Hello Demshitz! Check out this little edit from our past week in California creeking in the NEW BURNS! The boats are killin’ it on these world class California playgrounds and Demshitz couldn’t be more stoked! Enjoy! www.demshitz.com

Demshitz rolled into Cali during a snow storm on Donner Pass coming from the Reno River Fest. We got a sweet run the first day with a big group on the Cosumnes at good flow. Then we went straight to the goods up there in Paradise. Read a full trip report on Jeremy Laucks’ website Chasingrain.com 

Dave Fusilli on the Cosumnes. photo: Graham Seiler

Nicole Mansfield running the China Slide before the portage.

Graham Seiler on some double drops.

Dave Fusilli on more double drops. 

Jeremy Laucks on the “50″ footer. photo: Jared Seiler

Graham Seiler running “99 Problems”
All photos: Jeremy Laucks

Demshitz is selling Demshitz shirts for 15 bucks in blue and grey with the logo above (DS logo with fish saying demshitz) on the back. Get one today!

check back next week for an update from the Reno River Fest and Demshitz in Cali!!! DEMSHITZ!

Here is a Teaser for our Next Demshitz Movie ¨Dashboard Empanada¨

Run the Shitz! Looking forward to the NEW BURN and the NEW PLAYBOAT ¨THE MOLAN¨!!! PYRANHA WORLD DOMINATION!!! DEMSHITZ!!!

Check out Demshitz Try outs too- continuing with the Demshitz Made idea!

Check out the blog
www.demshitz.com 

Demshitz Stay out of jail tour was a success! Dave Fusilli Nicole Mansfield and I survived a summer traveling from state to state in the Team Pyranha van ( aka “orange bitch” ) visiting Pyranha Dealers events, rodeos, races; we went everywhere! Here is a video from our last stop on the tour in Ouachita Arkansas with Ouachita Outdoor Outfitters.

Beginning the tour in the Southeast, around Asheville NC where Pyranha US is located, we visited universities, and the NOC, spreading the word on Pyranha’s new boats and premiering our movie Demshitz The Movie, which features our last few years of kayaking in South America and in the US.
 

In early May, we boofed up north for Cheat Fest in West Virginia, then it was a straight shot west to Reno NV for the Reno River fest. Following Reno we spent 10 days in a row kayaking California classics. Blog entry #1. check out Jeremy Laucks’ video. It didn’t stop there.
 Did we win?
It was back to Colorado after Cali, to Paddle Fest in Buena Vista followed by competitions nearly every weekend, Steamboat, Vail Teva Games, Team Trials in Glenwood, and in between we did some good boating on Barrell Springs of the Colorado and a solid weeks worth of Vallecito creek (link to Daves blog update) and the Animas River (link to Pandoras Box video) in Durango.
 

After Fibark (link to Nicole’s blog update) we were pretty exhausted, but anxious to get out of Colorado and get on the road to tour dealers in the Northwest and do some more paddling!
 Van cleaning in Montana.
 Dave Space on the ferry to Skook.

 Stop off at Werner Paddles in Sultan WA.

We picked up a non-kayaker friend, Dave Space , who wanted us to teach him how to kayak, where the idea Demshitz Made was spawned. We had a good time filming “Made” with Dave camping out of orange bitch and kayaking in different places every week. We started in Montana and paddled the MF Flathead in Glacier National Park and had a video premiere with the Silvermoon kayak shop, and then we hit the Columbia river gorge for runs on the Little White Salmon and White Salmon rivers and did video premieres with Alder Creek and the Kayak Shed. We had time for a few days on the Ohanepecosh river near Mt. Rainer WA  and had good times on the Skykomish in northern WA with Charles and friends at Aqua-sports!

Eventually, we made it in to British Columbia where we paddled the Callaghan, Cheakamus, Ashlu and Rogers creek, Space was mostly running shuttle, but I don’t think he minded… BC video! 

 Callaghan with Leland and Andria. The River Gypsies

We also squeezed in a few days at Skookumchuck where we witnessed an epic Tug Boat Disaster. Dave Fusilli played a part in the rescue of the trapped tug boat captain.

 photos: Dave Space

 

 NF of the Payette (juicer?)

