Fluid Kayaks - Team Blog

Words to Kayak by

Natalie Kramer — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:11:00 -0600

This past week the rivers of Colorado have finally started flowing and everyone is putting away their skis, dusting off their boats, flushing out the spiders and getting on the water. In March I gave the keynote speech at Colorado Whitewater's fundraiser dinner about how to become a Great Kayaker. In the process of putting together that speech, I really synthesized my approach to learning how to kayak well. As we rush into summer (in North America that is...) I'd like to share my two bits with the Fluid family, friends and fans in hopes that sharing my approach to kayaking may help others in their river quests this Summer.

Beth McVay having some fun in the Do it Now at the Golden Games. Photo by Leif Anderson.

Being or becoming a great paddler isn't about running harder runs. I firmly believe that you can be a GREAT paddler at ANY level of boating. A great paddler is not only highly skilled (for whatever level they are boating at), they are very aware and comport themselves well.

Many people think that to become highly skilled you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone. There is another approach that I have used and as a result I have gotten to where I can run extremely challenging whitewater (ex. Toxaway, Rio Gol Gol, Upper Middle Consumnes) while still feeling safe and comfortable. I learned how to learn from my violin teacher in middle school. To get better without scaring yourself and putting yourself in compromising situations I have three pieces of advice:

1. Practice Often (it doesn't have to be hard.)

2. Concentrate on the building blocks and the hard stuff will be easy (basically perfect the "easy" things like rolling and the forward stroke)

3. Getting good is more about how you practice than how long you practice (don't ingrain those bad habits!- reinforce the good ones)

4. When the going gets tough, break it down to easily digestible chunks and perfect each one and then piece it all together (great advice for those difficult rapids- eddies are your friend)

In my speech I go into some particulars, you can visit my blog to check them out.

Great paddlers are hyper aware of themselves, their own ability, the environment around them and other paddlers. Aware paddlers often recognize potentially dangerous situations and either divert them or avoid them altogether. They also respond very quickly when things do go wrong because the aren't just reacting to situations, but have anticipated them. By recognizing your own level of awareness and by making a conscious effort to increase it, you will be well on your way to becoming a safer, greater kayaker. (For my complete thoughts and advice on this subject, please see the video, starting at 43:25)

Me on Triple Falls near Asheville. Photo by Leif Anderson.

You can have great skill and awareness, but to be truly a great paddler it matters what you DO with your skill and awareness. Ask yourself: Are you someone that other paddlers feel safe paddling, want to paddle with and respect? Does your ego or or lack of confidence limit your opportunities by turning people off from boating with you? My last criterion for being a great paddler is having great comportment. Comportment is a bit of an old fashioned word and fairly out of style, but encompasses such qualities as style, behavior, outlook, attitude, conduct, bearing, approach, and demeanor. Having good comportment is probably the hardest to achieve since it requires you to reflect on and possibly change your own attitudes and behavior, which is never easy. For a paddler with great comportment, a run is never “too easy”, “lame” or “boring” for them, they are up for challenges, but know and respect their own limitations. They never feel pressured to run or not run a rapid due to the opinions of others and may choose to walk when everyone else is running it, or they may run a rapid when everyone else is walking it. Either way they aren’t running or not running a rapid to “prove” anything or to make a point but rather because they felt their decision was right for them in that moment.

Typically other paddlers don’t feel pressured by these paddlers to do or not do something, but rather are encouraged by these paddlers to takethe next step or are supported by these paddlers when they decide to play it conservative. It is really fun to paddle with these types of paddlers because if you are less skilled then them you never feel like you are a burden on them, you sense that they are enjoying themselves even on easier runs, and you respect their opinions about whether or not you can step it up and run a harder rapid or if you should walk. On the flip side, if a paddler with good comportment is not as good as you, they are still fun to paddle with. You don’t have to worry so much about them making peer-pressured decisions that may not be good for the entire group and at the same time they won’t sell themselves short and will be up for a challenge. They are fun to show new lines and tricks to because they will try it out whole heatedly without too much self judgement or second guessing.

Paddlers with good comportment generally have a good time being on the water and are focused in the now. They are never just doing a run so that they can say they can brag about it. They are never embarrassed about their own skill level and they are never resentful about slowing down.

The comportment challenge for less skilled boaters is about being confident of your own skills, whatever they may be. Some beginners feel pressured to run harder runs before they are ready which can lead to some bad experiences that completely turns them off from boating forever. Other boaters may feel pressured to get on harder runs/rapids in order to “get better” or “get a good picture” or “show them that they can hang” and to do this they mislead fellow paddlers about their ability level. This can lead to some potentially dangerous situations since most paddlers will assume that you are being truthful about your own self evaluation of your skills. If you are this type of paddler, word gets around pretty quickly that you are “joe shit show”. Pretty soon it becomes much harder for you people to paddle with, especially on the harder runs. Once you get this reputation it is really hard to shake it, even if you do get better. You might as well be honest from the start and own your skill level. Be proud of being a beginner (or intermediate) that wants to advance to the next level. You will end up getting much better advice and some more advanced paddler may even want to take you under his or her wing and help you get better.

On the flip side of that are the paddlers (typically more women) that play down their own skill level. They typically say things that marginalize their own paddling ability. These paddlers may say things like “Well, I’m not as good as you” or “I could do that, but…”, “I wish I could do that, but I just don’t have …”, “Do you think I could handle… (even though internally they know they can)” These paddlers are expressing their lack of self confidence in a different way than the first group of people by underplaying their skills so that they won’t be put in a position to “disappoint” the people they are around. They are so afraid of inconveniencing their fellow paddlers that they have trouble getting better and advancing to new runs, even if those new runs are well within their grasp. In this case, these paddlers need to start practicing some self-aggrandizement. At least internally they should start saying, yeah, I’m the shit, I can do that! And then they need to show the paddlers around them their confidence in their own skills. No one likes a whiner or a wall flower. Be confident of your ability level.

The challenge for advanced paddlers is to recognize that you are never “to good for that”. Advanced paddlers with good comportment enjoy easy runs and often use these opportunities to improve their own basic skills (like their forward stroke, etc), enjoy being outside, or show others what they know. These paddlers recognize that just because it is easy for them, it may not be easy for others. It is important to recognize that putting off a run or rapid as too easy may make others feel inadequate if they think it isn’t easy. However, although it is nice to be inclusive, having good comportment isn’t about being accommodating. Another challenge for achieving good comportment is to be the one tell the paddler who isn’t ready for a run that they aren’t ready and to take the time to challenge themselves on hard runs without becoming inaccessible to up and coming boaters.

Having good comportment at its root is about being truthful, confident, self-assured and assertive, yet at the time being humble, non-judgemental and respectful of others. It isn’t easy. I struggle with being confident, self-assured and assertive with paddlers at a similar or higher level than me and at times I admit to having dismissed runs as boring or not worth it. I still have a lot to work on to become a great paddler and I figure that most people do.

Video Guide- Because it is pretty long. Now you can just jump to the section you may be interested in: 1. INTRODUCTION (2:48-16:03). Rachel Garza Introduces Me (2:48-5:00) I start my talk (5:00)

2. SKILLS (16:03-43:25). This was by far the longest portion of my talk and perhaps the most tedious. (16:03-19:02) Intro. (19:02-26:20) I go through my timeline and growth as a paddler (26:20-26:57). My pet peeve, the question: "How many years have you been boating?" (26:57-32:17). I talk about what I have learned about how to learn, valuable lessons from my violin teacher. (32:17-42:33) I go through some specific ways kayakers can improve their skills.

