WRSI ATHLETES & NEWS

Mexico part II

2012-01-25T11:50:00.019-07:00

In the last post all that was covered was the Rio Alseseca. Part II will cover just a little of the many other rivers mexico offers.

The Rio Jalasingo
This river is a steeper tighter little brother to the Alseseca, joining up with it just above punte Tomata. Its broken up in to two sections. The upper all slides plus three water falls and the lower all water falls and fun boofs. The uppers all fun and the lower shure to deliver the goods if your urge to fall off lips isn´t being met. Recomend doing the lower when the upper is low.

Blake lining up the first drop

Joel stompin the same drop

Just around the corner is this perfect 20´

Then just around the corner is this STOUT. Named Twisted Pleasure do to the fine line demanded. Has a class 2 s-turn lead in, but the lip folds trying to spin you. Not a huge problem other then the landing is about 11´wide with rocks and bolders at the bottom.....Don´t get pitted!

The boys scouting the line.

Joel showing the proper technique for a bow draw above a 7o footer, no big deal.

Seth oppting for the BOOOOOOOF of his life.

Nailing the middle

Just down steam of Twisted pleasure is the 35-40´Dirty Sanchaz

I don´t have photos, but after the last waterfall is a ton of clean 5-10´boofs till you come to a dark canyon looking spot.

This spot is Dungen Drop. The name reflects the caved out walls and lack of light. Heres will giving er

The rest of the run is chill. Recomend looking for a 90´waterfall portage, no ropes needed. Be carful not to miss it. A group had once missed it and ran the drop. No one died but shattered kayaks, split helmets, and a busted coller bone were a small price to pay for the gift of continued life.

The Rio Oro
The take out of the Rio Oro

This river is a true gem. Its home to the clearest looking bubble perfect water I found in Mexico. you also take out at the beach of the Gulf cost. RAD!

Robert on the first 30´

Myself, same drop

The next 35 footer

from here out its chill till the cost. One of the most fun rivers I had done.

The San Pedro drop
This is a clean 45´an hour away from the Alseseca. You find it just under a bridge. almost too good to be true. Fun one for sessions

Will, falling off yet another drop, San Pedro.

Thats all for now. Just finishing here in Chiapas and headed to the coast. Look forward to some more in Mex part III

Montana to Mexico. part 1

2012-01-11T17:02:00.019-07:00

The Jorney started with a donated van, alot of excitement and a good friend. A mutual friend of ours herd are complaints of needing a car for mexico. He had a 1986 ford econoline falcon, it was an old RV. Ok, 25 yr old RV not ideal for a 10,000 mile road trip, but strapped for cash and rich with time and energy it was perfect. The river gods smiled upon us and our "idea" of a road trip to mexico became a "reality".
(Due to a tragic boof which lead to a head bash on the copit of my kayak I lost my go pro and there for capibility to film. But, still have sick shots of the rest.)

The Rio Alseseca is a river hosting three full on sweet runs, two park and hucks, and one hike an huck. these are shots from this river. Minus the most popular section, the roadside section, due to a lost file.

Truchas is a Hike, rappel and huck 55 footer below the roadside section. Its a bit of a mission, but worth the goods.

Will at the bottom of the rappel ready to recive boats. Its a cold windy spot to stand because of the stout landing right next to him. Thanks will, it took a bit.

seth at the entrence drop just above the stout.

Seth showing us the line.

Will´s up

BIG Banna was our favorite run in the area. Here are some highlights of just some of the many rapids found with in this Vera Cruz classic.

Seth dropping into the canyon after the twenty footer. Photo, Lukus stroble

The notorius meat locker. Big looking and even softer landing.

Mattius showing us how its done making this kinda technical waterfall in below meatlocker look easy.

Will taking the suggested line on solencio, BOOF!

One of the many fun drops.

just making it out of 80/20 on the Pezma section big banana

The last of countless drops on Big Banana.

Tomata

If your feeling extra fired up when your finished Big Banana you can just skip the take out and float on down to Tomata falls. This 23 meter monster is notorious for sending kayakers head over heals. So after many log test I sent it and stomped a 45 er at the bottom. This suprisingly realy hurt my back, but at least I did not land on my face.

Seven Siters, {Tomata canyon]

Just below Tomata falls is the Tomata canyon, home of the Seven sisters. Seven super fun water falls. Some super easy, strong, blind and made for doing tricks off of.

Seth half way though the 110 foot rapple down to the put in of the Seven siters.

My self going at the top of the third, and my favorite, sister.

Joel, boofing above the nasty hole in at the blind corner of the fith sister.

The sixth sisters all fun. A perfect 25 footer with a green wave at the top. Time for some freestyle.

seth setting up the free wheel

My self trying a pistol flip.

I got it about three quarters the way around but landed stern first upside down. Super soft though

will, winning...

At the take out of the seven sisters. Perfect veiw to a perfect day.

Look forward to Part II, Jalisingo, San Pedro, Rio Oro, and Agau azul....

Todd Richey

A little SE majesticness

2011-12-28T06:51:00.003-07:00

So this month has been a month of getting on fresh runs for me. As a way to cap out the year I have gotten on Ravens Fork, Linville and WFFB. Here is a little river of Ravens Fork which is a really spectacular run which is set back in the smokies and has amazing scenery. The rapids on the Ravens live up to the hype of size and technicality which make for a great time inside the gorge.

The Chile wrap-up

2011-12-06T07:00:00.002-07:00

My time in Chile has ended and what a good time it was between all the crazy adventures and cool people its an amazing country with alot to offer up for the whitewater paddler. We hit up a few rivers during the time there but mostly based ourselves out of San Fabian in the VIII Section as there is alot to offer up in the area including the first descent that we nabbed. So here is the final video which is titled Tengo veintidos saltos y una perra no es una after the jay-z track 99 problems as the song for the trip was Strawberry Wine its now time to get over the hot july moon that saw everything. Traveling around and even just chilling for parts of the month was a real eye opener as we got to immerse ourselves in the Chilean culture from everything to national dances, the discoteca, asados and eventually grilling a goat. If you ever find yourself down there I am sure you too will find your way into some of those things. However here is the last video and I would like to thank everyone at WRSI for the quality gear that helped us out down there between the helmets, throwropes and the hat keeping my head from sunburn.

It was a great time and I am really hoping I can make it back out there again next year!

Teacups Trip

2011-11-23T15:09:00.004-07:00

Well we recently went to the 7 teacups on Rio Claro and also the Viente y Dos. Here are some pictures from the trip and also the video from the trip as well. It was awesome being there and we have Nuble Fest this weekend. After that we are headed back to the Claro for some Viente y Dos redemption and for Brads Siete Tazas redemption as I got mine out of the way. This weekend we have a downriver race which will be really fun and hopefully the outcome will be in mine or brads favor and we can bring the title to the US. Also we will be joining some of the local boys in the rafting competition. Also we got a WRSI throwrope to give out for a competition prize. Hope everyone is having a killer time boating and we will have more goods for you later!

Fall Goodness, found on the O.P.

2011-11-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Just got a new van and I'm STOKED!!! Picked it up Thursday morning and hit the road. 4 days and 800 miles later my weekend has ended. Got a good feeling with this one.

Pretty much sums it up.

First stop, PDX Kayaker Film Fest sans photos. Lots of great entries this year. Ryan Scott submitted a great piece on rafting in the PNW with some long time legends like Shane Turnbull. Of course our very own Scott Waidelich and JP were in there. Nate Herbeck, keeping the competition tough, took home the cigar box!! The Film Fest was a great event, my first! A lot of people came out of the woodwork for this one. 11 years and going strong!! Thanks Luke Spencer, Next Adventure and everyone who pitched in, helped out AND submitted films!!! Good times, y'all. I'll be back for this one.

Paranoia, a Creek Sides fave

Of course the good times were bound to continue in the next place Creek Siders like venturing into.. the woods. This weekend was full of tromping through the woods in one of my favorite locales, the O.P.

I LOVE my new drysuit.

Jeremiah Johnson.. snowshoeing with Crocs

a classic in the making..

...the good woods

found this near the 'elusive' good woods

yep.. 'Ilusive'

having a look at the put in

a little frosty this morning on the O.P.

looking down into Matheny Creek

a fraction of the Matheny crew

making our way into the O.P. goodness

Kevin

Jon Almquist

Ben

Totten

Arn & Mary

winning...

i smell bacon

thawing gear.. and bodies

the popsicle I need to find my way in to

By Sun the cold had cut off the water supply so we ventured into a canyon none of us had been to. I had scouted Fool's Canyon a couple years back on another trip to the O.P. It had a LOT more water last time, probably too much. This time was low, but still so very cool. Here was the only drop we could get out for, toward the end of the canyon. Fool's Canyon is in the Satsop drainage near Montesano and if you haven't been in there, I suggest a visit.

a shot inside Fool's Canyon

scouting

Ellie likes getting her boof on.

'Otherworldly' is one word I would use. This was one of the widest spots in the entire mile long gorge. Definitely a beautiful place to spend the afternoon.

parting shot of Toria taking in the magic that is

the Olympic Peninsula

Until next time everybody. Stay warm and safe. Happy Holidays.

Down in Chile

2011-11-21T10:10:00.002-07:00

So I have been in Chile for around 20 days now and thought I would give you all a little update on how things are going. On this trip thus far I have paddled the biggest volume I have in my paddling career, gotten a first descent and ran my largest waterfall yet in my paddling career. Its pretty easy to say that this trip has already been pushing limits for me and helping me learn things about myself as well as boating. We have been staying in the town of San Fabian in the VIII sector of Chile and are surrounded by the foothills of the Andes as well as some amazing creeks and a really big river. The Rio Nuble which offers up different sections for all levels of boaters actually runs through the town. The town section is Ocoee style and the Upper and Lower section have larger rapids. Most of the Larger Rapids are contained in the Upper reach. The Upper section as I was told is a bit like the Gauley but with more water. So we spent the first week and occasional days paddling the Nuble with a group of local paddlers and rafters. In-fact the Nuble Festival is this coming weekend. The river has a proposed damn project which would dewater the Upper section. Many of the locals have bumper stickers and signs up which stress the fact that they want the river to remain free as it is a big attraction which brings people out of the city to San Fabian. Its awesome to see how the people of the town want to see the river left the way it naturally is and shows a great respect for the river and outdoors. Moving on though as I previously mentioned we were able to snag a first descent on a creek feeding into the Nuble while the Nuble was juicing. We ran the Upper Las Damas and it was a pretty awesome experience to be one of the first people to bomb down some of the rapids that this crystal clear creek had to offer. It was awesome while scouting at times to take a step back and look around at how pretty it was all around us. The creek however is on private land so be sure to obtain permission if you ever plan on giving her or you will be shot at. Its a pretty awesome way of life that many of the people out here have. They have a big appreciation for family whether close or distant and are also super friendly people. We have had the opportunity to attend a couple of asados and I can honestly say they grill right down here. But heres some pictures and a video of the First D of Upper Las Damas (aka Cougar Creek) so hope you like em. Stay safe folks Paul

Robe Canyon 2011

2011-11-09T08:35:00.001-07:00

Robe Canyon is a pretty girl. Give her some juice, though, and she likes to hold on!! Flows can be a mystery to paddlers, especially in the winter months. Even though the gauge is at the take out, what lies upstream can be described as 'anybody's guess'. Well, there are things like geometry, statistics.. even engineering calculus, but nothing can really train you for a phenomenon known as "Robe Math". You just have to go and hope for the best on those rainy days. What am I talking about? Well, Rob McKibbon describes it this way, "it's the only run where you want it to be lower at the put in and HIGHER at the take out."

