GAIA Paddlesports http://beta.gaiasports.com/ Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:25:47 CST 60 Copyright GAIA Paddlesports June 25, 2006 When a young Ron Burke canoed around Sonoma County, Calif., he had no idea that he'd one day be going paddle- to-paddle with the U.S. whitewater rafting team. Check out the rest here. Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:17:00 CDT http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=55 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=55 The guys went down to the East Coast Canoe and Kayak Festival on April 21st. What a great event that was! Although it wasn't Gaia's first time to be there it was ours, and we loved it. Just a relaxing time in the great city of Charleston. We got to see some pretty sweet custom boats at the festival. From wooden canoes, to catamarans, to kayak's with sails, I've never seen some many different styles. The best part of the show was being stationed next to The Greenland Kayaking Association. The Greenland rollers were performing hundreds of diffrerent rolls (or it seemed like that many) with precision. They even made us an official member! All in all- if you ever get the chance to go to the ECCKF than come and see us! You can check out the pictures here. Fri, 04 May 2007 21:37:00 CDT http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=247 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=247 by Jeremy Adkins Courtesy of: Adam Goshorn The journey began with Luke "Carlton" Hill picking me up in Trussville, AL. Together, we continued on to Muscadine, AL to collect "THE" Charlie Mix. Thanks to some fantastic tacos, compliments of Charlie's parents, with our new-found energy we were off to the Tallulah River. Our timing wasn't too shabby having missed most of Atlanta traffic; we arrived with time to spare. As we set up camp at the takeout, we realized we were directly beside a large group of Georgia College students. With their campfires blazing along with several invitations for us to join, we knew we had arrived just in time. Camping fees would consist of a contribution to the state park and the honor system of giving the money. The alternate system is to just hang a tag on the rear view mirror. Charlie went to bed early as Luke, Andy and I stayed up laughing and getting to know our new friends before heading off to bed ourselves. ZZZzzz... Courtesy of: Luke Hill On Saturday the journey continued would; begin with a great grits and protein powered oatmeal breakfast. We got to the put in and gathered all our gear. It would be my first time to use the prototype Fatkins Bag from Gaia Paddlesports. The Fatkins Bag is a floatbag for the stern of any kayak with a completely dry zipper making it drybag/ floatbag combination. It worked great for all my food, rag, and other video necessities. It also added flotation in the back of my boat. The calf exercise would soon begin with over 700 + steps down to the river. You actually were sweating and could not wait to get into the river. On Saturday the river was a normal 500 c.f.s. making it a little shallow but a great level to go down for your first time. Luke was nervous seeing as how it was his first creek. Oceana is one of the first rapids making it where you have to be ready and stretched. Charlie, Andy, and I fired it up. This made Luke want to run it and he did, 3 times. My favorite part of the day was running the middle line. The middle line is a little trickier than the left line as you have less speed coming around the Thing. The "Thing" is a rock that most of the rivers water is slamming into. This makes a huge splash into the air and the most dangerous part of this rapid. After shooting pictures, video and taking Luke down the river we reached the takeout. We decided we had enough time to make one more run. We walked another 700 + steps realizing that our legs were burning at the bottom except for Charlie's of course. Upon reaching the bottom of the steps and everyone being in the way we started the timer. In exactly 20 minutes we had reached the bottom of the river. Excitement ran through everyone and we were all proud of Luke firing it up on his first day including Oceana four times. That night Georgia was supposed to get almost three inches of rain. This was to our liking with thoughts of Overflow Creek but also our dismay considering we were camping at the takeout at the bottom of the hill. After the river we decided to get some dinner. This would be a great idea due to our hunger level. We ate at a local sushi restaurant and let me tell you I love sushi. That night it started raining hard, wind blowing, and started to get cold. Luke's Mother offered to get us a motel room for the night due to the bad weather. Of course Charlie would get the first shower. The worst part was the rudeness from the front desk clerks after we asked for more shampoo and towels. After a great shower and some television it was time to go to sleep. ZZZzzz.... Courtesy of: Adam Goshorn After a short but good night sleep Charlie woke us up earlier than we wanted to go paddling. We started off the morning with a bowl of oatmeal and grits with a large glass of orange juice. Our kayaking gear was dry and warm thanks to the motel hangers and shower rod. At the put in I worked feverously for over one hour to get the headcam working but was still not getting anything but a blue screen. I hope that it was just the battery. That day would begin with a burn of the calves again due to the 700 + steps. We arrived at the first boof and I set up shop on the left bank to shoot some photographs. We went down to Oceana where we shot more photographs with unbelievable sunlight. I ran both the left line and the center line before going downriver. At the playhole below I did a great backender in my Wavesport, Habitat 74 and rolled up hitting the rock below the hole. We ventured on downriver getting to my favorite move on the river. I love the