Nicole Mansfiield suits up for the 30 foot Medina waterfall in Medina NY. This creek runs under the Erie Canal just before turning and falling about 30 feet.  So yes, essentially there is a river running over another river (canal) a little different to say the least.   The Erie Canal dumps water into the creek right above the waterfall making this park and huck runnable most days of the year!  Here is a video of Nicole sending this drop!  Click Here!

Photo – Craig Kleckner doing another one of his ridiculous back PanAms at Inner City Wave on the Black River

The month of August has been a mix of summer road trip recovery and northeast playboating.  Here’s a lil bloggings of Inner City Wave on the Black, low level Ottawa, and a visit to Rochester’s Lock 32.

After hanging out with the Campbell’s for a couple of days on the Black River surfing Hole Brothers and watching the water level steadily decrease, Dave and I headed up to the Ottawa for some classic fun.  We heard it was -3.5 and Garb was out, but we hoped our luck would change and the river would suddenly spike.  It didn’t.  It got lower.  But, hanging out at the Ottawa is always a good time and there were still a multiple of surf options.

Here’s Matt Hamilton during a PushButton night session.

Surfing Left Side McCoy’s….the hungry beaver?

After some good days on the Ottawa, we headed back home.  While hanging out in Buffalo, I heard that it had been raining upstate and the Black had gone up 10,000 cfs since I had been there last…. meaning Inner City was in.  I debated whether it was worth driving the 3.5 hours back up for and after 3 long days of awesome and tiring surfing, concluded that it is TOTALLY worth it.  It’s rare to find a sweet wave with eddy access and no lines! Next time even I won’t even think twice about driving there from twice the distance.

Craig doing an assortment of BROWN tricks

Jeremy Laucks did thousands of stout clean BROWNS

After hanging out a couple of more days in Buffalo, Dave and I headed to Rochester for an event at Rochester’s Lock 32.  A lot of people came by the whitewater course to try out Molans and Burns.  Thanks to Danny and Paul for organizing the event and giving free whitewater clinics throughout the day.   If you’re in the area you should check it out http://www.geneseewaterways.org/kayaking.htm Lock 32 is a perfect place for people of all abilities and it was great to see lots of people of all ages and skill levels out there practicing their ferries, rolls, wet exits, carthweels, and loops.

 Quebec is known for two things.  Poutine and Water.  On a recent trip to the eastern reaches of this candian province 9 kayakers found both to be spectacular.  The Romaine river provided us with 6 days of unbeievable kayaking in a vast setting that is threatened by a massive hydro power project. 

After finishing an Xterra race in Lake Placid we began the through-the-night 20 hour slog to Havre-St. Pierre to meet our float plane.  With the whole crew assembled and packed, we were delicately placed in the wilderness about 120 miles noth of the St. Lawrence  on the Romaine River. 

 We watched our float plane climb out of sight, slipped into the water, started on our journey down the river.  The first day was a bit of a warm-up just getting down to our first camp.

 The next few days went by like a blur.  There were amazing rapids, perfect campsites, and incredible scenery to keep us entertained during the flatwater sections.

On day 4 we were met face to face with the harsh reality that the Romaine River is facing.  Hydro-Quebec has begun a massive hydro-power project on the Romaine and plans to begin diverting sections of the river by 2013. 

From this point on the river felt very big.  Huge volume rapds were separated by huge volumes of flatwater.  We took our time down in this section making to sure to appreciate every minute. 

On our final day we spent some time checking out the Grande Chute, and did battle with the bog to avoid an extra day of pure flatwater. 

We clawed our way through the bog, hitch hiked back to the cars, and started the long journey home.  It was a great adventure.  I’d go back today if I could. 

It’s important to mention that this trip would not have been possible without the information provided by members of previous trips down the Romaine.  Big thanks go out to Fred Corielle, Boyce Greer, and Trip Kinney for steering us in the right direction. 

check out www.five2nine.ca for some videos coming soon.

This March myself, Sam Clegg and Rich Kemble headed out to Nepal, with the aim of exploring the incredible culture, people and mountains that it has to offer. Following certain events, it was decided that in some way we wanted to contribute something towards the Mountain Rescue services; in our case the local Ogwen Valley team. We intended to raise awareness for the role that the team undertakes and contribute towards much needed funds for potentially lifesaving equipment within their Swiftwater Rescue services. The result was that we donated almost four-hundred pounds in funding and equipment to OVMRT.

