Fluid Kayaks Team

Kimberley Mini Film Now Online!

Lachlan Carracher — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:16:00 +0000

Hey Guys,

Check out the mini film I made on the 2010 Kimberley Expedition, its around 8 mins and its aimed at a broad audience, not just boaters! There is still no shortage of action, and it aim's to share the area and the issues facing the Kimberley.

Enjoy

Pushing the Envelope: Playboating in the Detox

Leif Anderson — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:57:00 -0600

After the Outdoor Retailer show, Natalie and I found ourselves transporting a Detox Large to the Colorado rep, Dan Glauser. For those that know us, it should be no surprise that we stopped off at the mwave for a couple days before actually delivering the boat, and while we were there, this funny thing happened where I got all confused and thought I'd try playboating in the Detox. The bright colors must have messed with my head.

Once I seal launched into the canal, the frigid waters cleared my head and I realized where I was. I warmed up with a couple launches, figuring that the extra hull speed of the Detox would help me shoot across the wave easier, giving me more air. I had tried the launch in a Solo a few years back, and it had only sort of worked, since the edges on the Solo are designed to be a little softer. In the Detox, I had the speed and the carving ability. However, I didn't have the skill. I couldn't really dial in the downriver freestyle, even though I felt the potential.

What I did notice, though, was that the Detox handled the eddylines like a boss. In fact, I was singing the "Like a Boss" song to myself every time I made an eddy turn. (I was going to link to the video here, but some of the lyrics aren't family friendly.) The eddylines at the Mwave are probably the most intense eddylines I have paddled. A friend of mine broke his shoulder against the cement bottom of the canal in the river right eddy. You definitely have to watch yourself out there. However, the Detox had the perfect hull for that situation. The flat bottom never engaged the swirly currents unless I made it do so by putting in some edge. The ends had plenty of volume to keep me flat and level, and the length gave me the speed to go in whatever direction I chose. It had the best of both worlds; the performance of a playboat with the stability of a creekboat.

After giving up on the launch, I was starting to get antsy for my Nemesis. However, just for kicks, I paddled out to see how the Detox surfed. Holy crap! I had completely forgotten that this boat had a modern playboat hull. I did a couple clean spins, and then gave the blunt a try. I didn't think that it would work or anything, I just thought it would be funny to have a photo of someone roundhousing what is essentially a creekboat. Here were the results:

Of course, the Mwave is not your ordinary wave. I wouldn't expect this sort of performance at a "real life" spot, and it's really not what the boat is designed for. It was just fun to push the envelope, and see what was possible. Despite the surprising abilities of the Detox, I couldn't wait to get back into my Nemesis and really shred the wave.

I'd like to thank Natalie Kramer for taking all the photos in this post.

Oh, and Dan, we'll deliver that boat just as soon as we can. I think that we might stop off at a couple creeks on the way home, though.

The Mighty Fitzroy - Kimberley 2010

Lachlan Carracher — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:47:00 +0000

Hey Guys,

In February 2010 Anthony Yap and myself lead a expedition to the highest volume river in Australia, The Fitzroy - The real heart of the Kimberley.

The mission was a long time ago I know but here is the photos, We have been negotiating for the rights and selling different shots so it has taken awhile to get the photos ready that can be splashed around on blogs.

The trip was amazing, 11 people was a big number to manage and we had some really different characters which made the trip I think. 24 days in the wilderness, we had the lowest recorded wet season on record which dashed out chances of finding a big wave.

I will be back on the Fitzroy next Feb though, not giving up on it, I love the Kimberley, somehow in the savage heat, humidity, remoteness I really find a sense of home.

We drove over 10,000 km, charter 4 light aircraft, people flew in from all over the world and it was an experience I don't think anyone will forget.

I am currently putting together a feature for Outer Edge magazine which will be out in the Feb edition 2011.

Enjoy the photos

PHOTO: SEAN BOZ

PHOTO: LU

More info on the Expedition can be found at www.kayakthekimberley.com

More info on the environmental issues facing the area can be found at: http://www.acfonline.org.au/default.asp?section_id=77

Cheers, LC follow-the-river.com

2010 US Team Trials - Missoula, MT

Seth Chapelle — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:39:00 -0500

I recently returned from my trip to Montana for the US Team Trials. This event was held to determine the US national team for next years World Championships that will be held in late june 2011 in Plattling, Germany. The gist of my story is that I placed third in C-1 qualifying me for the US Team and allowing me to travel to Germany and compete in Worlds next summer. I'm really excited about this opportunity to represent my country and Fluid at an international competition once again. I have been able to qualify for the US Team and compete at Worlds in '03, '05, '06, and '07. My best finish was 2nd in the World Cup in 2006, which I was really stoked about. Various life commitments and obstacles including college, and work/money have kept me from being able to make team trails, and, thus Worlds since 2007. So it's been three years since my last international competition, and I am itching to get to another World Championship. This summer I had three summer classes at my college that conflicted with the dates of team trials and my funds were tight so I thought that i was gonna have to settle with not going trying out for the team for yet another year. But then I realized that I had no summer classes next year at the time of Worlds and that's when I knew I had to take whatever actions necessary to make it to trials so I didn't miss the perfect opportunity to travel and compete in Germany next year. After talking with my teachers and arranging to take tests early/late I was able to organize a week and a half window of time to trip out west to Montana. So I bought a plane ticket to Salt Lake City, Utah where my friends Jeremy and Kate Laucks kindly picked me up on their way to team trails from Colorado.

We arrived in Missoula a few days before the competition started so I had some time to get used to the wave and practice.

Clean Backstab Back Loop

Prelims for C1 were on Thursday 7/1. Prelims went really well for me. I didn't have the greatest first ride but my second ride went really well and ended up putting me in first place going into finals. There was a big trick competition Thursday night which was pretty fun. It was pretty informal but a definite crowd pleaser. Team trials was held on the Clark Fork on a feature called Brennan's Wave which was right in downtown Missoula. The location of the feature was great because there was many spectators all day long. They also streamed the whole competition live through worldkayak.com and Ustream. Here are the links to world kayak where you can find articles and full results from the comp and to the archives of the live stream from the finals and the big trick competition.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8019521 Big trick (my ride starts around 25:30)

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8029766 Finals I have 3 rides

http://worldkayak.com/ Event coverage and results

In finals the format was three rides, best score counts. My first ride had an unfortunate flush on my second trick leaving me a little nervous. My second ride went better but still not as well as I knew I could do. I was in third place after my second ride which qualified me for the team because there was three spots for the C1 team. My final ride was pretty solid but I didn't hear the first buzzer and threw two of my tricks after my time was up so that left me in third place. I was still really excited about that placing because I made the team and that was my main objective, so i can go to Worlds. My friend Jordan from my home river and my friend Dane Jackson also both made the C1 team which is awesome. We're a young team, at 22 i'm the oldest C1er this year, but I believe we're a solid team.

Looking upstream from the bridge above the hole.

After awards and helping to clean up the event site it was time to hit the road. I road tripped back across country with Jordan and his dad, Ned. They were most kind to accommodate me for the three day cross country drive. We had to strap one of the boats onto the back of the car in order to fit them all. It was a sweet set-up.

A beautiful sunset in Colorado on the trip home.