To say Robe Canyon has a flashy nature is an understatement. There is just so much more to the story!! To be a true Robe Math Scholar you just have to put in the time on this one. Make no mistake, it is an art. The thing is... once you get good at it, you kinda hope it's a little higher than last time, you just don't tell anybody. If you haven't seen Robe... well my friend... you have the next 8 months to get in there before she's dried up for the summer. In the meantime, here's some uh the good sauce from that pretty girl. She's a little creamy in this one, but that the way we like it!!

http://vimeo.com/31829544

music: AWOLNation -Sail

Lord of the Fork

2011-10-29T08:34:00.005-06:00

So last weekend Ty and I made another pilgrimage up to Kentucky/Virginia to paddle in the Lord of the Fork. The Lord of the Fork history and facts can be found here (http://www.russellfork.info/race.htm). So this was personally my first time in a "extreme" race. As we got to the start line and after a warm up lap I was feeling pretty well and looking forward to the challenges that lay ahead in trying to speed down some difficult rapids. I was starting in the back of the pack and paddling a short boat where as 47 out of 57 racers were in long boats so I started out knowing I was going to have to keep it clean to do well. Thus I set my goal as not losing and having as clean a run as possible. Considering it was my first extreme race it went pretty well with all but one line being pretty clean. Had a little melt down to undercut incident as i got a bit further left on the boof at the third drop of triple drop almost lost my paddle in that incident but was able to keep a hand on it and roll her back up and get a victory fist pump before taring back off towards the finish line. It was a great experience being able to compete and really is as described in the green race video a whole different experience then fast runs with friends when you know that you are truly getting after it alone. It is also a very fulfilling experience to know what you have conquered after thinking about it for so long. In-fact the high of racing still has yet to wear off but that is also due in part to leaving for CHILE in a few days. So here in a short while you can expect to see some lovely goods from Chile as long as we can keep ourselves out of a good bit of trouble. Have a good one and stay safe Paul
By the way the Lord of the Fork results are here:
http://boatertalk.com/forum/BoaterTalk/1052320196/

heres a parting shot from El Horrendo

Surf Kayak World Championships 2011

2011-10-27T20:57:00.007-06:00

Three weeks ago, myself, brother and dad were on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the 2011 Surf Kayak World Championships. There were seven of us on the Canadian Team, and the other members consisted of Christine Brice from Ucluelet BC, Ted Morris from Algonquin Park, and Dave Willer and Barry Jones from Toronto.

The Surf Kayak Worlds is held every two years, and the most recent championships were held in Spain in 2007 and Portugal in 2009. Although there were a few Canadians in past competitions, this was the first time that Canada has had a full team entered. Since most of my paddling experience is whitewater I went down there with low expectations for myself, but it was still pretty cool to fly the flag and surf with and against the very best in the world in this sport.

In the competition, there were approx. 20 countries present including US, Canada, Spain, Basque Country, England, Japan, Ireland, Jersey, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Portugal, yadda yadda yadda.... For those not familiar with surf kayaking, it utilizes flat bottomed kayaks designed specifically to ride waves in the exact same way as a surfboard does. Most of the boats are equipped with fins, and each wave is scored using the exact same scale and judging as used in a surfboard contest.

The competition consisted of Team events and Individual events. In order to compete in the team event, a Country had to submit 7 paddlers. Like I mentioned, this was the first time Canada had enough for team event, and placed 5 out of 5. He he. But, as this was the first competition for a few of us, we didn't mind.

Next up was Individual heats, which went better for us. It started with 12 twenty minute heats with four surfers in the water. Each surfer was allowed 10 waves and the the best two waves were combined to get a final score. The top 2 people in the heat advanced to the 2nd round, and me and Kye were psyched to place well and advance. There were some excellent boaters in both of our heats so we were surprised to hit the beach after to recieve highfives telling us that we had advanced. I placed 2nd in the first heat, trailing .55 points behind Anthony Bell, team US East champion, and Kye killed it in his heat coming first. I have to mention that Kye competed the whole week in a plastic boat, the only one not in a composite surf boat, and he definitely turned some heads in the process. Watch out for this little bugger in the future. Other Canadian members that advanced were Christine in Womens Short, and Ted in Masters Short. Major props to dad for hopping in a flat bottom boat for the very first time and surfing against a few former world champions. He did not advance, but gave er and is now inspired to start pushing the envelope at home here in Northern BC!

During the 2nd round, me Kye and Christine all got bumped, but I didn't mind and I had already exeeded my expectations. Ted continued to surf well, and ended the Championships in 4th place in the world in masters short boat. What a guy, huge smiles all around!

The best part of this competition was the community feel of the thing. I cant imagine another sport where the top people from around the world can gather and compete against each other in a friendlier spirit. High-fives, shakes and hugs were present before and after many of the heats between competitors, and there was no tension at all between anyone (except for one surf boarder who made a complete ass out of himself and had to have the cops called on him). There were socials most nights, and a good party after the awards ceremony. We went down to NC mainly for the experience, and team Canada will be present and hungry at the 2013 World Championships in Australia.

Enjoy the pics:

The 2011 Aquabatics Film Competition

2011-10-27T19:13:00.000-06:00

The 2011 Aquabatics film competition went off last week with 9 film entries and a great turnout, this festival showcased the vast amount paddling and videography skill in the region. The festival had two categories: Paddling Porn and Entertainment. In the paddling porn category Blair Trotman snagged first place with his entry Do It For The Love Vol. II. Paddle Junkies picked up first in the Entertainment category and won the peoples choice award, winning a Wavesport Project X and a Kokatat Rogue drytop for their entry: The Kayak Network. Super Sexy Kayak the film Liam Fournier and I entered placed second in the entertainment category.

Thanks to Simon Coward and the boys at Aquabatics Calgary and all the event's sponsors these guys put on a great show and I'm super excited for next year. Check out all of the videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/AquabaticsCalgary.

Peter Thompson

peterthompsonkayak.blogspot.com/

Solo

2011-10-14T17:24:00.000-06:00

Often the friendship and camaraderie that come with the sport of kayaking is over looked. This was hit home during a recent solo paddling trip that I went on to the west coast. Although it was a great trip and I was able to meet up and paddle with friends along the way, the alone time when camping and hanging out made for maybe hard trip but definitely a different paddling trip experience. The biggest thing I found with my solo trip was that I spent way more money and only had only had myself to bounce ideas off of to decide what to do. This was both a nuisance and a blessing in that I could do what I wanted, but I also made some decisions that in hindsight were pretty dumb. I suggest that everybody tries going on a solo trip, but also enjoy the great times and the camaraderie that goes along with the quintessential paddling trip.

Peter Thompson

Chelan: the final Flow Study

2011-10-12T10:24:00.000-06:00

Chelan PUD has offered releases the last three years on the Chelan River via a flow study made possible in part by American Whitewater. I recently read the original write up on the first feasibility study in Chelan Gorge. At the time I had only been boating a few years and had a different perspective. If Chelan was the only river to paddle in the region I could see pining for releases. However, Tumwater Canyon, Icicle Creek, and the best playboating the state has to offer are an hour away. Not to mention, Chelan looked nuts. I thought these guys were crazy. Things change.

This is the last year and last weekend of the flow study, then it's up to somebody other than me to determine how many times per year this jewel will have enough flow to kayak. Rowdy as always, it's good to be back!! Big intimidating bedrock drops set in a dramatic gorge. Warm water and hot temps... couldn't ask for more.
And while Tracy Clapp, Britt Gentry, Forrest Hubler, Rick Williams, John Gangemi and Bo Shelby all got to go in first back in 2000, we get to refine the lines and discover new things about the run. And there are always the un-run drops. Or should I say un-run DROP! During the last day of the last flow release Rob McKibbon aka Superchamp first D'ed the biggest drop of the run, Pinnacle. We all looked at it for a long time and worked through many different rescue scenarios if things were to go awry. In the end, I think there were 6 throw-baggers with multiple bags, two guys at the Sieve Drop just downstream and I was in my boat, in the water, 5 feet away from the bottom hole in Pinnacle. It's about as safe as it's gonna get. It is by far the most intimidating drop on the run. Rob made it look easy.

Professor Gnarly, the aptly named ledge hole at the bottom of Entrance Exam was handing out the big smackdown as well as some passing grades. Mostly smackdown. Professor Gnarly is a stickler, pay attention.

cruising to Chelan

"you only get to run a drop blind ONCE"

Dave studies Entrance Exam for his 2nd lap

Ellie doesn't think the Prof looks so bad

Fish employs DOUBLE EXTRA SAFETY at Entrance Exam

Meat Locker safety crew

comin' in hot!!

winna winna, chicken dinnah!!
Adrian

Fish sets safety at Meat Locker

Rob scouts Pinnacle dan p photo

Brad tries to move the sieve rock @ Sieve Drop

Rob at Pinnacle dan p photo

Rob, Scott, Totten, Alex and the whole gang will be back next year, pending release dates. Chelan is always a good time. Can't wait for next year!!!! SYOTR

Russel Fork Ridiculousness

2011-10-11T12:05:00.005-06:00

It was a rather epic weekend out at the Russel Fork and all the Ouch! Crew. We set up a pretty good camp and were hanging around all weekend cooking over the fire and running all that the gorge had to offer. On the first day having no recollection of the lines we were able to enlist the help of Chris Hipgrave to show us down and give us the lines as long as we were able to keep up with him which the man is a british bomber, no doubt. Having stomped boof after boof all the way down the river we set up shuttle for round two and got after it again but filmed our second trip down. That night we did a bit of partying like we had friday night and chilled around our fire having a good time and cooking out. Bagged one other run on Sunday of the gorge section with the some of the boys from boone meeting up with us. We had a great time, ran some good whitewater and got to meet some awesome people on our adventure to Elk Horn City. Hope everyone else had a great weekend as well, Peace Paul

Update from 2011 Surf Kayak World Championships

2011-10-04T09:33:00.003-06:00

Currently here in North Carolina at the surf kayak world champs. Been here about a week and it has been quite the trip so far! Waves have been good, and there are some righteous paddlers here from all over the world just rippin it up! Ill do a proper post when I have a bit more time, but for now here is a link to team Canada's website (our team manager has been good about keeping things up to date, unlike myself).

www.surfkayak.org

A dry summer in France

2011-10-04T07:11:00.004-06:00

Like during the rest of this year, water levels were pretty low in France this summer. So what do you do if you work and are unable to travel far?

This summer started with an event that I really like : the Natural Games. The competition is as tough as the parties are wild! Even with what little training I was able to get in this season, I managed to make it through to the finals and ranked 4^th. Not too bad…

Photo by Valentin Grollemund

Afterwards, I went to Biarritz, a city on the Basque coast, to go to school for a few weeks. Of course I had to go to classes, but you can’t be that close to the ocean without catching some waves before there are too many surfers to kill?? I had nice waves to surf with both with my freestyle and surf kayaks.