On the way home we stopped off in Idaho for 3 days of big water action on the NF Payette! We had a sweet day with locals Mike McKee, Will, Fred Coriell and Melissa, showing us how its done! Check out Banks Mag
 Busting a wheelie.

 Dave, photos courtesy of Wes

 Nicole getting a typical bucket to the face in some NF boogie.
After two top to bottom runs on the NF Payette we left Idaho and soon it was time to say good bye to our friend Dave Space in Colorado. Demshitz Made Episode3 As we continued the long drive back east in the blazing summer heat we heard news that the heavens had opened and released a quenching downpour in Ouachita Arkansas the town of our final dealer visit!  Arkansas Blog Entry We rolled in late and parked the van and slept in the Ouachita Outdoor Outfitters store and listened to tourential downpours all night and awoke the next morning to harvest the goods on Bakers creek and high water on the Cossatot! Arkansas video!

Back in Asheville, the Green is still as good as ever, nice paddling now with a shorty! We cleaned out orange bitch, said our goodbyes, I think Dave cried, and we headed home for some much needed chill time. 
   

Thanks Pyranha for another good summer!

Come check out Demshitz “Number 2″ “the directors cut” premiering at Gauley fest ‘09!

www.demshitz.com 

For those of you who don’t know Demshitz Made- check out the first two episodes of Demshitz MADE.
DEMSHITZ MADE EP1
DEMSHITZ MADE EP2
DEMSHITZ MADE EP3
watch the whole thing!!! you’ll love it!

We have the best Kayak Movie of all time!!!
Demshitz The Movie
Check out www.demshitz.com 

Check out Episode 1 of Demshitz Made if you haven’t already…then watch Episode 2. Demshitz Made!!!

http://www.demshitz.com

Us Demshitz have been having a blast up here in Washington! We had an epic 4th of July weekend in Hood River to kick it off- and of course runs on the Little White and Green Truss always a good time, as well as a run down the Cispus at high water! Life is good. Find Demshitz in Redmond WA this weekend at Aqua-Sports for a Demshitz video premiere and a demo on the Skykomish River! check out www.demshitz.com and buy our movie! Demshitz the Movie , you will love it!!

How would you like to be MADE?
Demshitz Made , an idea we recently came up with while spending numerous hours in the van lame-storming with our new van-mate and old friend David Space ( made candidate ). David doesn’t know how to kayak and we figured he just got some free time and wanted to travel around with us for a while, so why not teach him how to kayak? and we figured why not video tape the whole thing like the MTV show MADE!?!

Here is what we came up with so far…. Demshitz Made Episode 1 … keep checking back for more episodes of Demshitz Made and follow David Space in his attempt to become a kayaker and surf Skookumchuck Narrows.
   Space taking on his first river, the Middle Fork of the Flathead in Glacier National Park Montana, in his brand New Pyranha Z.One!

Check out a video from a day on Pandoras Box.
Demshitz have been on tour in the Team Pyranha van in Colorado for the past month. We have been competing in races and freestyle comps and have paddled some great creeks and rivers, including Pandoras Box on the Animas river which served up one of the best days of paddling yet!
Keep checking back for updates from Demshitz as we move north into Montana this week followed by a few weeks in Washington State. We will be premiering our movie Demshitz The Movie everywhere we go and offering FREE kayak demos and clinics. Demshitz The Movie available for purchase online for $19.95 US
Here is our schedule of Demshitz Premieres and Clinics!

June

26th Northern Lights Bozeman Montana

27th Silvermoon Kalispell Montana

July

2nd Strongwater Missoula Montana

3rd Gunnison Brewery Gunnison Colorado

11th Aquasports Redmond Washington

18th Black River Festival Watertown New York

24th Alder Creek Portland Oregon

25th Kayak Shed Hood River Washington

26th Idaho River Sports Boise Idaho

August

1st Ouachita Outdoor Outfitters Hot Springs Arkansas

Dave Fusilli throwing a loop at the C-Hole Steamboat pro invitational rodeo on the Yampa river. Read the rest of this entry for photos from our past weekend in Steamboat Springs.photos: Anna Bruno

 

 

 

For those of you who do not know about Demshitz, we have an extreme kayaking movie out called Demshitz The Movie that just hit the shelves! With help from Lunch Video Magazine we are selling the movie online for $19.95 US, which includes a solid hour of whitewater kayaking footage in Chile, Argentina, Colorado, California and the Pacific Northwest as well as bonus features that will keep you entertained for years!!! Here are some teasers for the movie! more @ http://vimeo.com/lvmvideo/videos

 

Demshitz ready to race!

