Courtney Kerin

About: Courtney

Website: http://courtney-kerin.posterous.com/
Profile: Hi Everyone, I'm the new kiwi here at NRA. I have been kayaking about 2.5 years now and i love it. I have joined NRA to go further with the sport and get the opportunity to experience whitewater all over the world. I will be here for the spring semester where i will get to visit Uganda, USA and Canada. My goal here is to become the best i can and master freestyle moves. I am sponsored by Jackson Kayaks and I currently paddle a 2010 Star. Keep watching to see what i get up to!

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O’ Canada…

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Another country, another adventure. Of course it began with a long haul drive from Salt Lake City, Utah all the way to the Ottawa river just outside the small town of Beachburg. My anticipation to get there was high after a long week of no paddling at Outdoor Retailer. The drive was long, exhausting and full of scenery but oh so worth it! We made it across the border no worries, and as soon as we arrived we unloaded, set up home right next to the river, just above McCoy’s rapid and got out on the water!

Warm water, warm weather, world-class waves and friendly people…what more could one ask for? Kristine promised me on the way here that once I arrive I would never want to leave…and how right she was! But I’m so grateful for all the opportunities and adventures I’ve had while here! From surfing corner wave, Babyface, Pushbutton and the Garberator, dropping into Phil’s hole, paddle boarding the whole river and attempting to surf the big waves meanwhile, to competing in the annual rafting race and slalom.

While here we also celebrated KC’s 3^rd birthday with the Troutman’s, visited the Pembroke movie theatre, went fishing and caught my first fish and I enjoyed my first overnighter (at bear beach)! Everything has been unbelievable, I’ve learnt so much and I’ve gotten to meet back up with so many of my international friends.

My stay here has come to an end though, but not without another big bang. We spent our last day competing in the Canadian Cup Ottawa river rodeo. The annual event was this year held on the Garberator Wave, so we all spent a lot of time training on this feature during the build up of the event. Thanks so much Emily for helping make me a wave boater. We went out for many trainings together where she taught me everything from the best way to catch the feature to how to throw blunts and roundhouses.

The day of the competition was hot, the water level was good and the crowd was ecstatic. The day started with a mass group of kayakers and rafts floating down the river and then the event got underway. Everyone who competed contributed a great display of entertainment to the crowd, throwing down as big and hard of moves they possibly could. First Round of finals was Jr Women and I was stoked to get back on the water, as the day was soo hot. I had a great time and threw some good rides so my day was made even better!

Results

Jr Women

1^st Courtney Kerin

2^nd Sarah-Jane Daub

3^rd Hayley Stuart

Jr Men

1^st Dane Jackson

2^nd Kaleb Grady

3^rd Brandon Hepburn

Pro Women

1^st Emily Jackson

2^nd Emily Wall

3^rd Katie Kowalski

Pro Men

1^st Nick Troutman

2^nd Stephen Wright

3^rd Devyn Scott

Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who competed! And thank you so much to all the event organizers and sponsors! I had a great time and I’m sure everyone else did too!

So now I have to say Farwell Canada, I hope to return, but for now I’m headed south to Tennessee…

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O’ Canada…

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Results

Jr Women

1^st Courtney Kerin

2^nd Sarah-Jane Daub

3^rd Hayley Stuart

Jr Men

1^st Dane Jackson

2^nd Kaleb Grady

3^rd Brandon Hepburn

Pro Women

1^st Emily Jackson

2^nd Emily Wall

3^rd Katie Kowalski

Pro Men

1^st Nick Troutman

2^nd Stephen Wright

3^rd Devyn Scott

Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who competed! And thank you so much to all the event organizers and sponsors! I had a great time and I’m sure everyone else did too!

