Downstream Movement

Downstream Movement has moved...

2009-06-30T10:20:00.001-07:00

This website is now hosted at a new address...

downstreammovement.wordpress.com

Hope you dig the fresh gig.

-Coop

A Double Take at the Waitaha River

2008-10-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

The Waitaha was the river of choice for my first heli-kayaking experience here in New Zealand. That high-water day will forever be ingrained into my head as an un-forgettable day and one helluva eye-opening experience. Later in the season we returned to the river, at much lower flow and had quite a different style day...

Bruce Dando and Kevin England, two legends in their own respects sharing a moment of passion, joy and excitement.

Kev showed up at my house one day with this photo from the day printed out poster size. (Chur bro!) It now hangs on my wall and allows me to awake each morning in a helicopter, flying up one of the sikest days of whitewater in the world!

I guess for Bruce, the excitement of riding in a helicopter has died down over the years. When you fly with him, he's as cool as a mobster (in his own west-coast Kiwi mobster style.) But every time I am in, or even just watching the helicopter I get all giddy inside...anticipating the day's action, like a bird soaring up a river valley (everybody dreams of flying!)...or maybe it's just the fumes?

I quite like this picture of Kev, running one of the most infamous drops on the Coast...Nikki's Drop. Named after the world-renowned Kiwi phenom, Nikki Kelly, it is located not only on one of the sikest rivers in the world, but in quite a picturesque spwot!

Here I am on the same drop, wishing I had a paddle blade in the water, not on rock! (Photo by Kev)

The lower flow enabled us to enjoy our surroundings a bit more than the first time I was on the river. Here we have Kev following Eden and Barney into one of the most majestic gorges I've ever imagined. The combined effect of being walled-in, the sun shining through and off the many waterfalls pouring in from the gorge walls, and the breathtaking color of the water kind of makes you feel rather lucky to be alive, let alone witness such amazing places.

Here we have Hokitika homegrown, Eden Sinclair, cruising out of the first of the three "crux" back-to-back-to-back rapids. While, un-like my first run, there was time and more eddies between the rapids, the consequences and threats of missing your line or eddy were still as great as ever.

Kev England charges the second of the mighty three, with the entrance of the third rapid in-sight, just downstream. This drop, (run on the right this time, as opposed to the left line taken at higher water) involved quite a cool s-turn, edge-transition entrance move (seen directly in front of Kev's bow here) which set you up perfectly at the lip of quite a cool boof.

Barn-Dogg, in da' house, settin' her up for success...something he does best!

I stitched together these images Kev shot of me to give a different perspective on the drop. A lot of folks think that stitched shots where you can see the stitches (or edges of the original pics) are unprofessional, or look bad. I on the other hand quite like the original, un-tainted feel they bring...or maybe that's just me making up excuses for not being some Photoshop pro!

Barnabus Young, driving hard above the entrance hole in rapid #3 of the set, the Cave. Needless to say, this has to be one of the most intimidating rapids on the run. When yer where Barney is in this picture, you feel like you're about to be eaten by some mythical monster...but you know if you partake in one helluva strong charge-fest, you'll be spat out the other end. If not, I don't even want to think about what the beast's belly looks like!

Mr. Sinclair again, this time performing a spot-on seal launch in the last gorge above Morgan's Gorge. The moment freezed in time here is quite a nerve racking one for many paddlers, as not only do you need to clear the rocks at the base of the wall, but you must also avoid getting shot into that little pocket up against the wall just downstream of where you land!

Barney pulling up..."Mommy, Daddy, come and look at me now...I'm a big man in a great big town...Years ago who would believe it's true...Goes to show what a little faith can do...up up up up up up up UP!" (Photo by Kev)

Barney Young, the entertainer. There's nothing quite like going on a river trip with this man, if there's one thing that's guaranteed...you're sure to laugh and smile! Eden knows knows what I'm talking about, and neither of these boys should be smiling as much as they are before the portage they're about to do!

The portage around Morgan's gorge has a track, but it is un-doubtably a NZ track...which means it's not really much of track, and is easily lost when attempting to follow. However, the rewards of your efforts are well worth the pain. This is facing upstream from the point where you first see the river again. Sieve Salad anyone?

If you look closely at the previous Sieve Salad photo you can see Kev, who scrambled down to river level to see what he could see. This shot by him, looks back up at Barney, Eden and I scouting the run-out rapid of the gorge. We were all experiencing one of those amazingly unique, mixed feelings, only felt in kayaking...a combination of exhaustion, apprehension, excitement and mystery.

The same moment in time, brought to you from my perspective. The decision was made to run the last rapid, a first for Eden, Barney and I. It was a most satisfying end to yet another incredible day of paddling on the Coast.

As I write that last sentence though, I wonder...Does paddling such quality whitewater, in such gorgeous settings, on such a regular basis take away from its meaning, significance or importance? Paddling has always been an obsession for me, but I wonder if paddling less adds more meaning to each time you get out and paddle...or if paddling regularly satisfies the soul on a more regular basis, therefore creating greater happiness?

I think we can all marinate on that for a bitty.

Kawarau, Nevis and Hollyford Rivers

2008-09-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

"Ya paddled much big water?" These were the words of Kevin England as we pulled the cars over to peer into the guts of the Nevis Bluff rapids on the Kawarau River. Kev, Barney and JJ discuss the game plan.

This is Paul Current. He likes to smile...and style difficult whitewater...sometimes he combines these two hobbies. It's quite the spectacle to watch.

PC punches through the entrance hole guarding the start of the Bluff. Your success on this move determines if the rest of your run will be full of panic or relaxation...sort of.

About to drop into the crux hole of the rapid, P-to-the-C reaps the rewards of a styley entrance. "Hey-diddle-diddle, right down the middle!"

Speaking of Hey-diddle-diddle, Mr. I've-got-a-riddle...Barney Young sets up to punch the first hole. A punch he will get.

I always enjoy paddling a wide variety of styles of whitewater, just to keep ya on yer toes. Too much of one style will draw blinders over a paddlers eyes, making kayakers more like horses rather than donkeys. Donkeys don't wear blinders. Here's a picture of the post-bluff carnage footy review...the real carnage came later that night. (Photo by Kev)

The Dogleg put-in scene, post-carnage and after a couple mid-day Bluff runs. This session on the Do-Little-Do-Nothing Wave was made possible by Matt McCloud. Thanks Matt, for the van full of playboats, the hospitality, the crashes and everything else during our stay(s) in Queenstown!!!

Following that perfect blend of blue weather, we once again found ourselves in Fiordland gearing up on the banks of the Hollyford...This time upstream, on the mighty Monkey Creek section.

And if the people of the party are feeling hardy tonight... This is one of the first long, complex rapids you come to on Monkey Creek, it really sets the tone for a run that ranks up there with any of the classic Coast runs. (Photo by Kev)

The Hollyford River valley after a good rain is one of the most magical places I've ever paddled. Every glimpse out of the tree-lined river bank you get, has one of the tallest waterfalls I've ever seen perfectly framed in it.

Dave Kwant, charging the burl to avoid burling the charge. (Photo by Kev)

This unsuspecting double drop is placed precariously at the top of a rather perplexing mumble jumble of a rapid. Not the most uncommon sight on Monkey Creek. (Photo by Kev)

More gorgeous waterfalls provide a surreal backdrop to more fantabulous rapids. The exit of this rapid which Dave is entering was one of the sikest boofs on the river...S-turn into a white-out charging left auto-air. Tasty, but I was too slow on the trigger to provide any visuals.

Some rocks are good rocks, and some rocks are bad rocks...it is amazing how fast a good rock can become a bad rock. PC finds no bad rocks...and is thankful.

After Monkey Creek, we headed back north in a chase of the last of the water to the put-in of the Nevis River. On the way, this van depicted a typical conversation with one of our beloved crew members...Mr. Baranabus Young.

Following a highly amusing drive the night before, we woke to a river level dropping off towards the low side of ideal. But thanks to some inspiration from this feller, Mr. Matt McCloud, we opted to still give 'er the ol' college try...level be damned! To roughly quote Tommy Hilleke, "I've never been disappointed by making the decision to go kayaking."

The Barn-Dogg eying up another chunker of a rapid, somewhere in the midst of the never-ending Nevis action. Big ups to Mr. Kevin England, who took this and the remaining pictures of our trip down the Nevis.

"Welsh Matt" opting for a slightly different angle on the same drop.

An absolutely classic representation of Barney's unique heart of gold, personality and style. The only thing unrepresented here is the volume at which smack is spewed out of that gaping mouth!

Cranking one out, at the end of the same, long mamajama.

Appearing only after heavy rainfall, these desert flowers are often found sprouting up in some of the most harsh environments on earth.

Due to its guidebook fame, climaxing location on the run, and its mere size, Big Brother could easily be considered the Nevis River's most infamous rapid. Giving his chops a rest, Barnabus' boat loudly persuaded anyone else from attempting the left "slot."

Sometimes a suspected boof becomes a toosh, and sometimes a suspected toosh can transform into a boof. Here, I experience the later.

The Nevis flows into the Kawarau River just above Citroen Rapid. Below Citroen lies Retrospect, arguably the Kawarau's largest rapid. After a false end to our day, we were rallied to continue downstream by a large floatila of Central Otago's finest rapid riders partaking in a stag-due for Mr. Kent Huxford. Here we have the likes of Dylan Thompson making the crux move on the frothing monster.

The Longman Antz, of Cumec Magazine fame, improvising a rather styley line through the maw. In an attempt at making a new "down the meat" line, the remainder of Team Nevis (Kev and I) failed to represent in the style department.

The Stag himself, after paddling all the whitewater on the Kawarau River had only just begun his evening!

To conclude this evening's concerto I will leave you with few points of interest...

It's known world-wide that Kiwis are some of the most hard-out mo-fo's out there. This was recently confirmed by my good friend and flatmate, Dr. Simon Hensen, who despite having a broken leg still rallied and came kayaking with us down the Huranui. Good on ya mate!

Kiwis are also rather legendary for their unique sense of humor...which is demonstrated below. This actually has everything to do with kayaking, at the same time as having nothing...

And lastly, having nothing to do with Kiwis, or New Zealand...

Another good mate of mine, Joey Hall, has recently produced a new website for his company Deadman Productions. Deadman is a sort of bastard child of all of Joey's combined talents, which include graphic design, illustration, web design, video production, and more. The new site sports samples of his past work, (like the rad-as design pictured above...everyone should write Joey and get him to make a Deadman t-shirt with this design on it!) and also includes ramblings, a Top 5, a "Mix of the Week" and more. Mixed tapes are BACK!!!! Check the freshness HERE!

Until next time, Catch yuns on down the trail.

A Southward Bound Roadie...

2008-08-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

This past summer I joined the likes of Paul Current, Jason Jason Sheperd, Kevin England, Barnabus Young, and David Kwant for a trip down to Central Otago and Fiordland...the Marion Creek section of the Hollyford River was the first river we got on. Enjoy...

The shades of blue foreshadow blue emotions…not for, or even about the kayaking (or the sandlflies for that matter!) but rather towards the damage of thousands of dollars worth of multi-sport gear. It would all be worth it in the end.

Different shades of blue over Lake Wanaka foreshadow the sweet-as weather and days to come. (Good weather for kayaking balances a perfect blend of blue...blue rain drops, followed by clear blue skies!)

After being stunned by the beauty of Lake Wanaka, we crested a ridge to find the eqaully gorgeous Lake Hawea resting underneath the evening shadows and cotton candy.

The next morning we entered Fiordland...

A unique place to say the least. As well as containing some of the most magestic mountins in NZ, Fiordland also boasts roadside whitewater! Roadside Class V...in New Zealand? The group unloads at the get-in to the Marion Creek section of the Hollyford River.

Like a grandfather's fragile wrinkly fingers, the limbs of the native bush and trees hang over the river as if to radiate wisdom and positive spirits out through their fingertips.

Like many classic NZ rivers the Hollyford doesn't showcase any large single huckster drops, but instead provides the continuous, technical more "rapid-running" style of whitewater that pushes a paddler more in a holistic sense. Dave Kwant shimmer-shines a boof off the first ledge of the river.

A man who is guaranteed to take fewer strokes than you and still keep it more styley, Mr. JJ Sheperd, working through the top of a hover-o-matic S-turn kinda sort of rapid...ish...thing.

"I keep my cup raised up..." Kev England, keepin' it up when he needs it up most!

The addictiveness of kayaking is sometimes compared to a drug addict's addiction to drugs. While that might not present the healthiest image, it portrays the seriousness of the matter. Unlike drugs however, kayaking provides that "fix" to the addict in a much healthier manner. Here we have Kev England, who can't see past his next fix...his "own worst enemy." Check out Spencer Cooke's well-written words on this topic, of what he describes as his "problem."

Here we have PC dropping into the last rapid on the run before the portage. Take notes ya'll, because this outfit is likely to be Hee Haw Jones approved!

PC on the second half of the same rapid, in a real "Go Left and Die" scenerio. Unlike in the Northern Hemisphere, you do actually go right!!!

Post-river, before driving through Homer Tunnel, this "spwot" confirmed that Fiordland's scenery was unlike anything I've ever seen before! 20,000 years ago glaciers carved these steep valley walls, leaving behind some of the tallest waterfalls in world, as well as this snow-bridge, and a heard of big woolly mammoths...who still wore their coats, even though it was the middle of summertime!

Milford Sound in all her beauty. The clouds were alive on this day, so I'd recommend checking out my NZ "South Island" Video Journal for better visuals of the magic, as well as footage from the Hollyford River.

