Local kayaker makes U.S. team

Jonathan Meyers has been kayaking for half of his life and last month he achieved one of his biggest goals by making the U.S. Freestyle Kayak Team.

Meyers, a 23 year-old Bigfork native, placed third at the trials which were held in Glenwood Springs, Colorado May 30-31 and will be one of five men to represent the United States at the World Freestyle Championship August 31 through September 6 in Thun, Switzerland.

"It's always been a dream of mine to represent the U.S. in the world competition," Meyers said.

In fact, Meyers previously tried out for the team four times, two of which were for the junior team, and has never placed in the top 10. Tryouts are held every two years. That made this year's success an even bigger shock to Meyers, who had just returned from a week-long vacation in Hawaii with his family.

"I was sort of discouraged going into it because I had just been sitting around on the beach and everyone else had been practicing for weeks," Meyers said. "But I just went into it and ended up doing really well. I was super psyched."

He also admits that he has been less focused on kayaking lately than he has been in the past. These days, the majority of Meyers' time is spent on school. He has about a year left at Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison where he studies Spanish and business.

"When I was younger I was totally obsessed with kayaking," Meyers said. "I don't want to say I lucked out, because the competition was really tough. I am just really happy I made it."

Though he says his commitment to the sport has lessened, Meyers still spends some time paddling three to four times a week. He also makes time to participate in competitions, including the Best in the West Freestyle Competition in Missoula that he won last month for the second year in a row, and he also took first place in 2005.

"I always like to compete in it because I'm the local guy that gets to go home and compete," Meyers said. "It's sweet to paddle in front of a home crowd and do well too. The timing is great also with Mother's Day, my mom's birthday and this year, my brother David's graduation."

Meyers is into both freestyle and creek boat paddeling. The difference being that freestyle kayak competitions take place on one large rapid, called a feature, on which paddlers perform a series of tricks and precise maneuvers for one minute with points being given for their ability to impress the judges. Creek boating, also called extreme kayaking, uses a larger boat designed to go through bigger water, including waterfalls and cliffs. In creek boat competitions kayakers race to see who can paddle through a series of rapids the fastest.

"The two different aspects of kayaking help me become a better boater," Meyers said. "I really like doing both and I think that gives me an advantage."

Meyers plans on participating in one last creek boat competition, The Oh-Be-Joyful Race near his home in Colorado next weekend, before putting away his big boat for a few months.

"I think I'm going to retire my creek boat for the summer which is really sad because I really love my creek boat, but I really want to train for worlds this summer" Meyers said.

His decision to focus on his freestyle paddling is token to the honor he feels for getting to represent his country.

"The U.S. team has a history of doing really well at worlds," Meyers said. "Everyone says that it is one of the hardest teams to make because of that and making the team is a pretty big deal. If I got off of vacation and made the team in third place I'm thinking that if I work hard this summer I could do well at worlds."

Meyers, who started kayaking at the age of 12 on the "Wild Mile" of the Swan River with his friend Nate Wilcoxen and eventually his younger brother, David Meyers, is no stranger to competition. He has participated in countless events, and has had a good number of top finishes in doing so, including placing first in the Collegiate Nationals in 2007 after placing second the previous year.

He also had some success in the freestyle competition at Bigfork's Whitewater Festival prior to graduating from Bigfork High School in 2004.

Although many of his peers choose to kayak purely for fun and skip the competition, Meyers is in it for both.

"I just like the thrill of competition," he said. "I really like paddling and doing tricks in front of a crowd. Being in front of an audience makes me do better. I just feed off of them. I have always been into competing. I was really athletic in school, but I got tired of relying on teammates. I like that in kayaking it is just me against the river."

The other thing that sets Meyers apart from other kayakers of his caliber is that he is not sponsored by big name companies. He has just one now, Wave Sport, a kayaking company, and used to have others, but has chosen to not let committments to sponsors clutter his passion.

"I'm in college and I have a girlfriend and those things come first for me right now," he explained. "When I was younger I wanted to be a pro kayaker and be sponsored and have people pay for me to kayak all over the world. But for me, it takes away from the kayaking itself. Kayaking is the best thing I've ever done. Sponsors ask you to do a lot of things that kind of take away from kayaking for me. I'd rather paddle a bunch and go to these competitions and beat the pros and be remembered as the dark horse or the underdog. That way when I win I know it was all on me and it is a lot more gratifying."

However, as Meyers booked his flight to Switzerland last week and begins to plan out his other expenses for his trip to worlds, all of which will come out of his own pocket, he is feeling the effects of not having more sponsors. He is planning to hold kayaking clinics in Gunnison and Denver to come up with the money, in addition to his job as a roofer. This isn't the first time Meyers has had to raise money to pay to travel for his kayaking habit. His senior year of high school he attended the World Class Kayak Academy, and though he received a $4,500 scholarship he had to raise an additional $8,000 to attend the school, which takes students kayaking all over the world while finishing up their high school education. The younger Meyers recently completed the same program.

The elder Meyers will arrive in Thun a week prior to the competition to practice on the wave that will house the competition for the world freestyle title. The river is dam regulated and is being made unavailable for kayakers until a week before the event to provide a level playing field.