Leif and Natalie

Answers to all your questions

2012-01-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

So, I broke my leg in Mexico. I have posted a couple comments to facebook and google+, and there has been the predictable flood of questions. Rather than answer the questions over and over, I figured I would write up one detailed account of the whole story, and then is anyone asks me after this point, I will either make up an entertaining new story, or direct them to the blog.

Here's the deal. Natalie has spent the last two months in Honduras, working for a Peace Corps volunteer. I flew down there around new year's day, and we planned a slow trip by land up to Veracruz, paddling where we could. I brought gear for us, but no boats.

After a few days of travelling by bus and van, we met up with a bunch of kayakers in Chiapas Mexico, at Agua Azul. We borrowed some boats, and were really happy to get on the water, especially at Agua Azul, which is like a waterfall playground, full of awesome travertine slides and cascades.

Notice that this is the first tier of a double drop. Mexico Explanation

Natalie on the second tier of the double drop. Mexico Explanation

We spent a couple hours wandering around the different channels right at putin. There were a lot of us on the water, and once we finished portaging a 50 footer into the pool right at the last observation platform in the park, we were joined by Ben Kvanli and his group, which brought the total up to something like 16 paddlers in the group. We had been hearing stories of Ben's group getting overnighted somewhere in the area, so we tried to move sort of fast.

Natalie above some random 20 footer. Mexico Explanation

Natalie dropping into a 10-15 foot drop. Mexico Explanation

From Mexico Explanation

In this spirit of hurrying, we arrived at the horizon line for the first of the Big 5. We had been on the water for quite a while at this point, and were starting to wonder if we would reach takeout before dark. The left side was a large single drop, maybe 70 feet or so. The right side was a 20 footer to 30 footer combo with a sliding entry. The part we were scouting was a dome of rock. On the right, there was a log leaning from the bottom pool against the dome itself, and a shallow landing. The left side of the dome was a little hard to see from where we were, but it looked like there was a pretty good chance that it was falling into some sort of crack. Plus we couldn't actually see the landing on that side.

THE drop. I tangled with those logs you see there. Mexico Explanation

We could have climbed downstream to try to see over to the far side of the dome, but we were trying to hurry. I decided that I would run right off the nose of the dome, and once I landed, I would take a look at the left side. Above the drop, I pulled the noob move, and turned the GoPro off when I thought I was turning it on. I entered the slide about like I planned, but pushed a little too far right trying to avoid the crack.

My little tiny line error quickly turned into a big error, since I had made it right on the top of the dome. Instead of sliding off the front of the dome, I slid off the right side. I hit the log that was leaning against the rock, and got knocked against the dome pretty good, then fell out from underneath it with no boof or anything, just straight vertical. I mentioned earlier that the right side had a shallow landing, but maybe I wasn't very explicit. The water that I landed in was less than ankle deep. I took a hard hit, and somehow ended up in the pool below, upsidedown, in pain.

I should have probably rolled up, but I think the pain changed my decision making process. I pulled skirt and swam, noting some strange feelings (painful ones) from my ankles as I kicked out. I stopped myself on some shallow rocks, and started giving hand signals to everyone waiting at the lip of the drop. The "crack" that I had been avoiding was, of course, totally good to go, and an easy line to hit.

The first thing that I thought of while I was waiting for help was the classic "My ankles are broke" video from when Tanner Hall broke his ankles at Chad's Gap in the Utah backcountry. I figured this was probably some karma from all those times I laughed at the techno remix. I thought about screaming a little, or quoting a couple lines from the video, but I didn't think anyone would get it. Plus, he broke both his ankles, but after a few seconds I realized that my right ankle was fine, and only the left was hurt.

I was able to keep my ankle pretty stable in the water, and I was really lucky that we had such a huge group. We got a SAM splint on it right there on the riverbank, then used a climbing harness and like 5 people to help get me up to a plateau above the river. We decided that the best choice for evacuation would be to portage me around the series of big drops, then have me paddle out 10 km of flatwater with my feet up on the deck of the boat.

Portaging with one leg, in the jungle, is hard. About 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through, we got to ground flat enough to put me in a boat and drag me, but it still took a long time. We got back to the river right around dark.

Portaging while crippled is totally easy, yo! Mexico Explanation

Once back on the water, it became apparent that the "flatwater" to takeout was actually about 4 class 3-4 drops, and THEN 10 km of actual flatwater. We managed to find a sneak past the only hard rapid, but I still fell off the boat once on an easier drop and went super deep on an eddyline. Apart from that, things were pretty uneventful. We got to takeout, where we were camping, and decided that a few hours of sleep wouldn't make too much difference for my ankle, but could help prevent us from getting ambushed and robbed on the roads.

Next morning, bright and early, Natalie and I got dropped off at the local public hospital. After a very strange experience waiting in line at the ER, we were seen by a doctor. He ordered xrays, but nobody could get ahold of the radiologist. I kept overhearing parts of conversations in spanish, and I think that they didn't have his cellphone number, or he wasn't answering, or something. Eventually somebody, probably the radiologist's assistant or a technician or something, xrayed my leg.

The x rays showed just a teensy little flake, dime/quarter sort of size, that had kind of flaked off the side of my tibia just above my ankle (that's the big bone in your shin). I felt silly for being such a wuss and making everyone carry me around the night before. We slapped a plaster support around the back half of my leg, wrapped it up in some ace bandages, and I hopped off to the waiting room. Natalie wandered around the streetside shops outside the hospital until she found me some crutches, and we got lunch before meeting up with some of the other kayakers from the day before. The crutches were about $30 US, and the hospital visit was $18.

The angle we shot in Mexico.
All that trouble for that little chip? Wuss. Mexico Explanation

For the rest of the trip, I played shuttle bunny and read a lot of books while Natalie continued to run all kinds of awesome whitewater. We traveled around with Ben and his group, and had a blast.

Natalie on the Alseseca. Mexico Explanation

Once back in the states, just to be on the safe side, I got some more x rays taken. In mexico we had shot the front and side views, but here at home they shot a third angle at sort of 45 degrees. This new shot revealed that the "little tiny flake" was actually the top of a crack that dropped straight down into my ankle joint, and that there was also a crack straight through my fibula. The cracked section of tibia looked like it might not be lined up just right, and there might be a little damage to the joint, so on monday they're going to open me up and put in some hardware to stabilize my ankle.

Oh... I see. Mexico Explanation

Taking the ace bandage "cast" off. Mexico Explanation

I have some weird feet, but this is not normal for me. Mexico Explanation

I will keep you posted as events unfold, loyal fans.

-Leif

All photos lifted from video from my GoPro HD Hero 2. Except the x rays. That might be a feature of the Hero 3.

Big Thompson and Pacific Northwest Videos

2011-12-09T12:40:00.001-07:00

I've been slaving away nonstop, only taking breaks to eat and go to the bathroom, and I am happy to report that the video edit from the Big Thompson this fall is finally done.

The Big Thompson is one of my favorite training runs. It is far more difficult than it is dangerous, and it's not very safe. The rapids are very continuous, but the creek is small enough that if you swim you can get out without too much trouble. You can bash your way down it without being exactly on line, but you can definitely tell when you're running the smooth line and when you're out of control. It's only about an hour from my house, too, which is the same distance away as the Poudre. On top of all that, since it's dam release, the best flows usually happen in the late fall, when everything else in the state is totally dry.

Most of the moves are fast linked small moves, but there are a couple big power boofs mixed in there. Since we usually go up there and run several laps, the creek can be kind of a jumble, so I haven't put the rapids in any particular order. This is definitely not a video guide, it's just us having fun.

Filmed almost entirely on a GoPro HD hero.

Within just a few hours of me finishing my Big Thompson edit, Chase Nobles also finished his edit from our trip to the Pacific Northwest. Since I lost the GoPro on Metlako, I didn't have quite as much footage as I would have liked, but my footage mixed in with Chase's made for a really good video. Enjoy:

What? Vimeo, don't hate. Apparently Mr. Fancypants here can embed in HD but I can't. We'll just see about that.

Black Canyon... in December

2011-12-04T22:27:00.001-07:00

"So, Ben, are you sure? I don't think they're predicting the temperatures to be much above freezing."

"Yeah, well, it's supposed to be snowing, so it won't be that bad."

"Oh, right, good point."

With that exchange, I decided to commit to one of the most intense endeavors ever attempted by humankind: a one day descent of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison... in December. I had been calling all the paddlers I knew in Colorado, trying to find someone to paddle with. Every time someone backed out because it was too cold, I would admit that I wasn't really that serious. Then, late friday afternoon, Ben Luck of Durango finally returned my call, and described how he was about to do a solo descent of the Black Canyon. I couldn't let Ben hog all the glory for himself, so I invited myself along.
I started packing immediately after hanging up, and arrived in Montrose at about 1:30 AM. Ben was highly in favor of an early start, so he woke me up again at 4:00 AM and we started setting shuttle. By the time it got light enough to take photos, we were about 2 miles in to the 7 mile hike leading down the closed road to putin. We both had a good chuckle when we got to the roadsign reading "7 miles to East Portal," since during our phone call Ben had explicitly noted the 5 mile hike in that would be required.