Prior to heading out we had diverse aspirations, though eventually we planned on seeking out the classics and heading further up the traditional sections to take advantage of lower water conditions in the upper gorges. In three weeks – following a brief warm-up on the Trisuli – we ticked off the Modi Khola (whose tight, technical nature made it seem surprisingly full on in places with stacked up drops), Kali Gandaki (a bigger volume cruise through scenic gorges with bigger rapids further up, marred only by the dam backing up the river), Marsyangdi (a powerful medium volume run which never slowed up, we only wished it was longer), Bhote Kosi (true highlight of the trip, down from Tatopani) and the Rapti (mind out for the crocs!) The variety the country offered and the surprises which greeted us around each corner kept us on our toes. On one occasion, a local paddler Maila joined us to explore some of the upper gorges on the Bhote Kosi. After a long day on the water we wondered over to a shack to grab some supplies only to see him clutching what appeared to be a squawking box – that was to be dinner! Washed down with local spirits we slept under the stars, ready to awake to another day on the river.

Buses, tuck tucks, elephants, minuscule cars and tractors helped us move three people and boats around before the journey home, after three weeks in Nepal.

One thing is for certain, we’ll all be back for more quality paddling and copious amounts of tea…

Thanks to Pyranha for all their support and Maila and Chrissy at GRG Kayaking who really went out of their way to make us feel at home in Kathmandu. Aswell as Pete Baars at Summit to Sea for helping us out with the little bits and pieces.

Cheers,

Joe

http://www.vimeo.com/14535986

Arriving in Bangkok we got our boats on the train and took the bus to Chiang Mai (It turned out to be the queen’s birthday so no seats for us on the train!) Here we sorted ourselves a truck and hooked up with a local rafting company, Siam River Adventures, for a run down the Mae Taeng. Normally the whole 10km section is rafted with a steeper middle section providing some class 4 thrills for the clients… Lots of rain meant our first warm up river of the trip was at a slightly higher level with the rafts portaging the middle section. We decided to paddle it.

Since this exciting introduction to Thai kayaking we have been searching the area around Chiang Mai for more drops and sections of rivers. The next stage was a 6 hour drive east to Nan where we paddled the Tard Luang, hiking into the top slide in the picture below, then paddling the rest of the river. There were some sweet rapids, drops and slides including a chunky double drop we portaged but definitely has potential…

Check out our blog for loads more photos and tales of the adventures so far!

For every Kid, grown man, women or child the 1st trip down the very popular Green River Narrows is like Christmas morning.  This is a great day in any kayakers life.  Not only to run the Green, but to run all of the Green, the big 3 as they call them down there in NC.  I remember my 1st day down the Green for sure.  It’s just a damn good old time on the river.  I mean shit they even made a movie about it.   Check out Kid Chris’s video HERE.  It’s pretty damn good.

Kid Chris and some random going Left.

1st D of Horsecock Falls, Horse Creek California.  Chris Tulley photo

Gorgeous lighting for a late afternoon boof. Culley Thomas photo

A stout drop on the Upper EF Kaweah.  Chris Tulley photo

Macy named this one Gorneria – “if ya dropped into thar u’ed be a goner son”

Parting shot – Horse Creek and Upper Upper EF confluence.  Cully Thomas photo

.

]]> http://www.teampyranha.com/2010/08/16/upper-upper-ef-kaweah-exploring/feed/ 0 http://www.teampyranha.com/2010/08/16/video-of-demshitz-in-british-columbia/ http://www.teampyranha.com/2010/08/16/video-of-demshitz-in-british-columbia/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:36:29 +0000 dfusilli http://www.teampyranha.com/?p=6032

Photo by: Nicole Mansfield

Well we made it to British Columbia. Here we found a very fast long slide, a short but, super fun creek, and spent some time at the mighty Skookumchuck narrows.  demshitz made a video of course!!   Click right here

Photo: Ed Moorehead browning Fawlersville

Last weekend we headed up to Mountainman Outdoor Supply Co. in Old Forge, NY for a low water Moose River Paddle Session followed by BBQing and kayak movie watching.  Thanks to Pyranha Team’s Chris Morelli for teaming up with Mountain Man to organize this event.

The crew getting ready to head out

Jeremy Laucks trying out his newly converted Karnali C1

Danny doing the hairy ferry in his Rev

That’s all I got…

Scouting a NY Stout

Some days ago we finished our trip to Siberia. 4 weeks full of big rivers and sick kayaking.

Check out some photos here >>>

And here >>> 

Photo by: Jeff Campbell

Here is a sweet video by Craig Kleckner on the Black Eagle wave in Great Falls MT.  From what I understand Craig was very lucky to catch this wave.  It has not come in for about 8 years.  Click here for Craig’s video

Sopotnice is unique artificial playspot. I like this hole and the event too. There were other supplemental competition – ramp jumping and slope style. Slope style menas jumpinmg, turning and sliding on special wooden railing.