boof at Bridal Vail. It is great to come screaming down the slide and right before you get to the bottom on your boof you can almost throw the boat sideways in the middle of the air boofing into the eddy on the bottom left. When we reached the lake there was a cold brisk wind blowing behind us. This made for a quicker paddle across the lake. After packing up our camping stuff we headed out towards home. On the way I had to take a bathroom break. The first gas station had both restrooms out of order and tons of energy drinks. The second gas station had a crappy restroom with an ant hill in the corner with no energy drinks. After natures call we went to the third gas station for an energy drink and there was sign on the front of the building that said CLEAN RESTROOMS! At this point you just had to smile and laugh. I fell asleep and woke up in Charlie's driveway. Charlie and Luke copied all the pictures from my camera and we headed home. On the way out we noticed Charlie's road sign had tons of bullet holes in it. Just after we went over the bridge we had a first time occurrence for Luke and me. We went to dodge a possum in the road and there was another right behind it just on the other side of our lane. This made for a feeling of test driving a nice sports car. It also shows you how country Charlie is. We were just outside of Birmingham and got stuck in non moving traffic. While sitting there we counted 7 ambulances going by. Hopefully everyone was alright. I finally arrived at home, unloaded, and caught some sleep. I would like to thank all my sponsors including Wavesport Kayaks, Shred Ready, Snapdragon, Level Six, Alabama Small Boats, Gaia Paddlesports, Surface Dynamics, Astral Buoyancy, and Werner Paddles for enabling me to go on these great trips. Had a great time and hope to see everyone on the river soon. Jeremy AdkinsTeam Wavesport Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:36:00 CDT http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=246 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=246 Jeremy just made the trek down to Dawnsonville, GA to attend the Outside World Demo. Check it out. Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:57:25 CDT http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=244 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=244 by Jeremy Adkins In my Dad's truck with a midnight start, it would be a long road ahead to the Outside World Demo in Dawsonville, Georgia. After finally leaving work, I still had to go to my house, pick up my gear, travel to Jacksonville State and meet up with Charlie Mix. Finally, we were on our way. A word of advice: stay away from Highway 53. Thanks to the lack of signs on the road and many small cities, it took forever to get to Dawsonville and even longer to find the motel. We met up with the Wavesport Southeast representative, Dave Blanding, who graciously hooked us up with a room at the Comfort Inn. As we walked in the door at 5 a.m., breakfast was being served. At that point the only thing keeping us awake was the amazing customer service provided by the front desk clerk who went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure we had everything we needed. It wasn't long before we were off to the room to catch a few hours of sleep...crash...ZZZzzz. Wow, 9 a.m. came much too quick and we were off to the Demo. Thank God for Starbucks coffee! Upon arrival, the first thing we noticed was the pool inside the shop. Because of its adjustable currents, the pool is a perfect spot for effectively and safely teaching kayaking clinics. It was also a great place to purchase gear from other sponsors including Shred Ready, Werner Paddles, and Astral Buoyancy. After taking time to talk about different companies, it was into the water where we were surprised by a hand rolling competition. First up, Pyranha paddler, Jared Seiler, started it off right with 10 hand rolls in 1 minute, a tough act to follow with me up next. Considering I swam less than two weeks before this with my hands I was thinking swim... but I managed to pull off 12. Next up was Charlie, who after spending most of the time upside down, ended up with only 3 rolls... Nice, Charlie! It wasn't long before the time had come to pack up and head off to the Ocoee River. It was great to be at Keith Yell's cabin and see everyone again after NAWF, the previous weekend not to mention it was St. Patty's Day... Irish Car Bomb time (Hello Moe Kelleher). A cure-all greasy breakfast would start Sunday off with a smile. The Ocoee was awesome with some amazing moves being thrown, including Keith Yell's big McNasty and Jonathan Shale's big Air Loops as the Outside World Demo proved to be the best way to kick off the weekend of the Ocoee season. Special thanks to my sponors for helping me make this trip including Alabama Small Boats, Surface Dynamics, Astral Buoyancy, Shred Ready, Snapdragon, Level Six, Werner Paddles, Gaia Paddlesports and Wavesport Kayaks. To check out Outside World, log onto www.theoutsideworld.net or contact by email at info@theoutsideworld.net. Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:45:00 CDT http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=243 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=243 Jeremy attended the recent North Alabama Whitewater Festival, and, for those of us not so fortunate, has offered to to tell us all about it! Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:20:00 CDT http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=242 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=242 Third Time is the Charm.Jeremy Adkins After 365 days of hard work and preparation, the time had finally come for the 2007 North Alabama Whitewater Festival. People came to Alabama, now so affectionately renamed as The Land of Drought, from all around to support the much anticipated event. There were 80 competitors combined for both days with four Canadians and a Costa Rican in the mix. Although water levels were a bit below what we had hoped, our sponsors, Surface Dynamics, Alabama Small Boats, and Yell's Hardwood Floors helped make this particular year an amazing one. Our mission, as always, has been to provide a great festival environment centered on non kayakers with kayaking as the featured sport, something that seemed to have sparked interest in even more attendees this year. King's Bend set the stage once again, a perfect location thanks to the hard work and dedication of landowner, Pat King. Pat put countless hours into providing everyone with a comfortable and enjoyable experience. With freshly dug up ground, saw dust, hay, fire barrels, trash cans and more firewood than we knew what to do with, most of the bases were covered. Set up for the festival commenced at the beginning of the week with Keith Yell and his crew building Mt. Chaos, a 55 ft. high kicker ramp alongside its little brother Skip, a 40 ft. high skip ramp with rollers provided by Surface Dynamics to increase speed while aiding in the ability to skip off the water like a skipping stone. With everything in place, Friday kicked off with the Alabama Small Boats Huckfest and the Surface Dynamics Boatercross. At the Huckfest, a freestyle event off 20 foot Short Creek Falls, the objective was for each competitor to throw the most creative freestyle trick off the waterfall while maintaining control. Preliminaries were quite impressive; some great moves were thrown including Nathan Silsbee's ph, Charlie Mix's answer (the bow pencil into front flip), Boyd Ruppelt and Jeremy Adkins' huge kickflips, Keith Yells' rockspin 2 kickflip combo and Eli Herbert's 13 foot canoe freewheel. The scores were based on each competitor's top three rides and with only six people going into finals, competitors had two rides but with only one counting. Go big or go home! It was during finals that Keith executed a sweet rockspin with a paddle twirl into a 540 degree kickflip landing on his head. The winner would be Spencer Cooke with a rockspin to cartwheel freewheel which came as no surprise because while dropping off the waterfall, he switched the freewheel against the grain, reversing all momentum gained by the rockspin. However, the highlight of the Huckfest turned out to be this random kid in a Dagger boat who attempted the front flip off the shallow side resulting in his third swim of the afternoon. Maybe he should have gotten a new skirt! HHMM! With the end of the Huckfest came the beginning of Boatercross. In this event, each of us were in heats of four going around a buoy, off the waterfall, around the Red Bull buoy, underneath the waterfall and then back to the rock where the judges were sitting. In preliminaries I was ahead of Charlie Mix but was passed underneath the waterfall as I unfortunately paddled onto a pile of hidden rocks. Todd Baker would have come in first; however, a restart was called due to the Red Bull buoy moving around in the eddy with all the garbage and logs. On the restart Todd was in first again but went the wrong way around the buoy proving to be one of the most entertaining moves of the day. Way to go Todd. Doh! In the end Spencer Cooke would again be victorious. That night the competition site became a party fully stocked with refreshments, Full Moon BBQ, jousting, food vendors, kayaking videos and musical entertainment from Cool Beans, a local Birmingham jam band. Mikey Shales projected all the footage from earlier that day onto the side of the Yell's Hardwood Floors van to share Friday's events for those who were unable to attend. My highlight for Friday night would have to be a duet of Ice Ice Baby sung by John Reynolds and myself on the karaoke machine provided by the Riot Booth. It was a perfect end to the first day of NAWF and I could not wait until Saturday. Saturday would be the larger of the two days and a big change this year was the freestyle event would be on site. Breakfast buffet would be served at Covered Bridge Grill with 20% discount cards going to all competitors and volunteers. King's Hole is a great feature but the water was very low making it a shallow retentative hole. It being spectator friendly let everyone that did not know much about the sport able to watch and see what our great sport is about. In the morning David Livingston and volunteers spent two hours putting plywood on the sides of the river to channel more water into the hole making it deeper and more consistent. Mikey Shales videography would be on the cataraft suspended right above the hole which was a great view besides the sometimes bad lighting. While in the hole if you were in the hole out of turn or after your ride was over the judges would shoot you with an aerosoft gun. Thanks Cumnock! Welcome to the Dirty Dirty! In the women's class local river supporter for over 15 years Jennifer Taylor came out in an open canoe to help the women's class make. Also in the women's class was eleven year old Lauren Burress. We hope to have more women next year. In the men's class some great rides were being thrown but not consistent due to the shallow water. Brian Kirk (not to be confused with Bryan Kirk) had a great Phonics Monkey in preliminaries but was overshadowed by the youngster Todd Baker in finals. T-ODD Baker had an unbelievable ride in finals seeing as what the water level was. He stuck both phonics monkeys and a tricky whu to hands down win the freestyle event. After finals everything moved over to ramp to see who could throw some big tricks. Some great tricks were being thrown but my ramp highlight would have to wait until Sunday. Dinner would be served by Brandon and Tara Arnold and Eddy and Susan Adkins. With 125 lbs. of chicken and pasta and potato salad donated by Ruby Tuesday's no one would be hungry. After dinner there would be more games, awards, silent auction, raffle, karaoke, fire pits, more food, funnel cakes, crazy jousting, tons of refreshments, free