While in many aspects very different from the Sierras, Fiordland presents a similarly enchanting feel. John Muir would've loved it here..."I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found." This is a scene where pure air is found.

Stay tuned for more pure air thoughts and images from this southward bound roadie!

In the NEWS side of things...

Kev England runs Maruia Falls at really high water! No, actually that's not news, but I like the shot and it gives me a chance to announce the creation of my latest video on Rapid Transit Video...

Check out www.rapidtransitvideo.com to watch Volume III of my New Zealand Video Journal..."Stayin' South." In this video you will be able to watch footage from that high-water day at Maruia, as well as much much more...its sure not to be a bore! But thanks to Reading Rainbow..."You don't have to take my word for it!"

Until next time...Kia Kaha!

Mokihinui River - Threatened!!!

2008-07-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to paddle the Mokihinui River this past summer with a great group of friends. What I didn't know at the time was that plans of damming this river were already under way. Now that the proposal has been publicized, the day I spent on that river has become much more meaningful to me. The following are some lighthearted thoughts and images from that day with my new found perspective...

Where land meets sea is often a most beautiful thing, but un-zipping my tent to such beauty after driving all night and then settling for "just camping here off the road" was quite divine.

"...Here he comes and he's gone again, Pretty lady ain't got no friend till the, Candy Man comes around again..." To bad they don't have candy here in NZ...they call 'em lollies instead! Sometimes I like to imagine a helicopter carrying a net full of kayaks is actually the Candy Man dropping off the sweets for all the wee kiddly winks! I guess in some ways, it is!

In that case may I present to you...The Candy Man! (Photo by Rach)

If rivers are the souls of this earth, why would we want to drown them?

Kids in a candy shop? Children's expressions, when they get to a candy shop and are seconds from indulging, are amazingly similar to those they have when they leave the same shop buzzing on their sugar high. Now just imagine if you took away their candy shop! Our group of Rach, Wheels, Cheese and I...ready to enjoy some candy.

Or was it just the helicopter fumes?

Question: What's sweeter...Candy or Cheese? I guess that depends if you're lactose intolerant or if you're diabetic...or maybe it doesn't.

I'd like to Thank this man, Mr. Gareth Wheeler, for making this trip on the Mokihinui happen for me! Legend!!!

The motivation for paddling a river can vary from one person to another, even within a group. While some might seek the adventure and challenge of the rapids, others enjoy a river valley's beauty and the animals within it. Rach here, I reckon is more concerned with the aims first mentioned.

One great component to whitewater is that newer boaters can get the same stoke on class III that a more experienced boater gets on class V. Having been a heli-virgin a week or so before this trip I could easily relate to the emotions running through Rach's world, even though the consequences of the river were different than my first heli-trip. Here we have Wheels doing what he does best, helping out a friend in need.

Wheels again, perhaps demonstrating his second best skill...finding effortlessly smooth lines down a river!

It's hard to describe the beauty of the Mokihinui River valley...the geology, the water, the animals, the history...it's gorgeous to many people in many ways. Maybe just the fact that it has been ranked 7th in a New Zealand database of water bodies of national importance for its natural values says something. So is it not selfish for one person to find such a valuable river beautiful for its potential energy value, therefore eliminating its beauty to others?

You are about to paddle into the rapid...who would you fly in, and what song would be played over the roar?

Wheels being hit with mind bullets...Dam this? You've got to be kidding!!!

As an overseas visitor to New Zealand who values waterways, I am strongly opposed to this "renewable energy" proposal. (A rant about how damming rivers is NOT renewable could be written at this time, but I'll let my pictures and what I've already said speak on that issue.) While I completely understand that there is always two sides to any argument, (in this case lower energy costs being the most appealing to locals in favor of the dam) I do not see how such an environmentally devastating proposal is the answer in this particular case. Would solar or wind power not provide the same lower energy costs with more sustainability? More information on the proposal and how you can SAVE THE MOKIHINUI can be found at http://www.mokihinui.org/ as well as http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/conservation/freshwater/mokihinui.asp. NEW LINK (added Aug. 20th)...NZ Wild Rivers Action Project

VIVA LA MOKIHINUI RIVER!!!

The Ultra-Classic Arahura River

2008-06-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

The Arahura River is one of THE classic runs on the West Coast of NZ's South Island...

If everything is nothing. And nothing is everything. And if what you think, I think is nothing. And if what I think, you think is nothing. Then what is a helicopter, and how does it get us up a river?

Helicopters dwarf reality, and while doing so they enable momentary comfort in settings and situations we probably shouldn't be comfortable in.

In almost preparation, practice or a warm up for the riding of whitewater, helicopter riding requires moments of organized chaos. Organized chaos is a beautiful thing.

This is Chance. He is also a beautiful thing, maybe not as beautiful as organized chaos, but beautiful nonetheless.

Lacking enough emotion and character, the word 'beautiful' hardly does the Arahura get-in justice. A larger appreciation for standing in this spot with a kayak was felt a month or two after this picture was taken, after Ben Robson and myself hiked the 17km (according to the guidebook) into this very spot.

This is a drop named Curtain Call, you'd think that a drop named "Curtain Call" would be located at the end of a run. If you say the word curtain more like two words, as in cur-TAIN, (TAIN being said more like train, without the "r") it almost sounds like a verb. This is Chance curTAINing a call to boof.

Sam Tregenza makes the approach to Dent Falls. This approach involves an amazingly fun move above the lip of the drop...a carving-s-turn through some seriously aeratedly funky fresh water. And since we're in New Zealand, there's always a nicely placed sieve thrown in for fun!

Falls Dent drops Sam.

This is Jim Janney, he is a gang-star. The reason I know this is because Daniel Windham gave him "props" in this super-rad-a-licious VIDEO of Vancouver Local Spots. Props are either something used on stage by actors, or something gang-stars give to each other. Since Jim nor Daniel are actors, they must be gang-stars. So in that case..."See we just pull up the pants and do the roc-a-way, Now lean back, lean back.."

If kayakers actually were actors, would kayaks be considered props?

Maybe we should start an ongoing game of Find That Sieve! But maybe we shouldn't, since kayaking in NZ is more like the opposite. Chance does just that in Billiards.

This is his reward, and also happens to be one of the best boofs on the river.

The pool below Cesspit, above Cesspit Gorge. Sorry, no photos of Cesspit, but video of it and more can be found HERE! One of the coolest parts of paddling on the Coast is that you can drink the water straight from the river!!! Can you tell why?

A boof is worth 1000 strokes.

Truely yours, elevated. Big ups to Chance for the pics from this drop!

"Just a perfect day, problems all left alone, weekenders on our own. It's such fun."

The troops go marching on. It amazes me that when we go kayaking, we seek to quench this thirst we have to get on a river. Yet every time we take off a river our thirst is not quenched, but instead exacerbated making our thirst, thirstier.

Again, video from this and other West Coast adventures can be found at Rapid Transit Video.

In other news...

I'd like to holla a big BOO-YA-KA-SHA! out to one of my best friends, Daniel Stewart, who was recently crowned the 2008 USA Freestyle Men's Expert National Champion!!! Good on ya Bro! Coverage from the comp reported by another good mate of mine, Chris Wing, can be viewed HERE.

Also, Spencer Cooke of Effort Inc. and Rapid Transit Video recently just revamped his website, EFFORT.TV. So go check out the fresh goodness, Mr. Cooke's always got some good shenanigans going on there! (Pic-o-Spence by Mark McKelvy)

And finally, I posted up some older pics Bryan Kirk took of me last year throwing my molecules off a waterfall on the Potomac. These can be found on the Team Riot Blog.

And that's a wrap...for the being time.

Photo Extravaganza: Waitaha River, West Coast, NZ

2008-05-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

For video footage of this day and others on NZ's South Island, check out my video library at Rapid Transit Video.

"The world was moving, she was right there moving and she was..." "She," could be a number of things in this photo. A specific she, though, that you might be interested in is the river. I will quote the mighty Tommy Tsunami..."Sometimes you have to acknowledge the fact that she, the river, is mightier than we." She the river, in this case, is the Waitaha River.

This is how the beautiful people get to the river. By dragonfly, by death egg, by lawn-mower engine powered plexi-glass bubble. Call it what you will, I would call it amazing. This photo was taken by Kev England. Many of the photos of the day were taken by Kev. Thanks Kev, the world thanks you.

There are moments in time when reality hits you across the head with a baseball bat. In New Zealand, and maybe England as well, actually India too, this baseball bat might be traded for a cricket bat. Anyways, the bat hits you and you are suddenly aware of the situation you are in. This hit comes while heli-boating when you realize that you are offically in the middle of nowhere. The helicopter flies away and the sound of its whizzing blades disappear, silence sets in, the bat swings and it never misses your head. Dave Kwant ignores the ringing under his helmet. (Photo by Kev)

If it looks like the water which Dave is boofing into is angry, that is because it is. Dave's not angry though, he's probably happy...very happy. (Photo by Kev)

One of the funniest parts about kayaking, to me, is that it takes us to so many gorgeous places. (That has been said so many times now, it is past cliché.) But what I find funny, is that while we are in these places, we barely take the time to look around and appreciate the beauty. For example, I think this is one of the only pictures that even has a landscape-like backdrop. And it doesn't even begin to show how amazing this river valley is! (Photo by Kev)

This is a photo of yours truly, in a section on the Waitaha that is amazingly awesome. Three drops stacked one, by two, by three on top of each other make one helluva rapid running experience. This is drop number two. (Photo by Kev)

Sometimes when running scary whitewater it is hard to look at what you are doing, people often close their eyes after they take their boof stroke and just hold on. Dave Kwant doesn't mind looking, he just doesn't like people looking at him, so he hides. Dave Kwant hiding on the same #2 drop. (Photo by Kev)

Dave's after-glow upon running the #2 drop. By the expression on his face it is hard to tell whether he is just excited about running the #2 drop, or if he has just dropped a #2. (Photo by Kev) This drop has parts that are border-lining on becoming an unflushable #2...we avoided these said spots. AVOID THE UNFLUSHABLE #2!!!

Actually, this could quite possibly be another spot where Dave has just dropped a #2. It is hard to tell though, because we cannot see his face. (Photo by Kev...again, and again, and again, and again...) This is the #3 drop in the amazing series of whitewater rapids, it is sometimes referred to as "the Cave Rapid"...for obvious reasons. Yes, the next step is to paddle through. And yes, it gets dark...and scary.

"I have SEEN the light!!!" JJ Sheperd emerges from the cave and boofs one horrendous hole. This hole has claimed many unsuspecting paddlers, and makes me sweat just looking at this picture. The preferred line is a bit further to river right, but is ridiculously hard to get to, because of a number of factors...the fact that you have just come out of a friggin' cave, and yer mostly just happy to see daylight again, as well as the current, which is pushing hard left, and your mind, which is really just trying to concentrate on timing that oh-so-important boof stroke, which will hopefully carry you over that horrible looking backwash! I am now sweating.

This is a mountain's fingernail, which has fallen off. Or maybe was ripped off. If your fingernail were this big, think about how bad it would hurt if someone ripped it off. I'd probably pour water over it too. (Photo by Kev)

This is another picture of me, avoiding another big hole, with another mean backwash. (Photo by Kev) Like most photos, these do not do diddly-sqwat for justice of the power of these life sucking hydraulics.

After the rapid with another mean hole in it, we went through this slot on the right. It wasn't a very tight slot, and it had a lot of water going through it. I'm pretty sure all the lines that we took on this day had a lot of water going through them. Kayaking was originally intended for rivers with more water than rocks. Only within the past 50 years have human beans started to kayak rivers with more rocks than water. At normal, lower flows, I reckon the Waitaha has more rocks than water. In fact, even on this day when we ran it, I bet there still more rocks than water. But while we were riding the river, our minds were focused more on the water, than the rocks. (Photo by Kev)

Back to that earlier cliché statement about kayaking in pretty places. I remember before flying up the river talking to Kev about the spiritual places we get to experience in our kayaks. The places where only a kayak grants entry, deep down in the butt cracks of the earth. Further down in this gorge, waterfalls pour into the river one after another. I eddied out, and smiling a grin probably a mile wide said to Kev, "This is one of those places!!!" he knew exactly what I was talking about. (Photo by Kev)

There are times as a kayaker, when you see a hole, rock, or obstruction in front of you and you wish you had wings. This is me, trying to grow wings. No Red Bull required. (Photo by Kev)

The plot thickens... This is JJ Sheperd dropping into a rather long, large rapid. At the end of the rapid there is a hole which is pretty much walled-in. Just upstream of where JJ is, there is a seam that sucks you down to China. JJ has just returned to NZ from China.

"Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting, those cats were fast as lightning.
In fact it was a little bit frightening, but they fought with expert timing." JJ emerges from another seam, this time just above the exit hole of the rapid. (Photo by Kev)

An expertly timed boof, with perfect placement. (Photo by Kev)

Dave Kwant was next to drop in. His boof was neither expertly timed, nor perfectly placed. If you compare this photo to the photo above of JJ boofing the same hole, Dave's boof was not that far off. In fact, I reckon his stroke timing was only a few inches premature, his bow is not that much lower than JJ's. But, the resulting freestyle maneuvers that followed Dave's boof stroke however, were far superior to JJ's simple skim over this unique playspot. (Photo by Kev)

Lucky for me, I was still eddied out upstream of the hole in perfect view of a ride that surely would've captured a World Freestyle Championship crown. This ride was followed by the appropriate victory swim, then by this world champion swan dive. (Photo by Kev)

The events that followed this jump got stressful for a bit...and that's an understatement. I learned how to understate from the Kiwis down here; they are the masters of the understatement.

