On September 28-October 8 Valley Surf Kayaks presented the 2011 World Championships of Surf Kayaking, held at one of the most spectacular coastal regions on the East Coast of the United States, the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Astral was a contributing sponsor in association with Outdoor Sports Marketing, who was one of the major sponsors of the event.  Most of my time at the event was spent taking photos at the water’s edge or above the break on Jennette’s Pier, and my nights were spent updating the event website.  I did however find a couple hours to go surfing and participate in the competition.  As a representative of Astral I wanted to bring home some photos and a report to show the mountain folks what yonder ocean looks like.  Please enjoy the photography and captions.  – Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc.
- US East Coast surfer Anthony Bell drops on a B-eautiful right.  Check out that offshore wind blowing the top of the wave skyward.

- Competitors and spectators look onward as national flags fly beside the tide.

- Astral team member Haley Mills competed on the US East Coast team in her first surf worlds

- The surf really started cranking for us on October 2nd when an offshore tropical storm pushed in a swell that produced the waves the East Coast is best known for; steep, hollow, fast.

- Edu Etxeberria of Basque Country is the Eric Jackson or Bryan Kirk of surf kayaking.  Put him on a small, inconsequential wave and he will make it look like the most dynamic wave you’ve ever surfed.  Give him a sizable, powerful wave and he will blow your mind.

- There was no shortage of these guys to be found in the surf.  Commonly known as Cannonball Jellies, this species is prolific in our warm Atlantic waters.  Reminds me of a t-shirt I saw somewhere.

- Rachel Krugman is a very talented surfer from the US West team.  Here Rachel drops on a glassy right-hander.  When the waves got big and heavy Rachel was one of the first to charge out through the break and to take daredevilish rides toward the pier.  She ended up taking the silver medal in short boat, barely behind Tamsin Green of England. – photo Chris Gallaway

- 4-time World Champ (maybe 5-time?), David Speller, drops on a frothy wave, framed in nicely by the columns below Jennette’s Pier.

- Joey Hall slings some spray off the stern of his long boat in a practice ride before the competition. – photo Russ Buskirk

- A friendly Sandpiper named Joe grabs a snack between waves.

- The eco-friendly Jennette’s Pier glistens in golden sunlight.  The wind turbines are a great indicator if you need a quick visual on wind direction.

- Jorge Anchorena came all the way from Argentina to show us that he could rip the blankityblank out of some waves.  He’s good. – photo Chris Gallaway

- Jorge drops underneath the closing hand of mother ocean.

- Amidst a foreground of onlookers Corin King of Northern Ireland races onto the shoulder of a left in the long boat quarter-finals.

- Tamsin Green of team England earned herself a World Championship title in the short boat division with dynamic moves like this pop-off floater.

- Womens short boat finals.  Tamsin Green drops into a bottom turn while Devon Barker and Garazi Iturraide paddle out.

- Terry Petch of the Australian team stares down the line while a dark wall builds ahead of him.  Seagull is scared and goes the other way.

- Sam Davenport of Team England rides into the mouth of the beast.  Long boat quarter finals.

- It’s not often you come by a mess of surf kayaks like this.  These events are pretty amazing, not only for surf kayaking as a subculture but for the paddling and surfing sports as well.  There is so much going on in regards to boat design, surfing and paddling technique, lots of really great people and a wealth of knowledge from around the world.  I strongly encourage anyone who is remotely interested in surfing a kayak to attend not only the worlds but also your local surf events.  Big or small waves it is always a great day at the beach.