From December Black Canyon

Like a kayaking version of Fargo. December Black Canyon

Fortunately for us, the snow was thick enough that we could drag our boats, but not thick enough to slow down our hiking. I was very happy when we reached the long downgrade and I discovered that through some kind of weight/length ratio, I was able to sled down the road in my boat, although Ben had to jog. We made good time, and reached the water just a little after the sun peeked over the canyon walls. Of course, this is actually an estimate, because those weather dudes were spot on with that snow forecast, and the cloud cover was too thick to tell exactly where the sun was, all day long.

Blue sky? Nope, false alarm. Blue clouds. December Black Canyon

The reason that Ben had been so excited about this run was that the flows had just been turned up to 1600 cfs, which is tickling the high side of medium. Actually no, let's be honest, that's a pretty mackin flow. I've only been to the Black Canyon twice before, but Ben has done it many times (I think I heard him say 5 times just this season), and it was still the highest flow that either of us had seen in there.We moved fast through the first few rapids. At Daywrecker I got a huge backendo but figured it was just that I wasn't quite on my A game yet. By the third or fourth rapid, I started to realize that my game was right up at its normal level (meaning... AWESOME), but we were just running a frothing stout run. There was one particularly intense moment where Ben flipped over in a hole, and I tried to boof into him in order to push him out, but only ended up getting both of us surfed at once.

From December Black Canyon

We had been worried that the snow would make the portages treacherous, but we found that we had good traction through the thin layer of powder. We made it to Ballcrusher in very good time. In my previous two runs, at 1000 and 600, I had wondered why Ballcrusher had a name at all, much less a name as intimidating as Ballcrusher. Well, at 1600, that name was well deserved. The rapid started with a mission critical boof, but then continued into a series of easier moves with relatively heavy consequences. Ben decided that he was not feeling it, but I wanted to give her a go. The main danger that I was seeing was missing that first move. It was a simple move, but a big one, and if you missed that boof and ended up getting thrashed and swimming, who knows where you would end up by the bottom of the rapid. However, since it was flatwater leading up to it, and I had brought my Big Bang, I felt confident that I could execute the power punch, and deal with the runout as it came.

How many times can I work the phrase "Ballcrusher" into this post? December Black Canyon

The punch went even better than I had any right to expect, and I managed to not embarrass myself too much in the smaller lead out holes, although I got a little closer than planned to a sieve over on the right bank. From there we only had a few rapids before the waterfall and the beginning of the infamous portage. Ben was nice enough to shoot photos of me at the falls.

It looks small from that angle, but it's 18 feet, baby. Honest. December Black Canyon

The beginning of the portage was the first time that I really looked around and started to appreciate how awesome the Black Canyon is in the late fall. (It's not winter until the paddling season ends!) I was a nervous about the long hike that was coming, just like a 98 pound weakling is nervous before a fight with the football captain. We all knew what the outcome was going to be.

Looks like we're about to climb the Eiger.. or maybe escape Mordor.

The portage seems to get easier every time I do it. This time, I probably only fell face first into the dirt about 3 million times, dropped my boat 50 times (none of which were onto my toe), and only spent about 63% of the time sobbing. Overall, that's about half as bad as last time. Furthermore, the poison ivy was all dead because of the snow. At least, we certainly hope that it was all dead, because I definitely used poison ivy stalks at handholds a few times, and at least once when I collapsed from exhaustion I am pretty sure that I collapsed right into a little thicket of the stuff. We'll know for sure in another day or two.

What you can't tell from this photo is that Ben is jogging, not walking.

Ben, of course, is about ten times more hard core than me. He kept getting farther and farther ahead before stopping and waiting for me, and when I caught up to him at the first river crossing involved in the portage, I found that he'd had time to light a fire and change out of half of his gear while he waited for me.

The portage wouldn't be that bad if you didn't have to battle all those Frost Trolls.

The portage took a lot out of me, and we were also pretty far behind Ben's schedule since I was so slow at hiking, so we didn't take any photos once we got back into the water. The two "big drops" after the portage - Next Generation and Great Falls - were both possible, but very intense with the high flows. Both of those rapids involve running a waterfall and landing very close to rocks. Usually the rocks are nearby but the water going off the waterfall doesn't actually hit them. At 1600, the rocks in the landings were both receiving a healthy spray of the green water going off the falls. The line was obviously just as wide as it ever is, but we walked both rapids.

I hadn't had a chance to place any bets about the success or failure of our mission, but if I had bet, I would have predicted that we would get out of the water with at least a little daylight left, but we would finish the hike out of Chukar trail well after dark. It was good that I hadn't bet, because with Ben motivating that hike, we managed to finish up and get the boats loaded with almost 15 minutes of light left. Ben finished the hike within 30 seconds of 4:00, meaning that we took almost exactly 12 hours to get back to the exact same parking lot that we had camped at. Well, I took another hour or so on that final hike, so I guess WE didn't finish in 12 hours, Ben finished in 12 hours, but it's still cool. Exhausted from a long long day on only 2 hours of sleep and very little food, it was a grueling drive to my mom's house. Fortunately, Natalie called me so that I had someone to keep me sharp for the last part of the drive. When I got there, I went straight to bed and slept for 12 hours, then ran Barrel Springs to break up the rest of the drive home.

The face of a madman: Ben Luck kills again.

Here is a slideshow from the trip, with a couple extra photos.

Thanksgiving break 2011: Old Man Anderson and the kids

2011-11-30T16:01:00.001-07:00

With Natalie out of the country doing geologic mapping for a few months, I found myself without my favorite boating partner for thanksgiving break. I really didn't feel like driving out to the northwest and paddling alone, so I started thumbing through my rolodex. Most of my B list paddling buddies have jobs, so I moved down the list to the C team. At the top of that list was Chase Nobles. I called him up a month or so ahead of time and got the trip all lined up. Pretty close to the departure date, Chase recruited a third paddler for our expedition, young Eddy Honea. I was happy to have a third person to share the gas costs and driving load. The three of us had an excellent trip, but I realized that, like most people, I'm getting old. Those kids were stoked ALL the time.
Since I was so excited about the trip, I wanted to leave at the earliest possible moment, and that was right after I finished teaching a lab at 8:00 thursday night. However, I had a busy week, and wasn't able to start packing at all until that night. Plus, we borrowed Natalie's car, and one of the conditions for its use was that we rebuild the roof racks before leaving, since they were tearing through the sheet metal of the roof.

I innovate while Eddy uses a circular saw and cellphone simultaneously. Thanksgiving 2011

After a couple pretty brilliant innovations involving an old broken boat, we packed up and had a nice timely 1:00 AM departure from Fort Collins. Just a short 24 hours later, we finished the snowy drive to Dan Rubado's house in Portland, ready to paddle. Of course, it was night time, but we waited until morning, and then headed over to Opal creek.
Now, I like to think that I had some fun back in my undergraduate days, but let me tell you: these guys were more stoked than anything I had ever seen. Lucky for us, the stoke regulations are a little more relaxed in Oregon, because in some states we probably would have been arrested.

Dan and I were catching up on old times during the hike in when the kids came literally running past us through the snow, one of them sitting in a boat while the other one towed him with his tow tether. Dan and I got a little stoked just from the fumes.

From Thanksgiving 2011


	From Thanksgiving 2011

From Thanksgiving 2011

Opal creek was a pretty fun run. The levels were a little too low for the upper section, and there was a little too much snow on the banks for the sketchy portage in the lower gorge, so we only ran the easier middle section, but we still had a great time. Of particular note was the hilarious line that Dan had off of one of the rapids - Big Fluffy or something was the name.


		From Thanksgiving 2011

After Opal creek, we continued to hit a series of more and more classic runs. Every day, the kids would call home and say that they had just run the best creek yet, and then the next morning we would go run something even better. All this stoke had the effect of making me feel ever older and more cantankerous. I don't know how it worked.
We progressed from Opal creek to Canyon creek, then the Green Truss, Hagen creek, to the Washougal, and then the Little White on Thanksgiving day.

Chase on Salmon falls below Opal creek. Thanksgiving 2011

Dan on the falls in Canyon creek. Thanksgiving 2011

Chase on the center boof of the Canyon creek falls. Thanksgiving 2011

Eddy approaches the falls. Thanksgiving 2011

Chase boofs the hell out of Big Brother on the Truss. Thanksgiving 2011

Eddy slightly off balance on Big Brother. Thanksgiving 2011

Eddy... STOKED! Thanksgiving 2011

On friday, we topped off the trip with a descent of Eagle creek. We had scouted it out earlier in the week, but it had been too high then. I used to think that Eagle creek was basically better and better as the water levels rose, but I was wrong. On our scouting mission, Punchbowl falls had a really strong current pushing into the undercut wall on river left below the drop, and everything was just super intense. When we came back on friday, the level was still high (3 times the recommended level according to the barometer gauge in the next drainage over) but was way more reasonable.


