Fluid Kayaks Team

Team paddler Charlie Mix checking in.

When most people think of Alabama, they think trailer parks, tornadoes, and confederate flags. Not beautiful 500 foot deep canyons, mountains, and burly class V drops. Little River Canyon is a beautiful gorge nestled in the foot hills of the Appalachian mountains in the northeast corner of the state. LRC offers all of this; including confederate flags.

The truth is Little River Canyon is just the tip of the ice berg of hidden gems that Alabama has to offer to the adrenaline seeking enthusiast. During the peak of the season, winter and spring, one can almost always count on Little River to be at a runnable flow. This makes it a great place to train for creek boating. It offers large technical rapids and waterfalls to challenge even the most experienced paddlers and also has easier rapids for those that are just learning how to boof and rally.

Each water level offers it's own set of challenges and dangers. Little River Canyon is an excellent place to get comfortable boofing over sieves and undercuts in normal Alabama fashion.

As stated, this is only a sample paddling that Alabama offers. There's a variety of steep creeks that flow into the canyon itself and in the rest of the state.

Here are some pics of Little River Canyon at a low flow:

Charlie Mix entering Terminal Eddy

Tuck on Pin Ball

Another 'Bama Boy, Tyler Phillips, on Humpty Dumpty

Yours truly at Pin Ball

all pics taken by me and Ben Berhard.

For more info on Alabama kayaking go to: www.alabamawhitewater.com and check out my blog: www.bama-boys.blogspot.com.

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the season.

-Charlie Mix

Hi all,

We're very happy to introduce Natalie Kramer as a new Fluid ambassador for North-America. Natalie is definetely a very avid paddler, equally at ease hucking waterfalls in the Solo and airblunting her Nemesis on the M-Wave.

Here's what Natalie says about joining Team Fluid:

I am very excited to be joining by fiancee, Leif Anderson, on the ranks of the Fluid Kayak Team. I have been greatly impressed with how the fluid boats paddle, especially the medium solo. I love paddling through tight, technical and gorges which never fail to astound me in their beauty. I also really enjoy big wave surfing and the mad air that comes with it. One of my goals as a female paddle is to inspire more of my gender to make the jump from class III to class V; becoming a fluid team member will definitely help me work towards this goal . I have posted a web album on Picasa of my favorite photos which you can view by following this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nettleus/NatalieSChoicePics2009?feat=directlink

You can also check out my (and Leif's) kayak blog at www.leifandnatalie.blogspot.com.

Leif and I have many trips planned in the near future including a trip to the White Nile this December. Hopefully I will get to meet some more of the team while I am there!

Take care,

Natalie

Welcome onboard Natalie! No doubt we'll hear more about those two in the near future. Here are a few action shots of Natalie. Pretty impressive!

Look mom no paddles

I started hand paddling rather abruptly and unsuccessfully after loosing my paddle on a class 5 run. The carcass of my boat is still lying next to the Shirley in Norway. The silver lining is that I was alive to nurture my bruised ego. What followed was a terrible few months without a boat, during which I got so desperate that I was often forced to borrow Piranha boats from friends while waiting for a proper boat to be ship from the Fluid factory. The lesson was clear. Learn the basic of hand paddling. Sooner or later you will find yourself up a creek without a paddle. It was way to cold in Norway to really experiment but as soon as I got to the Nile I thought I would take a week to learn the basic’s with my state of the art NRS web gloves. (liberated from my previous employer and promoted from their commercial body boarding duties.)

A video of Hendri running some Norwegian creeks, handpaddling

I immediately realized how absolutely terrified I was at not being able to roll instantly. I learnt to paddle on the Zam, where you could run almost anything with a good roll. ( almost, I have scars to prove it) The confidence of a good roll is pretty much what my boating is based on. Suddenly I had neither confidence or a good roll. I could hardly remember the last time I had missed two rolls back to back. Now I went down the river floundering from left to right in search of a great big gulp of air to power the next round of splashing about. Small rapids consisting of two parts became mayor challenges. Long rapids became multi-sports event of freediving and swimming. Turns out pro kayaking is for pussies, if you want real terrorization go kayaking without a bomb proof roll.

My sudden and rapid decent back to gumby status wasn’t pretty but in a sick sort of way it was fun. In my new world I got “the buzz” from most rapids. There was no need to risk my life anymore. I had my hands full with the commercial rafting run. I started leaving the paddles at home more but it wasn’t until I swapped the gloves for some proper Power Paws that I realized there was more to hand paddling than a bit of fun. Apart from the fact that I feel like The Wolverine every time I strap those bad boys on there are some other pretty cool aspects. Rolling? fugedaboutit. Any place, anytime. It is two paddle blades for support instead of one. Submerged into a seam line or melting the top drop? Paddles don’t come close, dual suspicion wins every time. Boof? Latino style baby, slap your hands down like you mean it, thrust your hips and send postcards to the ladies. Running waterfalls? Say goodbye to those nose breakers on a misplaced shaft. Lose my paddles? I don’t think so. They are strapped to my hands. It takes the Shirley episode that got me into hand paddling in the first place out of the equation.