So all-in-all it was a short trip, but it was a very fun and successful trip. And i look forward to competing in Worlds next year. Time to go get a tasty strawberry milkshake and then go paddle and practice my tricks. Til next time - Happy paddling :-)

Fluid kayaks featured in Samsung TV commercial

David Arnaud — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:49:00 +0000

Hey all,

It's always good to see kayaking associated to the mainstream and get good exposure. This time it's Samsung promoting their super tough mobile phone. For once, the creative behind this ad have had some common sense and chose the toughest boats out there to be featured ;-)

Pretty cool action and I'm now curious to try one out!

I guess it's been out for some time but I never saw it before curiously. Here's what the description of the phone says. Pretty cool!

Waterproof & Dust Resistant • Complies with the IP57 (Ingress Protection) standard

• Submersible up to 1 meter for 30 min Outdoor-friendly Features • Extremely loud external speakers

• Noise cancellation feature optimized for noisy condition

• Incandescent embedded flashlight • Protected against limited amount of dust and sand

Pacific Northwest Huckfest 2010: Part 1

Bobby Miller — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:43:00 -0400

The East Coast summer doldrums had been taking their toll on me and I was in need of a change of scenery. Even as a professional kayaker (and undisputedly the greatest kayaker in the world), I have not been immune to the hardships of our struggling economy. Things had gotten so bad that I had sell autographed pictures of myself on street corners just to scrape together enough money to make ends meet. My parents are even ashamed of me, my mom lies and tells her friends that I’m a drug dealer just to keep a little dignity. Yep, I needed to get out of town. So, I did what any honest Christian would do when in need of some money to take a vacation, I stole a few Grumman canoes, sold them for scrap metal, and was on my way out to the west coast!

Flying out, my anticipation was extremely high, I could hardly sit still in my seat. You know when you are a kid and someone gives you one of those chemistry sets as a gift and you do a couple of the lame experiments and get tired of it? Then you decide that you are going to mix all the stuff together and as you do, you are waiting for that big explosion! Yep, that’s the kind of anticipation I’m talking about. I flew out to Portland, Oregon, where I met up with old East Coast buddies Bryon Dorr and Joe Stumpfel to fire up some of the Pacific Northwest’s finest runs. On this trip, I was also joined by the Laker cheerleaders. I had promised that the cheerleaders of the winning team in the NBA championship would get the pride, the privilege, NAY I SAY THE PLEASURE of coming along on a Dogg adventure. A few of the normal Dogg cheerleaders were upset by this so I had a lottery for one lucky winner to come. The winner ended up being Nancy. Nancy is a long time Dogg cheerleader but she is getting on in years and has been on the bubble as of late for making next year's cut. Still, she does bring a lot to the table. She may not be as limber as she once was but she makes up for it with enthusiasm and willingness to experiment. But I digress. I decided that I needed to get a full face helmet to protect me while running all these huge drops. I am supremely confident in my skills but it doesn't hurt to play things safe occasionally. Discretion is the better part of valor. What? Who says stuff like that? Besides, if I get my face mangled on some SIK drop, what drunken callgirl would have me then??

Things got underway quickly when I hooked a ride to the Little White Salmon with Dave Hoffman and Andy L. The run is excellent from start to finish. Things begin right away with a boulder garden called Getting Busy and continue from there. More bouldery drops lead to a SIK launch ramp called Boulder Sluice. I caught major air off of this 8 foot launcher. Oh yesh! It was NICHE!!!! Soon, we came upon a particularly SIK boulder drop called Island, which required ducking a log on the left and cutting hard right before boofing off an 8 foot drop. Soon, the characteristic of the creek changed to bedrock slides and ledges. These drops were incredibly fun and this creek was shaping up to be potentially the best creek EVERRRR!!!. S Turn was a 15 foot falls with a nice boof ramp followed by a narrow drop. More slides and ledges led to Wishbone, a 20 foot falls through a narrow notch in the center of the creek. The idea was to go down the middle and time a late boof stroke. I came down and timed my boof stroke perfectly, landing flat at the bottom away from any nastiness that was waiting for me. The gorge below here featured several more sweet drops that ran closely together. Stovepipe was soon after and had a 12 foot falls over a mushroom ramp that had a narrow and rocky landing. A well timed boof stroke is in order here to avoid getting mangled or shoved into the undercut on the left. A bad run through here would really knock the leaves of your rake! I, of course, launched a SCHWEEEET one off this falls, as I'm sure you probably assumed. Afterall, my boof stroke was rated Number 1 in People Magazine's issue showcasing the 50 Most Beautiful Boof Strokes for 2010. Soon, we were at Spirit Falls, a very picturesque 35 footer and the most famous drop on this run. Most boaters portage this drop due to its size and the Chaos that lies below. However, I decided to fire it up since I didn’t fly all the way over here to walk rapids. I have an itchy boof stroke but I held myself back as I sailed off this falls and landed at a 45 degree angle. My landing on the tremendous boil was as soft as landing on a pile of pillows. Oh Yesh! A few more good drops carried us to the takeout. We decided that since the run was so sweet, we had to do it again. We fired up a fast evening run and completed an excellent first day in the Pacific Northwest.

The next day, I met up with a group and did a pretty Class 4 section of the White Salmon called the Farmlands and then did another evening run of the Little White. Bryon Dorr had Thursday off from work so he called around that evening to see what would be running and worth firing up. We decided that the North Fork of the Lewis River would be a good option as it features 4 major waterfalls in a committing gorge. I made sure that I got a good night's sleep so I would be well rested for the run. It is important to be at your best, whether it is for some SIK creek or for that floozy you meet at TGI Friday's. In the morning, we headed over there through beautiful wilderness and past the town of Cougar. I stopped by the town store to wrestle the cougar before hitting the river. He put up a fight but I made him say uncle in the end. We passed a construction zone that had two hot chicks working the Stop/Slow signs. There they stood, staring at the Dogg, gawking at the Dogg, wanting to offer the Dogg some sweet lovin. Well, the Dogg is definitely a fan of gorgeous construction ladies but the allure of SIK drops was too much. We were soon at the putin and headed down the hill to the river.

The Lewis River starts with Taitnapum Falls, which was a nice 15 footer that we boofed on the left. It was a great way to start of the trip. A nice slide carried us to a formidable horizon line that marked Upper Lewis Falls. We had been told that we needed to scout from the right but Bryon eddied out on the left. I was over on the right but decided to ferry across to join Bryon. When I got across, Bryon was coming back from his scout and said that it was totally cliffed out and that we would have to go back across. We had to carry our boats upstream for a ways to be able to make the ferry. Boy, did I feel like a fool! I hadn’t been this embarrassed since I got kicked out of a gentleman’s club for using counterfeit $1 bills! Once on the right bank, we bushwacked our way to get a view of the falls. The falls dropped 50-60 feet over two tiers and was definitely runable but had several points of danger. The right side had the most water but had a sketchy boof flake complicated by a tree that dangled into the flow and a bad cave on the left. The middle line is the line that gets run most often but was a little on the scrapy side. I'm not sure that there was enough water to get a good boof stroke off the first 30 footer into shallow water. A stiff piton off this drop would really tighten the drawstrings on your coin purse! Both Bryon and I didn't really like the looks of this drop so we decided not to run it. We completed the arduous portage and were greeted with a wonderful view of the falls. From the angle below, the falls looked like it had enough water to run the middle but I wasn't going to carry all the way back up there.