3. AWARENESS (43:25-48:03).

4. COMPORTMENT (48:03-56:28).

5. CONCLUSION (56:30-end)

Kayaking can be fun and safe at all levels from flatwater to V+. If you want to become better, at times you will need to raise the bar and step it up, but that doesn't mean that you have to be unprepared when you do. Instead of thinking of becoming a great paddler as a linear trajectory from beginner to intermediate to advanced to great, start thinking about how you can be a GREAT wherever you are at.

This summer, I challenge you to strive to be GREAT instead of just running harder runs. As a result everyone will be safer on the water and you will have more fun and feel more satisfied.

Take Care!

Kayak Polo in Cape Town

Scott Martin — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:42:00 -0400

I was lucky to go to home to Cape Town, South Africa over the festive season for a long overdue visit. Cape Town is blessed with beautiful beaches and mountains. In the winter some of the best creeking in the country can be found. There is a small crew of core paddlers who get out during the cold wet Cape winters and paddle these rivers. During the summer months there is nothing running for a 800km radius. Summer road trips are mandatory! But to keep the summers exciting and to stay kayaking fit, there is a canoe polo league which play regularly. I met up with Ant Horad on a hot summers afternoon, at the base of Table Mountain to see what this canoe polo was all about. The league has a handful of Fluids Vuvubat kayaks which get used to make the game even. Ant told me no other boat compares to using the Vuvubat for this game. Enjoy.

The Hidden Treasure: Racing down Wills Creek!

Bobby Miller — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:43:00 -0400

"A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid." - J.R.R. Tolkien

WIlls Creek is a rarely paddled gem of a Class 3-4 run with one Class 5 rapid, tucked in the mountains of Pennsylvania, just north of Cumberland, Maryland. It is comparable to many of the other classics of the region like the Big Sandy and the Middle Fork of the Tygart. However, since it is nestled in its own area and is not very close to any other streams, it is often overlooked and passed over. This is such a shame because anyone who has been fortunate to make that turn at Cumberland and head north will tell you that they were greatly rewarded for their effort. Over the years, I have made this journey many times, always returning with tales of whitewater and adventure!

I was excited when I saw that Wills was on the list of venues under consideration for the PA Creek Race series. When Wills was running high in the middle of the week, I hoped that it would hold enough to still be an option on Saturday. Finally on Friday, with the gauge holding just above minimum, Jason Rigby announced that the race would indeed be on Wills. I was excited to get on the water as a couple attainments had been my only time spent paddling this winter. Plus, this race also gave me, as your favorite spermologer, a chance to write another literary masterpiece about some current news!

Adam Rettig and I headed out early in the morning for some racing action. After passing the town of Hyndlman, we headed upstream to do a prerace scout. We met up with Jason Rigby at the town of Fairhope, where the race was going to start. We debated between a doing a 2.5 or 3.5 mile course. As the racers began filtering in, we decided to take a practice run on the 2.5 mile course. After a leisurely paddle, we were ready to go, having picked out most of the trouble spots that the low water was presenting. One of the key spots was just above a major rapid called Yo Yo, where a tricky section of shallow water could cause you to venture into a channel too low to paddle through. The key marker that Adam and I had picked out was a cloth piece about the size of a flag that was dangling off the supporting wall for the railroad tracks. I made a mental note that when I saw that, I needed to head right. Since the race course was so much fun, we decided to add the next mile of similar rapids on to the race. We headed back up to start the race, leaving that last mile as a "mystery" for those unfamiliar with the run.

There were many strong paddlers that showed up for the event, making for a very competitive race. They read off the list of racers and I ended up being the next to last to go. Starting behind me was Dr. Gameday Dave Carey. I knew that I had to paddle hard and clean because he would definitely catch me if I made any major errors. The racers took off in one minute intervals and my turn was approaching. I always get a little nervous before a race, especially one that starts off with a pretty challenging rapid. I jirbled the last drops of my Red Bull into my mouth and got ready. I sat waiting in the eddy, trying to manage the goose chills and place them in the back of my mind. Huh? What in the world is a goose chill??? Soon, it was time to start so I took off. The first rapid is called Railroad Cut Falls and is the only rapid on the run that can be considered Class 5. It has a series of ledges with accompanying holes that get bigger as you get further into the rapid. They can definitely demonstrate a mean pussyvan to a paddler who makes even a small error. The resistentialism of this rapid caused each racer to give it its due respect. I opted for the right channel in the approach because it lines you up in a twisting chute that rockets you toward the lower ledges. The first splash gave me extreme curglaff but I shook it off and focused on the task at hand. The bottom two ledges have the largest holes but the low water definitely made them easier to negotiate. I took a stroke to raise my bow over the large boil of the third hole and moved to the center where the powerful bottom hole is broken up.

The next mile contains constant Class 2-3 rapids with tricky lines to avoid the shallow water. One ledge is diagonal and, according to Maryland and Delaware Canoe Trails, has a tendency to mess with left handed canoeists. Luckily, I have two blades so I cruised through the ledge with no problems. As I went further down the course, I could see Adam in the distance and figured we might meet up in Yo Yo. However, just before Yo Yo where the cloth was hanging off the tracks, Adam mistakenly took the left channel and ran aground as I motored down the right with the flow making a zafty pass.

Yo Yo steps up the action and is a long Class 4 rapid with multiple boulder drops, slots and boofs. I stayed left in the fast water, zigzagging back and forth around rocks and over drops to the bottom of the rapid. After the rapid ends, there is a 5 foot ledge that quickly comes at you. There are rocks, rebar, and a collapsed concrete slab in the landing if you are in the wrong spot. I went left of center where there is a nice boof that clears past all of the mess in the landing. As the boulder gardens continued, I kept pace and made sure to follow the water.

Soon, the 2.5 mile bridge came into view and the mystery mile still remained. Having run this section many times, I knew what to expect but I also knew there were some shallow spots and would need to be on the lookout for mank. This last part starts with a fast, narrow rapid with tight boulder moves. Some shallow channels lead to more boulder drops with a few horizon lines that hide the fastest route. As the whitewater was petering out, there was a long, shallow stretch with a lot of small rocks hidden just below the surface. I hit one rock and it deflected me into a slot where I wedged. I knew that unforgiving device known as the clock was ticking so I rocked and pulled aggressively (and cursed out loud) and eventually slid through, having only lost 5-10 seconds. Soon, the final bend and finish line came into sight.

What a fun race! Being able to come back and race on such a cool section of stream that had always been one of my favorites was a real treat! After everyone finished, we headed back up top for the awards ceremony and another lap of the run. The temperature started dropping so Adam and I didn't dither on the last run. After many great boofs, slots, and tight eddy turns, we bid farewell to the rest of the racers and headed home. We celebrated by heading to Sheetz and hitting up the soda squirt for some carbonated beverages! After getting beef-witted on several hamburgers, the drive home produced lots of laughs and excited talk about the upcoming paddling season! Special thanks to Jason Rigby with World Kayak for organizing such a great event and race series!

