Nick Bennett!

Nick’s light hearted, entertaining video struck a chord with the judges, and they deemed his video the best of the lot. Evidently Nick lives within yards of last year’s winner Mark Mulrain- this may inspire some discussion of a conspiracy, but we’d like to attribute Nick and Mark’s success not only to IR’s brilliant “target” marketing, but also to some video-enhancing toxin found in the local drinking water. We look forward to years and years of winners from that same 2 mile square area.

As you all know, Nick now has earned his pick of $1500 worth of IR gear, as well as a sensual back massage from last year’s winner followed by a gentle kiss on the forehead. The kiss is the exact moment at which the crown is passed from one ambassador to the next.  For reference to future contestants, here is a link to Nick’s video.

We’d like to take a moment to also thank everyone who entered- and as a token of our gratification, we’d like to offer everyone who entered a pro deal on any in-stock IR gear.

All of the judges felt that this was a particularly difficult task to pick a winner- there were several entries that were very, very close. Just so some of you know how close you were, here are the top 5:

1. Nick Bennet
2. Jamie Conn (tied for 2nd)
3. Callum Strong (tied for 2nd)
4. Ieuan Belshaw
5. Phil Mitchell

We look forward to seeing your entries next year,

-John, Mark, Kara and Andrew

Andrew Miller

Andrew Miller is from Traverse City, Michigan. For those of you in Europe who don’t know where “Michigan” is, suffice to say it’s where a vast, vast majority of serious whitewater kayakers come from in the United States. Smack dab in the heart of this whitewater paradise is Traverse City.  The locals simply  call it “Shitrunner City”- a nod to the native American roots of the the word “Traverse”.  Andrew is currently employed at IR, where he has honed the art of dismissing customer concerns as a silly waste of his time. Current favorite response to customer: “Woah. Hold on. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear- I’m from Michigan“.

Kara Weld

Kara basically runs IR. If it weren’t for her, IR wouldn’t be a company with a 17 year year history of making great kayaking gear,  but rather four or five dudes standing around making dick jokes and trying to blow things up. Kara will tell you she doesn’t mind watching your entries, but deep down inside she thinks you are all a bunch of pussies for not paddling gates.

John Weld

John loves weightlifting so much. As you clearly can see, he also loves being super tan- everywhere but around the lips and eyes. Think you can squat thrust more than John? Well, John thinks you’re an idiot, and you’d better keep your mouth shut or he will punch you and your stupid kayak.

Mark Mulrain

Mark is from the UK, which to be honest, we know nothing about. Based on the contest entries though, we’re guessing he paddles a lot in “weirs” and goes to Norway every summer to get his ass beat. Mark was also last year’s Ambassador contest winner and the recipient of $1500 worth of IR “kit”. These two things make Mark undoubtably the most qualified judge. Mark is also the EU sales representative  for IR.

This year I am going to go to the Europina freestyle championships in Lienz.

Hi Immersion research,

Immersion Research,

Hello, my name is Philip Mitchell; I’m eighteen years old, live in the UK and I’m studying Civil Engineering at Newcastle University. The reason I want to be the ambassador for IR is that it hasn’t lost sight of why it started in the first place; it is still run by kayakers for kayakers.

At the ripe young age of 18 I have already paddled abroad in Austria, France, Corsica, Slovenia and Switzerland. I’m constantly trying to improve my own paddling and with 6 weeks around France and Norway this summer it will be the perfect opportunity to push myself and hopefully make some new friends along the way.

I would like to think I’m a very enthusiastic paddler and I’m always keen to get on the water. Because of this spending my free time attending as many paddling festivals as possible to get the kit out there and writing regular blog updates would not be problem. If I were to win I would make it my aim to promote and advertise Immersion Research throughout the year and in the future.

http://philjmitchell.wordpress.com/

Hi

I’m Nick Bennett and I’m a 21 year old kayaker from Sheffield in the UK. I am currently studying for my Masters in Chemistry at Edinburgh University and for the last year I have been on a work placement in Philadelphia. This has given me a unique opportunity to see and become part of the community in which IR is based. I have been so impressed with the community out here that I have teamed up with World Kayak to build a scottish region and bring the down river races and hometown throwdowns back with me to Scotland.

I would like to work with IR because, as well as making great gear I have seen how the company is truly involved in the sport from beginners to the most experienced experts. I am a keen blogger writing for adventure travel advisory magneticjunction.com as well as keeping my own blogtheperiodicpaddler.blogspot.com which has recently had articles published on the playak and kayak session websites. If you want a driven, enthusiastic kayaker with the skills to help build IR’s business in europe then I am your man!

Thanks