This past summer a group of West Asheville boaters took a trip to BC to go kayaking and run waterfalls. A group favorite during the trip was the Callaghan/Cheakamus double. The day consisted of waking up to a run on the Callaghan Creek, back to the Cheakamus parking lot for lunch, then up to the put-in for afternoon run(s) on the Cheakamus. This was the program for a few days before heading north to the Birkenhead River and Cayoosh Creek. There is still more footage from those runs that will be edited in the future. The footage in this video was shot by Jason Dillow, Jon Crain, and Gareth Tate & edited by Jon Crain. Hope you enjoy and don’t forget that all rivers in BC are currently under threat from private power production by some of the worlds largest corporations.

Also, Take a moment and learn about what is at stake and how it could affect your next kayaking trip to BC:

BC Creek Protection Society Homepage

Save Our Rivers Society

The Range Life - 49 Megawatts

Hope you enjoy,

Jon Crain

Our buddy Hiro loves to spend his downtime on the water. He works at Pearl Trading Company, Japan’s premier supplier of paddlesports gear, and he’s also an accomplished kayaker of many disciplines. One of the newest subcultures of kayaking is the blending of two sports: kayaking and fishing, which I hear is a ton of fun. Hiro is one of the founding fathers of Japanese Kayak Fishing and as you can see by his photo below, he’s just about got it dialed.

Another impressive subculture of kayaking is Squirt Boating. which has also become quite popular in Hiro’s homeland. Each year, squirt boating legend Jim Snyder makes his annual pilgrimage to Japan, accompanied by a “guest of honor.” The growth in popularity of squirt boating all over the world can be attributed to Jim and his amazing boat designs and technique. This year he invited our good friend Paul Bartholic from Asheville to join him on the journey. Paul (aka “Buddha”) was able to snag a video camera for the trip and he captured some pretty cool images of what hanging out in Japan is like. So check out this short video of Jim, Paul, and their friends from Japan. Musical score is compliments of DJ Phidelity.

-Bryan

Thank god for LVM. Actually, I don’t know if God had much to do with it. We should probably be more thankful to Daniel DeLavergne, Spencer Cooke and John Grace… Either way, as much as we’d want to be out there paddling with all of our homies whenever it rains, we’re usually here at the Astral office helping our customers and coming out with new designs. Luckily, we have LVM TV to give us recent updates of days of paddling we may have missed. Check out this most recent update starring Astral Divas Robin Betz and Adriene Levknecht. Here’s the link: LVM TV

By the way, I was really digging the music on the update. It’s a band from Raleigh called “A Rooster For The Masses”. Check them out on their Myspace page

Well, I better get back to work now…

Peace,

Yonton

Squirt boating is an interesting activity. Even to most whitewater paddlers this rare subculture of kayaking is nothing short of a mystery (pun intended). Our buddy Paul Bartholic from Asheville has devoted a good part of his boating “career” to perfecting moves like the whirly-gig, mystery move, flying fish, and the screw up…these ancient squirt moves are at the roots of some of today’s most popular freestyle tricks. At the helm of this underwater movement since the 80’s is Jim Snyder who needs no introduction to most whitewater paddlers. Each year Jim travels to Japan on his annual squirt pilgrimage and this year he invited Paul to join him. We look forward to seeing some of their footage when they return from their 8 day trip.

In the meantime enjoy this short video of Paul getting some DT on the Cheat River…

(please note: squirt boaters DO wear PFD’s when traveling downstream..but sometimes they take them off for destination mystery moves. These moves take place in safely approved locations by experienced squirtists.)

video courtesy of Ben Durrant

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