This year was a mixed bag for Reno’s annual whitewater kayaking and river celebration. The third year of drought made for low flows, and as a result not all of the top name competitors came in to compete. This festival is always a favorite of mine. It is what got me started kayaking years-ago, and I always love to compete in it and see old friends roll into town. The weather was a mixed bag also, producing freezing temperatures, rain, hail and snow during the freestyle competition on the Truckee River in downtown Reno, Nevada on Saturday, then turning warm and sunny for the boatercross on Sunday. Being a competitor in this event, I don’t shoot it too seriously. There are tons of people on shore with cameras. What I decided to do this year was focus on the shape and feeling of the water. A lot of times for me, that meant shooting a high-speed event with a very slow shutter speed. Always a risky proposition. Many of the images I kept border on the abstract this year, with a few story-telling shots thrown in for good measure. With the slow shutter speed photos, I was really looking for a sense of motion and energy with the water, but something in the face, the eye, had to be sharp to hold it all together. Others shot at a higher shutter speed I was looking more for the energy of the flying water over the kayaker in the picture. Many more photos can by found by searching my online photography archive.
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Local kayaking phenom Sage Donnelly behind a curtain of water during her freestyle kayaking competition
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Ruth Ebens, former women’s world freestyle kayaking champion in a wall of white during her ride at the Reno River Festival freestyle kayaking competition.
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I just liked the way the water comes off the bows of the boats at certain times during the ride.
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Former women’s world champion Emily Jackson’s intense concentration shows through the water clinging to her helmet brim.
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Sage and her dad Matt testing Sage’s blood sugar. Sage has juvenile diabetes and must constantly monitor and control her blood sugar, especially around competition time. Sage, despite being only 13 years old, has gone on to best nearly the entire adult women’s field in freestyle kayaking and steep creek racing.
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Sage is reflected in the glasses of her dad Matt as she gets some advice between runs. Look for Sage to paddle slalom in the coming olympics.
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We have a local cormorant that hangs out at hole 5 on the Truckee River and is known to all the local paddlers, so we had to get him in the picture with Emily.
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This shot of Emily Jackson competing during the women’s freestyle competition embodies everything that I was going for in shooting this unpredictable and fast-moving sport at 1/60th shutter speed.
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Current women’s world champion and Reno River Festival winner Clair O’Hara came over from England to whup some butt.
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The face of Demshitz and Pyrahna kayaks Dave Fusilli knows how to paddle in the cold.
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Reno local and this year’s defending champion Jason Craig, right, talks with Stephen Wright before the men’s competition.
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Stephen Wright, aka the Hobbit, giving it all he’s got.
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Stephen Wright goes huge.
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Stephen happy with his ride despite being hampered on one side by a crippling tendonitis.
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Reno local Jason Craig would easily go on to defend his title again this year.
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Happy, Happy, Zen, Zen.
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Sage on her way to destroying the women’s boatercross competition, most of whom are twice her age.
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Dave Fusilli takes the inside line, crushing Alec Vorhees in the process during the Reno River Festival boatercross competition. I should mention that all these boater cross pictures were shot by my wife as I was competing myself and made it through a few rounds before being destroyed by Colin Kemp.
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Colin Kemp on his way to destroying Dave Fusilli and taking the win in this year’s boatercross.
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In conjunction with the River Festival, the world Mystery squirt boating championships were held on the Truckee River farther upstream the following weekend. Squirtboating involves sinking your boat underwater and basically seeing how long you can stay down. The longest downtime wins. Problem is, spectators can’t see anything once a boat goes underwater. So we decided to attach glowsticks to the boats of some of the top paddlers in order to show the graceful spinning that they do while under-water.
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Clair O’Hara won the women’s world Mystery competition and set a new women’s record in the process.