We were joined for a week this summer by a group of friends for some of our favorite Washington runs. Here are a couple of pictures from the Cooper – you can check out the full report from Fall in the Wall and Cooper at www.RiverGypsies.com.

Andria at Norm’s Retreat.

Me at Wall of Voodoo.
Doug Benton Photo.

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Dem rays somewhere in NV

For the last week and a half myself and Kevin Burkhead have been traveling the west coast, like Santa Clause during Christmas delivering fresh new kayaks to our west side dealers. Thus far we have brought smiles to the faces of our people in San Fransico, Bend OR, Hood River OR, Portland OR, Seattle and Belingham WA. Now with all this work being done it was of coarse essential for Kevin and Myself to have a little fun. (more…)

Hey

Last month four of us Brits went on the second ever white water expedition to Greenland.

The team was Ali Marshall, Si Tapley, Mike Scutt and Graham Milton.

Our aim was to paddle potentially the best river in Greenland.

We weren’t dissapointed.

We were paddling Everests and they were the top boats for the job.

They were great in white water and could be loaded to the max and still handle well.

For more on this trip look at http://fatcatslatestnews.blogspot.com/

photo: Evan Stafford
This week 4 of us ventured into Bull Lake Creek in the Wind River Drainage in Wyoming. The river has been descented 4 times prior to our trip by hiking 20 miles into the South Branch of BLC and paddling that stretch for a few miles into the main channel. We tried a new way by hiking into the North Branch with hopes of a shorter hike and good rapids. (more…)

Master Of Water 2008….Very impressed!

This story all started when I received an E-mail from Sammy at Pyranha, The mail read something like “Hi Guys there is a competition in Sweden with a great party! Is anyone free to go?”

It took me precisely 3 seconds to decide yeah I’m up for that! And so a few weeks later I found myself sitting on a plane flying to Sweden, when on the plane I did think to my self really I should have organised myself better! I was on a plane to Sweden; I didn’t know where I was flying to! And when I arrived in Sweden I had now idea where I was going too! And also I had no idea who I was meeting, when I landed in the place which I had no idea where it was! But luckily for me the man I was set to meet was the Legend in his own life time James Venimore, James owns and runs Kajaktiv, Sweden’s largest kayak importer/distributor and has covered more miles in a kayak than maybe anyone else I’ve ever met before.

The reason for me being in Sweden was to compete in the Kajaktiv Master Of Water Contest 2008 (sponsored by Pyranha!) The basic idea behind this event is a lot like the old PeakUK challenge. There are 3 events, First a boater X , Second a Speeder race down a set course against the clock, and third a good old Freestyle blast! The rapid the event was held on is near the village of Dala-Floda and for this type event was perfect nothing to hard but a good length and plenty of different lines to pick and choose from. The Boater X was up first and was the event I was keen to do well in, unfortunately all the local seamed to have done a lot more training for the event than I had! I can honestly say I’ve never been so worn out, after a lot of pushing and jostling and a good dollop of English cheeky good luck I found myself in the 4 man final. Man it was tight right up to the point I capsized and couldn’t roll!!!!! Some big time carping ensued and finally I managed to get the burn the right way up and make it to the finish! In 4th. Hats off to Julian from France who won the race, Super fast! Next was the Speeder race. 4 Pyranha speeders had been race readied the day before by myself and James and one at a time they were raced at high speed down the course, the run only took 1-2 minuets but it was great fun and paddling the boats down a good class 3 rapid quite different than anything I had done before . In Sweden Multisport paddling is very popular and the good guys took the rapid apart totally have a look at the results to see where I came think it was 10th or maybe 7th not sure.

Last up and with more lactic build up in my musicals then ever before was the Freestyle the hole was a bit on the shallow side and not that powerful, but you seamed to be able to stick most moves init. I was actually getting some really good rides, good entry move into few ends into clean ends, blunt left right, front loop back loop. But then in my scored runs I remembered why I leave freestyle to JB and Pringle. I was pretty poor! The Rev was great though. Really happy with that little boat.

