Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Grossman tops in world surf kayaking

At Santa Cruz, Portugal


During a welcome home party, friends congratulated Sun Valley's Jim Grossman Tuesday afternoon with a few refreshments at Grumpy's.

That's because Grossman, 43, has just become the new world champion in the Masters International Class (IC) class during the 2009 World Championship Surf Kayaking competition at Santa Cruz, Portugal.

Grossman returned to Sun Valley Monday after being one of 157 surf kayakers at the eight-day competition in Portugal. On Saturday, Aug. 1, he won the Masters IC class over England's Gary Adcock. IC includes surf kayaks longer than 9 feet and 10 inches with convex hulls and no fins.

Also on Saturday, Grossman took his high performance (HP) kayak (less than 9 feet in length, generally with fins) and placed third for the bronze medal in the Masters HP class. Ahead of him were gold medalist Stephen Farthing of Australia and runner-up Adcock.

Grossman was a member of the USA West team, one of 12 teams from 15 countries at worlds in Portugal. England won the team competition over Euskadi/Basque Country and USA West placed seventh.

It was Grossman's third world championship surf kayaking competition. In 2003 in Ireland, he finished second behind his brother, world champion Johnny Grossman, in the Men's IC class. In 2006 at Costa Rica, Jim Grossman was second in IC. This was his first year in the Masters IC class.




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