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.

The fifth year of the Devils Extreme Race (European Open Champs) in extreme kayaking is coming up on last weekend of August at the popular Devils Streams section under Lipno dam in the South of Czech Republic. The race starts in Loucovice village from a big ramp.  There are a few different disciplines from extreme slalom to popular kayak cross. Most of the disciplines take place on Loucovicka kaskada rapid. Finals of time trial and team race will take place on the hardest section of the river. The overall Winner will take home big prize money and title of European Champion. Spectators will be able to see last year’s World Champion Sam Sutton, Mike Dawson, Honza Lasko or slalom kayakers Vavřinec Hradilek and many others. Of course there is a live band and party on Saturday night.

This race is a popular one for sure. Every year just around 100 kayakers sign up for the race. Most of them are from Czech but around a quarter of people are from all over the Europe. Kayakers will race in extreme slalom and sprint, thats also qualification for kayak cross, team race and kayak cross.

Program:
Friday 26th August:
Free riding, practice
Registration and giving out bags with start bibs

Saturday 27th August:
Slalom and sprint, qualification runs
Live band and party

Sunday 28th August:
Kayak cross
Team race
Price giving

This river Section called ‘Devils Streams’ is located between the villages Loucovice and Vyssi Brod. Its one of the most popular, toughest and most fun natural features to kayak in Czech Republic. The section is usually unrunable because of too low waterlevel (2m3/s). Once a year at the end of summer Lipno dam releases about 25 m3/s which makes the section runnable. Thats why its such a big event and people from all over keep coming back.

At higher flows Vltava River is runnable all the  way to Vyssi Brod. (or further down stream, Vltava goes all the way to Prague). World rafting Championships also took place there in 2003. Last weekend of August Czech Championships of slalom is held.

For more info visit: http://www.devilsextremerace.com

In case you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact:
Head director: MIra Kodada, mira@kodada.cz
Media coverage: Jakub Nemec, jakubyahman@gmail.com