"Wow" levels	"Reasonably high" levels. Thanksgiving 2011

We hiked up to Skoonichuck; a 40 footer to 10 footer combo drop. I was excited to try out the stern mount for the GoPro, but it took me a long time to get everything ready, so I ended up last in line to run the drop. Chase went first and dropped his paddle between the waterfalls, swimming in the bottom pool. Eddy still wanted to fire it up. As he peeled out of the eddy right above the drop, he got spun out in a small hole. He managed to get it turned back around and had what looked like a great line, catching a little bit of the boof flake on the left, like I had planned to. However, he did not resurface after running the first drop. He was just totally gone - probably behind the curtain of the 40 footer. Chase and I exchanged some gestures, and I ran back up to my boat to grab my throwbag, in hopes of throwing it through the curtain. I had some pretty grim flashbacks, but I was really relieved to hear some yelling when I was on my way back to the river. I figured that yelling meant that something had changed, which had to be good news.
Sure enough, Eddy reappeared while I was gone, and swam over the 10 footer, mostly okay. His boat soon followed. Watching the video footage later, he was only gone for about 30 seconds, but that's still way too long. I was still really excited about the drop, but I decided to rein it in, just to stay on the safe side. I walked around and put in below the waterfall. Here is Chase's footage from below the falls. I found it pretty intense to watch, but knowing that Eddy was ok made it not so bad. It's easy to miss if you zone out, but Eddy comes off the first falls right around 0:27.
The inbetween rapids were a lot cleaner than I remembered from my other trip down this creek, with Dave Schmitt. When we got to punchbowl, Eddy got out, still a little rattled from his close call at Skoonichuck, leaving just Chase and I.
I had a pretty awesome line off Punchbowl, if I do say so myself. Nobody got a photo, but it was okay, since I had the stern mount GoPro getting a sick shot of it. From the huge pool below, I snapped a hella artsy photo of Chase, although his line wasn't as amazing as mine.

Yeah, sure, it's good... but mine was probably even better. Thanksgiving 2011

After some cheering and celebrating, we paddled down to the decision point for Metlako. I was feeling it big time, because I really wanted to get some GoPro footage of it. Plus I figured the landing would be even softer than usual with the high water. You might even say I was a little stoked. Chase was on the fence, because Punchbowl was one of the largest drops he had yet run, and it was about 30 feet. Metlako is over 3 times taller than that. I managed to convince him with some strong logic. Our conversation was a lot like this:
"I don't know if I want to run Metlako."
"Let's just do it."
"Ok."
I had a less than optimal line. I went over the bars and landed on my face. My theory is that the water level was high enough that the ramp that normally sets your angle was sort of washed out, making it more of a sharp lip. Whatever the reasons, I pancaked a little and autoejected. I got to the eddy just in time to see Chase go over the bars by exactly the same amount, for a perfect double auto-eject. (So intense... what does it mean?) Unfortunately, when I ejected, my boat went sort of behind the waterfall a little, and got savagely beaten against the rocks. I rock climbed over to a tiny cave very close to the base of the falls to recover the boat. The stern mount had worked great, flexing enough to not break anything. However, during the beating, the GoPro case had broken open, and the camera had fallen out into the river, taking with it the sick footage of my awesome line off Punchbowl. I was slightly bummed, but stoked enough that I didn't really feel it.

Chase begins to go over-vert. Thanksgiving 2011

During my pancake landing, I cracked a blade in half on my paddle, and I made the mistake of tossing it into an eddy instead of up onto the bank. While I was rescuing my boat, the paddle slowly filled with water and sank. It was an expensive waterfall that day. Chase had tossed his paddle to avoid exactly what happened to me, and it had floated away downstream. This left us in an amusing position because we only had one breakdown paddle, but two paddlers. Our solution was to split the breakdown in half and share it. That was a really exciting way to run rapids. It worked great, and we ended up finding Chase's paddle about a mile downstream. We met up with Eddy and paddled back to the car just before dark. It was a pretty good way to finish the trip.

And Chase's paddle flew off into the sunset and had many adventures. Thanksgiving 2011

Part of the reason that I was so cantankerous was that there was nobody to take photos of me. Normally Natalie and I take photos of each other, and it works out pretty well, but I realized during this trip that that's because I trust Natalie with the camera. These kids were just so stoked out of their minds that I didn't really feel comfortable giving them the camera very often. As a result, most of the runs I was the personal media team for the kids. In fact, there were only 4 rapids through the whole trip where anyone took photos of me. In rapid succession, here they all are:

Reverse spawning at Salmon falls. Thanksgiving 2011

Orion set safety and got this shot of me on Spirit falls. Thanks Orion. Thanksgiving 2011

A random drop on Hagen creek (actually we were on the Washougal at this point) with a tight exit. Thanksgiving 2011

Returning to Metlako. Thanksgiving 2011

I lost the GoPro footage from Eagle creek, but I still have the footage from the rest of the trip, so I might put together a short video. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, here is a slideshow, with a couple extra photos from that I didn't include in the post:

Poudre Narrows Video

2011-10-31T11:43:00.000-06:00

Looks like fall is finally here. It snowed almost a foot in Fort Collins last week, and the Big Thompson has started running. This probably means that it's time to catch up on some blog posts. Here's a short video I put together from one of the last couple days of normal water on the Poudre Narrows (or "Gnarrows" as it is sometimes called.) The Narrows is now sort of my home run. It's pretty easy, so the video isn't the most intense creekboating, but we still managed to have a lot of fun. I tried to capture the typical relaxed fun attitude with the video. Enjoy.
Thanks to Evan Stafford for making a brown, Spencer Mauk for driving, and Natalie for changing her mind and paddling after all.

Wedding Part II: The Wedding-- FINALLY!

2011-09-11T15:48:00.001-06:00

I know that many of you were wondering if we actually got married or if it was all a hoax because the wedding photos have been conspicuously absent from the internet since May 28th. Well here is the proof! For those of you who came, thanks for making our wedding the best wedding ever. For those of you who couldn't make it, these photos are going to make you wish you did. ENJOY!

If you would like any of these photos, simply click on it and it will take you to our online Picasa account were you can download to your heart's desire. Most photos are by Darin McQuoid, but there are some additional photos from Shelby Evans, Joel Metzger, and Renee Kramer, among many others. Here is a short synopsis of the wedding without slodging through the hundreds of photos below. You can also read Wedding Part I: Leif's Bachelor Party and Wedding Part III: Honeymoon.

Here are a couple of my favorites from the ceremony.

Leif's first glimpse of his bride.

From weddingceremony

It was beautiful,

From weddingceremony

We all cried...

From weddingceremony

And we all laughed,

From weddingceremony

And we did it!

From weddingceremony

FAMILY DINNER
Wow, do we know how to laugh! I think that my abs were sore after this dinner...

CEREMONY
We vow to commit our love to each other, to respect one another's individuality, to be with each other through life's changes, and to nurture and strengthen the love between us.

Although it was pissing rain right before the ceremony, the sun shone down on us for our vows.

I have a sound recording of the ceremony, if you are interested in hearing it, please e-mail me.

FLOAT
What a blast.

RECEPTION
Thanks Tapwater and Nancy for making the music and food exceptional!

PREPARATIONS AND CLEANUP
It was so fun to have everyone there helping out before and after the weekend. The verdict is in, all weddings should be four days long.

It is good to know your strength,
but always return to your flexibility.
If you can cradle your beloved in your arms,
love will flow through you.

It is good to achieve things,
but always return to anonymity.
Your beloved does not need your achievements,
but needs your uncomplicated soul.

It is good to work for change,
but always return to what is.
If you accept all things whether painful or joyful,
then you belong to each other.

-The Tao

Gnarrows Race 2011

2011-08-21T23:55:00.003-06:00

The Gnarrows Race is a grassroots event on the Poudre River. If anyone asks, it's not really an event at all, just a bunch of paddlers that happen to be paddling together on the same stretch of river. No money changes hands, and there's not much publicity about the race. For years now, I have lived in Fort Collins, and heard all the trash talking that happens online about the race, but never had the chance to compete, although Natalie competed in 2009. This year, the race happened a little later than usual, and we were just barely able to make it back from the Slave in time.

Looking back at Natalie's post from 2009, there are a lot of similarities between the two years. In 2009, Natalie's mom happened to be visiting, and took a bunch of photos of the race. This year, it was my mom. In 2009, Natalie broke her Werner bentshaft just before the race, and had to borrow a paddle. This year, exactly the same thing happened. In 2009, we have a photo of Kyle trying to pass Natalie right below the airplane boof (and he eventually did pass her). This year, same pass, same spot. And of course, both years, Natalie was the only female racer.

Anyway, here's the blow-by-blow account of the race. We got off to a late start because many of the race organizers were helping clean up a swim in the second rapid of the course (ahem... Spencer...). There weren't many competitors, so we ended up with two heats of 4 and a heat of 5 for prelims.


	From Gnarrows Race 2011

From Gnarrows Race 2011

Prelims are a race through the whole Narrows; from up above Upper Narrows down to the end of Lower Narrows. It's a couple miles, and pretty tiring. I had been training a little on the Slave, but I had forgotten that the race would be taking place at high altitude in the Colorado mountains, so I had good bursts of speed but got winded easily. Fortunately, I had a fast start and was able to pull just barely ahead of Austin Woody, then managed to hold on to my lead with some lucky lines through the first few rapids. After that, I was pretty much set.

Kyle (previous champ) battles his way through Whiteline. Gnarrows Race 2011

Austin still right on my tail at Whiteline. Gnarrows Race 2011

Natalie was in the 5 person heat, and it was an incredibly stacked heat. They all started very tight, and stayed tight all the way to the finish line. There was a flurry of passes in Super Collider, the first rapid. Natalie had a fast line through the main part of the drop and passed Evan, but then got hung up on some rocks in the runout and was passed by Evan and someone else. They all came in to Whiteline very close.