So now I have to say Farwell Canada, I hope to return, but for now I’m headed south to Tennessee…

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USA Freestyle National & Junior Olympics…

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

From Plattling, Germany to the pristine clear warm water of Cascade, Idaho. The picture changed slightly but the challenges live on. In the Jackson Kayak RV we headed off to Kelly’s Whitewater Park for the US National Championships. The warm weather and 4^th of July fireworks celebrations made for great times. With the vendors set up and the music pumping it was time for the competition to begin. My first event was K1 freestyle; I had a lot of fun in this event. It was held at lower hole which was super friendly and easy to surf, but still created opportunities to get big air and throw down. I placed 3^rd in the Junior Women which wasn’t as well as I would have liked in this event but good times never the less.

Next up were two new disciplines for me… OC1 and C1. I have never dropped into a feature in a C1 before, let alone ever been in an OC1, so it was understandable that I was slightly nervous dropping into the top feature… a massive trashy hole with a small green shoulder on surfers right. First ride I decided to play it safe and just catch the green shoulder to set up, but I didn’t get enough upstream speed and just washed right through. So second ride I decided to man up and drop into the mess… this time I made it in and stayed but my entry was followed by a good beating which involved me smashing the crown of my nose into the big cockpit rim and coming out looking like a bloody unicorn. But it was all well worth it, next time I think I will train for this discipline slightly.

In the end I placed 3^rd for OC1. My final event was C1 and with the crowd cheering me on I dropped into the hole with an entry move followed by clean spins on the green shoulder and shocked everyone. C1 was the most fun for me. I placed 2^nd in C1.

After celebrations and the medal ceremony we were headed off to Lyons, Colorado for the next event… Whitewater Junior Olympics.

The Whitewater Junior Olympics involved a different event each day and was represented by athletes from the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Day 1 was sprint slalom. This was a nine-gate slalom course.

1^st C2 Mixed with J.P. Griffith

2^nd C1 Junior Women

2^nd K1 Junior Women

Day 2 was Sladeo. An event that combines slalom and rodeo, where you race down a short slalom course in freestyle boats, doing tricks along the way to remove time from your total.

1^st Junior Women

Day 3 was Freestyle. This was held at Black Bear hole.

1^st Junior Women K1

1^st = Junior Women C1

Day 4 was Down River. A race to be the fastest person down a 6mile stretch of the river.

1^st Junior Women K1

Day 5 was Slalom. A full-length course was set up.

1^st C2 Mixed with Adre

2^nd C1 Junior Women

2^nd K1 Junior Women

Day 6 was a fun style team Boater-cross where we were randomly assigned teams.

1^st B round.

The Junior Olympics where great fun and I met loads of amazing new people. I had a great time and placed second highest score overall out of the women. Thanks so much to all the competitors for making the event so much fun!

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World Championships 2011

Friday, July 1st, 2011

Germany bound by plane, the reality started to sink in, world champs are coming close and I really needed to start training. Emily Wall picked me up from the Munich airport and drove me to Plattling. I set up my tent by the riverand got straight on the water. I did not have a boat with mer at this time, but luckily for me, Emily came to the rescue again and let me have shared custody with hers. (Thanks so much!)

Life in Plattling is great, its a small town like back home and I was living by the river with my international family. We had a great little camp set up, right next to a side channel we used as a bath, laundry and dishwasher. Each day I followed a general schedule of sleeping, eating and training. It was literally the dream life for me. Each night we would do fun activities like soccer or watching a movie on someones laptop. Even though I hardly left the river, there was always so much fun to be had!

But time went a little too fast, before I knew it we had to move camp down a little further because where we were was to become parking for the event. People from all over the world started showing up and the river bank became packed with tents and campers. The town was booked solid for rooms and same with the neighbouring areas. World Championships were close. My plastic Rockstar, green with a black fern arrived from Jackson Kayak (Thanks), and my carbon boat was ready! EJ came to my tent one morning to wake me and and invite on his trip to the Czech Republic to pick up our Carbon Rockstars from the Galasport Factory! It was soo exciting! My boat looks even better than I could have imagined! Its Sweet As Bro!

