10
May
07
May
Sayonara! We are out of here, off to Japan for some boating and to help out some friends! Just before stepping out the door, I was able to get on an obscure, but super worthy run: Long Canyon into the Rubicon River. This stout canyon (yes canyon, not even labeled on some maps as a river or creek) is one long gorge with drop after drop. Nothing too tall but just right. This combination led to some great bombing and linkage of rapids. Here are some photos and words by Darin McQuoid, a member of the Japan Expedition as well. Stay tuned here @ Pyranha and Huckin Huge for updates from the field in Japan!
07
May
After having a pretty scrapey season up to date, the words ‘SEVERE WEATHER WARNING’ were met with beaming smiles in the SUCC bunkhouse, as the club prepared for their week around Fort William. New members and older veterans of the club alike made the long drive north, and were rewarded from day one with fantastic levels on the Orchy. The water kept coming throughout the week, providing a healthy 6 pipe Upper Spean run to keep grins growing.
Of course water everywhere means two things for a university canoe club: first class boating and even better carnage. Some nailed lines, others failed lines. Most hucked up whilst the remainder mucked it up. But of course that’s all part of the fun of club boating and there were smiles all round for a great week that had an awesome vibe!
Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-DsHbUB2Vs
SUCC LOVE,
Southampton Uni Canoe Club
04
May
We had loads of snow here in Voss over the winter and its all starting to melt.
So thats can only mean one thing…
Its time to start getting fired up and get ya huck on !
That can only mean one thing Teigdal…
Here is a bunch of pictures from past trips to wet ya lips.
Andy Phillips on the warm up drop © Benjamin Hjort
Allan Ellard on the second slide © Raphael Thiebaut
Greg Dashper drop number 3 © Raphael Thiebaut
Allan about to boof into the rainbow
Andy on drop 4 © Raphael Thiebaut
Mikey Abbott styling the tricky hole on the lip of drop 4 © Benjamin Hjort
Greg about to stomp it © Raphael Thiebaut
Mikey getting some air time © Raphael Thiebaut
Andy enjoying some of the classic white water between the drops © Raphael Tiebaut
Mikey hucking into the must run
Andy on the ramp and ready to tuck in the must run © Raphael Thiebaut
Mikey boofing into the mist on the first of the double drop
Mikey doing what he does best on the double drop… making it look easy © Raphael Thiebaut
Paying the price for a flat landing on the double drop
Hope this has wetted your appetite for the summer to come.
Andy
03
May
  
It has certainly been a spring to remember in the Northeastern U.S.Â
The combination of plentiful snow late in the season and freakishly intense April thunderstorms brought some local river systems to record high flows. Old-timers in the Adirondacks saay they have NEVER seen this kind of local flooding. There has been major devastation to infrastructre and people’s homes, but also some great paddling.Â
02
May
Dave picked me up from my home in PA at the beginning of April and we’ve been on the road ever since.
Our first stop was the Tariffville Triple Crown were we also did a boat demo for Collinsville Canoe and Kayak.
We held our own amongst some good slalom paddlers, and Demshitz even made the Newspaper click to find out why.
02
May
Sweet video Craig Kleckner just put together from the Dries of the New and Manns Creek!
01
May
Its safe to say that the last week has been my best week of kayaking in the southeast to date. My schedule was lucky enough to combine with one of the biggest rain events of the year, and a primed water table, making for a great week to go kayaking.
The week started out with Tyler Mayo, Matt redmond and myself going to Smokey mtn National park the day after the big rain. Finding West prong way to high, we continued to the other side of the park to a juicy Ramsay prong. This was classic smokies continous boulder gardens the whole way into the Greenbriar river, which we ran down to the bridge.
The next day, we got up and ran the nantahala cascades with my brother Ben (thanks to dad for shuttle!), and then met up with Colin Hunt and Lauren Garber for upper Big creek, more smokies goodness! We then headed back to Boone for school monday.
On the way back to Boone, I got on the phone with Mark Taylor and saw that the Linville was looking like it would be good the next day. This is a run I have been trying to get on ever since I moved to Boone last year, so I was stoked to finally get the opportunity to run it. It lived up to every expectation and more, as the pinnacle of wilderness class V kayaking in the southeast. Thanks to Mike Patterson and Duane Gibson for showing me the lines, and check out Mikes post about the Linville gorge a few posts down!
Wisemans View overlook of Linville Gorge
After the Linville, I was planning on taking the day off from kayaking, as it has been a full on 3 days. Somehow though, I was talked into dawn patroling the watauga before my classes tuesday. So up at 6 am and were off. Planning on takign a nap after class, I again was roped into playboating the watauga that evening as well. I must say it was worth it though, watauga is a classic.
Wednesday involved running some class II for my kayaking PE class, but thursday brought on the goods again. Talking with Colin Hunt and Jay Mahan, we decided that The Raven Fork would be a good option for thursday, So I rallied that way in the morning, and also getting Chan Jones in on the mission. We arrived to find it on the low side of good and had a great day.
Jay and I were itching to do some more kayaking on friday, so we hit up the North Fork of the French Broad and got a few laps. On the way back to Cullowhee, we drove past the turn for Courthouse falls, and I decided to go take a look since we had time to kill. After hiking in and scouting it looked good, so I returned to the car for my boat and fired her up twice.
Jerry’s Baddle on saturday brought an end to my epic week of southeastern boating. I did not race, but paddled in to cheer everyone else on, and had a great day on some warm weather green river for the first time since the Green race in november.
A week of kayaking in the southeast like this is uncommon, it reminded me of being out west and there being options of what to paddle everyday. A cooperative schedule and a rain event in the spring makes the southeast as good as anywhere in the world! Thanks to Colin Hunt, Shannon Christy, Tyler Mayo, Mackenzie Ridnour, Mark Taylor, Jay Mahan, Matt Redmond for the photos.
Cheers
-Â Clay
27
Apr
I started new seson with two kayak cross in Czech republic.
After winter we don´t have so much water in the rivers. But we had two competition, where the water flows from dam.
The firts one was Kamenice. I was on the second place in my category. We paddleed upper Kamenice too. It was cool and nice part of the river.
23
Apr
This past weekend myself and three other friends packed in a large “sex-terra” for a multi-day trip up North to find some new runs that we’ve never paddled. We left Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Wednesday night and had our hearts set on John’s Brook in New York but when we arrived the next morning it was too low. Fortunately, the Boquet was only a quick drive away and it had some decent water so we decided to fire it up. Here are some photos Art Barket shot of me running the first rapid.
The Karnali was the perfect boat for this run and although it took me a little bit to get used to its softer edges, I eventually found it to be just as stable as the Burn and even faster. If you have the chance to demo the boat, then give it a try! I think you will be surprised how much fun it can be . . .
Check out some more photos from the run of the Karnali in action –
Stay tuned for more updates at River Left Productions.