Photos by Katie Beardsley

At the end of July, we had the French Championships on the opposite side of France in Metz, a city in the northeast. The competition happened on a really small hole that is part of the slalom course in the old center of town. It was a cool location with lots of people watching. However the spot is really small and you’ve got to be extremely technical. The beginning was easy but the semifinals proved too difficult to reach the top five and go through to the finals. Despite this, it was a fun event with yet another great afterparty.

Photos by Richard Bord

Once all the official events are over, there’s always Charnay - a medium-sized feature lost in the middle of nowhere. Which means you can kayak, party, barbecue, swim, slackline, relax, and many other things without disturbing anybody.

This time, the hole was half wave, half hole and was working almost all day long which isn’t usually the case!

Photo by Alexendre Jakette

After Charnay it was back to Paris again, where I decided to boof every drop I could find. Kayaking is a real drug and this stuff, though fairly small, was a lot of fun! There are lots of other urban spots to be found in Paris, so we’ll continue to scout the region this year…

Photos by Laurent Devigne

Photo by Romain Peureux

All of this to say that even when water levels are not ideal, you can always find some cool missions. And after summer comes autumn which is supposed to be the rainy season!!! To be continued…

Olympic Peninsula, WA: Tshletshy Creek

2011-09-19T15:11:00.001-06:00

The best journeys

bring up questions

we never thought to ask.

~ Yvon Chouinard

Quinault Lake

Tshletshy Creek, just saying it is hard enough. I'd read the description in Korb's Olympic Peninsula guidebook for years. Early in my kayaking I thought how insane a trip like this would be. Korb's first trip here must have been terrifying. 1800 cfs pumping through those canyons and rain the whole way... It would be something to see. As I packed the night before the trip I recalled some of those same things I thought so long ago and the many different rivers I'd paddled since. Things change.

I felt sort-of alone. It might not be the best word to use, but.. alone.. in a way I haven't felt before. An unknown pressure. A responsibility. A duty even, to go in there and be open to the full experience. To not shy away from anything that may happen. I considered many things. I had to go and be in it, to go to this place and know it. Powerful things can happen on wilderness trips. Maybe that's why I came...

Pristine old growth forests offer nearly continuous views of perfect coniferous harmony. Trees that fell 300 years ago have almost become topsoil and have 250 year old trees growing out of them. Well used game trails and many different fresh animal prints made this trip extra special. There were elk, fox and birds singing the whole way to the river. I want to live HERE!!

Local tribes used Tshletshy as a thoroughfare from the Queets to the Quinault drainages during spring and summer. Gathering mountain blueberries and hunting elk, deer and bear along the way, the natives would migrate higher in the drainage as summer would come on. They carried smoked meats and other goods to trade with the neighboring tribes. The history of the area is quite fascinating and I felt it, being in such an untouched place. Ever feel like places have an energy or presence to them? Tshletshy definitely has personality.

I found it more difficult finding someone to go with me than first imagined. Many phone calls and texts later brought me to the realization I might have to do it alone. I couldn't bear the thought of waiting another year. I thought about that reality and as our cool spring kept the snow pack locked in the mountains I wondered more and more what this trip was really going to be like. There had to be someone interested in doing Tshletshy Creek. It was a backyard epic!! Gentle poking and prodding through the winter and spring revealed a few hearty souls. One by one, as the day we actually had to start carrying the kayaks grew closer, checked themselves off the list. When the day came Ryan Scott was at the take out to set shuttle. I was so stoked I could've carried both boats to the put in!!

critters are about

I will surely visit this place again.

We met up on a Fri, set shuttle, and planned to wake up early Sat morning and start hiking. Sounds great. But, we couldn't wait. After spending the afternoon sweltering in the 85 degree heat assembling our packs, we started hiking around 5pm. Such a liberating feeling, walking away from the van knowing all I need for the next 5 days is strapped to my back!! I had thought about this trip for a long time and here we are, passing the sign to Irely Lake!!!!!!

It was a bit warm with full sun. The views of Lake Quinault were inspirational as we drove up to the put in. The late spring meltoff worked in our favor. We wound up starting our hike at 5 in the afternoon rather than the following morning. Hiking with a loaded boat is WORK, but I had all the time in the world and hopefully enough food for the 3100 feet of elevation gain going up. We camped on the trail and the next morning, hit snow about 2 hours into the hike. A couple patches here and there then, a 6 foot wall of hardpack. Sweet!!

Once we figured out where to walk on the snow it made for a pretty easy ascent. By the time we got to the low saddle there was a good 10 feet of snow. I couldn't believe it! Most of the day was spent walking in the snow. I wore my badass waterproof Asolo Hiking boots, but by the time we got to the low saddle they were soaked, squishy even.

Night two was spent in a raised tree well that happened to be snow free and just big enough for us to sleep in. Very cool spot. We woke to full sun and snow! The end had to be in sight. And luckily it wasn't too cold because walking on this slope would have sucked with a thin sheet of ice on it.

A few hours in the snow and a few more in the steezey woods and we were at the river. oh yeah... We sat down and got ready. The last hour of the hike we picked up the old trail and followed it down to a place where it may have crossed the creek. Geology certainly favored it. We ate some food, sat and enjoyed the place we were in. 19 hours of hiking and 2 nights out. The put in was just one more pristine little area of perfection. I'm gonna have to do another overnighter, this is great!

Ryan scouts a marginal drop in the first canyon

The first had wood issues and some impressive geology. Pray for some flooding up there! Similar results in the Tshlasm. The Best Whitewater in Washington is what it says in the OP guidebook. I was beginning to wonder.

This trip is an epic. If you like adventure and just being out in the woods this trip is for you. The whitewater is challenging and beautiful The scenery is off the charts. It's an experience like non other. If it calls to you, it's all there. Peak snowmelt on a string of nice days is what you want. Knowing the snowpack is just one of the little details of this trip. We had around 2000 on the Queets gauge, 3 to 4000 would have been nice. In general higher water at the put in is good. If the trend is high and falling that could be just right as the lower canyons have more water in them anyway.

from the low saddle

looking NW into Tshletshy basin

looking down on the low saddle

We camped on a large gravel bar the third night. Had a great fire. Jetboil is a great invention. We finished portaging after we ate breakfast then put in. The final canyons hold the most impressive whitewater of the run. Miles and miles of class IV and V drops mostly of a read and run nature. Such an inspiring place.

We didn't want to get stuck in the last canyon when it got dark so we boogied. Next time I would get through the first three canyons and get through the portages on the gravel bar before the goods and spend a full day picking everything apart in there.

final camp

A big thanks goes out to Jon Almquist, Scott Matthews, Gary Korb, Mike Deckert, Mike Hoover, and Kris Wilson for beta and just talking with me about the trip!! Thanks for stopping by and making it through this epic post!! And all 90 pictures. Tshletshy Creek is an epic run.

This pristine watershed is so special
all who pass through it
will be left stunned for weeks afterward.

~ Gary Korb
author Olympic Peninsula
guidebook

Here is a short film of our trip made by Ryan Scott. Amazing journey. Enjoy!!!

Ryan Scott's: Tshletshy Creek

Junior Olympics - brought to you in part by WRSI

2011-09-18T22:09:00.000-06:00

The 2011 North American Whitewater Junior Olympics Festival was held the 14^th thru the 19^th of July on the St Vrain in Lyons, CO. The Junior Olympics is a whitewater festival for junior and cadets and usually attracts paddlers from all over US and Canada. This year there were more than 80 paddlers representing 5 different countries: USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. The vast majority of paddlers were from the US and Canada while there were a handful Australian paddlers as well as one from New Zealand (Courtney Kerin who won the silver medal in junior women K1 at worlds) and I represented Sweden.

I am throwing a Space Godzilla in the freestyle comp.

Picture courtesy of Rfort Fotos

This year we competed in slalom, downriver, freestyle, boater cross and sladeo. Sladeo is a combination of slalom and freestyle (sometime referred to rodeo) where we had to navigate down a short slalom course in a playboat and we got 5 seconds deducted from our time for every trick we would do between the start and the finish.

Tough offset - Henry Hyde and I compete in C2 slalom.

Picture courtesy of Rfort Fotos

Junior Olympics is an awesome event and of course it could not have taken place without the support of sponsors and volunteers. So here is a list of people and organizations whom I like to thank:

WRSI for sponsoring the event.
Mike Hyde and his wife for planning, organizing and running the entire event.
The town of Lyons, CO for hosting the event.

Summers on the River....A river guide's perspective.

2011-09-18T19:10:00.015-06:00

Summers on Rivers......where else would you rather be? I have spent many, many summers living on the river day in and day out, week in, week out. Living the life of a river guide. I never seem to tire of the routine. At times I stop and reflect and think that perhaps there is something else I should be doing instead. Then I think....why would I?

A typical/ideal summers' day includes an early morning surf session at an easily accessible park and play spot for an hour or two before work and before the crowds who have a few hours drive before arriving at the put-in. The session is followed by breakfast at a local greasy spoon restaurant with paddling friends. Breakfast is finished just in time to get to work and get changed before greeting 120 guests thirsting for adventure.

I view my role as a river guide as an amazing opportunity to teach my guests as much as I can about rivers and show them an awesome day of thrills and spills. My ultimate measure of success is the guest proclaiming their day on the river as "the best day of their summer". If the guests leave loving the river, the river has just gained a friend and a voice for life, I hope.

Paddling down the 6 hour trip on the river, I without fail am thankful for the beauty of the trees wildlife, and subtleties in nature that surround me. If the weather is sunny, it is easy to be thankful for the warmth and beauty. If it is rainy, the beauty of the day lies in spending it out of doors at the mercy of the elements taking in the wonder of it all, and the power of Mother Nature. At a time when most other people only a few miles away are running out of the rain to take cover......missing the moment entirely.

The work day tends to end with cudo's and thanks from the guests and an invitation to join them later in the evening. With a smile, you promise them that you will join them....after yet another paddle session....and perhaps after strumming some guitar with your housemates.

When you finally make it to bed at night, you are exhausted and sore and it feels great. You fall asleep shortly after your head hits the pillow. Your dreams are sweet dreams of the massive air blunts you threw, the clean loop you finally nailed, and the big air you got off the raft. Chalk it up to an awesome day, an amazing way to spend your summer. And....you get to do it all over again top to bottom tomorrow.

Khatada River

2011-09-18T17:16:00.006-06:00

Made the mission to Khatada river on wednesday. What a beauty. Its a pretty solid class V run, and the crew consisted of a kiwi named Sy, Ali Marshall, Corey Boux and myself.

To get to this run, you drive west from Terrace approx. 1 hour, paddle across the Skeena River (takes about 30 min), then hike up to the put-in beside a little marshy lake. The hike takes about an hour and a half, and be prepared for mud. Lots of berries to eat on the way though! I have heard horror stories about the mosquitos on the hike, but it was clear sailing for us.

This run is all about the big slides. 3 drops are upwards of 100 feet each of steep fast and technical goodness. Heres photos: (bear with me on the blurry shots, my camera is shit)

Corey nearing the bottom of the first drop (this pic shows about 1/3 of the rapid)

Ali taking left line on first drop

Ali and Sy looking at the rooster rapid

Corey and Sy at last slide

Ali at the bottom of the slide

Corey in the top of the slide. I like this photo, if you look hard at the top left you can just see his head poking up

Sy on the last slide

All in all, pretty tight run. Beers tasted better than usual after this one!