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World Kayak Blog - Wills Creek Race

Results :

1. Bobby Miller : 34:01 (Large Bazooka)

2. David Carey : 34:37 (Large Bazooka)

3. Brian Kish : 34:57

4. Eli Loiben : 36:03

5. Bill Warble : 36:16

6. Jon Ludwick : 36:39

7. Zach Yomboro : 37:23

8. Seth Burdette : 37:36

9. Kirk Meixner : 38:25 (Large Solo)

10. Adam Retig : 39:43 (Big Bang)

11. Steve Kroser : 47:54 – #1 Hand Paddler and New Hand Paddler speed record for Wills’ Creek

For definitions of some of the more unfamiliar words in this article, go to

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18 Obsolete Words

More pictures below!

Unthawing the boating stoke

Sven Perschmann — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:49:00 +0000

It’s that time of the year again!

Looking out of the window I am still surrounded by snow, however that just seems to be part of the deal when you move to mountain town like Rossland, BC.
And I won’t argue, the winter was a sick one! While over the last years I have always been a very one track minded boater geek I am now stoked to progress in other sports as well. Snowboarding’s been a big learning curve, I still can’t believe how quickly the local hills make you step up your game here.

But even though the hill is still open you can see the snow melting, warmer days coming and I now realize that giving myself a break from boating for a few months fuels my stoke so much more.

So beginning of March we rallied a crew to mission out to Vancouver Island, Canada’s very own winter boating paradise.

It turned out to be a big mission, taking us almost two days to get all our errands done and do all the driving before we actually made it onto the first river.

Soccer mum clown car waiting for the ferry.

That’s right. Ice on boats… Brrr.

As our second crew broke down on the way over we didn’t have a shuttle vehicle and one more dude in the already packed car. The rather loaded soccer mum SUV with custom ghetto trailer now consisted of myself, far traveled old German friend Sascha H-man, young Jedi Sam Butler and Revelstoke`s very own Chris Foster.

The lack of a shuttle did put us in need of some serious networking though. Every day I spent quite a bit of time emailing, phoning and texting people I didn`t even know about possible runs and schedules. Thanks to an all star crew of Islanders and mainlanders alike we got tag on with huge number of different people. Seriously guys, without you it would`ve been way worse a trip!

On the upside I guess that also made us see more of the island, as we weren`t just chasing rivers but boating crews too.

But what a welcome we got! The Island had just received it’s first big spring rain storm with 150mm of rain in parts, cranking all the rivers to flood levels, washing the snow from the roads and the logs out of the runs. And as soon as that had cleared (while we were driving) we found blue bird days and ideal waterlevels for a bunch of runs!

Our first run was the Cameron, one of the island`s classics. Perfect flows and about 13 people on the river made for good times. And some thankfully merely entertaining carnage as a couple boys swam and one of them fell of a 40 ft cliff into rocks trying to get back to his boat. Unscathed, unbelievable! No photos, too much fun on this run.

Next up we got on the Gordon – probably my favourite run of the trip. Pushier than the creeks I had previously done on the Island this river builds gradually in difficulty from the Upper to the Middle and the calms down with the Lower. Sunshine and a healthy flow made this such a memorable day. And even though I do prefer picking my own lines it was sweet to go with a rock solid crew that knew the river and allowed me to blind bomb most rapids. Oh the stoke!

Raphael Boudreault Simard (what a name) going first and styling double drop on the Gordon

Is that? Yes it is! Hiding behind his massive boof stroke it was a grand surprise to meet up with fellow Fluid Frenchie Mathieu Coldbella and his Bazooka.

Following this we did two days on the Copper Canyon of the Chemainus River, another classic, in sections boxed in, mossy and beautiful canyon with a little bit of must run mixed in there to get the heart going. I had been in there last year and remembered it to be a longish run, but with the crew we had, especially on the second day it went by so quick.

Raph on stick drop

And H-Man on the flume

To break things up a little bit we headed Tofino ways for some kayak and SUP surf on invitation of my old friend Emre Bosut. If you`re ever in the area and wanna check out anything SUP, he is starting his very own SUP school and guide outfit, from unbelievably beautiful tours to smooth surf he`ll be able to hook you up!

Pacific sunshine surf are hard to beat. Photo Sascha Hagemann

Some sweet waves, lots of fresh Oysters, Fish Tacos and beers later at la Casa Mikey we were sad to leave but had one more thing to do.

Emre had been talking about a creek he wanted to check out for a few years now and as everybody was keen we decided to go for it. Who doesn`t like a cheeky little First D…

Lucky creek is located near Toquaht bay and is a tiny little drainage that runs from several lakes into the ocean.

Looking across the bay at the canyon.

No take out access means that you have to paddle for an hour to make it to the the shuttle, which might be a reason why nobody had done it before.

With the low flows we had calling most of the run manky would be an understatement. Scraping over rocks, climbing around sieves and wood, swimming through pools and laughing our butts off most of the adventure reminded me more of canyoning than of kayaking.

Emre on some bedrock we found inbetween.

The creek slowly got slower, wider and mellower. We were sure we would be in salt water soon, when all of the sudden we came around a bend and saw the final drop.

Not that we had more water all of a sudden, but we found ourselves at the rim of a natural amphitheatre of clean waterfalls just a few stone throws away from the ocean. We hit gold(ish).We threw ourselves off, laughed some more and paddled back.

My favourite shot of the trip. Sascha.

Emre going first on Emre’s drop.

Myself enjoying some plunge. Photo Chris Foster

And Foster’s turn. What a cool spot, eh?

Last drop. Photo Sascha Hagemann

Sascha finishing the trip off like it was 1999.

I now know I will be back. With some rain, skip the run and walk up from the sea to visit this again. Maybe even camp along the massive Oyster banks at the river mouth.

Last supper on the Island. Well earned.

The next day we rallied back to the Kootenays, this time in one day, without big delays and even arriving in day light. What a great trip, thanks Vancouver Island, I hope to see you again soon, next time with time to spare and a more flexible setup. Might be time for a mini dirt bike shuttle vessel…

Back home we were welcomed to play levels on the Columbia.

Hiking down to Blueberry hole Sascha, Drew Sellen and I arrived just in time to see that my boat beat us to it and was ripping up this rather frustrating but poppy wave hole.

After watching it for a while and taking some photos of this rather weird view I decided it was enough, I had to join. The Dope let me in, and together we enjoyed some good old ice cream headaches. It`s so good to be back on the water!

All play photos Drew Sellen

Now I guess I’ll have to wait for another 3 weeks until I get back in a boat. I finally bit the bullet and am doing what I hope will be the best thing I can do as a spectacled, contact wearing boater. Laser Eye Surgery.

So see you guys during spring run off. I’ll be the guy melting all the drops just because I finally can without losing my vision…

Peace,

Sven

An early season classic. Middle Box thru Baker's of the Animas

Dave Farkas — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:15:00 +0200

I was going through some footage from last season and came across this vid. As my backyard run, the Middle Box thru Baker's section of the Animas is awesome. Continuous rapids with a little break in the middle, committing walled-in granite gorge, a couple of portages (depending on level), and a lot of pucker factor. The first bunch of rapids can't be scouted and have a high level of carnage factor so knowing the lines and/or going with someone who knows them is pretty significant. Also, you can't really get outta the gorge for a while...long while, so once you're in...

