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27
Nov

Austrian authum

So.. still no snow in the austrian alps. But waterlevels are quite low.

But we are lucky to have some park and huck spots around that we can paddle vertical meters, also with low water.

 

Very clean drop. Hucking down the Shiva :)           Pic: Daniel Egger

 

Another sweet pic from the Stromboding Waterfall. This is also the new banner for the Kajakladen.com Store in Germany !

Hope you all will have enough water the next months

 

Cheers !!

Robert

www.vboyz.at

27
Nov

Conwy & Lledr Videos

Hi guys, just a quick one, we have a couple of videos from the Fairy Glen section of the Conwy and the Lledr both near Betws y Coed North Wales.

Cheers

 

Andy

26
Nov

SAS Hurley Rodeo 2012

After many years of cancellations and disappointing waterlevels, this year’s Hurley Rodeo was back with full force. The River gods smiled on us, and there were perfect waterlevels: Hurley Weir was on three gates. Kayakojacko put great deal of effort into organising the event, and there was a full program. An open event counting towards the British Freestyle League (3 x 45 second rides, best two score) took place on Saturday, and a mixed ability heat, jam session format (15 minutes of paddling with each participate paddling in order, all moves count) on the Sunday. Competitors from as far afield as Russia, Norway, Spain and the Czech Republic attended making the standard truly world-class.
As well as these main events, there was a boater-cross on Saturday. A massive ramp was erected to allow those without too much vertigo to get a flying start and then paddle the slalom course to touching the flag at the end. Team Pyranha paddler David Bain took home the trophy of course. There were also off the water lectures to entertain and educate such as the psychology of performance lecture from Mally, local academic on the subject. The EA also gave a presentation on the way that the river Thames is managed to give us Thames Valley boaters more of an insight to the waterlevels that are a constant source of fascination.
On Saturday evening there was a well-attended banquet with a prize giving for Saturday’s competition as well as some “community” prizes for members of the Thames Valley local community. Of course the highlight of the event was the Pyranha JED which was on offer to one lucky entrant into the classic. All participant’s in the competition for the JED voted for another unsponsored paddler they considered deserving of the boat. Nick Worsley won after canvassing almost everyone at the Rodeo.
Thanks goes to TV Freestylers and Kayakojacko for organising and to SAS for allowing us to use the land by the river for the event.

 

25
Nov

Lunch Counter

It’s only taken me 5 Months to get around to editing this footage, but looking back, paddling the Jed on the Lunch Counter wave on the Snake River was probably two of the best days of paddling I had this year.  Here’s a short video, with a couple of shots of the Loki thrown in to mix it up.

Lunch Counter Stout Blunt

Lunch Counter Stout Blunt

Lunch Counter Flashback

Lunch Counter Flashback

21
Nov

Fusion Summer – Part I: Hells Canyon

Below: Adam Goshorn by John Kern
Early in the spring I really thought I had my summer plans all figured out.  A friend had won a permit for a June launch on the Middle Fork of the Salmon and I had accepted the invitation to join her for a 5-day, self-supported run.  I planned to extend my time out west by following the trip on the M.F.S. with another self-support run with my brother the following week.  My brother had been learning to kayak over the past few summers and was very interested in doing his first self-supported river.  Wanting him to have a low-stress trip for his first overnighter, we set our sites on obtaining permits for a couple different easy multi-day runs in Utah. 
 
Below:  Roadtripping by John Kern

16
Nov

A Megha kayaking destination

Back in August and September I spent a good six weeks in Uttarakhand kayaking and spending a lot of time with Shalabh Gahlaut. A firm belief Shalabh holds is India may have the best kayaking in the world, it just needs to be found. I agree. India is already known for its big volume in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, but in recent years more and more groups have been coming to India for creeking. After leaving Uttarakhand we picked an area which has all the right factors to make a great area for steep whitewater; hills and rain. In fact Meghalaya boasts of being the wettest place on earth during their monsoon, and once recieved 26 meters of rain in one year!!! Oddly enough no previous groups of kayakers have clocked onto this beautiful recipie, which has made us the first ever group of boaters to this state.

We however are not the first group of water-types to boat here. We ended up meeting Zorba Laloo, a packrafter from Shillong, Meghalaya, who has been getting out with a small group of friends doing some of the easier runs in the area, which meant we were able to start the trip with a bang on a somewhat low, but still exciting run on Wah Rymben.

Packrafting: An utterly ridiculous sport!

The kayaking hasn’t all been easy, the top of the plateau here is between 1,000-1,500m altitude and the rivers all finish at around 50m on the Bangladesh border. One lesson we learned the hard way is full descents here are unlikely to be good. After a day and a half of some solid steep creeking on Wah Umngot we were faced with a 160m set of walled in waterfalls and a two day walk out through thick jungle.

Just before the Umngot went mental

Walking out through steep jungle

HOWEVER, we have also found gold. The Kynshi river was one recommended to us by a local fisherman after seeing some of our footage. After writing off 75% of the upper stretches which dropped insane gradient we managed to paddle three days of incredible, remote, sometimes steep, other times big volume class 4/5. It was so good we did it twice.

Drop on day one of the Kynshi

The ‘sneak line’ on a rapid on day 1

The main line

Day three and still epic whitewater

We did leave some stuff un-run. This would be an incredible drop with just a bit less water

We are now relaxing in Shillong about to make our way back to the UK, sad to be leaving but excited for the future of Meghalayan paddling. Zorba and crew are now stocked with three Everests and plans are already underway for a 2013 trip to high water Meghalaya.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, it might be the only place in India where you can get a decent fry up, trust me, I’ve been looking for a while:

An old Khasi saying goes: ‘if Adam and Eve were from Meghalaya, they would have eaten the snake.’