Milo's sweet tea, videos, and musical entertainment provided by Ted Tedder and Steel String Theory. When awards were announced Todd Baker won the overall for men's pro. He was given a picture of Charlie Mix and it got autographed by Charlie Mix. That night the party got crunk and so did the wrestling competition between Charlie and Todd grew with Todd slamming Charlie into the ground. There were fighting for much more than pride. Her name was Rachel lol.....The jousting would be a huge hit as many people wanted to beat the crap out of each other. It would also host two of my biggest highlights from the entire weekend. One was a good friend of mine getting sick when she was bouncing around. As she came off the jousting arena the puke was actually coming out between her fingers. Number two would be watching a grown man get hit in the face and start crying like a two year old school girl. As Steel String Theory kept on jamming and the refreshments kept on flowing people starting doing back flips off the ramp onto the inflatable jousting ring. As the party winded down it was great to hear of Mark Travis getting formed tackled in a tent and someone putting shit under his hammock because he was big enough to hang into it. Great SNOT! After a great night sleep I would wake up to the sound of running water of the racing course at King's Bend. Sunday would hold some of the funniest things of the weekend. I first learn a friend of mine from work lock himself into his own tent. I am not going to mention any names (JJ). I decided to take all the kids kayaking due to no one showing up for the Shane Hulsey Memorial Paddle. Little Joshua was so excited he could not contain himself while I was paddling. He actually got sad at the thought of getting out of the Wavesport boat just as I do. Amazing for a kid that is scared of the water but after it was all said and done it is all he talks about. While taking the kids paddling I saw my ramp highlight of the weekend, my friend Chad Dempsey riding a bike off Mt. Chaos. His first attempt he went over the front of the handle bars and had a huge gash in his but. On his second attempt he got all the way to the bottom and ate crap right before the transition resulting in a broken ankle and toe. All in all it was a great event and I could not be more excited on how everything went. I want to thank all the sponsors for helping us put on this great festival and the volunteers that worked so hard to make it possible including the ones that did not even get a thank you. The final results should be posted at Nawfest.net along with numerous pictures. Hope to you on the river soon. Jeremy AdkinsTeam Wavesport Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:13:00 CDT http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=241 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=241 Jeremy AdkinsFebruary 3rd Courtesy of: Mark Vincent With blistering cold conditions the Alabama Cup Series started off with a bang. Friday night held big bonfires and sub 20 degree temperatures. King's Bend hosted the race in 2007 has it has for its sixteenth consecutive year. With help from Friends of the Locust Fork, Phillip Foti, and Pat King it would be a great event with around 50 competitors and 50 spectators from around the southeast. On Friday night the Bama Boyz were quite struck by the snow falling from the clear sky during a full moon. Due to the fact that I live only five minutes away I did not camp but drove back home. On Saturday I woke up early for a competitors meeting. This meeting was to tell people which direction to go through the gates because some people were not sure. I am not going to mention any names (John). I left my car at the campground and was quite surprised when I got back to it. My Crossfire was frozen to the top of my car. The extra straps that tied the kayak to my car were thrown inside the kayak to not drag the ground which was a huge mistake because the water in my boat was frozen with the straps in the ice. With this said I had to borrow a long boat. This actually fared better for me because I got to borrow a Reflex 2 from Mikey Shales. The Reflex is much faster in flatwater and through the gates than the Crossfire and since the water was low this was an advantage because I could go under the gates without going to far downstream. Before my first run Charlie Mix, Johnny Shales, John Reynolds, Keith Yell and I went to King's Hole to throw it down. King's Hole will be hosting to the 2007 North Alabama Whitewater Festival Throw Down and Big Trick Contest. It is a great hole with great shoulders but with 25 degree water this play session did not last long. It felt like I ate 30 ice cream sandwiches every time I flipped over giving me the biggest and sharpest ice cream headache of your life. In the competition, my first run felt to be one of the fastest of any race I had ever been in until gate 19. As I came through gate 17 and 18 I just spaced gate 19 to remember when the spectators yelled at me. Then to add insult to injury I went through gate 16 again for no reason taking away from my sicky quick first run. DOH! My first run would still be fast enough to place me in the top five after wasting almost 30 seconds. I was disappointed to say the least especially since Gavin Rains and I talked about the only thing that would make a competitor a retard in this race would be forgetting gate 19. Whoops! As I went back to the top to make my second ride I had conceived a rap song to help me remember gate 19. Hit gate 19, with a head of steam, faster than a shark with a laser beam! This helped me not to space gate 19. The best accomplishment was to beat Gavin after paddling around in the eddy for almost 30 seconds. I only bring this up because earlier he had said there was no way I could beat him with all the paddling around I did in the eddies going back up to gates that I forgot. Though my second run was not as fast as my first, it was nice