Aquabatics film Comp

2011-09-09T10:06:00.000-06:00

Here is my teaser for a local paddling video competition. Make sure you check it out in HD and vote for your favorite teaser online at http://aquabaticsfilmcomp.com/, Hint Hint...

East Fork Miller, WA

2011-09-05T19:19:00.002-06:00

The Skykomish drainage holds some of the biggest stouts around. And don't kid yourself, just because Tao grew up around here doesn't mean he found everything. He did find this one, though and so did I. The EF Miller has some of the steepest whitewater I've probably ever paddled. Massive drops and totally continuous gradient make this section V+/VI. It took us six hours to complete our first descent. We found the beers at the take out to be quite a tasty treat.

I've been struggling with my mostly disagreeable laptop, oh yeah, and windows movie wrecker to create something decent. I'll put some pics up after I've had a chance to go through them. Til then kiddies, enjoy this fine bit of whitewater magic.

http://vimeo.com/26896007

A week at The National Water Sports Centre

2011-08-04T11:46:00.008-06:00

Two weeks ago, we flew over to The National Water Sports Centre near Nottingham for a week of paddling. We were fortunate enough to have good weather and learn lots in contrast with the water deprived Ireland. Not that it's stopped raining, just not enthusiastically enough to fill the rivers and make features work. Here's a video of our trip:

Daniel

The Little White!!

2011-07-28T11:18:00.013-06:00

Here is a sweet little clip of some of the best creekin'... anywhere. The Little White Salmon, a small slice of magical pie. If you haven't gotten on this one, please do yourself a favor. Get on it.

Little White goodness

2011 Freestyle World Championship

2011-07-25T00:44:00.001-06:00

My first world championship started with a 5 AM flight from Denver to Toronto, a 5 hour lay-over in Toronto, then an 8 hour flight to Munich, GER and finally a two hour drive before arriving at the event site in Plattling. I went straight to the competition feature where I met the rest of the Swedish freestyle Team. After a nice little chat we all went paddling. My first training session was great; the water was warm and I was hitting all my tricks. I was so excited to be in Plattling getting to compete at my first international championship.

Check out my first training session, courtesy of my Swedish teammate David Sandberg.

My training sessions leading up to the competition had been great and I felt really relaxed and confident. But on the day of the prelims of K1 junior men (K1JM) I was getting super nervous and I started getting stressed out. There were 7 heats in prelims and since I was in heat 6 I got the chance to see a bunch of really good rides so I really felt the pressure was on for me to do well.

In my first ride I felt I was rushing it and I was not at all happy with my performance. Before my 2nd run Courtney Kerin, a K1 junior women's athlete from New Zealand whom I had gotten to know the week prior to the competition, told me to calm down and focus on what I was going to do. Her advice helped a lot as I did not hear the sound of the crowd; all I heard was the sound of the water. Needless to say, my 2nd run was much better than my first.

Following my heat I headed straight over to the to the results board waiting for the result to get posted. I had placed 25th with only the top 10 advancing to the semi-final. At first I was very upset as I felt I could have done so much better. But then I thought "Hey, I gave it my best shot, I tried my hardest and I cannot wait until 2013 world championship to be held at NOC in North Carolina".

Currently I am training hard and doing my best to learn new things and keep on having fun. Next week I will be heading to the Ottawa river. See you guys on the water!

Camp Cup Challenge 2011 - A ton of kids and BIG BOOMING FUN

2011-07-21T08:35:00.002-06:00

The Camp Cup Challenge 2011 was a huge success! Young people from across the U.S. and a few international youth attend summer camp in North Carolina every year. We invite camps to bring their whitewater-loving youth to a two day event on the Nantahala River. Day one is a training day, followed by delicious ice cream (Thank You Endless River Adventures). Day two, campers participate in two events, a downriver and slalom race, in their craft(s) of choice.

There were lots of big smiles, clean lines, and really impressive paddling. For many campers this was their first time at the Camp Cup, and I think they had a blast. We had a few participants who have attended the event four years in a row.

I interviewed a number of participants about their favorite part of the event, and the most common response was, "It's really fun to meet so many people my age who love to paddle." This is really what the event is about. Sure, the race day is a ton of fun, they get to challenge their skills and eat pizza (thank you Nantahala Outdoor Center), but really its a great way for young people to realize that there are a whole slew of people out there just like them who love to play outside, in whitewater.

A BIG thank you to all the camps and companies who made this event happen. Camps included: Falling Creek, Wayfarer, Merrie Woode, High Rocks, Illahee, Chosatonga/Kahdalea, Green Cove, and Mondamin. Thank you to the American Canoe Association for sponsoring the event, the NOC for hosting and pizza, ERA for providing coaching, volunteers, and support. WRSI provided a helmet for the raffle, and World Kayak for swag.

For more on this year's event, check out:

Facebook photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150237162742623.313111.41092297622&l=241be89e27
Endless River Adventures Blog: http://www.endlessriveradventures.com/kidskayakingblog/?p=442
NOC Blog: http://nantahalaoutdoorcenter.blogspot.com/2011/07/blog-post.html

Verde Good Dayz

2011-07-18T10:48:00.002-06:00

This past week Ty and I were able to rally up a two day trip out to the Green for an awesome midweek special. The first day was an awesome fun fast run down and we had a killer time. After which we ran around asheville for a bit and slid by the Altamont Brewing company in West Asheville which has a beer special this week which is helping donate money for green river access so check it out and help pay the bills. Then we got ourselves a campsite and crashed out in the car and were all fired up come morning with the rest of the crew arriving that night. We got out again the second day and even though it was raining and not so nice still had a fired up and good time. Below is the video shot from the two days. Also we had a club cup race at NOC recently which resulted in a bunch of ties for the top times. Ty and Baby Trey were able to pull out the K2 victory followed closely behind by Tierney and Myself. I also wound up tying for 3rd in mens coming 4 seconds behind the leader. Hope everyone is doing well and see you on the river.

The Kipawa River Festival

2011-07-12T09:24:00.005-06:00

The Kipawa River Fest has just celebrated its 25th year anniversary. The festival serves many purposes aside from the challenge of paddling an amazing river and meeting up with like minded river enthusiasts. The Festival brings awareness and a voice to a river whose navigational rights are being challenged and even revoked by the altering and building of dams. The Kipawa River is located in Laniel Quebec. Keeping true to typical Quebec whitewater, it is a beautiful, high volume, wild, gem which requires very solid paddling skills to negotiate. The rapids are numerous, substantial in length, often technical, and always meaty. The river rarely guarantees flows outside of the festival weekend. The priveledge of paddling this river is rare and coveted.

The exerpt below is a description of Hollywood Rapid which marks the end of the Kip as it plunges into Lake Temiskaming. Holly Chester, one of my paddling partners wrote it. I feel that it captures the charachter of the river well, in addition to explaining why it is that we paddlers do what we do. I hope you enjoy it.

"We each step purposefully on the planks abridging the clay and moss and streams below our feet, as we precariously balance our kayaks on our shoulders, paddle in opposite hand. Already I’m visualizing the rapid ahead. Best case scenario flashes through my mind: a series of calculated strokes drive me across to the left side of the river where I follow the green highway down to a pillow rock avoided to the left. Worst case scenario sneaks up behind: poorly executed strokes, a shaky and unbalanced kayak floats with the current down the right side of the river where I’m ultimately flipped by a hole named Davey Jones’ Locker. I’m potentially kept for a long surf where I most likely hit my head and scrape face on the many rocks that lie just below the surface. This is a very real fear. I take note on our arrival night of a girl with a swollen and bruised eye and scraped cheek. I quickly tuck that alternative out of my mind choosing to focus on the five most important paddle strokes I need to execute as I drive out of the cramped and volatile eddy. We forge on down the slick path until we reach the steep hill that is our point of entry. Setting our boats down we convene on the rocks to discuss our lines. Essentially, we each look at the river and determine from our individual perspectives which is the ideal path to reaching the bottom of the rapid. Ideal lines vary on the paddler and are determined by personal comfort level, river knowledge, and ability on the water. The line I determine — the green highway — requires that I approach as closely as possible to a pour-over rock, maintain an upstream angle for at least 10 strokes as I ferry across large breaking waves. If I’m successful in my strokes the breaking waves won’t compromise my ferry angle and I’ll maintain my line on the green highway. As I eventually turn my boat downstream I will be among significantly smaller standing waves on my way to rubbing elbows with a pillow rock and through a shallow rock garden to the rapids end. Conversely, if I were to leave the eddy facing downstream I would be at the mercy of the currents which would directly put me face to face with the Locker and a shallow beating on the rocks below. In actuality, it will probably take me no more than 30-45 seconds to finish my run. I will attempt to convey the clarity I experience each time I’m on a rapid that warrants my undivided attention. I achieve a kind of focus that I can’t achieve in my everyday. I can’t do it running, working, writing, reading or any of my daily endeavours — and this is what it feels like…

rapid entry
The surge of the rapids overpower all other sounds. It’s a constant din that fills your ears such that your paddling partners will have to yell to communicate. The inability to ignore the sound keeps your undivided attention on the water below and only serves to intensify any feelings you have whether it be excitement and anticipation or sheer unrelenting fear. You begin your ritual entry into your kayak. Feet on blocks, knees in brace, adjust back band and tighten, tighten again, fingers rim skirt around the back of the cock pit, skirt on, pull tab out — check, rock the boat in a sea-lionesque manner, slide in to water. For this particular rapid this entry moment is critical. Taking one big stroke on the right I swing the nose of my kayak up and directly on the cusp of a pour over rock. Lifting my left knee and simultaneously paddling on the right I’m shot out of the eddy much more quickly than anticipated and into the waves below. One. Two. Three. Four strong sweeping strokes and I’ve hit the first breaking wave on my downstream edge. Six. Another breaking wave. Seven. Eight. Nine. I’m on the green highway at this point breathing so heavily I manage to accidentally inhale a splash of water. Choke. Ten. Eleven. I can see the pillow rock. I then realize I’ve misread my line. The pillow rock is not the exit but rather a standing rock just below is. In a panic I navigate right of the rock, where I initially had planned to go left, ultimately without consequence. Twelve. Thirteen. My boat is now bumping off the rocks slightly below surface. Insignificant waves splash my boat. Rapid over. For those 30 seconds I am completely, totally, focused and engaged, never once experiencing a rogue thought, a floating doubt, or a misplaced idea." Holly Chester

Long live the Kipawa Libre - (free)!

Katie Quinn

Update from the Canadian Northwest

2011-07-12T02:38:00.010-06:00

Paddling has been off the hook lately up here in Northern BC. Heres a few shots from the last couple of weeks. Ill let the photos do the talking, click to see them bigger. Cheers WRSI for keeping the ol' noggin safe!

Clockwise:

Bear Falls first D, Khatada Creek, Dogdish, Veddy Creek first D, Granite Creek.