Training was slowly progressing for me, and different water levels everyday meant learning to adapt as the feature could change quite a lot. The once long 4 person lines where now 20+ people long, and this meant long waits inbetween rides on the feature. Team training started in the last few days before the competition. This mesant only the countries scheduled to be on the water could. New Zealand was scheduled with 4 other countries- Belgium, Royal South Africa, Argentina and India. Team training only allowed for a maximum of 3mins on the water per person (which is not very long to train). Team training was a great way to get used to the pressures of competing though and gave me and my team mate Polly a chance to train together as team NZ!

On the 19th excitement really began, my Uncle Kev arrived from New Zealand to come see me and watch me compete! On the 20th Opening Ceremony began. all the countries paraded through town being cheered on by all the locals and team supporters. There were speeches and live music and even a gun show. It was very exciting and made me realise its time to get serious! The first day of competition was squirt boating and C1 (canoe-on knees with one blade). This is performing freestyle in a kayak with just enough roon to squeeze your legs in straight. It is very flat and extremely low volume to help it slice the water and mystery move (sink right down under water) current world champion Claire Ohara convinced me to compete so I entered as the NZ representitive and gave it a shot. I got on the water for prelims with nothing to lose and came out number 7 in the world!

Day two saw the completion of all the prelims and beginning of quaterfinals. This was my first day competing in my Kayak. Prelims involves two 45second rides and both your scores are added together. This is possibly the toughest round as it leaves no room for error. I didn’t have a very good prelims but luckily I came out 8th and made it through to Semi-finals. I felt like this was a good thing for me though as it made me realise that I need to stay more calm out on the water and was a great chance to learn what a world championships feels like. And to make things even more exciting that afternoon my big sister Ashleigh arrived from NZ. Day 3 was semifinals for me and went really well. I went out with a calm attitude and had my best ride of the competeition. I came out on top of Junior women with a score of 210. The field was now cut down to 5 for the finals. And pressure was starting to hit. Because of water levels the next day was made into a fun activities day involving fun games and activities. Stand up Paddle boarding race, Teva big trick comp and king of the wave.

Day 5 was big finals day. It began with Sqiurt women and Clair Ohara defeneded her title well to remain world champion. Followed by squirt men, OC1 (open canoe), then I was up Junior Women. I went out trying to keep a calm head and gave it a good shot. I came out number 2, runner up world champion and got straight off the water to recieve a phone call from home. My Uncle, sister, and I celebrated german style with a large beer and giant pretzel! That night was the awards ceremony. I walked out to the podium and recieved my silver medal and flowers, then proudly watched the NZ flag raise up the pole.

Thanks so much to all the awesome sponsors of the event!World Championships 2011 was an amazing journey and a load of fun. Bring on World Championships 2013!

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Graduation – The end of my highschool era

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

The New River Academy Class of 2011

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Time just flys when you’re having fun. It feels like it was just the other day I showed up to Saint Kevin’s College as a young sporty 3rd former. Now just 4 ridiculously short years later, I’m after starting up a new school sport (kayaking), I’m a graduated student at New River Academy (an international kayaking based high school). My life is buzzing!

Graduation weekend was a tonne of fun. On ythe saturday we had a family paddle down the New River Gorge with everyones friends and family in rafts as we kayaked down showing off all our new skills to our friends and (newly adopted) families. It was a beautiful day, full of sunshine. Then on the sunday it was the big ceremony. I got up early to cook pancakes for everyone, then got changed and headed off to ‘Class 6′ where our graduation was to take place on the banks of the New River Academy. It was a Beautiful set up and very exciting.

I want to use this post to give out a Monumental Thanks to my parents and family for giving me this opportunity and helping me to push my dreams! Also to my coach back home Aidan Haig for getting me into this sport and all my paddling friends in New Zealand and all over the world for helping me push my skills and giving me so much helpful advice. And my final thank you is to New River Academy for having a little kiwi come join the crew and making my incredible experience there so amazing! I’m missing all of my NRA family so much, I been living with you all since I left NZ and it is strange now to be apart, but thankfully I know I will see many of you again later in the year!

