Hey Yall,

Seems like people are always living by the comings and goings of a particular thing, may it be money, work, or for many the opposite sex. But for me it seems i live around seasons, i made the trek out west for the summer with the intention of being back in Asheville for the fall. I returned around mid August with a creek boat, a camera, a van, and some cash in my pocket. Getting a place to live seemed to the next logical thing but with a home comes a job, and let’s face it who want’s a job? So i passed on the job/home combo and decided i would spend my fall creek boating in the SE. With all the lake draw downs and rain events i was really able to give it hell. When ever i had a chance to get on the river my camera came along for the adventure. Check out some of my misadventures while paddling in and around Asheville.

Click here to check out photos from the 2009 Green Race

or check out these images of the Russell Fork

Cheers

Arlyn

…and here’s a few of our favorites:

BOOF, by Arlyn Agababian

Will Stubbield at the Flyin Squirrell

Jason Hale, race coordinator

Mark Miller, El Horrendo, Russell Fork

Arlyn on the Russell Fork River, photo Matt West

Here’s a really creative video from Astral team paddler Kelsey Thompson that shows some of the places, faces, and sick freestyle moves that went down at this years World Championships in Thun, Switzerland.

2009 World Freestyle Kayaking Championships from Kelsey Thompson on Vimeo.

Check out more from Kelsey on his blog:  -Atlantic Kayaker

Well, here we are again.  As of today, there are 53 days until the annual Green River Narrows Race.  I’m super stoked about bombing down that river once again this year, and the word is that we’re going to have upwards of 150 competitors out there from all over the world.  Just writing about this event raises my heart rate, and I hope everyone is working hard to get themselves ready for it.

I am a bit limited on my training time due to a 17 hour final semester of school at UNCA, but I’m trying to set myself up well as always.  I’m working with Crossfit Asheville until the Green Race to try to get my fitness where it needs to be.  They’re super cool people, and have helped me out tremendously already.

Here are a few pics of my first run down the Green with the big boat this fall:

**Photos by Jakob Käfer**

The ultimate race weapon…

Taylor Fearrington bombing through Frankenstein.

Damn it feels good to be back.

Piaaaahhh!!

**Photos by Jakob Käfer**

Fast and clean.  November 7, 2009.

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

The Rio Embudo is one of the best creek runs in the Southwest.  If you go paddle there you will probably meet Atom Crawford, local ambassador to NM (he lives at the takeout) and webmaster of New Mexico H20, an online resource for paddlers in the SW Rockies.  Atom and his crew are organizing the 1st Annual Budo Fest on May 8th-10th which will feature a series of races and relays down this famous creek along with some New Mexican beer drinking and a good party.

Learn more about Budo Fest at http://newmexicoh2o.com/

Nicole Mansfield on the Rio Embudo. photo: Chris Menges

presented by Raleigh Parks and Rec…

Join us at the Pullen Aquatic Center in Raleigh, NC on January 24, 2009 for the annual Rollapalooza from 2:00 to 7:00 PM. This is a great opportunity to get some wintertime boating practice and instruction from some of the best pros and industry professionals around.  The event is held in an Olympic size indoor swimming pool (its nice and warm in there, this place is fancy too!). Top manufacturers like Astral and Werner Paddles will be on hand to answer your questions and display the newest products.  Also, demo the latest boat designs from all the top kayak manufacturers.  See you there!

A few weeks back on the way to the Green River I asked my buddy Paul if he had any ideas for this year’s booth at Gauley Fest. We agreed that it would be a great chance to let folks check out the new lifejacket designs and mingle with our people, but we also thought it would be sweet to offer up something good for the party. He recalled a game that he saw one time in college involving donuts. He was like, “So all you do is hang some donuts from a string. You pick out a few folks and tie their hands up, and whoever finished their donut first is the winner. It sounds kinda weird but its really funny”. The idea sounded interesting enough so we threw out some ideas that day on the Green of how to make it rowdier.

So last Thursday we loaded up the truck and trailer with an assortment of kayaks, the Astral booth, some demo jackets and camping/party supplies for the weekend and headed up to Summersville, WV for Gauley Fest. I was quite stoked to be rolling up with an awesome crew of boaters from West Asheville including Nik Haase, Gabriel Latini, Jon Crain, and Paul Bartholic. They are all big fans of Astral and most of them have worked with us at the factory or on some project in the past. We hit up the local grocery upon our arrival in Summersville and stocked up on some PBR, donuts, and string to get prepared.