We continued downstream over Middle Lewis Falls, which is a 20+ footer that we boofed on the left. After a mile of easy water, we had arrived at the main attraction, Lower Lewis Falls. Most people run Lower Lewis at low water but there was a ton of water pumping over the drop on this day. Basically, there is a slidy approach with some small holes to deal with that leads to a 4 foot drop with a diagonal breaking wave kicking right about 15 feet before a 40+ foot waterfall. The falls hits a boulder on the right and was an exploding mess of mayhem at the bottom. It was unclear what might happen to a boat dropping into this boiling vat of evil. I decided that I need to stop thinking about it and sac up and run it. That's the trouble with the world today, there's too much brains and not enough cock n balls! I got in my boat, admittedly nervous as this was a very scary drop. As YOUR kayaking hero, I feel an obligation to go out there and fire up the gnar day in and day out. I can't disappoint you, faithful reader, and I won't! I got into the flow and breezed through the approach. I took a righty off the 4 foot ledge to blast through the breaking wave then took two strokes and I was off the 40 footer. I launched a huge righty boof stroke and landed flat at the bottom with such a loud BOOF! that the people in Portland heard me! Upon landing, I immediately backendered, which was very unexpected. But, like John Wilkes Booth, Lower Lewis will sneak up and blow your brains out from behind! I was getting beat around by the curtain of water falling in from the left side channel. I waited out the pounding and rolled when it let up. I emerged from the maw victorious, much to the excitement of the crowd of Dogg fans that had gathered for this event and the uncounted millions watching from their television sets at home! I dropped a People's Elbow for good measure and celebrated by downing a 40 ounce of Hurricane and then playing Spin the Bottle with the Laker girls.

The next day, Bryon and I headed over to check out the Money Drop, a park n huck 50-55 footer on the way to the White Salmon. Being the scofflaws that we are, we parked by the No Trespassing sign and hiked in. I dare them to try to prosecute us to the fullest extent of the law. Any trouble anyone would try to give us would be met with the sharp sting of my boot leather! The water level was on the low side of things and we knew it was going to be a hard hit at the bottom. Ultimately, I decided that, despite the thin flow, I needed to run it. I came here to run the brown and it was right there in front of me. Well, today I was going to be dancing with Mr. Brownstone! I was on a roll and ready to fire stuff up, regardless of flow. You can't take a pitch pipe out of a man's hand when he's kickin a funky groove! I geared up and waited for Bryon to get into position with photos, video, and safety (in order of importance). There was an approach slide to the falls but I didn't want to get too much speed going down it so I slid off the bank about 30 feet from the lip of the falls. I slid in smoothly, floated off the edge and then tucked part way down to avoid impact. I stomped the drop perfectly and went straight in with no impact. Oh Yesh! It was SCHWWEEEEEEETTTT!!!!! Bryon decided that he would fire it up as well. His paddle mysteriously broke on the carry up so he needed to borrow mine. I handed it over and told him he better take care of my paddle or there would be a stern pistol whipping waiting for him. I got into position and soon he came over the falls, rocking a sweet line of his own! We were so stoked that we chest bumped until we broke our sternums and then headed over to the Green Truss.

The Green Truss section of the White Salmon is a classic Pacific Northwest run and contains some sweet rapids. The run had good water in it and we were joined by Nate Herbeck and Todd Wells for this run. Tons of cool drops carried us to Big Brother, the most famous drop on the run. This 30 footer can be boofed on the right heading left to avoid a cave or, because the water was up, run down a cascade on the left. Todd stomped a perfect boof on the right line while the rest of us fired up the cascade on the left. We all had nice runs through Double Drop, a two tiered 15 foot drop with big holes. The run calms down before gorging up at Upper and Lower Zigzag. These rapids careen back and forth against the walls and over drops and are quite exciting. Bryon and I decided to walk BZ Falls because of the ugly hole. Todd launched a nice boof but then nearly got sucked back into the hole. Nate melted the drop and came shooting through. One more exciting rapid called Maytag and then we were at the takeout, ending another exciting day. We celebrated this awesome time by hitting up all the juke joints and gin mills in Hood River. Things got a little crazy that night with the Laker cheerleaders. But that is another story altogether.

Next up, the Salmon River Gorge!

Detox in action on the Witte River

Scott Reinders — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:50:00 +0000

With all this focus on the new composite boats the Detox is quietly going about making a mark on the industry. When I first heard about the Detox I wasn't completely sold, that wasn't until I saw it in action with my own eyes did I realise how badly I wanted this nifty new toy.

My first outing was on a lowish Molenaars river in the Cape region of South Africa, there were no rocks to contend with and the boat was ideally suited to the conditions. It was the next day that would really put the Detox (and myself) through its paces. A group of us met at the put in of the famed Witte river (pronounced Vitta, for you northerners). The Witte is the country's premiere creek run, a river riddled with siphons and tricky moves with only one decent pool on the 8km stretch, ideally suited to the likes of a Solo. Needless to say it is nonstop action all the way down and a perfect proving ground to push the Detox to its limits.

Catch you on the river, Good lines & big air, Scotty R

Team Leif and Natalie take third in the Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge

Natalie Kramer — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 09:51:00 -0600

Team Leif and Natalie (a four person team despite the name, which also includes Nathan Werner and Xavier Engle) placed third in the open class in the Vertical Challenge sponsored by Eddy Flower. This is the third year that Leif and I have done this event and the first that we've podiumed! As a team we racked up 62,445 vertical feet (19km). We stepped it up this year considering that for 2009 and 2008 we repsectively logged 28,425ft, 15,045ft. As an event the Vertical Challenge this year raised around $27,000 for First Descents, an organization that takes young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer and teaches them how to kayak (click here to see a video about First Descents). This is one of my favorite events each year and I encourage more teams to compete from around the world. We also competed at numerous rodeos and creek races this summer. For a write up of those events and for more photos you can visit our personal blog.

Natalie boofs fuzzy bunny on Vallecito Creek, CO Leif boofs the entrance falls on Oh Be Joyful, CO

Brandy Creek, Whiskeytown CA

Natalie Kramer — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:52:00 -0600

Leif and I explored the not often run Brandy Creek in the Whiskeytown recreational area just outside of Redding this summer. For the most part the creek is really small and rocky, but it has a few awesome drops on it including some ones at the top that we didn't run because I thought that they looked too rocky or too sketchy. Most of the photos are of me because Leif was so unselfish as to carry and be the camera man during a rainy day. However I don't think that the act was totally unselfish since I'm pretty sure he gets satisfaction taking sick photos of me. Leif wrote up a description about the run on Eddy Flower and I thought that I would share some of the pictures that we got. Leif is in the red boat, I'm in the green boat. All photos are by either Leif Anderson or Natalie Kramer.

The big one. Leif in his own words "I'm scared" . I told him, "then camera ready, okay honey?"

For more photos of other creeks that we ran on this same trip, check out the slideshow on our personal blog.

Carbon, please! a Composite Nemesis review by Sven Perschmann

David Arnaud — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:41:00 +0000

All last summer I have been paddling the standard Nemesis M. Big Waves, small waves, running rivers… I was stoked on that boat! With Carbon Designs being more and more frequently seen around the Ottawa, Lachine and the other high volume runs in the area I got really hooked on the idea of what this design would be like in composite.

How much bigger could I go? How much easier and faster would it be to huck it around? How strong could it be though? I had tried composite boats before and really liked the performance of the material but never really the design of whichever I tried.
So when I got an email from David Arnaud last fall about Fluid bringing out a carbon-kevlar version of my boat I couldn’t believe it. Dream come true! I was dancing around the house!