Little Bit of This...A Little Bit of That

2011-06-24T15:50:00.003-06:00

So down here in the south it is dam release season now as most of the runs we get to enjoy during the rainy seasons are no longer coming in. However we did get a little bit of rain the other day and were able to bag a nice low level run on Yellow Creek. Also we recently headed to the second part of the Home Town Throw Down series in the area which turned out well for Ty Caldwell as he was able to snag first place and a double brown claw loop at the close of his run. I however got stomped out in pro class coming in last place. After the whooping we headed towards asheville where we were graced with browning with a bachelor party and then headed back to NOC which will be hosting the next HTTD on July 2nd under the lights. Below are some pictures from all the fun times and a short video from the trip to Yellow Creek with some videos from the HTTD soon to follow. Have a good one Paul

D'z Kidz from Paul Butler on Vimeo.

Dewatering Ernie's Canyon, WA???

2011-06-13T10:02:00.000-06:00

Chris Totten, Joe Howard, and Fish contemplate Ernie's without water

Ernie's Canyon is a premiere class V run less than an hour from Seattle. Ernie's runs over 200 days a year. It would be a major loss to the class V community to lose this run.

"Dewatering Ernie's Canyon would be a TRAGEDY!!" were the first words I read on a message board regarding the prospects of a dam on the North Fork Snoqualmie, just outside Seattle. This project could feasibly take enough water from this run to make Ernie's runnable only a few days a year.

Read this short article from American Whitewater and take 3 minutes to fill out the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) online public comment form. Let your voice be heard!!!

Read the article.

Speak your peace. Then...

Take the video tour.

Ernie's Canyon is still free-flowing. There is still time. Spread the word.

The Cascade

2011-05-30T10:18:00.000-06:00

Long John

The Cascade is one of my favorite runs of the North Shore, there is a wild variety of drops from long technical slides to a very steep stacked set of waterfalls. I managed to get a ton of laps on this jem, with flows ranging from negative 1/2 to negative 6 inches, I am a firm believer that more is better, and after getting comfortable with this run, I could imagine running it at stomping high flows.

Tango checking out the bottom drops

Entering the banking turn of Long John

beware the icicles

Into The Great Wide Open

2011-05-25T12:56:00.003-06:00

How many miles of this would YOU drag a kayak through to get to "the best whitewater" in WA?

Creek Sides gets 'er done so you don't have to!!

No shortage of adventure in there.

how longgg...

How many miles? How much adventure? How many bears will we meet along the way? How much... Guess you'll just have to stay tuned and find out.

- Brett Barton

photos:Miguel Vieira

Spring Flows

2011-05-24T19:41:00.007-06:00

It's amazing how powerful the water in the Spring can be with both temperature and volume playing a factor. It's a very good time to be on your game, despite having dusted off your paddle after several months of skiing/boarding. The Ottawa River was such a blast to paddle this past weekend. The water was COLD, it had come down some from the previous week but there was still a "mere" 42,000 cfs (14,000 cms) of chilly H2O pumping through the dam. It's a completely different river than the one that I bid a Winter's farewell to back in November. It feels so good to be home! I very much look forward to every aspect and personality of the river in its quest t0 shift gears to adjust to summer time flows.

Katie Quinn

Summer's Coming!

2011-05-04T18:26:00.002-06:00

Just back from an amazing Spring Creeking trip to Tennessee. Awesome water levels, amazing weather, and a whole lot of Canadian and American boaters converged in TN.

We managed to squeeze 8 rivers into 6 paddle days, What a treat it is to chase rain and snow melt in the Smoky Mountains. The character of the local rivers is cold, clear, fresh water, narrow, continuously flowing rivers that keep you in suspense as they twist and turn revealing their secrets just as you approach the edge of the drop.

It feels so good to be back on the rivers and outside seeking new adventures with old friends and new.

Now onto gearing up for the Canadian white water season, many spring kickoff events leading into summer.

Katie

In Between Finals

2011-05-02T14:03:00.014-06:00

As school is wrapping up for my sophomore year at Appalachian State University the rivers began to rise! In between finals I was able to snag a few runs on the Watagua, Elk River, and Green. Good lines and great times with my friends up here in Boone town. I was also able to compete in Jerry's Baddle enduring the bike leg up those grueling switchbacks. Starting next week I will go straight into work at the Nantahala Outdoor Center's retail shop. So come by and visit, also you will be able to check out the new Tridents! Enjoy the photos of the various rivers and check out Mark Taylor's quick edit of theElk River: http://vimeo.com/23077476

Spring Kayak Riding

2011-04-27T13:39:00.006-06:00

It's been awhile since I've done an update, so I figured off I dust off the old blogger. It's been a good spring and highlights include multiple runs on the Horsepasture, Raven Fork, Ultra Classic SE gem known as the Hairy Bear, Rock Creek (in Chatty), Johnnies, Flat Rock/ Coon, and countless runs down the always fun Little River Canyon. Most of this have been soul boating excurions, so there is little paddle porn to be viewed. Here's a is a random compliation of videos that friends have put together. Enjoy.

Video made by Bama Boy Tyler Phillips of the Lesser known Flat Rock/Coon Creek, located within the heart of the Alabama backwoods on top of Meth Mountain; also includes Little River Canyon, and one random play boating clip.

More random boat riding from Tyler

Hairy Bear and LRC from Zach Sanders

Spring Boating 2011 from Zach Sanders on Vimeo.

Bama Boys spring break on the Horse Pasture from Charlie Simmons

Dropping H20 - Whitewater Kayaking in Gorges State Park, NC from charlie simmons on Vimeo.

A really cool head cam vid of Little River Canyon by Austin Guthery

Until we meet again,
Charlie Mix

2011 Winter update from WA

2011-04-08T10:03:00.000-06:00

We don't have 200% snowpack, but the winter has still been epic here in the PNW. Robe Canyon of the SF Stilliguamish, the Carbon, Ernie's Canyon of the NF Snoqualmie, the Tye, it's all here. Check it out. I threw in the clip of P.O.W. just because it's so freakin fun!!! Enjoy!

~ Brett Barton

CANYON DREAMS

How to travel with a kayak internationally,

2011-04-04T16:26:00.002-06:00

Yea, there is room for one more boat

First off, these are not rules these are merely suggestions on how I have managed to get my kayaks too and from.

Traveling with a kayak is a pain in the ass. You are the slowest, clumsiest tourist. This makes you a prime target for pickpockets, thieves, and everyone else looking to rip you off. You are traveling with the biggest suitcase ever. Try to travel with a group of other kaykers; strength in numbers. If traveling solo bring a small lock so you can lock your boat up to something and walk into a store or bathroom without your kayak. If you feel like some one might be sneaking up to steal out of your bag or wallet, make a wild turn and smack them with the boat. Overall, I have never been hassled too much, most of the people including the criminals are too busy laughing at the stupid gringo.

2x4s make a excellent rack on a rental car

Starting simple: Cars
Almost all of us have car racks back home -- now you are traveling, the rules just changed. Most cabs do not have roof racks, and they have those little signs on top, most of those come off pretty easily, if the little sign does not come off, just flip your boat over and go cockpit down. Bring straps, I prefer a big 20 footer and two 9 footers, this gives you lots of options. Most cabs at least think they are in a big rush, be willing to dole out another 50 cents to show the cab driver how your straps work and reassure him you do it all the time.

your sleeping pad between your boat and car will avoid denting the roof too much

Buses
Different places have different customs on this one, some times boats go on the roof, other times underneath, and sometimes they might just ride in the seat next to you.
On the roof, have your straps ready, some times the driver will only stop for a few seconds. The next thing you know you are on the top of a bus doing 50 mph down a dirt road with a 1000 foot cliff on one side.
Underneath, most busses are about 8 feet wide, that means a 8 foot 6 inch creek boat needs to go in a little sideways. It also means fitting a Pyranha Everest or some other longer creek boat becomes exceedingly difficult.
The bus driver is going to ask for extra money, he usually puts it directly into his pocket. You can either talk to the ticket seller and squabble over the price ahead of time, or buy the driver off. I have found it easier to play dumb with the driver. I take most of my money out of my wallet, (and in a Texas drawl) say "no nintendo por favor" and then open up the wallet revealing the two dollars you have left. Usually the driver will see you are as poor as he is and just shrug his shoulders.

bus rides can be interesting

Boats and Trains
Most of these crafts are huge and have plenty of extra space. They can deal with the extra weight of the kayak. Once again they are going to look for some money. Stick to the same rules as buses -- barter and play dumb.

Riding in style on the Big boat

Now for the tricky one: Planes
As far as I know there are no airlines flying out of the United States that actually allow kayaks on board. That does not mean you cannot fly with your boat. There are a couple of airlines that will take "small light weight break down kayaks", but the average creek boat does not fit into their size requirements. Don't despair, there are a few things you can do to help get your boat on the plane.

"wave ski" on it's way to Chile

Plan ahead:
1) Get a bag for your boat. I go to the fabric store and get some cheap material and make a gigantic "pillow sack" with a draw string on one end. I then take a couple nine foot cam straps and put them around the boat on either side of your cockpit. Then connect the two 9 footers with a 20 foot strap looped over itself several times (this makes an ok shoulder strap, it also gives the baggage people something to grab onto other than your collar). I use the shoulder strap when I walk up to the ticket counter, I think it makes the "wave ski" look lighter. If you buy a bag, make sure it doesn't say KAYAK on the side. (your are about to lie to the ticket counter and tell them it is anything but a kayak).
2) Look nice. You don't have to wear a suit, but a collared shirt and clean pants, try to portray that you are a professional and that you fly a lot. The ticket folks will want you to fly with their airline again.
3) Show up early, wait until the line gets small and the checker has time to play with your baggage. Worst case scenario -- after being denied go sit and pout and hope that ticket person goes on break. Then run back into the line and give it another try.
4) If you can, find the ticket person that looks new, they won't have a clue and they are easier to trick.
5) Print out the airlines baggage rules, find the (wave ski) (surf board) (light weight break down kayak) portion and highlight it.

When talking to the baggage person
1 Be nice, helpful, let them be in control, and offer assistance.
2 Have your passport, ID, credit card and your highlighted "rules" all ready to go.
3 LIE. You can't bring a kayak on the plane, so it is whatever you tell them it is. Be persistent, say whatever it takes to get your kayak on board. I had a lady in Asheville, NC ask me if it was a kayak, after I said no she asked if I had been to the Green Race the day before. My gear was still wet and my hang over was in full effect from the race. I responded with: "The blue race? What is that?" Tell them you do it all the time: "Yeah, I was down in Africa last month". They might try to tell you it won't fit, my response is "I have fit it in a Cessna before, it will totally fit!".
4 If they tell you it doesn't meet the size requirements remind them that it is round and that if you did all the calculus that it would fit in their requirments.
4 If they tell you no, plead. "I am on this trip for four months, and this is why I am going please."
5 Last resort: "Fine, if I can't take it with me, you deal with it." Turn your back and start to walk away. The people in the airports are really afraid of baggage being left behind, and they may just put it on the plane to get it out of the airport. (They might also call the bomb squad who will take it out on the tarmac and blow it to smithereens.)