On this trip, I went with a regular paddling partner and good friend, Cody Beach...a Durango local and excellent paddler. We had around 650 cfs and it was early in the season meaning snow melt. We decided to take out above Texas Taco which is the biggest rapid on the Middle Box section. If you decide to paddle down thru Texas Taco, not only do you run a nice and big rapid, you also have to do a burly portage with a sketchy down climb on a super slippery and dirty slope. I've seen several people totally eat it on this portage losing all their equipment into the river. I like the "Taco" but the portage above it easier. Take out and do a quick hike to the ropes for the rappel back into the gorge. This is the regular put in for the Baker's run.

Each run can be done on it's own and each run connects the other. The Rockwood Box is about 3 miles of drop pool grade IV/IV+ and requires parking at the take out and carrying your kayak up to the put in along a railroad track. The Middle Box is short...about 2 1/2 miles and Baker's is about 4-5 miles. The shuttle is quick and easy too.

Combine this with a play session in town and you've got a superb day of kayaking.

Bazooka Highlights - Norway and Stikine

Adrian Kiernan — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:31:00 -1100

Bazooka highlights - Norway and Stikine!

Natalie's WWGP 2012 wrap up

Natalie Kramer — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:25:00 -0700

I was honored to be chosen this winter to compete in the second Whitewater Grand Prix event in Chile. I was invited based on this entry video, thanks Leif for the killer edit. After obtaining the necessary permissions to skip out on the last three weeks of classes from my professors and paying another grad student to teach Leif's classes for him, we were on our way. The WWGP is an amazing event that is without a doubt progressing our sport. See our blog for a nice essay I wrote about my motivation for competing. I really look forward to seeing this competition grow and gain the mainstream attention that it deserves. I felt honored to be paddling some of Chile's best whitewater with some of the world's best kayakers. I just finished a mini series on our blog where I wrote about each of the five competition events in detail and I encourage you to check them out:

Stage 1: Gol Gol Enduro My favorite run

Stage 2: Puesco Boulder Dash Most intense

Stage 3: Rio Nevados Sprint Only sunny day

Stage 4: Futa Boatercross My best finish (sort of - 1st in prelims)

Stage 5: Futa Marathon My favorite race

I ended up not performing as well as I wanted to for the short technical races, but they were still great courses and I ran both the Puesco and the Nevados multiple times after the event was all over. Overall I ended up 5th out of 7 women. It was great to be paddling with a group of women who felt just as confident racing these difficult runs as I did. I have been amazed with all the positive support and feedback that I have received from the paddling community, both before I left and now after I'm back. I'm glad that I was able to represent USA, Women and Fluid in this international event. I'm looking towards more of them in the future. I guess I better start trying a little less hard at sciency things and a little more hard at training. See you on the water!

Leif just finished two of our own edits from the trip:

For those of you who are too lazy to go to our blog for the full write-ups, here is a short picture show of some of the better (or more impressive) photos from our trip. Leif ended up being the timer for most events, so our picture pickings were slimmer than they typically are. Still, I think we (and Nicole Mansfield) got some good ones.

Before competition started we had a few days to paddle and I got to run the stout ten and the Middle Palguin. Top photo by Nicole Mansfield and bottom by Leif.

Princesa Rapid, Rio Gol Gol. This was my second race lap and the best line I had on this rapid. It was pretty high that day. Photo by Nicole Mansfield.

Upper Rio Nevados Canyon. Rarely do we get photos of both Leif and I on a river. I like this one, thanks Momo for taking it.

Terminator Rapid on the Futaleufu. Big and intense, I loved it. Photo by Leif.

Turbio waterfall. Well, we had to have at least one photo of Leif in action! Photo by Me.

Finally some sun! THANK YOU Fluid and everyone else who helped support us on this trip!

Take Care! Natalie

Kootenays 2012; Video Part 1: Creek

Sven Perschmann — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 04:44:00 +0000

Happy new year everybody.

I recently finished the first half of my 2012 recap edit.

Throughout the last years all my videos kinda turned into this lookatmepromokindathing. I can’t say that I minded either. Stroking the geo and such…

Now this year though has been a lot more creeking then the previous ones and I met a bunch of wicked people to chase the more or less local runs with.

More or less cause I still haven’t adapted to the size of the country and the amount of kilometres casually traveled. OH well, different story.

Back to the people: Not only a good bunch but also some extremely talented young guns charging at age 16 and 17, some very dedicated explorers hiking potential new runs on their time off and a whole lot of uberkeen boaterheads…

Which when I started editing made me realize that that was one of the coolest parts about moving to a new area, and one with such a diversity of rivers as well. New folks and lots of exploring!

I had to make this video about more than just myself and chose the good ole fast pace kayak porn style. Leave the fancy camera booms and storytelling kinda clips to others, let’s just go!

And as this is the Fluid blog – this has me paddling the new Bazooka a lot. Such a sick hull!

But also my wife’s medium Solo (yep, a little small for me) and my trusted large Solo, which I finally managed to wreck – bye bye, it’s been a good 3 years on this one!

It does not have me paddling a play boat. No Dope, no Nemesis, no Element, no Carbon… But: edit number two is in progress. Cause besides amazing creeking this are has also some of the best play in all of BC… Stay tuned.

Kootenays Part I: Creek from sven perschmann on Vimeo.

Peace,

Sven

DO IT NOW!!!

Bobby Miller — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:14:00 -0500

Last year, Fluid put out a new whitewater sit on top called the Do It Now. The idea was to take the phenomenal creek boat hull of the Bazooka and convert it into a craft that is extremely stable and forgiving but also high performance. What they created was the greatest sit on top of all time! The boat will literally take a total beginner and give them the ability to run Class 3 water on the first time out. We got to test this theory several times over the last year with several first timers and they all did great on popular mid-Atlantic intermediate runs like the Lower Yough and the Cheat Narrows. I had several opportunities to paddle the Do It Now last summer and I must say that I am extremely impressed with it. I ran it over waterfalls like Swallow Falls, Kanawha Falls, and Ohiopyle Falls. Sean Chapelle and I also took a trip down the standard Class 4 run of the region, the Upper Yough. The boat performed great in all situations. This is a boat that everyone can have fun in. It is the type of boat that can take beginners to new heights and also provide a great amount of enjoyment for expert paddlers. Here are my impressions of the boat's characteristics:

Speed - The speed of this boat is good for its size and it is quick to get up to speed.

Maneuverability - This boat is extremely maneuverable! It turns with ease, is able to carve a turn, and accelerates into the next move.

Comfort - The seat it comfortable to sit in and the plastic rises in the back to give a nice back-rest. The thigh straps can be tightened to give you a secure fit for high performance or a loose fit for a relaxing float.

Boofing - The boofing ability of this boat is very good. It is easy to keep the bow up when launching off a drop and it will rocket off a boulder when you line it up.

Stability and Rolling - This boat is very stable, which allows new paddlers to feel confident when entering rapids. While not as easy as a regular kayak to roll, it is still not very hard to bring the boat upright if it flips.

Surfing - The boat is very stable in a side surf and spins quickly when trying 360's. It will front surf well too on a smooth wave.

Draining - The drain holes are placed well to drain water quickly and keep the paddler from sitting in water while they paddle.

Storage - There is a large storage compartment to store gear with a screw-on hatch for easy access.

