Mathieu COLDEBELLA-WRSI TEAM France checks in with new video!

Check out this sweet new Video sent into us from Mathieu COLDEBELLA. Here is what he has to say" Here in france, the season is just starting this weekend with the first national event which will count for the national team selection. Here is a litle video about our WRSI group in action"

North Alabama Whitewater Festival 2008

I always look forward to NAWF every year, and this year as the rest was no disappointment. NAWF is a grass roots style whitewater contest and festival and is the first in the North American Pro Circuit. It features a freestyle waterfall contest and head to head boatercross off of short creek falls, a throwdown style rodeo at King's hole of the Locust Fork, and a big party involving video premiers, camping, food, music, and all the Terrapin beer you can drink at King's Bend in Locust Fork, Alabama!

picture by Billy Harris

Honestly, I was a little nervous about competing since I've been creeking all season and have only been in my playboat a couple of times since Gauley Fest, but I had to come out anyway and represent for the 'bama boys. Due to recent rains, this was the highest water level in NAWF's history and Short Creek offered no mercy for competitors. Everybody was chundered at least once and a few were even pulled behind the curtain and beat down like a red headed step child. It really made every body think twice about how big they really wanted to go. I had to change my game plan a little bit, but ended up happily placing 4th. With a sore shoulder and short boat I opted not to race in the boatercross.

picture by Austin Guthery

Saturday we woke up to find the campground and tents covered in snow, which is rare in Alabama, so the contest ended up getting pushed back to the afternoon. I ended up not making finals, but learned what I need to work on playboating wise. For full results click here: http://www.nawfest.net/

picture by Austin Guthery

The party was fun as usual, with plenty of entertainment. I got to listen to some cool music, see some new videos such as Night of the Living Donkey, and then there were the raffles, food, and beer and I was also able to catch up with old friends and new ones alike.

I ended the weekend with an after noon run with Effort Production's Spencer Cooke on the pristine Little River Canyon at a stellar level of 8 inches. It was an awesome way to end a great weekend and to celebrate the return of spring.

Props to the event organizers, volunteers, and sponsors!!!

For full results and more event coverage check out: http://www.nawfest.net/

Until next time,
-Charlie Mix

High Water in the High Country

Johnson City, TN was a good place to be this week. We ran the Laurel Fork of the Doe and the Doe on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday the Watauga was still running high. My buddy Seth took these shots of me running a couple of different lines at State Line Falls. This ones called Tennessee the Hard Way.

This is the Veil. Let's hope it keeps on raining!

Rio Apurimac - the Divine Voice

Howdy all,

Myself and Nathan Welch recently completed a source to sea journey of the Amazon River (www.expeditionamazonas.com) with gear supplied by the awesome folks at WRSI. Early on in the piece the river goes by the name Rio Apurimac which means Divine Voice or Voice of God. I can tell you I heard it loud and clear! Through our full descent of the Apurimac we had some fun times, some big flips and serious downtime!

In a couple of coming posts I will detail our experience, so stay tuned. In the meantime check out one of our clips here. During our descent we came across a commercial group and hung with them for a couple of days. Good times. The boys fed us and set up safety for us on some of the gnarlier rapids. Sweet!

Québec RIP CUP

Good news! Spring is right around the corner and when spring comes around, so do the creeks!

This year again, Québec city will be witnessing another edition of the Québec RIP Cup. This team creek race has been held for the pas 2 years with great succes, prises and, of course, a great party!

The race will be held anywhere from mid-May to end of May 2008. (the ideal date would be around May 24th 2008)

Right now the organisation is hard at work, planning another very cool race on the best possible river.RedBull is again, part of the organisation.

More info on the exact dates, times, rules, prizes will be coming up soon.

On these few words, have a great spring!

Dominic Lavallée

And the vid that no one has been waiting for....

Here is the latest video that my warped mind has created. Feel free to comment.

http://broadbandsports.com/node/14371

Later,

Dan Caldwell

Tama Kosi-Back from Nepal

We ran a section of the Tama Kosi from a place called Ganga. We were able to head up high into the valley due to a new road that is under construction to supply a new Dam site. The new road took us up to a place called Shigati, what used to be 2 days hike from the normal Tama Kosi put on. From Shigati we hired porters and continued up river, hiking for 6 hours we reached the village of Ganga , above which the river seemed to change character, all the rapids seemed to be closing out into strange boulder choked sieves.

From a little below Ganga we put on the Tama Kosi. the first 3 hours on the river was mentally and physically exhausting. We were scouting a hundred metres of river at a time breaking down the long, heavy rapids in to manageable sections. The river was still suprisingly high for the season. Everything went apart from a five metre stretch of totally choked out river, we stayed the night in Pigati, before continueing down river for a much mellower second day to a truck stop town named Busti.

Rob Litherland

Enjoy the short video clip of the Tama Kosi!