Teva mtn games schedule

Due to my little bike accident in BV and not being in great shape I opted to enter the photo contest instead of the creek race. The entire day Wednesday was spent trying to channelize the water in Gore Creek to create a playable feature for the rodeo. With extremely LOW water levels it was tough to make anything that would work.

The already installed bladder system helped shape the feature a bit, but was too spread out and up-stream of the feature to channellize the water effectively.

With 1 sheet of plywood on river left and 2 sheets on river right channelizing the water a playable feature emerged. After a few hours of fine tuning the boards and bladders the best feature possible was created for the event. Huge shout out to Clay Wright, Stephen Wright and all the dedicated volunteers who made it happen! I got an early lap on the course just because I wanted to paddle and found the course good to go, but quite difficulty to go fast due to the MANY exposed sharp rocks.

I then used my boat to cross the river at the finish area and take photos all day from river left. There where some big upsets and some fast lines. After the race everyone headed back to Vail for the free Keller Williams concert.

I had a great time partying it up on the Teva House pool deck, overlooking the stage with all the athletes and VIPs. Cheers would erupt from the village people every time someone took a spill into the pool.

We had our own fun at the C4, Korbel , Maui Jim , pool party. The ladies of SUP having some fun at the pool party. Friday I did some practice runs and it was a mixed bag of results. The end result was my body feeling like it had been through the spin cycle in a washing machine. Since I had such a great season racing cyclocross I had decided that I was going to focus on the bike and just dabble in SUP this year. What I realized at The Games was that I could no longer just get off the couch and expect to do really well.

Candice Appleby , the worlds best ocean paddler showed up along with some top kayak professionals turned SUPers, big time Hawaiian competitors, and my fav, Nikki Gregg , fitness paddler and all around inspiration. The sport had grown tenfold in the past year.

Saturday was the SUP Sprint, a downriver race where whoever ran the river with the best time won. My run was going well for the first half and I could see last years winner Jenny McArthur in front of me…I was gaining. The second half I started to fall apart…anything can happen on the river, a few rapid falls and loss of the board put me behind the game.

At the finish I was so worked that I had to have someone pull the board out of the water for me. Anaerobic…harder than a cross race. I waited for the results…5th, no podium, no money. But I loved all that led up to it, the practice, the competitors, the SUP talk, the excitement of a new sport.

The crowd loved it, and was enthralled by it. This year a new up and comer in the sport Mariko Strickland, one of the Hawaiian C4 athletes won and deservedly so. The beautiful Boardworks Raven ran the river well! Jen Koki, Mariko Strickland, and myself before the race. The Cross consisted of four athletes battling it out on a short course maneuvering through obstacles, around a gate and ending with a touch to the Teva buoy with paddle and board under control.

Sometimes this ended in a not so pretty shit show. But, exciting it was. I led both of my heats to advance to the final four for the big showdown…one of the last events of the day. I was confident that I could make the podium…top 3. In addition to competitive adventure sports, the Teva Mountain Games also include a photography competition, interactive exhibition and demo area, DockDog canine competitions, the Serac Adventure Film School, an interactive family area, free concerts and mountain lifestyle parties.

With 32 graded problems to choose from, competitors are scored by their best 4 ascents. Amateur youth competitions will show their talents in a fun and exciting bouldering format.

The object is to complete problems, which require a serious blend of gymnastic ability, superb concentration and grip strength.