HUGE thanks to the boating community from LOG...

[thecraw]

THANK YOU to everyone that made it to the 2009 Lyons Outdoor Games this past weekend.

This was by far the best attended, best flows, best staffed, best sponsored, best time in LOG's 7 year history. The boating community came out in force and that is very important for sponsors and the towns that promote our events to see this support.

American Whitewater saw a good bit of new sign ups. We had 300 people in the main tent area at one point. The short and pump track bike events had 300 spectators, and the kayak freestyle events were packed. It was a great games!!!

Growth:
The Cadet Rodeo sponsored by Jackson Kayak has seen 3 straight years of 100% growth. This year, we had 14 kids show up under 14 years old. One girl that made it to finals (Sage!) that is only 8 years old!!! We even had the Vanderhoof (sp?) brother from Idaho this year. Alec won the event with a really impressive score and his younger brother was throwing full on LOOPS!! Really awesome to watch.

The Not So Pro event had some fantastic participants. These guys were really throwing down and I have this feeling we will see some ready for the pro-level event next year! Congrats to Rob Anna for winning, but in all seriousness... The whole finals group was really good. Congrats to all of you!

The Pro event. Can't say enough here... A huge thanks to the 20 or so of them all for putting the Lyons Outdoor Games on your calendar year after year. I am talking all of the biggest names in kayaking... Stephen Wright won first place, Nick Troutman 2nd and Briak Kirk 3rd. These guys are not just pro's in the water, but are genuinely great people. Helping with the river cleanup of the Saint Vrain, doing clinics for the community, setting great examples of how to have a great time, and just being approachable to those that wanted to ask questions and whatnot. Very cool indeed.

Creek Race. Let's face it this is a huge reason everyone comes to LOG each year and this year was by far the best race in LOG's history. We saw 100% increase in flows from the past 3 years. This made for a race that will be talked about in both pro and local circles all year in anticipation for 2010. SWEET!!! Tao won, with Pat Keller in second and Brian Kirk taking third.
Only one swim was had and our super solid Safety Crew was there instantly to pull this kid out just as he entered the worst of the narrows for a swim. If they hadn't pulled him out that second, he would have been really banged up...

Which leads me to the last of this long post:

MAJOR THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUTEERS AND SAFTEY CREW!!!!
Matt Solomon is a down right professional and takes safety very seriously. He and Mike Mathers pulled together the level of safety that is demanded on a creek like SSV and they are why a race like this is possible.
Dan Gavere rode that mic as the official LOG MC all weekend and he is soooo great to have doing that. The guy can rattle off stats (most of which I had never heard of before and he knows them like the back of his hand) for THREE STRAIGHT DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!. And I am not sure he repeated anything all weekend. He has a way of drawing a crowd of people, that have little knowledge of kayaking, into the event so they can understand more of what is happening. Thank you Dan.
Also...to all the people in our community that just came out to help with whatever is needed. Mike (with too hard of a last name to remember) was my right hand man, Arn, Matt Booth, Sonia (my wife), Zala, and MANY MANY MORE.

And LASTLY and MOSTLY... to Dave Cosgrove of the town of lyons for pulling together a town behind a genuinely great time for us in the kayak community. As well as Reed Farr who managed the entire logistics of the games.

This stuff isn't easy to pull together. And very few people get paid to do it. This is done by people that care about kayaking and want to see more people get into the sport.

Thanks to you all.

Marty Cronin (craw)...

See you in 2010.

[robanna]

Thank you Marty for putting on such a great event!

[JJH]

Marty, great job with the event!!

The creek race was great to watch!

I took my kids and we had a great time all day. There was so much to do that kept us all entertained all day. Great vibes all around the town.
I am glad the weather cooperated and it sounds like it was a success for all involved. Sweet.

I wish Fort Collins could pull something like that off, but I think Lyons is just a better venue for that event.

[cheifitj]

The weekend was lots of fun! Where are the pictures?? I saw lots of folks with cameras...

[sgb3000]

I was upstream at a wedding at Planet Bluegrass on Saturday afternoon. We all got a good laugh from three stand-up paddlers who went by near the beginning of the ceremony. I think one of them fell off because a big splash was picked up by the mic. Then boaters kept floating by throughout. Hilarious. Good times.

[Rhynocerous]

Amazing event this year. Well-coordinated, awesome pro paddlers, fun boatercross, good beer. Can't wait for next year.

[nmalozzi]

Thanks for another great event, can't wait until it comes around again next year!

[Don]

Great event. The wife and kiddos gave it a big thumbs up. Next year we'll be there from day one.

Did we win anything? Go Cops!

[thecraw]

Yeah... we won our dignity! Could you imagine loosing to the "drunk and Stoopids"

The boater cross was HEEEE LARIOUS! The "Cops" pulled out the first place though. Next year, the team to beat.

Hey, wana hear something REALLY funny. So this lady is walking up on the other side of the bridge down the path and said she hears a loudspeaker saying "and here come the cops", next thing she knows there are all these kayakers running like hell towards her carrying their kayaks and running into the bushes... she didn't know what to do!!! OH man I was howling.

[Don]

That explains the guys wearing skirts running down the bike path.