Gauley and such

WOW Fall was busy

West Virginia sun set from Rick-O-Shay's ultralight

Commercial raft guiding on Gore Canyon was great until I crashed kayaking and messed up my ankle in Cheeseman canyon, what to hear the whole story click here ouch.

Commercial raft guiding in WV on the Upper Gauley is always rewarding. I have a stealer group of return clients that allow me to play hard and work on new and not so standard lines. Including the Double Death Spiral into Iron Ring, and just letting them go through the Box Canyon on there own.



During the Gauley three day mid weeks it is up to us to find some trouble, like flying in Ultra lights and Caving 

Ridding with the master of all that is sketchy Rick-O-Shay.

Casey and Hammer above a 20 foot drop deep in the cave

Casey and Hammer Checking out some stalactites

Hammer repelling

Tubing the upper Gauley with Casey Tango,
There had been so much shit talk about it after my good friend Mike Edwards accomplished the amazing and definitely stupid feat of tubing the Upper Gauley, we had to follow suit. The next friday we had a bunch of coffee, talked a little more shit, and went down to the local tire store looking for inter-tubes. The guy behind the counter was more then happy to help, what size you need, I reach my arms out beyond my sides, about like this, we are going to go tubing down the river. Well this is what I usually sell to folks that are going to take there kids out. Perfect we'll take two. That was that we had tubes next up a little padding. We stopped over at River Expeditions and grabbed a couple wet suits. We tossed a couple extra beers and a roll of gorilla tape (our patch kit) in our support raft and hoped in the river. It was off to the races, we had solid left lines through Insignificant. When you bump your feet off of Pillow Rock while siting fat man style in an inter-tube there is no doubt you had a great line. Next up the scary one Lost Paddle, Casey and I had lines that would put most raft guides to shame big Hawaii 5-0 hits and supper clean lines into Tumble home. Once in Tumble home the shit talk caught up to us again and we both went through the Mail Box Slot. At this point we were feeling pretty sure of our new found skills and Casey called for a left left line at Ship Wreck. I in turn called out for Death Spirals into Iron Ring, I went a little further right then expected and had some serious down time in the top hole just to pop up right before taking a big Wood-stock hole hit. As we floated into Sweets falls we both under stood what was about to happen, we looked at each other and simultaneously the words came to our lips, MELTDOWN! Tango managed to style it on the other hand I got totally beat down. As I slowly found my way out of my pounding I looked over to see Casey stamping his tube and getting pulled up on Postage Due. I went for the same line and got blown off into the Box Canyon. I had a great line through the Box, and climbed up the back side of Postage Due to celebrate a very successful tubing mission of the Upper Gauley.

Casey Tango getting a hand up onto Postage Due

Upper Youghiogheny, Seems there is always some issue with the damn release on the Youghiogheny, it is early, it's late, There is always some rumor of something usually not true. Last year International House Of Pancakes Falls burnt to the ground, but it looked good this year. Anyways the initial big three day midweek release did get canceled and as Gauley season rolled on Casey Tango and I got more and more restless about missing one of our favorite traditions. So fifth weekend we got the heads up that the river was going to run, unfortunately my personal favorite part of the Upper Youghiogheny was closed. The Riverside Hotel, they do the best vegetarian food anywhere, and it is one of my favorite restaurants any where. O well there is always next year, and the river as always produced some great entertainment.

Let the show begin

B-Real boofing International House of Pancake Falls

Casey enjoying the show

Some of the paddlers even like to pull there skirt and still paddle to the eddy

A small but excited crowd at National Falls

Another great time spent in West Virginia and Marry Land.
Chris Baer

Winter Has Come

Down here in the South East winter has made its way with this bit of cold weather. Snowboarding is now in full swing as many of the local mountains are now open for business. Granted its SE snowboarding so its icy and nasty but hey its better then nothing. However more recently with Ty's fall break aligning with my break from work we were able to get out to Eternity on the East Fork of the Tuck and do a bit of filming. Here are the results of the time spent there.

I named the video Modality due to it being a word that I think describes the sensation of kayaking pretty well. Modality is defined as any of the various types of sensations. Thus I felt that the sensations we feel during kayaking are pretty euphoric and could be well described by this word. Hope everyone else is doing good and hopefully we will get some rain/snow here again down South and the treats will be open for the taking again. Peace Paul

compilation vid

Well, guess theres no lying now.... the snow has come, the rivers are frozen and paddling season is over here in Terrace. Fortunately, it is only a short drive to Butze Rapids where with some good cold water gear, a person can get big surf all year long. Also plannin a few weeks of surfing on Haida Gwaii over the break, but in the meantime, heres a vid of some paddlin trips from last season and a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5k2RB1hCrE

Jay Panther Fall 2010

Hello, I am writing from Apex, B.C. I have been up here for the last week and will be here for another week. There is a full mogul course and the training is absolutely great! I have attached a video from my training yesterday, enjoy and know it will only get better! I am still knocking the rust off my skiing and jumping but I am very happy with how I am doing. I have my first contest of the year in two weeks in Steamboat Springs, CO. It is U.S. Freestyle Ski Team Selections Event and if I am first or second overall after the two day event, I will be promoted to the U.S. Freestyle C Team and earn World Cup Starts this season!!! I am training hard and have no doubt that I will be in the best imaginable position to win the event. I had a great fall season in L.A. I trained daily at Virtual Snow and played a lot of volleyball. I earned my B and then A rating in two man beach volleyball. Once I earn my AA and AAA ratings I will be able to compete in professional tournaments! I think that it was a perfect fall of training and preparation for the upcoming ski season. Beach volleyball is all plyometrics and explosiveness, precisely what I need for skiing. Virtual Snow really fine tuned my skiing abilities and balance so when I did get on snow I was already way ahead of the curve. Please keep me in your prayers. Thank you for all your love and support! Jay Panther

LET IT RAIN!

