Words: Eric Jackson

Photos: Eric Jackson, Filip Nagy/Red Bull Content Pool, the International Canoe Federation and CanoePhotography

Bio

‘EJ’ won the Freestyle World Championship four times – in 1993, 2001, 2005, and 2007, finishing second in 2009. He was given the Everest Award in 2005 and 2007, given to the top freestyler kayaker in the world. Jackson worked for many years for canoe manufacturers as a kayak designer, but in 2003 founded his own company Jackson Kayak. He is now President/CEO of Apex Watercraft.

Extreme slalom – the coming storm

The kayaking world (if you are the Americas) or the canoeing world (if you are from most of the rest of the world) has had many inflexion points over the years. Downriver racing was one of the first catalysts for growth, then slalom, then plastic boats. From there, freestyle (rodeo at the time) created a significant influx of paddlers.

The peak of whitewater kayak sales was around the turn of the century, and a decline in numbers happened, but the sport kept evolving. Creek boating, waterfall running, and now downriver freestyle is becoming popular among the top paddlers. Plenty of other subcultures also created changes in how people paddled, viewed paddling, and what you see in the media. Squirt boating, expedition boating, ‘extreme racing’, boater cross racing, instruction is a big influence as well, of course, and what they teach.

There is a new kid in town, or more precisely, a familiar face has found a new home, where it will create massive change in an established sport. Boatercross, or head to head racing, becoming adopted by the ICF as an official sport, and then by the IOC for the Olympics, will have a profound effect on a sport that has remained very much the same for 20-30 years, whitewater slalom.

Olympic slalom

I started racing slalom back in 1983 and made the USA Team for the first time in 1989 before it was on the Olympic roster. (Yes, it had a one-time appearance in 1972, but in 1992 it became a reoccurring event) Slalom saw a massive shot in the arm from 1988-1996 as countries worldwide had a new Olympic event to rally around, with new sponsors, government support, full-time coaches, new equipment, etc. The amount of focus, energy, money, media, etc., that went into slalom kayaking back then was likely ten times the amount before the Olympics. There was a downside, but the adrenaline injected into the sport was impossible to miss.

Since 1996 the sport continued to operate at a high level in the top tier of national federations, the artificial whitewater park building craze, and top-level athletes. However, the sport hit a plateau in participation, and the support was mainly at the top level. It changed the mantra of kids starting the sport from a, “That kayak racing looks fun, I want to paddle and do some racing” to “I am training for the Olympics”, and as we all know, only one or two athletes from any country will get to compete in the Olympics, every four years. Hence, kids discover quickly that their goal won’t be realized, and their initial reason for starting the sport disappears. This is where the sport struggles to grow again.

Now, however, a big shot of adrenaline has been administered to ‘canoe slalom’. Extreme slalom is now an official 2024 Olympic Sport. Two more spots on each country’s national team have been added. There are Olympic positions for 1 K1, 1 K1W, 1 C1, 1 C1W, 1 K1 extreme, and 1 K1W extreme, with 50% more spots for each country to send athletes to the Olympics and 50% more spots for the World Championships and World Cups.

What we are about to see is a shakeup in slalom. The skill required to win traditional slalom today is greater than for Extreme Slalom for two reasons. One, fewer athletes training in extreme slalom, for fewer years, and there is an element of luck that doesn’t exist in traditional slalom. As athletes begin to realize this, the second tier athletes in slalom today will see extreme slalom as a faster and more feasible way to get on the podium and make their mark. Sure, there will be purists who will shun the idea of racing in this event that, “Makes a mockery of their sport,” but they will be left behind and, with that attitude, will spend the rest of their career disappointed in what they see. There is no stopping the train.

Bottom line, extreme slalom provides the media and spectators with a much better show in that little to no experience with the sport is required to understand what is going on.

I have been racing and organizing boater cross events and true ‘Extreme Slalom’ events since the ’90s. The first-ever Pre-World Extreme Kayak Championships was on the Fish Ladder at Great Falls of the Potomac River in 1996 and the World Championships in 1997. It was the first head to head racing on real whitewater in the same format you see today under the ICF. However, boater cross has never had a governing body that adopted it and provided races, national teams, and the holy grail, the Olympics, until now. That tidbit of history was to stage up my look into the crystal ball for the future.

I am betting on this future. How do you know I am betting on it? I started a brand new whitewater kayak company, Apex Watercraft, and my first design is an extreme slalom kayak, the Ringer. I am making it in three sizes. I wouldn’t do that if I didn’t know what was coming.

Before I get into that, it is important to understand the first few years of Extreme Slalom under the ICF had a lot of ‘growing pains’. The ICF didn’t have the experience with the sport to write the rules or judge the athletes to achieve the goals of their new event, which was added to the roster for one main reason – to save slalom from being kicked out of the Olympics. There was not a big push by the masses to add extreme slalom; it was a ‘top-down’ decision since slalom is one of the most expensive events in the summer Olympics to run (build a whitewater course for four gold medals). Adding Extreme Slalom reduces the cost/medal by 50%. It adds a new exciting event that the spectators and TV Coverage will gravitate towards and assure that whitewater kayaking stays an Olympic sport.  