Which bring me to a important question, Will I run the Shirley with hand paddles? To be honest I would rather have my paddle, but that’s just because I am not tough enough, yet. One day when I am big (and on a lowish flow) I hope to do so. Hand paddling is fine for creaking and big water, in some case preferable. The most notable drawback is powering through holes. You simple don’t have the punching power, meaning you have to avoid them. A clever trick on that off-road track called the Shirley.

Which brings us to why? Why give up all that leverage? Why loose all that power? Why make it harder?

One answer is simplicity. By removing the paddle you become closer to the water, which was the original goal in kayaking after all. By having both hands in the water you can feel the currents better, and rotate your body around them more intimately. The fact that you have less power makes you boat smarter. I would like to say that hand paddling has made me a better boater but to be honest it probable hasn’t. It has only made my hand paddling better. The best thing hand paddling did for me was to force me to re-read the local runs and to recalculate my limits. Dressing kayaking up in a brand new red ribbon.

It has taken me a while but for the first time now I feel that I can run almost at the same level without a stick that I can with one. Not that it matters one bit. I am learning as much as I did in the first few years and having more fun in my boat than I have for years.

In fact now that i think about it, paddles are probable for girls...

first post up on the junction, so i think i owe everyone at least a little introduction. no worries, i'll include some shots to make this more fun too... sven perschmann. 26 years old. german.

i've been boating for thirteen years now (really? wow, sounds like a lot when you actually write it down...) and am now at a point in my life where i kinda focus all around the river. i'm writing this from the banks of the mighty ottawa during a little bit of spare time between rafting, kayakinstructing and boating my face off on some of the worlds sweetest waves! kayaking has brought me to a lot of sick places all over europe so far, as well as canada and last winter to costa rica. living the riverbum style is doing fine for me right now, just planing my winter in new zealand. bring on the goods!

the last few years i've been paddling with riot kayaks, which was sweet while it lasted. so thanks to everyone there, hope you guys get back on two feet. however, it was time for a change this year and luckily i was able to spend quite a bit of time in daniel krummreich's fluid nemesis m. i was sold. so i tried and somehow convinced david and celliers that i really need to paddle their boats from now on!

after tons of emails, a roadtrip to vermont and some awesome smuggling i am now the proud owner of a wonderful pink nemesis and this huge solo l. and so happy with it! the first time i tried out the nemesis was on buseater. i guess almost everyone in the playboating world knows this wave since "dynasty" and at least since the worlds 2007? for anyone who doesn't, buseater is a super dynamic wave with a face of up to 12 ft depending on levels, eddy access and just twenty minutes away from owl rafting, where i work.

coming from an astro 58, which is quite the big/forgiving boat with my 180lb, i wasn't quite prepared for the nemesis on my first rides. being just as fast it was so much more edgy and bouncy! after a few rides i had it figured out though and it proved to be an amazing platform. within the first day i managed to stick more new tricks than in the whole last year! especially combos are so much easier! on big waves the nemesis really wants to take off again immediately after landing. flash forward to backstab, bread'n butters, ka-y's... after buseater slowly disappeared with sinking levels i tried the boat on smaller waves, too. same thing. it rocks. and even for riverrunning it's great. the kickrocker keeps your nose from pearling, inspiring confidence on those bigwater lines we have in spring.

well, and as the summer went by i had the boat out so much, got it into a little comp against the jackson clan and could keep up, had people try it out and got wicked responses from everyone. there's actually a whole bunch of fluids out on the ottawa now, and that river needs more variety for sure! now that the season is over and i am organizing myself for the winter it feels weird to leave the boat behind in canada. but then, when i look at my SOLO i just get pumped for another summer. this time full of creeking!

anyways, here's a few shots from the summer... enjoy...

montreal, habitat 67, surfing is sooo dynamic... picture micha schomann, freestylefoto.org

garburator! been waiting for that wave all summer. came in in september! picture micha schomann, freestylefoto.org

cornerwave. just love this shot. picture tiia koskela

dragon's tongue, ottawa. picture fernando torres

elevator shaft, ottawa. picture fernando torres

buseater. did i say edge? picture john jennex

bussy. picture caley mulholland

iron ring, ottawa, high water picture fernando torres

BIG BUS! picture emre bosut

buseater. picture emre bosut

peace,

Sven