Well as was painfully evident we got a ton of rain over the past couple of days which brought in plenty of the goods. On tuesday Brad Caldwell, Shayne Day and myself headed out into Graham County with the greatest of intentions. After realizing the guy with the directions to the First D put-in was in Ecuador we went onto Yellow Creek while it was still pouring rain out. We got out to the gauge and saw it was at a good level and on the rise so we decided to hike up in fear that the river may flash. So we got up to the twenty footer and gave 'er all having good clean lines. Then we kept on boogying down through some good rapids portaged the sieve and keep on going down until we got to Cheoah and started it with around 400 CFS however by the time we got to the Forest Service Bridge the river had gotten up to around 1000 CFS. By the time we got to the lake though we were riding around 2000 CFS which is always a perfect level and brings in some awesome wave trains and makes the holes in the lower section burly which makes it even better. With clean lines and good times we all hit the lake and were still pumped and talking about the next day little did I know what would ultimately be in-store. As the night progressed plans were laid to run Upper Santeelah which has been one of the creeks in the area I have wanted to get onto. The weather turned out to be a brisk 23 degrees at the put-in however the level was great. Getting closer and closer to the put-in it began to snow and snow was sticking to the ground and had laid a bit already. Up the mountain we went and the view kept getting better and better as the mountain tops shown white with a blue bird sky in the background. As we put-in I was a bit nervous but ready for the action that was to come. That day we had a crew of five boaters Tim Madison, Joe Barkley, Steven Matz, Eli Smith and myself. Steven had hit the run the most and had all the beta down solidly however we still had to check for wood left and right because it is an old growth forest and it had been storming. Wood in drops eventually led to my demise and hike off the river. I took a pretty bad swim at one of the more technical slide rapids in the upper section where most of the larger rapids are. To give you a visual of what happened to make me tuck tail and stuff the pride here is the story. The first rapid in the section of what I am referring to as the Dendrology Rapids. It was not necessarily to nasty rapid wise with a narrowing slot move with a undercut right you had to slide somewhat near. However the wood that was in the rapid forced you directly into a super small gap with the tree limb boxing you closer and leaving only a 3 foot slot to make it through. Tim, Steven and Eli made it through nicely but after seeing the log in I chose to take the short hike and seal launch back in. After that the second of the Dendrology Rapids was in the lurk. the move was a left to right down a long slide with a decent hole at the bottom that had a massive old growth log leaning into the left side of the hole backing it up. I am not entirely sure how steep the rapid was but like most other ones on Santeelah it was burly and big. After watching a nice clean line down it I bucked up got my head in the game and went for it. As i got left things were going good. It then came time to charge back to the right which is where my problem laid. I was unable to bring it back over right as I had apparently gotten to far left for my own good. It was decision time in my head and I made the snap decision that it would be better to surf the hole at the bottom and try to drive out the right side of it. which was clear. I saw the impending doom of the tree and was able to get my boat turned down the slide enough to try for the surf or possibly just maybe make it. However the hole had different plans as I slammed into it and then bounced off the tree back into the hole. The hole then held me and I tried to pull a bit out but then felt it drawing me back left which was when the fear finally slapped in. As the boat began to slide back I began to panic and decided my best action might be to put and swim out since i could see where to dive to out of my boat. I then pulled and swam like a fish away from the tree and left side. As I popped up in the clear I was entirely over excited about swimming as I was still alive and not stuck on a tree. After the cold swim and actually being able to get everything back together except for my confidence for the rest of the day. Speaking of collection of gear I owe Eli big time for saving my boat and Joe for pulling my paddle out from the log where it had gotten stuck. I bucked back up however ran two more rapids and then we were at the midpoint which was where I decided to hike out after the aforementioned experience. However I will say that I had an awesome couple of days on the river with great crews. Even with the one bad experience I still cannot wait to get back out there again and give 'er on Upper Santeelah cause there were far to many awesome boofs and drops not to go back out there even if it is a wood laden wonderland.

Gauley and such

WOW Fall was busy

West Virginia sun set from Rick-O-Shay's ultralight

Commercial raft guiding on Gore Canyon was great until I crashed kayaking and messed up my ankle in Cheeseman canyon, what to hear the whole story click here ouch.

Commercial raft guiding in WV on the Upper Gauley is always rewarding. I have a stealer group of return clients that allow me to play hard and work on new and not so standard lines. Including the Double Death Spiral into Iron Ring, and just letting them go through the Box Canyon on there own.