12
Nov

Loki vs the Inazone and Prozone on the Tallulah Gorge

The Tallulah River in north Georgia is a playground full of blunt and spin waves, cartwheel holes, rock spins, eddy lines, and splats on the vertical gorge walls. Its a great river for slicey playboats like the Loki, so the weekend Tyler Mayo, AJ Matthews, Matt Redmond and Myself took a quiver of boats including the Loki, InaZone and ProZone down there, along with my brother and my dad making it a family affair.

Tyler squirting the Prozone below Oceana

From the eddy at the put in and all the way down the river, I could not stop doing stern squirts on every eddy line. The stern on the Loki slices under the water like a wing and is easy to get vertical and easy to stay there. For paddling downriver, the Tallulah’s continuous class IV boulder gardens were a great test for its capabilities. The Loki is surprisingly fast, and its continuous rocker from bow to stern makes it boof really well. In the hole, cartwheels are buttery smooth, and as well as blasting back and forth across the hole. The wave at ampitheatre is fast and steep with a nice foam pile at the top, which made clean spins, backstabs and blunts all possible. The Loki was great for carving up a front surf but was also nice and loose for spinning. It would release perfectly after bouncing for a blunt as well!

Splating the gorge wall at Tanners launch

Here is what Tyler Mayo had to say after hopping in the Loki: “The Prozone 235 is one of my favorite boats.  I paddle it all the time and have the time of my life doing all the fun old school moves  squirts, splats, rock spins etc.  But after paddling the Loki on the Tallulah this weekend I was truly blown away.  The Loki is pretty much the perfect slicy playboat.  It does everything all my other slicy boats can do except that its way more comfortable and much easier to paddle.  It might just be time to add a new boat to the quiver.”

Myself in the Loki at Oceana center line

While you are not going to be winning modern freestyle competitons or racing down the Green, if you are into using river features, getting creative, and having fun all the way down the river, the Loki is a sweet boat!

Big thanks to AJ Matthews and Lisa Lucas for the awesome photos

 

Tyler in the Prozone at Oceana

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Lucas, Matt Redmond, AJ Matthews, Tyler Mayo, Clay Lucas, Barry Lucas

 

 

 

12
Nov

losing focus, ended season

You probably came to a moment when you portaged one rapid, telling yourself that you would eventually run it later. That moment came first on the Mastigouche lac Sainte-Rose, 2 years ago. I saw the huge horizon line, didnt feel the last hole/mush and said to myself “lets come back later”.

With more experience and skills, this year felt just natural to go back and try this run. Beside, I was showing around the goods around Quebec to Simon Roy, native from Gaspesia. we did a quick stop to Mastigouche Nord to run a minimum-low level of the last 2 rapids then drove only 10 minutes to the other run, Mastigouche Lac Sainte-Rose.

Too much excited about the upcoming afternoon on the river, I stopped the car  halfway in the steep dirt road and told the guys we would just have a quick look to the slide. Only 2-3 steps before the river..it happened…

A pile of leaves were covering a crack between 2 rocks…my ankle got in and snap! It was too late. Laying on the ground with a huge pain coming all the way up in my entire leg, I was just saying to myself “the f**k you just did”. Its kinda hard to explain every feelings you have when you come to have an injury, especially when you have an active lifestyle.  Thinking about not paddling till winter, not able to work during 2 weeks, neither giving my martial arts classes for at least 3 weeks…it goes from denying to anger interspersed with   culpability or optimism. Still managed to take photos of the boys and had a great time though.

  

  

Simon Roy, glad to have ran one of many gems Quebec has to offer

I felt dumb because last time I gave a creeking clinic this summer, I put an emphasis on being vigilant while scouting and stuff, taking time to avoid injuries. What I learned from this weekend, apply my own advice to my everyday runs and stay focus ALL the time! Even if it looks like nothing, don’t get distracted by the excitement of running something.

Sprain ankle

See you next spring

11
Nov

Home sweet home

Fusilli’s previous post is the perfect segue to mine.

Big Rock is my home playspot, its less than 10 mins from my house and I have logged more hours there than most anyone. However, over the years and hundreds of sessions I became jaded, as it happens when you spend lots of time at the same place. I had begun driving much further to playboat even when Big Rock was running, just because I wanted something different. Then along came Jed.

The Jed has not only progressed my skill level but also the fun level. Tricks that used to be hard to impossible are easy now with the Jed. I love Mr.Jed – no homo. The same can be said about BR, as new moves and linking capabilities have re-energized my love for this hole. I’ve lived here for 10 years and wanted to make an edit of BR since day one, however it took this re-found appreciation to fire me up about putting one together.

http://youtu.be/bpJDzdUpgqc

enjoy

 

07
Nov

Coming back and falling down! Carbon Jed, Moose, Green and more.

Big D, Duane Gibson, Chris Staford, Dave Fusilli, Ty Caldwell, Clay Lucas, Paul Butler, Brad Caldwell, Craig Kleckner and “MP” Mike Patterson

 

So I have been back in my kayak for about a month and a half truly enjoying the Fall.  Being in my kayak in anyway is a great thing, but I have been coming back in a really good way.  Since I have been back I have paddled the Gauley, Green, Moose, surfed Garberator on the Ottawa, payed at Big Rock, Big East fork Pigeon, Raced the Russel Fork, Raced the Green and paddled the much anticipated Toxaway!  It has been a great fall and I’m super stoked to be hangin out in Asheville for the winter season with a self support Grand Canyon Trip coming up on January 8th.  More on that later, but I must say I will be paddling the Grand with my Sister and Brother which to me will be as good as anything I have done!  The Fusilli family goes big on and off the water!  I have a ton of photos I want to share so enjoy. Oh and I will put a video of the Toxaway I just finished at the bottom.

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