Life goes on still and many big adventures are ahead! On monday I flew out to Germany to begin the next leg of my trip…World Championships!

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Jackson Kayak Factory & Rock Island, Tennessee

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Tennesse boung in our school van and suburban, each with a trailer loaded with boats and gear. Excitement arising and anticipation to kayak at the famous Rock Island! I was buzzing in the van, even though the drive was long. We arrived to our nicest accomodation so far. Two fully furnished double story houses. As soon as we arrived and admired our new homes, we got back in the vehicles to drive down to the waves. I was stoked to get in the water and roll as it was the warmest water to date(since Uganda). We trained in the top wave and bottom hole for a couple hours then went back to the houses for dinner and bed. I have been working on my entry moves here, which is a very important trick to learn as it can get points on the board right from the beginning! Since this hole was so trashy though…once I landed it I normally went into a beatdown for the next short while. ( : It was still gereat fun though! I really enjoyed Rock Island, even though the water levels were less than perfect. Many students choose not to paddle which was fine with me as it meant,

less lines + more time for me to train = very happy Courtney!

But within a few days the rains where so strong that the river flooded and all the spill gates where set open on the dam, which meant everything was washed out and there was no longer anywhere to train, so the school made a quick decision to head back to West Virginia.

On our way out we stopped by the Jackson Kayak Factory for a tour. It was awesome to see the company behind my sponsorship and watch how the boats come together. Carmen Ratliff was our tour guide and explained everything to us from the history of Jackson Kayak, to how each color of plastic differs each boat. While we were there E.J. (Eric Jackson) offered everyone prodeals on any gear they wanted and the opportunity to pick and choose from any of the available boats on his floor. I picked up my new Little Hero creek boat that was waiting for me and am Loving it! Red, Yellow and Green – Rasta colored! Finally a creek boat that truly fits me. I now feel much more comfortable on a creek as I can reach for my strokes better and have more maneuverability!

Here’s a film I made about the Factory for you all to check out…

I had a really great time and just wanted to say thankyou to Jackson Kayak and all the workers in the factory for the opportunity!

On our way back to West Virginia, we had to dodge tornadoes and the towns they wiped out. Which was exciting as I had never seen a tornado before ( and still haven’t) but also very sad as they killed many people. Back in West Virginia I went creeking first day back in my new Little Hero and fall in love with it. And since we have been training at Special Hole on the New River Gorge. Our head Coach Tino Specht has gone up to Canada for two weeks to compete in the Whitewater World Championships, Goodluck Coach! And so we have a new coach here while he’s away. John McConville. He has been awesome help and has us world’s kids working, which is great!

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Jackson Kayak Factory & Rock Island, Tennessee

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

less lines + more time for me to train = very happy Courtney!

Here’s a film I made about the Factory for you all to check out…

I had a really great time and just wanted to say thankyou to Jackson Kayak and all the workers in the factory for the opportunity!

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Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

The New River

For those of you who don’t know this isn’t a pun. This is our home river here in West Virginia at the NRA (New River Academy) school base. I will also apologize now for the delay in this blog, we have been doing so much that I got behind a tad on the blogging.

Anyways, I’m still doing great and Loving all that life has to offer!

While in West Virginia I have been playboating on the New River and the New River Dries. The Dries is a section of the river that is almost always dry because of the dam upstream, but when the rains fall and the water flows it becomes a famous attraction for all freestyle kayakers. The water level builds to form some sweet waves and the higher it gets the bigger and steeper they do!

The Dries section also offers a short run with some great rapids, waves and holes along the way.

The New River Gorge is also a magnificent river run of class 2-4 which you can have great fun on in your playboat. This section of the river offers a longer run with plenty of rapids.

I based my most recent video project around this river because I enjoy it so much and wanted to share with you all what I’m getting to enjoy!

