27
Feb
Still very cold, but some rain made the first good creeks flow. Had great days on the water. Probably would have been easier with a Snowboard or ice climbing equiptment but was awesome ..
Big Boof with the Shiva on the “No Brainer rapid”
1st D of Langbathseebach   Pic: Daniel Egger
Ice and water on the upper Weitenaubach…..
second boof of the “No Brainer” rapid     Pic : Daniel Egger
27
Feb
Answer: Yes. One step at a time.
A Dam Relief is a new media project, set out by Pyranha’s own Max Bilbow and Sam Ward, that seeks to develop Uganda through sustainable and responsible tourism.
If you only read one long-winded article with very few pictures, please make it this one!
Read the ‘A Dam Relief’ Mission Statement
And for balance: Here’s a picture of Colin Wong doing a huge Panam in a Pyranha Molan!
25
Feb
Pyranha’s annual DartFest at the River Dart Country Park is always good fun! This year was no exception, check out the video to see what happened…  Slightly low water levels did not stop paddlers getting some great coaching from Chris Eastabrook’s renowned confidence building courses and Liquid Logistics improvers river trip.
Lots of people dropped by the stand to check out the first sighting of the new freestyle machine… the JED. The Loki was also out to play and of course the Burn, Shiva, Varun… were there too!
Off the water in the evening and it was over to the team’s female paddlers for insight and entertainment. Paula Pridham presented her intriguing research on fear in whitewater padding. Most importantly though she also shared her experiences and expert advice on how to manage and overcome that fear. Fran Kohn then gave us the latest from her recent trip to Chile with a video of one of the great rivers she paddled out there.
And then we danced…
The brand new Pyranha Jed!
Loki and Jed on the stand!
16
Feb
The Grammy Awards have nothing to do with kayaking, and no the Dems haven’t come out with the “Brown” album, yet. However I managed to boof through the front door, infiltrate the Hollywood elite, and bring some “low-class” to an otherwise highbrow event.
I think they knew I was from Tennessee
"I'd like to thank God, brown, and all the stouts that got me here"
Like Batman’s signal in the sky, the raised brownclaw attracts kayakers anywhere
the talent loves demshitz
I did find that musicians make a lot more money than kayakers, based in the number of Bentleys, Lambourginis, and limos. I think the trade off is fair though, I doubt they get to boat and experience the places we do on a regular basis.
14
Feb
Check out the very first outing of the Loki on our local home run, the mighty Tryweryn in North Wales. For more info and where to find a demo go to www.pyranha.com/Loki
Paddler Andy Butler
Filmed by Tom Laws
Edited by Andy Butler
05
Feb
Here is an update of some of the epic missions we got up to in BC last summer/fall.
With Whistler bragging record snow fall in the winter (over 16 meters fell) the summer was guaranteed crazy high water and a super long season. Low and behold it did not fail to impress. For the first 2 months of the season the Callaghan was sustaining record high flows, unreal kayaking. I believe the saying used most often was “high side of peaking out†for almost every river we put on. This sure made for the perfect training ground for up north. Having completed the Triple Crown the year prior, our sights were set on the Homathko.
We had the crew which consisted of myself (Ric Moxon), Chris Gragtmans, Pete Lodge, Xavier Engle, Louis Geltman, and Nate Klema. With a bad ass crew, filled with optimism, semi witty jokes and hard out banter, what else do you need?
We were checking the online gauge and the weather forecast at Tatlayoko Lake for weeks. It seemed like the river was never going to drop in with an average flow of 600 cms and spiking to over 2000 for the majority of September. Having heard about a crew getting evacuated at flows similar to this we didn’t want to be putting on too high, or have the river blow out on us. Then we lucked out, the potential for a window (which is all it was), the temperatures were expected to drop for 4 days and minimal rain in the forecast. With myself and the double hard Alaskan (Xavier) feeling overly optimistic, we made the vital phone calls and everyone hit the road. Geltman the champ drove through the night from the Hood, staying awake on a healthy mix of chewing tobacco and coffee, arriving in Whistler at 6am, squeezing in 1 hour of sleep before the 10 hour drive north.
We started the drive with the online gauge saying around 470 cms, still way to high. Having got beta from some worthy sources we were advised that 350 is the high side of good. Every time I hit the road to drive north it’s always an incredible spectacle. Unbelievable fall colors and guaranteed crazy weather. As we drove we went through a number of thunder storms, adding to the dubiousness of our decision to go for the window. Any talk of the river blowing out was soon squashed by unfounded optimism. But to our blessing when we rolled into camp it was crisp clear skys and night time temperatures dropping to around -5, perfect.