This is at the end of the last gorge before Morgan's Gorge. I saw many things happen from this spot. First, I looked downstream, and saw JJ signaling he had caught Dave's boat. Moments later I heard cursing, turned around, and saw Dave fall down a rock from about 15-20 ft. up. After making sure he was OK, I looked down, and appreciated where we were and that everyone was OK. I laughed and took this picture. I thought about these rocks and how they had a lot less to worry about than us, they'd already been through enough. Actually they'd probably been through a helluva lot more than we just had!

I then watched Kev seal-launch back into the river after all the excitement. I was in awe of life and kayaking at this moment in time.

A tired group, post boat/Dave recovery. "It's all good on the Coast until shit goes down." -JJ Sheperd.

Dave's boat wasn't too happy about the whole episode. It told me.

One gorge still remained on the river...Morgan's Gorge. It was again a stressful gorge for all members of the crew. After over an hour of a grueling portage through thick NZ bush, the "track" (NZ "tracks" are the equivalent to game tracks) dropped down to a cliff overlooking the last rapid of Morgan's Gorge. After close inspection of the rapid, or what we could see of it, and then an evaluation of my physical condition (fatigue, dehydration, mental overloadness) I decided to give it a miss and continue in my own world of portaging hell. Just before I continued on my way I heard the follow conversation take place...

JJ- You gonna run it?
Kev- I'll run it if you run it.
JJ- Ok, but I get to go first, so I don't have to see you get your ass beat in that hole.

Karma ruled over all. While lost, in my portaging hell, I heard a whistle from down inside the gorge. With no way to help, I continued my portage as fast as possible. The following pictures are from Kev, of JJ, paddling the last rapid in Morgan's Gorge...just after JJ swam in the gorge, and self rescued himself and his boat up a crack in the side of the river-left cliff wall. If JJ had not had a break-down paddle in HIS boat, he would've had to paddle this by hand. Also of note, is Kev's perspective inside the gorge. After seeing JJ getting beat-down in front of him, Kev paddled the remainder of the rapid and quickly ran/climbed his way back into the gorge to see if JJ was OK. He is probably the only person who has ever stood where he was while taking these photos.

JJ, post swim/ self rescue, dropping into the remainder of Morgan's Gorge.

"White-out, from there on out!"

Paddling out safe and sound, like an ant squirming out from underneath the deep tread of a recently stomped gum-boot.

We made our way down the rest of the remaining whitewater and to the car for a seriously needed sigh of relief. Spirits were high as we reflected on one epic day. It was one of the best days of my life. There were swimmers, there were heroes and there were heli-virgins. But in the end there were just people. Now that's some seriously deep shit!

Speaking of deep shit, this trip report has been made possible by NZ rush hour traffic. Thank you for reading.

Again, video footage of this day and others can be seen at Rapid Transit Video.

This has been Cooper Lambla tellin' you to Big up yo-self, from En Zed. And I'm out.

South Island, NZ: Round One

2008-04-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

The good weather, ease of river access, warm water, and friendly people made the North Island quite an enjoyable place to hang. But it was time to go explore my new home, the Mainland (or South Island as it is otherwise known as!) Leaving the comforts of the North Island behind was an intimidating feeling...stories of "the Coast" (the West Coast is always referred to as "the Coast" here) were exciting yet nerve racking at the same time.

After a big night out in the port town of Picton our first stop was the Granite Section of the Buller, a relaxed playboating run to ease back into things. I remember as we put on mentioning something to the effect of, "I'm glad our sport involves sitting down!" This is a shot of Ol' Blue and Wheels at the get-out.

We then re-fuelled our mega-watts with the greatest energy source known to man...ice cream, and headed to the Lower Matakitaki just outside of Murchison for some more mellow playboating. Here we have Wheels, throwing some of his own in front of a gorgeous New Zealand background.

The next day we checked out another section of the Buller called the Earthquake Run. This section of river has dramatically changed many times due to frequent tectonic activity over the last century. Mass Wasting is awesome. So is kayak surfing. Maybe there could be a crossover sport that involves both. No, actually that would probably be bad. Never mind. Lets keep those two powers of awesomeness separate. This is a picture of me pulling my signature move...the front surf. Thanks to Anna from the Kayak School for the shot!

This was my first experience with the Coast. After the Earthquake Run, we made a huck off Maruia Falls (this can be seen along with action from the North Island on the Rapid Transit Video titled New Zealand North Island Cooper Lambla) and headed down to Christchurch, where Wheels had to go to work the next day. I then proceeded to cruise around town on his bike trying to find a way to transport myself and boat to the Coast. It finally came to me after a bus chase and $50 by way of Cedric and his friendly service "The West Coast Shuttle." I was dropped off at Kumara Junction where I intended to hitch down the remaining few Km to Hokitika, the Whitewater Capital of the West Coast. I didn't know where in Hoki I wanted to go, I didn't know anyone in Hoki, hell I didn't even know any rivers that were popular in Hoki...all I knew was that Hoki was the place to be, and I wanted to go there! Thanks to the German underground music collector who picked my boat, gear and I up in the rain! I should also thank Jess who then picked me up in Hoki and showed me where all the boaters were in town! (NOT shivering in the rain in front of the pottery shop it turns out!)

We went a few more Km south of Hoki to a campground called Mahinapua Lake, across the street from the famous Mahinapua Pub. Many great paddling adventures have found their origins from nights at this pub, including the next day's trip down the Styx River. My first river on the Coast. Fellow confederate, JJ Shepard, described it as a sieved out Big Creek, without Action Ally. A perfect run to start to get the feel of the Coast's continuous nature.

New Zealand has provided the background to many a film in its day, Lord of the Rings being the most famous. Often over-looked is a flick titled "Whale Rider." Here we have Tazzy cat, Thorpe, auditioning for the sequel.

Then we saw this sign, and stopped riding the whale.

After the Styx, JJ had mentioned flying in to somewhere the next day. I knew the river started with a "W", and that he said it was a big day out, so bring some food. That night looking out over the Tasman Sea at an awesome sunset, I had no idea what was in store for the next day!

Stay tuned for an epic day on the Waitaha River, my first heli-run!

North Island, NZ: Ol' Blue Moves South...

2008-03-19T23:16:00.000-07:00

After livin' the easy life on the Kaituna for a few days, Ol' Blue was gettin hungry for something new. We headed to the other local Bay of Plenty run, the Wairoa. River goats warmly welcomed us to their home as we did two runs on this classic river. No pics of the rapids, but the river character reminded me of my home run back in Boonetown, the Taugs. Mint!!!

This is a really gorgeous gorge, ruined by my ridiculous mug. (Sorry about that!) But the picture allows me to say how amazing the Awesome Gorge is. After the Wairoa, we had to start heading south to catch a ferry in few days time, down to the South Island. We thought it'd be rude to drive by the Kaituna without doing one last run, so we stopped, and ended up getting to run the elusive Awesome Gorge beyond the take-out. It is a chilled out gorge, rapid-wise, but with walls shooting straight up on both sides, making eddies non-existent, and the awe-factor indeed awesome! Cheers to Sam for taking us in there, and to Tyler for rallying to do a second run!

This picture presents our next stop...the Aratiatia rapids of the Waikato River. These infamous rapids have a bigger reputation down here than Lord of the Rings. Sam Sutton, a cat I'd met briefly in Cali and again on the Kaituna, was super keen to come show us what they are all about. Thanks for that, bro!!!

Basically, the Aratiatia rapids are released four times a day, mostly just as a tourist attraction. Sam broke the rapids down into three separate pieces, Rapids A, B and C. This is a picture of Rapid A with no water in it. With water, it becomes a monstrous big water chargefest, with high burl potential. The crux of the rapids is at the end of Rapid A, where a lethal weir is formed. Rapid B is a ridiculously full-on meltdown move that is a guaranteed burlfest. And Rapid C is the reward for all your hard work, a straight up chargefest that GOES!!! Once down at river level, scouting Rapid A from the top gave a better perspective of the challenge that lay ahead. My heart was pounding harder than I think it ever has. The roar of the water, the reputation of the rapids, Sam's talk of "If I die..." and the steepness of such a large amount of water all were swirling about in my head, asking me the question...Do you really want to drop into this? After seeing Sam grease his line and letting my heart rate clam down a bit, I was ready to give it go. I could talk for hours about this experience, but all I'll say is that it went great, and I couldn't have been happier. Thanks to Sam for firing us up about the whole gig, cheers to Jamie, Tyler and Ryan for setting safety at the Weir (A MUST!), and thanks to Wheels for shooting footy!

(Video footage of the North Island, including Aratiatia, to appear soon on Rapid Transit Video!!! Keep yer eyes peeled for that!)(VIDEO HAS BEEN PUT ON-LINE...linkage on the Team Riot Blog.

The next day we were reminded why we risk so much, just to run whitewater...because if the Nazis come and kill us, then at least we've done something productive with our time on this earth! If you're wondering what is productive about kayaking, go kayaking and then think about it.

Next up on our journey south was a run called the Ohinepango into the Waihohonu River. The gorgeous scenery enjoyed while waiting for Ol' Blue to be dropped off at the bottom could be considered foreshadowing for what was to come on the river. This is me looking east.

Then I turned around to the west, and watched this volcano erupt right in front of my eyes! Turns out, they were just clouds. The day ended up being a real treat. The Ohinepango was a constant class III rapid containing no eddies, and a few micro-gorges with small waterfalls in them. The width of the river at its widest point, was 8 feet. To stop, you had to grab hold of the rocks or grass on the edge of the creek.

Then it dropped into the Waihohonu, which was absolutely, stunningly beautiful. Crystal clear water, gorgeous native bush and blue bird skies made this day on the river most excellent. This is a picture of Wheels scouting the "mandatory portage," which was runnable.

Waterfalls poured into the river from cliffs lining the bank. This picture does absolutely no justice of its wonder, but again we could have sworn we were on some remote run in the jungle of Central America! The monkeys were everywhere...and they wouldn't stop banging their cymbals.

After spending the night at OPC, (the Sir Edmond Hilary Outdoor Pursuits Center...Sir Ed passed away within a couple days of our stay there. New Zealand was completely devastated to loose one of its heroes...mad props to one brave dude!!!) we drove right along the Tongariro National Park. The park is NZ's oldest National Park, and contains three active volcanoes...Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe (pictured), and Tongariro.

Even if there aren't any National Parks to drive through, or volcanoes to gawk at, driving in New Zealand is anyways nice! Anytime you hit the road, you know you're about to go somewhere amazingly cool, and getting there will no doubt be gorgeous! Ah, the freedom of traveling!!!

Kiwis are so stoked about kayaking, they actually grow kayaks out of the ground. They're like flowers...without petals.

The last river we hit on the North Island was the Rangitikei. For some reason, floating down another river that was stupidly pretty, was a great way to spend yet another day in New Zealand! Here's Wheels floating through "the Narrows." A bit of a different feel from the Gnars back home! But still great, nonetheless.

Wheels dropping into a bit of some of that water in the color of white.

This is Ol' Blue in its element. Boat on the roof, chillin' next to some water, itchin' for the next adventure. This is a picture taken from the porch of Anthony and Marina's place. Thanks to them for putting us up for the night in style!!! (If you're keen to do some sea kayaking in Fiji, or some hiking in Italy, these two cats are the people you need to talk to. Check out Tamarillo, their tropical adventure company!)

This is a picture that is worth clicking on to enlarge. The view from the point just around the corner from Anthony and Marina's place. Sweet as!!!

The trip moves on to the Mainland, the South Island, this is the boat that took us there. Stay tuned for the real action...dragonflies, cavities, bus chases...oh MY!

New Zealand: The Journey Begins...

2008-03-04T00:47:00.000-08:00

I'd be lying if I said that this is where the adventure began. But if you subtract all the who-la in getting to this point outside the LAX terminal...this is where the adventure began. The first task was to get my buggy and I (my cousin Sophie stayed in her home-land, Cali-forn-i-a) from the point at which this picture was taken, to inside the terminal door and to the check-in counter. Not exactly an easy task, considering that doors to any airport are never as wide as three kayaks, or the transformation I had to under-go to become Moses, parting the sea of people inside the airport. It all felt rather fitting though, because I wasn't going halfway across the world not to be challenged!

Ever since I started flying with kayaks, I seem to have developed a habit of getting to a destination without boarding a single flight I was originally booked for. Again, despite checking in my gear and I at LAX while the final boarding call echoed over the masses, I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand early New Years Day morning, continuing my streak.

My earlier-than-expected arrival left me as an observer on the group-W bench outside the airport, waiting for action. This train of buggies went by and I was immediately impressed with their resemblance to ducklings, despite their racial differences.

When I first got to New Zealand, I knew one person in the whole country. Luckily that one man showed up at the airport the same day I arrived! Ladies and Gentlemen...Mr. Gareth Wheeler, A.K.A. "Wheels." Cheers for that, bro!!!

With all the fresh toys loaded up in the back of Ol' Blue, (Wheel's faithful Toyota Hiace that gets 'er done! Better introduction to Ol' Blue later) we were off to the Bay of Plenty region where our first eddy awaited our arrival. (HUGE Thanks out to the kind folk at RIOT Kayaks for making it possible to bring a fresh Boogie, Magnum AND Astro to the land down under!!!)

Driving into gorgeous country side, I was awe-struck by many things; mostly just their misspellings of words even I can spell!

This is a picture of me, happy to be in a place I've dreamed of visiting since I was a wee one! Couldn't have wiped that silly grin off my face to save your life!!!

Day 2 in New Zealand and I was already about to get on the water! This was my first glimpse of whitewater in NZ..."Okere Falls" and "The Weir" on the Kaituna River. We walked along a bit of a track to look at these and the biggest drop of the run, "Tutea Falls."