Photos by Matt Sloan, Bruce Mulligan, and Logan Masters

DO IT NOW!!! from Fluid Kayaks on Vimeo.

Hurricane Sandy Brings Rarely Run Streams To Reality!

Bobby Miller — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:56:00 -0500

We had a stroke of luck during the end of the paddling season in the Mid-Atlantic to catch a hurricane that brought heavy rains, flooding, and canceled days of school. Since I am a school teacher, I took full advantage of this to go run some streams that rarely have enough flow to do. As it rained hard all day and into the evening, I planned what I wanted to run. I had a few local drops that I wanted to check out, including a 25+ foot waterfall into a boulder field on a stream named Stikeys that had never been run. I realize that dropping that height into boulders is not a great idea but when you have epic water, ANYTHING is possible! OH YEAH! Well, the next morning brought surprisingly low water in my area. The tiny creeks were too low and the only stream that was runable was a Class 3-4 gem called Piney Run (Crazy Creek). Adam Rettig, Sean Chapelle, and Steve Graybill met up with me and we prepared for a long day of creeking. We decided to go ahead and run Crazy Creek since we were there. We bombed down the run and had a blast, other than Steve's scary run-in with a hidden log in one of the rapids. We took a scout of the takeout falls and found this 20-25 foot drop onto rocks to be less than optimal. The right side line that I had run a month or so earlier was a little on the high side. The late boof stroke required was now swallowed by a folding crease and looked like it might send you nose down into the rock pile. The left side line was a little low, it is a 20+ foot boof onto a solid rock pile. With the lack of padding at this level, it appeared as though it could be a considerable hit so we passed on it and headed for the Catoctin Mountains, where there was definite flash flooding taking place.

The first stop was Bling Bling, a 40+ foot cascade into a very shallow pool. I had scouted it out years earlier but had never seen it with water. Well, the water level was perfect and the line looked beautiful down the right. Unfortunately, the right side line lands in a bunch of rocks that stick up out of the pool. The left line, which falls into a knee deep or so pool had significantly less flow coming down it and didn't look great either, possibly doable with more flow (if that ever happens). So, we packed up and headed a few miles down the road to Easterday Falls, another unrun waterfall that was definitely doable. We putin 1/4 mile upstream of the falls and made our way to the pool above. As we scouted, the landowner came out and told us that we needed to leave. He said that he was calling the cops so we figured that the easiest way out of there was over the falls. I got in my boat and headed for the falls. The falls has an approach drop that slopes down about 5 feet before going off a broken lipped 12 footer that has a shallow landing with a boulder sticking up to slam you if you go too far left. I went smoothly down the first slope and tried to time a late boof stroke to compensate for the junky lip. I launched out enough to clean any rocks that might have been lurking below the surface and headed down the steep runout rapid to an eddy below, where the celebration began! Sean followed and went a little deep, smacking the bottom of the creek and causing a slight pignose in his bow. We quickly exited the stream and packed up to try to escape the law. The cops came before we had a chance to make our getaway but they were more annoyed at being called in to deal with this landowner's lame complaint. They wished us well and told us to have fun kayaking, just not at Easterday again.

By this point, the entire Chapelle family had shown up and decided to cruise around with us. We headed over the mountain to Edgemont Run, which has a really fun spillway that drops close to 50 feet. The tilt is around a 45 degree angle so you can get some good speed. The only problem is that the water was starting to drop out on us and the concrete that makes the dam is extremely abrasive. Luckily, there was still enough water and the steep part constricts the water fairly well. We all flew down the drop and were stoked at the bottom. I wanted to fire it up again so I walked back up to the top. Unfortunately, the dam keeper was waiting for me and told me that all of us needed to leave. All of our brightly colored kayaks were hard to miss and he was determined to "save our lives" by not allowing us to run the dam again. So, I walked back down the slope next to the dam. Adam persuaded me to put back in to run the tunnel under the road. I agreed and was glad I did! The tunnel was dark and went down a slope that was punctuated by several 2 foot drops. It is quite a feeling when the bottom drops out on you in the dark! Upon taking out, we were greeted by another police officer. This officer was also annoyed that he had to drive all the way out there to deal with the worries of some milquetoast dam keeper. The officer agreed that the dam keeper was a lamer but asked us if we could kayak somewhere else. We knew of some other creeks just over the mountain to check out so we acquiesced to his request. Sean noticed that he had a huge crack in the bottom of his boat so he decided to head home but Steve, Adam, and I continued on in search of more SIKness. The next creek we checked out was on the low side but there was a gnarly Class 5 drop to check out. Unfortunately, this drop had a huge strainer in it that made it unrunable. We scouted a little further down the creek and found it to have too many trees to portage to be worth our time. The next option was to go to the classic of the Catoctin Mountains, Hunting Creek. We arrived at the takeout to find the road washed out and and blocked off. With daylight waning, we decided to call it a day. It was a super fun day with some great paddling and descents of drops that rarely have enough water in them to run. I can't wait for the next hurricane!

Fantasy Falls

Xavier Engle — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:10:00 +0200

On the way back from our spring Stikine trip, I got a call from the inestimable Rolf Kelly with the news that California was going off. After the worst Idaho ski season on record I had a bunch of PTO saved up, so four days after I got home from BC I was driving toward the North Fork of the Mokelumne, better known as Fantasy Falls, to meet up with a big crew from all over the Western US (Colorado, Cali, a few other places). Fantasy is three days (or, apparently, a 7 hour day if you're into that sort of thing) of classic Cali style whitewater: big slides, tight box canyons, some serious granite boulder gardens and a dash of serious granite boulder mank. Most of the mank comes right off the bat in the first two miles, as the river slowly picks up tributaries and grows from a trickle to an actual run. Somewhere towards the end of that mank I had the most terrifying swim of my kayaking career so far. We were bombing through a tight little slot, and everybody was getting pinned in there, so I caught an eddy and tried to surf a little hole in order to get a better angle. After flailing around for a minute or so I realized I couldn't get out of the stupid little hole I'd put myself into and pulled my skirt, thinking "this is embarassing." Then I felt a rock bump my shoulder and everything went black and I realized I was swimming through a sieve. It sucked. My buddies say I was under for 20ish seconds, but it seemed like a lot longer than that...anyhow, the moral of the story is, be careful in the opening mank, it can be way more serious than it looks.

One of the many clean rapids on Fantasy.

But things got better. There's a ton of great rapids on this run, like I said, it's a real Cali classic, sort of like a shorter version of the Middle Kings sans the hike. I portaged eight or nine times, but this run has been done without any portaging, and good on anyone who's pulled that off.

Fantasy Falls proper, a 30ish foot near-vertical slide, and the largest single drop on the run.

My favorite rapid by far was the Thing. For the video aficionados out there, this is the drop that Daniel DeLaVergne calls "California Class III" and then everybody swims out of in The 7 Rivers Expedition. It's a big ol' slide with an exploding thing in the middle that ends in a super sticky speed trap hole that if you get stuck in you're pretty much guaranteed to swim out of. Conveniently, the drop dumps into a huge eddy, so swim consequences are low. That aside, I was fairly dubious of this rapid until Rolf stuck the crap out of it and inspired me. Watching him, I realized this is a really a big-water style rapid in disguise: you just check into a few big reactionaries as they come at you, keep your speed through the last hole, and hey presto that's all there is to it. With this frameshift adjustment, I went for it, and it was good. Many thanks to Rolf for the inspiration, and for all the photos in this post.