We put on Tatlayoko Lake the next day. We had an unknown water level which at the time we were guessing was around 400 cms for day 1 and hoping the river would drop to the perfect 350 for day 2.
Well I’m not going to lie the Homathoko is stout, full on class 5! Lots of must runs, mega continuous, technical moves one after another. Through out the course of the river it transitions from first class steep creeking to crazy big volume as the other tributaries flow in, unreal.
Perhaps one of the highlights of the trip was the third tragedy. Scouting from high up on the left side of the canyon rim the river was hooning, big terminal pits, huge crashing waves and a 9 feet tall river wide wave hole (which would be a guaranteed beat down). After a considerable amount of deliberation, banter and again semi witty comments we all convinced ourselves that is was good to go, with a weak point forming every 20 seconds. We rightfully called this rapid “dubious at bestâ€. We decided that the best method of running this was just blue angel, truck and trailer. That way at least a few of us should get through or all be high fiving each other in the hole. It turned out that we all made it, some brash digging and power strokes pulled us all through one by one.
I recently read an old article about Doug Gordon and their experience on the Homathko. Wow these guys are soldiers, with limited knowledge on the river and the lack of online gauge these guys put on in July when the river is over 1000 cms, well over 3 times the newly founded recommended flows. This made a large proportion of the canyons portages. These guys had to make a 30 hour BC bush wacking portage around Great Canyon and set up lines to cross the blown out side creeks just to get themselves and gear over. I just want to say you guys are an inspiration, its pioneers like you that make these rivers the classics they are today.
Just want to say a big thanks to Pyranha, the Large Burn is an incredible day and expedition kayak. It handles great when loaded, unloaded, where ever! Wouldn’t want to paddle anything else. Also, I would like to thank Chuck the owner of the logging camp at the take out. He gave us a warm shower and a cup of coffee. We recommend staying there for a night at the end of the trip.
Apologies for the lack of photos my camera broke on day 1. Instead of taking photos my Canon D30 now screams at me and flashes ERROR 99. If anyone knows how to fix this please help! But check out my buddy Nates blog for some pics. http://www.coloradokayak.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html
Cheers team for such an epic mission!
03
Feb
Last weekend saw the first ever River’s Source Whitewater Symposium at the River Dart, Devon, UK. The event is set to become a favourite fixture on the UK whitewater calendar with something for every paddler interested in whitewater!
Contributions from every corner of the industry provided an excellent range of courses, from learning new skills on the river with coaches at the forefront of whitewater paddling or hands on boat welding workshops through to tips on how to get your articles published and how to create the perfect exposure to go with them! They were also excellent value for a full days course with some, such as Canoe Kayak Magazine’s photography course, being completely free! To see the scope of the diverse selection of courses have a look here!
Paparazzi on the river during the free photography clinic! - Photo: Tom Foster
Team Pyranha were out in force with Team Coaches running a variety of courses, Team Paddlers on hand to help outfit your boat or take you through the features of the full fleet of demo boats. Pyranha’s owner and head designer Graham Mackereth and industrial designer Rich Taylor gave fantastic presentations on Saturday evening. Graham’s insight to the history of kayaking was outstanding, Rich then brought us right up to date and showed us how to design the Shiva using the latest CAD packages with CNC prototypes before a live audience!
Rich takes us through the process to design a modern whitewater kayak. - Photo: Tom Foster
Of course no trip to devon would be complete without a run down the upper Dart. Although levels were low, the Shiva was great for rock moves all the way down!
Paula cruising Euthanasia in the small Shiva! - Photo: Stuart Watson
Tom Foster about to go over the edge in the large Shiva! - Photo: Stuart Watson
Looking forward to 2013 event already. If you can’t wait to get back to the Dart come join us on and off the river at Dart Fest on the weekend 18th / 19th February.
01
Feb
Below: Steve on the Rio Valles, photo by Adam Goshorn
Below: Adam on the Rio Santa Maria, photo by Steve Krajewski
Since my first trip to the Huasteca region of Mexico in 2005, I have returned almost ever winter for 2-3 weeks to revisit my favorite rivers in the area and explore new ones as well. There is an abundance of rivers in the region with a variety of options depending on water levels. Most recently, Steve Krajewski, Mark Newton, and I drove south from Alabama to spend a couple of weeks enjoying the warm waters and sunshine provided by the Huasteca region in December of 2011. Despite lower than normal water levels, we had good weather and an awesome time paddling many of the classic and a few not-so-classic rivers in the area.