That was the fall. With all the testing and challenges of releasing a new material, a new outfitting design and all the stuff happening behind the scenes that I have no clue about it took me until a month or two ago to actually get my hands on one of those babies. And New Zealand as creeking Mekka kept me entertained without my own playboat, too.

Oh yes, I have had it for a while now. No photos, no videos, no updates until now.
Why? Well, easy to explain. I was too busy enjoying the boat itself to be worrying about anything other than that. Well, now David asked me what I was thinking about it and here is my take. Sounds like a lot of hype but it actually is that good!!!

My first rides out I took it real easy, I wanted to take the time and figure the boat out properly.
The first spot I surfed for a longer session was Babyface on the Ottawa, an alright wave and capable of decent air and advanced tricks, however compared to others around here a little slow and not really steep at all. Whenever I had the chance I would play somewhere else in the past years.
The boat being stiffer and lighter now changed that completely. I all of a sudden had room to move around because I was way faster. The hull was looser and any change of edges would result in instant response. Everytime I’d land a trick I would find myself instantly surfing again while in plastic boats you’d often have a bit of delay due to the hull flexing on impact.
That made sticking moves easier and it also opened up bottom to bottom combos like bread and butters on this average wave possible. Stiffness also means looseness so I could spin and grind into tricks easier, linking them that way.

With less weight to move around and good edges I could use more subtle movements and the boat would still follow easily. Which not only made for cleaner and more fluid(!) tricks but also longer sessions as I wouldn’t tire out as quick.
I was so excited about the capabilities of this boat on that wave that I didn’t even bother taking it onto some of the bigger and faster features like Cornerwave or Garburator yet. I eventually did though and after figuring out how to control the speed and instant response I now had bigger tricks came easier, too. Once airborne the low weight would make the boat rotate faster allowing me to go inverted easier and finishing my tricks way snappier, too.

Another thing that pleased me was the new outfitting that came with the boat. They completely redesigned the seat, making it stronger and lighter while raising it a bit and adding support. Thanks for that, guys!

I still have my plastic boat. I know that I won’t be able to take the composite everywhere. I’ve hit a few rocks already with it and it is holding up strong but I’m doing my best to baby it. So if you see me getting into the boat it will always be a bit of an awkward dance, trying to get in in the water, no sliding off rocks like I used to. But I consider that a very small price for opening up a whole new world of playboating to me. So if you have waves or deep holes around you that allow you to take a little better care of your material try it out, you’ll be surprised!

I don’t think I’ll ever want to go back.

Thanks to Jackson Franchetto for the Babyface and Tiia Koskela for all the Garb shots.

http://bootfahrer.blogspot.com
http://www.ahoishop.de/

Composite Fluid Element - Lurking in Cape Town

Adrian Tregoning — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:12:00 +0000

I’ve had my composite Element since December 2009. Since then, I’ve paddled it countless times and on the odd occasion I’ve been lucky enough to get my old man to take some photos of me when he’s been on his breaks during contracts. So this article is mainly a bunch of photos and not really an article as such. You’ll see some of the photos are really small - these are screen shots from video footage that was taken. The same article appears on my website, with double the photos. This is just a pick of the better ones.

You’re probably wondering how the boat is. Well, it’s awesome. Lighter than the plastic, of course, but probably more importantly, it’s stiffer, way stiffer. Unfortunately my boat was a prototype so it doesn’t have fins but as you can see in the photos, it still rips. Fins have advantages and disadvantages but these days I’m so used to not using them, I don’t think I’d even surf a plastic Element with fins now. Being a very keen bodyboarder I know how it feels to ride a board or boat on edge only. Of course, production Elements will have fins boxes, don’t worry. The boat needs a lot more edge control and harder edging without fins because you have to ride the rail and not the fins but you’ll get used to it if that’s your style. Riding with fins is more about a big of edging and some weight transition I find and works damn well, but no fins is sweet too. Just try it. Either way, the boat is really incredible and I’m still loving every single minute of it. Well worth the money. Check out the pics.

Melkbosstrand. Afrikaans word meaning Milk Bush Beach. Note, all these photos were taken near to Cape Town, South Africa.

Melkbos again - Tubewave.

Yet another session at Melkbos, Tubewave.

Just a few hundred metres north from the normal Melkbos spot (Tubewave) is this spot known as Corner. It’s not as well formed but always bigger.

The water is always this colour at Noordhoek (North Corner), and always very cold.

Various shots from Big Bay and a beach in Table View.

Another tough day in Cape Town. Note Table Mountain in the background.

The composite Element. Get one… No fins? No problem. Just carve hard. This boat holds an edge like no other.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. I’ll try to get more soon when I get the chance, which I definitely will. Our winter season produces some big swell so things can only get better.

Photography by: Trevor Tregoning, and also a few by Michael Schubert. Thanks guys!

Composite Element videoclip: small wave, big fun!

David Arnaud — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:50:00 +0000

Here's a short video of a session in the Composite Element on the Goncelin wave. This is a static wave on the Isere river, in the French Alps, not too far from Grenoble. The wave is pretty small and shallow but very wide and fun to paddle. This is in no way "big wave" style surfing. In fact it's just the opposite. The wave is quite flushy and every stroke, every move has to be "delicate" and you have to be very light on the paddle shaft.

Some moves are possible, blunts, backblunts, flipturns and so on. But sitting in the Element on such a wide and glassy wave, it's all about feeling the boat carve, accelerate, spin and glide effortlessly... It's not aerial nor impressive, it's not "in your face", but jeeeez, these sensations are pretty unique!

Composite Element - small wave, big fun! from Fluid-Junction on Vimeo.

I used to go there quite often a few years back, when freestyle boats were still around 2m40 or more. Since then our freestyle boats have become too slow to even surf that wave when it's green and glassy as it is shown here. And even if you manage to catch it thanks to a rope, at this level you'll flush in no time. The Element is as short as many modern freestyle boats, but in terms of speed it's just in another league. To put it simply, the Element allows you to sidesurf, blunt and cleanspin where others can't even catch the wave... all this is a short, reactive, manoeuverable design and not a long clumsy surf kayak. Now take a great design and build it in Composite, and you get the ultimate surf-carve-grin machine. Lighter + stiffer = faster, more reactive, less strain on your body. To top it off, the Element is pretty easy to paddle - it'll take you no more than a few moments to feel at ease and start ripping!

The picture above shows the pre-production model, which is also the one shown in the video. The production model features the adjustable fins system to surf the larger ocean waves.

Thanks to Mathieu Coldebella for shooting the video!

Upper Blackwater; Revisiting a West Virginia Classic

Bobby Miller — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:28:00 -0400

Upper Blackwater; Revisiting a West Virginia Classic

by Bobby Miller

In the state of West Virginia, the Upper Blackwater is as classic of a steep creek as it gets. There are 62 major Class 5 rapids in the 2.5 mile run through a beautiful canyon. The run features more 4-8 foot drops and boofs than any other creek in the area and also runs fairly often. So it's a wonder that it had been 3 years since the Dogg had paddled that run. For years, it was one of my favorite runs and I logged somewhere around 100 runs during the period before 2007. Various things had kept me away: a broken wrist, a case of the gout, a stint in jail for stealing a rye bread loaf from an old lady, and who could forget that bad hangnail in my pinky toe that sidelined me for several months! The point is that the D-O-Double G is back! Cock the hammer cause it's time for action! So, with all that time away, you know that I was excited to get back to this spectacular creek. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder. What? Who says stuff like that?

