Well, let me first apologize for being incredibly late with this post, but I must say it was for a good cause. I have either been swamped with work, or thank the clouds my area has been blessed with uber abundant rainfall which has left the rivers still well above average as we head into Memorial Day weekend. This is truly a rare occurrence as typically this is the time of year that the bottom starts to drop out and we are left with the dam release runs.

Now lets get on to the goods. Our second event was a great success as you may have read in a prior post, but now for giving the winners their due. This years Stonycreek Rendezvous saw epic rainfalls two weeks prior to the event and then no real downpours for the two weeks leading up to which left us with low water and a truly greatful thanks to the benscreek canoe club for securing releases on the Stonycreek river via the new release valve on the Qhemahoning resevoir.

The competition saw paddlers from beginner to expert and even had a womens and sup class. The real excitement was the men’s advanced class that featured local paddlers Eli Loiben and Erik Johnson battling it out with Pro Fluid sponsored boater Seth Chapelle and Matt Booth. Lets just say even with the home hole advantage Seth showed everyone why he’s a member of the U.S. Freestyle team with a flury of big time hole moves including lunar orbits, tricky whu’s, phonix monkeys, mcnasty’s, splits, loops, and even a brown claw to loop racking up a combined 370 points after two heats. Local Erik Johnson kept going for his patented space godzillas and montrous loops but, the lower water for the event apparently messed with his timing and he came up short with a combined score of 213 points. Eli brought in 3rd with a close 205.

Results for all classes :

Womens’ : 1st Evy Schiers / 2nd Shelby Stine / 3rd Erica Cheyney
Mens’ Beginner : 1st Jeff Felton / 2nd Mike Maloney / 3rd Zach Yomboro
Mens’ Intermediate : 1st Dave Berkebile / 2nd Jack Hill / 3rd Chris Lee
Mens’ Advanced : 1st Seth Chapelle / 2nd Erik Johnson / 3rd Eli Loiben
SUP : 1st Andy Smith / 2nd Ian Smith / 3rd Rob Mazzetti

For full photo gallery