- I love competing but it just wasn’t in the cards for me this time.  This was me in the first round of short boat where is had lots of fun.  That’s how I say that I got eliminated, hah.  Check out my surf kayak designs, the Ninja 7’6″, Sword and Ninja 6’8″.  – photo Denzil Pearce

Full individual results from the 2011 World Championships may be found here.  Congrats to all the new World Champions and everyone else who attended the event.  Congrats as well to the Basque Country for winning the team competition.  If you are interested in the sport of surf kayaking please visit the WSKA for information about kayak surfing and competing around the world, and visit ESKA about surf kayaking on the US East Coast.

by Teague Manley

After spending two weeks in Washington and Idaho, it was time for World Class Academy to make the trip to the promise land: British Columbia. We first had to deal with two broken vehicles both of which were nowhere to be found when we took off a week long river trip down the main salmon. This ordeal set us back about a day but before too long we were across the border and situated happily in Lytton. We set up camp in a nice campsite with great accommodations and were right on the bank of the Thompson River.

After a few laps on the Thompson and Stein Rivers, it was time for the World Class Academy Mini Prix. This event consisted of three events: A boater cross, a time trial, and a rodeo. Our first even was the boater cross which was held on a 2 mile stretch on the Thompson. This even proved to be exciting as competitors flirted with large swirlies below every rapid. Me and fellow student Weaver Froelicher tied for first after a close race followed by the rest of the group very close behind. The second even was a steep creek time trial on the Stein River. The course was about a mile and half of quality boulder gardens and boogie water. All the crew had good lines and great times in this event, which led to close finishes. I placed first, Ben McKenzie got second, and Weaver came in a close third.  The final event was the rodeo held on the “Frog” wave. With a marginal feature at hand, the scoring took the format of a big trick competition as athletes were scored on amplitude, style, difficulty, and overall sickness.  The rodeo really showed how stoked we all were as all the students threw down their best tricks for a good two hours. Not a single kid had a bad ride and it was yet another close finish. I BARELY got first with Paul Palmer and Weaver Froelicher within points of the first place position. I really enjoyed the mini prix and it was awesome to take part in the stoke that formed during friendly competition. The entire group killed it and gave their best with huge smiles the whole time. The bonds formed within the first few weeks of WCA are already strong.

After a sweet stay in Lytton, we road tripped up to Whistler. Whistler is the raddest place ever, period. The amount of quality whitewater in that area is absolutely UN real. In my opinion this three weeks was the highlight of the semester to this point. With daily descents of rivers such as the Cheak, Cal Cheak, upper Cheak, and the occasional Callaghan, we couldn’t be more stoked. At this time the creeking stoke was high as we dreamt of the perfect drops and waterfalls we were running on a daily basis. Callaghan creek in pair with the Upper Cheak may be two of my favorite runs I have ever done. The waterfalls on the Callaghan are good enough to be in a Disney movie, and that’s no exaggeration. With pristine blue glacial water, and extremely quality whitewater, BC has made us WCA attendee’s very happy.  We were prepared for rain in BC, until it rained non stop for about 20 days. During this time period all the rivers flooded and we got eddied out in coffee shops ALOT. However, with the sick crew we have here at WCA, putting on drysuits filled with water becomes a lot easier. At this point I became extremely fortunate for having a great IR drysuit and union suit. Those two items kept me happy and ALIVE in the cold northern fall. If I had wet fleece that whole time this write up would be a lot less happy, luckily I stayed nice and dry.

Whistler was great to us, but we couldn’t wait to get to Skook. Skook is dreamy, perfect, pristine, epic, plus every good descripting word in the world. It’s the best wave on earth, and WCA shredded it hard for a full week. Taking part in a WCA session at Skook is an experience I cant even describe. Simply stated, we killed it there. All the kids and coaches were going off all week. Special thanks to all the staff, coaches, and students at WCA for a great BC trip. And a very special thanks to IR for keeping me comfortable every day on the water. Right now im in costa Rica for the second quarter of WCA! Please check out worldclassacademy.com for more info and updates on the school and PLEASE spread the word. Also stay tuned for WCA videos that will be streaming LIVE any day now. PURA VIDA!!!

Teague Manley BC 2011 from Teague Manley on Vimeo.