I saw that the Blackwater was running the morning of June 11 so I talked Sean Chapelle into going out there. It was a little on the low side but there was enough flow and it was a beautiful summer day. I'm well known for boating low flows so who am I to complain? After all, you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Huh? What does that mean anyway? We loaded up the car, dropped my bike at the takeout, and headed to Blackwater Falls State Park to get SIK.

The first rapid is 100 Yard Dash and starts things off with a bang. A 6 foot boof leads to an eddy on the right with a shallow peelout to punch a hole off a 4 foot ledge. A few more 5 foot boofs and a long rocky runout leads to the pool at the bottom. I jumped in my kayak and lit it up like General Electric. I got big launches off of every boof in this rapid. Oh yesh! It was SCHWEEEEET!!!!!!

We continued downstream nailing boof after boof. Soon, we came to the horizon line of the steepest rapid on the run, Tomko Falls. Tomko features two sweet 8 foot boofs with some maneuvering between. We got out to scout and set up for pictures. It is important to have a solid boof stroke when entering this rapid. The shallow landing zones can lead to some stiff pitons that can hurt more than a good kick to the scrotum or, as they say in medical terms, the ball sack. The Upper Blackwater is no place to learn this skill, it should be practiced and perfected on easier runs. Yessir, an ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure. What? I hate humanity and their idiotic expressions! But I digress. Back to the rapid, I came down and stomped out two major launches off the drops. They could hear that BOOF sounds all the way down in Hendricks.

Towards the end of the run, the character changes to slides and the largest of these is My Nerves Are Shot And I Can't Take It Anymore. This rapid features 5 good slides back to back with very little room between them. The third one slopes down 8-10 feet and pillows into an undercut cliff on the right. I flew down the slide and carved off the pillow, which shot me at a high speed into the next drop. The next drop has a sweet 5 foot boof on the left. I launched so big that the BOOF sound caused a rock slide throughout the canyon. Several rapids may have been affected by this event. In my 40+ years of whitewater kayaking, I have seen many changes in riverbeds but this one could prove to be catastrophic. Stay tuned to your local news station for further updates.

...

After climbing out of the canyon, finishing the bike shuttle and drinking some Brawndo to replenish my elecrolytes, we discussed heading over to the Top Yough for more whitewater action. I was on a tight schedule and probably should have saved the run for another day. But, with the lack of rain we've had this spring, you can never be sure when things will run again. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush! I'm not even going to comment. The Top Yough begins with a SIK 20 foot cascade called Swallow Falls. In an effort to save time, we decided to skip the run and just go session the falls. It ended up being a great decision as we got our waterfall stoke on! I hadn't been that fired up since I found my long lost hoodie in my duffel bag a few months ago. I know it my have been irresponsible but I remained stoked for 52 straight hours after dropping that falls and paraded around repeating, "Freakin yes! Freakin yes!" In fact, I'm stoked right now! I'm on the Team Fluid blog!

What a SIK day! I got to revisit an old run and drop some serious vert in the process. We took advantage of a beautiful day and fine water levels to turn a potentially ordinary day into a spectacular day. And that is what kayaking is all about! Where my homies at? Blow me out shorty!

New Fluid Detox video - boof-punch-cruise, the Detox does it all!

David Arnaud — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:16:00 +0000

Hi all,

So finally the long-awaited Detox has reached Europe and the US and is shipping to dealers all over the paddling galaxy. Since we unveiled it at the Kanu Messe last october, the Detox has caught a lot of attention. The drawings and CAD views looked very promising, a few pics of the proto were shown here and there on the web, but would the actual boat live up to these expectations? the answer is a big YES!

Fluid Detox Video from Fluid-Junction on Vimeo.

So where does that boat fit in the Fluid line-up exactly? Basically, it's somewhere between the Spice and the Solo. Meaning, you can take the Detox down a class IV/IV+ rapid without a problem, yet still enjoy the occasional surf on your way down. You want to run rapids but you find creekboats to be a bit too "bulky" and not playful enough, then the Detox is there for you.

It's now available in size M. Size S and L will follow later in the year.

Detox M has the following specs:

Length: 230cm /7’6”
Width: 64cm /25.25”
Volume: 250l /66gal

While it can take larger paddlers up to 90/95 kg, I think the full potential of the Detox is somewhere between 55-60 and 85 kgs. I'm 76 kgs and I found it perfectly suited to me.

The Detox was designed with the "average" paddler in mind. Not average in the sense of mediocre skills. Average in the sense that, unlike what we're used to see in magazines and videos, not everybody is interested in hucking huge waterfalls every week-end or claim first D's on death-defying stunts. For this kind of paddlers willing to push their limits and those of the sport, we have the Solo.

Andrew Pollock testing the prototype

For all the others we created the Detox. The flat hull and edges make it a very enjoyable boat, very precise and responsive. It's a real pleasure to catch eddies, glide accross the river, ferry, accelerate down the current in this boat - and this is 95% of what people do in their kayak. It gives the paddler a lot more sensations than a creekboat. Yet the Detox remains very forgiving, allowing beginners and intermediate paddlers to discover the joys of river running in total confidence.

So who would I recomment this boat to? Basically you MUST try a Detox if your playground includes mostly class II to class IV runs. The skechy, technical, more extreme class 5 stuff should still be approached with a bigger creekboat like the Solo. But for everything that is not class 5, and that is the vast majority of what people actually paddle, the Detox certainly is a great option.

It gives you a greater agility and maneuverability. It accelerates easily, boofs like a champ. Rolling is also especially easy. The Detox is the perfect boat to improve your technique and skills as a kayaker. The Detox has a great potential that can take your paddling skills very far. Yet it won't challenge you with unforgiving edges or an unpredictable behaviour.

But that's enough yada-yada. Have a look at this video of the Team Fluid testing the Detox on a variety of situations and locations. Then get in touch with your dealer and make sure you try one ;-)

High Ridge Run

Bobby Miller — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:07:00 -0400

I Want To Get High, So High: Adventures on High Ridge Run by Bobby Miller

Nestled in the headwaters of the Potomac River lies the Alleghany Front, an area of steep creeks that is home to some of the steepest runable whitewater anywhere. There are several good runs coming off this ridge but the crown jewel of the area has to be High Ridge Run. Tucked away at the start of the Hopeville Canyon, this stream hardly looks wide enough to paddle at the takeout, much less supporting enough flow to start 2 miles upstream. But for those who tough out the 3 mile hike in with a 1200 foot climb, the rewards include more bedrock slides and waterfalls than you could easily count, flowing through a beautiful gorge. The creek drops 700 feet in the first mile and 500 in the second mile so there is no shortage of action. This creek was explored a few years ago and was kept a secret until recently when a mole within the Dogg Mafia finally delivered a list of names of people with knowledge of the creek. We chose the weakest guy on the list and cornered him. We held him down and gave a purple nurple until he talked. It is an ugly business, really, strong-arming people for our own personal gain but it is a job that the Dogg Mafia is glad to do. The trick is to pick on people who can do you no harm, like that old man in the wheelchair that I indian burned $13.45 out of last week. Now that was good fun! But I digress.

