“It’s a once in a lifetime trip, that I plan to take every year”

-Boyce Greer

Moon over the Grand Canyon, photo Bryan Owen

When you think about your wish list for whitewater river trips it would be insane not to include the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. I’ve had it on my radar since before I learned to roll a kayak, but the feasibility of spending so much time away from work and everyday life can make it a big mission to actually pull off. Finally after years of the “big ditch” being on my mind I was presented the option to go. Each year the guys from Liquidlogic organize a winter self support trip. I got the invite from Astral/LL Reps Kelly Fisher and Chuck Joy…then, after clearing it with work and family, I was on my way to becoming a Grand Canyon boater.

Packing the XP at the put in, photo Chuck Joy

Months of preparation led up to our team of 16 putting on at Lee’s Ferry on January 2^nd 2012. Many of us had met before, and those that had not quickly became friends. There was a ton of canyon knowledge on our trip, and most of the guys seemed to have been there multiple times, and few like Mike Hipsher and Les Bechdel had spent combined years of their lives exploring the canyon over many trips. Still, everyone seemed to carry a unique feeling of anticipation about this trip. Sometime around noon we set off downstream, 16 Remix XPs headed down the canyon together. There were no rafts to carry our gear, and everything that we would need for 12 days was packed deliberately inside our kayaks.

First Camp Below House Rock Rapid, photo: Bryan Owen

The style of whitewater in the Grand Canyon is quite unique for a first timer. It feels big, like ocean-sized features at times. For the most part the rapids are quite friendly once you get used to paddling fluffy big water in a 200 pound kayak. There are massive exploding wave trains, and some that you can take four or five paddle strokes on before you reach the crest, just to have them crash down on your chest at the last moment. Then, at the end of the rapids you usually encounter some crazy eddylines and turbulent whirlpools. Lucky for us, Shane Benedict designed the Remix XPs with an integral drop down skeg that helps the boat maintain its speed and track incredibly well in the funky water. For many of us on the trip, we were skeg down to the takeout!

Mike Hipsher at Havasu Creek, photo: Chuck Joy

You soon realize the canyon is not all about the whitewater, more it’s the ambient environment that swallows you completely. You pass through millions of years of geologic time. There are fossils, native artifacts, historical sites, plants you’ve never seen before­­­­_­, animal tracks near your tent. My senses were overloaded down there. We went on some awesome hikes along the way. Honestly I wish that I would have been better prepared by bringing a pair of hiking shoes (the only item I forgot coincidentally), so I opted out for some of the burlier off-water excursions, which became affectionately known as ‘Mike Hikes’ after our fearless leader.

Steve and Jerry approaching the Graineries, photo Bryan Owen

Our evenings were spent as a small nomadic boater community. We would pull up on shore and begin the ritual of setting up camp, gathering driftwood for the fire, getting water ready to cook, and enjoying all the aspects of wilderness living. The campfire scene was always one of my favorite parts of the day. There were always some entertaining stories of river trips from years past, remembering good friends, some off topic humor, and always the run down on what to expect the next day. I’d always get exceptionally stoked when Mike would preface this with, “tomorrow is a big whitewater day.”

Woody and Kelly between rapids, photo Chuck Joy

About day 5 we really started to get into those “big whitewater days.” After cruising through Phantom Ranch, really the only pocket of civilization you encounter, we started our passage into some of the bigger rapids. Drops like Horn, Granite, Hermit, and Crystal really stand out in my mind as making one of the best whitewater days of my life. They were some fluffy, long rapids, with powerful features. I felt lucky to have such a world class crew with so many hundreds of years of combined experience. I was also impressed to see some of our team really stepping up and running some bigger lines and surfing some massive waves. Still, we all knew that none of the rapids would be as big as Lava!

Chuck running Granite, photo Bryan Owen

One aspect of the trip to consider is that we were navigating the canyon in the winter. We were prepared with cold weather boating and camping gear, but for some phenomenon the weather was fairly mild the whole time and felt more like fall than winter. On only a few days did I wear all my layers under the drysuit, but it was sure nice to have them all on at camp as the nights were still a bit cold. We were blessed with a full moon during our voyage, and as the canyon walls closed, we felt the intimate beauty of the Grand Canyon at night.

