Spring is back in France

I love school because there are a lot of days off, and the two weeks without school in April are always really good for Kayak.
Last Friday was a hard raining day which caused a pure water levels in all the country.
The first week end should have a competition but the spot was out of work : too much water !!!
Then we decided to go on the Doubs waves.
5 hours driving and we arrived in front of that :

La Scie : a medium wave with good green and foam area for where all moves are possible

After a hard day on a fast wave a short time on a little one like Deluz is really welcome :


During the day the water level lower and lower slowly and on Sunday the wave was no longer.
BUT the MALATTE was working :





This wave is one of the biggest in the world and is at the moment,for sure, my favorite.
A pure session with sun big airs and good people.

Pause !!!!
Sometimes it's nice to do something else than kayak. Why not Longboard ?
That is an amazing spot just above a big lake.

The Doubs is too low to paddle now ? don't worry an have a drive to Lyon !!!!

In a first time, go to the left side to warms up :



Ready ? Now you're able to have good time in the Wall B : a pure green and irregular 2m wave !!




In fact : 5 days, 5 waves, sun, good friends = spring is here.

Have a nice time and go big ;-)

Mathieu

Best Pet EVER!

So I'm back in the Great White North enjoying some big water fun. One of my local runs, the Petawawa, is in flood and with that comes big waves and even bigger holes. I've been testing out my gear by throwing myself into anything I think I'll come out of. So far so good. I've also had a few sessions on a small but fun wave and the wife was around with the camera so here you go. Hopefully the levels will continue to rise and I'll have some more updates around the corner.

Dan Caldwell

Down Utah's Green River

Hello! This is Sean Bierle, and I just wanted to report on the recent trip I helped lead down the Green River in Utah. Working for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), I was fortunate enough to be a part of a great group of folks that explored the Green's Desolation, Gray, and Lodore Canyons for the past 14 days.

For those of you that haven't been down those sections, I'd highly recommend them. The Green cuts through the Colorado Plateau and creates these amazing, diverse canyons. April in Utah is a bit cold (I had the bowline of our oar rig freeze solid multiple times), but there was an abundance of wildlife in the canyons. We saw bison, big horned sheep, mule deer, and loads of herons and eagles. One of our students even found an elk antler.

The water in Lodore was at a low-average level, as they haven't yet begun releasing much from Flaming Gorge Reservoir. However, down in Deso, the water was at a fun level, with a decent amount coming off the undammed Yampa River. The NOLS students, all beginner paddlers, loved the Class III rapids of the Green, and many expressed interest in getting into kayaking. I was excited to see them battle the mental challenge of frozen neoprene and still realize how exciting and fun whitewater can be.

Kristin and I have a lot more programs lined up for this Spring. She's about to compete at the US National Slalom Team Trials in Charlotte this weekend, and then we will both head to Durango to finish becoming ACA instructor trainers. Later in May, I head to California to lead a two week rafting trip in the Klamath River drainage. Our biggest program, though, is WILD Idaho, which we are leading for Boise State University this June. We just got our new WRSI helmets and throwbags, and look forward to putting them to good use!

More later. Sean

One Step Closer to a Better, Cleaner Watershed

South Platte River Clean-Up

Sunday the boating community around Denver celebrated Earth Day by getting out on the South Platte and cleaning up the trash. For those of you who are not familiar with the South Platte let me give you a little background. This river flows all the way through Denver starting in the commercial and manufacturing parks of Denver first. By the time it reaches Confluence Play Park, 9 miles down the river, the water is pretty nasty. They don’t call it Hepatitis Hole for nothing! I have been playing at Confluence for the past few weeks because nothing else anywhere close to the Front Range is running, after seeing some of the stuff we cleaned up I am kind of second guessing my after school play options.
The South Platte Clean-up is a fairly new idea. Last year, the first year, about 100 people collected two tons of trash in 9 miles. This year more people came out to help. I believe our numbers were closer to 150 or 200. It was great to see family’s as well as the college communities around Denver come out and clean up the environment, especially one so important to all of us.

Check it out.

We all started at once, here is some of the boats. I bet there were about 70 or 80 water crafts out on the river.

Hanging with my friends Marilee and Maria in the Ducky and a cool family on the raft. the rafters were pretty neat. They would pull into and eddy and everyone would

pile out and clean up the side of the river and then jump back into the raft.

If you look closely you can see a trash bag in my cockpit. We would fill our trash bags up and give them to the rafts. We also set safety at the bottom of the drops just to make sure everyone was good to go.

I am Glad I got to take part in this event

Hopefully after school is out, I can travel further on the weekends and get my paddle on.
SYOTR,
Christine

WRSI Team paddler Dan Burke-Checks in from the EAST!

Dan Burke (C1 World Freestyle Champion) checks in from New Hamshire....here is what he has to say" We are having some great weekends with the water up in New Hampshire. The Play spots are all starting to come in, but we are still waiting for the early creeks."

Here are some pics of our local play spot the "CrackPipe".

We look forward to seeing more of Dan Burke in action on his local creeks.