The Boat’s event this year was a lot of fun, with high water levels on the Yampa and Fish Creek. We were able to experience the event at its finest, and Demshitz were going big!
Jared racing the Karnali to a 3rd place finish.

Dave splashing down the freezing cold water in Fish Creek to a 4th place finish.
Andrew Holcombe won the creek race with Sam Sutton in second followed by me in third and Dave right behind me in 4th.

Next was the rodeo, where Fusilli bested me out of the finals tying for 4th with Corey Volt and me in 5th. Nick Troutman won the rodeo and the overall with a combined 5th place in the race. Holcombe was second overall followed by Stephen Wright in 3rd and Dave Fusilli 4th and myself 5th. The C-hole was a fun crashing wave hole that could kick yo ass if you weren’t paying attention but also served up some big moves!
Good times! Now, were off to Glenwood Springs this weekend for US team trials!

 

Dave Fusilli throwin up the air brown at the Reno River Fest.

Demshitz is here in Buena Vista Colorado for Paddle Fest! We have been non-stop from Cheat fest WV to Reno River fest NV and into Californ-i-A ! Check out some of the photos and videos from the trip so far.

 
  
The Demshitz Kill it Tour kicks off at Cheat Fest. Live music, free beer, good friends, good kayaking, one of the best river festivals around.

So we partied hard then drove hard all the way across the USA arriving in Reno Nevada with two more of Demshitz in the van topping out at 5.
  Jeremy Laucks throwing some moves at the Reno play park.
 Nicole Mansfield going big in the small Rev.
 Nicole racing to a second place finish in the boater-X.

 Fusilli throwing the medium Rev around.
Now on to the good stuff. Whitewater boat riding in California is some of the finest in all the lands this time of year. Here are some shots of Demshitz falling off the Big Kimshew Creek near Paradise California.

Laying treats on the infamous Frenchies 40.
Dave boofing Kimshew Falls
 The show at the South Branch…good run for the Speeder?...
…probably not…

Our good friend Shannon Carroll blessing us with her presence on the pristine waterfalls of the South Branch day 1.
Demshitz likes throwin’ wheels!
South Branch is cold water, but the rocks are nice and warm!
Jeremy on the South Branch.

Nicole dropping the Stout on the South Branch day 1.
You can choose to hike out of the South Branch after the 50 footer or continue downstream for more action, which requires portaging some huge waterfalls.

Fusilli showing us the goods on the South Branch day 2.

Nicole on a sweet triple on day 2.

 Nicole on the last drop day 2 South Branch.
After those two runs, arguably the two best runs in California and the world. We decided on a 3 day trip down the Middle Feather, one of the best California overnighters.
Dave on the “paddle at the undercut” drop day 1 Middle Feather.
Middle Feather Beauty.
 Middle Feather camp day 1.…yet another use for the IR union suit…beer transferring pouch from the river to camp. How convenient! it also works great for sleeping in!

Jeremy big drop day 2.
 Jeremy entering the Devils Canyon Day 3.
Nicole posing at the “moving picture” one of the more beautiful waterfalls trickling into the canyon.
The Ridiculous Stout in Devils Canyon, easily portaged on the right.

Jeremy giving all clear on the mandatory Helicopter Rapid in Devils Canyon…after an interesting backwards run of this beast.

 Paddling out Day 3.
The Middle Feather trip is a solid couple of days of paddling through some of the most beautiful canyons in California.
S. Yuba Perdons to 4949 to Bridgeport Josh Bechtel was there!

 Jeremy making it look easy in a tight drop on Perdons to 49 paddling the New Karnali!

After we got off the M. Feather, we drove to the S. Yuba drainage for some super fun runs on Perdons to 49 and 49 to Bridgeport. Thanks to Macy Burnham “S.Yuba Master” for leading the way on this classic.