to finish on a clean run. When it was all said and done I had two gate touches costing me 10 seconds. This stunk considering my total time was exactly 10.7 seconds behind first and second place. Paddlers Keith Yell and Luke Scott had clean runs putting them into first and second going into the final rounds. Good thing the Alabama Cup is a three race combined series giving me an opportunity for redemption. Going under and between gate 18, Jon gave us the most entertaining run of the day as he completed a perfect Eskimo roll. It was very funny and completely crowd pleasing. Courtesy of: Mark Vincent After our second ride everyone went to the King's Hole again. There were some fantastic moves thrown from all paddlers including Front Loops, Back Loops, Phonics Monkeys, McNasties, Tricky Whus, Kickstarts, and the occasional Felix. After only about 30 minutes I was so frozen that I could not even move. Thanks for Gavin for keeping the heat on in the Alabama Small Boats van I had a warm place to quickly change clothes. That night there were more bonfires, refreshments, snow, friends, prizes, and dinner being served by the Boy Scouts. This first event was a spectacular way to kick off the 2007 kayaking competition season. Special thanks to Friends of the Locust Fork (www.flfr.org), Pat King, gatekeepers, and all the volunteers that made this event possible. Here are the two links for results: One for the Championship morning session and one for the Cruising afternoon session. Enjoy! Championship Morning Session (PDF) Cruising Afternoon Session (PDF) Here is a link to look at and purchase pictures from the Locust Fork Invitational Races. Thank you Mark "Fatboy" Vincent! As always I would like to thank all my sponsors for making paddling and competing possible for me. Thank you Wavesport Kayaks, Astral Buoyancy, Snapdragon, Level Six, Shred Ready, Gaia Paddlesports, Alabama Small Boats, Surface Dynamics, and Werner Paddles for your support. Make sure to check out the North Alabama Whitewater Festival at Nawfest.net and Myspace.com/Nawfest. Hope to see everyone at the Mulberry Races or on a river near you. Jeremy Adkinswww.JeremyAdkins.com Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:49:00 CST http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=238 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=238 Evan Andrechek Cabin fever can hit hard and is even worse when you've got a new boat to try out. While the Toronto area doesn't conjure up many images of whitewater, there are some spring runs that will get your boat out of storage. Last season we finally got some warmer weather and rain halfway through March. The local creeks were choked with ice but everything was melting fast. I'd already been out once this season on some flatwater in the playboat. The water was likely liquid due to the curious mix of chemicals in Hamilton Harbour, and I had to hose down everything to ensure there was no reaction. Now I was ready for some whitewater, and I'd managed to hook up with a group of paddlers that had a dedicated river scouter who was doing daily checks for ice on Bronte Creek and 16 Mile Creek. Friday morning the call came: the ice had broken up on 16 Mile Creek the night before and the water was flowing fast and furious with icebergs but should be ready by the weekend. Saturday morning came far too early after a night of feeding, burping and rocking our two month old baby, but I already had the car packed up and headed out for an early run. After picking up a few other paddlers, we met at the take out at the top of the hill by the Lion's Club Park at Hwy 5 on 16 Mile Creek. The shuttle was short (under 5 minutes) to the put-in where the road stops at the north end of Neyagawa road just north of the 407. Courtesy of: Eran Andrechek This short shuttle is for a portion of the river that loops around for almost 8 km, ducks under several major bridges but still manages to feel fairly wild in the deep ravine. The ride started directly after exiting the cars - it was a long snowy slope down to the creek and we tobogganed down the hill in our boats. The bridge at the bottom of the hill had about 3 inches of air underneath before the water started and it was clear that the water had been much higher recently. In addition to the high water, there were also a number of ice chunks littering the riversides. Some of these ice floes were several feet thick and were large - 10 feet by 10 feet was not uncommon. Shortly after putting in we came to the first ice dam where these small icebergs had previously jammed the river and after scouting for a clear route we made a run though a twisted channel lined by ice. A careful scouting of these ice dams is STONGLY advised as there can be sieves and holes below the surface that a swimmer could become trapped in. Fortunately, every one of the ice dams we encountered had a small channel that had worn through them and we slowly picked our way downstream. The whitewater on the trip was of the C1-C2 variety common to Southern Ontario but there was an occasional C2 that was pushing towards a C3 - but due to the temperature of the water and the ice floes this river could likely be upgraded to a solid class 3. Clearly this is not somewhere to take a beginner for their first paddle! The current in this section was also pretty much continuous and there were only one or two very short portions where there was only a sluggish current. Courtesy of: Eran Andrechek Since I was paddling my open canoe with a group of whitewater kayakers, we stopped at every hole or wave to play and I quickly rediscovered some old unused muscle groups that I don't think I've used since last fall while I surfed along with them. Stern draws weren't quite as effective and although none of the waves was that big, the cold water was a pretty good incentive not to swim. The major danger on this trip was the sweepers. When we paddled there were two major strainers, one was a log