Heat 3. Gnarrows Race 2011

The tricky move in Whiteline is a sticky eddy near the bottom of the drop (this is where Spencer swam, right before the race). Natalie ended up in that eddy, but was able to paddle out on her first try and stay very competitive. She might have even moved up to second place. Things were kind of confusing in the photos.

Natalie enters the eddy. Gnarrows Race 2011

Just after exiting the eddy (full contact eddy turn). Gnarrows Race 2011

The three prelim heats launched at some close intervals, so I was still in my boat when Natalie's heat arrived at the finish line. Curt was out ahead, but not by much, and then the other four boats were literally still running into each other jockeying for position as they crossed the finish line. Evan managed to pass Natalie during one of the final moves in the last rapid, and she took third in her heat.

The top 2 advance from each heat, but here's the cool part of the Gnarrows race: there is an extra round in between prelims and semifinals, where everyone who didn't qualify for semis gets another chance to race head to head and get into semis anyway. This year, because of how the numbers worked out, it was a heat of seven people with the top two achieving official redemption. This inbetween round is known as the Losers' Bracket.

From Gnarrows Race 2011

Nathan had ended up third in my heat, putting him in the Losers' Bracket. He had an excellent start, and maintained a solid lead for a seat in semifinals.

From Gnarrows Race 2011

Natalie had smooth lines, but they weren't enough to catch up to Nathan's start, and she took second, which still put her in semis.

From Gnarrows Race 2011

Seven people is quite a few when you're in a river bed this small.

From Gnarrows Race 2011

But I guess that doesn't matter if you're winning.

With our new qualifiers from the Losers' Bracket, we had two heats of four people each in semifinals. The top two from each heat would advance to the final round. I was in the first heat, right up next to Evan at the start line, but also racing against Nathan and Josh Heise. Evan got boxed in between Nathan and I at the start, and wasn't able to get his paddle into the water, putting him way behind. When the metaphorical dust settled, I found that I was in second, ramming Josh, who was first. I backed off a little for the boof, and lost ground, but eventually managed a pass near the bottom of the course.

About to pass Josh, with Nathan and Evan following. Gnarrows Race 2011

Natalie was in the second semifinals heat, and once again found herself in a very stacked heat. The whole pack was incredibly tight through the whole course. Near the airplane boof, it looked like Curt might pull way out ahead, but he flipped over and lost most of his lead.

Semifinals heat 2. Note the bottom of Curt's boat over on the right. Gnarrows Race 2011

In the chaos surrounding the boof, Austin Woody managed to pull out into the lead just ahead of Curt. Natalie passed Kyle, but the two of them were still in full contact across the flats.

You can tell from Kyle's face that he really wants to make the pass. Gnarrows Race 2011

Just like in 2009, Kyle kept dogging at Natalie and managed to squeeze past her, but the two of them had lost too much time battling each other, and neither of them moved on to the next round. It was Austin, then Curt, then Kyle, then Natalie.

This meant that our finals round was ready to go. Austin and I were the first place finishers from the previous round, so we had first pick of the start locations. After a coin toss, Austin started closest to the current, and I started on the opposite side of the lineup, in the hope that I would be able to get some effective strokes while everyone else bunched up trying to catch current. Curt and Josh were in the two middle spots.

My strategy almost worked, except I actually came out of the start in third place. Curt was out in the lead, and I was behind Austin and ahead of Josh. Finals was the closest matched heat yet, and we were all very tight, but I was definitely battling for last.

Finals heat! Gnarrows Race 2011

I had a little hiccup leaving the cauldron below the airplane boof, and Josh snuck past me.

Josh passes me, just below the airplane boof. Gnarrows Race 2011

I hadn't even really realized that I was in fourth, I just saw how close I was to Josh and Austin, and hammered as hard as I could to either knock them off line or make a pass.

From Gnarrows Race 2011

Down below the late boof, in the last couple moves of the course, I had practiced an alternate line, in case this exact thing happened. The river is pretty narrow, and unless the leader makes a mistake it's very hard to pass someone when you're both in the same channel. I practiced this alternate line so that I would have an unblocked path to try to take, giving me a slightly better chance at passing whoever was in the normal channel.

As I committed to the alternate route, I realized that Josh, who was right ahead of me, had also broken to the right, which totally foiled my plan. However, I lucked out. He hit a couple rocks and got pushed out of the current, and I was able to capitalize on his small mistake and pull into third.

Reconnecting with the main channel, I saw that I had lost some ground and Austin had pulled ahead. This was the reason that most people had taken the left channel, after all. In a way my gamble had failed. However, in the second to last move, Austin took the left channel. That's the normal line when you're paddling for fun, since there is more water over there, but that channel zigzags enough that it is not the optimal race line. I barreled through the narrower, rockier, but straighter line just to the right, and gained just enough time to crash into Austin in the flats above the final move. We were neck and neck, and we both reached forward simultaneously to try to grab the water in front of the other person's boat. Lucky for me, I was in the Big Bang, which is a good 6 inches longer than Austin's boat, and I also have gigantic arms because I'm like a foot taller than him. I planted a stroke on the very front end of Austin's bow and yanked myself about half a boat length ahead of him.

While Austin and I were having our little reaching contest, Josh was paddling down a clear course behind us, and had managed to catch up. The three of us flew off the final boof all overlapping. I was barely in the lead, and Austin and Josh were on either side of me, with their bows right at my elbows. Of course, Curt was so far ahead of any of us that he was already starting to climb out of his boat. I had taken second in my first ever Gnarrows race. We decided that Austin and Josh were close enough that they had tied for third.

From Gnarrows Race 2011

The first place prize is an engraved belt buckle that gets passed from champion to champion every year. Maybe some year I'll get ahold of it. Second prize is a 40, but I don't drink. I figured that since it was such a close finish, I would donate it to Austin and Josh.

From Gnarrows Race 2011

Stoked with a great finish, I joined a group of other paddlers headed up for a victory lap, and convinced a couple people to try out the new Fluid boats that we had with us. It was a great way to end a really fun day.

From Gnarrows Race 2011


	From Gnarrows Race 2011

So, in case you weren't able to follow all the twists and turns in that high speed narrative, here are some results:

1) Kurt Braunlich
2) Leif Anderson
3 (tie) Austin Woody and Josh Heise

5) Kyle McCutcheon (3rd in semis heat 2, 1st in prelim heat 1)
6) Nathan Werner (3rd in semis heat 1, 3rd in prelim heat 2)

7) Evan Stafford (4th in semis heat 1, 2nd in prelim heat 3)
8) Natalie Anderson (4th in semis heat 2, 3rd in prelim heat 3)

And past there, I don't remember how people placed.

Goodbye to the Slave

2011-08-21T19:16:00.001-06:00

This is our last Slave post for this year, unless we put together a overall summary post. For more of our adventures, check out Week 1, the wood movie, Week 2, paddlefest, and Week 3. There is also a map of the rapids online with rapid descriptions. Water levels can be checked here. There are also a whole heap of posts from 2009 and 2010: Driving, arriving, flooding, still flooding, Sweet Spot, Rollercoaster, and Outrageous.

It saddens my heart to write this, but, as it does every year, our trip to the Slave has finally ended. I spent the last few days moping around the house, and trying to have as much fun as possible out on the water.

On the last day, we took requests via facebook, and let the fans decide where we would go. Of course, the fans are not nice people, and they picked Outrageous (the crappiest flat wave on the whole river) and Rockem Sockem (which is a great wave with a little less water, but made a huge trashy hole on that day).

I hate to sound like a broken record here, but the Element is incredibly sick. We got to Outrageous and it was even flatter than last year. John took a quick ride, and he was able to frontsurf for a little while, but soon he washed off forwards. I was able to grind, stab, and clean blunt. I may have even stuck a helix. I can't remember. I could even catch it from the eddy, which I used to think was impossible. The Element rocks.

Brown grind. Slave 2011

Pow! Slave 2011

Downstream from there is the infamous Rock 'em Sock 'em. It's a slightly more technical rapid, with a moderately difficult entrance leading to a pair of big holes side by side. When the water drops, the river right hole gains a little bit of face, and becomes an incredible wave. You may have seen it in the old Scott Lindgren movies of the Slave. It's the one where the paddlers fight their way through a mean hole out to a nice wave, do big air moves in their Wavesport Z's, and occasionally fall back into the trashy section.

We now call the trashy section of the hole the Penalty Box. It's small at these levels, but it's still vicious. Unfortunately, once you've spent your time in the Penalty Box and finally fight out to the main wave, there's no wave. It's just a slightly less trashy section of hole. However, the crowd had spoken, and plus, on our 2008 trip at similar levels, we got a photo of me at that same spot that ended up in the Portfolio section of Kayak Session magazine, so we had to give it a try.

John in the pocket. Slave 2011

Carving out of the Box. Slave 2011

We got a little trashed, but (broken record) the amazing edges on the Element helped me carve out of the Penalty Box with minimal ass kicking. Once we got out to the pocket, the air just wasn't quite working for us, and, after a sad little surf at Rollercoaster (too low), we paddled back across for the last time of the year.

Then it was time for the inaugural run of a new Slave tradition: the farewell party.