Following up with the Summit Run to cap off our 10 days of boating in a row California kayaking extravaganza! 

Here are some other blogs to check out of the shenanigans going on out in California from the past weeks.

Jeremy Laucks’ website and a video he made from the trip! 

www.chasingrain.com

Fred Norquist 

rfkayakers.blogspot.com 

Miguel Shields

fromthedirt.blogspot.com

Evan Garcia

egcreekin.blogspot.com

Come to Paddle Fest tonight Demshitz The Movie premieres at 9 o clock at the recently opened Eddyline Brewery in South Main!
 

 

Demshitz Pleaser # 1

Demshitz Pleaser # 2

Demshitz is a collective video masterpiece of whitewater kayaking footage from the past 2 years in North and South America. Good times, Good lines, Good Music, a few HUGE crashes…and more! Find out more about Demshitz and the Demshitz movie @ www.demshitz.com  as well as a schedule of Demshitz premiere parties!   Check back for more pleasers this week as we continue to bombard the internet with footy!!! Help Demshitz continue to live the dream. Buy Demshitz Today!!!

Demshitz have been killin it here in Patagonia! More to come from Argentina… In the mean time check out Evan Garcias blog updates from some hucks in Chile.

Rio Puesco

Check out the New Demshitz website!!! www.demshitz.com

Isaac Ludwig boofing a drop on the Pusuno in Ecuador.

Anyone who knows Isaac Ludwig knows he’s a wild man and he loves going big in his kayak. He is also the nicest guy you could ever meet. He works in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee for a rafting company called Rafting in the Smokies. He loves to get on the back yard run, Big Creek, and frequents the Green River Narrows in NC. He has kayaked internationally, recently along with me and a big group of friends for a 2 month trip in South America to Ecuador and Chile. Hes a good boater and an even better friend. Isaac died last week doing what he loved to do more than anything in the world, kayaking. And, the reason I refer to Isaac still in the present tense is because, while his body may no longer be with us, the soul of Isaac is still here amongst us, flowing within all the people places and things that Isaac knew and loved. His love for life, is admirable at the least. His selflessness and all around niceness, is something pure and special. He is truly an inspiration and has deeply impacted the kayaking community and will continue to influence me and many others. He shows me how I want to live my life, as happy as Isaac.
Isaac airin’ it out on the Rio Claro 22 Saltos in Chile.
Isaac boofing the “Sky-line” on the Rio Papallacta in Ecuador.
More Ecuador action.
Isaac on Big Creek in Tennessee, one of his favorite runs.

Cauldron
I managed to rally missions with some dudes working at the local rafting company, Buffalo Joe’s. Demshitz, Alex Junker, Chris “shwiggles” Schwer, Barnes, “Chilly” Palmer, Timmy and “Fat” Bob Songster to name a few have been firing it up after pushing rubber all day.
Team Buff Joe’s
Fat Bob going for his 1st loop!
Showing off in the REV in Salida. photos: Schwiggles.com
Colorado is a well rounded kayaking mecca. World class play-boating and sweet class five runs all within short driving distance of each other.
With the rafting season winding down, our crew was able to make some trips a few times to M-Wave, and one day on the super fun 11 mile canyon on the South Platte.
Team Buff Joe’s Rookie Timmy styling some 11 mile canyon goods in the duckie- he’ll be ready next time to take the kayak for sure.
Stoked!
Chilly slaying the boof
Fat Bob laying a Fatty Boof on 11 mile canyon.
Alex Junker peering into the Black Canyon.
My last week in Colorado we decided to head over to Montrose for a trip down the infamous Black Canyon of the Gunnison! Our epic mission, usually completed in 2 days, came about mainly influenced by local stud Johnny Meyers who convinced us of doing the canyon in 1 LONG day.
Junker portaging around Triple Falls.
The Black Canyon is a “sketchy” place to say the least. Many siphons and undercuts litter the run and often force you to portage. The first few miles of the run contain most of the good rapids including a perfect 18 foot waterfall.
photo: Schwiggles.com
The freewheel was too tempting, especially because the drop is difficult to go back for seconds(requiring roping your boats), so for only one run on this beauty better make it a good one!
After the falls, eat some lunch and get ready for the grunt work of the Canyon. The Portage.
What a place! Notice the giant “mosquito” looking rock formation(top-left-center). Thats the landmark you portage to-make a note of that if you decided to venture in without a guide.(which is not recommended). Also, the “Painted Wall” to the right, delivers some classic climbing lines.
Our Guide Johnny losing us on the portage.

