I personally really enjoy paddling the Green, but I haven’t run Gorilla in some years and I have no desire to race over it!  So, I have a lot of respect for the men and women who race.  This year’s top female is 21 year old Adriene Levknecht, a very talented paddler who lives in Hendersonville, NC and is no stranger to the class V scene.   Not only did she win the women’s division, but she also broke the record for the fastest women’s time ever.  I enjoy paddling with Adriene and I thought you’d like to hear about how she approaches paddling so I asked her a few questions.  Here’s some insight into the life of this talented young paddler.

GAP:  How long have you been paddling and hoe did you into the sport?

AL:  I have been in kayaks for about 14 years.  Growing up in Michigan my parents were both sea kayakers so that got taught to me when I was a child. That spawned into river kayaking when I was around 11.

GAP:   Your Mom paddles and she is very supportive of you. How does it feel to have a Mom who paddles? Is it fun?

AL:  I love it, I really like going kayaking with her when I can. She is my biggest fan and I am her biggest fan for sure.  She just paddled down the Tellico and I love being able to talk to her about kayaking, it is a really big part in both of our lives. She can understand the lingo and I don’t have to dumb anything down for her. I love her more than anything I have ever felt and I know I couldn’t do what I do without her and her support.

GAP:  What was your training strategy for the race?

AL:  Living with Shane Benedict. He pushed me as much as he could. I spent a lot of time doing flat water on Lake Summit. I did a mix between sprints and somewhere around a 6 minute fast paddle. I also tried to spend a lot of time calming myself down and visualizing myself having fast, clean lines.

GAP:  What was your biggest challenge leading up to the race and how did you overcome it?

AL:  I never felt like I had any pressure to win but people always have the proverbial “are you going to win the Green Race” question and those are always hard to answer. I tried really hard to not let that get into my head and just make a personal goal for myself and want to succeed in that goal. I really needed to stay calm on the day of the Race because I didn’t want to overshoot anything and crash. Shane did a good job talking me down and kept telling me to stay calm all morning.

GAP:  Do you have any pre-paddling rituals?

AL:  I try to do the same thing every morning so my body gets used to the feeling. I eat eggs, some bacon, and drink a bunch of coffee. I also drink a Nalgene before I go paddling. I do those things every day including race day. I like to paddle upstream and surf the wave at the end of the Upper Green that my Mom loves to surf, there is no one up there and I can get into my confidence easily up there.

GAP:  What were you thinking coming into the Notch?

AL:  Probably not to crash in front of 500+ people, that I was confident in my training and my ability to not screw up.

GAP: How did you feel at the finish line? Did you know you had broken the women’s record?

AL:  I was super fired up that I had a really good run.  I wasn’t sure if I had broken the 5 min range, but I knew I was right on the cusp. I had caught up to Laura during my run which had fired me up.   I knew I had broken the record because I timed my run on my watch to know at least around how fast I was.

GAP:  Would you like to see more women racing the Green and what would you say to encourage more women to paddle Class V?

AL:  I always get fired up about women out on the Green and other Class 5 creeks. I think it is hard for women to really get out of their head prior to a race. It takes a lot of hard work for women to take a hit and get back up again.  To women who want to race or paddle class V: stay calm, visualize, and practice as much as possible.

GAP:   Anything else you’d like to say to boater chicks?

AL:  Find a solid crew to kayak with. Tell them what kind of kayaking you want to do. Don’t feel like you have to run a rapid because other people want you to run it. Don’t rush into big rapids if you don’t want to. Get out there and do what you love to do!

Photo of Adriene running Sunshine after the race courtesy of Shane Benedict at Liquidlogic Kayaks.

Nonetheless, there were over 90 racers and a huge spectator crowd at Gorilla. Carnage opened the race with the course setter going off of Gorilla dead sideways. The next racer was my husband, Andrew Holcombe. He was first because he held the title from the year before and still holds the course record. He’s one of the best paddlers in the world and I rarely see him mess up his lines. So… I was surprised and a little concerned when he got turned around after the notch and ran Gorilla backwards! Since I was watching from the notch I couldn’t see his actual run down the falls, but I did see him washing out at the bottom upside down. I was happy to see him roll up and immediately shot his fist up in the air in good sport fashion. The crowd went wild with cheers. I was very relieved that he wasn’t hurt and he continued down the next rapid backwards. It turns out that he had spun out up at Go Left and also messed up his line at Zwix so when he ran Gorilla backwards he says it just made him laugh and topped off a bad race for him. I admire his good sportsmanship and his ability to let a disappointing performance roll off of his back. After all that he still ended up 5th which is pretty good considering!

There were a lot of other bad runs over Gorilla that made people cringe… backwards, sideways, upside down, paddles breaking, petons. Luckily no one got hurt and the crowd was good at cheering everyone on. There were also really good, smooth runs down Gorilla. Fellow Dagger paddler Pat Keller took the title this year. I think I heard there were over 30 Dagger Green boats in the race which is awesome. It’s really cool that all paddlers have access to new, modern race boats.

The women paddled really smoothly and they were fun to watch. There were three women this year, two in

long boats, Adrienne Levknecht and Laura Farrell, and one in a short boat, Louise Urman from New Zealand. I have a lot of respect for these women who raced because it’s a tough race. They have a lot of courage and talent. Adrienne had a fantastic run through Gorilla and she and Laura tied for first. All three women had nice lines and looked smooth.

For complete race results and video visit LVM.