John and Gen ready to party! Slave 2011

Getting the party started. Slave 2011

To most people, "party" means "get drunk", but since I don't drink, we tend to have slightly less conventional parties. Often back in Fort Collins, our parties involve a lot of Boggle and Bananagrams. Our farewell party was just the four of us out by the river, hanging out and having fun.

From Slave 2011

And of course, the fun soon devolved into light painting and other tomfoolery.

From Slave 2011

Then we packed up our boats and started the three day drive back to Fort Drytown.

Wrapping up the Element. The drive starts with three hours of gravel roads. Slave 2011

I saw a cloud on the way home. Slave 2011

Natalie's garden had turned into a jungle while we were gone. Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

As soon as we got back, we ran up to the Poudre to get ready for the Gnarrows race. The Slave had been running at hundreds of thousands of cfs, and the Poudre had only a few hundred cfs. It was shockingly different. I can't wait to get back to the Slave next summer.

Slave River week 3

2011-08-05T11:46:00.005-06:00

As Natalie put it yesterday, we've entered phase three of the trip. Paddlefest is over and we're getting into full stride. The water is back down to "high" levels, instead of "crazy" and all the rapids seem tame now. Rocks are starting to show all over the place. There are eddies everywhere. We no longer have to hunt around for new playspots. The river is familiar again.

For our previous posts, check out Week 1, the wood movie, Week 2, and paddlefest. There is also a map of the rapids online with rapid descriptions. Water levels can be checked here. There are also a whole heap of posts from 2009 and 2010: Driving, arriving, flooding, still flooding, Sweet Spot, Rollercoaster, and Outrageous.

Ok, enough historical links. Here are the daily updates!

Friday August 12: Rollercoaster 4,000 cms (141,000 cfs)

After a couple intense long days at Rollercoaster, we were all getting a little tired. Natalie took the day off and went with a group of geologists to see the salt flats, and John and I didn't motivate until about 12:30... sort of like today. On the way in, we finally got around to doing that road improvement that we'd been talking about for the past month.

Road improvement. Slave 2011

When we got to the wave, we had a pretty relaxed session, and even went home a little early, around 8:30 or so. We also took a couple shots with the 105mm lens, which provided a little more perspective.

From Slave 2011

It's hard to get into that boat. Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

Thursday August 11: Rollercoaster 4,400 - 4,000 cms (155,000 - 141,000 cfs)

John tries out a couple different methods for keeping his eye healthy. Slave 2011

John gets an eye infection

So apparently, on like tuesday or so, John got a little sand in his eye, and that sand put a little scratch on his eyeball, and then it got infected.

Eye infection? How is that possible? Slave 2011

Seriously, how could that have even happened? Slave 2011

Needless to say, we were all pretty baffled by this development. There were a lot of pinkeye jokes, and since tuesday was about 11 hours on the water, we even rested on wednesday and just made fun of John all day. But thursday we were right back at it. If the levels keep dropping, we'll only have a few more days at rollercoaster, and then we'll be surfing Rockem Sockem, which, honestly, I am a little scared about.

In the meantime, enjoy a fat batch of photos from the last two days.

Weird lookin' flipturn. Slave 2011

Natalie nails a nice blunt. Slave 2011

Back Pan Am. Slave 2011

Natalie works on the clean. Slave 2011

Natalie keeps working. Slave 2011

Leif has no eye infection. Slave 2011

Leif has no ear infection. Slave 2011

Leif has no sinus infection. Slave 2011

Helix. Slave 2011

Helix the other way. Slave 2011

Stab. Slave 2011

Clean right. Slave 2011

clean left. Slave 2011

Clean right air shot. Slave 2011

Good hull separation on the leftie. Slave 2011

John blunts. Slave 2011

Natalie stuck one of the only helices of the day. Slave 2011

Cool angle for a flashback. Slave 2011

John tries for an airscrew. Slave 2011

John with one of many left panams. Slave 2011

Stab left. Slave 2011

Still stabbing. Slave 2011

This helix was actually a total failure. Slave 2011

A little perspective on one of my favorite places on earth. Slave 2011

Who's artsy now? Slave 2011

Artsy clean. Slave 2011

Clowning around a little. Slave 2011

John tries out the clean. Slave 2011

John still working on the balance. Slave 2011

John gets a nice clean. Slave 2011

John goes big. Slave 2011

John rotates. Slave 2011

John makes contact. Slave 2011

Natalie about to eat it. Slave 2011

Natalie with a beautiful stab. Slave 2011

No flashback will ever look good again, after doing this one. Slave 2011

This wave is so cool. Slave 2011

Clean panam. Slave 2011

Enjoying lunch on the rocks. Slave 2011

Natalie still panams. Slave 2011

Monday August 8: Rollercoaster 4,400 cms (155,000 cfs)

Rollercoaster is back! I have been waiting to try out the Element on this wave, and it was every bit as awesome as I had hoped. Right now we're packing up to take another all day session out there, so I have to hurry, but here are a couple shots from monday.

Natalie KILLIN IT Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

Finally found a large wave where I wasn't terrified of the backsurf. Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

Still KILLIN Slave 2011

Getting good separation from the pile. Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

Thursday August 4: Sweet Spot. 4,900 cms (173,000 cfs)

From Slave 2011

After the Edge King contest, we took a day off (although I protested pretty loudly). Thursday, we came back to Sweet Spot for a rematch. The water had dropped, and the eddylines were much more manageable. The spot seemed downright tame.

Well, not all that tame. We still got a little beat up.

John tries the space Godzilla Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

I'm not even sure what's going on here. Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

Yeah, that's Natalie swimming after a skirt implosion. Slave 2011

But good times were had by all. John had some trouble getting his tricks to work. The Element was still the prime boat for the spot, but Natalie was getting huge moves too.

From Slave 2011





	From Slave 2011

From Slave 2011


	From Slave 2011

From Slave 2011



	From Slave 2011

Nice big helix. Slave 2011

Slave River Paddlefest

2011-08-03T16:07:00.000-06:00

As part of our ongoing coverage of this year's trip to the Slave river (see our previous posts: week 1, week 2, the wood video, and a whole stack of posts from 2009 mixed in here and here), here are a bunch of photos related to paddlefest.

Paddlefest this year was a whole heap of awesome. I spent a lot of time during the actual events working at the Introduction to Awesome booth; rides in the duo kayak for $15. I tried to give them a little taste of whitewater - literally - by splashing it into their faces at high speed while surfing. Customers had to weigh less than me, and they didn't get to use a paddle. I didn't want them to have any power to fight against my decisions about the lines. Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos of me paddling with clients, but we did get a couple shots of our practice run through cassette, as well as a bunch of random tomfoolery.



	From Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

John and Julian line up the raft surf at upper Rollercoaster. Slave 2011

John gets ready to paddle Kirsten's kids through the whirlpools. Slave 2011

The kids win big at the raffle. Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

Feeding the fire ceremony before starting the main series of events. Slave 2011

Getting ready to start the pool toy "race". Slave 2011

Pool toy race in full swing. Slave 2011

Natalie looping just after the end of the pro rodeo. Slave 2011

After a big gaggle of confusing events over the weekend (several rodeos, a race through Avalanche, the most epic beachball battle yet, etc.) the water finally dropped to the perfect level for Sweet Spot, and it was time for the Edge King comp.

The Edge King event is now my favorite event, and it's exactly what paddlefest has been missing until now. Most of the events in paddlefest take place at the playground, so that they are easily accessible on foot. The Edge King is a big wave competition, on whatever feature happens to be good at the time. It's an event that really takes advantage of what the Slave has to offer. I can't wait to see how awesome it is next year.


	A couple competitors looking rugged before the comp starts. Slave 2011

The format was a relaxed jam session, with heats of 5 paddlers spending 40 minutes surfing Sweet Spot. I had a distinct advantage in the Element, since it was fast enough to catch the wave more consistently, stay on the wave longer, and throw even bigger moves. We all had a blast.

John spots his bounce. Slave 2011

Huge bonus on the roundhouse! Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

The one disadvantage to paddling a composite ocean surf kayak in the river is that it's not really designed to handle rocks. Halfway through prelims, I blew the ferry but thought I could save it, and I ended up getting washed straight over the rock island just downstream of the wave. I cringed and screamed, but the damage wasn't really all that bad.

Nooooooo! Not the rocks! Slave 2011

Natalie threw this move just after her heat was over. Slave 2011

After prelims, there was a tie for fifth place. Sweet Spot was a little rowdy that day, and both the two paddlers who tied were a little apprehensive about getting back in. They decided to break the tie with some rock-paper-scissors. Loser had to get back in the water.

Jenn and Mitch face off for the tiebreaker. Slave 2011

Unfortunately, they tied at rock-paper-scissors, so they both ended up paddling in finals.



From Slave 2011

We even had some spectators, despite the fact that Sweet Spot is all the way on the far side of the river.

From Slave 2011

Before we left, a couple of the boys from Aquabatics decided to fire up Molly's Nipple. I ran it once at a similar level back in 2005, and swam like a fish. This year, I was not feeling it at all, but it was great to watch them step it up. I shot video, so I don't have any stills of it, but I will put in a link to any sort of video that they put together.

At the last minute, before the competition started, we decided that whoever won would have to take a ceremonial surf in the Edge itself right after the competition, despite the fact that the Edge was a massive sticky hole, and not a good wave at all at those levels.