After such an amazing summer of hopping all over the US, I have come full circle to my winter home of Chattanooga TN. The spring started off with competitions on the east in Connecticut and North Carolina, then rallying the RV all the way to Reno and back to Colorado for the summer Circuit. After Teva Mountain Games I traveled to Germany to compete in Worlds which was a huge highlight of the year. After jumping off the plane and going to the OBX for a quick surf vacation, I traveled to Iowa to sell smoothies for a road biking tour and then headed out to the OR show in Utah to check out the new products for 2012. As soon as the show ended, it was back to Salida, CO to finish up season on the Arkansas river. When the water started to run out in Colorado the Gauley was calling with warm weather and good friends. The Gauley is an awesome place for relaxing and getting to paddle world class whitewater.

To kick off our time at the Gauley, we hit the New River Gorge at 6 ft and 9ft. At 6ft, upper and Lower Railroad had great potential to throw wave moves and it was a great level to run the whole river and catch a ton of waves on the fly. Although 6ft was a great level, 9ft was better. Listening to local beta, we heard that the play was not the best, but we hit the jackpot when we arrived at Greyhound bus wave. The wave was big, glassy, and surgy and allowed for any big wave tricks. The river left side of the wave formed a monster hole, but the shape of the wave kept paddlers from getting kicked into the meat. Getting the opportunity to paddle the New was a great way to warm up for our month in West Virginia.

The Thursday before Gauley fest, we got the chance to compete in the first ever SUP event on the New River Gorge. It consisted of an attainment race up river about a mile above Fayette station and back to the beach, as well as a 3 mile downriver race to Teays landing. Paddling down Fayette station was defiantly the most exciting part of the race because I got to work on my whitewater swimming with about 20 other people swimming at the same time. It was awesome to paddle with so many people that are excited about SUP on the river. Look for a bigger and better event there next year. Check out the video of the race SUP WAZOO.

The Gauley River is a magnet for all of our friends from around the US and is a great time for us to paddle big water with good friends. With extra water releases this year, I was able to get in a bit more training than I have in previous years. I playboated for 6 about hours each day working every playspot until I was exhausted. One highlight of Gauley Fest weekend is the Upper Gauley Animal River Race. This year I had the opportunity to paddle my “new” dancer and had the chance to get in multiple practice runs in the week before. The race starts at the put-in and continues about 9 miles down to sweets fall, where racers looked both exhausted and happy to finish the grueling race. My dancer treated me well through both the big rapids and the long flat water stretches. This was another great way for me to broaden my paddling skills and I look forward to being even fasted next year.

2011 has been a great year in kayaking and I am excited to see what 2012 holds. I have been able to push my boundaries as a kayaker and broaden my horizons in the outdoor industry. Now that I am in Chattanooga, Tn, there will be plenty of paddling left in 2011, but I have my sights set high for 2012.

This past weekend, about 30 Vermont boaters convened for an AW sponsored FERC-relicensing flow study on the Green River in VT. The Green had been off paddler radars until the last couple years when Ryan McCall (et. al) happened to find it running one day when the power company that owns the dam was running a capacity test. After a bit more investigation, it turned out the dam was coming up for relicensing, so local boaters and the Vermont Paddlers’ Club contacted AW and the power company and arranged for a weekend of releases to assess flows.

If it’s not 40 degrees and raining, it’s not paddling in Vermont. We wouldn’t be enjoying it quite as much if the sun was out, either. Photo Morgan Boyles.

Turns out it’s a really great class IV run with a handful of fun class Vs. 3 miles long, two 10′ boofs and a plethora of smaller but just as fun ones. We had 4 different release levels, all of which were very boatable.

Me, happily paddling away from the biggest dam-release hole in Vermont (not that we have many). Photo Boyles.

The highest release was definitely the most fun, but a number of paddlers opted out of that one due to the greater “availability of powerful hydraulics.” I’m not quite sure what the right answer is, but the AW flow study survey asks how one feels about that. I think my answer was “Acceptable” across the board, although they were definitely more available at higher water.

Christian Woodard contemplating the availability of powerful hydraulics on the Green River.