This is a tunnel. I've had some cool experiences with tunnels in NZ. Better so than my experiences with tunnels in the US. If tunnels were put on a description meter, this one would hover in at the warm and fuzzy point. Fuzzy, like a bumblebee's bum, minus the stinger, because my description of a stinger might include the word warm, but probably not fuzzy. Really though, there is some fuzz to the buzz down here!

Speaking of fuzz...fuzzy-wuzzy was a bear, fuzzy wuzzy had no hair, fuzzy wuzzy wasn't as fuzzy as people thought he was, now was he?

And then...there was kayaking. And it was fun...REALLY fun!!! This is Wheels on Okere Falls, the first drop of any significance you come to on the Kaituna.

Directly after Okere comes The Weir. Here's Wheels coming in hot, disappearing into the shadows.

Yours truly, in the true state of being yours, planting the almighty boof stroke to perpetuate the horizontal forward movement of my Astro over "The Weir."

The Kaituna is absolutely stunning. It twists its way through a gorge covered in all sorts of native NZ bush hanging down from everywhere. It's like riding in a pink, convertible Cadillac in the Macy's Day Parade, streamers coming down at you from all over, except the streamers are branches, vines, and palms. I kept expecting monkeys to jump out into the river and start heckling and laughing at you saying, "Tricked you, stupid American!!! You thought you were in New Zealand!?! Haha, this is Coast Rica!!! Puerto Vida, hombre!!!" Was it in our minds?

Another bend in the river, and it just gets prettier.

Just when life can't get much better, the world-famous Kaituna Get-out Hole appears for your freestylin' pleasure! These cats showed up with their ducky and took it back to the old school. It has been said many times...Enders are BACK!

Around the bend from the playspot, and the normal get-out is Trout Pool Falls. If your day just needs a bit more spice to it, this can be your solution. It's about a 12 footer that lands in a hole with a backwash as far back as the drop is high! Not a place to miss your boof! Here's a shot Wheels took of me trying to avoid becoming fish soup.

In New Zealand, even the take-outs are purtty!!! And yes, it's true, there are sheep here.

Cram into the truck; drive two minutes, and your back at the put-in, ready for another round!!! I'm tellin' you...Livin' the good life!!!

I'll leave you with a classic New Zealand road sign. They're brutally honest here with their signage...Like a zip folks, like a YKK zip.

Sorry for the delay in activity on this site. To be completely honest, I've just been living a dream. When you live a dream that you just can't get enough of, you don't want to wake-up! It's March now, school has started and the weather's starting to show signs of fall; the dream isn't over, but the dream summer vacation is. What I've covered in this post only scratches the surface. I think it's about three days worth of pictures. (I didn't even get a shot of the biggest drop on the run!!! Wait for the video for that!) Stay tuned for more, as I will re-live the epic trip I've had going North to South in one of the most gorgeous places on planet earth!!! HHhhheeeeehhaaaawwww!!! (Like a donkey, not a sheep)

Night of the Living Donkey

2008-02-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

Night of the Living Donkey is here...

Hold on folks, cause you won't want to go kayaking with out your teddy bear again! This is the latest and greatest kayaking porn yet to reach existence on this here planet earth. Click the banner for linkage to the website...

If you missed the World Premiere in Asheville, check out whats going down in Crown Town...

Effort Inc. along with Deadman Productions presents...

MONDAY, Feb. 25th, 2008
FREE - NIGHT OF THE LIVING DONKEY Premiere in CHARLOTTE, NC
Donkey slaying begins at 9pm at CREATION
(Creation is located at...
1221 The Plaza
Charlotte, NC 28205
704.372.2561)

Special guest appearance by Spencer Cooke, master-slayer of many donkeys!

More info and trailer can be found at...

nightofthelivingdonkey.com

Headed to New Zealand

2007-12-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

Let me first say, Happy Holidays. I hope everyone has had time to relax and enjoy the company of some fine friends during this festive time of year!

The past semester I have been living back in Charlotte, NC, my hometown, working at the US National Whitewater Center. (This is a picture of me working really hard out there!) The previous two years had been spent in Boonetown, NC studying geography at Appalachian State University. (Yes, the same App State who just became the first college to win THREE consecutive National Football Titles in a row, that's right!) The move back to the Car-lot wasn't for my love of paddling in a cement ditch, or for my love of road-rage-infested-SUV-driving-soccer-moms. The purpose was to save money for a grand adventure to the far away paradise known as New Zealand.

I will be arriving in New Zealand the 1st day of the New Year. I will spend just under one year there studying abroad at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch (on the South Island.) This is a part of the world I have always dreamed of visiting, so when the opportunity came up to do so, I pounced...like a ninja.

I will be bringing three Riot Kayaks of choice (Magnum, Boogie, and Astro 58) down to continue my adventures in the realm of paddlesporting. I am very excited to go to one of the sikest places on earth!!! Please keep checking on the Team Riot Blog as well as this blog to find stories, pictures, and videos documenting my travels on the water.

I'd like to give a very special THANK YOU to Spencer Cooke of Effort.tv for hooking it up with a video camera to shoot footy on the trip! Thanks duder!!! Effort Inc. is your headquarters for grassroots kayaking porn, check out the Video Archives page to find some of the most awesomest kayaking footy on the world wide web.

For adventures OFF the water I am starting another blog...Coop's New Zealand. This will be a very informal random report of what I've been up to down there. I really can't even begin to forecast what will appear on this new site, but it could be entertaining, so check it out!

http://coopsnewzealand.blogspot.com/

Check ya' next time from the Southern Hemi!!!

My Brain on Kayaking...

2007-12-03T17:35:00.000-08:00

There's been a gnome in my shoulder. It has been repairing a torn AC ligament. He's just about 100% complete, so I went kayaking. This is my brain on kayaking...

I've paddled the Gnars twice now and they have been some of the best runs on the Green I've ever had. I love kayaking. Pat loves kayaking too, some people say he's crazy, but I bet they're probably crazy in their own little way as well.

I paddled at the US National Whitewater Center before paddling the Green, to test out my newly recovered shoulder. This is not me testing out my shoulder; it's a picture from this summer's action out there. Dave Hepp has been working on tweaking some of the features on the course to allow for better play, it's finally paying off. This here's M-Wave, Charlotte style, while not as epic as the original, air is in the game now. (Thanks to Jon Angermier for snapping this pic!)

This is another play feature we've been working on, we call it Sketchy Wave due to its close proximity to the river left cement wall, and high probabillity of spearage from the spear-fish.
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EDIT: It has been decided that Sketchy Wave is way too lame of a name for this wave, so it has now officially been dubbed...BRAIN SPLATTER. (The original purpose of naming it Sketchy Wave was to keep boaters that shouldn't be on it, OFF, I think Brain Splatter gets the point across!)
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It's fast, not too shallow, and allows for some fun wave moves; here we have Chris Stafford and Mark Cain mid-summer session.

Wilson Bell is my home-boy. Here he is launching left off Sunshine, seems to be the hot move to do these days, I reckon. WIIILLLLSSSSSSSOOOOONNNNN!!!!!!!

My shoulder injury took me off the water for my favorite day of the entire year...The Green Race. Needless to say, it was hard to be on the spectating side of things, but it gave me a new perspective, and also a bunch of motivation for next time I will be able to race.

Mad props out to Andrew Holcombe for taking the crown this year. Big ups to Pat for protecting his Ironman title, as well as absolutely destroying his Short Boat Record! Let me give a Who-daa-whooo out to Dave Hepp for setting a new C-1 record! (Where were ya, Cluck?) I'm going to holler a SPRINKLES!!!!!! out to my main man, Keith Sprinkles, for AGAIN crushing the knuckle-draggers. And finally, last but certainly not least, Hells Yeah! to Robin Betz, for re-claiming the women's title.

And for anyone wondering if Tommy Tsunami is still the man, check the last clip of this LVMtv episode. Ill say it for him...Boo-ya-ka-SHA!!!

Ever heard of fore-shadowing? This is foreshadowing at it's finest...Mark Miller gettin' ready to win the party. Rawk on, brotha!

The Russell Fork: It Bites!!!

2007-10-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

This is Zog. His name rhymes with frog and he's a bad-ass-mo-fo who don't give a rat's ass about yo momma, or why she was late picking you up from detention after school in the 8th grade. I rode with Zog up to the first weekend of Russell Fork season. We were able to enjoy five laps on one of the finest stretches of river in the Southeast. Check out his blog...ZogTraining for another perspective on the weekend.

This, here feller's name is Bryon Douglas. Bryon demonstrates one helluva boof stroke for us on El Horrendo. Thanks Bryon.

Caleb Paquette is another JC hardcore that everyone should know about. This dude eats glass shards for breakfast...really, that's not a joke. I think this boof after Climax is the jam, and so does Caleb, he just wishes the landing was about 20 feet lower than it is.

Bryon, Nettle, and Adam enjoy the scenery while cruising shuttle. Big Thanks to Caleb's wife, Ashley, for helping out with driving. Twas HUGE!

Did I mention it's kinda pretty? One day, a long time from now, the Russell Fork River will cut through this ridge. When that happens, the rapids Tower, Fist and maybe some of Maze will be lost to the newly formed ox-bow lake. That will be a very sad day. On the other hand, a new rapid might be formed where the train tunnel is now. Someone will run it, and probably name it freight-train.

This is Nettles. People say Americans have a bigger "personal bubble" than other cultures. I think if we were all dogs, we probably wouldn't have that issue.

Nathan Silsbee arrived on the scene with a different type of craft. Pictured here is a Switch, Frontside, Splat-Ledgewheel.

We put on around noon each day, and caught water both days. There could be worse places to have to stop and be forced to enjoy your surroundings.

...Like next to this sawed-off mountain. Mountain Top Removal is bad, so quick, go kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia!!!

I returned a couple weeks later along with Adam Bixby and Jon Angermier to again harvest the goods of the Fork. This time, it bit.

Longboats were the craft of choice for much of the weekend. Some real speed demons came out for the Chargefest. Nombres include Chris Graggletop, Bryon Kirkulous, Geoff Calhoun, Clay Wright, and many more. Good lines and not so good lines were had by all. After three laps Geoff and I went up and squeezed one more run it. During said run, I pitoned in El Horrendo and broke my Excel. (Sorry Pablo!)

On Sunday we ran the mighty Fork twice more, this time in playboats. On the last run of the day I landed tweaked out, off El Horrendo, and hit a rock with my shoulder upon landing. The impact, I came to find out later that week, tore my AC ligament in my left shoulder. This injury has taken me off of the water for a bit, (I didn't get to race the Lord of the Fork this past weekend) and puts my Green Race eligibility in serious doubt. I'm truly bummed, but still had a great weekend of six runs on one of my favorite rivers with a bunch of my favorite friends.

Kayaking has always been a way for me to let loose and forget about everything else happening in the world. I wish I could go kayaking right now; Not being able to, gives me a chance to reflect on, and appreciate, the times when we can. I will be back on the water soon, and I can't wait!!!

Getting Scared on the Green

2007-10-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do a little post here about the Green River. This Gnars update is a bit different though, because lately, circumstances have made the Green River Narrows a bit scarier than normal...

Two Billy Goats waiting in the Notch Eddy. At the extremely low levels the river has been these days, the pad on the Gorilla has been quite a nerve-racking spot. Here we have Billy Jones and Billy Murphy inspecting the crashing wave that has formed at the lip of an already terrifying drop.

A strategy many have started to use is the drive right-to-left plan. Here Murph adds the extra thurst in his boof stroke to counter-act the left-to-right crashing force of the launch-pad. Ain't no thang but a chicken wang to "Big Water Billy" (a name he recently picked up on a stout mission up to the Mecatina River in Quebec, Canada.)

Here I am, doing the same. The playboat adds an extra factor of ass-hole-puckered-up-ness to it all. At this freeze-frame in time, you must equal your weight back out to the left to land flat in the trough. This picture makes it look like I'm about to crash hard on the Christopher Columbus Shelf, but I landed right where I wanted to be, in the middle of the trough. Thanks to Jon Angermier for snapping the pic.

Do the hokey-pocky, spin yourself around, that's what it's all about!!! I've been LOVING the Riot Nitro for downriver play. Check out Adam Herzog's Blog for some Russell Fork pics and more freewheels!

Just when you think you've seen every line on the Green, the boys find more ways to piss your pants. Here we have Billy Jones seal-launching in above Groove Tube, after running the river-right drop of Nutcracker. What is really sik about this sequence they've been doing, is it's a hot-hot move. Meaning, hot off the seal-launch into the Tube, then with-out stopping in between, hot off Sunshine.

Adam Bixby drags the knuckles Hot Hot. Nicely done, brotha!

Jon Angermier, a Charlotte transplant to Brevard, dropping into the pit of Hammer Factor like a mother bird, hacking up some yack from the back of her throat to feed to her young.

Some folks have been getting scared by hiking up and jumping back into the maw of the Factor. Redneck yell required before launch.

Speaking of launching, Yonton "the Vonton" Mehler of Astral Buoyancy was spotted launching one gargantuan boof off this tall drop of water.

I turned 20 on Septemeber 15th. I met Clayton, Pat and Jon at the river to celebrate in the finest of ways. We met early so I could get back to Crown Town in-time for work, but we kept running out of water. So we decided to pull over and wait for the river to fill up at Go Left. After chilling out for a bit on this rock, Chris Gragtmans showed up as well, paddling off Boofer in the Green Boat. We proceeded downstream and I caught the Birthday Eddy for the second time ever, (last time was last year on my birthday.) It is one of the most terrifying things you can do in a kayak. Thanks to the boys for celebrating with me! (No pics of the eddy, it's one of those moves you don't want to wait around too long before dropping in!)

