Paddling: What? You Prefer Natural Rapids?

Paddling: What? You Prefer Natural Rapids?
By Todd Balf (with Greg Child and Dan Dickison)

After a trying World Cup start in Nottingham, England, American kayaker Scott Shipley put himself back in the running for the overall championship with a gold-medal performance in the frigid Class IV whitewater of the Isère River, in the French Alps. “The whitewater was booming, which was great for me,” says Shipley, 23, who recently had labored badly on artificial
courses in England and Germany. “Manmade courses favor those who train on them,” he says, “and I don’t.” Olympic gold medalist Pierpaolo Ferrazzi of Italy was second.