Here is some highlight footage from my 2011 season including some amazing first d’s and international exploration. Some of this footage was shown in the Slippery When Wet trailers but there is a lot of footage from Japan that hasn’t been released anywhere else. About 90% of this footage is from the GoPro Hero shot in Japan and California.
Check out a little “Cave You” Adventure Club Remix by Flight Facilities and lets look forward to what 2012 has to offer.
I paddled Mill Creek for the 1st time around the age of 8. Mill Creek is about 2 miles over the hill from my parents house in Clarion PA. It’s pretty much a class 2 with a few class 3 rapids. The real nice thing about this run is you can get off the river and be in the hot tub in like 5 minutes! I always enjoy paddling with the family and local friends from my hometown here. I have a funny story about it. This must have been one of my first times down the creek and I was with my Mother. It was high water in there, rain, lightning, just a real shit storm. Myself, at the time being a very young timid paddler was quite scared, actually I think I was crying. I didn’t want to continue down the creek. At this point my Mother got out of her boat, took off her sock, and with the sock tied my boat to her’s and pulled me down there creek. I’m not sure if she would remember this, but I will never forget it. I guess that’s what family is for!!! Thanks Mom!
GoPro asked me to put together a 100% Hero Reel from Slippery When Wet to promote the original GoPro Hero. This segment boast footage from all over the world including California, Pacific Northwest, Mexico, and relief work in Japan. If you enjoy what you see PLEASE order the film (you can order HERE) and support the project. Be sure to check out the NEW GoPro HERO 2 with not only 1080 HD filming capabilities, but 11 megapixel photos as well. BIG shout out to all the boyz involved with this project especially those featured: Ben Stookesberry, Chris Korbulic, Evan Garcia, Cody Howard, Ryan Knight, Devin Knight, and Drew Duval, there wouldn’t have been a film without yall, thanks for your contribution! More content to look forward to with a part 2 photo update from Japan dropping early Jan. 2012.
Rapid Transit Video announces the premiere of Coming Home, a DVD featuring four short films from kayaking around the world. Coming Home is the collaborative effort of producers Chris Gallaway and Spencer Cooke. Filmed over the course of four years, these stories take us to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the North Woods of Minnesota, the beaches of Europe and South America, and finally back home to the mountains of North Carolina. Through these adventures Coming Home explores how waterways connect us to the earth and to other people. These are stories about getting lost, finding friends on the water, making good and bad decisions, and finally coming back home to understand why paddling whitewater can be so meaningful and life-sustaining.
Coming Home is co-produced by Astral Buoyancy and Shred Ready.
A number of people have inquired about the rapid on the cover of the 2012 Astral catalogue. Here’s a short account from that day…
One event that I was honoured to be a part of this year was the Whitewater Grand Prix. You’ve probably seen alot of the competition media from this event, but the paddling that we did in between the competitions was every bit as incredible. One of the highlights for me was certainly running the giant rapid on the Mistassini River in Dolbeau-Mistassini, Quebec.
I dropped into this thing with young Aniol Serrasolses, and was stoked to pioneer the middle line of the rapid. Check out this edit of Tyler Curtis, who took the first D of the group, along with the Bomb Flow team running the rapid.
When it was our turn to go, I was excited to try boosting off of the giant exploding tongue in the middle of the rapid. I studied my line-up for a long time because it was a 60,000+ cfs river, and then when the helicopter was in place, Aniol and I went for it. He went right, I went middle, and we both came out about as fired up as you could possibly imagine!
Here is the result. Photo by Bryan Kirk.
And here is a preview of Astral’s 2012 catalogue cover… submitting to the chaos. This one is shot by Patrick Camblin.
And here is the headcam of the run.
Thanks for making the best PFDs in the industry Astral!
After this years Moose Fest, which had plenty of water demshitz headed further east into Vermont. We where able to get on four new rivers on this trip! It’s always good to get some new runs! Moose Fest, demshitz cookout, Boquet creek, Middlebury Gorge, and the Green river in Vermont.
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!!!
Wellerbrucke section on Oetztaler Ache is probably the best section to run in Central Europe in late September. Check out some sick blue angel head cam footage of Jakub Nemec, Isaac Levinson, & Mira Kodada
On October 26th, Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington will be packed with enough explosives to blow a huge hole in the base of the concrete wall. Moments after the climactic explosion, 10,000 CFS will gush from the tunnel and drain Northwestern Lake completely in 6 hours. That’s the moment paddlers have been waiting for since dam removal talk begin 10 years ago—that’s when we get to see, for the first time, whitewater that’s been hidden under the lake for the last 100 years.
The White Salmon system—made up of the White Salmon itself and its sister river, the Little White Salmon—is, hands down, the best class V backyard playground in the country. And the White Salmon also supports a thriving rafting industry and paddling for all other skill levels—all in the spectacular scenery of the Columbia River Gorge.
For as long as people have kayaked the White Salmon, the 125 foot tall Condit Dam has created a 3-mile long lake that separated two popular whitewater sections of the river. In 2 weeks, the lake will be drained and these two sections relinked. To say that the local paddling community is on the edge of its seat with anticipation is a huge understatement.
Rumors are flying about what’s waiting below the lake. There’s steep gradient and a deep canyon, so there’s sure to be new whitewater.
The only other creatures that may be more excited about the removal of Condit Dam are the threatened salmon and steelhead that will once again be able to access the upper parts of the White Salmon to spawn. A test program is showing how quickly the salmon will bounce back—they just need to be able to get home.