The next weekend I let this dude, Keel from Oregon, borrow my boat. It was the first time since last Green Race I paddled a long boat down the Green, (the last scary-as-shit thing I'm going to cover on this post.) Last year I was convinced at the last minute to paddle a Pirouette S down and do the Ironman. This year I figured I might as well get used to it, so I took my buddy Pablo's Wavesport Excel. It's a very pointy boat; Pointy, on the Green, means scary. Thanks Pablo, for letting me abuse the boat.

Lately, I've been skeered on the Green. Tis' the season.

Po-Toe-Mac-'n-Cheese Please!!!

2007-09-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

After an extraordinary ending to Pat and I's California wonderland tour (Desert in the Moonlight Gorge, more on that later) I headed back east in time to catch a ride with hands paddling ninja, Adam Seacrest, up to the Potomac River Festival held in Great Falls, MD/VA...

South Carolina home-boy, Andy Gates, launching his watercraft of choice into an oblivion of water, rock, air and gold.

The main event of the weekend was the down-river race held on Saturday. This here is a dude named Nates trying to spear fish for dinner off of Pummel. Not gettin' donkey kicked like a jack-rabbit being chased by a Chinese firecracker was the first objective in racer's minds.

Next up was haulin' so much ass through the pool between Pummel and Pencil Sharpener here, that your boat skimmed off the water like your third grade slip-'n-slide all greased up with K-Y Jelly. Nasty Nate and Adam practice proper slip-'n-slide etiquette.

Race day came, and Billy Murphy was there to say, it's on. I was there to look like an idiot. See what had happened was... I had been informed that I finished one second slower than my man Billy. Results were tallied; top-10 went on to finals. Billy got 11th, he was pissed; I thought I got 12th, I was really pissed. Turns out that night at the party, when the official results were shown, I had really placed 10th, (one second AHEAD of Murph) then I was really, really pissed. Doh!

Spencer Cooke was the true recipient of the 12th place finish. He seemed really happy about that, it was written all over his face.

Nathan Silsbee, (pictured here doing the hokey-pokey off the VA side of Great Falls) placed 8th overall, he was aware of his standings and did get to race in the finals. Genius!!! Adam Johnson, another fellow Rioter dove into the top 10 as well with an amazingly quick 6th place. The winner in the end was local punk-ass kayak race wonder-boy, Geoff Calhoun.

Spence, sitting on the half pence fence, about to take the plunge on the same drop as above. I think it's called the last drop on the Virginia side of things.

Spencer Cooke, of Effort Inc. always has a video camera in his hands. He's started to kayak with one instead of using a paddle these days. It's really remarkable. Anyways, he made a really cool VIDEO of the weekend. You should watch it, if you're into that sort of activity, video watching, that is.

Picture your self in a boat on a river, with blueberry water and marshmallow clouds. Suddenly someone appears in the water, a boy with fire in his eyes...Andy Gates in the sky with diamonds.

After Andy came out of the clouds he dropped into this charge-fest of a whirly-ma-gig. There's also a middle line, which was fun; Will Berkeley's son would have loved it, getting to run some "tight slots and big twops."

This is probably the best picture I took on the trip. It's amazing.

On Sunday after the race we went kayaking again. We sometimes enjoy partaking in such kinds of activities. Drew Hayes showed up, and said boo-ya-ka-sha. Spencer got scared and paddled away into the sunset, to a land where palm trees sway.

Here's Jake Greenbaum running that waterfall on the VA side, no wait, I think it's called the Spout. That sounds right. Spoutin' like a fountain with red Cheerwine flowing like cherry ice cream melting off the rear bumper of a '65 Chevy parked in the sun on a July summer's day in Great Falls, Virgin-e-ia.

Peace out, big-ups and respect to ya' mon!

This here's that motion picture I was talkin' bout earlier...

MIddle Kings: Yuns Come Back Now, Ya' Hear?

2007-08-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

We emerged from Simpson Meadow to find a river again stacked with super continuous class V. Here we have, none other than the main man himself, Mr. Patrick Keller chargin' it through some boogie on river day 3.

Christopher Gragtmans does the follow-the-leader thing. Greasin' it up good like his bojangles biscuits.

Lunch break, river day 3. Dylan Bruce explains how demanding the river is. Lunch on the Middle Kings is like Christmas when you're five years old.

A photo-mash of what I think is Monarch Divide. We set off that morning with an idea of where, or at least what our next camp looked like. It was the first time we actually knew where we were going to end up by dark. By this point, second lunch, river day 3, we started to question that comforting thought.

After some searching Chris Gragtmans found our last camp of the expedition, Camp Hideaway. Tehipite Dome, pictured here, is the mark of the beginning of the end. River day 4 holds the infamous "Bottom 9," the last nine miles of the expedition, and arguably the hardest nine miles of whitewater in the Sierras.

I'm the fire starter, twisted fire starter.

We woke up day 6 of our expedition, and this was the last of Chris' food supply. You're welcome Chris. (Note: He did remember to bring his golf pants!)

After about a quarter mile of boogie, you drop in. The Bottom Nine, The Bottom Nine, The Bottom Nine miles of the Middle Kings. One of the things that sucks people into kayaking, are the moments they have on the river when nothing else matters in the world. Welcome to Euphoria. If you let something else, anything else matter while in the Bottom Nine, you're S.O.L. It's you, your crew, the river and the mountains. Game on.

Dylan Bruce looks on, as Pat gives a good hippy-kicky-flip-launch off a ledge, amidst the action of the Bottom Nine.

Pat, again, keeping 'er hairy side up on more boulder choked action. California's scary because rapids that look perfectly good will all of a sudden, without warning, end in a big sieve pile. When in doubt, scout.

We portaged around this. It looked scary.

I once took a class about utopian societies. We studied all sorts of books portraying this so-called idea of "utopia." In the end, our class concluded that utopias can't, and won't exist; they will always end up failing. This is a view of utopia. Whether it will fail or not is up to us, and future generations of explorers into the gorge.

Christopher Columbus doing his best seal impression, as he launches into a new world.

The rapids were relentless, class V, all day. Spending five days concentrating all your energy into doing everything you do without mistake is taxing. Here's Chris doing everything in his power to keep it together during the last few miles of the Bottom Nine. Chris Gragtmans keeps it together when fighting rabid tiger monkeys, we didn't have to worry about him.

Catalyst Media...in progress. Again, check out the motion picture of our trip, if you're into that sort of thing.

The crew at the confluence, our get-out. Happy to be alive, not happy about throwing our boats on our backs again. From the confluence you hike a couple miles up to the Yucca Point Trailhead. I considered this hike as a tip, to the river and mountains that let us pass through. You go to dinner knowing how much it's going to cost, but once you finish your meal, you realize you forgot to add in the extra cost of the tip.

What more do you have to pay after the tip? Nothing, unless your car gets broken into while eating dinner. Which ours did. Dylan Bruce's car was left at the Yucca Point Trailhead to provide us with a vehicle to run the 400-mile shuttle a second time with. It was broken into sometime while we were on the river. That was a trying moment for our team as we emerged from the wilderness, from the most epic trip we could ever have imagined...to reality. With only the few "emergency dollars" we had packed in to get back with, we looked into the future to a long night of cold, hungry driving, hopefully being able to make it back to Bishop with the limited funds we had. Then an angel appeared, in a white Tacoma.

The Biggest of THANKS on the Magical Mystery Tour goes out to Ranger Philip Gross for loaning us some duct tape to cover up the window with, as well as buying each of us our own large pizza at Pizza Hut that night. If it weren't for your unbelievable generosity, our lives would have been hell that night. Thank you Ranger Philip!!!

Sleep tight honey, cause the chickens ain't scratchin' the squirrels yet.

Middle Fork of the Kings River: Git U Some

2007-08-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

Putting on the Middle Kings without a guide was one of the hardest mental undertakings I've ever faced. It was immediately worth it when we got to the first meadow and looked back up into LeConte Canyon, our get-in. Pat and Dylan here, I think are pretty stoked to be in such an unbelievably beautiful place.

Guac explosion, ya'll want some guac for that sammy? Lunch break, right next to the drop on the cover of the Seven Rivers Expedition video. Tommy's the one firing that shit up on the cover, but after he confessed his swim there this year to us at the take-out, we opted for the PB & J line...high left.

Dylan Bruce, fires it up on Money Drop, one of the bigger drops of River Day 1. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, due to being focused on making "class V downstream motion" Danny D quote right thar.

Pat, throwing down a skyrocket-worm-tail boof off the top drop of money drop. His line? All about the Benjamin’s.

Dylan mesmerized by the fire, another fire, the river, our crew, and our location deep in the heart of it all.

This picture is dedicated to Billy Murphy. If it wasn't for Billy Murphy, we wouldn't have eaten apples at this campsite, known as "Sik Camp." Pat saw footage (from the boy's trip last summer) of Billy getting beat-down on the good morning rapid of Day 2 on the river. Late in our Day 1 we came to a drop, Pat got out and scouted, and we found camp. Thanks Billy for getting your ass beat for us!!!

Ladies and Gents, the Promised Land...the Promised Land, Ladies and Gents. The view from our campsite at Sik Camp, note the stream gradient drop like a one humped camel as he looks around and realizes he's the only one-humper out of the group, halfway across the Sahara.

Our boats, chilling among the erratics down by the river. Pack it up, put-on and it's on like the beats of Jr. Gong.

Chris-tofer Gragtmans showing us how to style Billy Murphy's Good Morning Rapid. This rapid was an intense way to start an intense day, she's got a real tricky entrance that you hope will set you up somewhere near where Chris is in this freeze-still of an actual moment in time.

Pat in the above-mentioned lead-in. It doesn't look as tricky as is actually is...A, because it's a photo and photos don't do shit for justice of whitewater, especially the Middle Kings. And B, because it's Pat, and Pat makes Niagara Falls look easy.

Dylan and Chris acting like they're cooler than Pecos Bill below the famous "Waterfall Gorge." The night before Pat told us stories of the wise saying that "you just find your self in the waterfall gorge." Needless to say, that is just about the situation we found ourselves in.

The Rick of Pat dropping into "the Werner Paddles Drop." I guess Werner has used pictures of peeps launching this one in a couple of ads before. Any-who, it's a long, complex mam-a-jam-a that'll get yer butt puckered up nice and tight.

Again, Mr. Keller a little over halfway through the same rapid. Niagara Falls...easy.

Here we have Dylan Bruce standing next to this slide for scale. No wait, for scale you should direct your attention to Gragglefunk, he's the really short guy chargin' it through the entrance to this big 'un.

Chris, exiting the same slide way below where you can see in the picture above. Nice line, duder. "Chris Gragtmans would autograph your breasts if you asked him to!" -Quote directed to Daniel Talley by she-who-must-not-be-named.

This picture is dedicated to Nate Elliot. If it weren't for Nate-dawg, again we wouldn't have found our next camp. Pat had saw a picture Nate took of bear claw marks on this log. We stopped here for lunch after a very stressful, walled-in situation we found ourselves in upstream. Pat saw the log and marks and said, "this is camp!" "And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals."

We found this tree, that looks frighteningly similar to the same tree, that they used as a model for making cell phone towers that look like real trees. I hope one day I can get a job to search for the model tree that they will use to replace the next tall ugly thing someone has to build.

Here's a video about our expedition made by Chris Gragtmans and Catalyst Media. I don't know if Catalyst Media made it, or Chris Gragtmans made it, I can't tell. Either way, it puts the pictures and stories into motion...

If you can't view the vidayo, try THIS!

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories of the adventure.

The Dusty Trail to The Middle Kings

2007-08-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

Groveland, CA. This is the closest town to Cherry Creek, and it happens to also have California's oldest bar, The Iron Door Saloon. Every week the Iron Door hosts the most rockin'ist karaoke gig in Cali.

Dylan, post karaoke, tweakin' to the max. Big ups to John Warner for taking us in underneath his armpit, and showing us a good time in the promised land.

One day we tried to run the Cherry proper run. We were too late...boo being too late. We did however get to drive around with boats on our car and look cool. That was cool. No, actually what WAS really cool was our adventure later on in the day jumping off tall rocks and swimming under a waterfall.

Mr. Cool himself, Scott Harke, carved this Greenboat carving out of wood. Really, that's real wood. Like, knock-knock, who's there? A tree. A tree who? Like a tree that's made out of real wood tree.

California trees like sun, I like California sunsets. This picture was taken on the way into Kings Canyon National Park, after we got the green light from Al G. to go to the Middle Fork of the Kings. After hearing the NC crew's description of their trip down as "epic, the trip of a lifetime," I was all of a sudden terrified. I envied their position, sitting at a table eating pizza with all their worries behind them. While Grace insisted we needed to go figure it out ourselves, Robin Betz offered up the most useful wisdom of the group...1.Bring a lot of food 2.Go slow 3.Keep a positive attitude. These three things made this expedition a reality for us.

The weight of the adventure that lay ahead sank in as we dropped Dylan's car at the Yucca Point take-out trailhead. My legs felt weak as I stood there gazing upstream into the gorge that held the infamous "Bottom 9," (the last nine miles of the trip, considered nine of the hardest miles of whitewater in the state of California)

We packed everything we would need for six days in the High Sierras into Pat's truck, our shuttle vehicle. What seems to fail to always be mentioned about the Middle Kings, is the shuttle. You've really got to pay to play, 400 miles worth. Down off the west slope of the Sierras, south around the bottom of them, and then back north, up the east slope to Bishop.