From Slave 2011

Fortunately, the Element saved my ass again, since it was fast enough to surf back out of the edge with minimal injuries.

From Slave 2011

Did I mention that I won?

Slave River week 2

2011-07-23T12:24:00.004-06:00

A massive flood has hit the Slave, and water levels are higher than we've ever seen them. As the water slowly works back down to the pre-flood levels, we hope to see the whole spectrum of playspots that the Slave can offer. We will continue to add updates to this page every day or so, so keep checking back.

And in case you lost the link, you can find a map of the rapids here, and week 1 here.

Day one million. July 27: Sweet spot, flows unknown (broken gauge).

Sweet Spot is still a little bit too high, so it greens out too much to surf... unless you're in an Element. I could just barely catch the wave in my surf boat, and once I got out there, it was a rowdy ride. I threw about three moves in the whole session, and the first two weren't on film because we didn't think the wave could be caught.

Once we got the camera out, I mostly had some really intense frontsurfs. It was a blast.

From Faces of Whitewater

Big thanks to John for taking photos. It must have been pretty lame to not even be able to catch the wave, and then spend an hour or so taking photos. The Element is an awesome boat. Too bad you don't have one.

Here is a slideshow of the funny faces that I made while surfing:

And here are some of the photos of the frontsurfs.

From Slave 2011





	From Slave 2011

Day before that one other day. July 26: Browntown, flows unknown (thanks, Government of Alberta, for all those times when you DID work)

We were feeling like a mellow day, so we gathered up team C (Calgarians) and headed over to the Rapids of the Drowned to check out Browntown. It turned out to be about as awesome as ever, so we did a lot of flatspins and roundhouses, but it was relaxing and fun. After surfing, we took a giant tour of the racecourse channels off on the river right side of the rapids, and then took a quick ride on Monstah Schiesser on the way out. (Remember, you can find the map here.)

Here are a couple photos of us chillin out.

From Slave 2011

Polarizers make everything awesome. Slave 2011

Even the Brown claw looks pretty good with a polarizer. Slave 2011


		From Slave 2011

Look how the black and white conversion has transformed this into some artsy shit! Slave 2011

From Slave 2011

Day ... something. July 25: Top Gun wave, 6000 cms (212,000 cfs).
We'd been anxiously waiting for the water to drop back to a level that we had already explored, and today it finally came within reach of the very top end of some previous experience. John had found a wave near Molly's while the water was rising. We decided to call it Top Gun, and went out to check it out, joined by the Calgary crew and a couple newcomers from Litton.

Upon arrival, we found that the wave was not very spectacular. Maybe the levels weren't quite perfect, but the wave was a lot like #1 wave, except less consistent. We took a quick session and headed down to Chico, which was still great. Avalanche was about the best that I have seen it, with a pile that would cycle in and out, leaving a huge steep face with some great big air potential. To bad there's no eddy service there.

One of three tricks I threw on Top Gun. The others were roundhouses. Slave 2011

Looking back up at Molly's from the Forgotten Island. Slave 2011



From Slave 2011

Day... whatever. July 22: Chico hole, 6700-6500 cms (237,000 - 230,000 cfs).
We've been surfing Chico for several days, but we haven't been able to get photos until John had the idea to climb out on river left and shoot from a log jam. The wave is a little flat, but still good. The Element is a great boat for this wave since it's so fast.

From Slave 2011

Knock on Wood. Slave River Flood.

2011-07-21T13:29:00.000-06:00

This is a SPECIAL post because it is the first time John Blyth and Natalie have edited a movie and they have chosen one very special catchy song to set the back drop for the most crazy day on the water, EVER! Watch this movie at your own peril because you might just have THE TOP GUN ANTHEM stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

SLAVE RIVER FLOOD 2011: KNOCK ON WOOD (7,300 cms, 258,000 cfs)

Slave River Flood 2011 - Knock on Wood from Leif Anderson on Vimeo.

Here are some additional photographs.

and a CBC news post about the water levels complete with an interview with John Blyth.

For more posts about the slave river see
Slave River! Week 1

Slave River! Week 1

2011-07-13T22:28:00.034-06:00

In the past we have never really done our trips up to the Slave River justice as far as posting on the blog goes (Overdue Slave post: Outrageous!, The Flood Continues, Slave flood!, Already worth the drive, Driving is awesome!). This time around we are going to do things a little differently. Instead of waiting until the end and then wading through thousands of photos we are going to add to this post our favorite few photos from any day in which we take photos. We will also record the water level and the play spot for future reference. Please see this google map to find play spots mentioned in this blog post.

Day 7: July 19th
Cassette- ROCKEM SOCKEM! 6,800 cms

From 2011 Rockem Sockem

This is my absolute favorite photo from the day

and here are some other sick shots!

Day 6: July 18th
Mountain Portage and Rapids of the Drowned 7,000 cms

Avalanche Surf, 7000 cms from Natalie Kramer on Vimeo.

We were actually able to surf Avalanche- sort of. Here is an unedited go pro footage (coming soon). Although we don't have any good shots, chico wave just keeps getting better the higher it gets!

Day 5: July 17th
Pine Lake Picnic and Mountain, 7,100 cms

From Slave Posts

Leif and John beat out the rest of the canoe enthusiast for for a gold in the pine lake canoe race. John and Gen took gold and silver respectively in the corn husk and Natalie took silver in the potato sack race.

Day 4: July 16th
Cassette Exploration, 7,300 cms (258,000 cfs)

The river had a carpet of driftwood moving past the putin, which sketched out most of us. Entire trees had space to quietly drift past. This made the rapids quite interesting.

From Slave 2011

Apparently at 7300, Outrageous really does wash out, Dave's Demise turns into an ok wave with no eddy access, and Rockem Sockem becomes a nice diagonal wave with a strong shoulder. We surfed Rockem Sockem for a while.

From Slave 2011



	From Slave 2011

Day 3: July 15th
Mountain Portage exploration, 6,400 cms (226,000 cfs)

From Slave 2011

Day 2: July 14th
Sweet Spot, 5,200 cms (184,000 cfs)

Leif and John took a quick session at Sweet Spot and hurried back so that John could teach in the afternoon. Leif took the Element out on the Slave for the first time.

From Slave 2011



	From Slave 2011

DAY 1: July 13th
Sweet Spot, 4,600 cms (162,000 cfs)

Best Scenic Shot

From Slave Posts

Looking out across Molly's Nipple. Photo by Natalie

Best Action Shot

From Slave Posts

this was my first time surfing the sweet spot and this shot of Leif really shows how It felt most of the time. Although slightly out of control, this wave really dishes up some big air. Click on the thumbnails below to view some big tricks.




			From Slave Posts

THE DRIVE

From Slave Posts

Somewhere in Montana

We made it! Left Glenwood Springs Sunday Evening around 4:00pm and arrived Wednesday at 3:00am.

From Slave Posts

I almost forgot about all the bugs!

Wedding Part I: Bachelor Party

2011-07-05T17:06:00.001-06:00

Well, so, I maybe shouldn't post all these photos... I mean, we did some crazy stuff at that bachelor party. Hell, I don't even remember all of it. Fortunately, there were no tigers involved, but it was still a little crazy.

Well, maybe I can sort of hint about the things that happened, without going into any embarrassing details. There's a slideshow at the end, but here are a couple of the photos that are safe for the main page.

A small group of us met up the weekend before the wedding for a traditional bachelor party. John Blyth flew in from Canada a day earlier than everyone else, so he and I decided to start the party a little ahead of schedule.

John partied hard before the party even started. Bachelor Party

Because of John's history, we decided it might be best to put him in the Detox for the duration of the party. He resisted at first, of course, but we eventually convinced him. I think that it did him some good. He still partied pretty hard.

This was just the warmup. Bachelor Party

The next evening, Conor Flynn and Nathan Werner drove in, and we routed them straight from the highway to the next bar. Then the legendary Alex J. Wolfgram joined us for a 14 hour party marathon. I didn't take too many photos, and I really can't say too much about it on the internet, but let's just say that Conor was a little off the hook.

Alex J. Wolfgram, with his trademark "Yeaaaaaaahhhhh" Bachelor Party

Did I really do that? Bachelor Party

Conor started off with a couple shots. Bachelor Party

Conor about to take yet another shot. This was still only at about 11:00. Bachelor Party

This was Nathan's first real hit. He held out for a long time. Bachelor Party

We had a super late night that night, and ended up walking out at about 1:00. The next day, we were all pretty sore and hungover, so we took it real easy. Fortunately for us, we had planned three days of partying, so after our rest day, we got right back at it. Taylor Cavin joined us, and showed us how these bachelor parties were meant to go.

Taylor almost spills his drink. Bachelor Party

Woah, Nathan. Don't get us kicked out of here. Bachelor Party

Alex wasn't just there for the hot wings... although they were delicious. Bachelor Party

The bouncers really didn't like it when Taylor took off his pants. Bachelor Party

Hey Conor, buddy, you're a married man! Take it easy there. Bachelor Party

I guess it wouldn't be fair not to include at least one photo of myself... Bachelor Party

Woo! After that little epic, we decided to take it back down a notch.