that fell across the entire river and we had to drag the boats through the bush around it. The other sweeper was a full tree that was uprooted and was midstream in a C2 rapid. For me, the greatest danger was likely from a heart attack - the takeout at the Lion's Club park was followed by a steep hike up the hill to get to the cars. I felt like I was doing 600 squat reps with an 85 pound canoe and after a winter of writing my thesis, I was seriously out of shape! Nothing a little portaging won't fix, but the first portage of the spring always feels bad. The small watershed means that this will only run at the height of spring runoff or after a period of significant rain. You'll have to scout regularly as the ice starts to melt in the spring to hit the optimal levels. Courtesy of: Eran Andrechek There are a number of paddling clubs that include this as a regular spring run and it would be a good idea to hook up with one of these groups if you haven't run the river before. Be aware for the ever-changing sweepers, ice dams and be sure to suit up in the appropriate cold weather paddling gear if you decide to paddle in March. Other local runs that start before the bigger Hwy 7 destinations start to open up include Bronte Creek and the Credit River. All three of these rivers are worth a paddle to sate your cabin fever and warm up for the tougher runs that will be opening in just a few short weeks. Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:06:00 CST http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=237 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=237 Photographer: Samantha Brunner Several weeks ago, I had never been out of the country before. So when I found out about the Costa Rica trip Brad was organizing, it was more to me than an opportunity to kayak somewhere new; it was an opportunity to experience a new part of the world for the first time! But with $500 in my account, no passport, school about to start, and only 2 weeks notice, it was crunch time if I was going to go on this trip. Somehow I was able to get a passport in less than a week, get my teachers' approval for missing the first 2 weeks of the semester, get my shots, and pick up my new 2007 Rocker just in time to go to the first day of school and then hop on a plane to Charlotte, NC and then on to Costa Rica! I'll never forget that feeling I had, flying with my gear and new kayak and stepping off the plane in another country for the first time... It was amazing to have pulled it together for myself in just 2 weeks and the sense of accomplishment and adventure was fresh inside of me with the anticipation of the drops, rapids, and new friends to come. I made my way through the airport, immigration, and customs, carrying my Rocker and luggage out of the airport, only to be met by a crowd yelling names, Spanish, and holding signs for tourists and taxis. A young man grabbed my boat and rushed me across the street where I was eventually met by friendly open hands (for tips) and Brad Sutton, Mario Vargas, and Mario's girlfriend Coreylynn (no idea how to spell her name... sorry)... they grabbed my stuff and before I new what was happening I was in our shuttle van for the trip and we went to a parking lot to wait for Lucas, our photographer for the trip. The Costa Rica trip happened for one reason. Brad wanted to run big waterfalls, and he had his eye on La Fortuna... What really happened on our trip, turned out to be completely different than what any of us had expected. Personally, I had no interest in running something like Fortuna, but with lots of waterfalls on the side and the idea of possibly going big, I joined the trip to put the new Rocker to the test and to film with Ben Stookesberry and to learn whatever I could from my friends. My goal was to improve as a paddler and to push myself a bit more than before while experiencing a new culture in a new country for the first time! Because of the ice storms, Lucas never made it to Costa Rica. After picking up Ben Stookesberry and his girlfriend, Lizzie, we took off to Sarapiqui and for a warm-up on the upper gorge of the Pozo Azul. Photographer: Samantha Brunner Photographer: Samantha Brunner I hit the lip with a bit of extra speed to get over the small shelf above the lip. The Rocker went right over the shelf without losing speed, suprising me a bit. Overcompensating a bit, I pitched a little off the lip but with a fast tuck the bow pulled right back up to 15 degrees with no problem for a perfect landing and great resurface. The Pozo Azul was a bit on the low side, but the waterfalls were great! They proved to be a sweet warm-up for Costa Rica! I was thoroughly impressed with the new Rocker. It plugged great but was especially smooth on the lip and when resurfacing. It smoothly, but quickly, resurfaces upright and balanced with ease! After some easy, shallow, boulder mank, we eddied out above the lip of the big one, Pozo Azul Falls. It's probably the most run waterfall in Costa Rica, but you can't deny its quality... it's a great drop for practice or a good warm-up. Photographer: Samantha Brunner After our run down Pozo Azul, we took of for La Paz and a quick scout of the waterfall. Personally, I felt that it was a bit low for a run. The pool depth was about 10' lower than where it's usually run, probably pushing the falls into the 90' range. Brad decided it would go and decided to fire it up "tomorrow'... so the next day after more rain, we all showed back up at La Paz in the morning hoping it would have more water. It didn't. Brad was not feeling well that morning so the La Paz/Fortuna idea was deifnitely off, and our focus shifted from park-and-huck waterfalls and easy access to the places kayakers in Costa Rica just don't typically go. Ben was ready to leave the overdone waterfall silliness and go on a mission. We heard about kayaker running a section of the gorge below the La Paz Waterfalls before but couldn't find any info. On