Stinkfoot and I headed out early in the morning to meet up with a group of people that included Scott Anderson, JB Seay, Brenton Petrillo, and Sam Burke. The torrential rains had fallen on top of the immense snow pack that had come down during the winter and every creek we passed along the way was raging. We figured that the only creek low enough to boat would probably be something as small as High Ridge Run. At the takeout, the creek was humming along but looked like it could be manageable. As YOUR kayaking hero, I can't shy away from high water and rough conditions. Afterall, a smooth sea never made a skilled mariner! What? Who says stuff like that? At any rate, we chose to go for it and started the long hike to the top. The weather was chilly so I opted to wear my drysuit for the hike in. Big mistake. It didn’t take long for me to overheat and start sweating like crazy. I knew I was breaking Bear Grylls’ rule of survival, not to sweat but this was getting out of hand. I started getting light headed and hallucinated. I knew I was in trouble when I came upon a clown making balloon animals and a bear riding a tricycle. I figured a break for hydration would be in order at this point.

We finally reached the creek and headed down to the putin. We were joined by a large nucleus of experience creek boaters. Some of the best East Coast creekers were here, guys like Bobby Miller, Jason Beakes, Geoff Calhoun, Nathan Sass, Sam Kane, and the finder of the creek, Mike Moore. Although not super difficult, the creek is small and heads downhill fast, requiring you to run long stretches without stopping. Nossir, even with the many clean drops, the continuous nature of this creek makes it unfriendly to the zinc-faced ham n' egger crowd. Luckily, some people had gone in the day before to put up Orange Flags of Consequence at all the major drops. When kayaking down a stream, it is easy to get into a zone and flow along. However, you see on of those Orange Flags of Consequence and you better break out of your zone and get your game face on. There's no shame in walking when you see one of those flags!

The creek starts with some slides that lead into a 15 foot drop into a boulder pile. This drop had some serious potential for injury and a piton here would certainly knock the beans out of your belfry. We opted to start just past it at the first of a series of continuous ledges. These ledges led to the lip of a beautiful 12 foot launcher. I came down and launched a SCHWEEEEET one landing with such a loud boof that they could hear me down in Petersburg!

We worked our way down through more drops and got out to scout a sketchy 15 foot clapper. The lead in was shallow, the lip was junky, and the landing was all rock. A well placed boof stroke is crucial here as a piton would really knock the jack out of your box! I came down and launched a SIKy landing smoothly on the shelf below, much to the delight of the crowd of hundreds that had gathered on the bank to cheer on the Dogg (and, of course , the uncounted millions viewing from their television sets at home). The ratings were high for this momentous event!

As we continued downstream boofing off more 10-12 footers than I had ever seen on any given run in my 99.99 years on this Earth, I had a good sense of how special this run was. There were so many loud BOOFS! from me landing flat all over the place that the locals were worried that Seneca Rocks might be under artillery fire! A double orange flag let us know that we were at Fantasy Falls, which is the biggest rapid on the run. The first drop is a 20 foot near vertical falls followed immediately by a steep 12 foot slide with tree branches to duck. This is high quality, top drawer stuff in here! Of course, I aced the drop and continued downstream.

More sweet rapids followed by some trees and an orange flag brought us to the X, a steep series of ledges leading to an 8 foot boof to avoid 2 trees that had fallen in across one another in the shape of an x. I launched several SIKy's in the approach and drove hard right acing a righteous boof stroke to put me on the right and in position to duck the tree. Oh yesh! It was NICHE!

We reached the end of the run with a great feeling of satisfaction. The run certainly had delivered the goods and we were stoked. We were so stoked that we started jumping around delivering chest bumps. Finally, one of the boaters broke his sternum and we decided we'd better stop and run him to a hospital.

The next day, we returned to High Ridge to run it again. We were excited that the creek had held and, although low, we had another fantastic day. Afterward, we headed to another secret creek nearby (we'll call it Death Ledge Run for the sake of argument) and fired it up. The run was overall easy but contained a narrow 30 footer that was gorged in and was unportageable (Running Man Falls). I slipped while scouting and nearly slid into the creek so I opted to just run the falls blind (after seeing Eric Ameson paddle off the edge). This may have been a risky maneuver but, I'm a gambler: I know when to hold'em and when to fold'em! What? Who says stuff like that! The falls narrowed at the lip and the water on the right bank was folding back over onto the flow. I came down the approach in the middle and launched a huge boof before getting subbed out in the fold and going deep into the pool. I emerged victorious and excited about firing up another great West Virginia waterfall. The other guys had a good runs as well and we floated down the remaining half mile of Class 2 to the takeout with a great feeling of accomplishment.

As I loaded my car and prepared to head home, I had to smile at what a fantastic weekend it had been. I had done some great paddling in my favorite area of the country and found some new runs. I left the Alleghany Front that weekend with a grin so wide that I had to turn sideways to walk through any doorway for the next week! Best weekend EVERRRRR!!!!!

Team Fluid expedition on Mzumvubu river, South Africa

David Arnaud — Wed, 26 May 2010 23:09:00 +0000

Last April Team Fluid paddlers were invited to gather in Fluid Kayaks homeland, South Africa. The aim of the trip was : get the Fluid team paddlers together and go paddle. Simple as that!

We ended up being a group of 12 people. Unfortunately some of our american and european team paddlers couldn't make it due to other obligations, but we had an excellent group of paddlers nonetheless.

It was decided to paddle in the Transkei region, a quite huge and somehow isolated area. We soon realized that waterlevels were quite low in the area. Our paddling options would be limited, and we headed straight to the Mzumvubu river for a 5-day trip, one of the largest rivers of the area. Soon we were gearing up and packing as much as we could in our Solos and Detoxs. This meant a shopping mission first. Here Celliers Kruger, Fluid's owner and designer, proudly exhibiting a fairly long receipt from the supermarket...

The Transkei is a fairly remote region of South Africa. From what I've been told it's quite poorer and underdevelopped compared to the rest of the country. Some pics taken on the way to the put-in:

Upon arrival at the put-in, we realized that the Vubu was at a very low level. Just a couple of expeditions had taken place on this river in the past, with epic tales of big class IV/V whitewater that sounded very challenging. Unfortunately due to low water the river turned out to be a nice contemplative run of class II/III, with long stretches of flat water in between rapids. But no one complained: the friendly atmosphere, the nature of the trip and the great scenery made it a fantastic experience nonetheless.

Celliers Kruger melting the camera with his laser look:

The new Detox was used by a few paddlers on the trip and proved to be a very good alternative to the Solo on this expedition. Even heavily loaded with gear, tent, food and such, it still handled perfectly. The Detox is just getting into Europe and North America these days, make sure you try one this season! More on the Detox

On the third day we got to the main point of interest of the trip, a massive rapid next to a small village (actually a few huts on the banks of the river).

The main waterfall is not runnable at this waterlevel, and the remoteness of the place would really be a factor to consider before launching yourself off.... Nothing can go wrong in such an isolated area.

We found a few smaller falls on an alternate channel to keep us busy. Here Andrew Kellet is firing up a tricky waterfall, not very high but defenitely challenging. He nailed it perfectly, flying just a few centimeters away from a threatening rock halfway down the fall, landing with just the right angle in the flat but probably not so deep pool at the bottom.

We met just very few people on our way down. Our presence, and gear, would raise the curiosity of the locals that we met.

A couple days later we'd reach the take out and exit the river, tired but happy. Water was low, there were few rapids, but is there really room to complain when you open your tent in the morning and see this?

We're already looking forward to next year's team trip. It was a great experience, and also my first time in South Africa, and I can say I want more! The country is so vast, there are countless rivers to run. I guess we'll just try to hit it with more water next time!

