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02
Aug

NFC 2021

This is the best race that I go to. Over the years I have been to so many races and freestyle competitions, but NFC just stands out in the crowd. The energy of this event is just unmatched in my opinion.

The race course is always very challenging. You are dropping in on a big water class V rapid and trying to hit these very difficult gates. Here you can see young buck Jeremy Nash crushing the course in the large Scorch!
Anna Wagner mentally preparing to drop into the chaos.
Anna dropping in!

From the top of the ramp you can basically see the entire race course. The crowd is just going off for each racer. Like I said the energy here is just amazing!

Holt Mcwhirt about to style the first 2 gates.

Gate number 1 to gate number 2 was the hardest move for most of us out there. You have to do this weird late boof while leaning over to not hit that first gate. Right of number 1 and left of number 2. After the 2nd gate the move was to charge to the right for another wild S turn to get to the left of gate 3. Then you charge at rock drop for an upstream gate at number 4.

Myself going high on gate 4. Some paddlers went high and around this one and others came low. I think coming in low might have been more consistent, but if you could stick it the way I was headed here it was very fast.

After gate 4 you basically had to ferry across one of the biggest holes on the North Fork over to gate 5 for another upstream gate. If you were able to clean these five gates it was pretty smooth sailing to the last 2 gates and into the finish line. Unfortunately, I missed one gate on each of my runs. To be honest it’s so tricky to put it all together out there it’s kind of hard to be disappointed. For me the stout ferry move was the least of my concerns, but of course thats the one that got me on my better of 2 runs.

Myself again flying at gate 4. This is called Rock Drop.
Holt and Jeremy preparing for their runs in true demshitz fashion.

This is a true demshitz style race. It’s hard, pretty short and fun as hell. NFC has plenty of none class V partying and paddling surrounding the event. There’s a film fest, boater X and festival that makes for such a great reunion of some amazing people in the community. I really cannot say enough about this event and the amount of people and work put into making it all happen!

We had all the boats out there, but honestly I was mainly answering questions about the Scorch.

After all, Pyranha did have 4 Scorch’s in the finals. Myself, Bernie Engelman, Jeremy Nash and Holt Mcwhirt were all paddling the Large Scorch out there. Maybe next year they will let us race the X! I personally have not paddled or hung out with this crew of young bucks much until this event. These dudes are the real deal. As demshitz get older and the new age of shit runners come into the picture I couldn’t be more happy with these guys and gals! From my view point Pyranha has been not been just about great paddlers, but more about great people. The folks that were out there representing our brand are such great people, hard workers and an awesome asset to Pyranha.

Keeping it Shrig out there.
Jeremy Nash 3rd place!

Man the crowd went wild when Jeremy Nash’s name was called up to the podium for a 3rd place finish. He smashed the race course out there!

Here is a quick look at the first 4 gates at the race. This was my first run. I was flying through the top 4 gates which I was most concerned with, but then I blew the ferry over to number 5.

Thanks to all involved with putting this amazing event together and thanks to John Webster and Jasper Gibson for the great photos! I will be back next year ! XXXXXXXXXXX

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