12 hours on the river and we were finally drinking cold beer at the take out. It was a fun trip, not too rushed and nice not having loaded boats, but certainly still tired from carrying our “light” boats for a few HOURS portaging the inner gorge, where the river tends to disappear under giant boulders!
Disappearing river.
Not to mention the thick poison ivy and loose scree that we trekked our boats over for nearly a mile.

While portaging we passed the memorial site where legendary paddler Chuck Kern passed away over 10 years ago. This is a very committing gorge that deserves the most respect and is typically portaged, especially after claiming the life of one of the greatest kayakers that has ever lived. His memorial is up on the river left bank.

Looking back on the summer now, what a year it has been for me! In the last month and a half I logged a number of new runs, especially in the multi-day class 5 run genre, including 2 in California, Upper Cherry and Middle Kings, one in Wyoming, The Bull Lake Creek, and now capping it off with the Black Canyon. All very committing runs, and all equally stunning scenery.

Following the Black Canyon trip it was time for me to pack up and head east. I made it back to Asheville NC this week in time to catch Dinver McClure for an after-work kayak-fishing mission on the French Broad, where I caught me a nice small mouth my first time in a Feel Free kayak.

For you animal lovers wondering, I let him “FEEL FREE”

Check out this months LVM issue #27 “The Rockies” for some footage of our Rocky Mountain Summer.

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.
We were all aware before hand our plan was a risky expedition. Mainly because in order to have enough water on the NB it would be a high level on the main BLC. Our crew, Ian Garcia, mastermind of the idea, Kyle McCutchen and Evan Stafford, both part of the 2 descent of BLC last year and authors of the book, “Whitewater of the Southern Rockies” , and myself, decided we would go anyway and figure it out.
Kyle and Evan
Day 1 consisted of hiking 8 or 9 hours, 6 or 7 miles, over a 12 thousand foot pass, where it decided to blast us with wind and hail at the top.
Hows the weather?
We finished the day dropping down the steep backside of the pass into mosquito hell.
Self-portrait the morning of day 2.
We completed the hike into the NB around noon the next day, after two lake paddles and a painful hike down a super steep tributary.

Do you see the trail?
North Branch
The NB was low, which hopefully meant BLC wouldnt be too high. We put in below some big falls, that didn’t seem runnable with the flow. We ran two cool drops and met up with the main channel after 2 miles. Where we came into the main was a few miles downstream of the South Branch confluence, missing a few good drops and a portage. The level was high, highest it has ever been run according to Kyle and Evan. We estimated somewhere around 650-700cfs.

That night we made it to the infamous “Haagen Daazen” rapid. We decided to camp above, with the idea of “ice cream for breakfast”! Three of us fired it up the next morning from the top-highest descents.
Ian in Haagen Daazen photo: Kyle McCutchen
Ian went first and made it look too easy. I went second and Excuse#1: I had a rough night sleep, in the rain. With Excuse #2: The fully loaded boat, and I ended up getting spun around and flipping at the top and rolling up in time to run the bottom 40′ slide backwards.
Backwards!
Quickly hand-rolling at the bottom after losing my paddle and immediately wishing for a do-over. I ran back up to grab the video camera for Kyle, who now is like, “F%@# that!” But, A few words of encouragement and he got the fire back inside and saddled up and stuck it. We were pretty fired up after that, then we entered Fork Tongue Gorge a mile or so downstream. High water gnarly drops sent us shouldering along the banks.

Kyle McCutchen below Haagen Daazen
Some Fork Tongue Gorge Gnar!

A few rapids and then we got to “THE JIM BRIDGER PORTAGE” One of the worst portages ever.
Shouldering your heavy boat along the river up and over BFR’s (bigF-ingRocks) for over 2 hours. Once your done, you get back in and paddle some manky class 4-5 to Bull Lake.