The Astral booth was tons of fun on Saturday. We had a lot of folks stop by and try on the new Greenjacket samples, while telling us stories about their sick Pillow splat or the occasional Iron Ring beat down tale. We also had our boys Brendan and Jones there to help answer some questions and fit paddlers in the new Willis and Bella designs. Around 11 or so we decided to take a break from lifejacket talk and play some Gimmie that Donut!

After a short committee session we laid down a few ground rules:

1. Each round of Gimmie that Donut commences after Gabriel blows fire out of his mouth.

2. The first of the two competitors to finish their donut wins.

3. Each competitor must have a sports beverage in his or her hands at all times to play.

4. If a donut hits the ground it is still in play. (a kayak was provided as a ground cover for sanitation purposes)

5. Use of hands is not permitted and will result in immediate disqualification.

We had enough donuts for about 5 rounds of play, each round more hilarious than the one before. The winner took home one of our Organic Cotton T’s as well as the lingering taste of cake donuts and PBR. Here are a few select photos of the competition and be sure to check out the Gauley Fest Gallery for more images from the weekend.

See you next year at Gauley Fest for more Gimmie that Donut!

Bryan

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

One of the main reasons for setting out on the One Mile One Month project was to paddle some of the amazing rivers and drops Norway has to offer and meet the people out there hitting them.

This past month we have been in the Telemark region of Norway. Telemark usually has quite a short season but this year due to the snow pack has been really long and with high flows. There are many amazing runs here but one in particular which is pretty much what OMOM is all about is called Home Run.

Home Run is a beautiful waterfall combination. This 1km section on the river Mår offers 5 drops of various difficulty and size that can be run in a whole range of different water levels.

Not only is Home run a paddlers paradise but the take out also offers great camping for kayakers and is very rarely free from a tent or van. This spring it´s been the home of 2 Kiwis, Josh Neilson and Sam Sutton, both who have enjoyed having this playground as there backyard.

1M1M Action, Paddler - Per Christian

Mark Burton on Home Run

A great start to the season and project, next stop Voss!

Mark Burton

After attending last years Lyons Outdoor Games I was excited to return this year for another great event. Last years event hosted the first ever South Saint Vrain creek race and was the biggest reason that I was keen to return to Lyons. I was thrilled to see the organisers had also put a lot of work into making the hole a lot better for the event. The quality hole and on top of a great creek race made for an A class event even though water levels were slightly lower than last year.

First up was the creek race. After spending the previous day on El Dorado canyon the South Saint Vrain seemed clean and cruisy, the front range of Colorado is definitely some of the mankiest stuff you’ll find anywhere. The race starts with some technical low volume boogie water which is one of the hardest parts to keep your speed through. At the half way point you get into the steeper section ending with the most difficult drop of the run. Racers were given two runs with only the fastest run counting.

Race results looked like this:

1. Tao Berman
2. Andrew Holcombe
3. Jason Beaks

Competing at Lyons can be very tiring physically as both the race and the rodeo are held on the same day. People that say freestyle hasn’t progressed in the last couple of years haven’t paid much attention to what’s happening on the pro circuit. The biggest changes have been in where and how big paddlers are able to throw their tricks. Even in an extremely small hole the audience witnessed the pros perform almost every hole move that has been created to date.

Freestyle Results looked like this:

1. Nick Troutman
2. Stephen Wright
3. Eric Jackson
Posted by: Kelsey Thompson

To View more images of/from Kelsey, visit his gallery: http://www.astralbuoyancy.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=1259

Norway by now is well known for it´s attractive women, expensive beer and awesome steep rivers. Well this summer it will also be the setting for what we believe to be a never before attempted challenge. 2 Norwegians, Martin Vollen and per Christian Pedersen and 2 Brits, Mark Burton and Ed Cornfield will be aiming to paddle one mile in one month. Over a combined total of 31 days during this summer the team will paddle 5280 feet between the four of us. As a drop can only be counted once this means we all have to paddle on average of 42.5 feet of different vertical white water per day.

As well as a hell of a lot of driving to make sure we paddle enough distance each day it also means a lot of amazing rivers, drops and unknown runs, which will make for an incredible expedition.

The spring has arrived here in the south so the melt will soon be on it´s way and next month we will start our journey in legendary Telemark. The whole trip is being documented so we will keep you updated here with unique shots and clips and you can also follow us on our website: OneMileOneMonth.com

Enjoy your spring!

Me snakkes,

Mark

photo credits:

(top) Jordalselva: Tore Meirik

(bottom) Contrast wide: Nina Desmond