They dominate the Junior devision. I might be wrong here but I feel it is unfair that they are in the junior devision. Dane and Nick get to kayak all day long and are both homeschooled. I just think that they are so good that they should be in the mens division. This is in no way a knock to them. They are amazing athelets I just think that for kids that have to go to school and then kayak should be givin a chance. I may be in the minority here, but i think you would get more kids out to competions if those two were in the mens devision. I think EJ said that dane has beaten ever major freestyle person in a comp. I just think when you are scoreing 86 points (EJ scored 72) you should be in the mens division.


what do you think? I am a crazy person?

oh and I am 19 so its just a thought not like i could benifit from it nor have i been crushed by these two. I am just a humble class 3 boater with opinions

Nick Troutman is not homeschooled.
He went to highschool here in the Ottawa Valley.
But I think he did skip his grad ceremony to kayak
If you are a child, even though you score high rides, you should still compete as a child.
I could score a 3-point ride, and I have to work 40 hours a week, but they won't let me compete Jr Women's

sorry i thought he was my mistake but i think that if you score super high every time i would get bored crushing everyone. or are they not allowed to go up a class

There was a similar case a while ago with the young Dikkie Chrimes (UK paddler) he was beating mens score while still a juinior. What he did about this was to start entering the Mens AND the Juniors and on several occasions (quite a few actually I belive) won both!

Denzil

It's called sandbagging. If you can do as well as the men why not give you're self a challenge?

KieranL wrote:

It's called sandbagging.

No it is not.

Sandbagging is performing deliberatly badly to get into a lower ability class / get less handicap so that you can then rule the roost.

The term sandbagging comes from racing cars in handicap races putting sandbags in there cars through the speed trials to slow there cars down to get a handicap advantage and then removing the sandbags for the race.

These guys are just good for there age, they are not pretending to be pants to get into the Juniors they are just not 18 yet so accusing them of sandbagging is a little off.

Denzil

Exactly.

They are allowed to go up a class if they want, but I think that both Emily and Dane were encouraged by their parents to compete in their Jr classes. Emily has beat the women on many occasions. They only have one chance to be a kid and compete in the Jr class.
They'll be killing the Pro class in a few years when they are old enough.

Kids like Nick Troutman, Joel Kowalski, Todd Baker all went to normal high-schools (with the exception of Todd's semester with HUGE) and still dominated the Jr Class. So you can be a great paddler and NOT be homeschooled, and homeschooling does not necessarily give anyone an advantage over others.

why does it even matter to you, i personally paddle for fun (and to teach others)

since these 'celebrities'dont compete with you why cant you just wind your neck in or just say,

\"that dane jackson, hes one good paddler, he does really well, gd for him\"

paddle for FUN

batman

Age classes are their for a reason, to seperate the men from the boys. If the boys are that good you should be impressed and learn from excellent grasp of a sport. As freesyle gets more and more popular they may incorporate more age catagories 35-45 masters, over 45 as Sr. class as it was done in my glory days as a slalom racer.

Careful what you wish for, Eric Jackson is in his early 40's maybe you would feel better getting spanked by someone older. Humble pie taste the same either way.

If your winning in your perspective age group either because of good genes or the time you put into it or both... the mear mortals should commend that not condem it.

Emily just won the womens class in the second world cup event in North America. In one way it is great that she competes with us \"seniors\", since we are realising that we really have to train to keep up. I deeply think that it will be a push in the womens division, we have to step it up...
(I mean, she is out there training, all the time, I only beat her to the hole one morning, and I was up at 6. am!)

But for Dane to compete in juniors is totally understandable. Whereas in the Junior Womens class I think Emily might get bored once in a while, since the fact is that there are still less girls paddling than men, so the competition is less hard. However, to be on top of the game in the junior Mens class, that is a tough one. You have to remember to look at the score of number two on the result list, lots and lots and lots of the junior men had super high scores in the two last world cups, not just Dane.

I guess the big point here is that the kids have plenty of time to become seniors and compete seniors, so let them compete juniors if they want to. In the end, watching them kick ass at this point just makes me realise how much I would have loved to have started paddling at an earlier age, and that my kids (whenever I get some) will be encouraged to get on the water from a very early stage....

I would say that of course it matters a bit that especially these to have had the chance to train from an early age, and eventhough Nick Troutman etc was not in home school, he still grew up on one of the best playrivers in the world, with garberator in the backyard. Now that is to blame for his incredible skill level...

In the end, it is all about doing the best out of your situation and the possibilities you have on your doorstep.