The oldest hangover cure ever. Bachelor Party

Here's a slideshow of all the photos we took:

Wedding Part III: Honeymoon on the South Silver and UMC

2011-06-22T11:10:00.010-06:00

I know that many of you have been eagerly awaiting Leif's epic bachelor trip post and our more than epic wedding post, but you'll just have to wait a little longer. Some photos that we want to use made their way to Canada and a flash drive is currently being shipped back to us. If you are just itchin to see some wedding photos I posted a short blog with some photos on the fluid site which you can see here.

In the mean time I thought that I would post up some photos from our Cali honeymoon. For the most part Leif and I spent our honeymoon catching up on some sleep at various people's houses and staying warm and dry. However, we did a few really nice day runs, including the South Silver and the UMC.

Natalie styles Skyscraper on the South Silver South Silver

The South Silver is an absolutely gorgeous and steep 1 mile of slides. The put in was snowed in so we hiked up with our buddy Dave Stentiford from Reno. The slides were awesome as you can see in the slideshow below.

We also made it down the Upper Middle Cosumnes (UMC for short).

Leif boofs Skatepark on the UMC UMC

I think that this might have been one of the most demanding runs that I have done. There were a lot of great drops that weren't exactly straight forward stacked one after another. On an easier run almost all of the drops would of been photo worthy, but since there were so many, we only took photos of a few. Thank you Darin for leading us down and to the rest of the crew (David, Tomas, Jonas, and Thomas.)

These photos were all taken a day after we were originally supposed to do the run with Dave da German and the Tomas the Latvian. We didn't do the run the previous day because Team Leif and Natalie had a beyond embarrassing experience getting lost on the way to put-in and spending most of the day hiking through poison oak. I say very embarrassing because there was a very clear road like trail to put-in. But of coarse, everything is obvious after the fact. Below is a photo of us returning to our car at 6:30 in the afternoon after a full day of poison oak thrashing only to find that those Europeans took our car to take out, assuming that we had done the run. Luckily the Kiwis were also doing the run and picked us up when they came back for their silver truck.

From UMC

Dude, where's my car?
Where's your car, dude?

We are now back in Colorado having a blast surfing up the Glenwood wave at above 20,000 cfs.

Remembering David Schmitt

2011-05-10T14:30:00.003-06:00

Dave at Kootenai Falls, 2010 Dave Schmitt

As many of you already know, our good friend Dave Schmitt died last Friday, May 6th. He and a friend were in the War Memorial Stadium at the University of Wyoming the night before his graduation, and — to present a very condensed version of the events that were described to me — Dave fell trying to climb onto a ledge that wasn't there. There was a small amount of alcohol involved, but Dave was never known to drink to excess. They weren't being irresponsible or clowning around, just having fun. It mostly sounds like a case of very bad luck.

Natalie and I were very shaken when we heard of Dave’s passing while on our way to camp the night before a high-water Gore run. We quickly decided to stick with our original plan, and we had a great run in our friend’s memory.

Dave was an exceptional person. There is a tendency to see the recently deceased in overly flattering light, but in Dave's case, all the praise is deserved. Dave was always cheerful. I never saw him angry, grumpy, or mean. To sum up Dave's character — for those that didn't know him, and to help those that did know him remember why he was great — I’d like to share a story from our March spring break trip that we took together.

The trip was long, wet, and cold. Natalie and I were grumpy and cold some of the time, and we were even sleeping in the car while Dave slept outside in his bivy sack. He always seemed bright and cheerful in the morning even though his sleeping gear always completely soaked. About halfway through the trip, we had a break in the clouds as we were getting ready to put in for a high water run down the Nordheimer section of the Salmon River in California. Natalie and I have a plastic snake, and our traditional prank is to hide it in people's gear at strange times. I pulled the classic snake-in-the-boat prank on Dave just as we were putting on. It was Dave's response to the snake that I will always remember.

Ask yourself how you would react if you saw a plastic snake in your boat. Sure, given a second or two, you realize that the snake is not real and have a chuckle or maybe get mad, but for one brief second, all that your brain sees is this striking sign of danger. All the reactions that I've seen have been basically the same. People see the snake, representing the dangerous unknown things in life, and their instinct is to feel fear and withdraw. Dave was different. When he saw the snake, in that short, unguarded window of genuine reaction — instead of jumping back or dropping the boat — Dave let out an exclamation of amazed curiosity. "Woah, cool!" Dave said, as he tried to get a better look.

Dave’s genuine interest in life was what set him apart. When he would see anything new or dangerous or adverse, instead of retreating, he would advance to investigate. When faced with a new rapid, instead of seeing all the ways it could go wrong and then gradually figuring out a way that it could be possible, he would see all the awesome lines that could be run, and then check for dangers and complications. When he would wake up at 5:00am on that spring break trip, drenched to the bone from the rain, I like to think that his first thought was to wonder what new runs would come in with all the extra water. I hope in the brief time I knew Dave, some of his attitude might have rubbed off on me, and I'll always strive to see things the way he would have. Dave embraced the unexpected, not as a learned response, but instinctively.

Here are some of the great memories Natalie and I will remember Dave by:

- Those damn sunflower seeds he was always eating on long road trips. There is still a handful on the floor of my car.

- The first time he saw the Slave River, walking over a hill behind John Blyth's house after a three-day drive.

- Dave hooting and hollering after running Skoonichuck Falls on Eagle Creak in Oregon. He was so excited that at first we thought he was hurt.

- His first day of ocean surfing, on tsunami aftershocks.

- Double Rainbow, Bananaphone, and Who's the Shit

- Paddling the Topo Duos on the Slave

- Muscle Milk and the neoprene muscle tee

- Dave and those cute French-Canadian twins

- His ability to throw and land a donkey flip on the smallest feature

- His great smile and genuinely infectious laugh

Here is a slideshow of some of our favorite shots of Dave:

Here is a video of Dave and Ruthy's run in the duo down Pelican. His excitement and joy to be on the water really shines through.

Dave and Ruth duo run on Pelican from Leif Anderson on Vimeo.

Eagle Creek

2011-04-13T19:42:00.000-06:00

Well, spring break has been over for like two weeks now, but we're still sorting through all the photos from the various awesome adventures that we had. Near the end of break, we decided to rally all the way from California up to Hood River, for the sole purpose of running Eagle Creek.

Eagle Creek has been on my list for a long time; ever since I saw it in Full Circle way back in the early 2000's, I've been getting more and more interested. The stars finally aligned on our last paddling day of the break (with the help of a 10 hour drive) and Natalie, Dave and I got to fire up some sweet drops.

First off, here's a slideshow of our best shots:

Some people say that Eagle Creek is one of those "once is enough" kinds of creeks. The drops aren't all that hard, and there are really only a handful of "real" rapids. But of course, the run us about more than just the whitewater. We had perfect weather for the 4 mile hike in, with intermittent sun and light rain to keep us cool but motivated. The trail was beautiful, even with a boat strapped to your back. When we finally made it to our putin at Skoonichuck falls, I was feeling pretty pumped up.

Skoonichuck is an awesome way to start the run. It's a little stressful to put on your skirt and have the first four strokes of the day be:
draw stroke out of eddy
40 foot boof
correction stroke
15 foot boof...

From Eagle Creek

...but it's totally worth it. There's a 40 footer (I could be wrong about the size) which lands in a moving pool immediately above a 15 footer. When you first scout it, you might think that there's time to recover between the two drops, but the water is moving a lot faster than it seems.

We all ended up running it. I had a nice feeling line off the first drop, but resurfaced backwards over on the right side and wasn't able to spin around before dropping the second ledge. Dave followed, staying more online through the first drop, but flipping in the landing. He was just barely able to pull off a roll as he went directly off the best part of the second drop. Then I ran (well, walked... ok... crawled) back up the hill to film Natalie's run. She scouted it very carefully and planned every detail (even which side to tuck the paddle off the big drop). Her scouting paid off with an incredible clean run. She barely even got her head wet, and stayed straight and upright for a late boof off the second ledge. I was hooting and hollering, but typical of Natalie, all she could talk about was how she hadn't stomped the second drop hard enough.

Dave on the second ledge. Eagle Creek

Unfortunately, since I was trying to film and take photos at the same time, I got terrible shots of Natalie's line. Wait, not terrible... artistic. That's right. It's an abstract shot capturing the of the spirit of the waterfall and rocks.

Artistic shot. Not bad aim, artistic.Eagle Creek

Below Skoonichuck, we tried to move fast, since we had sort of a late start and wanted to catch up with another group. We sent Natalie off to boat scout the next little ledge/crack thing. I got this nice calm shot of her paddling towards it, then she had that telltale too-fast correction stroke as she went off the lip.

Trouble behind, trouble ahead... Eagle Creek

She vanished off the lip, but a couple seconds went by without seeing her paddle out the bottom. Dave hurried up to the lip, and sure enough, she had swam. The drop, which looked ok at first glance, actually fell off to the right into an hourglass crack. There was a line, but we had just assumed that since it was so small it couldn't be anything major. Natalie had ended up sideways in the hourglass part, which was also sort of a hole. It was too narrow to paddle or brace, so she got flipped and decided to swim. Fortunately, it was flatwater below, so it was a quick self rescue. Past there, we were a lot more careful about boat scouting.

The rapids continued at a pretty fun difficulty level for another couple miles. There were some very narrow gorges, which were awesome, and a couple short wood portages.