This is the conversation I usually get:
baggage person: What is THAT?
me: It is my wave ski (big Smile)
baggage: What is a wave ski?
me: It is like a surf board for surfing in the ocean. Here are the airlines baggage requirements, it is highlighted right here.
baggage: Well.... ok? It looks like it will be 100 bucks? Hold on! Does it meet the length requirements?
me: Yeah. It is a bit awkward but it fits no problem. Here is my credit card, thanks.
Baggage: Ok, have a fun time with your wave ski?

Our my personal favorite quote from a security guard as I was falling asleep next to my wave ski on an overnight layover in Texas: "Just tell me that isn't your grandma."

Remember, have fun, you are on vacation and you do this all the time.

Irish Team Trials

2011-03-16T16:35:00.007-06:00

With the freestyle worlds in Plattling racing towards us and as of two weeks ago still no Irish team, two events were speedily (but by no means shabbily) put together to sort one out. Although the first was hoped to have been held in Tuam, Co. Galway, water didn't turn up for the day so it fell to the backup plan of the not-too-distant tidal hole, Clifden on Saturday, the 5th of March. The second was held last Saturday, the 12th of March at my local feature, Sluice. I'll let these two videos do the rest of the talking:

Event 1: Clifden, Co. Galway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnHPgxtQDQU&feature=channel_video_title

Event 2: Sluice, Co. Dublin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqwbnr_vg9w&feature=channel_video_title

Videos courtesy of the Sluice Crew

That's all for now.

Daniel.

Paddling in the dirty south!

2011-03-13T23:45:00.001-06:00

For the past week(s) I have been in Alabama and the water has been G-R-E-A-T! When I first arrived at the airport I had heard that it was suppose to rain that night. Sure enough it flooded. I have been paddling non-stop every day for almost a week (I am not completely sure how long I have been here so time may be different). I can't wait until the Alabama Mountain Games starts as there will be lots of things to do and for me to film. Check out the video my friend Bennett and I made of my time so far in Alabama!

Woodnote

2011-03-08T20:15:00.003-07:00

Well we got a good bit of rain last weekend down here in the SouthEast and it was just what the doctor ordered. Most of the goods were to high in-fact. So myself and Ty got out and snagged some of the goods starting with a 2.5 mile hike up into part of Upper Snowbird. Then once getting back to the car drove to a nicely padded out Cascades where Ty bucked up and ran the stouts while I did some safety and scampered around filming. Afterwards it was over to Yellow Creek for some nice micro creek nastiness. The twenty and most of the other drops were at pretty prime levels so we headed in and got the goods. Back to the house we finally went and got a little bit of sleep in before Monday rolled around. Dodging a case of the mondays we headed on out to Big Creek, which as Ty recently found out is in NC as a side note for Sydney, and we began another day of hiking. After reaching the top with our good friend Tim Madison we made downstream motion. After some hairy fun we returned to the parking lot after a day of fun. All in all it was an amazing two days of paddling with great levels, good friends and far to much hiking.

Kicking off the 2011 Season

2011-02-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

Last season was an absolute blast. I got to spend my summer traveling all over the country and getting to paddle just about every day. The season got started at the river festivals here in Colorado, followed by the US team trial in Missoula, MT and then the Junior Olympics at NOC in North Carolina. As awesome as 2010 was I think 2011 will be even more awesome.

My 2011 kayak season is about to get kicked off as I am lucky enough to get to go to Alabama where I will train with Jeremy Adkins and compete at the Alabama Race Cup and the Alabama Mountain Games. So instead of going to pool sessions, like I did last year at this time, I will be running 20 foot waterfalls. I hope to see you on the river.

"Welcome To Gods Country, We are Open for Business"

2011-02-22T08:37:00.002-07:00

So this past weekend down here in the SE pretty much everyone and their brother was at Cheoah. Cheoah is our home run and needless to say it was awesome to see so many people out enjoying the river even though it was a bit congested at times. Still it was tons of fun as you can tell from the video above which is aptly titled after a conversation had in town with some other friends from the area. It is nice though when you have a release like this and get to meet up with people you have paddled with previously and do it all over again. Also we shook some of the old dogs out of the closet who have not paddled as part of the crew in years such as young JP. However crazy as the day got thought it was all good times and we look forward to some rain, pray for rain, or another release and the impending rafting season which lurks over all our heads down here which means work is soon in the future. Have a good one, Paul.

Seattle movie premiere: Wildwater, A Love Story and... MELTDOWN

2011-02-14T09:12:00.002-07:00

Last Thursday saw a big turn out at the Seattle premiere of Wildwater, A Love Story presented by Canoe & Kayak Magazine.. Everyone was stoked to see Wildwater. Everyone was also really fired up to see Meltdown, a whitewater film by Matt Kurle and Dan Patrinellis. Meltdown is a compilation of some of the treats locals around here get to run. The Carbon, Chelan Gorge, Deer Creek, solo run down Ernie's Canyon, playboating the Skook. There's a pretty good mix including some big rowdy drops, hole beatings and sick lines. Plenty of good helmet cam footy. I'm in there, too. Enjoy!

FBGM! with the Ouch! Crew

2011-02-07T13:20:00.005-07:00

We had a good bit of rain around WNC recently so we have had the opportunity to get out on some goods such as Big Creek, Section 4 of the Chattooga and Green River Narrows. Had some karmic events out on the Green and wound up drinking a bootie after pinning and being unable to roll it back up. Hit the boof at the bottom of toliet bowl pretty well and bounced onto the second rock but lost it on the second rock flipping me and then i got pushed while upside down into a rock. Got a bit broach pinned and tried rolling a few times to no avail and carping a bit. Then I finally knew what had to happen and pulled it out. Thus the bootie at the end of the video. Then went out to Big Creek which is a beautiful run up in the Smokey Mountain National Park. The run is rather continuous and has awesome rounded boulders that are great for some boofs. Also got the chance to roll with a rather large crew out to Section 4 which was good even though the level was a bit low around 1.5 on the gauge. Nothing to eventful happened out there however i did get some funny shots at the dog of some less then exceptional lines. Above is some video from all of those events and here are a couple of shots from the places hope everyone else is getting after it as well. Peace Paul

FLOW TV Episode Num-bro uno

2011-01-30T18:37:00.003-07:00

Episode One (Revenge of the Spicy Burrito) from FLOW.tv on Vimeo.

Casey discusses what its all about in the video. Nothing like a free 30 min kayaking video though. However we have lacked rain down here recently so its been Section 4 and low water Green when its not to cold. However did have a nice day with some high water and we were able to hit up the subsurface wave on the Little T.
This is a shot of the spot it was a nice wave like feature with a crazy eddy line at about 2000cfs and is only in during the winter due to fontana lake being low. Other then the little bit of boating we have been able to get from these frosty days there has been a good bit of boarding. Have a good one Peace, Paul

Mission Norway Vol. III

2011-01-23T12:53:00.017-07:00

The land of trolls, deep fjords and raindeers – These are the words which come to your mind when you start thinking about Norway. However, kayakers have slightly different idea of it. They think about white water, the smell of used neoprene and reward for the whole year work. It's almost a tradition that we visit Norway every summer, so that we set out on our trip this year, too, with my friends Snizak and Civa.

When we came to Voss we realised that water level stage is suitable for us. For this reason we tried the lower Myrkdalselvi, which is the best known river in this area. Because of bad weather conditions – it was not raining and the water level was not raising – we couldn't enjoy the rest of rivers as well as this one.

During the other days it started to rain so we decided to repeat the Raundaselvi and the Bramseth. Then we left to Songdal valley. The 24 metres high waterfalls didn't have much water but they were still pushy. As well as the rest of the river.

After short relaxation we agreed to go down the Veo river. Water level was ideal, so we drove through the National park Jotunheim to the place where we supposed to start. There we found out that there are two kilometres left by foot and we shot ahead. We expected the beautiful ride but unfortunately it didn't happen. We stopped after three kilometres and we decided to go back. By foot again. It was horrible way, there were tonnes of mosquitos which were really interested in our blood.

After we went through the heeling process because of dozens of mosquito-bites we were absolutely prepared for the Sjoa river festival competition. I fighted the eight place in qualification but that would have to happen our flight tickets were booked the day before the real race was so I didn't have chance to try to get a good score.

In spite of this little dissapointment I really enjoyed the trip and I hope that next year I will be able to take part in this race and maybe be succesful!

Honza ,,Muska" Musil

End of Season: Update

2011-01-15T02:10:00.001-07:00

Everyone knows pictures are worth at least a thousand words, and who doesn't like looking at sick drops and fun stuff!! Here is a big photo dump of places I've been this season with good friends having good times, even portaging. Thanks to everyone who made it good, Totten, Jeff and JD, Mckibbin, Kris Wilson, Hoover, JP, Fish, Nick, Gordon, A-train, Dan P, Chelan Crew, you all know who you are!! I'll eventually put in some descriptions of all these places, but for now, please just enjoy the pics. ALL photos on this post are courtesy of Mr. Chris Totten. Thanks buddy.

For other woodland creatures grooving in their native habitat,

check here: www.creeksides.blogspot.com

Brett Barton

Chirripo Pacifio huck fest

2011-01-14T09:52:00.002-07:00

Todd Wells, Caterata La Perla

First Descent of La Perla,

La Perla is a 50 + foot drop that starts with a tricky slide into a 30 foot vertical drop. Todd and I had this gem in our sights for the last 3 weeks. We had been keeping ourselves busy with other adventures but today it was time to pluck this first descent. The drop is just a short hike up the hill from Casa Mariposa, (the hostel I have been home basing out of). After scouting the beast one more time there was little hesitation in running such a magnificent drop.

The lip of the falls is rather ugly, there are two rock flakes most of the way down the slide portion of the drop. The rocks are unnervingly close to the sliver of water that I want to be on, and look as if they might launch you out of control. There was a distinct possibility of launching out flat, or on your head into the pool 30+ feet below. To make it more interesting the main flow rides up on a curler at the lip of the falls. The water then drives left into the nasty left rock flake. It is a pretty thin line at the top of a rather large drop.

At the top of the falls I felt unusually calm, I had a third of the butterflies in my belly that I was expecting. Once again I had a funny song in my head, this time Avril Lavigne's "Alice" was rolling through my head. I hopped in my boat, slapped the skirt on, and slid into the water. My pre big drop rituals are rather impromptu, today it was a extremely short lived wiggle warm up dance. Three strokes later my boat was right on line. I tossed in a quick correction stroke on the slide, and a second later I was rolling up in the pool with a huge grin.

Chris Baer, with big smile for La Perla

Ignorance is bliss, and it will make you hike some more in Costa Rica. I hadn't learned my lesson about the upper upper Chirripo Pacifico, as Todd and I continued down stream. Our attempt was to paddle down to the most upper paved bridge. As we headed down stream we encountered a married of ugly and painful drops. After bouncing off of a hundred rocks, we found a set of very marginal drops. A quick discussion led us to hiking out of the river valley. To our luck we were in the back yard of Casa Mariposa, a short walk brought us to base camp, and beers.

Once again, the Upper stretches of the Chirripo Pacifico have turned out to have great hike and huck potential, and a low tolerance for allowing any downstream movement out side of bouncing off of rocks.

