<< Back 12/11/02 Jiffy Slalom returns to cold waters Beginners and champions mingle to brave Tuckasegee By Don Hendershot Frothy whitewater and temperatures in the low 20s may not sound like the most appealing scenario, but 54 paddlers dove right in for last Saturday’s Jiffy Slalom in Bryson City. Chris Hipgrave interim executive director of Nantahala Racing Club — sponsor of the Jiffy Slalom — said the race was a kickoff for the new paddling season. “Most races wind up around September. The athletes take a couple of months off to relax and catch their breath. This race is a test of paddlers’ fitness levels and a reminder that it’s time to start training again,” Hipgrave said. No one knows for sure how old the Jiffy is, but it’s been around for at least 10 years according to Hipgrave. It draws racers of every level from first-timers to world champions. “I was excited to see the large number of new faces coming to participate alongside the Olympians, world champions and national team members,” Hipgrave said. The world champion present Saturday was Rebecca Giddens. Giddens won the world championship in August in Bourg St. Maurice, France. She is the first American woman and the second American paddler to ever win a world championship. Giddens handily won the women’s division by 45 seconds on Saturday. The water was brimming with talent. Joining Giddens were Olympians Joe Jacobi, Matt Taylor and Lecky Haller and USA national team members Scott McClesky, David Hepp, Pablo McCandless, and Junior team members Elliot Poe and Jeffrey Poe, among others. Joining these veteran racers were people like James Klaucke, a junior racer from the Atlanta Center for Excellence, who was participating in his first race. ACE coach Mike Herd said his group had 15 paddlers participating in the Jiffy. All told, many of the elite in the paddling world attended. Among those was the French coach of the U.S. Slalom Team. Seventeen year-old Mark Stillman made the trip from Chicago to test his skills. “I needed to see where I was. I came for the experience,” Stillman said. Despite having troubles with one of the gates, Stillman finished third in the K1-Jr. division. Besides competing, Haller, who now lives in Asheville, was there to keep an eye on a group of young paddlers he was coaching. Haller finished fourth in the C1 division. Scott McClesky had a couple of things to celebrate Saturday. He and partner David Hepp won the C2 division by not quite two seconds over Jacobi and Taylor. After the races, McClesky and his spouse, Aleta, were planning to celebrate their Nov. 30 wedding vows along the Nantahala River with their paddling comrades. The Jiffy was followed Sunday by the Wildwater Downriver Race. The Downriver is a grueling, all-out, three-mile run down the Tuckasegee from the Dillsboro put-in to Barkers Creek. Hipgrave spent Saturday occupying himself as a race official watching the paddlers as they made their way through the slalom gates. The 2002 National Wildwater Champion spent Sunday in the creek where he was nipped by five seconds in the Downriver race by Pablo McCandless. While results in Saturday’s and Sunday’s races do not count in official standings they are a good gauge of an athlete’s conditioning and get paddlers geared for the “real thing” like February’s Glacier Breaker, hosted by the Nantahala Racing Club at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. National qualifiers follow quickly on the heels of the Glacier Breaker, scheduled for the end of March at NOC.