Bishop was our grocery stop, as well as our Father's Day call stop. Here the crew, Dylan Bruce, Pat Keller, Chris Gragtmans and myself, held "the explosion." The gear, boats, food, bags, and more food was strewn across the Bishop Pass Trailhead parking lot as we tried to cram it all into neat compact systems that fit into our kayaks.

A view into the unknown from the trailhead. We started hiking in around 7pm, attempting to knock a mile or two off the 11-mile jaunt over the eastern Sierra ridge before dark.

The gang, truckin' hard after sundown.

Even when it gets dark, the Promised Land is stunning.

As daybreak broke, Chris Gragtmans' eye fell out. Always bring an extra eyeball when traveling in the backcountry.

Turns out we nabbed a rather pretty camp spot when we collapsed the previous evening. From the top of this hill, we could finally see Bishop Pass off in the distance. It seemed like light years away, but I knew if I put one foot in front of the other, I would eventually get there.

Lunch, near the summit.

Chris thought he deserved a statue near the top, so he hiked in this life size wax figurine of himself. Pat was impressed.

The view east off the top of the Sierras, down the path we had just traveled up.

The first view down into LeConte Canyon, our get-in. Mountains towering above, I suddenly felt smaller than a termite. The fears about T-Rex suddenly bounding over the ridges at surrounded us returned in full force.

Again I proclaimed, "That was the most intense thing I've ever done in my whole life!" Here at Camp 2 of our trip, we questioned the sanity of our decision to hike in without someone who had done the river before. It was decided that, "We got that shit!"

Stay tuned for pictures of kayaks and kayakers actually in water!!!

California Love: Upper Cherry Creek, Day 2

2007-07-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

One of a million cool things about California is you always have a "wake-up rapid." This was she, Day 2 of our Upper Cherry Creek trip. It's a slide you run the day before, but we walked up to run it into the teacups again before heading downstream directly into Groove Tube, Perfect 20 and Double Pothole. Many huge rapids on Day 2, we bombed into just about everyone of them, so no pictures, sorry. This is actually the only picture I have of me running a rapid in California! Thanks to Pat for snapping it for me!!!

Nick from the Chatt-town crew, feeling like a cherry seed about to get the dickens launched out of Loch Ness Monster's two front teeth. Kinda have that walled-in feeling feeling, again.

Bet looks out to the entrance of Double Pothole. We portaged the drop that slams into this eddy and rock, there's a line...with serious consequences. Get left and hey diddle-diddle, but get ready, cause that thing is WAY bigger than it looks in video and pics!

Pat Keller getting it back down on Dead Bear Falls. Lunch numero uno after this big guy. Rat-a-tat-Pat also had a freaking smooth greased donkey line through Kiwi in a Pocket. Kinda botched the footy on that one! Sorry bro.

Speaking of footy, thank you much out to Pat from taking video the whole time we were out in the promised land!!!

Bet riding them rapids like a cougar running from Pecos Bill. The whole time I was out there I couldn't help but think of what it was like for Old Pecos and the Wild Westerners of yesteryear. That, and I really expected T-Rex to bound by at any moment. Was it in our Minds?

No Reeboks here, we only pump water. Straight from the river we paddle!!! The promised land I tell you. The promised land, bring yee an agua pump if you like to drink water while participating in water-sport activities. Also have some kind of back-up, in our case that was a gigger of iodine.

Crazy tree at Lunch 2. There's some amazing boogie after Dead Bear, anywhere that wasn't a famous rapid there was incredible high-quality shit to be run. The promised land. I like to eat alot of food (that might be an understatement) point is, bring in a bunch of groceries. Food=Energy; Energy on the water=a good thing, and fun times! Also, good training to hike in with extra portions!

Dag-gone, friggin,funnestmostyeehawinbuckingbronco, dig,dag, a wag,a tagarooin-yeah. Reed stoked about a good ride through the Nozzle. Ain't it aint over, till the fat lady sings! Keep on yer toes cause ya still got titties left!!!

Pat looks out over Cherry Lake. Cow of holiness, is it pretty!!! The last of the goods behind us, Nick took time to unleash the fountain of the blister that once was. MMmmm, get-u-some.

Post blister pop, Nick exits stage right as the gorge that was our home for a couple days disappears until another summer.

Stay tuned here on your dial for the mother-load report, next time coming at ya from the MIddle Fork of the Kings!!!

Le Tour Presents...Stage 3: The Road to the Promised Land

2007-07-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

This incredible picture comes to ya' straight from the back of Matt Soloman's pick-up truck. I'd like to extend a HUGE THANK YOU!!!! to Matt Soloman!!! Every picture and experience that follows was made possible by your generosity in hooking it up with a ride to Eagle County.

Back at the Mountain Games, Pat Keller had told me stories of the promised land. A place where the whitewater is as fluffy as a bunny's bottom. California, he said was the place to be, call him in a week's time and receive further instructions. The morning this picture was taken, instructions were received to get to Eagle County, CO by 7pm. That's where Matt Soloman comes in, after a free competitor's breakfast in Lyons I was told he could get me to my destination, but he might have left already. A frantic search for the ever elusive beast concluded in the answer to my question..."yeah, you can jump in the back with my dog until Denver, after Denver you can get a front seat to Eagle." Thanks, dude!

Pat with his game face on. Pat picked me up at Matt's house, and we were on our way west, to a state that's untouchable like Elliot Ness. Right at the beginning of our drive Pat handed me a copy of Doug Ammons' book, "The Laugh of the Water Nymph: And Other Stories" and told me to read the story titled, Fear. From that point on I was scared. Good read, didn't read all of it, but that's one page turner, I going to have to get my hands on.

Sunrise somewhere near the border of Utah and Nevada. Filled 'er up, caught some ZZZzzzzz's through Nevada thanks to Pat's heavy foot. At this point we had two options...we could hike in with Tommy, Grace and Jules Campbell and catch up to a massive crew on the Middle Fork of the Kings, or we could combine the first two days of the Upper Cherry and catch up to Chris Gragtmans and Dylan Bruce at Flintstone Camp. Either way we were about to drop into some shit.

At the end of the day a decision was made and we arrived here, at Cherry Lake, ready to hike in to the Upper Cherry Creek at sunrise.

Here's a self-portrait showing my exhaustion/ satisfaction half way through the hike, just near the point where the trail enters Yosemite National Park. The plan was to hike the nine miles during the am, and then by dark, paddle down to "Flintstone Camp" which is normally camp two and meet fellow NCer's Chris and Dylan.

Pat Keller dropping in at "The Brink." Somewhere down there is the put-in to Upper Cherry. At this point all I was thinking was lunch... well that and "My, this place is puuurrrrrrteeee!!!"

Relieved to finally get some air to my feet. A little nap, some food and water and we were off again, this time in the craftiest of crafts...a Ki-Jack!

Pat dropping into a typical rapid on Upper Cherry. He had done the run a few times before, as we were hiking in he warned me of the mad-bombing that would ensue once we were on the water. I didn't really know what to expect, but maybe something like "We're only going to scout Cherry Bomb Falls and maybe one more" would've been more appropriate! This was my first multi-day run in a kayak, and it was everything I dreamed it would be. I quickly adjusted to paddling with some junk in the trunk.

Pat-Rick pointing 'er into Cherry Bomb Gorge. You kinda get that walled-in feeling if you know what I mean!

This here is Reed, he is a caveman that lives in the meadow just above Cherry Bomb Gorge, if you paddle up at the perfect moment he can be found standing in the middle of the river preparing for his epic solo sessions in the Cherry Bomb Gorge. That's at least the state we found him in!

I believe at this moment I said, "Holy shit, that was the most intense day of my life!" Wonder how many times I said that in the week or so following this expedition! Haha!

The view from Camp Flintstone, looking back up at the Teacups and into Cherry Bomb Gorge. We ran into the rest of Reed's caveman crew here, Bet and Nick from Chatt-town, TN. Funny, I thought we were in California!?!

Stay tuned for Day 2 goodies, and more fun in the sun in Cali-forn-i-A!!!!

Magical Mystery Tour: Cruisin' with the Boonetown Boys

2007-07-09T21:24:00.001-07:00

The most frequent flyer miles caught by anyone at the Mountain Games, had to be the freeride mountain bikers. These guys truely ripped! After some partying in Vail, the group decided to head to Clear creek of the Ark, a very pretty, boogiein' run that comprised of three fun gorged out sections.

Here's WIll Stubbs and Nate from Boulder dropping into the first gorge. It's hard not to go kayaking in Colorado and not be in a super pretty spot.

We got a couple runs in during the day, thanks to friendly folk helping out with shuttle. Nate, Stubbs and Shane Groves hangs out here at the get-out waiting for the horse-drawn carriages to arrive, Dave's hiding because he's cared of horses. Maybe they were mountain goat-drawn, no wait, those were on the mountain, if you look long enough at one of those white dots.

After the couple of runs, instead of heading to Salida to playboat I opted to hang with the Boonetown Crew charging it out west this summer. Dave and Stubbs, pictured here, cold kick it by our take-out campsite campfire. A few wonderous happenings happened momoments after this kodak moment. Two homies from BV hooked it up with grilled salmon and triscits. Dave ran our shuttle for run three. We were greeted on our dusk run by a much higher flow; lesson learned, run clear creek later in the day to reduce amount of f-u rocks.

I feel your pain, brotha! Last summer, bout the time we past this dude, I was probably doing the exact same thing, but looking at goats instead of tall mountains.

Bailey Run, south-west of Denver, was`the next stop. The clan boogies out from the main portion of the run to find amazing looking domes everywhere. A cool way to end a fun run.

After Bailey, we met back up with Nate and checked out the Lower South Boulder. This here picture is of me dropping into a funky little drop on the run. The entrance gig I'm in was a cool boof-into-a-slot move right before the bottom dropped out.

And again me finishing the bottom part of the rapid with a sherlock flicky kicky boof. Fluffy like my corn pops.

The Boonetown Birgade continued it's movement north up to Fort Collins, where Stubbs had connetions with beds. Twas here were we found the Narrows of the Poudre. The Narrows here in NC is the jam, so having found a gnars out west, I had to go. After arrival it was determined that the level was on the high side of things, and Dave and Stubbs opted out. Here I am having a solo session in the early gorge.

The run-out to the same gorge. It was far upstream of this point that I reliezed what I had gotten my self into. A high-water chargefest that was the pushiest thing I had seen since Gore Canyon. I must if you catch it a good level.

Again, lost, wishing I had scouted more on the drive up. Many Big ups to Will and Dave for letting me cruise for a few days. Hope you boys are having fun living in Cali for the summer!

Stay tuned for more of the world wide web's broadcast of the Magical Mystery Tour.

Pray for Rain!!!

On the Road on The Magical Mystery Tour, Part 1

2007-06-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

I guess it started in January, up in Boonetown. Maybe it was Febuary, it doesn't really matter, all that matters is that I read Jack Kerouac's classic, "On the Road." Stories of hickhiking from one side of the country to the other inspired my itch for adventure. I wanted to be there, in the 50's and 60's traveling around like no one else had done before. The people you meet, the places you see, the memories that are burned into your memory, traveling is the ideal way of living.

I have always wondered what would've happened if Jack Kerouac had gotten in a kayak. The stories that would have evolved from his journeys down water would have been amazing. In some sense, I was trying to hit the road as Kerouac would've, but with a boat and the mentallity of a kayaker. For in the end, that was what all it was really about anyway, just trying to go kayaking with some cool folks in nice places.

This photo is acually a bit later in chronilogical order, but it provides me a good way to introduce the Burlfest Rig. Team Burlfest included Mr. David Finney, Nathan "Sillybee" Silsbee, and "Pillow-Masta" Shane Groves. This is a picture of our rig at the take-out of Gore Canyon, Thanks to David's Mom for letting us use the 4runner. The four of us met up in Nashville, TN and packed our lives into this car and trailer.

Shane Groves happy to be out of the car. Our first stop was Clear Creek outside of Denver, after driving the 2am-6am shift through Kansas, I awoke next to this river and was stoked to kick off our trip directly into the water.

The Shane-dogg again, this time exicuting a perfect spin-er-round-n-go-with-it in the last rapid on Clear Creek, I think it's called Rigor Mortis. Clear Creek was a really fun run, mostly just good quality class IV boogie with a few Class Vs in there to keep you on your toes. Perfect run after an all-night dash across the country. This rapid marks the start of the burlfest's invation of Colorado. Just about where Shane is dropping into the last hole backwards is where Mr. Finney got a pretty sweet rodeo-ride-into-swim combo move. I don't know how many points that scores you in a ro-day-o, but it went pretty high on our scorecard.

The view from Camp Numero Uno. Our first stop was to be at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail. It was reccomended to us that we camp at the take-out of Gilman Gorge. Twas rather purtty, and we met some cool folks including the Charger and Burler themselves from Chatt-town, TN as well as Eli Loper from Edwards, CO. Special Big Ups to Eli for letting the gang crash at his house and for showing us the goods of the Vail area while we were there.

There is alot of wildlife to seen in Colorado, even on I-70!

After the games I met up with Will Stubblefield from Boontown, and we headed up to Gore Canyon. This was my only expirience with the Colorado River while I was there, but it was satisfying to acually get on it at least once. This picture is of Stubbs dropping into Gore Rapid, the first big un you come to.

I really wish a kayaker was in this picture, again Gore Rapid but from river left. Kinda purrty as well.

The view running shuttle as you drop into the take-out valley of Gore Canyon. Couldn't get enough of that nice Colorado scenery. Stubbs in awe, gettin clicky-clicky with the picky-picky.