First descent of Catarata Pacifica,

Chris Baer, airborne, funnel, wheelie on Catarata Pacifica

The team had left, Ferdinand had clients to paddle with, Todd was going to spanish school, and this left me solo. I had been studying the water falls in the valley for the last 3 weeks, the valley was home. After all this time I had a calling, I wanted to run one more of the big drops. I knew that Catarata Cloud Bridge was runnable but it looked painful, and I never got a good view from the lip of Catarata Pacifica. So I set out for another hike, I wanted to get a really good look from the top of Catarata Pacifica. I stopped at the normal overlook, and peered down onto the drop. The lead in is rather intense from above, and I couldn't see a proper way to get to the lip of the falls. The embankment is all over hanging and full of lush vegetation. Upon further investigation I was able to wade down the river left side and get to some slippery rocks right at the lip of the beast. I was astounded, it looked.......ok?

I split the drop up into a few categories,

The lead in,
The river bed was made of bed rock, and had odd shaped eddys, and diagonal holes protecting the true lip of the falls.

The disconnects,
Upon rolling off the lip, the water disconnects for 15 feet, and then hits a small rock flake. It then disconnects again for another 15-20 feet before it gently reconnects with the bed rock a total of 40+ feet below the lip.

The funnel,
40 feet down the drop the rock starts to funnel together, the right wall is slightly overhanging and the left wall is the major issue. The drop at it's widest is 20 feet, the exit is 5 feet wide, the left wall does all of the funneling. The results of hitting the left side from 50+ feet above looked painful at best. Not only was the rock pinching together from side to side, but it was also ramping into the pool. This transition into the landing zone made me feel a little better, I knew I would have a half a second to try to control my angle.

The pool,
Looked ok, there was a deep boil rolling up 20 or so feet away from the base of the falls. There was also a relatively calm large pool on the left side to collect my wits in. The right side of the pool was moving fast off the next 6 foot drop, and also looked rather under cut. At this point it looked perfect, a 50/50 chance for a nice pool.

So as I mentioned before I was solo, no other boaters in sight, probable no other boaters within 100 miles. One of my major concerns about the drop was the lack of proper safety. I never like to count on non boaters to help set safety, but I didn't have any other choice. I turned to John Titan, (Casa Mariposa owner) he is in his mid 40s and constantly over active. John was going to be my safety, I didn't tell him much but I saw in his eyes he understood the possibilities. He was willing to dive into the water and drag me out if so needed. More then his willingness to set safety he had a gleaming light in his eye to watch the first descent of this glorious waterfall in his own backyard.

The day of descent was busy at Casa Mariposa, and it was just after noon before John and Jill where able to ditch there duties and join me at Pacifica. I was mentally prepared, I had gone through all the horrible possibilities in my head. After all the daunting thoughts, I still had the firm belief that I was going to get spat through the constriction at the bottom, with a huge smile.

Once again we had a crowd of onlookers, John was set up on a rock at the base of the falls with my camera in one hand and a throwbag in the other. I went through my final mental preparation and looked at the 5 foot gap 60 some odd feet below with a smile. I was about to make history one way or another. I looked up from the drop and gave John one loud blast out of my whistle, he looked around and got the thumbs up from the crowd, it was go time. I wondered back to my boat nervously slipped my spray skirt on and indexed my paddle. I shrugged my shoulders hummed my song and turned to face the most imposing drop of my life.

I cranked out a couple paddle strokes picking up some speed into the class 3 maze of back wash, eddy lines, laterals, and rock flakes that made up the entrance rapid. I was one move away from rolling off the lip, I was totally committed and right then a giant smile came on to my face. Right or wrong this was going to be one hell of a big ride. I drove up onto a rock on the right hand side inches before the lip, it slid me back to the left onto a pile of water that pushed me back right, and with a slight right draw stroke I leaned forward and started my descent.

I was instantly airborne, with square shoulders and head held high, I anticipated my next reconnect. Uggh, I reconnected with the rock. I was already 15 feet down, I managed another tiny correction stroke and once again was airborne. I cleared my eyes, I was 10 feet away from reconnecting the second time and I looked to the bottom of the drop, I was spot on line. As I reconnected the second time I drove my heals down to match the rock slide and lessen the impact. I was instantly brought up to warp speed, and could barely close me eyes in time to get shot through the funnel at the bottom.

I hadn't really thought about the impact into the pool, I knew the pool was deep, I knew I was going to be going really fast. I wasn't sure what was really going to happen as I got rocketed through a 5 foot gap from 60 feet above. What did happen was the wheelie of my life. I was staring at the clouds doing 40 mph through the pool. My paddle got ripped out of my left hand and so I reached down and swept the water with my bare hand keeping me vertical, and mildly stable. After traveling 30 feet staring at the sky the speed slowed and I leveled the boat back down. I was a couple feet away from the crowd, it wasn't till I smiled that the gaping jaws of the crowd lifted into a rejoining celebration.

Bumping my head,
For the last few years, I have been having rather entertaining Christmas days. Two years ago I tubed the Micos water fall run in Mexico. Last year I ran the biggest drop of my life, the 70ft middle Palguine. This year the plan was to get the second descent of the La Perla waterfall. As I stood above the 50 foot slide to vert, I was all smiles. John got himself positioned with the rope and camera, we exchanged head nods, and it was time to go.

I hoped in my boat, slid into the eddy, and peeled out. I was trying to recreate my line from a few days before. On the way down I got pushed a bit further left on the slide portion and got a little cork screw action in the air. I lifted my paddle to try to square up for impact, and CRACK. This time it wasn't the paddle that gave.

The bow of my boat slid into the water, the right blade of my paddle touched down on the surface, and my head followed through. I resurfaced quickly and immediately raised my left hand to my forehead looking for blood. As I pulled my hand away I saw a little pink. I turned towards the crowd paddled a couple strokes and felt the warm blood flowing down and dripping off my nose. Upon a second inspection I could feel the gap above my eyebrow. I told John I was ok, and I would meet him back on the road to the Mariposa. I took off through the next couple rapids and pulled over a quarter mile down stream and hiked back up to the road.

All I wanted for Christmas was a 50 footer... I have heard of getting a lump of coal for Christmas, but a lump on my forehead seems a little excessive.

Special thanks to John and Jill of the Casa Mariposa, you have helped set safety, shoot photos, mend ill friends, lend local knowledge and machetes, and most importantly share your home and the best base camp I could ever imagine.

First Descents, Rio Chirripo Pacifico, Cateratas from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Chris Baer, still smiling with a black eye.

First Descents, Canas, Ceibo Canyon, and Caterate Casuela

2010-12-26T09:23:00.002-07:00

A sequence of the hardest big drop of my life

Chris Baer, contemplating the hardest drop of my life.

First descents.

Ferdinand and I had made it through the getting to know you stage, now it was time to do some serious exploring. I hopped in his car once again and we took off to explore a couple runs that have never been done before.

The morning bird show

Canas, 300 fpm class 4+ with one sieved out class 5 move.

I would have never guessed we were about to do one of the steepest class 4 runs in the world as we were driving through the pineapple fields of Costa Rica. Ferdinand had the Rio Canas on his to do list for two years, and I was lucky enough to get to run it after knowing him for only three days. We stopped on the side of the road walked down to the river and looked into the river corridor. The Canas looked good, steep boulder garden style rapids with a couple fun boofs in sight. The level was a bit low, but the water channelized really well. As we headed up stream we stopped at a few more places, and it all looked good. We found an easy access spot, and Ferdinand checked the elevation on his watch against the topographical map. It all was adding up, we had just over 3 kilometers of unrun boulder gardens to negotiate to get to the next good access point.

We headed down stream scouting countless blind horizon lines, most of the times all it took was standing up and you could see a couple fun boofs and a nice eddy at the bottom. Our pace was quick as we headed down through tight slots and fun little boofs. About 2/3 of the way down the run we encountered a fun 5 foot boof directly above a pin rock and a nasty sieve. I took a quick look at it and found a thin line on the far left. I got back in my boat flew off the boof and slipped just past the pin rock. Ferdinand liked my line and fired off the drop right behind me. The pace stayed rather quick and before we knew it we were at the original take out bridge. We both were having a good day and there was plenty of light left so we pushed on, and ran another kilometer of equally fun white water. This run would be great for solid class 4 boaters look to up there skills.

Ceibo canyon, 400-500 fpm

The night before the Ceibo mission Ferdinand and I spent the night looking over topographical maps and planing the assault on what looked like a meandering river, that came out of a slot canon. As we drove up the river valley, the river looked minuscule, my first impression was it was just too low. After talking to some locals we got the information we were looking for, keep on going up stream the river lives in a canyon up there. We locked the hubs on Ferdinand's little Suzuki and went up a ridiculously steep hill with supper loose rock. My head was bouncing off the roof, and I was holding the O'shit Handle out of necessity. We finally made it to a relatively flat area and stopped the truck. The river was a thousand feet below us. It was emerging out of a basalt mini canyon, I got really excited. We left the truck at the flat spot, and hiked another kilometer up the road, to the top of the first canyon.

As we entered into the canyon we didn't get more then 50 feet before we came around a blind corner and spotted a nasty class 5 sieve pile caused by a land slide. Ferdinand was deservingly hesitant, I saw a "hairy fairy" right in front of a sieve and a marginal line bouncing down a pile of junk rock. We continued through the canyon scouting constantly, and found a hand full of great rapids. The 15 foot slide to boof and fun linked double slide were the highlights of the run. As we exited the canyon the character changed, we were now in a bouncy boulder garden, and the water quickly sprawled out. We paddled another couple hundred yards and got to a swinging bridge and pulled out of the river. After getting the first descent of this beautiful canyon, I am definitely planning on returning to check out some of the upper canyons. Two days and two first descents down, I was feeling a little physically tired but mentally I was on was on fire.

Ferdinand, in the midst of Ceibo Canyon

Caterate Casuela and the Cloud Bridge section of the Chirripo Pacifico, is a hike and huck

A few weeks ago I scouted this section and, my original opinion was that almost all the drops on this run where, marginally runnable, at best. Over the last couple weeks I have scouted almost every vantage and access point. When Ferdinand offered to set safety I was both excited and nervous. The morning came, and I was going through my mental readiness, stay calm, eat a light breakfast, listen to an upbeat song (Katy Perry "I kissed a girl"). Before I knew it Ferdinand and I jumped in his truck again. We cruised up to the Cloud Bridge reserve, and parked the truck. From that point on, there is no motorized vehicles allowed. We started our two kilometer hike into the reserve. We had a fan club following us, John and Jill from the hostel Casa Mariposa, the care takers of Cloud Bridge, and a couple other folks all came up to watch. As always it took a while to get cameras and safety in place. Then Ferdinand gave me the thumbs up, the Katy Perry song came back to the front of my head, I did a little happy dance, and new I was ready.

Caterate Casuela might be the most complicated big drop I have ever ran. It starts with a small slot on river left, that leads you across the creek to a 8 foot drop. At the base of the 8 footer is a huge curler that explodes off the right wall. That curler drops another 15 feet into a cauldron, the cauldron is about 10 feet wide and rotates back under the curler at a proximately a hundred miles an hour. Then, the water falls off a beautiful 40 footer into a shallow pool. I am amazed I wanted to run such a messy drop, but as I have traveled and gotten better, I have fallen in love with "roller coaster" drops. The more dynamic the rapid the greater the reward for me. The idea of dropping 8 feet bouncing off a wall another 15 into a cauldron and then running a 40 footer all in the mater of 2 seconds was too much of a draw, I had to fire it up.