The Thing in all it's glory.

Ocoee 2012 Yearly Review

Seth Chapelle — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:33:00 -0600

2012 kayak report By Ocoee A Chapelle Since early last spring I have been surpassing goals, reaching achievements, doing P.F.Ds and trying new things.

To begin to accomplish these goals I got to go down south where we paddled every day for like two weeks. It was all new rivers - so fun, fun, fun! My first personal goal accomplished was to acquire many P.F.Ds (personal first descents). I also kayaked every day for 18 days, 4 in the DC area added on to the southern trip.

Later that spring at Cheat Fest I did my first water fall, Wonder Falls on Lower Big Sandy, an 18 footer. Going down Wonder was an astonishing feeling until the brunt force of the landing occurred. On the 21st of July Seth and I went to the Upper Yough. I would say it was the one thing I wanted to do the most in 2012… as far as kayaking goes. So to get to do it was quite enjoyable, although it was easier than I was assuming.

Then came summer, a season of low-water play boating. Nonetheless it was a very good summer for me because I learned to play-boat. Not to say that prior to this particular summer I could not play boat. I just couldn’t do cartwheels and loops before this particular summer, which I learned to do by accident. My mom and I were just playing and it happened, the cartwheel that is. Looping was more of a work in process, although I had some really good instructors. But most of all a good hole, and lot of patience, then I got the loop.

My first class five, was on the Upper Gauley. That adventure was a bit unexpected, although it was especially pleasurable. It’s a whole lot of big wave trains and fun rapids, so just a good river in all. My first run down Great Falls in the fall is simple - good people, great water, awesome adrenaline, amazing feelings, and overwhelming awesomeness. The best river run I have found in 2012 is the Middle Fork into the Tygart. It’s just splendid because it is a fun 3 + 4 creek into a big-water river. It is just lots of fun so that’s my favorite river.

Hopes and dreams for 2013 are; do a lot of kayaking, run many new rivers, and learn lots of new play boating tricks.

A Year on the Payette River

Xavier Engle — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 21:33:00 +0200

This year the North Fork of the Payette River blew up in the kayaking scene, largely due to the first annual North Fork Championship, an invitational race down Jacob's Ladder organized by James Byrd (nice work, James). It was a sweet event, with an open downriver race the day before the main race, drone-camera aerial footage, and the usual kayak party debauchery. Check out this video of the whole shebang: http://vimeo.com/44336493. Also, for a bunch of great photos of the North Fork, check out http://www.webstermediahouse.com/.

But, the North Fork has been a legendary run for a long time. When a friend of mine was telling one of the racers about coming to Banks (the bustling metropolis at the NF take-out), he told him to not throw any brown claws, because nobody does that here and he would get made fun of. And in my mind, that pretty much sums up the North Fork scene. It's a vibrant counter-culture, maintained by the insulation of Banks from the rest of the world. There's no gas station, no cell service, only one bar, and more Stikine veterans per capita than any other place on earth. For more information on visiting Banks, check out http://thebanksmag.com/.

Anyway. I lived in Boise, ID, about 1 hour from Banks, for about 1 year. In that time, I put more than 120 days on the North Fork, meaning I spent way more time with the river than with any single human being, with the possible (but not definite) exception of my girlfriend, who I live with. So for me, the North Fork was more than just a run, it was my best friend while I lived in Idaho. Based on this experience, and for the sake of argument, I hereby declare the North Fork the sickest after-work run on the planet: 15 miles (~2 hrs/lap) of continuous, warm water, roadside big water class V. The only comparable runs I've heard of are the Little White Salmon (NF is better because Jake's is sicker than Spirit), the Green (NF has more sweet boofs, and is way longer), and Pandora's Box on the Animas (you don't have to abseil or potentially get shot at to get into the NF, plus word on the street is even driftboaters can get down that run).

Another reason the NF is a delightful river is verticalness. Each lap drops ~1700 vertical feet, meaning that you can paddle a fairly casual vertical mile in 3 laps, or about 6 river hours, with about a half hour per lap for shuttle. This lappability was first taken advantage of in 1982 by Bob McDougall, the first person I know of to complete a vertical mile. As they say in Banks, anything sick you've done, somebody else probably did it 20 years ago, at higher water, with shittier gear. The next step in vertical radness was taken by Doug Ammons, when he did 5 solo laps on the North Fork. Since then, it's been on. A few years ago, Ryan Casey, Fred Coriell, and Brian Fletcher finished the first double vertical mile, upping the ante to 6 laps in a day. Last year, Ben Luck and I put on to try to top that; I flamed out and swam on lap 5, but Benny went on to put in 6.5 full laps. This year, in the spirit of friendly competition and in the name of pushing ourselves, Nate and Matt Klema, Cooper Lambla and I put on at 5:30 AM one fine summer morning. We finished lap 7 in the dark 17.5 hours later, for a total of 105 miles and 11,900 vertical feet of some of the most fun kayaking in the world. A good day, and along with Most Halibut Juggled Whilst Riding A Unicycle, a possible contender for World Record People are Least Likely to Care About (most vertical feet paddled in one day). Personally, I say 8 laps in a day is definitely on deck using longboats, or by sacking up and paddling faster (would have to shave 15 minutes per lap or so), and the triple mile (9 laps in 24 hours) is possible if you're willing to paddle the whole run in the dark (moonlight top to bottom?). So somebody harder than me should go do those things.

Here's a picture of us all on lap 5 or so. We were joined by a fair number of folks over the course of the day, including Fred Coriell and I can't remember who all else. A million thanks to our incredible ground support crew, especially Kaitlyn and Nora for driving shuttle all day, and for passing us beers in the darkness above Otter Slide on the last lap. You guys are the best.

Flying down the Rissbach, Germany

Julian — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:12:00 +0100

It was autumn in Germany, and long periods without any rain are not that unusual. Anyway, this year is exceptional dry. It hasn't been raining since weeks and levels of the rivers are really really low.

The only chance for boating is to look for the extrem sections of the classic rivers like Wellerbruecke and Achsturze of Oetztaler Ache, or the famous gorge on the river Rissbach.

The short section of the Rissbach-klamm is very well-known in Germany: Every year in October, the "Rissbach-flying" takes place. It is organised by the AKC, the german extrem whitewater kayak club. The inofficial goal of this event is to paddel the section as much as possible on one single day. The section has only a length of 300 meters, and the 3 drops vary from 1,5 to 6 meter. So it's just about "flying down" the Rissbach. On the last weekend of November, there were still perfect conditions for the Rissbach. The water level was low and the gorge still free of snow and ice. Sebi, Flipper and me went for the onehour drive from Munich to the mountains of the Karwendel. The sky was blue and it was indian-summer-feeling in Bavaria.

We went for a short warm-up on the upper easy section. When the bridge is crossing the river, you find yourself sitting in the last eddy before the entry of the gorge. The gorge section starts full on with the 6 meter entry dop. You should definitely stay on line, as there are big undercuts waiting below in the pool. Then, you can't leave the gorge any more and the two other following drops are must-runs. It's all about a safe boof stroke and the first drop is run. Sitting in the pool, you can watch your friends coming down one after another. The scariest part is already done. For the second drop, you have to concentrate again. It isn't that easy to go far enough right to avoid the big and nasty hole on the left - and you definitely don't want to get stucked inthere. Also, it is important to stay on line to get the last drop on a good line. Anyway, 2 minutes later all three of use were paddling out of the gorge and finished all the drops succesfully.

