Fluid Kayaks Team

As the summer droughts came on the East Coast, dam released runs started to be the reliable way to get out and get SIK.The Upper Yough provided cool water and Class 4 rapids to wet your whistle on a hot summer day all summer. What? Who says stuff like that! As August approached, several friends of mine started discussing the possibility of taking a trip to the Green Narrows, one of North Carolina's most famous run. It's reliable dam releases give the fired up stout runners plenty of gnar to test their mettle on. We had a large group and we split up for the Saturday 24 hour release. I got to paddle with some old friends from the South and new Fluid team paddler, Christine Boush. We boofed our way down at a low flow for our first run and were met by a major thunderstorm just before lap #2. The water level came up several inches for the second run, which padded things out and made all the moves more enjoyable. On Sunday, we ran it again, this time I joined my Mid-Atlantic friends, including Fluid team paddler, Seth Chapelle. We still had a little bit of water from the thunderstorm the evening before so the level was nice and padded out. We made our way down through the early drops to Go Left. This drop features a boof off a log and then an 8 foot drop that lands in a narrow crack. There was a little carnage here but everyone made it through without any harm. All's well that ends well! What does that even mean?! Soon, we were out at one of the biggest regularly run drops on the East Coast, Gorilla. It is a big enough rapid that I'm always a little nervous whenever I run it. The scariest part is the Notch, where the creek goes through a 3 foot wide slot and through a chaotic, boily drop. Once through this, the channel stays narrow, turns left, and ramps off a 20 foot drop onto a slide that ends in a sizeable hole. After a short pool, the run continues down another steep series of slides. Acing your line is key because a mistake could really be painful. I fired it up as I had twice the day before and launched a HUGE boof off the lip! Oh Yesh! It was SCHWEEEEEEEETTTT!!!! I was stoked and climbed up the bank to talk my buddies into running the drop. I had two takers, Chris Heim and Seth, and they both had sweet lines. We continued downstream through more sweet slides and a tight 12 foot waterfall called the Groove Tube. We scouted Sunshine, a junky 15 foot drop that can be boofed hard right or left while risking varying degrees of rock bashing. I boofed right and slightly mistimed my stroke so that I penetrated the water at the bottom. I was a little worried about hitting bottom but I found the deep pocket and landed smoothly. I shot into the cave behind the falls and did a little celebrating before heading downstream.The rest of the run had us launching many schweet boofs to close out another successful trip to the Green. BUT...The trip wasn't over. We got word that it had rained in West Virginia so we headed back past the Blackwater River. We woke up early and fired off low water North Fork and Upper Blackwater runs! Oh yeah! Those runs always bring a smile to my face!

I spent the weekend in Vermont helping with a flow study for the Green River. There were four releases over the weekend, each release a different flow and after each lap we would provide feedback on the water level and river experience. This beta will help American Whitewater and a dedicated team who initiated the project, to work with the dam company to facilitate scheduled releases in the future. Enjoy the photos from the weekend.

At the end of this summer, right before I had to head back to school and be something like responsible, my friend Jack Carter and I made a trip north to find some sweet waves and holes to surf. It was a quick trip but a really fun one. We paddled all day for many days in row til we could hardly move because we were so tired. If you can imagine what your arms would feel like after trying to arm wrestle Chuck Norris than you might have idea the kind of tired I'm talking about. Anyways, here are some pics from the trip and at the end of the post is a sweet little edit that Jack put together with the footage we shot. Huge ups to Jack for the editing and for bringing his GoPro and 7D which we used for all the filming. Great trip for sure. Enjoy!

Jack at the Lorne/Garberator put-in on the Ottawa German Fluid team paddler Sven Perschmann - I randomly met Sven one evening on the Ottawa. It was really great to meet him and get to paddle together a little bit. He was looking really good on the waves. Sven doing a clean blunt on Corner Wave We spent a night camping at Matt Hamilton's house near the Ottawa. His house was in sweet location and I loved the boats mounted on the front of his garage. Habitat/Expo 67 wave in Montreal - Attracts many kayakers and surfers alike. Sunset Sesh at Lachine on the St Lawrence Seaway. PanAm on "Big Joe" at Lachine And here's the video. Check it out. Jack did a great job with it. Lots of sweet time lapses and good paddling.

Also Huge thanks to North American fluid distributor Marc Tohir for letting Jack and I stay in his Montreal apartment while we were there. That was really nice. Stellar trip all around and I can't wait to get back up there next year :)

-Seth