I hopped in my boat, checked my life jacket, helmet, spray skirt, did my supper quick stretch routine, and gave Ferdinand a loud whistle blast. A couple seconds later I heard Ferdinand whistle back, (safety and cameras were ready). I looked down at the shaft of my custom Blunt Family Paddle, and right there in the middle are the words "FIRE IT UP!!!". I gave the paddle a quick nod as to agree. I paddled back to the middle of the pool, rolled my neck, shrugged my shoulders, and started humming the song again. Out loud I reminded my self to just float over the first drop. I paddled to the slot with a nice right hand angle, and as I came through the slot I picked up a ton of speed. I was flying toward the first 8 footer, leaned forward and rolled over the first drop. A nano second later I got a quick left sweep stroke and the nose of the boat up on the curler. I followed it with a quick right stroke and was blinded by the spray of the curler, about then I felt gravity kick in. I got my left paddle blade ready for a brace and before I knew it I cleared the curler and was a foot away from the lip of the 40 footer. I didn't even get a chance for a stoke off the 40 footer, I did push my weight forward and cleared my paddle to one side. A half of a second of free fall and I entered the landing zone. I glanced off a rock about 9 feet under the surface and paddled away from the drop with a huge smile.

Chris Baer, about to hit the curler, Caterate Casuela

Chris Baer, reemerging from the curler, Caterate Casuela

Chris Baer getting the nose down, Caterate Casuela

I took a couple minutes to shout in celebration and a couple more to reflect on the scale and difficulty of the drop...

looking back up at the hardest drop of my life

dumbfounded that it went so well

Soon enough I gain composure and headed down stream. The next drop looked very marginal, I charged for a small rock flake and got pushed off early. I dropped 10 feet and glanced off another rock. The following drop looked absolutely horrible and Ferdinand and I both walked. Putting back on the river, I paddled another 15 feet to the next horizon line and saw another very marginal drop. The river in this section drops about 1000 fpm and was looking very unrunable.

Just another rapid on the upper upper Chirripo Pacifico

Ferdinand and I had a quick pow wow, and decided to abandon the project. All said and done this is one of the hardest hike and hucks I have ever seen, and I am absolutely stoked to have gotten the first descent of this amazing drop.

First descents of Ceibo Canyon and Rio Canas, Costa Rica from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Three days and three first descents, not a bad mid week.

Chris Baer

Costa Rica, Chirripo, Chirripo Pacifico, Upper Buena Vista, and the San Rafael

2010-12-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

The view from Cerro Chirripo

Packing up my equipment in snowy Colorado I really had no idea what I was getting my self into again. I have been traveling internationally to kayak for the last three years yet every time I pack my bags for the next grand adventure I have that voice in the back of my head asking me are you ready, do you know what you are in for, what if, what if, what if. I stop, and think about it like a big drop, I could either sit here and think about the down sides or, I could go live life to the fullest. I checked my list twice, repacked everything, barely slept, and before I knew it I was on the plane heading to Costa Rica.

I knew there was some boating in Terrialba, so that was my first destination. Apon Arival to the busy poluted relative gross city of Terrialba I was rather disapointed.

The town of Terrialba

I hung out for a couple of days and used every contact I could think of to find a paddling partner. Todd Wells showes up, and we imediatly got into the quick chit chat of who we are and what we have been up to lately. Todd then invites me to go with him to the other side of the country and check out some water falls and the tallest peak in Costa Rica.

We hopped a bus and a day later we are in San Gerardo.

Waiting for the bus in San Jose

We had been referred to a real cool low key Hostel, Casa Mariposa. The next day we grab mechettes and start the bush whack, hike, and scout mission to check out some amazing waterfalls.

Chris Baer in full bush whack mode

A Mot Mot

Coati

Cerro Chirripo, is the hightest peak in Costa Rica and is basicly in the back yard of Casa Mariposa. So the mission started, we hiked 15 kilometers up to a freezing cold base camp building, and spent the night. The next morning the plan was to wake up early and summit early so we could watch the sun rise at the peak. At 4 a.m. I rolled over to hear the rain pounding on the roof. There was a few groins and grunts and there was a inaudible decision to sleep for a couple more hours, there wasn't going to be a view. I awoke again to the sound of rain, and I knew that I was still going to push to reach the summit. Two hours and five kilometers later I was at the peak with 30 mph winds and side ways rain, the view was.... grey.

A beautiful view on the way up Cerro Chirripo


Chris Baer at the peak , not exactly the best view

Todd, feeling a little beat down after the hike up.

Chris Baer, it is a long hike back down.

Back down at the hostel we took a day to recover, drank tea, ate copious amounts of food, and just lounged. That night I awake to hear Todd getting sick, I originally thought it was his body telling him to take it easy for another day. Then he stayed sick, day after day high temeratures and not eating. At this point I started having the thoughts of dengue fever, leptospirosis, and malaria. It was time to get Todd to a hospital. The morning Todd was to leave for the hospital he looked a little better. After a couple days in San Jose, I got a phone call saying he was back on his feet and doing well.

Enough of other stuff, lets talk boating. It took me way too long to get on the water this trip, but the wait payed off.

Beautiful rain forest canopy

Day 1
Upper Upper Chirripo Pacifico 500 fpm
Ferdinand, one of the few creek boaters in Costa Rica, called up one day, and said, lets go kayaking. The next thing I know he stopped by plucked me up and we put on the Upper Chirripo Pacifico, this run is STEEP, average gradient has to be close to 500 fpm. We put on the creek and it was obviously heading down the mountain. It was horizon line after horizon line with micro one boat eddys in between, I was immediatly happy with my winter choice of Costa Rica. Three kilometers and over a thousand feet lower in elevation we reached the confluence with the Blanco and took out on the right. My first kayak run in Costa Rica was filled to the brim with must make eddys, seives, undercuts, and more off angle boofs then I could imagine.

Ferdinand on one of the countless drops

Day 2,
Upper Buena Vista, 300 fpm
The Upper Buena Vista, the name immediatly made me think of my summer home in CO. This run had a slightly mellower pace, then the Chirripo, only 300 fpm. There was a couple distictly different sections to this five kilometer run. It starts with a handfull of 15 foot drops with nasty lead ins. Then mellows out into a section of four foot boofs and blind twisting and turning through micro canyons. The third section gets back into some bigger drops that are concealed behind gigantic boulders. The last portion is just junky rock piled high ontop of itself falling quickly down to the take out bridge.

San Rafael, 300-500 fpm
Our second run on day two was the San Rafael, another three kilometer run. The San Rafael had over 30 drops between 6 and 15 feet, absolulty amazing. By the time we reached the take out my arms felt like they where going to fall off, and my smile was actually making my face hurt.

Day 3
The Canan section of the Chirripo Pacifico, 300fpm no drop bigger the five feet.
Ferdinand looked at the flow and said well it is a little high. What he meant to say was he had the previous high water descent, and now the water is six inches higher. So we put on, and it was pushy. A thousand cfs rushing down 300 fpm felt pretty out of control. We would peel out of a swirling eddy and go a half a mile down through huge holes and around blind corners in a few seconds. I was in survival mode, I was chasing Ferdinand down the run. Five kilometers down stream we stopped at a bridge, and I was thankful to be exiting the river.

Chirripo, Buena Vista, and San rafael from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Three days four rivers and over a vertical mile of elevation loss. Not a bad way to start off a Costa Rica trip.

Chris Baer

South East, Green Race

2010-12-26T09:20:00.002-07:00

Down to the Russell Fork,
Sieves, Undercuts, and a whole lot of fun especially when the evening party is fueled with local Moon Shine. As the weekend finished up there was a couple of us that had nothing better to do, so we drank more Shine and played with cameras. During that evening Brandon Gonski managed to catch the best shot of the Wrec Center ever.

Brandon Gonski took this incredible picture,

Horse Pasture light,
Well it wasn't a light hike. It seems I have been bringing the rain to the South East for a few years and this year was no exception. With the rain pounding down I meet up with Gareth Tate, we cruised out to pick up Lee Timmons and heading to the Horse Pasture as we past over the Toxaway I had to stop and check the gauge, it was in!, but it was also 1:30 pm, and way to late in the day to start a huge mission into the Toxaway. So we drove on and got to the Horse Pasture, the level was on the high side of good. We hiked to the river and the thunderous put in falls almost blew me over. Lee had a bad vibe from the get go, but was willing to play along for a bit. Gareth and I where on our usual style, LETS GET THIS SHIT! We bombed off the first couple drops and Lee decided to bail, and hike out. Gareth and I managed to push down stream and get to the bottom of Stair-step before we started loosing light. With a small, inexperienced crew, loosing light, we made a good decision and hiked out. By the time I made it back up the hill to the Wrec Center it was already time to break out the Petzel head lamp.

Gareth getting a great last stroke

Chris Baer sliding down stream, photo by Lee Timmons

Who says class 5 isn't fun, look at that smile, photo my Lee Timmons

Gareth looking back up at Stair-step

That was my extent of rain bringing to the Asheville area, it stayed dry from that evening on. When there is no rain in Asheville there is one fun thing to do still, Green River Narrows Laps. I did a bunch of them again this year, and as the race grew nearer I felt good. It was the first time I had entered the race actually knowing where I was going to go around the next blind corner. On the other hand I don't take kayak racing very seriously, and as I came into the Notch that shit talking caught back up to me again. I went into the eddy yelled at Arlyn Agababian to grab my bow, and reached into my lifejacket pocket to retrieve my fun whistle. I put it in my mouth, gave Arlyn the nod, spun around, and gave the whistle a huge blast as I pumped my fist, the 500 person crowd standing on the other side of the river showed their appreciation with a huge cheer. I paddled back out into the flow and gave the whistle another big blast as I flew off the launch pad of Gorilla. I flew through the Speed Trap and down the rest of the slides to the finish line blasting the Fun Whistle all the way.

Chris Baer blasting the Fun Whistle in the Notch eddy

Chris Baer getting his boof stroke and one last blast in the Fun Whistle

Chris Baer practicing, 1

Chris Baer practicing, 2


Chris Baer practicing, 3

Chris Wing coming off Gorilla

Jeff Clewell with a big Flying Squirrel move

Big Crowd at Gorilla

Chris Baer racing through Nieces Pieces

Crowd looking into the Notch

Chris Wing racing through the slides

Panting to the Finnish line

Another pretty line

Resurfacing through the Notch

Crowd at the lip of Gorilla

Frog men in action

Best safety in the world, especially if you get your helmet ripped off

Big Gorilla boof

Jason Hale running Gorilla switch after catching the birthday eddy

Hale disappearing

Another great line

What nightmares are made of

Another backwards run off Gorilla

Chris Baer finding his way through Go Left

Check out post race fun
Everybody Shines from 7 Finger media on Vimeo.

So I have been up in the air with what to do this winter and I finale pulled the trigger, Round trip ticket to Costa Rica for two and a half months. I am hopeful this trip will also include some other countries as I have spoken to a few people in Columbia that sound game for some exploratory missions.

Next update will be coming from Central America until then go big and smile bigger and give your fun whistle a big blast.
Chris Baer