At the end of the event I think I finished somewhere around the top, But kayaking was the real winner!!!!!!! No no, the event is really good. All the people at Kajaktiv are super positive and the event ran like clock work, next years event is looking to be even bigger and better so keep an eye on there web site or ours! And if you need a hand getting out there give us a bell and I’m sure we can help!
Oh I’ve forgot to say about the festival that is running as the comp is on too! Basically it’s very different to anything you have at a UK comp but it’s so much more and fits the atmosphere so well. Your have to go out and sample it for yourselves. Plus a few last things: Sweden really not that pricey! Take away the air fair and to be fair that was less than it would take me to drive to Devon. It dose not cost a lot to live I spent less there over a weekend than I would in the UK. And finally if you want a really good destination to paddle some good rivers nice class 3-4 nothing to full on give Kajaktiv a bell they do some really good courses and there very cheap I would say. Oh and lets not forget the Hot Tub!

Pictures By: James Venimore

For years now, rumours have been flying around about how great kayaking in Turkey is and how you have to go this year because of the series of dams being built. A group of friends and I headed out there for the first two weeks in July and turns out all of the above are true.

The Çoruh River, one 19hr bus and one 3hr bus away from the capital of Ankara, is in the most amazing valley. The white water starts off fairly easy and steadily picks up pace turning into a great river. Two sections of note are outside of the town of Ispir and downstream  of Yusufeli. The river gorges up for the first section with 6 good rapids, some very ‘new school’ with a big flare move in one and another with a good boulder boof. The second has some classic big volume lines and is all good fun despite some large holes!   

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Just a quick note to tell you all about last weekends big air contest in York. The day saw beautiful hot weather and some of the most entertaining rides I have seen for some time. Myself and fellow Fat Cat Sam Ellis judged the event which hopefully will get bigger every year.

Yesterday evening was spent having an ace time surfing the salt water with the Scotish boys and learning that taking pictures in the sea is very tricky.

Devil’s Postpile. One of North America’s most notorious, gorge-out runs. Our team of four had a successful mission down this amazing stretch of river.

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After 3 years of trying to do this river, running into problems usually with road access and or low water and or obligations with work etc., I finally got it! The Big South starts on the western boundary of Rocky Mountain National park and the 12 miles of pristine wilderness river runs through Cache La Poudre Wilderness Area. (more…)

Nate Mack running the “Breakfast Slide”
After 2 days of rest following our Upper Cherry run, our crew prepared for the hike in to the next multi-day. Despite sore muscles for all, illness and blistered heels (from the upper cherry hike, in old tennis shoes) , and being on a strict time restraint, we all made it through the 32 miles of the everlasting class V rapids on the Middle Fork of the Kings river. (more…)

High Sierras-Mission Week 08 from jared seiler on Vimeo.
Here is a video from 2 days on Upper Cherry followed by 4 days on the Middle Kings.

Last weekend we had the Spanish Freestyle Championship in Ourense, at the same spot the Freestyle European Championship will be celebrated in two weeks.  The Spanish Championship was a test for the organizers to see how things are and how they should be.

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Cherry Bomb. Also, Check out Demshitz @ OBJ and Yule Creek @ High Water videos! (more…)

First descent of the Teigdaleselva for this season! With the sun shinning and snow melting hard we gathered a team of 10 to ‘huck our meat’ on the mighty waterfalls and slides that lay in the Teigdale valley just down the road from our summer home of Voss – Norway. Tylor Curtis and Mariann Saether happened to be in town with their crash-test dummy, Logan Grayling and we had the latest addition to Voss Rafting Senter, the ‘Italian stallion’ Michele Ramazza ready for initiation!

READ MORE ABOUT THIS TRIP

First of all this is one of my favoite places on the planet. Myself and the rest of demshitz (Jared, Graham, Nate Mack, Jed Selby, and the Dr. Andre Spino-Smith) headed to Cali for a few overnighter missions.

Yosemite National Park

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Departing Chattanooga TN at 6:30 PM, Matt Wallace, Ben Davis, and I (Adam Goshorn) drove through the night to arrive in the mountains of Colorado the following afternoon.  Our arrival gave us just enough daylight to get in a couple of runs on Clear Creek of the Arkansas before dark, the perfect way to shake off 22 hours in the truck.  We spent our first night in Colorado camped at the takeout for Clear Creek, under a perfectly clear sky, with highest of expectations for the trip to come.

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