Since my last post, some kind of winter did come by, we had a few good days in the snow, but i never stopped dreaming of paddling.
This weekend was rainy and warm again, so i called up two friends, ron and luc, and quickly we decided to head to marco schlink in freiburg, and go paddle in the black forest, where rivers generally only get water in wintertime.
I was specially excited, because it would be my first time in my AMMO S.
08
Mar
Black forest weekend
06
Mar
Last Mexico Trip Reports from Jan ’07
Sorry for the delay – we’ve been super busy with marketing our yoga products and putting together a fly fishing guidebook. It’s not all fun and games – we have to make money so that we can keep on boating and traveling!
Part 3 of the trip report contains fun river running and playboating action in the Recoil and Ammo.
Part 4 has some remote wilderness boating back in our Burns.
Click the link to read the full trip report: www.RiverGypsies.com
Mexican raft guide Vincente enjoying surfing the Recoil.
Big grins surfin the Ammo on the Actopan.
Leland wilderness boating on the Tatempa section of the Rio Bobos.
05
Mar
C1 on the Tees
With most of the South of England under water we thought we’d try and find some water up in the North East. Originally we’d planned to try and get a run on the River Swale with it’s large ish drops and adrenaline pumping ride. Unfortunately the levels dropped too much so we ended up on the classic run that is the High Force to Low Force section of the River Tees.
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01
Mar
28
Feb
The Ashlu River Spirit…Winning NPFF!
A couple months back, Todd Gillman (fellow partner in The Range Life) called me suggesting that I try to crank something out for the National Paddling Film Festival. On a short timeframe (9 days!) I started to edit some of the footage from the summer that we had shot and eventually came up with a 12 minute edit titled “BC Summer 2006”. It was not quite what I wanted, having some additional footage from several other missions I wanted to include, but nevertheless I got it in the mail.
Came home two days ago to another call from Todd saying that I had won “best overall” at the NPFF. So stoked on this! Here is a link to the winning film
All the footage we shot in the Ashlu this Summer was the icing on the cake I think. Such a fun project. Here is a shot of the zip line rig we used for the aerial shots.
photo copyright Todd Gillman
19
Feb
In de-Nile of Winter
Once again, I decided to escape the cold, and head for the White Nile. I’ve been here for almost a week, getting back in shape to paddle C-1 and getting settled in. Here are a couple pictures the wave at “Ugly Sisters” from the first week- expect more over the next 5 weeks.
For more of the story, surf over to www.ChasingRain.com
08
Feb
Little White
Got a break from Eugene to head back to HR for the weekend and paddle with the Crew. Lana Young took this photo you can check more of her photos at lanayoung.com. After I ran it Erik Boomer swam over it Jason Hale style, it went well he just hurt his ears from going so deep but atleast he didnt have to swim over chaos.
05
Feb
More Mexico – Santa Maria and Alseseca
Here’s a couple more pics from Mexico – this time from the Santa Maria and Alseseca roadside run. You can read our full trip report on the Alseseca and the Cascada de Tamul section on the Santa Maria at www.RiverGypsies.com.
Andria B. and Emily Mahowald at Cascada de Tamul.
Photo by Leland.
Leland on an Alseseca tributary.
Photo by Ben Edson / Downstreamphoto.com.
Leland
29
Jan
A little bit of Mexico Action.
We’re recently back from a few weeks in Mexico researching for our new North American guidebook. It was a great opportunity to take a break from winter and play around in the Recoil and the Ammo while leaving the neck gaskets behind!
The first report has the Cascadas Micos – a super-fun class III run full of travertine slides and drops. The water was warm, and you could take your playboat! I had a great time Recoiling it. Here’s a cool pic from the Micos. You can link over to Rivergypsies.com to see the full trip report from the Micos and some slightly heavier creeking action on the Salto.
Leland and Andria doing the Recoil/Ammo tandem slide on the Cascadas Micos.
Photo by Ben Edson / Downstreamphoto.com.
Have fun out there and stay warm!
Leland