After years of the Peak UK Challenge series Pete Astles has decided to take a break. Step up Jim from Alpkit and a slightly changed format and you get the Plastic Fantastic Alpkit Kayak Series. Round 1 was at the River Washburn in the UK and with a Boater X, Alpjam, Freestyle and a Pyranha Speeder Race, you were guaranteed a great event!!
18
May
17
May
TEVA Extreme Mountain Games Val Sesia
Three days of competition not just in kayak, but as well in other sports like mountain running, downhill biking and bouldering and a big party made this years TEVA Extreme Mountain Games to a really entertaining event. Friday morning it started out with a team race on the Egua followed by an individual downriver race. Due to the low water levels the slalom, downriver race and the kayak cross on Saturday and Sunday all took place on the Sorba. Apart from the team race I competed in all other races an took 3rd in the overall score. For a more detailed description see http://playak.com/article.php?sid=1265.
17
May
VDKS Canoe instructor course
Two weeks ago I went to Slovenia in order to teach people to become a VDKS (Association of German canoe schooling) kayak instructor. As the timetable for this type of course is usually quite full, Marcus, Lothar and I decided to do a good morning run on the big gorge of the Soca, getting up at five and being back to camp for breakfast at eight. Seeing the big smiles in our faces the participants got quite jealous, so we promised them to run the third canyon of the upper Soca with them the next morning.
Marcus, Grit and Anna in the thrid canyon of the Soca (Slovenia)
14
May
a California low water year ain’t so bad.
We’ve hit California to see what all we can get in this record low snowpack year – and the answer is you can still get a lot of paddling in out here!
You can view our full update at www.RiverGypsies.com.
Here are some teaser photos for you:
Andria Recoiling on the Kaweah.
Leland running Zero to Sixty, Hospital Rock section of the Middle Kaweah.
More to come soon!
11
May
10
May
Oregon Cup
This drop is the first on Canyon Creek in the Oregon Cup. I took 4th in the Extreme Race. Josh Bectel took Second in Extreme and 1st in the boatercross to give him the overall win. I had to miss out on the boatercross so I had no overall ranking. Fun event hopefully more people will come out next year.
10
May
Landslide changes money drop + Ammo Video
A landslide has drastically changed the waterfall known as Money Drop. The drop is on Rock Creek in Stevenson WA, it was first run by Trip Jennings and LJ Groth. The landslide is nearly taking houses off of the cliff but the new Mini Money Drop looked to perfect to let go unrun. A few rocks were falling off of the cliff while we were there. After running the drop I quickly got out of the canyon to to avoid any more potential landslide action.
09
May