We are proud to hear that Astral’s Phil Curry (Philip’s dad) has successfully completed his cross country bike ride.  Phil has been sending us updates from across the US for the past few months and we are inspired to see him standing at the finish line!

Last weekend a few kayakers from West Asheville had the chance to hit the Green River with a little snow and ice.

Here are some photos from the day, courtesy of Mark Miller.

Astral’s Jared Curtioff below Nies’ Pieces

Todd Johnson finishes Boof or Consequence (notice tree in background)

John Pilson slides down Nies’ Piece

Bryan Owen at Groove Tube

The Notch with some ice.

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

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

Howdy!

I wanted to share this little video my friend Spencer Cooke put together. It is some footage from a couple of weeks ago when Daniel Windham, Spencer and myself went to Triple Falls in Dupont. Unfortunately, during the adventure, I took a bite of my paddle and lost a part of my front tooth. Luckily, the said, “front tooth” lives up to it’s reputation and sticks out a bit further than the rest of my grill. This proved to be very helpful, as it saved the rest of my teeth.

The moral of the story is: 1. Don’t eat your paddle! and 2. Crooked teeth are not all bad after all.

Peace, Love and oh, yeah, if you need a dentist in the Asheville Area look up Landon Poteat. He is a local outdoor dude who’s good friends with many in the AVL kayaking scene and he is a great dentist.

Yonton.

…make sure to bring your otter.

photo: Chris Bell