It’s in a beautiful, roadless gorge tucked into Northern Vermont (unfortunately pretty far from anywhere that isn’t Vermont…and far from a lot of Vermont). At 3 miles, it’s one of the longer runs in the state (I know, make fun of us all you want), and having it as a dam release will make it a reliable option when there isn’t necessarily other paddling to be had. Scheduled releases are probably a couple years out, but the power company releases water for generation regularly and has agreed to let paddlers know when that happens, which is great.

Christian hanging out below the Pothole Gorge rapid.

Thanks again to Ryan, Bill Hildreth, the Vermont Paddlers’ Club, Kevin Colburn from AW, and all the volunteers that helped out with the day. The Vermont paddling community owes all of you gratitude. Maybe someday there’ll be a Green River Festival in the summer when everything else is dry.

Brad Croteau flying through the boof rapid.

 “Andrew” Billy Wagner on the best 2′ boof in the world. He’s actually still going up from the launch pad in this picture.

Post by Nick Gottlieb

After a great visit to ZOAR and the Deerfield River I headed for the US Nation’s Capital of Washington DC and home of Potomac Paddlesports. With the recent rains in the east from the continually approaching Hurricanes the river level was fantastic. The local playspot called S-bend provided a few hours of playboating entertainment.

After my visit in Potomac I headed for the US National Whitewater Center in Charlotte N.C. This engineered whitewater course is something else! It has 2 channels to provide playboating, slalom, and creek race training, not to mention zip lines, mountain biking, and rafting.

I enjoyed a great paddle session with Manager Pablo McCandless, who showed me the facility.

Thanks for the visits.

I am still on the road and there will be more up dates to come..

Tyler Curtis

www.riverplay.ca

The first weekend of Sept. played host to the Ottawa River Festival. With hundreds of kayakers gathered on the Ottawa for the warm water and perfect water levels it was the perfect weekend to host a Freestyle Competition.

All classes had a good number of participants as it was the last days for the OKS Keener Program as well as some of the Kayak Academy’s were present.

The local boys definitely showcased the talent required to throw down some of the biggest and best tricks on the Garb Wave while some of the foreign paddlers had the benefit of a ton of free time to train and learn the feature.

All in all, the event was as good as it gets for producing a freestyle frenzy and epic long weekend of shit talk, big rides, and sunshine.

Here are a few images of my rides in the event.

Enjoy.

Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of the Fall boating season in New England. There’s boating all summer, but as the leaves start to change and ‘peeping’ season begins in earnest, the rain starts to actually bring rivers up for more than a few hours at a time. I’ve been to the Labor Day Beaver/Raquette releases for a few years now, and they’re always a blast. This year, we rallied up Friday night straight to Colton. After a healthy breakfast at the local diner, we spent all day lapping the Raquette, the Northeast’s summertime classic.

Me, boofing the flake on Colton…it hurts a bit, but it’s just so fun. Photo Brian Seitz.

Some of the spring flooding changed Colton Falls a bit, making it a slightly harder rapid (the eddy in the middle is more challenging to catch than it used to be), but no worries, you can surf out of the hole at the bottom of the slide.

Boofing the horseshoe above the slide. Photo Brian. Nothing like man-boating class V…don’t flip over.

After 4 (or 6, for some of us) laps, we headed over to The Finish Line, a bar (the bar) in Colton that had a sign out front reading, “Welcome Kayakers.” They’d put together a great pulled-pork buffet for about $7/person, the town really supports kayakers on the river and is doing their best to be friendly – I hope everyone who goes up there for summer releases next year spends some time/money in town. On Saturday, we rallied down to the Moshier section of the Beaver. I wasn’t feeling the put-in slide this year, but Christian, Tripp, Morgan, and James all were.

Christian Woodard firing a huge boof off the top of the rapid…About half the rapid, maybe less, is visible in this photo. Photo Morgan Boyles.

James Duesenberry about halfway down. Photo Morgan.

