East Kaweah

After getting off dinky we drove south to Three Rivers and camped out for the night before getting on East Kaweah. Looking at the flows the night before, we knew it was going to be high, as we found out with Sam and Toni both needing to do their booty beers that night - there were a few sticky holes!

Double Drop was super fun with a nice little slide into boofing the hole in the bottom

We did walk a few rapids due to the high water, so getting cooled off before and after the walking in the 35degree heat was key

I pulled a few crazy horses off the smaller drop that the go pro missed, but did get sum sweet after shots

Jamie having a great time

the go pro camera gets crazy shots!

movie

I put together a little video of the last few weeks paddling, check it out! I've also been a bit slack on the updates but we have paddled East Kaweah, Hospital Rock, West Cherry (which had a crazy long freakn walk!) but Evan, myself, and Brendon ran Graceland Slide which was sick!!!!
stay posted for the updates






          

Dinky Creek

Photos by Toni George

Me running "the thing" which was sooo sick!

We are just sitting in Fresno outside pizza hut using the net after one of my new all time Favourite runs. Dinky Creek is just full of clean sick rapids.

Stay tuned for the whole update!!

peace out

Royal Gorge

I was very excited after getting back from Colorado to find out Royal Gorge was going, so Evan, myself, Will, Drew, Toni, and Sam got all our over night gear and headed to the put-in of the 3 day paddle.

It starts off a bit manky but soon cleans up to some real cool clean rapids, then just as we started getting used to our super heavy boats the river drops into Heath Springs Gorge.

Drew droping Heath One. Its a sweet 35 footer, but 50meters after it is Heath Two. I landed pretty hard off Heath One and broke my paddle which Iwas prety pissed about, but the Werner split I got to use was sick.

This is the last little mini gorge about 100metres above Rattle Snake camp site, and a really fun drop to run!

We got down to Rattle Snake and fired it up that night before setting up camp. Its a pretty crazy ferry to get to the middle of the river in order to miss the ledge halfway down the falls, but the boil does push you back to the left as you drop off the lip. I had a sweet line and our whole crew ran it sweet. Big ups to Toni George for firing it up and styling it!

Rattle Snake camp site is sick, with a nice big camp fire already set up no sand flies and listening to Rattle Snake Falls thumping away all night in the back ground, its just amazing.

I found this little bugger hiding on the track on one of the portages on day 3.

Day two's sick little 25 footer. Evan was on fire and ran everything, Heath Two, Scotts Drop and Wabena. He styled the top of Scotts Drop but was unlucky and got ejected at the bottom after hitting a ledge. Drew ran it too and knocked all his front teeth out at the bottom and had to paddle the 25miles out from 12.30pm.

FIBARK festival

This year marks the 62nd anniversay of FIBArk, the nation's oldest whitewater festival and Salida's signature event. Since 1949, every June during the Spring snow runoff, Salida has hosted FIBArk, "First in Boating on the Arkansas."

Located in Salida's historic downtown, Riverside Park is the center of FIBArk activity and entertainment. Food, arts and crafts, and industry vendors are available, as well as a beer tent, a carnival, and a state-of-the art amphitheater for this year's extraordinary musical line-up.
HEAD TO http://www.fibark.net/ and check it out

My 1st run down the river was the time trial where I was getting the feel for the pushy water and figuring how to get around the big hole

The set up for the race was heats of 3 people the 1st round then heats of 4. the1st heat was pretty fun, Tod got out in front off the start as he had pick for starting position, but he picked a slower line to miss the hole which gave us time to get beside him and we all ended going past the big hole together, which gave the crowd something to cheer about.

Its pretty hard to paddle with a boat on eather side of you but I used some good old kiwi style racing skills to push my way past and win the heat

2nd heat, Brian Kirk got out in front from the start and I was in second. Just chilling out and not trying to push too hard on the big puchy water I find is the way to go, just picking your line and keeping the boat moving. It paid off this time as I saw Brian going over the wave in front of me straight into the big hole. Thanks Brian for handing me the win in the semi final! 

The final was set and ready to go bar 1, as he took a run up the side of the river to get warm before we could start. There was a freezing wind blowing all day and walking the mile up to the put-in each time really took it out of you at 8000feet. I had a bad start in the final getting tangled with the other guy that was in the middle. Pushing hard to catch up didn't really pay off, but I did nearly jump clean over Graeme Seiler's boat here above the hole and into the finish line eady! I was happy coming in 3rd for the 1st time paddling the river. And thanks to the three swimmers out of the big hole for providing the entertainment!

I don't like little short boats so decided to do bit of freestyle in something I feel more comfortable in...

As well the creek race there's a slalom, freestyle, downriver, and hooligan race

The hooligan race is awesome, with boats made of anything and everything. This guy was the stand-out for me, simple but effective, a bike with 2 floats on each side and the back wheel when paddling gave it alot of momentum and he made it the whole way through the hole! 10 points!!

Doing sweet jumps

After camping out for the night after paddling OBJ we stoped in Gunnison and found these dirt jumps.

Rach is getting her photography skills down!

A few more days riding and I'll have to start getting some backys down again!

OH BE JOYFUL

I had a sweet day doing laps on OBJ with Dane jackson and a few boys that were hanging out in Salida, its a sweet little run.

The 1st little drop, it was pretty low but everything still went with a little scraping

The second drop which is the biggest on the run,

Theres a few little slides like this on the run which would be cool with heaps of water!

The valley is just beautiful, snow-capped hills and icy cold clear whitewater