The Yough Defense party at the Falls City Pub was a great success. Â Money was raised to help preserve the Yough watershed. Â Thanks to all involved in making this happen. Â The Fern Cliff Collective kept the party bumpin playing all night long. Â I really enjoyed the band. Â Not only where they very talented, but Jess Hartman (rhythm guitar) is a long time kayaking partner of mine. Â It was good to see those guys tearin it up, I was very impressed. Â Here is a video form the party and some kayaking on the Yough.
13
Nov
Pyranha Standing Tall at the 09 Green Race
Man, what a sick event! Â The green race is straight up grass roots. Â From the first racer out of the blocks to the bitter end of the after party. Â Speaking of the after party, this was one of the best parties I have been to all year, kick ass for sure! Â I, myself, didn’t go all that fast. Â I hit some rocks, ran some stuff backwards, caught the notch eddy, anyway you get my point. Â However, Pyranha did have three paddlers in the top ten; Â Dustin, Rob, Jerry and Eric with a impressive 3rd place. Â Here is a quick video showcasing demshitz.
12
Nov
The Making of Haymaker – Puerto Vallarta, MX
Long awaited update from the Puerto Vallarta, MX mission. Enjoy the ‘making of’ video and some free stuff, @ huckinhuge.com!
12
Nov
12
Nov
First Narrows Race
Exactly three years to the day I watched my first Green Race I found myself in the Gallimore parking lot with my 10 foot purple Pyranha Mountain 300 listening to Jason Hale shout out his renown pre-race messages. It was amazing to see so many great boaters who have helped form the history of the Green, and humbling as well.
I had one goal for the day: to finish the race. After shoulder surgery in January, I had started running Gorilla in August only to aggravate the joint again. I had put in close to 40 runs of Gorilla when the week before the race I made the discovery that I had lost enough range of motion that I couldn’t sweep my paddle out to roll on my right side.
I swam out of the bottom of Gorilla two days in a row after a perfect season. It was devastating and brought a lot of self doubt and humiliation.
I knew I had put the time in and could run every line on the river forward and backwards.
Knowing that Tommy Hillike would be setting live bait at the bottom of Gorilla added that extra bit of confidence. I was going to come up one way or another.
At 12:52, I jetted out from the pool above Frankenstein and was off. It was amazing, my focus was clear, lungs and muscles burning, I set up for the notch. My strategy was to go left of center off the launch pad to miss speed trap at the bottom but I went a little too deep in the notch. My line off the pad was great, but when I flipped at the bottom and set up to roll, I realized my boat was FULL of water. As the live bait crew grabbed me, it became apparent I had a skirt implosion somewhere between the notch and the trough. They helped me bail my boat, plopped me back in, and I tore off to finish the race with a less than ideal time of 7:20.
After hours and hours of training, I was disappointed with the implosion, but at the same time, considered myself fortunate that I was able to finish and be a part of such a cool event.
The biggest part of me wanted to hike back up and get a redo…. but I guess I’ll have to wait till next year.
www.boushkanaka.com
11
Nov
Off to Bhutan – Drangme Chu Expedition! Back soon, we hope!
Lots of Rocks
In about 7 hours I am off to Bhutan!
I will meet up with Mike Abbott in Bangkok and then head up to Bhutan to catch up with the team. We are off to Eastern Bhutan, a long bumpy ride away to the Drangme Chu.
We completed the 1st D of the Same river, where it starts up in India 2 years ago so it is nice to approach from this side and complete the story. In Arunachal it it called the Tawang Chu, that story took us 5 days and a bit of a hike out just before the Bhutan border.
This time, just in case we have to carry anything on any portages we thought we would take some customers! That’s right, its a rafting Expedition. We have 2 paddle rafts with willing clients. They are in for hell of a ride, as the river looks pretty full on until further down near India, so we will see what happens!
I will post a report when we get back and I am sure this will be a grand tale to tell!
You can see more about this trip HERE
10
Nov
Tyne Tour 09
The first weekend in November heralds the Tyne Tour in Hexham, North East England.
The event is a big gathering of folks to descend the North Tyne and other local rivers depending on rainfall. On Saturday evening, there is a big Ceilidh, this is similar to what I imagine line dancing to be but heaps better and without the hats.
We took the Pyranha demo fleet up including a couple of new 2010 Burns. These got a lot of interest and a brilliant reception; keep your eyes peeled for this one!
The rest of the fleet, the Karnali’s, Z:1’s & Ammo’s are still as popular as ever with people queuing at 7.30 am to get their hands on one!
Here is Glenn Tomlinson playing on the North Tyne weir, all similes in the new Burn! Cheers for the photo Glenn!
Dancing the night away! Many thanks to Paul Wilkinson for this photo. For more brilliant photos from Paul click here!
The next event is the Gene17 Adventure Paddler’s weekend in December, the demo fleet will be out again and members of Team Pyranha GB will be there to badger about outfitting, boat design, technique or inspiration for your 2010 trip plans.
08
Nov
New in 2010 NZ play wave
Just a quick message to everyone who plans on making a trip to NZ in the future. Plans are in process for river enhancements on the humble Hawea river nr Wanaka. Work should start this summer. This will add the perfect link from Fiordland to the west coast.
Great news. All the consents have been approved and things are looking good for later this summer. Scott Shipley is in control of the design and building. 3 enhancements in total are planned with the first to be build next year and the rest, the following  year. It will be designed to work at all flows, 10 to 200 cumecs. This will give all year round boating!
06
Nov
Dave Fairweather Caption Competition
Answers on a postcard to Sammy at Pyranha. Best one wins a packet of hobnobs, kindly donated by tomparkercoaching.co.uk
02
Nov
Fall boating in PA
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So while the rest of demshitz is either in south america running stouts or north carolina training for the green race I am stuck in Pennsylvania. To my luck it rained enough to bring up some steep creeks that i have been running since i started creek boating.Â
Davids Falls
randy youngbuck on davids
sequence of me running flirting with disaster. Its a drop that falls completely on rocks. my friend eli landhis ran this first a couple of years ago. since then it has become a drop that is regularly run.