I competed in women category with 3 Slovak girls and I won the freestyle competition.

Next freestyle event of czech tour will be canceled, because unfortunately the small flood is continuing in Czech republic.

thanks for photo – Petr Prause and Hanka Bubnikova

Check out the film here

Images courtesy of Canoe and Kayak UK

Photo by: Nicole Mansfield

Demshitz goes on a wonderful trip to Washington state. Along the way we ended up running the Little White Salmon and it’s next door neighbor the Green Truss. Also, have you heard of Hamma Hamma falls. Well my friends it is a stout for sure. We ended up at a pretty nice party as well..enjoy!

Video Click here!

In May this year Ali Marshall and Max Keinwasser completed the first spring run of the Homathko river in BC.

This is one of the best multidays in the world as you journey though untouched wilderness and and class 5 canyons for 4 days.  When you reach the sea you get picked up by a float plane and flown back to your car.

This area is under threat by power companies,  it is hugely important area for salmon and grizzly bears etc , please show your support by researching the Bute Inlet project and doing all you can to help this incredable wilderness.

This year we resarected the great Callaghan race in BC.

The medium water levels made for the the perfect race course.

With a great turn out the race went smoothly, with only a little carnage.  A fun evening followed.

A large reason for bringing back this fantastic event to to bring awarness to IPPs hydro project that threaten rivers such as the Callaghan.

The event will be bigger and better next year so please turn up.

Liquid lore as a great blog report about it    http://www.liquidlore.blogspot.com/

Cheers

Ali

Nice Drop ! Pic by Daniel Egger

Me on the lower Rauma .. great place to be !!!!

Big slide !!

What a beautiful River, just entering the first rapid on the Kleivelvi River ! (Pic by Andeas Stockinger)

The Tysselva offers some really big slides and drops, together with Teammate Nils Kagel we run this creek. The bad thing is that you have to portage a lot of drops..

Slide on the lower Jordalselva Gorge (Pic by Daniel)

Nils Kagel making a first descent of a very hurtable Slide on the Tysselva

See you on the River !

Cheers! Robert

www.vboyz.at

 With plenty of creeking, Skookumchuck Narrows, Big D’s Cafe, and rope swings; British Columbia is one of Demshitz favorite kayaking destinations. 

    Read on & check out the rest of the photos

As in many spots in North America, the kayaking season in BC is a about a month behind schedule.  Many of the classic runs were high, but others, such as Furry Creek, which normally run in May/June were still running.  So, in addition to some high water Cheakamus and Callaghan, we also were able to check out some other spots in the area.  After driving all the way up to find the Ashlu with too much water, we decided to check out the nearby Elaho-Squamish, which was filled with big waves and incredible glacier views. 

The Seilers joined a huge crew of kayakers to slide down this 1km long concrete creek that ended in the ocean.   Unfortunately for pictures, we had to wait until 9 at night for the tide to come in to run the slide.  But, plenty of people from the community came by to check out the spectacle.

Jared’s Demshitz shrine constructed out of trash at the Cheakamus take-out

Craig Kleckner jumped in the van for the last part of the tour.  On his birthday he was able to surf Skook and then party on a Yacht!  He was stoked!!

Jared catching some air on a perfect wave.

Dave and I party surfing

Skook is a real good spot to work on rightys.

Dave doing some tricks!

Hanging out before a Skook session at our camp spot in at Kline Lake in Egmont, BC.  

British Columbia!!!!

Click here to see video

Unfortunately, the summer tour season is quickly coming to  a close.  But, we have a couple of great stops before ending back at home on the east coast.  Here’s Kristie boofing off Husom Falls during a Middle White Salmon trip we did with some of our friends from Hood River’s Kayak Shed.   Check out the rest of the post for some more shots from the trip.

It was a great day with everyone checking out either the Molan or Burn.

Some of us froze during the trip because despite the 90+ temperature at the put-in and take-out, the gorge is actually quite cold.  woops

Winter B-Roll from Adam Goshorn on Vimeo.

Until Next Time…

-adam

Big Timber POV video

Blue sky and sunshine in a summer day.

That’s Pyrenees, of course !

Gave de Cauteret – Eric Deguil et Maxime Mitaut from maxime mitaut on Vimeo.

Canyon du LLech from stephanie augras on Vimeo.

Llech canyon, see you next year with level water more “kayaker”.