This was about the time I pointed my camera out the window after saying, "Damn dude, I need to take more pictures." I thought I turned out mighty fine for such random timing. Just some mountain on I-70.

Stay tuned as the story of the Magical Mystery Tour continues here on the Diz-trizzle Mizzle. For more on the first leg of our journey check out Nathan's Team Riot Update.

The Muscle Fork: Stick a Fork in it!!!

2007-05-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

Eat it Tina! You just got to stick a fork it. The Muscle Fork, the Russell Fork, not your Rusty Spoon, no sporks either, straight up, 100% high quality H2o. The price to pay? JC time.

It's 5am, and I'm awake. This isn't a normal routine of mine unless I have to meet Adam Herzog somewhere, in this case at his house in Johnson City. We're headed to the Russell Fork, which has been rather swollen since recent rains. The Dam operators have been pounding the water into the gorge at flows over 25,000 cfs. It has dropped down to a resonable level, but still should be high, maybe around 2 Grand.

These are the only two pictures that came out from the day, since this was the only time we ever got out of our boats (we portaged First Drop of Triple Drop due to the terminal backwash of the ledge hole.). First pic up top is of Zog Dog dropping into the maw of Second Drop. Then again of him here slip-sliding his way into Third Drop, All we brought were playboats, kinda made it interesting if ya' know what I mean! After it was all said and done we were able to get three laps in by hiking back up and taking out directly after Climax. BIg ups to Adam for the ride up.

Sorry about the quite here on the site, this update is long-overdue. I've been on the road out west for a bit, but I'm back home with more pictures and stories than ever. So keep an eye on this here, and the Team Riot Blog for upcoming updates about the trip of my life!

Bunny Break '07: Dashboard Biscuit

2007-04-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

Spring Break Round 2, Camp King, Boonetown Heads South Tour. Call it what you want, but really it was all about the Biscuit. And the Bunny. The Biscuit and the Bunny.

Friday morning, and the Green is going 'till five!!! A good start to the morning always means our boy at Tuxedo Hydrostation is fired up. That man has the dream job of a lifetime, and sometimes day-dreaming about holding that position is the only thing that makes me go to class. Here I am on one of my absolute favorite rapids EVER! Gorilla. Photo by King Charles, Tanks a tot, man.

Met up with Daniel Talley from Crown Town. Talley is pictured here getting on some of that G-Munk Love. Photo by King Charles.

Will Stubbs dropping into the tube at Groove Tube. Stubbs has had the "Green Fever" ever since popping his cherry out on the Gnars. Once you pop, you just can't stop.

Speaking of popping cherrys...The one and only, King Charles, somewhere in there! Charles started the Bunny Break with his first run down the Gnars. His weapon of choice? A playboat. Haha HAHA, nice work, brotha!

Danny Boy launching one with a studder-swigger-swagger stroke at the lip. Danny has been making his mark at the US National Whitewater Center, where after school he can be spotted trying to get tricky with it on the M-Wave.

Beastie Boys known to let the beat, MMMmmmm DROP!!? This picture makes Sunshine look like child's play, is that a pool it lands in, or what? Haha, do not be fooled young grasshopper! Props out to the photo by Stubbs.

From the Green we met back up with Connor and Spencer and headed to Camp King. Camp King is a wonderful, magical, mystery camp tucked away on Lake Chatuge. Big THANKS to Mr. and Mrs. King for hosting a bunch of college bums! And thanks for Stubbs for getting us there!!!

Dashboard Biscuits. I blame Jimmy Blakeney for getting me into this madness known as kayaking, it all started when he gave me a copy of Chris Emerick's classic "Dashboard Burrito." We roll with our own breakfast of choice: Mrs. King's Biscuits!!!

The Ocoee was the destination for Day 2. I can't even guess when the last time I was at the Ocoee, but with cool weather scaring away the crowds it was great to be back. Choppin' Choppin' my Brocolli. Choppin' Choppin' my Brocolli. No pictures, Merrr.

If you like to drink soda, let me hear ya' say Coca-Cola!!! Coca-Cola!!! We woke up Easter morning to quite an intense easter Egg hunt, then headed over to the Tallulah. Here we have King Charles scouting the drop above the put-in. Looks good to go over on the left, but kind of not so much on the ferry you're left with to exit the torrent.

The gang scouts Oceana. A mighty fine rapid to run on Easter Sunday, the extra "Sunday Water" steps up the game for paddlers running the big O.

Connor catches some aireal cushioning under his be-hind for the ride down the slip-n'-slide.

Here I am feeling rather small on the middle line. At this point all you're concerned with is that $100 bill stashed under your right armpit.

Here we find Spencer, Stubbs and King Charles playing in one of the numerous playspots below Oceana. The next spot below this one is an even better spot to wheel your heart out. Below these playspots, "The Gauntlet" is some of the best boogie found on the Tallulah. Another thanks out to the Kings for running our shuttle!!!

The next morning Spencer and Conner headed back to Boone, while Stubbs, KC and I went to paddle at the "Slab" on the Tuck. Turns out "technical difficulties" is code for the river ain't running! We set up camp in Pisgah and headed back to the Green for another round. Here's KC coming out of Groove Tube, well at least his paddle is coming!

Ahh the Green. It's always fun to take people down the Green, it's like introducing them to crack, except it's more addictive and a little safer to experiment with.

The Wah-Taw-Guh

2007-02-25T19:25:00.000-08:00

15 minutes from my door sits one of the gems that makes the High Country a great paddling destination: The Watauga. Last week, after kayak polo, we got a big storm that rolled in, bringing along thunder, lightning and yes...the almighty rain! More precip came the next morning, in the form of an early downpour. Will Stubblefield showed up at my house and we headed down the road to see if our baby had risen from her winter sleep. We were greeted by brown water and about 300-400cfs!!! Warm weather, good water, and good people made it possible for us to get three runs, making it our first Watauga Triple of 2007. Hopefully more will follow!

Here I am riding Stateline Falls. I dig this angle, because it shows alot about the drop. You can see the rock that you're trying to avoid, as well as the alternative higher water lines...the Vail and Tennesee the Hard Way. Thanks to King Charles for taking all the pics at Stateline!

His Dudeness, King Charles, laying down a good old fashioned honky tonk go-round. The Watauga is the shit, because you can do so much on it. If you feel like playboating, there's amazing play features and spots to wheel...if you feel like creeking, there's amazing boofs and slots...and if you're just learning how to creek, it's the next step up from Wilson's Creek.

Adam Herzog doing the waterfall flingy-offy thing. Zog showed up right after Will and I's first, thanks for the shuttle dogg!

Here's Will Stubbs gettin down on Stateline Falls. Congrats to Will on his first Watauga Triple! Will also ran the Green for his first time recently, I'd like to see more Bonne folk down there!

Spencer getting serious on that H20! If I remember right, he threw some sort of nasty retarded monkey wheel off that drop, but I got a little trigger happy though and missed the shot! Sorry homie.

And remember, hydrate before you DEhydrate!!! That's an old saying my Dad used to always tell me before soccer practice when I was a pee-wee, but it's still a great reminder not to BONK!!!

My, what a purtty day!

After run #2 we met up with Andria Baldwin Davis, Caleb Paw-ket, and Scott from JC. It was the lowest level of the day, but just still being able to be in the gorge was enough to just make you smile. Thanks for the shuttles everybody! Lets do it again soon.

On a side-note, Will Berkeley is my hero...

This picture of him was drawn to my attention this weekend...Stylin' profilin' the Davidson River with eye protection by the Speedo goggles!!! That's my Dogg!!!

For more Will Berkeley antics, check out this sequence of shots put together by Will White showcasing Will B's mad bull-ridding skillz...

And also, be sure to check out this Team RIOT Update from Joey Hall about the 2007 Iceman Championships down on the Saluda.

Finally, A public service announcement...To remain in optimal comfort, remember to use a fresh pair of socks each day you wear shoes!!!

Catch you on the SideFlip,

Winter Break Goods

2007-01-13T15:02:00.000-08:00

It's now 2007. I'm not sure I have gotten to the new year yet, it feels like last semester went by faster than Road Runner's world record 100 meter sprint. Which is really fast, by the way. Last semester ended with good water, and that same blessed substance to which we dedicate our lives stuck around for the holidays. Thanks Santa.

Here I am having a rather pleasant day on the Linville. Photo by Robin Betz.

Paddle-Fu master Dave Finney came down to the High Country from Blacksburg, VA along with fellow Hokie Robin Betz. The Linville Gorge was the name of the game on this fine late fall outing. Robin brought along a fancy pantsie wingdinger to snap some of the fine photographs you will find for your viewing pleasure, Thanks Dogg!!!

A perfectly executed Flying Swan Stomp off Cathedral Falls by Dave Finney. This line was money, and by that I mean Gold, cause check the rainbow folks. Gold. My line off the same drop could be considered Coal, I guess. I'll have to check with the Geology teacher about that one, but I got about three seconds of down time before being power backendered out of the hole to the point where my whole boat was out of the water.

Did I mention the weather was nice? Dave and Brian enjoy their surroundings in an eddy below Cathedral Falls. It was Brian's first time down the gorge and he had some great lines, congrats man.

After the semester got out I went back to my hometown of Charlotte to have a little relaxation vacation. Thanks to my Family for a great time, and of course the food! (The folks know how to work a stove real nice like!) I worked a bit out at the new US National Whitewater Park, and paddled everyday possible. The rain kept coming, thankfully, and we were able to get out the day before Christmas Eve to the highest I've ever paddled on the Green. Willy White, Danny Stewart and I met up with a buch of hooligans from in, around, and not that close to Asheville. Chris Gragglefunk said that we had about 300-350% in there. I don't know how to read the gauge, so I'm going with what he said. It felt huge, but with a good group, and good water we had a wonderous time. Highlights of the day include Chris and I's runs off Gorilla, (Left at the Notch as in boof into the pothole you usually scout from on the left!!!) Willy's statement "If it's 200 I ain't going," (He went and he liked it) and of course Daniel's first huck ever off Sunshine. Great day to evryone who was out there!!! A couple of days later I went back with Chris and Glen Laplante and got a double at again big water.

After a few days at the beach I returned to Charlotte to find water in the Mountains again! I met up with Spencer Cooke, Chris G., Nasty Nate Silsbee and Eric Chance for another treat of a day on the Ville...

This picture is actually a bit more disturbing than it seems at your first glance. Check Chris and Eric out booty dancing together at the base of Linville Falls. The day Pat runs this drop is going to be amazing, Looking Glass, Toxaway...Hmmmm. Get you some!!!

WARNING: to anyone who plans on spending time in the Linville Gorge Wilderness...When they say you might see some wildlife out there, they mean it!!!

Eric Chance doing the dirty in Cave Rapid. Coming off that boof there's a channel cut out of the bedrock that breaks off the river right, and catching that transition is one of the most fun moves on the river. (Check out the first photo in this post for a better viewing angle of the channel) I think we had four out of five of our crew to catch it that day, rather impressive I'll have to say.

Here's Spencer flying down that same transition channel at the speed of light. I think he blinded my camera.

Huge Thanks to Spencer Cooke of Effort Inc. for filming!!! Check out his website, Effort.tv for some random Spencer humor.

The day before coming back up to Boone, Daniel Stewart and I headed down to Columbia, SC to participate in the Iceman and Millrace Massacre. These events are put on by fellow Team Rioter, Joey Hall. Joey is the man, he does this graphics dealio called Deadman Productions. You've probably seen his designs around on LVM, John Grace's Movies and on web ads everywhere.
Check his site...Deadman Productions

Anyways, we went down and enjoyed a great day of paddling, swimming, running and tubing with some cool new friends. I didn't really know what to expect with these events, I'd heard rumors of what goes down, but you can't really completely get it until you've been there.

The first race is an eddy-hopping race through Millrace Rapid. Racers set off at one minute intervals to complete a course full of challenging moves ranging from circling bouys to attaining up and surfing waves. Our late arrival prevented me from getting any practice runs in, but thanks to some friendly local advice I was able to learn the course from the bank. Kinda. I had in my mind what I thought the course would look like, mentally I ran it as many times as possible before putting in to give it the old College Try. Danny Boy went first and would have probably been in the top three if he hadn't blown the last eddy, but 7th aint too shabby either. I went near the end of the order so Danny could bring my boat and skirt back up to me. I put in and had a great run, coming in 2nd four seconds behind local hero Andy Grizzle.

After the massacre, the top 10 racers go back up and run a head-to-head race through the same rapid, only this time with Tubes!!! I'm not that big of a tuber, but I'll have to admit it was quite enjoyable. I came in 4th, Danny in 2nd. After this event is the Iceman Race. The Iceman is the mother of all endurance racing in South Carolina, probably. It's the most creative and fun, that's for sure. Racers line up for a mass-start triggered by the firing of a cannon. This cannon is on wheels, has a fuse and goes Bang, it's the real deal and the perfect way to start a race. After the firing of the cannon, it's on- you paddle a bunch of flatwater, then a rapid, then a bunch more flatwater, around a bridge piller and back up the flatwater to the end of the rapid, where you get out of your boat, run up this trail next to the Zoo and put back in above the rapid. You run the rapid again and then have to jump out of your boat before the last hole, then, with boat and paddle in hand you swim to shore and turn in your assigned poker chip to finish.

