So far, after round 3 in the 2017 league, the standard of competition is high! Gav
Barker has the lead, with Caleb Newsome and Josh Veasy in 2nd and 3rd. The scoring system follows
the ICF score sheet for the 2000 and 1000-point categories, however in the 200 and 500 categories, the
main aim is fun, and pushing people to have a go! The roll in the hole, the cosmic donkey and the party
wave-amongst others, all score! Being Friday night, once the paddling is done everyone retreats to
the deck for a well-earned beverage. The League is well supported by local kayaking store Desperate
Measures, along with PeakUK. Last year, PeakUK provided custom NFL Buoyancy aids as prizes, and plans to do so again for 2017. So come down and join in the fun! More
information can be found on the Facebook Nottingham Freestyle League page.
Words and Photo: Nicky Beeby
2017 LITTLE WHITE SALMON RACE: WATER FOR EVERYONE
The magic of the Little White Salmon Race continued into the year 2017, marking the 7th year of racing one of the PNW’s most iconic river sections. The
theme of for 2017 was high water. The original April date was pushed back to May due to flows over 5ft on the gauge. This patience paid off with a race
day that brought blue skies and a flow of 3.8 ft., the highest flow ever raced on the LW. The race was simple this year, with no event at Spirit Falls due to
the high water. Some changes this year included using GoPro’s for
the primary timing, which allowed organizers to display the top four
finishers’ race laps on a split screen. Participants and viewers were
also able to re-live the action and see the race laps first hand at the
awards ceremony. The final four was extremely close, with only four
seconds separating the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers. Evan Garcia
set a course record of 14:03 to win his 4th LW Race. As is tradition, the
after-party was multi-layered and complex, the awards ceremony
leading to the White Salmon Pub crawl that ended with a Samba
parade through the streets. The night ended with a live concert at
the River Roots headquarters just to top things off. High water. Record-
fast times. Samba music. Another amazing success celebrating one
of PNW’s most precious rivers and the community that surrounds it.
Stay tuned for more information on the 2018 LW Race. Special thanks
to the title sponsor World Class Academy as well as River Roots and
Kayak Session.
1.Evan Garcia
2.Todd Wells
3.Kyle ‘King Hesh’ Hull
4.Matias Lopez
5.Rush Sturges
Words: Capo Rettig - Photo: Page Stephenson