The take-out is the perfect place to take a breath before hiking up to the put in again. While walking back to the put-in, two other kayakers from France arrived. No doubt, we had to show them the lines of the Rissbach aswell. The second run is still a little bit scary: you know all the lines but it can be very dangerous to loose concentration. But without any problems, we reached the take-out once more. After that, we couldn't motivate ourselfs for one more run. Instead,we decided to show the Frenchmen a real Bavarian restaurant. The perfect end of a perfect day. By the way: the highscore of the AKC "Rissbach-fliegen" is currently 25 runs on one day by a single kayaker. Anyhow, we can try to beat it next time. (All pictures copyright by Sebastian Bauer)

My first run down Great Falls - By: Ocoee Chapelle

Seth Chapelle — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:34:00 -0600

My First Time to Run Great Falls By Ocoee A. Chapelle My first time to Great Falls started like this. Natalie and Leif Anderson came into town to have Thanksgiving with family. They stayed overnight at our house before they got hooked up with Natalie’s sister. Natalie and Leif wanted to run Great Falls while they were in the D.C area.

The next morning after lots of phone calls and a huge breakfast of fried potatoes, eggs, oatmeal and cocoa, we drove to Great Falls. On the drive, my mom told me that I could paddle out to The Flake, a rock island splitting the Virginia and Center lines, but I could not run the falls.

When we got there we were surprised to see Geoff Calhoun and Steve Fisher in the parking lot. Leif and I went to say hi to them and my mom said that if Geoff and Steve led me down I could run the falls. As we got dressed more friends showed up. Before I knew it we were on the water and paddling down to the falls. I was super excited because I had really wanted to meet Steve Fisher and on top of that I was going to run Great Falls.

On the way to the falls there is an eight foot drop that’s pretty fun. Next there is a class three rapid with an eddy that you have to catch, so it is a little scary. Once we got out on The Flake, I was told that I could only run the last two drops. I was still very excited because those two drops are challenging and they looked very fun. After I scouted for a while I was ready to run the drops. Steve and Geoff ran the Virginia lines then they were ready to lead me down.

I waited for Geoff and Steve in the eddy at the bottom of the Grace, which is the first drop. After they ran Grace, they pulled into the eddy with me. Steve ran ahead to wait for me between the second drop and the third drop. Geoff led me through the second drop which was a bit intimidating! If you did not get in the right slot you would not be in good shape. I hit the line perfectly! It was cool because it is a narrow slot - on the right side there is a fun slide and on the left side there is a boof. I did the slide and it was fun. At the bottom, I met Steve and Geoff to do the last drop.

The last drop is called the Fingers where there are four options. One option called Subway is very, VERY dangerous, two fingers have some difficulty to them and one is good to go. I ran the good to go line but boofed way to early, penciled in, lost my paddle and hand rolled up right away. It was awesome! At the bottom Steve Fisher told me that I had a good hand roll and a good line. I was aware of both of those things but to hear a pro tell me was pretty amazing.

We wanted to do a second run but first we had to hike back up. The hike was the biggest challenge of the day. First we had to carry our boats up a steep cliff which was tricky because I’m not very tall. Then we had to carry our boats over and around rocks, boulders and jagged cliffs. Finally we were at the top again. On the second run Geoff didn’t accompany Steve and I. When Steve ran Grace he missed the eddy where I was so I paddled out to meet him. Again I had a perfect line on the second drop before I ran the Fingers. Steve told me to boof late, pull my legs up, and lean forward. I tried to do as I was instructed and in the end I had a way better run but not the best so back up to the top.

Steve told me he would accompany me down again if I led. I said I would only lead if he caught the eddy. He caught the eddy so I had to lead him down! I was a bit scared but not much. It went perfectly. In fact, it was my best run. I was ecstatic. Steve paddled down to the play waves at O-Deck. I took one more run with Leif and Natalie and Jordan Poffenberger. It was really fun then we all joined Steve at the play waves. They were really fast and fun. After that we had the dreaded long hike back to the cars. All in all a great day!

Hurricane Sandy

Scott Martin — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 06:08:00 -0500

When hurricane season arrives in the East Coast, I get a little excited. After the long dry summer months and traveling far and wide to get to rivers, it’s kind of nice to stay local and paddle the goods close to home. Josh Grabel and myself knew this would most likely be our last few days of kayaking for 2012. We wanted to make it a good one. Having scouted the upper section of Rock Run, PA on a hot summers afternoon, we wanted to walk our boats up river as far as we could go. After a hot 30min hike up stream, we arrived at the confluence of three rivers. The rising rive levels not peaking and perfect for the run. As we floated down stream on the brown rollercoaster I tried to really enjoy every minute of the ride. I knew it was going to be a long time till my next kayak adventure. High water on a local creek, what a treat!

We returned the following day and met a bunch of guys and girl from the Pocono along with another group from Syracuse who arrived dressed in Halloween costumes from the previous nights party. Josh and I being the locals where now stoked to be sharing our hidden gem of a river with a wider audience. The small river now with a group of 8 kayaks, felt like a busy train making very few stops. Everyone was stoked with the first run we ran another quick lap regardless of the cold weather, which had arrived. A fellow from the Pocono group fired up Flooks Nook, a tight boxed in litte drop. This first attempt he made it look very forgiving and easy, his second attempt, not so much. Good times had by all and the countdown to spring starts now!

Regina Nicolradi joined us for the second day on the river to shoot some stills, a talented photographer, with a fired up sense of adventure she captured some great images from the day view her work here.

Spring Stikine

Xavier Engle — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 08:00:00 +0200

This year, all the stars came together for me to finally get into the greatest trip I've ever had the chance to do, the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. After years of trying to line up a crew, good water levels, and bastante cojones to drop in to this river, Ben Luck (a Colorado Front Ranger) and I put in for what might be the first spring descent of the Stikine, just in time to take out on Mother's Day (and not get back into cell service in time to actually call our mothers that day...oops).

I'm not going to say anything more poetic or meaningful about the Stikine than Rob Lesser, Charley Munsey, Doug Ammons, Willie Kern, or any of the other legends that have come before, so instead I'll talk about the logistics of the spring trip. It sounds a little silly to drop into the Stikine with a whole season's worth of snowpack hanging over you, but I swear, it's not that outrageous. If you look at historical flows, the Stikine tends to rise slowly starting in late winter, then sit at some level between 6000 and 14000 cfs for a few weeks to a month before going richter (usually spiking 10-20,000 cfs/day up to summer flows between 60-70k). If that flow window falls late enough that the river is unfrozen, then I reckon it's good to go. This year, Ben and I had been watching the gauge since January, and saw that it was holding steady at a low flow of 8-9000 cfs with a forecast for clear skies and constant temps. We repeatedly called the local helicopter company, which flies over the canyon pretty much daily, and got positive beta that there was no ice across the river anywhere, specifically at Site Zed and the Tanzilla Slot. We'd been training for months on the NF Payette/Animas, and were both able to get the time off of work/school, and so we went. Neither Ben nor I had run the river before, which truth be told, we both preferred. As Lesser said, "Kayakers, especially meeting the challenge of some of these legendary rivers, should not go there with a route book-let them have and meet their own challenges." We reconsidered this noble preference after we accidentally skipped the scout for Entry Falls and ran it blind...oops...but all things considered, I stand by it.