Level water is going down in Pyrenees. Perfect time to run canyons.

Fafa (Fabrice Pouyeto) in the first double slide.

I agree this one was a little bit dry, but so fun !

Fafa in on of the 16 drops runable by kayakers in Llech canyon.

Me in the hardest drop called “Eject”. After 6 meters slide on rock, your’e eject 6 meters above the pool.

All without scout.

Funny time in one of the last slide. Everybody want to go more high in two bends. Water throwned on rock were a good judge !

Llech canyon distance: 650 m. High: 165m. Time inside: 7 hours.

Next trip: Nuria canyon. Shorter but more deep !

Video is coming…

Cheers,

Eric

photo by Franklin Adams

photo by Franklin Adams

Then we also had the boater cross which I ended up getting 5th overall out of 19 men and women, and  1st in womens.

Cant wait till next year!!!!!

This was an absolutely incredible trip. We put in next to an active volcano that was errupting every 5 minutes and found hot springs at the rivers edge. We had seen this river on the flight into our first source to sea on the Semalyichik and knew we would have several solid days of whitewater. The upper section consisted of long stretches of flatwater punctuated by giant waterfalls and slides and as we approached the ocean we found amazing class 4 read and run whitewater.

Simply put, it was as perfect as exploratory trips come. The logistics here have been as exciting as the rivers we have paddled. This trip was consisted of taking a giant Russian MI8 heli to the put-in and then using a sailboat to make the 20 hour journey back to the capital.

To have completed two incredible source to sea descents in just under two weeks, we are feeling tremendously successful. It is hard to convey how wild this place truly is. Waiting on the beach for our sailboat we combed the beach next to countless brown bear and wolf tracks. There have been no signs of humans on these rivers, just the wildlife that calls Kamchatka home. While we have been excited about the pure exploration of these rivers we have also begun collecting hydrological data that the kayaks are lending themselves to very well too. From here we will transition into exploring rivers that are prime salmon and trout habitat.- Bryan Smith

More info on National Geographic Blog http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/blogwild/2010/07/kamchatka-project-modernday-ex.html#more

And the here http://www.kamchatkaproject.org/

Words and Images supplied by Bryan Smith

Spring sprung and it’s now deep into another hot summer here in the southeastern United States. I was a great winter/spring of paddling, but as usually my photo and video updates are running about 6 months behind, so lets back up for second. In early December I spend a couple great weeks in the Grand Canyon (see report here).   After getting off the Colorado River on Dec 18^th, I headed south to Mexico to enjoy some warmer weather and warmer waters (see report here).   When I returned home in January I found the entire region in a deep freeze.

The following two months the core groups of local paddlers kept paddling straight through one of the coldest Januarys and February s on record. Highlights included endless ice chandeliers on every run, beautiful snowy river banks, breaking through (and sometimes portaging) frozen pools on Little River Canyon and a few days dodging ice undercuts on the normally tame Tellico.

For more photos from this past winter and my review of the Immersion Research Double “D“ drysuit, click here.

Until Next Time…

Adam Goshorn

Our women´s team Technika Extreme Ladies was on 2.place. The competition was composed from running (Tana Metelkova), paragliding (Pavlina Herberova), biking (Pavlina Cerna) and kayaking (me).  The water course wasn´t so hard, but there were some gate. It was funny events and new experience for me.

Mtb, skateboard, montainboard. Everybody jumped in water !

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This year we were fortunate to have another beautiful day to paddle the Skykomish River outside of Seattle, WA.  Thanks to Aquasports for promoting this event.  There was a great turn out for the paddle session.  We were stoked to have a bunch of people trying out Burns and Molans.  After the river, Charles put together a fun evening with pizza, beer, and a Dashboard Empanada Premier.  THANKS GUYS for a great day.  We had a lot of fun!

Check out the rest of the photos

Cheers,

See you on the water

On Saturday Marlow Canoe Club hosted the 2nd BCU Freestyle League Event, held at Boulters Weir. The results of the summer league will determine the British Champion and count towards GB team selection for 2011 World Championships.

It was a great day to be out on the water in the sunshine. Pyranha paddlers Jamie Burbeck and Bren Orton paddled well, winning 1st place in their respective categories.

Matt Tidy even took a break from his hectic work schedule  to come show everyone that carthwheels are still super cool.

Competition in the Juniors was fierce with James Benn and Bren Orton having their usual battle. Both pulling an impressive array of moves, in what can only be described as a ‘difficult’ feature.

