The North Fork Championship was a whitewater kayaking extreme race located on the North Fork of the Payette River, just north of Banks, Idaho. The North Fork of the Payette River is one of the most well known class V rivers in the world, most notably for the extremely continuous big water. The first race was held in 2012 and has become an annual race. The North Fork Championship, or NFC, on or around the second weekend in June and brings the best whitewater kayakers from around the world to race down the infamous rapid called “Jacob's Ladder”. The NFC is unique in the sense that it takes an extremely dangerous and difficult rapid, and forces the racers to make different maneuvers in the rapid that are very challenging and that they wouldn't normally choose to run. After just one year, American Canoe and Kayak named the North Fork Championship as the 2013 Sanctioned Event of the Year, since then it has attracted even more top level kayakers from around the globe.

Race Format

Elite Race The main event of the weekend on Saturday is the Elite Race on Jacobs Ladder. To race down Jacob's Ladder, one must be invited in one of three different ways: take top 5 in the Expert Race (the qualifier), be previously voted in as one of 15 racers by The Trick Force, or be part of The Trick Force (the top 10 finishers in the previous years race). To be voted in, paddlers must submit an application, stating why they believe they are capable of racing, as well as why they should be invited.

The Elite Race is an extreme slalom time trial. Each racer goes down the course one at a time to have the fastest time, while also navigating around “gates” that are determined by the organizers to make the racers do challenging and difficult maneuvers. Failure to go on the correct side of the gate results in a 50-second penalty, and touching the gate results in a 5-second penalty. Each racer gets 2 runs down the course, and the fastest time is recorded for the results.

Expert Race The Expert Race serves as the race that allows anyone that is capable of paddling the whitewater. It is held down on the S-Turn Rapid, located on the "Upper 5" section on the North Fork. This race was previously held on the "Lower 5" section of the river during the first few years. S-Turn is a class V rapid, but more manageable for a wider variety of people compared to Jacob's Ladder. Over 150 racers go one at a time to have the fastest raw time. Motivation can be to just get out and race, beat their friends, or try and qualify for the Elite Race.

Boater X The Boater X is a head to head race locate on a rapid called S-turn. The top 35 racers from the Expert Race, along with the invited Elite division are allowed to compete in this race. The Boater X is not timed, it is just simply a tournament style head to head, with the top half of the racers in each heat moving on to the next round.

Results

2012: NFC I Elite Division PlaceRiderBibTime1Ryan Casey802:17.4102Tyler Bradt1202:18.5303Mikkel St. Jean Duncan902:18.7904Wilz Martin0502:18.9105Geoff Calhoun202:19.2506Pat Keller3002:19.5407Ben Marr1402:20.9708Evan Garcia502:22.7509Jakub Nemec702:25.90010Fred Coriell1802:34.31011Kyle Hull402:35.0612Rush Sturges1302:36.8413Jonny Meyers1702:51.6514Tristan McClaran2202:54.3515Lane Jacobs2103:02.7516Andrew Holcombe303:12.6917Chris Gragtmans1603:16.1218Darren Albright0203:17.5019Jesse Murphy2003:19.1620Dan Menten1103:22.5621Chris Mctaggert0603:32.7822Dan Simenc1903:39.8423Ryan Lucas1503:48.4424Ben Luck0104:08.5325Mira Kodada1005:56.00Zach Fraysier03DNF

2013: NFC II Elite Division PlaceRiderBibTime1Louis Geltman1601:57.202Gerd Serrasolses1101:59.813Rush Sturges1201:59.844Evan Garcia802:00.885Andrew Holcombe1402:01.166Todd Wells1302:02.787Ryan Casey102:10.288James Byrd2002:10.319Jules Domine1702:13.3810Kyle Hull1902:14.3611Lane Jacobs0302:16.7912Chris Gragtmans1502:17.4813Ben Marr702:25.3814Brian Ward2102:25.4215Ian McClaran2402:37.4616Geoff Calhoun502:39.4117Eric Deguil0102:51.6718Dylan Thomson1802:57.1219Mikkel St. Jean Duncan302:59.1020Ben Luck2203:01.2021Jakub Nemec903:01.5022Tristan McClaran2503:04.4523Erik Johnson2303:37.9924Darren Albright0203:55.2025Marcos Gallegos0504:42.40

2015: NFC IV Elite Division PlaceRiderBibTime1Gerd Serrasolses42:05.502Dane Jackson92:06.293Isaac Levinson122:07.424Aniol Serrasolses152:08.945Alec Voorhees132:11.196Tren Long032:14.137Todd Wells52:15.898Nouria Newman232:16.029Kyle Hull142:16.3010Kalob Grady162:16.6711Andrew Holcombe72:17.9312Louis Geltman182:17.9813Nick Troutman102:18.3914Brendan Wells052:19.6315Erik Johnson242:19.6616Galen Volckhausen222:20.2817Eric Deguil112:21.3118Rush Sturges62:25.5319Tyler Bradt172:28.4320Liam Fournier252:29.2321Nathan Garcia192:32.4322Seth Stoenner202:32.4923Joey Simmons012:33.1624Jules Domine13:08.4925Brad McMillan023:13.0726Eric Parker213:13.22Ryan Mooney04Egor Voskoboynikov2Evan Garcia3Joe Morley8

2014: NFC III Elite Division PlaceRiderBibTime1Jules Domine901:59.182Egor Voskoboynikov2102:02.523Evan Garcia402:03.204Gerd Serrasolses202:04.635Todd Wells602:05.346Rush Sturges302:05.797Andrew Holcombe502:05.988Joe Morley1402:06.279Dane Jackson1302:09.4910Nick Troutman2502:10.1211Aniol Serrasolses1902:10.2012Ryan Casey702:11.8513Bryan Kirk1202:12.3614Eric Deguil1702:13.7515Seth Stoenner2202:13.7916Galen Volckhausen1502:19.7817Erik Johnson1602:23.7718Momo Castillo0302:37.8619Louis Geltman102:51.1420Alec Voorhees0402:55.7921Pangal Andrade Astorga0103:01.5322James Byrd803:03.4523Geoff Calhoun0503:06.6024Isaac Levinson2403:09.0725Ben Marr1803:10.1326Brendan Wells2003:18.6427Brian Ward2303:22.0228Katrina Van Wijk1103:24.89Kyle Hull10DNSTren Long02DNS

2016: NFC V Elite Division PlaceRiderBibTime1Dane Jackson21:57.602Tad Dennis161:58.283Kyle Hull91:59.004Alec Voorhees52:00.315Aniol Serrasolses42:00.536Joe Morley112:01.677Nick Troutman122:08.908William Griffith182:10.359Rush Sturges172:10.7110Evan Moore032:11.8211Isaac Levinson32:11.9312Kalob Grady102:14.3513Tren Long62:16.6114Sam Ellis052:17.1015Dave Fusilli212:18.0116Brendan Wells152:18.0917Nouria Newman82:27.6618Will Pruett192:49.0819Todd Wells72:50.7220Galen Volckhausen202:54.5221Matias Lopez022:54.0922Louis Geltman132:56.1823Ben Kinsella262:57.7124Phil Mitchell043:03.6025Pat Keller143:06.4026Aaron Mann243:06.7827Pedro Andrade Astorga013:15.7328Ben Marr253:29.0129Sam Grafton234:09.55

References