Kayaking is taking Joel Brennan places.

The 17-year-old Yukoner recently competed in the Alabama Mountain Games, where he picked up two first-place and one second-place finishes.

The junior Canadian freestyle team member took first in the men's intermediate throwdown, a freestyle event, first in the boatercross and second in the huckfest.

The boatercross was a river race which included racing off a waterfall while simultaneously catching eddies, paddling through buoys and obstacles, ferrying underneath the falls and back out the other side to the finish line.

The huckfest was a waterfall trick competition.

Brennan landed the Phoenix Monkey for the first time in the huckfest.

The trick is a pirouette to a front loop, a 360 while rotating on the bow of the kayak, to a front flip in one smooth transitional move, explained Brennan, who is now attending Lakefield College School, a private school near Peterborough, Ont.

"Kayaking is evolving so quickly…you just have to really keep up with the pace, because if you don't evolve with the sport, then you're going to be left behind,” he said.

The majority of kayakers hailed from America, with Brennan one of two Canadians in the event.

He watched the advanced and pro categories.

"I watched them and I wish I had went in them, but I signed up for men's intermediate and I couldn't switch it.

"I was pretty happy with my results. Next year I'm going to be in the advanced category, or pro; I wasn't sure exactly what the competition was going to be like down there, seeing how I've never paddled in the southern U.S. before.”

Last month Brennan paddled all over the southern states, first at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina before the Alabama Mountain Games, then at Rock Island, Tenn., with the famed Jackson family, makers of Jackson Kayak, and world champions.

Emily Jackson is the reigning women's world champion; her husband, Nick Troutman, from the Ottawa area, is the reigning men's world champion; Eric Jackson is a three-time world champion; and Dane Jackson placed second in worlds last year.

Not bad company to be in, Brennan said.

"There's a bit of leisure but there's a bit of competition in mind, just to improve and get better,” Brennan said.

"People are usually good-willed around the paddling community and aren't really competitive off the water as they are on.”

Then it was on to Alabama, which is what you'd expect, Brennan added.

"The rivers are a bit dirty. The one that the competition was on, upstream a little ways, some farmers dumped chicken feces into the water.”

And to get to where the wave was in the river, kayakers were forced to paddle two miles above instead of walking the 100 yards from the ridge, because a guy who owned the land lining the river really abides the property laws in Alabama.

The Alabaman continuously warns that trespassers not be on his property, Brennan said.

"I think it's pretty funny. They've tried to reason with the guy for like five years and pay him so that paddlers can walk up to the wave but he just won't have any of it.”

But Brennan's not complaining.

He said that the Games allowed him to start the season earlier than usual.

"If I was up in Canada, I wouldn't be paddling on the river until this weekend, so being able to go down south and paddle is really a great step forward in improving my paddling,” Brennan said.

He's now on his way to competing in M.A.C.K. Fest, the Marmora Area Canoe and Kayak Festival, near Peterborough, where he'll be joined by junior national team manager, coach and executive director.

And in June, he'll travel to the world championships in Germany.

He's grateful for the places his kayak takes him.

"I love it. I'm very happy that I went to team trials last year, because I never thought that I would have been able to make the Canadian team, let alone go to worlds and travel down to Alabama, all over the U.S. I'm really happy that I made it.”