I too was a spectator/volunteer at the Gorge Games this year. Not to deviate too much from the original post, but I would like to extend a sincere thank you to all the organizers, staff, Forrest Service staff, the nice folks who take care of BZ Corners, and all volunteers of the Gorge Games. This includes everyone from the TV crews to the people playing parking lot police at BZ Corners. It was hot and busy and everyone for the most part kept the atmosphere light and enjoyable. I’d also like to thank all the competitors for putting on a great display of kayaking skills. The extreme race was pretty sick and some fast lines were being laid down between Bob’s Falls and Double Drop. 

 

Granted things could have run a little smoother here and there, all in all it was a fun event. From my understanding the electronic eye was having some issues with the glare of the sun off the water and that was circumvented on Saturday’s extreme race with a revised approach. Sure, doesn’t fix the hiccups from Friday’s time-trails, but at least some progress was made.

 

As far as the boater-cross incident is concerned. I was standing on shore right where the two competitors got tangled up. The guy upside down was trying to roll and the other was trying to stay upright after the collision. It was either him using his paddle to brace off the hull of the guy’s boat or using his hand. With the other fella trying to roll up there could have been a potential paddle to the face. It didn’t appear to be malicious and it definitely didn’t manipulate which order they would have finished. Either way something would have been on the guy’s hull impeding his roll. The hand was the lesser of two evils and there really isn’t much else to say about it. 

 

As far as the accusations about being bias, I think that’s a load. I think the event organizer probably favors his reputation within the community more than seeing a local guy win the competition, especially with all the other available resources that consumers can utilize within the surrounding areas. I’m not sure whether or not he owns any portion of some other company, but it’s not like the competitor was wearing a banner for his business as he was going down the course for advertisement. So, before slamming starts of a really great guy who put a lot of time and effort into getting the event going and is for the most part pretty darn self-less, it may be a good time to re-think the trash talk. Maybe next year someone else will step up and deal with the logistics, peanut galleries telling them how it should be done, private land owners, the forest service, organizing volunteers, getting gear set up, etc, etc, etc on his spare time. I know I’d rather spectate and drink some beer because it seems like it’s a pretty thankless position after reading the first post.