07
Dec
03
Dec
The fall of 2010 has been especially dry in the southeastern United States, leaving boaters to rely on dam release runs we waiting for the rains to return. For north Alabama, the fall of 2010 has been the exact opposite of the fall of 2009. In 2009 the rains came back in force in mid September and provided consistent natural flow into early June 2010. However, at the end of the first week of June, things dried up and there have been very few natural flow events since… until this week!
Early this week, northern Alabama received around four inches of rain over the course of two days. By Tuesday morning the ground was thoroughly saturated and the rain was still coming down in copious sheets. Despite the formerly low water table, rivers and creeks everywhere sprang to life. Flows in Little River Canyon went from 50 CFS to 8,000 CFS in less than a day. As the rivers emerged from there long hibernation, so did the network of boaters across the southeast. I think I received more calls, e-mails, and text about boating in two days than I did in the previous two months combined; everyone was beyond amped!
01
Dec
On Saturday the 20th of November, Means of Production 2 premiered in Leeds for the 150 people lucky enough to obtain tickets.
At 7 o’clock, the crowd began to gather in the bar.
at 8:15 everyone is seated, the room is packed, and Tony Bilbow (Means of Production narrator) gets the crowd warmed up before introducing the film.
Approximately 69 minutes later and Nick Horwood hugs a very relieved Max Bilbow; the film, it seems, is a sockeroo!
Then, as in Mop premiers past, it’s off to our private room at Tiger Tiger where dress code begins to deteriorate as expected.
It appears that Andrea (Max’s mum) has been caught in the same outfit as someone else… how awkward.
Fun times had by all,
A great big thanks to Leeds University Canoe Club for organising the event, and to all the wonderful people who made the night a complete success… a sockeroo!
Photos: Paul Wilkinson – http://pwilkinson.net/
Pre-order Means of Production 2 now from www.mopmovie.com – Expected UK delivery: Just in time for Christmas
DVD CONTENT
Means of Production 2 (approximately 69 minutes)
BONUS FEATURES
* 2x Promotional trailers
* The Making of MOP2 documentary
* Slow motion headcam edit
* Deleted Scenes
* Sat Nav Sam music video
* 5 hidden bonus features to search for!
MUSIC BY
* Ugly Duckling
* Frank Turner
* Sat Nav Sam
* Kae Sun
* Hurricane Sunday
* The Dub Dentist
* Danny Pig
* No Change
* Chris (the man in a hat) martin
* The Screaming Citizens
* David Benassi
28
Nov
So far our trip has been quite amazing. Paddling everyday, mostly warm weather, and good flows. Here is a video from a trip we took a few weeks ago up to the very very beautiful Rio Claro. This is an edit by Fred Norquist. CLICK HERE! Also if you are traveling south and need a place to stay right on the Trancura river check out Pucon Kayak Hostel. Its nice to be right on the river!
22
Nov
For those that don’t know, the first of the modern day British Universities Kayaking Expeditions was in 2005 with a successful month-long trip to Kyrgyzstan. Since then, the expeditions have gone ahead every other year with the destination in 2007 being Siberia/Mongolia, and in 2009 to Vietnam.
The selection process happens the year before the expedition takes place, and after getting through a first round of paper applications, twenty contenders are invited to a selection event in North Wales. The selection event for the 2011 expedition took place last weekend, and despite an unfortunate lack of the wet stuff, it was a great success…
Everyone congregated in a small mountain hut in North Wales on Thursday evening and got to know each other over a beer or four, with the banter continuing long into the early hours. Friday saw us awake with less than four hours of sleep, and making the most of any water we could find. Multiple laps of the Glaslyn gorge were the order of the day, including a hand-paddling only descent and a 25 person mass start Boater-X.
19
Nov
It’s been raining hard for the last 12 hours. It’s coming in sideways and it’s cold. So, unlike the past 2 weeks of go go GO…we’re sitting around drinking yerba matte, eating bananas, letting our bodies recuperate, and catching up with the world.  Here’s a quick photo re-cap of our Chile experiences thus far. Fred’s busy making edits. So, the goods are yet to come.
15
Nov
Click here to watch a short collection of video highlights from this years Pyranha Fest!
Enjoy and see you at Pyranha Fest 2011!
12
Nov
Pyranha Fest is an annual event which draws huge numbers of like minded paddlers to the banks of the mighty Tryweryn in North Wales.
The event is hugely popular with huge numbers of paddlers attending from all areas of the U.K. Pyranha Fest is held over two days with coaching sessions ranging from Introductory courses to advanced river skills taking place over the weekend,
Saturday saw a range of coaching courses taking place through out the morning with all participants learning new skills and generally having a good time on the water, there was a break from the courses around mid day which allowed time for a fun freestyle competition on cafe wave, it featured a crowd based judging and a variety of moves were thrown an what is a very small and shallow wave, from paddle spins to Pistol flips and everything in between, Josh Wedgewood emerged as the winner, with little Jonny Williams in second and my self in third.
Whilst me and Sam Ward went off to coach another freestyle session the boater x took place, I wasn’t there to witness it but i, sure there would have been a huge amount of carnage as always, as far as I know the results for the boater x where, 1st – Tom Wakeling, 2nd Dave “spaghetti arms” Bain and Pete Scutt in 3rd
A huge game of King of the Wave brought an interesting conclusion to the day, with Dave George taking on a raft . . . you can probably guess how it ended…
That evening everybody met up at Glann Llyn centre for food, limited edition Pyranha Ale and tales of paddling in far off lands, Max Bilbow premiered – Means of Production 2. The party soon kicked of and was on well into the night, Dave Cusick and Matt Bostock provided some entertainement by turning up dressed as boats.
The following morning a slightly more hungover group of paddlers met up to paddle or take part in the courses on offer, there where no competitions on Sunday probably due to severe head aches and nausea.
All in all it was a great event and I can’t wait for next year !
10
Nov
Kayaking isn’t only about paddling gnarl. One of the most rewarding things that I have found about doing the sport we love is the ability to go to different countries and to see a side of life that very few tourists see. A rivers-eye-view!
photos by Bjarne Sahlen, Sara James Adam Dumolo, and me!
07
Nov
The Isel River in Austria is a famous big water river in Austria, in the last week we had a very low water level on the river, so we had the chance to paddle the upper gorge, which is paddled not very often. The problem is that mostly there is too much water for this section. The gorge is very beautiful, but very cold in November and also hard whitewater and some difficult portages.
The first look ….
This is the must-run slide, also scouting from waterlevel is not possible…
Daniel Herzig on the first portage…
scouting the line from the big slide agsin from Daniels Cam… from here you can onty see the edge…
Big must run slide !!!
The hurtable exit drop !!
Beautiful gorge , but very cold ..
this is a picture of the lower Isel section in summer..
Thanks to: Reiner Glanz, David Krismayr and Daniel Herzig for this sweet trip !!
