Nick Troutman, a Profesional Kayaker, World Freestyle Kayak Champion from Beachburg, ON. Canada was at the annual Reno River Festival. He has been going there for many years due to it’s downtown location, great river features, huge festival. The River Fest is always sure to be a good time, and this year was no exception, a two days experience of hardcore leisure and wet and wild fun.
The Reno River Festival kicks off the special events season and celebrates its 15th epic year. The whitewater competition is just one excuse why more than 40,000 outdoor enthusiasts flock to Wingfield Park and the Truckee River to enjoy whole day full of kayaking, live music, carnival rides, games, food, shopping, and of course beer!.
The weekend long event started Saturday morning with some yoga in the park followed by the Freestyle Prelims. They all through down and kicked off the weekend with a couple bog tricks and high scores. And after the Juniors, and both Pro Men and Women finished up Preliminary rounds they launched their new event, SUP Surf. This was a great addition to the River Festival as it continues to bring more people, spectators and athletes to the river banks. The SUP Surf was judged similarly to how surfing is scored, with a 1-10 system.
They saw many great rides, tricks and individual styles, though after the dust settled, Nick Troutman took home the top honors for SUP Surf. The event was full of fun, the day continued on with several different bands, mixing up a plethora of genres from old school rock, to pop, country and R&B. Summer is synonymous with music and the Reno River Festival delivers. The music festival schedule showcased seven awesome acts and promises two days of outstanding performances. Headlining on Saturday is Jimmie Allen; he’s taking country music by storm and was recently named one of Billboard’s “15 Country Artists to watch in 2018.” Sunday’s headliner is Brewer’s Grade, one of the most sought after independent artists for their unique brand of Northwest Country music. The evening rolled in with some scattered showers, though as always the show must go on, and they rolled into their Semi Finals Rounds, with even more high flying tricks.
The sun was shining down on the early morning racers as the crowds formed around the river. The day was kicked off with Slalom races, both in kayak and SUP. There were a couple fast paddlers, but Nick and Emily (Nick’s wife) were able to secure Silver medals. Sage Donnelly take her recent slalom training and crush the course with some fluid style and raw power.
This year there was also the addition of SUP-X, which Nick was also narrowly able to take, battled to the finish, and secured his second Gold medal of the event. Nick made it to the stacked finals against Toby, Colin Kemp, and Pete DeLosa. He was able to take the lead off the start and hold his position as the rest of the crew fought for there podium places. He racked up his third Gold of the event in Boater-X. Though the real heat was about to come in the freestyle finals.
The day turned to afternoon, as the crowds grew. Everyone was having a blast, the kids rode all the rides, ate ice-cream and got there faces painted. Emily was able to break the tie on her last run, and take home another Reno Gold in Freestyle, as she has done many years before.
In the end it was a terrific weekend, they were able to take home quite to bundle of trophies. You just can’t beat listening to great music while lounging next to the beautiful Truckee River on a beautiful Spring day!
Watch the video and share with Nick Troutman and crew some raw moments freestyle and much fun from the 2018 high water spring melt stakeout season.
sweet video dude, i wish my boat/dry suit looked that good!!