During the Gauley three day mid weeks it is up to us to find some trouble, like flying in Ultra lights and Caving 

Ridding with the master of all that is sketchy Rick-O-Shay.

Casey and Hammer above a 20 foot drop deep in the cave

Casey and Hammer Checking out some stalactites

Hammer repelling

Tubing the upper Gauley with Casey Tango,
There had been so much shit talk about it after my good friend Mike Edwards accomplished the amazing and definitely stupid feat of tubing the Upper Gauley, we had to follow suit. The next friday we had a bunch of coffee, talked a little more shit, and went down to the local tire store looking for inter-tubes. The guy behind the counter was more then happy to help, what size you need, I reach my arms out beyond my sides, about like this, we are going to go tubing down the river. Well this is what I usually sell to folks that are going to take there kids out. Perfect we'll take two. That was that we had tubes next up a little padding. We stopped over at River Expeditions and grabbed a couple wet suits. We tossed a couple extra beers and a roll of gorilla tape (our patch kit) in our support raft and hoped in the river. It was off to the races, we had solid left lines through Insignificant. When you bump your feet off of Pillow Rock while siting fat man style in an inter-tube there is no doubt you had a great line. Next up the scary one Lost Paddle, Casey and I had lines that would put most raft guides to shame big Hawaii 5-0 hits and supper clean lines into Tumble home. Once in Tumble home the shit talk caught up to us again and we both went through the Mail Box Slot. At this point we were feeling pretty sure of our new found skills and Casey called for a left left line at Ship Wreck. I in turn called out for Death Spirals into Iron Ring, I went a little further right then expected and had some serious down time in the top hole just to pop up right before taking a big Wood-stock hole hit. As we floated into Sweets falls we both under stood what was about to happen, we looked at each other and simultaneously the words came to our lips, MELTDOWN! Tango managed to style it on the other hand I got totally beat down. As I slowly found my way out of my pounding I looked over to see Casey stamping his tube and getting pulled up on Postage Due. I went for the same line and got blown off into the Box Canyon. I had a great line through the Box, and climbed up the back side of Postage Due to celebrate a very successful tubing mission of the Upper Gauley.

Casey Tango getting a hand up onto Postage Due

Upper Youghiogheny, Seems there is always some issue with the damn release on the Youghiogheny, it is early, it's late, There is always some rumor of something usually not true. Last year International House Of Pancakes Falls burnt to the ground, but it looked good this year. Anyways the initial big three day midweek release did get canceled and as Gauley season rolled on Casey Tango and I got more and more restless about missing one of our favorite traditions. So fifth weekend we got the heads up that the river was going to run, unfortunately my personal favorite part of the Upper Youghiogheny was closed. The Riverside Hotel, they do the best vegetarian food anywhere, and it is one of my favorite restaurants any where. O well there is always next year, and the river as always produced some great entertainment.

Let the show begin

B-Real boofing International House of Pancake Falls

Casey enjoying the show

Some of the paddlers even like to pull there skirt and still paddle to the eddy

A small but excited crowd at National Falls

Another great time spent in West Virginia and Marry Land.
Chris Baer

Weekend Shenanigans

We had an amazing weekend down here in WNC with Green Race, Cheoah Release and Catalochee opening. Sadly enough decisions had to be made so that kayaking fun could continue even though I would to love to have been at 3 places at one. I must say it is great to be back in WNC. When it finally became friday the 5th the choice was made to head to the Cheoah River in Robbinsville, NC which is where the old homestead is. So we headed to the put-in after waking up bright and early to around an inch of snow on the ground. So with a rallied up crew and the creek and playboats loaded. The first run was from the top down and turned out to be quite awesome with some epic carnage. My friend Lindsay charged ahead at Yardsale which is one of the last rapids and has a large hole and undercut off to the side of the hole. As he hit the hole I watched the first windowshade happen and then I decided the meat was not going to be the line to go for currently so i hit the double boof on the right and proceeded to try and grab his stern out of the hole but couldn't reach. However he kept riding it out and after going end over end unintentionally cartwheeling and hitting some enders for around a minute Lindsay finally wound up flushing out of the hole to my cheers cause it was pretty epic. We also had the fortune of kayaking in the snow in November which also made water feel really warm. So after getting to the lake we got back to the car to fire up the playboy run. Then after a successful playboat run the day was over and we concluded the last scheduled release of the Cheoah River for the year. Then it was time to go out for the night and continue the fun. After a night of fun it was a bit of rest before bucking up for the Sunday Special. We went out for a little Clay Wright park and huck special at Dupont National Forest. We hit up the Little River's 2nd drop of Triple Drop. It was quite bony but it still went! Second drop has two lines a center and a left line. I tried for the center line and came off line after my second left stroke which threw me off line and I wound up sideways but was able to keep the boat under me and ride it out boofing way bigger then necessary for this size drop. However even with the unplanned boof and not so as planned line I came out with only a pulled lat. Now I am resting it up for a couple of days and then its time to go run something this coming weekend. Hope everyone also had amazing weekends and awesome lines! Peace Paul