Fire pan and the moon, photo Bryan Owen

Lava came on day 10 and it’s a spectacular piece of whitewater for sure. Mike led us in a scout while a few of the canyon vets fired it up first. Woody Callaway had a sweet line to help start things off, and I was inspired to hear his account of paddling the canyon in a squirt boat many years ago during a National Geographic trip. Lava is a visually impressive and powerful rapid that has some moves involved. Luckily you get a lot of good practice leading up to it, so you feel alright about rolling in there all loaded down XP-style. We all passed through Lava safely, less a couple flips and one quick swim.

Woody runs Lava with Shane filming, photo Bryan Owen

The final two days of the trip were bittersweet for me, and I imagine the same was true for the rest of our team. We were glad that the canyon let us pass safely through her belly, and happy to go back to our lives and loved ones. Still there remained a sense of sadness to leave this place, and the crew that you have become a part of over the last 12 days. In this way, the canyon was a truly unique experience, and one that I recommend to any paddler able to make the trip of a lifetime.

Crew at the Diamond Creek takeout, photo Chuck Joy

Cheers to our crew for such an incredible experience: Kelly Fischer, Woody Callaway, Chuck Joy, Shane Benedict, Les Bechdel, Steve Jordan, Ted Keyes, Jerry McAward, Nate Helms, John Grace, Kasi Fellman, Brook Burke, Bruno Scheidegger, Rob Yager, and Mike Hipsher.

-Bryan Owen

words and photos by Bryan Owen

video by Jakub Nemec

On the way back from Outdoor Retailer Yonton and I had the chance to run one of the most impressive river canyons in the world – The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We had a kick ass crew consisting of canyon vet Capt’n Milo Wynne, our Rockies Rep Brent Toepper, Asheville homeboy turned Boulder bike guru Daniel Windham, and Astral team paddler Jakub Nemec. Its been about 5 years since I’ve been back in the “M-BOX” and it was so sweet to get back in there with such a great posse!

Milo knows this river all too well and I think he said it was his 46th run…it was only my 16th and it was awesome to be back in there with my good friend who showed us all the clean lines.  The Black is notorious for nasty rocks, poison ivy, extensive safety, pteradactyls… (well maybe not those)…and good old fashioned portaging. If you are not down with “river viewing” as we like to call it this may not be your can of Foster’s. There IS some really sweet boating to be had, but there’s no doubt about it – you gotta work for that shit.

Here’s Jakub firing up the first big rapid, DAYWRECKER:

I think Yonton really liked this run. The dude is one of the best boaters that I know but kinda dislikes portaging. He did awesome and styled a lot of rapids, like this one called LOWER INTESTINE:

After these couple of Black classics you get to BALL CRUSHER, here’s Daniel Windham not letting the libations hold him down (Daniel had a heavy boat that day)…

We rallied all those rapids and then some more, after a nice 18′ WATERFALL you get to what we like to call THE PORTAGE…I really don’t know how to sum it up…its pretty brutal – BUT, keep in mind when things get tough down there you need to simply look around and remember where you are. Not many have seen “the guts of the earth” from your perspective.  Check out Brent and Yonton in the midst of river viewing at its finest:

So we carried down to the cave camp, which for many crews marks the end of Day 1. Here we had a great chance to reflect on the day and slept in the cave with the sounds of the canyon singing its amazing song (thank Jah those ring tail cats let us sleep).

We woke up on Day 2 and utilized our fishing permits to enjoy some time having, what Milo liked to refer to as, “a Dumb off”…the trout were hitting like crazy. Check out this hog that Daniel pulled (then released to probably eat the next kayak that he saw)

After breakfast and the fishing tourney we packed up and hit the river.