Ian above Bull Lake Falls. photo: ES
A short paddle across the lake brings you to more sketchy class 5 and a must make eddy above the next hellish portage, “Bull Lake Falls”, a huge unrunnable cascade.
Notice the Rocky mountain mank in the top part of picture.
What a day we’re having by now, beat down all around, we put in below the falls and proceeded to bomb “The Rocky Mountain Mank” section, which is exactly that, but with good flow it was fun read and run class 5. We camped after a couple miles.

That night it rained pretty heavily, with thunderstorms and wind. Showing us how wild the canyon is in all aspects. We continued downstream the next day, now day 4, day 3 on the river.
….hmmm….
Starting off with continuous class 3-4 boogie then a portage and 2 waterfalls, which we portaged due to “uh yup thats pretty big…im walking”.
Out of the Canyon photo:KM
Then the river begins to mellow out eventually becoming a meandering waterway before showing its last bit of flair at the actual “Bull Lake Falls” on the map, a 10′ waterfall and some slides dumping into Bull Lake Resovoir.
Paddle to where you cant see and keep going.
THEN a 3 hour 9 MILE lake paddle back to the car arriving around 3:30pm, thank god for the slight tailwind! So, Bull Lake Creek is an amazing place. If you’re looking for a brutally rugged wilderness adventure go here. If you want to run a lot of the big drops, go at a lower flow. It is a place that has potential to go big at a cost. If you can deal with all the hiking, portaging, bugs, bears and mank, you might like it.
Check out Ian Garcia’s blog report

So thats it for our Demshitz tour 2008. Hitting the road again here this week, going our separate ways…back to work. Its been a good summer, good water, crazy times, time to go back to reality. Thanks to everybody out there supporting Demshitz. Immersion Research , Keen , Werner Paddles, Snap Dragon Designs , Vitalyte, Buffalo Joes , Jug Liquors and of course Moms and Dads and Pyranha

Hope to see ya on the water soon.

Im not even sure where this is…
Cool shot of Dave in the Teacups.

California Groove Tube
20′

Matt Young in a sweet gorge!
Kiwi in the Pocket aka “Kirk” in the Pocket that day!
Dave on Kiwi in the Pocket
Dave running “Dead Bear” Falls
Dead Bear
In-tow. Clutch 5 mile tow-out by the nicest fisherman alive on our second day. What a trip. Middle Kings tomorrow…hiking in for 4 days of California Goods! Check back for more to come!

I posted a good time coming in 2nd place with a 3:52, one second behind 1st place Andrew Holcombe and one second ahead of Josh Bechtel in 3rd. Graham Seiler and Dave Fusilli took 5th and 8th out of 19 racers. Next, we set up 5 gates starting two drops above the biggest drop 20′ Oh Be Joyful falls and ending shortly downstream. We did two runs and afterwards tallied up all the hit or missed gates and added the times and arrived at a winner.

There were some risky moves in this Giant Slalom course, and 10 seconds is added to your time if you hit a gate and 50 seconds for missing a gate! One of the hardest gates was below the falls where you were required to pass on the right and most of the water boils out from the base of the drop and pushes you left, if you got pushed left it was a tough ferry to get back right. A lot of racers missed this gate, including myself, sending me to 10th place overall. Dave and Graham managed to battle back with no missed gates and decent times putting them in 4th and 5th overall. Andrew Holcombe walked away with the overall win. We all had a great time and cant wait for more races like this in the future. Check out LVM TV for updates on Giant Slalom and other kayaking news.

Overall Results:
1. Andrew Holcombe
2. Clay Wright
3. Bryan Kirk
4. Dave Fusilli
5. Graham Seiler
6. Geoff Calhoun
7. Evan Ross
8. Josh Bechtel
9. Jake Greenbaum
10. Jared Seiler
11. Travis Winn
12. Jake Sackson
13. Johnny Meyers
14. Dave Levitt
15. Alex Hoetze
16. Conor Finney
17. Chad Pickens
Fusilli in the new Avalanche. The gnarly wood pile at the bottom on this one changed up and is pretty fun but kinda sketchy.
Dave and I on the slide coming into the last rapid.
Always a good time hanging out in the Oh Be Joyful campground. Wake up, cross the river, hike up, paddle down. Its a cool place. All photos by: Chris Larson

Fibark is one of the oldest paddle sports festivals around; 60 years and still going strong! Thanks again to all the people that help run this event every year.

