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

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.

As well all know, the holidays bring a lot of gadgets to the consumer market and this is a good time to take a look at the Electronics Industry to see what they are doing to control “e-waste” which include known toxins like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Also, do you ever think about taking a look at a given company’s producer responsibility or take back programs to see what they are doing with discarded products like used cell phones. Do these companies provide any type of consumer information about the products they offer? Check out the Greener Electronics Guide from Greenpeace for the beta. Happy Holidays!

November is a great month to take a paddling trip to Ecuador. I was fortunate to have a few weeks to sneak away from the Astral Sales and Service realm to explore some of Ecuador’s classic whitewater rivers. The trip was lead by Small World Adventures, a group of whitewater guides who were among the first to explore the Andean rivers of Ecuador. The lead guides for our trip were Don Beveridge, Larry Vermeeren, and Darcy G. Their world class lodge and guide service was super plush and took a lot of the guess work out of exploring Ecuador’s rivers. They have the biggest fleet of whitewater kayaks in Ecuador and believe me, they will make sure that you are fully entertained, regardless of your paddling experience. (more…)

We are lucky to work with people who have an eye for art here at Astral and Jared is no exception. He methodically scans the World Wide Web is search of provocative and entertaining photography. He understands that finding the photo can be as rewarding as taking the picture in the first place….This is actually a tremendously important service to society because these are the kinds of people that make randomly searching the internet fun. To clarify the importance of Jared’s work please refer to the following example…

If one were to Google the word “Kung Pao” they would expect to get a highly entertaining image like this (thanks to people like Jared)

(more…)

Asheville’s Mountain Xpress recently ran a feature on Astral’s Philip Curry and his use of the Kapok fiber in PFD’s entitled The Divine Gift.

Get the full story here.

Its been a hot and dry summer here in Western NC. Thank Jah that we have the best river in our backyard …The Green! In the midst of this Southeastern heat wave some of Astral’s staff and friends like to find time to cool off on the Narrows.

Please enjoy this short video of an afternoon of paddling the Green:

boaters: Chris Houston, Paul Bartholic, Nate Elliot, Issac Ludwig, Gareth Tate, Keith Sprinkle, Johnny Pilson, Ryan Bednar, Gabriel Latini, Bryan Owen

video: Bryan Owen

To see more images from the Green please visit the Astral Gallery

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