To start Day 2 you have to execute a rather tricky portage on river-left, then scurry back to the right over various methods. Then there’s a big ole rapid called NEW GENERATION once you get back to river-right.  Jakub decided to give her a go, and had an awesome line. This is a portage for most and I cant believe how easy he made it look…I would seriously scout and protect this drop if anyone contemplates running it. Its really difficult with no margin for error!

We kept a good pace down to the GREAT FALLS portage…down here Brent and I made it to a happy little spot below the falls and contemplated canyon life awaiting on the crew – it was good to chill with BT who has been in the industry for years, representing the best companies out there and being an overall great ambassador to Colorado kayaking (check out Off the Deep End)….

So down here the river braids out and goes off multiple cascades and falls…none of which look all that nice. Again our boy Jakub fired up a seldom run line on the Falls, here he is styling it:

From here its some extended boogie down to Chukar Trail, the takeout. Once you get there enjoy the 1 mile race to the top of the false summit hill. Milo made it first with the rest of us not too far behind (I think)…we enjoyed a quick lunch sesh, then loaded up and hit the road. What a great trip with the crew. Here’s a little video that Jakub put together. Enjoy!

PS – The poison Ivy is really bad down there this year.  Our crew had a few nasty bouts with it – my worst in about 10 years.  Make sure to take precautions if you are allergic (or not if you like pain and suffering – which is probably why you want to run the Black anyways right?)

truck surfin, Slate River (photo: Atom Crawford)

So I know that the blog-o-sphere is loaded with posts from Colorado this year with the record snowpack and all. However, I couldn’t leave for this year’s OR show without sharing some images and memories from a recent trip back to my old stomping grounds. This trip back was particularly awesome because I was able to travel with my good pal Paul Bartholic. Paul and I have enjoyed many years of Colorado kayaking together since 01 and it was time for a little revival. We hit some kick ass venues for both kayak and leisure including OBJ, Red Rocks, Daisy Creek, The Almont Lounge, and of course the Arkansas River while visiting some good friends along the way.

Mex at OBJ (photo Atom Crawford)

We started off by stopping by CKS and the Arkansas River. The level was around 3,000 cfs and we hit no rocks in Chaffee County. This was a big change from the bone zone drought conditions that we have become accustomed to this summer in the South. We ran about 17 miles from the Numbers to BV in like 2 hours, that’s pretty fast with the high water. Also, we were able to enjoy some QT with our peeps from Salider and Buena Vista, what a sick crew out there!

Paul at the biggun (photo Chris Larsen)

Next up we blasted over to Crested Butte to meet with our boy Chris Larsen and enjoyed a few days of classic CB creeking. Also up in the mix was Mexico, our boy from back in Ashevegas. Mex is spending his summer running about the CO wilderness like a wild marmot. I think he’s gonna head back to fire up the Green Race this fall. We camped at the OBJ campground and drank many PBR (standard kayak elixer) to keep our spines in line after the abuse that OBJ dished out. After a few days of running about the alpine realms we loaded up the Rav4 (a pretty sweet shuttle rig actually) and went over to Red Rocks to witness the shitness. Of course I am referring to the Widespread Panic’s immensely sick show that they laid down on Sunday. We were glad to meet more of our crew from AVL like James, Sunny, Jon, and Allison. Check out this stream of the whole show if you think you can handle it: http://panicstream.com/streams/wsp/2008_06_29/player.html

PBR at Red Rocks (photo Bryan Owen)

The morning after the Panic we found ourselves waking in the back yard of Bob who lives somewhere near Red Rocks. Paul and I loaded up the Rav again in search of some boating. We hit the classic Rio Taylor near Almont Colorado, joined by CKS hommie Joe Carroll. Joe was my roommate for a while in Colorado and he is a great mellow dude and a solid paddler. If you ever need to ask about the rocker profile of a Prijon Gambler or maybe you’re inquiring about the recreational opportunities of the Ark Valley, give him a call at CKS.

