I just made this new trailer, which represents one of a few trailers for Airborn Athletics upcoming video called Barely Legal. This is just a taste of what the full length trailer will be like.

Airborn Athletics Presents: Barely Legal Trailer

The 4th Annual Goshen Pass Race is in the books.

High noon on March 13th saw over twenty racers holding on in a boiley, moving eddy below Undercut Rock rapid on Virginia’s Maury River, waiting for the start. We were blessed with a great day for racing: the highest flows yet for the race (1500 cfs) and sunny, seventy-degree weather. I was stoked to finally have another competitor in the Speeder/Wildwater class, and this year also saw the first glass boat in the race (Todd Craft from Richmond, who won the Long Boat class). As usual there was a touch of misfortune, with Trevar B taking home the not-so-coveted Carnage Thong after a valiant but ultimately unsuccesful line through Devil’s Kitchen rapid.

Above: Trevar finds this new addition to his wardrobe to be a perfect fit.
Pyranha was well represented at the event, both as a sponsor and in the field of race boats. Pyranha boats made up well over 2/3 of the field (16 Pyranha boats raced) – a majority of the contestants. Pyranha also dominated the podium, winning the Overall First Place and totally sweeping the popular Short Boat (Creek) Class.

Above: Racers battling through Corner Rapid
Pyranha took the Overall first place with a Speeder in the Wildwater class. It was nice to have another competitor in this exciting class, even if it didn’t last very long. Two Speeders going neck and neck into Devil’s Kitchen will get your blood pumping.

Above: The Speeder coming in for the win. Below: “Flip” Merica awards the Carnage Thong.

The post-race award ceremony was the best yet. Pyranha Kayaks and Appomattox River Company shared the stage as Premier Sponsors of this event. Every contestant was able to walk away with a prize this year, and probably a few kind beers as well. Look for Virginia’s spring paddling season kickoff race to return again next year: First Sunday in March with flows over 600 cfs at 6 a.m. – unless there is creeking going on, of course.

After 24 hours travelling to Salt Lake City, Utah for the annual Outdoor Retailer show, what was the obvious thing to do? Hire the biggest truck Enterprise had in their fleet, load up the brand spanking new Pyranha Varun and head north to the Snake River for a day out boating of course!

The opportunity to paddle in the US  and get a photo shoot done for our new boat was surely going to be worth the 5 hour road trip through 3 states….

Read the rest of this entry »

Two weeks ago I spent a weekend with some friends in Plattling. Unfortunately we had a very low a water-level (155cm),  so it was more difficult to do loops or spacegozillas.  But we had a great weekend anyway and now we should be well prepared for German championships (especially if we will have such a water-level again).

Plattling Low Water Session

One month ago I bought a ticket to Portland with the plan of running a couple rivers throughout Oregon. Currently I am more then halfway though my nine day trip and I have rune more vertical feet than most people have run in their life.

The first day I got picked up from the airport after waking up at 3am to get on the plane. We quickly drove to Eagle Creek and Kyle Hull and I ran 35 foot Punchbowl falls and 90 foot Metlako falls. It was around 6.00 when we ran the falls so the light was too low to film.

The next day I ran Upper and Lower Bridal Veil Falls. The Upper drop was supposedly navigated twice before. The Upper falls is about 60 feet with an auto-boof halfway down. The bottom drop is a 30 to 40 foot slide. I scouted the drop briefly and decided to run it. The lip of the top drop was gigantic. The crowd at the bottom had to be 100 feet down. Luckily I had great lines on both drops.

After, John Hyland, Kyle Hull, and I traveled to the Little White Salmon. This classic creek is a gem. The water was high, but nonetheless we headed down the river. This has to be my new favorite creek. Kyle and I ran every rapid including Sprit falls, a monstrous 30 footer with a very dangerous rapid called chaos right after. We both had good lines.

The next two days were spent Southeast of Hood River on the Mckenzie River. Kyle hull and I ended up running 75 foot Koosah falls and 85-foot Sahalie Falls. Both had difficult lips. Our lines were good though.

After that, John, Kyle, and I went to Celestial falls, a clean fifty footer. We ran our boats in, hoping not to get spotted by the locals and we were successful. Celestial falls is a great drop for an introduction to hucking.

The last day I was in Oregon I went back to Eagle Creek. My goal was to run Metlako 5-8 times in a day. The water was ridiculously high the morning I woke up.  I hiked up to check out Metlako Falls and it looked pretty good. I ran back down to the car, did the two-mile hike with my boat, above Metlako and started hucking. I ended up running this infamous 102-foot drop 6 times that day. The only battle scar I came out with was a gash and a black eye.

It definitely was not fun leaving this amazing place. The quality of waterfalls and rivers is astounding. Hopefully I will get to go back this year.

 Here in the Adirondacks (Waaay up in northern New York) we have seasons.  The boats get put away sometime around Thanksgiving, we go skiing for a few months,  and by the end of March they start to make their way back on to ice cold rivers.   Right now we are finishing one season, and heading full speed ahead into another. 

 

 

 

Read the rest of this entry »