01
Feb
My name is Sean Glaccum and I have travelled to the Himalayas almost every fall since 1997 in search of rivers that have never been kayaked or rafted. Past Himalayan first descents include:  First kayak descents off Mt. Kanchenjunga (3rd highest peak), Mt. Cho Oyu (6th highest peak), Mt. Dhaulagiri (7th highest peak) and Mt. Annapurna (10th highest peak). This past fall, a goal that had been set years ago came to reality; to paddle raft the Dudh Kosi river which drains Mt. Everest. As a bonus, we were also able to use the Pyranha Everest kayak.
My expedition team was comprised of 3 rafters: Myself as guide, Dak Helentjaris and Matt Jost as paddle crew on the 13ft Maravia paddle boat and Pat Riffie as Safety Kayaker in the Everest.
The Everest was made in honor of the team led by Mike Jones who made the first kayak descent of the Dudh Kosi in 1976, in 13ft long fiberglass Pyranha kayaks. 35 years later this new Pyranha kayak ran safety for our raft team trying to battle the silty whitewater of the Dudh Kosi. The Dudh Kosi drains the Khumbu glacier which mountaineers climb to summit the tallest mountain on earth, Everest. This was my third visit to the Everest region to run its extremely beautiful rivers. I had recreated the trip the ‘76 team made twice before this trip in my kayak.
After a long flight around the globe from our home in Idaho, we warmed up outside of Kathmandu on the Bhote Kosi River swollen with monsoon rain. Soon we felt adjusted to the Himalayan whitewater and were flown into the Lukla airstrip in a small plane for our hike up the Dudh Kosi. A Sherpa porter named Ang Kami would carry the boat up to 12,000 feet to the put in and four other Sherpa men would split the rafting gear. At seventeen years old and just over one hundred pounds Ang Kami had no problem with the Everest that was twice his size. It was slow going for the porters with the heavy loads on the small exposed trail.  We also had to bribe the park officials to let the kayak into the park since extreme sports had been banned from entering just a few years before. Lucky for us contacts from my previous trips helped make it possible to make an exception for our team.
Once on the water the river was much higher than the two previous times I had run it due to this year’s very late monsoon. The power of the silt laden whitewater was tough on our nerves and I was thrown from the raft only a few minutes after putting on. Pat in the safety kayak darted through the waves, holes, and rocks looking after us rafters describing the Everest as a battle tank!  The most difficult part of paddling any craft in the Everest region besides the tough whitewater is the altitude. After just a couple of paddle strokes you can feel the oxygen being depleted from your blood making for an exhausting experience. Pat would say the Pyranha was making boofing and catching eddies so easy that he was able to hold on to valuable energy that his rafting friends were not finding so easy to hold on to.
Every eddy that the raft had to catch took all we had because of the powerful current but safety Pat would always be sitting there ready to catch us if we had issues. Rapid after rapid our team pushed our way down river, dawn till dusk. At night we would feast on a special Nepalese rice and vegetable dish called Dal Bhat and hot spicy Tibetan momos. Each morning we would be stirred awake by the roar of the Dudh Kosi bouncing off the steep river canyon walls. Many of the rapids were several hundred meters long with multiple must make moves and little time in between drops for stopping. Scouting each long rapid took lots of time and energy with a few drops being too choked with boulders, forcing us to portage.
The last time I had run this section we had no portages. But after a “G.L.O.F†(glacier lake outburst flood) that came off of the flanks of Ama Dablam (6856m) in 2008, the river bed was scoured with the high volume flood and many house and car size rocks were pushed and shoved around to change the Dudh Kosi immensely. After almost two weeks pushing our skill in this remote Himalayan setting we completed our goal to raft the high altitude river that drains the highest mountain on the planet. The Everest would prove to be the perfect Himalayan kayak on not only on the Dudh Kosi but on five more expeditions in the next two months of travel. Empty, loaded to the hilt, hucking waterfalls, or dragging swimming rafters through heavy whitewater, there was no doubt it was a whitewater machine! On the trip we all took a turn paddling it and could not have been more pleased with our craft of choice for keeping us safe. In the next kayak expedition you can be sure the Pyranha Everest will be the first thing on my gear list.
Sean Glaccum