Photos courtesy of Will Clark, Celliers Kruger and myself (David Arnaud)

Update from David Bain, UK Fluid team paddler and slalom

David Arnaud — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:01:00 +0000

Hi all,

Let me introduce to you David Bain, our latest addition to the Fluid Team in the UK. David is a talented, up and coming paddler. While his primary focus remains on slalom and downriver competitions at national and international level, David is the perfect illustration of that new breed of competitive paddlers who reckon the benefit of versatility and diversity in whitewater kayaking. Indeed David and his mates can often be seen paddling class IV/V in their Solos. And guess what, we at Fluid Kayaks believe in these youngsters! Here's a complete report from David Baine about the past winter and the road to the slalom and downriver Worlds.

___

This winters training has gone really well. I have progressed rapidly, and am looking forward to racing this summer aboard. I have been selected to go to Serbia for the European championships as part of the GB Junior Wild Water Race team, where I will be competing in Sprint and classic events against the best down river paddlers in Europe.

Down river selection During the week leading up to our trip to Scotland more than 3 feet of snow fell across Tayside, making out travel plans somewhat arduous. However we had a trouble free journey on a sunny Friday morning. When I got to Tully, the river was rather low; the snow had not yet started to melt enough to make a significant rise on river levels. I travelled up stream to get to the start of the race where the snow built and built. This made for fantastic views and scenery which made racing, a low river, far more enjoyable. On approach to the main rapid the speed of the water increased to the first drop, after taking a fast line, narrowly missing a hole, I skirted down the left side of a large wave train. At the end of the rapid the last long sprint of 300 meters came, as the sprint ended I concurred the final drop and crossed the line. I finished as first junior, and showed a very positive time compared to other senior athletes.

Slalom Junior selection

race 1 The first slalom selection was held in Bala in Wales. A very technical course was put up and I was excited knowing that it had some harder moves to test me, and my competitors. My first run was fantastic. I kept a very fast pace down the upper section and executed all the moves almost perfectly, as I came down the final drop I caught a edge and had to paddle back for a gate, before doing the few final gates. All the pressure was on run 2: the nerves were tense at the start line, however I kept my lines from the first run, and picked it up for the final move. After correcting my line and edge position from the first run, the last big move went perfectly, and the run finished off with a positive sprint. This run put me as second junior in the first race, a fantastic achievement.

Race 2 Race two was much more of a physical course, where I knew I would be doing well to be near the top. I had a reasonably quick run, but it was not quick enough to get real counting points. Race Three Now all the pressure was on the final race. I knew I had to race well to get on the team so I was pretty nervous. The course had a few very technical sections, where I knew if one move went wrong the race would be over. My first run was fantastic. I sprinted from the very start, performing almost every move without time loss. I finished the run in first place for junior selection, and 5th overall. I knew at this point that I had a good chance of being on the team for the summer, after a slower second run: I waited anxiously as the final juniors crossed the line. I still had the fastest time and gained myself a place on the junior team for the Worlds and Euros. I was ecstatic.

Ten weeks till the worlds I now will be training very hard in the lead up to the Junior World Championships in Foix and hopefully be fast enough to gain a medal. All I can do is train hard and see what comes. I would like to thank my coach, Jim Jayes for all the support he has given me this winter and preparation at races as well as Fluid Kayaks, NRS, White Water Active, Eddylines Llangollen and Lloyds TSB

Colorado Early Season Paddling

Leif Anderson — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:52:00 -0600

Everyone in Colorado is starting to drag their boats out of storage, look around for their paddles, and just generally get ready for the water to show up. Well, I've been paddling for like two months now, suckers! I figured this would be a good time to dump a bunch of awesome photos of myself and others from around the state. However, I have trouble coloring inside the lines, so there are a handful from Wyoming and New Mexico also.

To start off, here's a quick summary of the adventure that Xavier Engle and I had in New Mexico and Durango.

We arrived in the general Embudo area sort of late at night and couldn't find the paddlers that we were going to meet up with. The existing plan was to meet for breakfast at the Pilar Yacht Club (a classy breakfast joint nearby), but we had managed to score nicer accommodations, and wanted to just meet at takeout. We left this humorous note at the Yacht Club.

Xavier leaving the note at the door of the Yacht Club

It worked like a charm.

We all met up at Atom Crawford's house and ran into Chris Baer, who had been on some kind of paddling bender, camping out in Atom's lawn and running the Embudo every day. We had a great run, but didn't take all that many photos. Here were a couple of my favorites.

Here I am with a huge monkey boof at the top of Cheesegrater. It's not the largest boof in the world, but it feels awesome. Photo by Will.

This is Xavier just below there. Photo by Will.

This is Xavier in the final move of Slots of Fun. I missed the eddy above this section and ended up leading Will through it. We were both backwards at the top. It was very embarrassing.

The crew chillin at takeout.

Xavier managed to convince Will and David to follow us to Durango that night to hit up Pandora's Box the next day. Pandora's Box was a pretty fun run, although I always hate sketchy access, and the Box is pretty sketch. If you manage to sneak past the gun toting landowner, you've still got to pseudo-rappel down to putin. However, having some local guides made the covert ops section of the run go totally smoothly.

At Swollen Member, I climbed out to take photos, and just as the last person peeled out to the next eddy right around the corner, I realized that I had no plan for getting back in my boat. It wasn't too big of a deal, but I spent quite a while scampering around on the ledges trying to find a spot flat enough to balance my boat. Once I was finally back in the water, I didn't want to slow down the group again, so I didn't take many photos.

So in consolation, here's a photo of me getting the BROWN... brownie. Laying some real treats. A real sweet BROWNie. I'm sure that there are hundreds more puns waiting to be pulled out of this one.

Then a week or two went by where I did lots of homework and graded lots of other people's homework. But eventually I was able to escape to:

And by "a week or two went by" I actually meant "two days later". Life is good.

Boxelder creek is a Wyoming run near Casper. It is quickly becoming more popular, despite a slightly tenuous access situation (although it's nowhere near as bad as Pandora's Box. There's a bridge at putin, it's just a slightly tense vibe with the locals.) Nathan Werner, Xavier and I decided that the best way to describe Boxelder was that it was like a photo with the saturation turned way up. The drops weren't all that huge, but they were a little more vivid than in real life. The scenery was a little too stark to be realistic, and the hike out was just flat out fake.

Here's Xavier on the signature drop: Loaf. This one isn't run all that often, but professor X found that he had no choice but to rock it out. This is exactly the line that we discussed; Xavier is going deep to sneak past the humongous hole. The main reason that I like this photo is because it is so similar to this other photo from the Embudo:

After watching Xavier totally style the drop (although he mentioned that he tagged a rock somewhere down there with his helmet) I decided to give it a go. I was feeling nervous, but felt like we had a good safety setup, and I felt like I had a good chance of battling my way out of the hole, after watching the currents for a while.

Photo by Xavier Engle.

It's hard to tell from this angle, but there is a dome of water just above the last curtain with two arms folding in from either side. Xavier came off a tiny bit right of center, and folded himself into the bear hug move, with both currents grabbing him and pulling him deep. I aimed for the same move, but was a little farther right beforehand, then a little farther left at the dome, then back on the right after the dome. As I went off the drop, I could feel that I wasn't quite on line, so I tucked as hard as I could in hopes of going deep anyway. What happened instead is that my tuck pulled my bow up a little, and I executed a pretty acceptable boof, carried enough speed to escape the curtain, and paddled straight out of the hole on the right side of the river. I didn't even flip. And I love the photo.

