WaterTurtle: A (Man Made) River Runs Through It

Coming off a couple weeks straight of SUP races and now time to reflect back. One was a local short 4 mile flat water race that acted as a good warm up for the big one to come, The Carolina Cup. More on the Carolina Cup in a later post.

Lets first start with the shorter flat water 2 & 4 mile race that was part of the US National Whitewater Center’s Tuckfest in Charlotte, NC. The USNWC is an awesome place and a real gem in our backyard, offering whitewater thrills for kayakers, canoers, rafters, and now offers SUP as a regular program on their man made whitewater rivers. It also has the largest climbing wall on the east coast, advanced and beginner mountain bike trails, zip lines, canopy tours, and a restaurant/bar that serves good food and microbrews. Tuckfest is a weekend long event that has about every summer mountain sport/race/activity you can think of, along with live music and food.

My daughter raced in the 2 mile flat water SUP race and won 1^st in the Womens’ division. I raced in the 4 mile flat water SUP race and got 3^rd overall behind pros Michael Tavares and Dan Gavere. The flat water races were held on the Catawba River, which happens to snake alongside the USNWC property. Then we settled in to watch the whitewater SUP races. Wild and wooly is my best description. I may now have to add whitewater SUP to my bag of outdoor fun adventures and take advantage of this great resource in my backyard. Here we go with another learning curve and new equipment to add to the quiver.

Here is StandUp Journal's brief report. Honored to have been able to provide the report and a pic for them.

Here is pro Dan Gavere's blog post about the weekend event. Honored to have provided some pics for this as well. And here are some more pics...

My Daughter, McIntyre

Me chasing down Dan Gavere

Dan Gavere

Waterturtle/Mac

Matt

Some of the flat water SUP racers - from L to R: unknown, David Hepp, Ramsay Mead, Michael Tavares, Dan Gavere, Jason Geiger, Lindsey Geiger, Mac Barnhardt, McIntyre Barnhardt, Nic Cesmat, Matt Cesmat, Jackie Hartley, Jen Cesmat