The Melt Awards and Time Trials Winner (Inside the North Fork Championship with Capo Rettig #5)

Inside the NFC – The Melt Awards and Time Trials Winner – By Capo Rettig

The iconic Melt Awards took place last night in downtown Boise, bringing together all the NFC racers and the whitewater community for a night of great films and photos, highlighting many of the athletes competing in this year’s NFC.

Film entries included two edits by SBP Productions highlighting the extremely talented Serrasolses brothers. Their highlight-style film included a shot of Aniol’s descent of Keyhole Falls in British Columbia as well as a bunch of great Stikine, California, PNW, and Europe footage. The second film they presented was called the Feel of Falling, which was produced in collaboration with Nomade Productions.

Airborn put together a nice freestyle piece with shots from this year’s stakeout highlighting whitewater ninjas Devyn Scott, Ben Marr, Paul Palmer, Bren Orton, and Joel Kowalski. Following the Airborn edit, Aaron Pruzan from Jackson Hole shared a teaser for an upcoming full-length documentary about the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, better known as the ‘Box’. This film by William Taggart should be on everyone’s radar as it documents the history of one of the West’s great wild rivers.

Mountain Mind Collective put together a very nice edit highlighting some creative shots the Wells brothers captured by putting LED lights on their kayaks and bodies while running some rivers around the Pacific Northwest at night.

Rush Sturges and River Roots shared the teaser to their project Chasing Niagara, a film they have been working on for 3 years documenting Rafa Ortiz’s desire to run Niagara Falls.

The audience voted on the best film as well as their favorite photos, which were displayed around the stage.

Mountain Mind Collective won the best film and Eric Parker won the best photo for his shot of Aniol running Keyhole Falls.

Following the showing of the films the WILD CARD WINNERS for the Time Trials were announced. These athletes qualified to race Jake’s on Saturday by placing in the top 5.

1. Joey Simmons
2. Brad McMillan
3. Tren Long
4. T.B.D.
5. Brendan Wells

The community was out in full force following the show making for a lively and entertaining evening.

Stay tuned for Kayak Sessions coverage of Friday’s event, the BoaterX

http://northforkchampionship.com/races/events/