(10/6-10/05)
On Thursday night, my Mother and I decided to head down to the Coosa River near Wetumpka, Alabama so I could practice on Friday. Wetumpka, AL is famous for the Julia Tutwhiler Women's Prison. With this in mind, Corey Volt and Ben Guska have a chance to get a date while they are in AL. After only an hour and a half drive we were there. We got to the dirt farm, or should I say the ant farm, to set up camp. I unpacked the tent and noticed that the tent stakes were not even in the bag. Wal-Mart here we come. I could buy a tent and an inflatable mattress for the weekend and then take it back when I got home. After some serious troubles I finally got the poles for the rain fly all put together and the tent standing nice and tall. It is now time to sleep.
Friday, Day 1
Due to almost an inch a half of rain everything was soaking wet, including my tent. Not wanting to paddle from the dam I called the Charlie Mix and asked him when he would be there. He told me give him two hours. About two hours later Charlie showed up in his 4 Runner with 35 inch mud boggers. Jon (the Baptist) met us at the dirt farm and we loaded up. This day would be an Alabama adventure like no other. We pulled up to the entrance of the road and Stephen Wright's truck was stuck in the mud. How bad you ask? He won money but spent 250.00 getting his truck out of the mud. The road beside the golf course was roughly 1/2 mile long. It was an average of 15 yards in width and was all one huge mud pit. On the trek to the river there were four trucks in the mud that were stuck and stuck bad. This included some kids that thought they could make it in there 2 wheel drive Ford Explorer. NOT! After getting to the end and getting out of the truck there was mud on everyone, every boat, every window, windshield, and every inch of the truck. Usually you have to fight for parking but not this year. No problem. After the steep and slippery 67 steps to the water, I drug my Mom's camera gear over in the Fluid Solo and had my dog, Addaline, in my lap. I had to ferry back over and take my mother over to the rock in the middle of the river. This part was hard because I could not find my extra paddle. This day was great. Great paddlers to compete against and the intensity was on the rise. The water level was a little high and made the hole flushy but was still fun. Paddlers such as Eric Jackson, Bryan Kirk, Clay Wright, Jimmy Blakeney, Eddie Hake, Corey Volt, Ben Guska, Stephen Wright, and even the voluptuous Tanya Shuman and Karyn Roy made competition stiff and challenging. After playing some on the little side of Moccasin Gap I paddled over to the big side to throw some good loops. When I got over there the Charlie Mix was in my Solo. Charlie went into the bottom hole as I went onto the top wave. He threw the biggest loop of the weekend and I had the perfect view from directly upstream of him. I could see the grass in the background under his head. After that we decided it was time to get off the river and get some sleep. On the way out we ran into Luke Hill (The Kid). Luke told us he thought he would step up and drive through the mud. He got about fifteen feet in the mud and his full size Z71 did a complete 180 degree direction change out of control and he was facing the way he came in. He then pointed out that it was a sign from God that he was stupid. After laughing at Luke we headed to the Mexican restaurant to eat and see all of Stanley's family. His cousin brought me my food. Why do Mexican's drive low riders? So they can pick tomatoes at sixty miles an hour. With camp set up it was time to get some sleep for Saturday. zzzzzz............