Anyway, enough chit chat. There being only two of us, we didn't get any pictures of kayaking because we ran everything together (that counts as setting safety, right?), but here's a few of the shots we did get:

Driving north through lovely spring weather, with good skiing still to be had in BC's Coast Range.

At Bell 2, less than 2 hours from the put in...with this much snow on the ground, mission dubiousness was high...

We saw a bunch of icefalls coming into the canyon, and had to scramble around on snow a little, but all the lines and eddies were blissfully ice-free.

Wasson's. Even at low flows, it's as scary as everyone says it is.

With springtime amounts of daylight, we had tons of time to hike around at Site Zed. This shot is looking downstream at the rapid, you can see our boats at the camp site.

Shirts off, drinking beer in the sun at Site Zed. Lifetime highlight.

AFP. Matt Wilson apparently once said "At some point on the Stikine, you're gonna get beat down. When it happens, you just have to deal with it." It happened to me here. Luckily, I was able to deal with it.

The Wall.

The rock at Wolf Track camp. Let it be known, whoever was here before us did NOT follow tradition, and running as loose as we were, we didn't have the necessary safety equipment to rig things up for the next group. For shame...

As luck would have it, when we came back in the fall I don't think anybody else had been back yet and the youngest member of our team had the foresight to bring appropriate gear. Thank goodness for the morality of the youth of today, for they are the bright future of our sport.

V-Drive. I've always aspired to the levitation school of kayaking, and have watched many a guru run huge rapids without taking any paddle strokes. I cashed in my lifetime levitation chips on this trip: when I hit the wave I got chucked fully over the rest of the rapid, a complete sun-shining-through-water-droplets-as-the-world-slowly-flies-by sort of experience.

Tanzilla Slot.

Benny hitching a ride at the take-out. Conveniently, there's a Mother's Day 10K in Telegraph Creek that brings in a lot of traffic (at least 10 people came all the way from Iskut!), so we were there for less than an hour before getting a ride all the way back to the get in.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about how hard this river actually is. My view is that kayaking has progressed to the point that mere mortals such as myself can reasonably aspire to the Stikine, and indeed the river gets run by multiple groups almost every year. But I would also argue that the whitewater hasn't gotten any easier, it's just that we're able to train more easily. Unlike in Lesser and Ammons' day, runs like the North Fork of the Payette and Pandora's Box are getting run by tons of people all the time, and if you seriously train on runs like those, at high flows, and are comfortable with all the shenanigans involved in expedition style/multi-day paddling trips, I'd say you're plenty qualified to drop into the Stikine. But to go without training, to approach the Stikine as "not the hardest river on earth," (even if that's technically true, given the Inga project and whatever other craziness is happening these days) is to disrespect one of the most powerful stretches of water on the planet, a river that's humbled many of the greatest kayakers in the world for more than 30 years.

The Stikine also saw its first fatality this year. I didn't know Jeff West, but by all accounts he was a great guy and a tremendous paddler. If he could come to grief on this river, anyone can.

To compare it to something people know, I'd vote (and I'm sure many would disagree) that the Stikine at low flows (~9000 cfs) is a little bigger but comes at you a little slower than the North Fork Payette (minus Jake's) at 5000 cfs; but I'd also say it's much more technical and less forgiving. At the medium-high flow we caught it at in the fall (15,000 cfs), my perspective is that it's bigger, faster, and less forgiving than the North Fork at 5000. With more rapids and colder water, in a gorge, in remote northern British Columbia. So that's what I think about that.

The Stikine is everything everyone says it is, and much, much more. Go get it.

Mesa Falls

Xavier Engle — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:56:00 +0200

So as the year draws to an end, I'm finally getting around to organizing my photos from the year, and figured I'd throw up a few posts of my 2012 season highlights. First off is Mesa Falls, outside of Driggs, Idaho. The right side of this drop has been on my hit list pretty much my whole paddling career; its first descent is featured in the opening of Valhalla, which for my money is the greatest kayaking movie segment ever made, bar none.

That first D (by Matt Wilson and somebody whose name I always forget...Snuggles? Something like that anyway) is again, for my money, the ballsiest huck ever hucked. The line goes something like this: 1) Line up on blank 65 foot horizon line with weird slidey lead-in 2) Boof like fudge 3) Land on flake 20 feet down and hopefully get kicked vertical but still in control 4) Fall behind curtain into a landing you can't see 5) Get beat down behind curtain with 1500+ cfs falling on your head 6) Roll up 7) Get out your best green Sharpie for autographs

Now that somebody else has gone first, this all seems like a much more reasonable proposition, but lighting this thing up for the first time must've been a doozey. Certainly no drift boater could possibly be prepared for such a venture.

Nate Klema (from the Front Range of Colorado) and I found an excuse to check out Mesa while beating a hasty retreat from Wyoming to the NF of the Payette. After winning (losing?) the ro-sham I fired off first, and Nate, being the guru in training that he is, got a sweet shot:

Me, being the gumby that I am, missed Nate actually running the falls, and instead got this picture of Nate paddling away after disappearing behind the curtain for 28 seconds (timed by video):

In short, good times were had by all. If you ever find yourself in the Jackson/Yellowstone area, I highly recommend a wee detour to check out this drop. For me, it's the most spectacular and unique waterfall I've ever run, and it's a privilege to run a drop that's such a stand-out part of kayaking history.

Late BC / Early Colombia

Lachlan Carracher — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 04:25:00 +0000

This Season has been kinda crazy for me. I managed to paddled allot of West Coast Classics with an amazing crew of paddlers.

Some highlights include getting my Brand New Bazooka. I was paddling a Medium Solo in California and moved to a large Bazooka for BC. I felt unstoppable in that thing. Such a sick Kayak!!! I could never really fault the Solo, loved the design and have paddled in for many years then I jumped into the Bazooka and it was like a racing car. Big holes that would usually stop me flew under my hull, I was really high on the water and going fast! Love it!!!

After a Classic Whistler Season I headed South, To Colombia. I really knew nothing about the country, whitewater or even what the Capital was! These are the best types of trips, going in deep. I did know a few good friends heading down and I knew my Friend and fellow Fluid paddler Kees had done allot down there. So off I went...... 4 weeks, No Spanish, no idea but I had my kayaking gear.

I was lucky enough to paddle a bunch of rivers, a couple of First D's, a couple of Second D's a couple of classics with far far to much water. Thanks to everyone in Colombia for helping me out, showing me around. Usually When I head to a foreign country I am pretty clued up and have done allot of research. Not this trip. I just followed my friends to the goods!!!

A few photos... Shout out to Fluid's newest team paddler Jules Domine for the photos, Along with Mr Sam Ricketts

Back in Australia now, surfing on the weekends and putting work into a major expedition departing later next year. Check out follow-the-river.com for details in the coming months!!

New Life in the White Salmon Narrows

Kate — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:35:00 +0200

The White Salmon Narrows (Lower Lower White Salmon River) is finally open! Since the removal of the Condit Dam last fall, boaters have been chomping at the bit to see what this now free flowing section has to offer. Well, here it is!