12
Sep
Last weekend was the 3rd year I made it up to New York for Beaver Fest (really there is no festival) and it was another awesome trip. Friday I met up with the Barkets’ in Harrisburg for the 6 hour drive to Colton and the search for a campsite at 1 am. The next morning we drove to the put-in of the Raquette and met up with a rather large entourage. After waiting for the release we hoped on and had a great day with some entertaining carnage.
10
Sep
Well its now September and for me that means that I’m back to work, doing my real job 🙁 and hence looking forward to that next holiday of mine – the October half term. But that seems so long away, but at least there are a few things to look forward to over the next few weeks, first up is Pyranha Fest, and not long after that is the annual BCU student safety weekend up in North Wales.
After the first quick trip to Europe with Dave, I went back again with 2 of my long term students, Cath and Jim Hill. I have worked with them on a range of UK rivers, but never had they had the experience of kayaking abroad. We randomly met up with three students, Rob, Katy and Jon, from Lancaster Uni, who were travelling around Europe for the summer in a big red van just going boating. This lucky meeting allowed us as a group to paddle a whole range of rivers far quicker, as otherwise we would have been having to try and hitch lifts etc. The series of photos below were taken in Austria and Switzerland during the second week in August.
10
Sep
Throwing out the Brown Claw on The Raquette river in upstate New York. Patrick Rogers photo…tons of photos can be found from the weekend at  www.kayakingphotos.com Thanks Patrick!
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10
Sep
The Secret Stash was first run in the mid to late 1990’s, but then was off-limits for over a decade until recent changes opened it back up to paddlers. The Secret Stash isn’t much of a secret anymore. The word is out on this one, but I’m still not going to mention it by name. The Secret Stash cannot be run without crossing private land to portage the 90 foot waterfall you see in the video. Access is currently being allowed, but could be hurt by overcrowding or by careless boaters who are unaware of the expectations of acceptable behavior.
10
Sep
check out this video Demshitz put together of the Raquette River in New York last weekend. Featuring Randy Youngbuck’s Demshitz debut. Enjoy. Raquette with Randy Video
08
Sep
Hi,
I have some news from freestyle.
Last week ICF World Cahmpionship took place in Switzerland. The wave in Thun was very changeable and not so big.
But the event ran over eficient and thaks for organizers.
More info and results: http://www.icf-thun2009.ch
03
Sep
We´ve been on mission after mission, spending days in deep coastal jungle gorges.  Now with a massive storm swell about to smash into town, things should get REALLY interesting! Stay tuned to Huckin Huge.com and follow our adventure on the news page (here). Here are some pics of the last 3 day overnighter as it took us from the Source of the river to the Pacific ocean (requiring a boat ride back to our homebase).  Footage will be featured in the HH Film´s upcoming release, HAYMAKER!
02
Sep
I closed out my month of working and paddling in Norway with a lot of work, and even more paddling. Two highlights were the Bovra Gorge and the Lower Rauma. The whole trip completely blew my mind. The paddling was great, the work was plentiful, and the rafting was fun. I was fortunate enough to meet up with fellow Pyranha man Ric Moxon from the U.K. for most of the missions.
26
Aug
Most times when I return home to visit my family in Buffalo, NY I just stash my kayaks in the backyard and figure they will sit there unused for a couple of weeks. Â Because I never knew whitewater kayaking existed as a sport while I lived there, I assumed that there was no whitewater in the area other than the obvious Niagara Falls. Â While Western NY may not be the next mecca of whitewater paddling, there certainly are opportunities to paddle some fun stuff even at the end of August without any significant rainfall. Â
25
Aug
Over the weekend Richard Brooks and I went over to the Tees Barrage in Stockton for a massive watersports festival aimed at getting people into watersports in the Teesside area. As well as loads of displays on the water including jetskis, power boats and water skiing they also put on a series of come and try it sessions for free.
Most of the people at the event had never had a chance to try kayaking or canoeing before and the queues for the sessions was massive all day and sold out pretty quickly. It was really great to see so many young kids excited by water sports and our boats on the stand were a big attraction all day.