The selection results * were as follows ( click on image for a larger view)

*  Apolgoies  I forgot to take a picture of the Elite K1 Men and OC1 categories.  I know Matty Nicholas won the K1 mens, followed by James Weight, Sam Anderson, Matt Tidy and Doug Cooper.

A slightly more informal final was also run at the end of the day to decide the Boulter’s Champion. Results will no doubt be posted on gbfreestylekayak.com asap.

Thanks to the organisers and all those that came along for a quality day in the sun.

Photo: Jim Pullen

Fortunately I managed to find couple of days spare leave from work at the end of May, persuaded two willing partners in crime and set about planning a 5 day mission. Initial plans for a fly-drive were scuppered as a result of an inconvenient Icelandic volcano, so we investigated the driving. 17 hours each way wasn’t going to be pretty, especially given the short duration of the trip, but it was possible, so we hit the man-up button and booked a ticket for the Eurotunnel.

Leaving straight from work on the Friday night we plugged the coordinates for the Ribo (actually in Switzerland) into the sat-nav and settled into the drive. 17 hours of travelling later and we rocked up at the put-in feeling ropey as hell, but fired up to paddle. The warm-up was a tasty 15m high slide – a definite wake-up call – before completing the river, then the remaining ~3 hour drive to Campertonogo in Italy.

The warm-up fall on the Ribo

The next few days were a blur of excellent whitewater, cheap pizza and even cheaper red wine, before we finally had to face the monster drive northwards to roll into work on Thursday morning, utterly destroyed.

Here’s a few more photos of the trip:

Photo: Jim Pullen

Photos by Rob Tuley and Tim Burne unless otherwise attributed

Today Demshitz met up at  Bob’s hole on the Clackamas River to paddle with a great crew of people from the area and Alder Creek Canoe & Kayak shop.  With the hot temperatures, it was a perfect day to spend on this fun and beautiful roadside run outside of Portland, OR.   Waiting for my head wound to heal, I was extremely jealous as I sat reading,  sweating, and taking photos on the river bank.

Here are some photos from the day.

Bob’s hole was extremely difficult to catch at this level.  But, rock spinning proved to be entertaining!

Next stop Washington.

ramp start

Jakobus racing

competitors

All photos by Marianne Stenglein, thanks!

Well another year another trip to Yule for demshitz.  Yule was a good bit lower than we have experienced on previous sessions.  I am not sure I liked it as much, however that could be because I crashed so big that right now my ribs still hurt.  This was about 4 weeks ago.  You will see why.  We are in Big Fork MT right now getting ready to head further west.  Saturday is a boat with the bros session at Alder Creek followed by a Dashboard Empanada premiere.  The very next day will be a similar situation at Aquasports in Redmond Washington.  Come Paddle demshitz!                  Yule Creek video HERE

We’ve had a super diverse last week on the road including some CO creeking, a wedding, a day and a half of driving, playboating in Missoula, and some fun MT creeking and river running.  Here’s a lil’ photo update.

A couple of days before leaving Colorado, we met up with our good friends Mike and Kyle Hagadorn to run Cheeseman Gorge; a beautiful creek none of us had seen before.  It was definitely on the low side of good, but we all had a great time and were glad to have the brothers Hagadorn to guide us through all the siphons.

Boofing & Siphon dodging

Jared routing the rarely run Penis Buster Parfait

There was some definite BROWN on this river

’slide for life’

The 3-mile crawl out of the canyon was also epic….especially when the “shortcut” leaves you all at various places up and down the road.  Fortunately Mike and Jared actually made it back to the van to come find the rest of the tired and hungry crew.

After a long drive along a dirt road “shortcut” we found ourselves in Missoula, MT.  We spent a day hanging out on Brennan’s Wave before the Team Trial Preliminaries on Wednesday.   Here Jared completes a Giant Brown Air.

Hannah Kertesz Finished 2nd in Junior Women’s, earning her spot on the US National Team!  Congrats!!!!!

J-dog

Fusilli

Craig Kleckner & Mike Patterson both respresented in Men’s Semi-Finals!

Craig Kleckner… Clearly a crowd favorite!

While spending time in Missoula, Dave, Graham, and I checked out the local Kootenai Creek.  Although short, it was a lot of fun and easy to lap.  Here is Dave entering the Pinch.

Graham boofing away from the Room of Doom

The next day Dave and I checked out Idaho’s classic Lochsa River.

The river was incredibly beautiful with super clear water, hawks, and huge trees growing out of sandy beaches.

And the river was fun with lots of playspots and waves perfect for downriver tricks.

Next stop =  Oregon!

CHECK IT ALL OUT!