This doesn’t mean that the traditional slalom isn’t exciting and amazing in every way to watch. The athletes today are way better than when I was in the Olympics. However, it is what it is. Extreme slalom is the saviour of slalom.  

Back to the challenges that the ICF had

Slalom judges behind closed doors judged athletes and had a ‘safety rule’. Often you would see as many as one or two athletes in each heat getting disqualified for being too aggressive, missing a gate, false starting, etc. Like myself in my first World Cup in Prague, the athletes were disappointed to race, get to the finish line in the top two and then be kicked out of the race.

Many athletes who came specifically to race in Extreme Slalom left angry and disappointed and vowed never to do that again. Spectators lost the ability to watch a race and know who won. They would see the order of finishing but have to wait to see who was disqualified and still not know why. It was a buzz kill, to say the least.

After I got disqualified in my first World Cup as a member of the USA Team, I wrote my own set of rules based on 30 years of ‘best practices’ from races that I have organized or competed in. We have seen all of the issues the ICF was seeing before. The wheel didn’t need reinventing, just best practices employed. I put those rules on my Facebook page, and the ICF approached me at the next World Cup to discuss those rules with them and ask for help. It was critical that the ICF had the sport Olympic ready by 2023 at the latest. I was very impressed that an organization led by Jean Michel Prono, a 40-year veteran coach and organizer, was open to outside council. It was great to see and gave me confidence in the future of slalom overall. My suggestions were not crazy but focused on:

1. Course design to assure safety (don’t put upstreams at the bottom of the biggest drops where high-speed impacts will break faces, ribs, etc.).
2. Allow full contact for passing without disqualifying athletes.
3. All races head to head so that every athlete who comes to race from around the world gets a chance to race head to head, versus a ‘time trial’, which eliminated most of the field in a single slalom race in plastic boats (another buzz kill).
4. Starting ramp needs a gate to eliminate false starts. This was a real issue, especially as starters would sometimes say “Go” if they saw somebody moving to prevent a false start, which gives the false starter the advantage.

The future

Extreme slalom will ramp up quickly over the next two years. Coaches and Federations are just now realizing that a medal in extreme slalom is worth as much as a medal in traditional slalom. They will focus on recruiting slalom racers to race in extreme slalom first, as they are best equipped to do well. (Fast, familiar with the courses, and used to racing). However, the traditional kayaking, creek racing, freestyle, and recreational paddlers will also start entering. The Dane Jackson’s of the world, who are fast, and incredible competitors, can step in as equals to the best slalom racers, as long as head to head is the format.

The lure of the Olympics is a strong one. To go to the Olympics means putting your national team in the top position. Training, having the right equipment, and being the best at the event, not just lucky, will play more of a factor each year. Coaches are just learning the sport. They are offering some good coaching, some lousy coaching. The top athletes have to train the coaches, and the coaches have to study. The rules are different now than last year; the courses are different and format different, so coaches and athletes need to be on their toes. Early adopters will beat out the heavily organized regimes.

What will become of the sport in 10 years?

Kids will be choosing between slalom and extreme slalom. 80% of the media will focus on extreme slalom by 2024. You’ll see highlights of the traditional slalom races on TV, and you’ll see the entire semi-finals and finals for Extreme Slalom. You’ll have kayak companies like Apex Watercraft focusing on the sport, with dedicated designs and marketing around the sport. Extreme slalom will dwarf slalom in the total exposure and consequently in participation. Setting up a course for extreme slalom is much easier. No ramp necessary, no gates necessary if you don’t want them for local races.

Traditional slalom will never go away. It is such a fantastic sport and display of skills and athleticism. However, I don’t think those 100% focused on traditional slalom will welcome extreme slalom into their world for long. I don’t like one more than another; they are both dear to my heart. However, I have already spent many years on Team USA for traditional slalom. I have only one year under my belt in Extreme Slalom, and my chance of a second Olympic run is much higher racing in my new Ringer in the extreme slalom event. What does that say about the sport when a 58-year-old says, “I am training for the Olympics.” It says that the hopes can be higher for this event than most for more people. Hope is a strong motivator, and it attracts people.

The ICF did it right – a tough decision but a great addition that will secure its future. Of course, freestyle is missing from the Olympics. To add freestyle would mean that either C1 slalom or some flatwater racing category would have to be dropped. That won’t happen unless it is a matter of survival again. I wondered if I would ever compete in the Olympics in freestyle. Now, I wonder if my kids will be able to? An accurate representation of whitewater kayaking would have freestyle, of course.

Ten years from now, we’ll see how clear my crystal ball is. Does anyone want to start a betting pool?