Ben Peters Paddles Hard in Colorado

MK Junior Ambassador Ben Peters has been slaying the rivers in Colorado lately.  Here he checks in with some updates:

These past two weeks have been really hectic and fun!  I have learned and gained so much.  My first week in Colorado was in Salida for the 60th anniversary of FIBark.  The water was really high and cold, but I was certainly well-dressed and prepared for it.  I placed in the sport freestyle, slalom, sprint downriver, classic downriver, the infamous 26-mile downriver and the Hooligan Race.  During competition weekend I never had downtime, I was always competing in one event or another. 

I was really happy with my results!  Freestyle: 1st place, Downriver sprint and classic: 2nd place, 26-mile downriver: 4th place, slalom: 4th place, Hooligan Race = major carnage and entertainment.  I also made the Junior National Downriver Team, I am the second boat on the team.  It was a great festival once again and I look forward to it next year too!

After FIBark I headed back with my team to Golden, CO for a week of training and freestyle competitions.  My daily routine is a 3-mile run, calisthenics and two sessions of slalom.  At the weekly Golden Freestyle I took 1st place in junior expert freestyle and overall boatercross.

My next adventure was to Durango Animas River Days.  The Animas was really high creating a world class slalom course.  On a certain ferry across the wave, Smelter, I could get air in my slalom boat right into an upstream gate.  My results in Animas River Days were 1st place in Junior Expert freestyle and 4th in Junior Slalom.  I had a wonderful time paddling and hope to visit Durango next year.

I have now been training very hard in Golden for the up and coming Junior Olympics in Wisconsin.  I have had a breakthrough in the past couple of days in slalom and freestyle.  It is a very satisfying feeling to have all my hard work begin to pay off.  We are headed off for the world's best proclaimed wave in Glenwood Springs, CO tomorrow.  Should make for some epic paddling.