our way up to La Paz we found this waterfall: Photographer: Samantha Brunner We got to thinking, what if we could put in at the base of this waterfall? What would be downstream? Keep in mind that the only thing around this waterfall was fresh, STEEP jungle and that the hike in is "muy peligroso" (very dangerous) to stay the least. It was also a lot farther away than it looks in that photo. More like this: Photographer: Samantha Brunner After talking to some locals, the hike sounded like a bad idea... but exactly what I think we were all looking for. Before we knew it, Ben had paid a local man, Senario, to show us the way into the gorge as our jungle guide. With only 5 hours of daylight left (4 in the jungle) we quickly geared up for the hike in. Ben, Lizzie (his girlfriend), me, and Senario took off down a hill and through a field and into the rainforest. Within the first 5 or 10 minutes Senario turned around and warned us not to get an upcoming tree into our eyes and not to rub our eyes after touching it. If we did, he said, it would make us blind. Before I could say much of anything, we're climbing through this tree and another and another, pretty much setting the mood for the rest of the hike. The rainforest is an interesting place, but it seems like everything in it will kill you or mangle you somehow... everything seemed poisonous or sharp, but absolutely beautiful. climbing our way down the steepest, mudiest forrest floor I've ever seen, we could finally hear water! Once in the river and with the sweat washed away for a moment, we began our trek upstream to the base of the waterfall. Photographer: Samantha Brunner The craziest thing about having Senario as our guide was that once we reached the river, he still kept up. We told him he didn't have to go up with us, but he insisted. He couldn't swim and had no gear. But somehow he made it from one shore to another heading upstream like a persistent, half-drowned rat...with the biggest smile I had ever seen, only stopping to dump out his rubber boots. He really made us feel like tenderfoots in there...us in all our paddling gear, helmets and everything. And we were glad to have it on! Photographer: Samantha Brunner After finally making it to the base of the falls, we realized that we had a potentially great run, but that we really needed more water before we could consider it. The yield for good drops at that level was simply too low for the amount of time and danger to get in there. Running out of daylight and with the risk of being in the jungle in the dark growing, it was time to make our journey back out of the gorge. Senario was impressed, and we made record time for our round trip! That night after guaro shots and a good meal, we were still ready to go on a mission. Ben had picked out a small section of the Sarapiqui that had never been done before into a section that we had heard of being done once before... the information was sketch at best, but with a steep 4+ miles of river to run, we put on expecting to spend only a day on the river... with the unlikely possibility of one night out. Myself, Ben, and Lizzie packed our expedition gear with a little bit of food in preparation for the worst while Brad stayed behind with Mario and Cory to nurse his sick stomach. I only packed 3 cliff bars thinking we probably wouldn't take long on 4 miles; we all felt more than confident. We had no idea how wrong we were! We were most definitely in for a mission. Photographer: Samantha Brunner Photographer: Samantha Brunner Photographer: Samantha Brunner The rapids started off as class IV and V boulder gardens, nothing too stressful or difficult. It continued this way until we reached a small powerhouse on the left where we were faced with a difficult boulder choke into a 20' waterfall with a long sliding entrance that all seemed to flush right through a carved out wall. All deciding to err on the side of caution, we portaged with our first rapel into the pool below where we entered a new gorge. Once locked into the gorge, the rapids changed in nature completely. After eventually running out of daylight, we found our camp for the night: Photographer: Samantha Brunner Right beneath this waterfall!... well, across the river from it. It was the most beautiful place I've ever camped, and one of the most beautiful I've ever seen! The next morning we were thinking... "Yeah... we'll get off today." We had no idea how wrong we were. The moment we left camp and around the next bend we began dropping into a canyon... a deep, overhung, soaking wet canyon with back to back class V and V+ boulder gardens with no escape. Photographer: Samantha Brunner The canyon was definitely full-on to say the least. And with minimal information on what was in the canyon, we had to tip-toe our way through the gorge to stay safe. Typically, only one of us would scout while another would probe the rapid based on river signals, moving on to scout the next drop while we moved through. Eventually, we saw heavy mist exploding up the canyon. Knowing it was a very large waterfall, we continued into the mist towards the rapids in the base with no other option (and a bit of curiosity of course). We came to the brink of a manky class V or V+ rapid right in the base of a 250 ft waterfall. The Canyon walls were so closed in that the wind and spray from the high volume falls could only fly upstream and downstream and straight back up! It was litterally like a hurricane at the base of the falls with winds strong enough to flip you if you let you guard down, making the rapid in the base even more difficult to run. I ran first on Ben's directions... Lizzie came down next and we all just nervously commited around the next blind corner, hoping our creek didn't drop over its own waterfall while knowing from what little information we had that another rapel lurked downstream. After one of the longest, most stressful days of paddling I've ever had, we finally made it out