Since my last update I also made it onto the Jackson Kayaks Regional Team! You can check out my profile on their website…

http://jacksonkayak.com/team-jk/regional-team/courtney-kerin/

I have also been to North Carolina dodging tornadoes, playboating and creeking! We visited the Nantahala Outdoor Centre (NOC) for a week, where we practiced our freestyle every night after school until dinner. In the first few days Clay Wright arrived with my new green Rockstar ( Jackson Kayak) which of course i was buzzing to get on the water with. I loved it instantly! It is so much looser on the water!

After NOC we drove to Camp Wayfarer (an american summer camp for youths, which was empty being spring of course) and began our creeking portion of this quarter. Creeking involves kayaking down low volume steep rivers in a bigger boat with more plastic so that it doesn’t just break). My first creek was the Watauga, an awesome river with some steep bolder gardens which made for great practice in the new 2011 Hero I was paddling. We also did the green river dries which had a couple slides and many many trees. It turned out it was still a little too dry when we went out, but we persisted through it and had to portage a couple sections. We also did a couple others and then moved on to Rock Island, Tenessee.

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First Descent of the Roe River, Great Falls, MT

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

The World’s Smallest River at just 201 Feet.

Great Falls Local Julia Boland and New Zealander Courtney Kerin make the First Descent of the Roe River, the world’s shortest river at just 201 Feet! Great Falls, MT, USA. Filmed By Marias Hale.

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Welcome To Montana…

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Africa was phenomenal, but it was time to come home. Some of us went for a final Clubwave surf and then we packed our gear, took it across on the ferry and said goodbye to the Hairy Lemon and all our friends their. We loaded up a big truck with all our gear and hoped into our shuttle bus headed for Entebbe.

It was our final drive through the villages, saying our final goodbyes to everyone and making our final waves goodbye to all the friendly locals. We left early with plenty of time as our plan wasn’t set to take off til 11.30pm. This was a wise decision as once we finally made it to the airport there was a loooooooong hold up trying to get all our boats security checked and checked in within the weight limits. Luckily after a long few hours we were all checked in with our bags set for their various destinations.

We all flew out to Belgium together. Though of course we were all spread out all over the plan-as per usual. So it was time to make some new airplane friends, even if it was midnight. It was a long flight but eventually we made it to Brussels, Belgium. Here we all found food and when time for the next flights came we split off into two groups. one headed for Chicago, the other for Washington DC. We said our goodbyes to the other group then went to our gate.

The flight to Washington DC was no faster. Another long flight, but we were back in America- the U S of A. Everyone went straight to their favourite food store.

Julia and I were set to be the last to leave, we said goodbye to each of our friends as they boarded their flights home. But after a short mishap with Jessica missing her flight we were no longer last. We boarded our flight to Denver, Colorado ready to be home (Montana). Luckily this flight was only about 3 hours which was extremely short in comparison to the rest of our trip. We arrived at Denver, found our next gate, then went straight to TCBY and bought frozen yoghurt! Followed by a stop at a really good sandwich place!

Next flight Great Falls, Montana! I was soo tired by now, I barely thought I could board the plane!

We climbed onto a small plane and set for home!

In not long we had made it! We were finally there! Exhausted and sleep deprived but full of excitement. Both of Julia’s parents were there to meet and greet us, and made me feel welcome instantly. We got our gear and headed for her Dad’s house where i was welcomed to a Huge, Comfy BED!!!! It was heaven!! We slept til 1o’clock the next day.

So far Montana has been its own world of adventure! Me and Julia hae practiced our baking skills, creating what i would call The World’s Best Apple Crumble! and Gingerbread Biscuits! Yum! We have also explored Missoula, where we rode a giant indoor carousel (merry-go-round) and i got the opportunity to paddle Brennan’s Wave(at an air temp of 0 degrees Celsius! i came out with icicles forming on me!!) We have been out to the cabin, surrounded by snow, feed squirrels ducks and canadian geese, hunting for Mountain Lions and exploring their caves and visited Fairmont (a giant hotspring resort!).

And Tomorrow we will be completing a World Record First Decent…..!

So saty tuned to find out more!!!