I knew I had to be way out front by the time I swam if I wanted any chance at winning this event. I'm a decent swimmer, but I'm just not that fast. Plus my booties fill up with water and act like weights once underwater for more than 2 seconds. With a solid game plan in my head I charged at the sound of the cannon. By the time I was done with the rapid the first time through I had pulled out front. I wasn't sure exactly where to go, a practice run would have helped, but I managed and was able to get a big old lead by the time I ran back up, ran the rapid and swam. My swimming was just as ungraceful as I thought it would be, but I was able to hang on to my lead and turn in the #33 poker chip ahead of anyone else's!!! Danny Boy was in hot pursuit coming in at 3rd. Bentley from A-ville took top honors in the women's class. Congrats girl!!!

We drove back late that night after a sweet BBQ with a 1-2-4 & 2-3-7 combo punch. Not too bad for being the out-of-towners. I think Daniel mentioned something about wanting to become a pro Tuber, or something like that. Two first places would have been ideal, but that's what 2008 is for! Thanks to everyone who helped us out that day, from food and water to local rapid knowledge we truely had a blast and will be back soon!!!

Until next time, Peace in the Middle East.

-Cooper Lambla

Laurel Creek Slides

2006-11-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

Upstream of the Watauga Gorge put-in lies a tributary by the name of Laurel Creek. From 321 you can look up and see the last drop on the creek, Trashcan Falls. What you don't see is a section of the creek further up the road about a mile or two long that has some of the best slides in the High Country. The week after the Green Race we got a bunch of rain that spiked the Watauga up to around 2000 cfs. With only a three hour break from class I rallied with Alex Hyman and Kyle Irby to go get on something quick.

The Laurel Creek slides were the answer to our quick fix. I had run them once before with Chris Gragtmans at low water, and was itching to get back at a better flow. We got there to find that we were on the tail end of the bubble, but still put-on to run some fast slides that were incredibly fun.

The first slide above the bridge provided a great warm-up for the action below.

Kyle gettin' his slide on. Kyle is a member of the Watauga Rescue Squad, but I think he joined just so he could get the pager. I don't blame him, it's pretty cool and they talk in codes and stuff to sound professional. In all honesty I think it's really cool he's doing it, and I feel safer out on the water paddling with him. Congrats man!

This is about the point in the run where things start to drop out from under you...

Here I am trying to stay on the game at the end of the steepest section. Out of view is the top half of this slide, the full drop is about twice as much as you can see. By this point you're really screaming!!

Alex is not part of no stinkin' rescue squad, he just likes to give 'er. And who can balme a brotha when you got some sweet bedrock to go slip sliding on!!!

Keep 'yer bow up, son.

Thanks to Kyle and Alex for helping take some pics on this fine fall outing.

The next morning I met up with JC Superhuman Adam Herzog at 6:30am at the Linville. As we ran through Drunk Tank it occurred to me that most people were just getting around to munching a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I like cereal, but I also like class V. That day at about 5pm I hiked out of the gorge for the second time, becoming the 7th person to ever run the Linville Gorge (Babel Tower to Conley Cove) twice in one day. Thanks to Adam for helping me out and being patient throughout the day, it was one of the coolest days I've ever had kayaking.

Peace, I'm out like No Doubt,

Cooper

-Stay tuned to the Team Riot Blog for an Elk River Update...

http://www.riotkayaks.com/teamblog/riotblog.html

Green River Locals Day 2006

2006-11-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

Otherwise known as the Green Race. It's the best day of the year. This year was again amazing, the crowds were out in record numbers, the racers entered in record numbers, and some record times went down on the results!!!

I headed down from Boone Thursday evening to pick up some fresh Riot boats from Chris Gragglefunk's house. Met up with some dudes, Mark and Kelsey, who flew in from B.C. for the race. You know it's good when folks are coming that far just to race. My race took an unexpected turn that night at the Culcuta after the LVM Premiere, I was bet on by Mefford Williams for $21. He then realized that I was not paddling a long boat, and demanded that I did. Wilson then made the situation better (...or worse) by saying he had a Perception Pirouette that I could use. And this is how I ended up paddling in the Ironman.

The Ironman is racing the Green in both Short Boat and Long Boat Classes. Notice the guy being rescued below Pencil Sharpener/ above the Notch.

Here's Chris Gragtmans on his way to 4th place overall.(Photo by Jenni Miehle) Chris also competed in the Ironman. Congrats to the rest of Team Riot who competed. Dave Finny held his own, while Nasty Nate and Chris G tied for fifth in the short boat class, making the Magnum the holder of half the top six spots!!!

The Magnum also took top two in the head-to-head, with Nathan sneaking ahead of me with some quick lines.

I paddled the Pirouette on Friday, felt surprisingly good for being my first time in a long boat on the Green. Race day was a different story, I got thrown around, and struggled to keep the massive thing on line. I spun out super bad on the race line at Zwicks, and was beat coming into Gorilla.

Here's a nice shot that Leland took on Scream Machine.

All in all I guess for my third time ever in a long boat it turned out OK. I finished with a time of 5:21. On the way back up Clay Wright gave me some great tips he'd noticed about where racers were losing time below Gorilla, my parents were there to provide support, food and water. Thanks to both Clay and my folks, both efforts helped me recover.

I hiked back up to above Frankenstien, emptied my boat and was ready to go at it again. This time, I was calmer and more focused on smoothing my lines instead of going fast through the rapids. I also had a brand new Riot Magnum under my bottom which made going over and off rocks feel like butter. I had the run of my life and posted a 5:09 placing me in 4th place in the Short boat class!!!

Here's Jonathan Shanin who squeezed into 3rd two seconds ahead of me in short boat.(Photo by Jenni Miehle)

This year's race was very special to me because one of my best friends, Will White, raced for his first time. Willy and I basically learned how to kayak together, and he put alot of effort into dialing in race lines this year during training. Congrats on your first race Willy!!!

Willy hucking the G Munk.(Photo by Jenni Miehle)

Thanks to everyone who came out and showed their support. The crowd was bigger than ever, and the feeling you get when you charge over Speed Trap and 500 people roar over the river is unreal.(Photo by Jenni Miehle)

Congrats to Keith Sprinkle who defened his title in the hands paddler division while he was sick, and still won. Keith probably got the biggest roar from the crowd when he was announced the winner Saturday night.(Photo by Jenni Miehle)

Scott McCluskey and I built slalom gates this summer at the whitewater park, and he gets mad props for cleaning up the C-1 class with a time of 5:06, that's sik!!! Andria Baldwin has made a name for herself as a local chick who's running some shit, and now she has a Green win to back up all her sweet pics in THE local guide book, NC Creeks and Rivers.

And of course, A big Congrats to the man who made the biggest splash at the 2006 Green Race even before he got there, Pat Keller. The wonderboy put down a winning 4:36 in a boat he designed, then hiked back up and set a course short boat record at 4:54. Pat you are the MAN!!!!(Photo by Jenni Miehle)

The Hommies...Rob, Willy, Jah Will, me and Rich. Thanks to Rich for paddling the Magnum out for me!

Will Mac getting inside racer's heads above the Notch.(Photo by Jenni Miehle)

See everyone again, November 3rd, 2007!

Cooper

Riot Kayaks

2006-11-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

I am very proud to announce that I have completed a sponsorship deal with Riot Kayaks. I'd like to shout a huge Thank You to Spencer Cooke for having confidence in me and hooking a brother up with some sweet boats. Also thanks to Chris Gragtmans for all of his help and support over the past few years, I would never have reached this dream of mine if it wasn't for you dogg!! I just got back from Asheville where I picked up these fine water craft...

This guy here went for it's virgin river run in the Green Race on Saturday, and put up a time of 5:09! I'm really proud of her for laying it all out on the line for me in our first dance together. Check back in a couple days for complete race coverage!!!

Spencer had been letting me borrow his Magnum for the past couple months while my boats were being ordered. My favorite thing about these things is the bow. The bow seems to like to stay on top of the surface and jump over everything, which I by the way, am down with!

The Astro 58 is Riot's new playboat for the larger of the rippers out there, it is based on the popular Astro 54. I am really fired up about getting to try this machine out, it looks super sweet. There's enough volume to get the pop that you want, but there's also enough slice to make some PB & Js.

Do the Hokie Pokie and you turn yourself around, that's what it's all about.

Keep an eye on the Team Riot Blog for the latest news and happenings on the team...
http://www.riotkayaks.com/teamblog/riotblog.html

Peace out, brotha!

Ravens Fork

2006-10-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

The plan was to leave for the Russell Fork on Friday afternoon, camp at the festival grounds and then get a practice run in on Sat. morning before the race. I had just recieved my Perception Mirage from Shane, (Thanks dogg!) and had outfitted it as best as I could. Then it began to rain.

Saturday morning I woke to rain still pattering away and the Russell Fork climbing at 2800cfs. I was headed South. I met up at Chris G's house to see what was going off near Ashvegas. Ravens Fork was going to be high, and most people were headed to the Horsepasture. Again we waited to see what the gauges were doing. As soon as the Oconaluftee started dropping back down we made a dash for it. Met up with Nasty Nate Silsbee, Chancy, and Robbie and loaded up in Rob's truck and were off.

Chris and I scouting Mike Tyson's Punchout.

At the trail-head we met up with the Tdub gang and strted our hike in. One boat down the mountian, and a couple of nice falls later we were at the river with crystal clear water and blue skys. As we pulled up to Anaconda,Wilson and Drew appeared on the bank with Jim Bob. The day turned out to be perfect. As we moved down the river the rapids never let up, drop after drop, boof after boof if was like heaven on earth. We had a great group and for the most part everyone had good lines.

Drew driving it into Mike Tyson's.

We got to Big Boy just in time to see the huck session, Pat, Tommy, Jason, John, Jules, Rafel and Robbie all fired it up. It was a very unique experience to stand at the top of that drop and watch as some to the best paddlers in the world fired up one of the nastiest drops in the SE.

Tommy Tsunami stomppin' it!!!

After Big Boy we continued on down through Mike Tyson's and Caveman and some quality boogie. One more portage around the Mangaler and we were at Emanuel's taking off.

The Ravens Fork provided us with a great day of good water, good people and good times. i can't wait to get back!!!

Thanks to Nathan Silsbee for the visuals.

Russell Fork

2006-10-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

Sock Monkeys, El Swimo, Camp Chris and a mysterious VW van are the only memories of the last trip to the Russell Fork two years ago. This year's trip north was a different story; With the Lord of the Fork only a couple weeks away it was time to get down!!!

I met up with JC superstar, Adam Herzog, at 8am and started the drive north to the Muscle Fork. Don't call Adam if you want to go kayaking and sleep in, sleeping in and Adam Herzog don't get along. Two other words you wouldn't think would be spoken together are "playboating" and "Adam Herzog." But someday you too might be lucky enough to catch Mr. Zog in his Session+ tearing it up!!!

Bryon, who lives in the sweet looking pad at the put-in of the Watauga, also met us up at the Fork. Bryon was lapping it up with us in his bluebird Crossfire. Here we find Bryon in his natural habitat, using the forward stroke to get 'er done!!! Use extreme caution while driving in the High Country these days, because Bryon recently bought a crotch-rocket and can be spotted riding in the buff round these parts, it's acually kind of disturbing.

I usually can't be spotted anywhere because of my new invisible cloak that I stole from Harry Potter. I had to take it off for the playboating runs because it got caught up in my PFD when I was throwing wheels. Here's a shot of me about to wheel off El Horrendo. Thanks to Bryon for snapping this pic and Adam's shot.

Two days, six runs, two in the playboats, great scenery, better rapids, and sweet people made this weekend special. It was the third weekend in a row I've gotten six runs on either the Green or the Fork. Thanks to John and Shaggy for the ride up for #4 on Saturday, didn't think we were going to get that one in!

And for everybody stoked about their new long boat they bought on eBay...

Peace in the Middle East.

Enter the Donkey

2006-08-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

Coming at you this summer is a sweet new DVD "Enter the Donkey," and it's brought to you by my buddies, Spencer Cooke, Chris Gragtmans and Joey Hall. They have collected some nice footage over the past year or so and this DVD is just a cool way to share it with everyone.

For more info check out... http://www.effort.tv/enterthedonkey.htm

Big props out to the Charlotte paddling community for making the Premiere of "Enter the Donkey" one of the biggest boating events I've seen in the area! We had a bunch of folks come out that I hadn't seen in a while , and I'm stoked that the new film brought so many old friend back together again. If you missed the event in Charlotte, We've got a Premiere coming up pretty soon at Footsloggers up in Boonetown!

Come check out the new DVD at Footsloggers in Downtown Boone on Thursday the 24th at 8:30pm. A $2 donation per person will go to American Whitewater. Beverages for all.

Here's some of the locals pretty stoked about the new movie!!!

Scuding it up again, this time Sunshine Left. Word up to Moffatt Prescott for snaping a nice shot here.

Gorilla Sessions

2006-07-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures from a great day on the Green the other weekend. Had the SCUD out there and was having a blast with it! It's short length provides some great boofs and lets the paddler get creative with their lines, making creeking a innovative freestyle session. (No freestyle off Gorilla though, sorry!)

My buddy Chris firing it up C-1 style!!!

Another good friend of mine, Will Lyons, making the C-1 presence at the Green known.

A recent UNCA alumni, and future math teacher dude, James, making it look good.

The Green is just way too good, I know everyone's seen plenty of Gorilla pictures, but it's just cool to see so many of your buddies out there firing it up, and I wanted to share some sweet lines. Thanks to Rich Tritel for clickin' the pics on this fine Saturday.

Trashcan Falls

2006-07-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

Trashcan Falls is a popular swiming hole at summertime water levels. But when the Watauga gets up close to a grand, then it's one of the best drops in the High Country. I was lucky enough to catch it with enough water the day before final exams started. Thanks to Mike Powell for being there with a camera.