of the canyon. Finally out of the canyon, the nervous tension broke into laughter, but our mission wasn't over. We knew we hadn't covered much distance and the sun was going down. Once above a manky class V+ or VI- rapid with few portage options, we were forced to call it a day and spend another night in the canyon. With very little food, my left-over cliffbar was not very filling and with no good sleeping options, my pile of lava rocks felt like the most comfortable bed on the trip. We were exhausted but hopeful that we would make it out the next day. The next day we started bright and early with our second rapel of the trip, our only option for portaging... and downstream we were met by some of the highest quality rapids of the trip: Photographer: Samantha Brunner The rapids gradually leveled out and the stress level gradually dropped allowing us to make some serious time again. The banks got closer and closer to river level. Before long we began seeing signs of civilization again, and we knew our mission was almost complete. With smiles and grins, we made our way to the take-out bridge to meet up with the rest of our worried crew... probably as happy to see us as were to see civilization again... 3 long days later! You would think after being locked in a canyon for 3 days, that we would be in the mood for a break. Brad was feeling better though, and fresh rains meant the Rio Patria would most likely be prime. We immediately began to prepare for another overnighter... the Patria. The next morning we got a later start than we hoped and the whole day just seemed to stay slow. Once geared up and at what we thought was the beginning of the hike into the Patria, Ben and Brad realized we were at the wrong spot... it was a mad search for the trail and their memories as we were running out of daylight. Not long after, Ben found the right trail. With the thought of just trying again the following morning, we decided to press on into the gorge. The hike into the Patria is the steepest, muddiest trail I have ever seen. Roots and vines were a constant problem while the trail seemed to constantly give way into a mudslide through the forrest below for hundreds of feet. Many times the trail was only wide enough for one foot while the mud on it was deep enough to reach my knees, nearly pulling my shoes off a few times. A 3 hour hike through the rainforest doesn't do the hike justice at all; it is much harder and more complicated than that. It was too wet to drag a boat and carrying the heavy boats meant constantly dealing with vines and trees while trying to just stop sliding down the mountain. This was quite likely the most difficult hike I've ever done with my kayak, and it was loaded down with full overnight and rescue gear. Eventually we made it to the Rio Patria, where we scraped and beat our way down about a mile to our first campsite of the trip...shortly above "the gorge." The next morning we made our way to the gorge on the Patria, sporting 3 drops in a mini-canyon with the last one nearly 70 ft tall. Ben portaged with the camra and I set video above the drops... thinking of running it but opting for the portage. I'm still kicking myself for not going for it, but that is just a part of the experience of it all... maybe next time. Brad was the only one who ran it, having waited for his second chance for about 9 years! He styled the canyon and the falls, but breaking his paddle on impact, he had a bit of trouble hand rowing up... It was really cool to see Brad step up his game and run the biggest waterfall of his life. He had a sweet line! Below the gorge Brad and Ben remembered easier rapids (V- with some V), but the river bed had completely changed. Only one rapid was recognizible to them and more portages and sick boulder gardens were waiting downstream. Trying to make it to the Rio sucio before dark, we started making some incredible time down tight, technical class V rapids through blind slots and stout holes. Late that evening, it became apparent that we weren't going to make it so we found a camp for the night, hoping the rain would finally let up (it rained the whole time). It didn't. After pouring on us the whole night, the rain brought the river up 2 ft that night. This seriously juiced things up for the next morning, nearly reaching our camp. We geared up for an exciting run to the Sucio... we had no idea. The first rapid of the morning was a slotty drop into a large fold and into some really big holes; and it didn't stop there. We were in for a serious ride, fully testing the big water capabilities of the Rocker in an extremely technical and dangerous environment, fully loaded down with expedition gear. Once we made it to the Sucio, the water turned yellow with sulfur and the water got even bigger... a fun stomping ride to the bridge in Puerto Viejo... the completion of our second 3-day expedition in a row! Finally off the Patria, it was time for me to pack. The next morning I had to get back to San Jose from Sarapiqui to catch my plane back to Memphis... and that was a journey to say the least! I can't wait to see the video.... you can check it out in the upcoming Hotel Charley: River of Doubt movie by Clear H2O Films. I learned a lot on this trip from a group of amazing new friends in a place I can't wait to visit again! The journey was amazing and the change of plans lead to exactly what we were all looking for... though once at an unexpected time. Mario and Cory were awesome for driving us around a showing us a great time....HUGE thanks Mario! Thanks to Jackson Kayaks, Ben, and Brad for bringing me on this trip! Also... a super special thanks to the artist MG The Visionary for hookin' me up with some music for the trip! It's great stuff so check it out! Pura Vida! (Pure Life!) Boyd :-) Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:08:00 CST http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=236 http://beta.gaiasports.com/articles.php?id=236