After Loaf, there was one last boof, which is about twice as tall as it looks (honest!).

And I should really stop including this sort of stuff, but I thought this photo of me loving the rock in the landing was hilarious. Both photos by Nathan Werner.

Then came the moment we had been dreading since the night before: the hike out. As Kyle McKutchen put it: "it's a great run, except the takeout is higher elevation than the putin". It's true. Once you reach the parking area at the top of the takeout hike, it is a downhill bike ride all the way back to the putin. Xavier is some sort of madman, because he immediately took off up the slope at a fast jog. Nathan and I moved at a slow crawl.

Loaf is barely visible in the background as Nathan reaches the final pitch of the climb.

After the hike, Nathan was too tired to even drink whiskey.

Xavier didn't seem to have done the hike at all, but he had already run shuttle and changed his clothes by the time Nathan and I got to the car.

Since Boxelder, Natalie and I have been paddling whatever we could. The rest of the photos were from a weekend after a big rainstorm, where the South Saint Vrain and Eldorado came in briefly. We were joined by Conor Flynn, fresh back from Japan, Xavier, and even Dan Glauser the local Rep.

Conor Flynn in the SSV Narrows. Photo by Natalie.

Damn, I look pretty good. Photo by Daniel Glauser.

Everyone loved the warmup boof in Eldo.

Sorry everyone that I have not credited for photos. Most of this last batch were taken by Natalie, me, and Xavier. Also, that last shot is one from the Poudre Narrows, that I snuck in there on the sly. It's the left line on Lower Narrows, which doesn't get run all that often.

This awesome shot of Natalie was taken by Xavier. I told him to change to the wider angle lens, and he refused, but I think it ended up better this way.

And, in closing, here's a graph from some of my students, displaying my awesome factor.

XCreek, by Michelle Basso

Michelle Basso — Mon, 10 May 2010 12:18:00 +0200

Thursday afternoon in Bergen Norway, sun was shining, the birds are singing and it was beginning to feel like spring. Of course I was stuck in the office, trying to finish up a few last things before I took off for a long weekend rally up North. The X-Creek race (part of the X2 festival) was taking place on Friday and I was hoping for some training runs to shake off the winter rust. This meant sneaking out of work early as it was a 5 ½ hour drive to Hellesylt from Bergen. When I got home the other Basso had packed the car and loaded the boats ....so we were off.

A beautiful and efficient drive meant passing everyone in their expensive Audi's that never see 5th gear. Finally we pulled up to the Byggdelva hidden at the end of one of Norway's most beautiful fjords. It is eight in the evening and the sun has dropped behind the mountains. The light is fading to greys and blues, the temperature is dropping and that hard to shake winter chill creeps back into the air. Mark is still keen so after quick walk along the river to scout a few rapids we get back to Norway whitewater.

A brief cold shock hits me when I seal launch into the river, time to wake up and get the muscles moving…this is only my second time in a kayak this year. The weather has been cold, it has been snowing instead of raining and the snow pack in the mountains this year is very low … all of this has led to a slow start to the paddling year. But it all comes back very quickly and I exult in the feeling of moving water beneath the boat. The surrounding mountain peaks rise sharply from the valley and tower menacingly over the river. Although they are still mostly covered with snow, cliff walls jut out like black chocolate chunks in vanilla ice cream. I breathe in deeply; the crisp clean air fills my lungs and clears my head. I put my paddle blade into the water and pull myself towards the first slide.

The Byggdelva race course is short but very sweet. A couple hundred meters of slides and boofs, finishing off with a small horseshoe waterfall. The water is low but this makes the run more technical and a real race for the time clock. To avoid hitting a few grabbing, rocks you had to maintain precise control of the kayak at all times. I come off the water with a big smile on my face, looking forward to racing the next day. Back down the road to tents and beer as the hardy Norwegians from all over the country start appearing late into the night.

Friday morning I wake up and something just doesn’t feel quite right, I stick my head outside and immediately decide that it is way too early and I need to go back sleep for a couple hours. Maybe what I saw will just be the remains of a half remembered nightmare. No such luck…the weather is horrific; fog and clouds cover the handsome peaks that greeted us last night, a combination of snow and rain is falling to the ground and the wind blows the warmth right out of you. I could feel the motivation draining out of me as I stared out of the tent.

A couple hours in the campsite, eating breakfast, drinking coffee and catching up with good friends managed to restore some of my motivation and I was further revitalized by the sun that broke through when we arrived at the put-in. As the afternoon progressed the mountains came out from the wall of clouds, blue skies were once again becoming visible and the sun warmed the river bed.

In the end the race went off with big smiles throughout, thanks to some great organizing and a better-late-than-never sun hovering high above the looming peaks. Two runs, best combined time wins. Below are some pictures from the race. I was happy with my runs and came in second in the women’s category. Good times had by all. Then it was off to Østra and to the bar for the prize ceremony and some sweet tunes.

Thanks to Joar Wæhle, Øyvind Festø and Torbjørn Sewati for putting together a great race. I will be back next year.

Mariann Sæther

Benjamin Hjort

Torkel Gjeraldstveit

Martin Vollen

Dag Sandvik

Mark skiing down to watch the freeski competition on Saturday

Winter bad and good news by Val Grollemund

Valentin Grollemund — Sat, 08 May 2010 13:32:00 +0200

Ok, ok, I didn't write a post since a while, and the worst is I've no excuse!!! I broke my collarbone on a mountain biking session so I had all the time to do it but not...

Well, come with me on February 26th 2010. I was enjoying a MTB session with my brother Gautier and buddies, when I decided to jump on the biggest gap of the track... I kind of fucked up and crashed myself on dirt. Result, a left collarbone in 4 pieces... yeaaah...

I had a surgery a week later, they pull me on a titanium plate with 7 screws to fix the collarbone and found back the lenght of it.

The day after surgery.

2 days after surgery before pull out the drainer.

When I was laying at home with pain, I saw that beautiful cover by Raph Thiebaut for the next issue of Mountain Wilderness. On that photo you can see, David Arnaud, Eric Deguil, Stefun Pion and me.

Vikto Salomon

A while later, surgeron gave me his green card to pull out the plaster and live easy and slowly and stay really careful. So I had time and opportunity to take downhill MTB photos with my bro Gautier and buddies, in our home country in southern France (google "Aveyron"). Was so good to go out of the house and enjoy spring sunshine!!!!

Gautier Grollemund my bro. Check out his website www.gautiergrollemund.com he's a really talented videomaker and I'm sure you'll like his works!!!

Viktor Salomon goes big in "Rocco" the biggest drop of the track.

Raph Thiebaut in the deep and wonderfull gorges of the Durance across Briançon.

Finally, I'm back in my kayaks!!! I was this week in the french Alps with the local paddler Raph Thiebaut to enjoy some easy class IV+ rivers. At the same time I get my federal river guide licence which is mendatory to work as river guide in France. That's pretty good!!!!!

I'll leave in 2 days in the french Pyrenees to enjoy steep and beautiful spring rivers!!!! Hope to be back on class V rivers and more in the next days/weeks!!! May and June will be awesome, lot of projects and good things to do, I'll keep you updated!!

To see more photos, videos and completed reports, check out my blog (french and english): http://valgrollemund.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the river and enjoy life!!! seeya

Val