Meyers brothers compete against each other for first time at Whitewater

It is said that sibling rivalry is normal and competition is healthy, but for the Meyers brothers — Jonny and David — these things were fairly nonexistent as they competed against one another for the first time ever in the kayaking races at Bigfork's Whitewater Festival on May 29 and 30.

"Whitewater Festival isn't really too competitive," said David, who is 19 and the younger of the two brothers from Bigfork. "It was just really fun to get out there with my brother. I haven't really gotten to boat with him in a while. I'm glad I got to beat him in two events even though he beat me overall."

David placed sixth overall at the Whitewater Festival after taking first in the down river, second in his heat of the boatercross and 14th in the upper slalom. Jonny placed second in the down river, fourth in the upper slalom and fifth in the boatercross.

David learned to paddle with the help of his older brother, who is now 23, and his friends when he was 9. Jonny left for college in Colorado five years later, though, and time for the boys to kayak together became less and less.

Last year Jonny earned a spot on the U.S. Freestyle Kayak Team. When he traveled to Switzerland to compete in the World Freestyle Kayaking Competition, David, as well as their sister Coral, who is 26, were there on the edge of the river cheering him on as he placed sixth overall.

Jonny's siblings, and his parents Patricia and William "Buster," were also by his side, as he recovered from a snowboarding accident this winter in which he broke both of his wrists and five vertebrae in his back.

Many thought he would not be able to compete again, but last month he won the College Kayak Boatercross Championships at the Alt Games in Reno, Nev.

"I wasn't sure what to expect going into it as far as the outcome, but I came out on top and I was pretty stoked and so were my parents and a lot of my sponsors," Jonny said.

However, it was still a shock to many of the friends he grew up paddling with in the Bigfork area when he returned to compete in his home water at last month's festival. It was no surprise to Jonny, though, as a full recovery is exactly what he's been working for.

"I'm in the best shape of my life," Jonny said. "It's amazing what modern medicine, a positive attitude and determination can do. I've been working out every day and eating well. I've just been taking really good care of myself and working on getting myself healthy."

At first, the idea of competing in his favorite sport wasn't as alluring as it had previously been for Jonny, who at this year's Whitewater Festival volunteered to be the first boater in the water when he noticed no one else was jumping in."Initially, I was really scared that I wasn't going to be able to kayak ever again," Meyers said. "My doctors actually told me that it was a good thing for me to kayak because it would help me build up my muscles and help with my flexibility."

Getting back on the river he first learned to kayak on was good therapy as well, especially with his friends and family on the shoreline to cheer him on.

"I'm always usually busy this time of year doing competitions elsewhere," Jonny said. "There's always a lot of familiar faces at Whitewater and it's always fun to paddle in front of a home crowd. It's where I learned to paddle and I wish I could do it more often."

Jonny hasn't competed at Whitewater in five years. David has competed on the expert level at the Bigfork Whitewater Festival for six of the past seven years, having taken last year off for a family vacation to Hawaii. Two years ago David placed fifth overall, but this year he had his best finish in both the down river and boatercross races.

Jonny said that he was happy to get to see his younger brother compete in this year's festival

"I taught him to kayak. The past four to five years I've been gone and we haven't gotten to paddle together very much, but this year when I was home we got to paddle together quite a bit and I could definitely tell he had excelled," Jonny said.

Although David has come a long way from the little brother who was tagging along a decade ago, he is still working on a few things.

"I was kind of bummed about my slalom because I missed a gate and I think I probably would've finished in the top three if I had gotten it," David said. "Everything else went really well. I was kind of surprised I won the down river. I wish I would've gotten out in front earlier in the boatercross, but I pushed my way up through the pack."

While David continues to perfect his racing technique, Jonny is still somewhat sidelined. He is abstaining from freestyle competition for the season, and is instead serving as a judge for several competitions including this year's U.S. team trials which will be held in Missoula June 30 through July 2.

"It's a lot of twisting and turning and corking," Jonny said of freestyle kayaking. "I can't do that yet. I can't go off waterfalls and bounce around like that. My doctor says I have to wait a year and then it just depends on how ambitious I am with my physical therapy."

As Jonny serves as a judge for some of the very competitions he used to be a front-runner in, his ever-positive attitude shines through again as he says he sees judging as a learning opportunity and not as a disappointing way to spend the season.

"I know what it takes to do well, and knowing what my condition is, I wouldn't be able to do as well as I used to," Jonny said. "I'm just trying to be more of an ambassador for the sport. This will be beneficial for me too when I do get back into competition. I will know what the judges are looking for. Besides, I get to judge with some of the guys that have been my biggest heroes in the sport since I started like Shane Benedict and Clay Wright."