After a successful series of team trial races, Ian Stewart '96 has earned a spot on the US wildwater team to compete in World Championships taking place this June in Landeck, Austria.
At the trials, Stewart competed in two days of racing. The first day consisted of a classic long race which took just under 17 minutes for the winners. The second day was a series of two sprints which were combined for a total time.
By being four percent off the winning times, Stewart earned his way on the team and also made the four percent funding cutoff. A time .01 percent slower would have bumped Stewart from the funding cutoff, and he would have had to pay his own way. The race was close, however.
"I was unsure whether or not I had made it until the final percentages were calculated," Stewart said.
Originally from Deer Isle, Maine, Stewart began kayaking at age 12. He did not begin racing, however, until his freshman year at Dartmouth through Ledyard Canoe Club.
After his first race on the nearby Mascoma river, he quickly decided that racing was something that he wanted to take seriously.
Wildwater kayaking is an event without gates, where the athletes race down a 2.5 to five mile stretch of river in pursuit of the fastest time.
Rivers are ranked on a class system that goes from I to VI with VI being unrunable. Wildwater kayaking courses are generally on class II-III rivers with a class IV drop about three-fourths of the way through to test racers just as they are getting tired. Race times, depending on the river, are generally 15-20 minutes.
The boats, in comparison to the plastic boats commonly used by recreational kayakers, are long and sleek and travel quickly through the water.
They are constructed out of kevlar or carbon fiber and are lightweight and maneuverable, but relatively unstable. This opens the door for, as Stewart puts it, "carnage."
Stewart presently hits the river to train a couple of times a day by himself or with "any paddlers that [he] can rally," he said. Last year he was on the river 200 days out of the year.
"Ian is just amazing," Ledyard Canoe Club President Chris Fowler '97 said. "He has only been paddling wildwater for three years, but he decided he wanted to be really good at it, and now he is. There is very little that he can't do if he wants it done."
Those sentiments seem to echo all around. "I've never seen anyone work so hard, give up so much and focus so completely on anything as I've seen him focus on his goal," Darryl Knudsen '96, vice president of Ledyard under Stewart, said.
Daniel Johnson, former wildwater national champion and one of Ian's training partners, said it was exciting to watch Ian "get an idea and pursue it and make very steady improvements."
And indeed he has. At team trials this April in Tennessee, Ian qualified as the fourth boat to the US team to compete in World Championships.
He plans to leave for Austria directly after finals with the consequence of missing his own graduation. This does not seem to bother Stewart, though. "Both will go on whether I am there or not," he said.
So to Worlds it is. The races will take place on the Sanna, a river known for its big waves, from June 12-16. There Ian will have the opportunity to compete in both an individual and a team race in an effort to displace the heavily favored German team.
Although not an Olympic sport, wildwater has amassed a solid European following, with strong teams coming out of Germany, France and Italy as well as South Africa, Canada and the United States.
At the last World Championships, which take place every two years, the German team placed athletes in four of the top eight places.
But 1996 is a new year and Europe has yet to see the best of Ian Stewart.