OBJ almost bottom slide (photo Bryan Owen)

To finish it off we blasted back to the CB zone to enjoy even more OBJ action. This time we were joined by Kyle and Mike Hagadorn for a sweet day of creek boating. Also, check out some pics from professional photographer Michael Clark who happened to capture some other great shots of our crew: http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/ohbejoyful_071208.html

salud-

Bryan

Bryan above OBJ waterfall, photo Atom Crawford

Here at Astral we often get questions about the different techniques involved in using a rescue jacket. The first thing that we tell folks is that the best way to learn about swiftwater rescue is to take a course and practice for yourself. There’s lots of good books and a few videos on the market, but nothing really can come close to the knowledge available from first hand experience. Taking a course provides a great opportunity to learn these techniques in a somewhat controlled setting so that you are ready for the real deal. This past weekend some of our staff and reps decided to brush up on their rescue skills with the help of Justin Padgett. Justin is the lead instructor at Landmark Learning in Cullowhee, NC and he designed this course specifically for Astral. It was a great opportunity to learn about the latest technique and curriculum developed by the American Canoe Association (ACA)…and we got to play with some new toys while we were at it.

Our course was held on the Tuckaseegee River near Dillsboro, NC. The water was warm, about 70 degrees or so, it felt really nice to swim around in the river. Above Yonton demonstrates a swiftwater entry as he swims a rope to the other shore. A good entry involves landing fairly flat with your arms in front of your face for protection. The impact of the entry is taken on the jacket’s front panel and a slightly arched back ensures that your PFD hits the water first.

Thanks to Philip we had some new Greenjacket samples to use for the day. This new design is great for swimming and offer incredible mobility because of the Foam Tectonic platform. Its important to note that when clipping a rope into a rescue PFD, Always use a locking carabiner so that it does not accidentally clip into the PFDs belt loop. Another important thing to consider is your knife. You should always carry a knife when working with ropes but make sure that it stays put on (or in) your PFD so you don’t loose it in the river. We learned that it is acceptable to carry a knife in the front pocket as long as it can be accessed quickly. The front pocket of the Greenjacket can be easily opened with one hand to easily retrieve a folding knife. I use one from Spydero that is sweet.

The course was specifically geared towards kayaking related rescue scenarios and all of us paddled our creek boats that day. One of the fastest and most effective rescue techniques that we practiced was the strong swimmer rescue (aka contact rescue, live bait rescue). This is one of the fastest and best ways to recover a victim form the river. Here Yonton (swimmer) and Philip (belay) rescue our good friend Rion Smith from the clutches of the Mighty Tuck. I could see this coming in extremely handy in many different creek boating scenarios, especially to recover an unconscious victim.

Overall the course was very informative and we were all extremely pleased with the rescue performance of the new Greenjacket (shown above). Astral highly recommends that all whitewater paddlers take a swiftwater rescue course. For paddlers in the Western North Carolina area we recommend taking a class with Landmark Learning, who teach in accordance with ACA curriculum. Here are a few links to help you find a swiftwater rescue course in your area:

Landmark Learning
American Canoe Association
Rescue 3 International

Also, check our Swiftwater Gallery for more images from the day.

boat safe,

Bryan Owen

March has turned out to be a wet month here in the Southeast. Last week we were fortunate to enjoy some heavy rains that brought up many of the local rivers near Asheville. Luckily, I was able to sneak out of the office for a little creek time with some of West Asheville’s resident creekers. The Ramsay Prong is a fun and continuous low volume run over in the Smokies. Nik Haase, a good friend of ours and former Astral employee, has been running this section since his earlier days of creek boating. His beta proved to be key as this run has a very fast and continuous nature and scouting every rapid would have made the day much slower. We put on above a footbridge at a nice 6 foot boof, followed by a long runout. Other rapids of mention include “the Ditch” which is certainly the single track section of Ramsey as well as nasty little boulder/tree Zone 3 rapids or so below the bridge (we recommend scouting this one and setting safety). It was an awesome day out there with a great crew of local paddlers. Our crew had 3 runs that day with plenty of action. Check out the RAMSAY GALLERY for some photos of this run.

cheers!

Bryan

Joey gets his boof on, Ramsey Cascades.