Saturday, Day 2
The rain did not stop and it rained some more which made the mud pit even bigger and deeper. To my surprise I woke up to see Stanley Esquivel, Team rEvolution member and just all around short guy. Southern Trails had set up shuttles to get competitors into the competition but had nothing for spectators. This was crappy since my Mother came from Hawaii to watch me compete and her father drove from Florida to do the same. I loaded my stuff in the truck and Tia asked me if I had some Swim Ear. I told her I did and proceeded to walk down to the campsite really quick to get it. When I came back up the shuttle was nowhere to be found. This really sucked considering they drove off with all my gear and not to mention they could not even spell shuttle. It said "suttle vehicles". I talked to Lonnie Carden (the event organizer, not that the Coosa is ever CENSORED organized) about getting to the cousins where my gear was located. One of Southern Trails employees drove me down there. I had to walk 3/4 of a mile to the river and my stuff was lying there. I stuffed my dry clothes into the top of the Wavesport van and headed down the river with my dog. I got there and we were soon to start the competition. The first competition would be Nationals located on the little side of Moccasin Gap. Competition was stiff and some interesting moves were thrown. The hole was still a little flushy so these moves were hard to stick. They took the top ten and I made it at seventh place. In the next round we took two rides and the best one counted. This was time to throw your best tricks and throw it down. I had a great ride with a space godzilla, both blunts and backstabs, left cartwheels, and a front flip to end it. I won my heat but then had to wait on the top five to compete. God have it they all beat me. The last five otherwise known as the "Ol Geezer Heat” would consist of Eric Jackson, Clay Wright, Stephen Wright, Bryan Kirk, and Jimmy Blakeney. They all went off and I ended up in sixth place. Not bad and I definitely was not with bad company. We waited on the women and then headed over to the big side to compete in the Freestyle Through a Rapid/ Big Trick Contest. Jimmy and EJ were not present because they flew out to the Whitewater Park Symposium. Still the competition was great. I always really enjoy this side because you get to see everyone’s different styles of paddling. There were some nice tricks thrown including, Bryan Kirk's helix, Clay Wright's mcnasty, my flipkick, and some random competitor huge CENSORED macho man. Now it was time to relax and have a good time. We goofed off for a little while trying to surf together until my stomach started to eat on my backbone. I was hungrier than Damien on a seven day fast. We were on our way to the Mexican restaurant again to see Stanley's family. I sat down and got a small margarita. I drank it and started eating my fajitas. As I got close to being done Kristine Jackson bought me a large margarita in order to celebrate since I competed well. Let me tell you about these margaritas. They are fish bowls with a base connected to them. After babysitting it and finally got here capped off we were headed back to the party. With the help of my girlfriend, I made it to the car without falling down. At the party we got to listen to Moe play and it was amazing, as he always is. It was great to dance with my girl and to watch some of the other white people try and dance. The best dancer award went to Stanley himself. Right before we went to bed some of the locals started a huge bonfire. Van thought it would be a great idea to push the wood into the middle of the fire with is truck. SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! Huge dent and scrapes did not faze him. We had a great fire and even better time besides fighting the millions of ants.
Sunday, Day 3
Headache, headache, headache. I was the last one up due to the circumstances of the To Kill Ya. We got to breakfast at Huddle House which Jon the Baptist should have good memories of lol... We eat and then head to the river. The Charlie Mix decided that he would drive the Purple Haze mobile down through the mud pit. Once again we were jamming Lynard Skynard, head banging, and slangin mud everywhere. This day would be more video and just having fun. After I get a couple of kayaking hours in and started to notice that I was so tired that I could not breathe or do anything for that matter. I decided to call it quits. Three days of good kayaking with good friends and now we are headed home. It was great to see all my friends from all over near my house. I also want to thank everyone that had anything to do with putting together competitions in Alabama. Between the North Alabama Whitewater Festival and Nationals it was a fantastic year for exposure of kayaking in our great state of Alabama.
Nationals Small side of Moccasin’s Gap
Men's Pro-
1. Clay Wright
2. Eric Jackson
3. Jimmy Blakeney
4. Stephen Wright
5. Bryan Kirk
6. Jeremy Adkins (Team Fluid)
Women's Pro-
1. Karen Roy
2. Tanya Shuman
3. Devon Barker
Freestyle Through Rapid and Big Trick Contest
Men's Pro-
1. Bryan Kirk
2. Jeremy Adkins (Team Fluid)
3. Clay Wright
Monday, Day 4
Well after a great weekend of kayaking it was now time to relax. Oh wait that is not going to happen considering I have to have a wisdom tooth removed. For some Alabamians this could be terrible because they would only have one tooth left. It was really impacted so it took some grinding and prying but it did not come out. Now time to suffer and be miserable. Now I need some of the three S's and I will be great. Sex, Sleep, Soup. Until Next time.
Peace,
Jeremy Adkins A.K.A. Flying Skeleton