This weekend we are thinking about heading to New Mexico to get on some snow melt in the Embudo canyon! Should be fun, Il keep ya posted.
PS. Lawrance Simpson is filling in for me in Reno…you better do well kiwi!

In the past 3 weeks I have been traveling around in the team van with Dave Fusilli and my brother Graham Seiler hitting up some on-water demo days.

Boats on display on Appalachian State’s Campus.
After a few days on the Green back in Asheville we loaded up the van and headed to Boone North Carolina for Appalachian State University’s Paddle Fest. Great weather and a good turnout right in the middle of campus in the duck pond. Competitions Rodeo Racing and even Dodge ball, put together by Lauren Garber, who did a great job with the event.
Rodeo Champ
Lauren handing out raffle prizes. Thanks Lauren!

Our next stop was Ohio for a weekend with Bernie and Jeryl from White Water Warehouse.
Surfing the wave at the “Chutes”
We had a great weekend, fairly nice weather and good fun out on the Rocky Fork. The wave in the “Chutes” on the Rocky Fork kept our Rev’s entertained nicely.

After that we came back to Asheville….more Green river…spent a few days zipping around in our ammo’s.

Then it was time for Green River Adventures opening weekend, which was this past weekend.

Sarah Bell put on a great show, with creeking clinics on the Upper Green and a keg party afterwards that went on until the wee hours sunday morning.
Dave Fusilli helping new to paddling buddy Lex with the line at “Bayless Boof” on the Upper Green.

It has been a blast traveling around meeting paddling and partying it up with Pyranha’s awesome representatives. The vibes have all been super positive and everybody is really enjoying the new Pyranha line up for ‘08. The 3 of us agree we have the best quiver of boats you can get with the Burn, or the NEW Everest, the Ammo and Recoil, and the NEW Rev, and sometimes the Speeder for all your whitewater needs. Next stop is Cheat Fest this weekend where we will have the Speeders out for the Annual Cheat Race! After which we leave for our West coast “Van”-tastic voyage. Reno to Colorado and Beyond! Hope to see ya out there!

Still down here in Chile making the most of low water. A group of us headed south from Pucon en route to the Futaleufu to hang out and kayak for the remainder of our stay here in Chile. On the way we ran the Salto del Nilahue and got a possible 1st descent of 2 drops on the Riñinahue near by. Max Blackburn on the Salto del Nilahue.
 Shot of me on Nilahue

  Still scared at the bottom of the last drop on the Riñinahue…
This run usually has too much water in it, and it was definitely on the high side of good the day Evan and I decided to run it. We checked it a few weeks before and it was definitely a no go. This past time I estimated the flow about a 1/3 less water, but the upper drops were still a bit sketchy. Big holes, big caves but the last drop is sweet! Evan and I decided to call the last one Alerdio because of its mini resemblence to the Alerces drop in Argentina mixed with the Salto de Indio on the Gol Gol in Chile, down the left and plug deep. We think the two drops we ran are first descents. correct me if anyone knows otherwise. The Riñinahue gorge is a really cool, really scarey gorge, but with nice rewards.

In other news: Recently, I had an unfortunate event happen to me durring my stay in Pucon. Someone broke into our truck and stole my computer and all of our video footage from the past 3 months in South America. Luckily, I still have a little bit of lower quality footage saved on a hard-drive, but a lot of pictures and most of the high quality video footage was taken. Needless to say we are all pretty bummed out. In the end, we will always have instilled in our minds the memories of this trip as being one of our bests, and will just have to come do it all over again to get full documentation. I made a couple videos on youtube with a lot of the footage that was stolen, if you havent seen it already check it out at    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QYNr-H0KbE and the other one  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hvKN2ff0EQ&feature=related 

Check out Evan Garcia’s blog for a more indepth report on the day egcreekin.blogspot.com

How could I forget this picture. Group shot under a waterfall pouring into a tight canyon in Argentina. Enjoy the Video