Lines were mostly good and everyone was stoked to be at the bottom. The rest of the Moshier section is basically fun class IV. Two waterfalls, a lot of flatwater, some class III, and a really fun continuous rapid at the takeout called Moshier Falls. This is always a circus on Labor Day Sunday – people getting worked everywhere, about 50-100 folks on shore either watching, scouting, portaging, or hiking back up to run it again. I ran six laps on the first waterfall of the run and five on Moshier Falls…they’re great rapids.

Picture perfect on the first waterfall on the Moshier. From last year. Afterwards, we headed over to the Eagle section where I snapped a few photos.

Geoff Calhoun handpaddling drop #3 on the Eagle.

Anonymous paddler entering the same rapid.

Anyway, looking forward to a great paddling fall in New England (not that Summer wasn’t good). I’ve been out a bit since Irene – a lot of the classics have changed dramatically, and most good rivers are still suffering from “You can’t get there from here” issues. Roads are slowly reopening though, and I’m excited to paddle our ‘new’ old rivers. I already ran the Big Branch last week – no pictures, as I was in a rush to get off the river and get back to work quickly – it’s completely different. An entirely new river. Still awesome though. I’ll check back later this fall with some pictures of the new rivers up here.

Here’s a short and sweet highlight of the Devils Extreme Race, the Open European Championship in extreme kayaking. The race was held below the Lipno dam on the Vltava River, on a section called the Devil’s Streams in the Czech Republic. Enjoy!

The fifth annual Devils Extreme Race, Open European Championship in extreme kayaking, this past weekend was held under the Lipno dam on the Vltava river, on a section called the Devil’s Streams. The race attended over a hundred competitors and this year we had a lot of foreigners. Last year’s World champion Sam Sutton (New Zealand), Daniel Klotzner (Italy) and Mike Dawson (New Zealand). Devil’s Extreme Race started in Loučovice on a big ramp, There was a few different races on the program. Most of them happened at Loučovice rapid, but the final race and team race was through the toughest rapids on Devil Streams section. In the main race, that took place on Saturday and was declared as an open European championship in extreme kayaking, 1st place Mike Dawson (NZL), 2nd place Viktor Legat, for bronze finished Italian Klotzner Daniel. “The race was sick. I know this river well by now, as I’ve come here for last three years but its harder and harder with all these strong kayakers that raced today.” Impressions after the race described by Dawson. The main race progressed qualifications in the form of extreme slalom (touch the banner), then sprint for 4 minutes and top 10 from that raced through the whole section. The quickest athletes had time around 14 minutes. Women’s category was reigned by Anna Hübner, silver Luis Jull and the third freom Czech Republic, Katerina Migdauová. On Saturday, the events included the extreme slalom and sprint, then the main race. On Sunday the race continued with a kayak-cross and team race. Great parties with bands and Czech beer gave a great atmosphere to the whole race.

Results:

European Championships in extreme kayaking: Men K1: 1 Mike Dawson (New Zealand) 2 Viktor Lagat (CR) 3 Daniel Klotzner (Italy) K1 women: 1 Anne Hübner (Germany) 2 Louise Jull (New Zealand) 3 Catherine Migdauová (CR) K1 Juniors: 1 Jan Havelka (CR) 2 James Vondrasek (CR) 3 Martin Hlavacek (CR) C1: 1 Arthur Beier (CR)

Devils Streams section is located in between Loučovice and Vyssi Brod, It is one of the toughest natural sections in the Czech Republic. When the water is below normal flow of about 2 m³ / s you cant run it. it flows much higher, about 20 to 30 m³ / s but only once a year. It is for this reason, the Devil’s Race Extreme Race so popular.

For more information, visit www.devilsextremerace.com

One of our favorite events of the year is quickly approaching, that’s right HOMEGROWN. Our friends at Teamscum are proud to present this amateur photo / video contest again for the 7th year, next weekend on Saturday August 27th. Its always a rowdy time as you can see by this video. Entries are still being accepted until midnight on August 22nd. You even have a chance to win a Greenjacket, so enjoy the video and check out the Teamscum website for details:

http://teamscum.com/homegrown/homegrown.html

HG7 Promo Video from teamscum on Vimeo.