Urban paddles way to World Freestyle event

Less than four years ago, it was just a simple canoe trip up the Union River with his father and some family friends.

Looking back, Dustin Urban views it as the initial paddle stroke that led the Sedgwick teen to the verge of medal contention at the upcoming World Freestyle Kayaking Championships.

It didn’t take long for Urban and his father Phil to trade in their canoes for kayaks. They preferred the increased control and the feel of a kayak in the water.

“He was a natural right from the start,” recalled Phil Urban.

Now, 16-year-old Dustin is almost two months and countless practice paddle strokes away from competing with some of the best junior kayakers in the world at the World Championships in Sorte, Spain.

“I’m going to be pretty busy,” said Dustin Urban, caught at home recently on a rare day away from the water. “I’m heading out to Bakersfield, Calif., [this week] to do a few events on the West Coast.”

Urban and 14 other students will join six teachers and a coach from the Academy at Adventure Quest in Brownsville, Vt. – a non-profit, fully-accredited private high school and educational organization of whitewater and wilderness programs – on a trip to California, Oregon, Washington, and Montana to take part in several kayak rodeo competitions over the next month before returning to Vermont for final exams.

Urban has basically traded one academy for another this spring. In effect, he has temporarily transferred from Blue Hill’s George Stevens Academy to Adventure Quest for the second semester of his junior year.

“The plan is for him to be back for his senior year at George Stevens,” explained Phil Urban, who moved from New Jersey to Maine 30 years ago.

“It’s kind of a unique thing. We have regular classes as well as kayaking every day and daily training like running, exercise, and weightlifting,” Dustin explained. “It’s kind of cool. There’s not really an academic sacrifice because you have one teacher for every three students.”

From January through mid-March, Dustin studied, trained, and competed in Ecuador. Exotic locale aside, a typical day involves a morning of running, weightlifting and/or other exercise; a full day of classes, practice sessions or competitions in the afternoon; followed by some free time for homework or other things. There is very little down time.

Dustin, a high honors student, likened Adventure Quest to Carrabassett Valley Academy in Kingfield, a similar school specializing in ski instruction as well as tennis, cross country running, and golf.

“It’s a darn expensive program to get into, but he had a few fundraising activities to raise tuition and some scholarship money from Perception Kayaks, which is one of his sponsors,” said Phil Urban. “And it seems to have helped him really concentrate and improve on his kayaking.”

It’s tough to argue with recent results. After finishing ninth two years ago and 20th last year, Dustin finished fourth two weeks ago at the junior (age 18-under) expert division at the National Freestyle Championships in Tennessee ago.

The competition involved three events at two locations: Rock Island and the Nolichucky River. Fifteen paddlers were rated on technical expertise, variety and style and scored by judges. The top six scorers after the first two rounds moved on to the finals.

“We had to a variety of moves, stuff like cartwheels, splitwheels, flat spins – a lot of these names come from skateboarding – pirouettes, blunts, and backstabs,” Dustin explained. “I think it helped me that they changed the format this year so if you had a bad outing the first day, you could still come back with a strong showing in the next round. It used to be just one round before the finals.”

Now he’s one of four paddlers representing the United States at the Worlds, held during odd-numbered years. He and another teen from Vermont are the lone New Englanders in the American contingent. It’s quite a step up from competing in the Gilman Falls Rodeo in Old Town, Dustin’s first competitive kayak event and still one of his favorites because it ignited the competitive kayaking spark in him.

Three years ago, he was a novice kayaker with an average kayak. Last year, he finished fourth in the National Organization of Whitewater Rodeos circuit standings. Now he’s one of the country’s best junior kayakers with sponsors (The Ski Rack, Perception kayaks, etc.) that provide him with free paddles, kayaks and other racing gear.

As great as it is, Dustin says it’s also somewhat frustrating because the long-range prospects for competitive kayakers aren’t as bright as those for someone involved in crew or sculling.

“It’d be great if I could go to college and continue kayaking on scholarship or something, but nobody has any kayaking programs,” he said. “So what I’m looking to do is go to school somewhere as close as possible to really good whitewater and do stuff on my own.”