(more…)

Video

We’ve made our way up to Washington to check out what the Pacific Northwest has to offer. What we’ve found is a TON of great paddling. Here are a couple of teaser photos – you can see the full report at RiverGypsies.com.

Leland on the Little
Wenatchee.

Andria on the Cooper.

Hope everybody’s staying wet out there!

Since our last post, we have spent the past month kayaking in Colorado.

Big East Falls aka.”Stupid Falls”

(more…)

Team Pyranha in Colorado

…after demonstrating great skills at the Freestyle World Championship in Canada where Ben White (UK) and Valerie Bertrand (Canada) took the gold in squirt and Jeremy Lauks (USA) took the bronze in OC1, our team was hitting the road hoping to showcase our plastic boat just as well… off to Colorado.  Paddling Life Pro-InvitationalThe Pro-Invitational has become an annual challenge where the best paddlers from each boat company are invited to defeat each other in creeking and freestyle. Steamboat Colorado has the area to make it happen; with Paddling Life as organiser (amongst other sponsors) and a wicked crew of local paddlers whiling to share their time. The day started with a downriver race on the Fish creek: a little stretch of small technical rapids, from a clean 8 foot boof to a lower head dam about 1km downstream. After a quick lunch, all paddlers were brought to the town wave for a good old style freestyle competition based on variety and style on scales of 1 to 10… Our team had 4 members at the event: Valerie took a respectful overall 4 ^th position as our guys Jared, Jeremy and Connor were holding on quite well with the top 15 men. (www.pladdlinglife.com )

Teva Mountain Games

The 6^th annual event in Vail Colorado was again a huge success, with many hundred international athletes competing in various disciplines such as biking, running, climbing (…) and of course paddling. The 5 day paddling competition included 2 boatercross races, a steep creek race and a rodeo. Again, Team Pyranha did a wicked job keeping up with many well known international paddlers. After high placings in the men steep creek race, our boys Jared, Dave and Jeremy put on an impressive show for the crowd in town and making the 4-20 look like a sky high looping machine! Josh Bechtel also did a wicked job on both boatercross races; with a no fear look on his face and strong pace through the courses. On the women sides, Shannon Carrol also took the podium in a boatercross race and finished high in the steep creek race. Valerie kept up really good until a misfortunate crash in finals on the steep creek made her bump into a none of the less 5 ^th place, allowing team paddler Katie Hilleke to take place on the podium. Katie, who’s recent battle against cancer brought her out on tour this summer and already she is doing incredibly well; your strength is a huge motivation for the team. Go girl J !!  www.tevamountaingames.com 

    Josh and Dave, Shannon

Val

The first Speeder Race was held at the Kayak Depot on Thursday night (07/06/07).  The race was a huge success with over twenty racers in three heats, a loser’s final and winners final.  Dan Dixon took 1^st, Wayner from NOC in 2^nd and Al Gregory in 3^rd.   It was a lot of fun for the racers, and friends/families.  These races will be held once a month at the Kayak Depot in Asheville, NC.  Details on the next race coming soon.   We at Pyranha would like to thank the sponsors and paddlers of the first Speeder Race.  A special thanks to Dinver for getting everything organized with sponsors, food and beverage.  Sponsors:

Let loose with the mighty Pyranha van full of demo boats can only mean one thing….

Time for some fun in the Ammo’s and Recoil’s!!!!

(more…)

We recently got out on the Chili Bar run on the South Fork American in California on a hot sunny day in our Recoils. At the big play hole – First Threat – I decided to see how the Recoil loops. Turns out that the boat loops great, and Leland got a nice sequence of photos.

(more…)