Dave on one of the in-between rapids. Eagle Creek

Then a strange ledge drop with a diagonal log through it signaled the approach to Punchbowl falls. We had been paddling alone through the upper canyons (apart from a couple motivated groups of hikers that worked their way down to river level). When we got to Punchbowl, we were the third group of paddlers to show up. There was us, the Wheels and Water crew, who we had been trying to catch up with since putin, as well as a crew of paddlers from Montana.

Natalie gives Eric Arlington (W&W crew) a couple pointers on the Punchbowl line. Eagle Creek

The punchbowl for which the falls is named felt like an arena as we all scouted and fired off the drop. There were paddlers at the lip waiting to run it, hikers on the rim watching and cheering, and paddlers down below who had just finished their laps. After my run, I was waiting down below to get a photo of Dave, and I was worried that I wouldn't have enough warning before he came off the lip, but the crowd started cheering a couple seconds before he fired it off, and I had plenty of warning.

I had always been curious about the exact geometry of the falls. In most photos, the drop looks like a steep and walled in twisting drop, but it's actually relatively flat, and you can walk around on the rocks on river left at the lip. It might not be quite as scary as it looked, but it is still a very dynamic drop. You boof onto a diagonal hole that then falls off a 30 footer. After looking at it carefully, I decided that I wanted to climb up and over the pile and run left, since that was actually where the majority of the water went. The surface looks like it curls to the right, but that's actually just the aerated pile from the diagonal hole. The heavy green water keeps pushing through to the left, so I think that's where the soft landings are hiding.

We watched a couple runs from above, and then Natalie geared up and fired it off, hitting a sweet line and landing with perfect angle. I followed her off, with a similar line that felt great, and then got a shot of Dave from below.

Natalie perched on the lip of Punchbowl falls. Eagle Creek

Dave tucks up for a nice vertical entry. Eagle Creek

Below Punchbowl, there is one last 10 foot ledge where most people get out, then there is a quarter mile of flatwater before Metlako falls.

Metlako might or might not have been a world record waterfall, depending on how you define things. When Dave Grove first descended it back in 2004, only a couple really tall waterfalls had been run. There was Tao's 98 foot Upper Johnston falls, which had been the clear record for quite a while. But then there was Ed Lucero's descent of 108 foot Alexandria falls in the Northwest Territories, as well as Tim Gross' run on 101 foot Abiqua falls. However, along with the usual squabbles about the exact heights of these waterfalls, there was the important fact that Ed Lucero and Tim Gross were both ejected from their boats when they landed. Dave Grove stuck Metlako. This didn't settle the matter, though. Metlako slides down a nearly vertical slide for the first part of the drop. The overall height is in the neighborhood of 100 feet, but many people say that that's actually a 20 foot slide to 80 foot falls, putting Metlako way below the other potential record drops. This debate raged for a few years until Paul Gamache and Perdo Olivia both ran even taller drops, each within a day or two of each other. Those descents (especially Pedro's) seemed like a clear record, but then of course Tyler Bradt had to go run Palouse falls (187 feet) and stuck it, which pretty much obliterated any other contenders.

World record or not, Metlako is pretty tall. However, it's a very simple waterfall. The slide part of the drop helps you set the perfect angle for the landing, and there are nice pools above and below the waterfall. As Clay Wright put it, "Metlako is the new Celestial" (I'm not going to explain the history there, we need to get back to the action). Natalie, Dave and I were all feeling pretty fired up after putting on a show for the big crowd at punchbowl, so we decided to join Darwon and Jared of the Montana crew and fire up the big one. Elisabeth and Madison (the other two Montana paddlers) hiked around the falls to take photos.

It was pretty intimidating at the lip. I climbed out while everyone else held my boat in the eddy, and took a look at the tongue. It was every bit as simple as everyone says; just two boils and a solid flat slab of current rolling off a 5 foot wide lip. No weird waves or even any splashy edges, just a solid bluegreen tongue dropping out of sight. The landing was so far down that it was actually pretty quiet up there in the pool above.

I climbed back into my boat and we all started working through the inevitable politics involved in running a drop this size. Who would go first? For those of you that don't know, this is usually sort of a pissing contest. There's kind of a dubious honor to running it first. If you're first, that might mean that you're the least scared. Of course, once you're run a couple frightening drops, you start to realize that actually the scariest position is last, since you'll be all alone with the monster, but usually nobody debates who will go last. Everyone talks about who will be first. It's kind of rare to straight up say that you want to go first, or that you don't want to go first. Usually it's debated in terms of other, more important reasons, like safety and such, or even photos.

In our case, we started the debate by talking about paddles. See, some of us planned on tossing our paddles (myself included). This clearly meant that I couldn't go first, since I needed someone down there to chase down my paddle once I landed. It wasn't that I was scared, of course. Not me, no no. We had just started really warming up the debate when Natalie snapped in and called us names.

"You're all acting like a bunch of little boys! I'll just fucking go first." She broke in. "This whole thing with the paddles is just a bunch of posturing. Good god."

So she did.

Natalie "mans up" off Metlako. Photo by Roman Androsov. Eagle Creek

Sometime during the beginning of our aborted debate, Jared or maybe Darwon had climbed out onto the ledge to try to keep an eye on the landing. Natalie vanished off the lip very quietly, and a few seconds later our spotter reported that she had been ejected but looked ok. We had decided that we would follow the usual "lemmings" safety plan, so I followed Natalie off the lip with little delay. As I tossed the paddle and tucked up, I had plenty of time to think about that logical argument where someone at the bottom had to be there to catch my paddle... but Natalie was out of her boat... Well, whatever. I had an H2O paddle with bright green blades. It would be easy to find.

Hucking the paddle. Eagle Creek

The hit was not as bad as I thought it would be, but I could feel the power involved when I went deep. I resurfaced and handrolled on the boil, stoked on life. There was no sign of my paddle. After Natalie and I came Darwon and Jared. Darwon stuck it and chased off downstream after my paddle, but Jared went a little over the bars and got ejected. Then there was a long wait for Dave. He said later that he got a little nervous up there, all alone in that quiet little pool, about to fall 100 feet. He made a couple false passes before finally going for it. When he did go, he also went a little over the bars, and got ejected. His boat got launched almost 20 feet into the air when it rebounded from the landing. We were all a little curious as to exactly how that had worked.

After we got everyone back in their boats and collected what gear we could, we headed downstream and hit a couple bonus rapids on the way back to the car. Darwon was able to recover my paddle, but we ended up losing Jared's paddle, although we did recover his shoe, about half a mile downstream.

All in all, it was an awesome day. There may have only been a handful of actual drops, but it was well worth the hike and even worth the long drive. I can't wait to go back.

Thanks to all the other paddlers from that day. The Wheels and Water crew took some of the photos of Metlako, and it was good to have Darwon and Jared along for Metlako itself. Now go watch that slideshow for a bunch of extra photos.

Fremont Canyon

2011-04-04T22:55:00.002-06:00

First, here's a slideshow from the trip. For a more detailed report, some trash talking, and a selected handful of images, read on.

I'm still sorting through all the photos from spring break, and getting ready to make a post with a nice summary, but in the mean time, the Colorado season is really starting to pick up, by which I actually mean that the Wyoming and New Mexico season is picking up. New Mexico has no water this year, so it's not too hard to decide where to paddle on the weekends.

Two weeks ago, we headed up to the Casper whitewater park, where I had a chance to try out my new Fluid Element surfboat. I wrote up a review for the fluid blog. We had a blast.

This weekend, Nathan and I got word that Fremont canyon had some water in it, so we rallied up while Natalie played volleyball (ha ha). We were running on beta from local legend Caspermike of mountainbuzz. He knows all the secret goods in the Casper area, although ironically he now lives in Bozeman.

Nathan has a chuckle about Caspermike's literary skills. Freemont Canyon 2011

We found our way to the run, and spent an appropriate amount of time scouting out the two gorges that make up this short run. Interestingly, we ran into Caspermike's dad at putin. It's a small world.

Nathan gets a glimpse of the one rapid. Freemont Canyon 2011

At different levels, I'm sure things change, but at our flow of about 2000 cfs, here's how it goes. The whole run is pretty short (if you take the conventional bridge to bridge run), and most of the run is flatwater. There are a number of class III drops in the upper gorge, then two class IV drops guarding the entry to the main gorge, followed by about half a mile of pristine flatwater in a very narrow very deep very cool canyon. Then you arrive at the rapid.

Entering the main gorge. Freemont Canyon 2011

The rapid (Geronimo) could easily be unscoutable and unportageable at different water levels. With less water, apparently the whole river pours into a pile of rocks and the drop is totally unrunnable. At our flow, it was a straightforward entry leading into a 6 foot boof (with no hole in the landing). It was tricky to nail the boof, but missing it just meant a flip, not a trashing. When we scouted from the rim, the rapid looked trivial, but once we were at water level, it was clear that the end was a lot steeper than we had thought. Also, the entire right half of the river was a sketchy sieve.

Nathan enters the rapid. Freemont Canyon 2011

Nathan misses the boof and melts down. Freemont Canyon 2011

I nailed an awe-inspiring boof on my first lap, but of course there was no photo of it. We hiked out just upstream of the bridge and got a ride to putin for another couple laps.

This boof was ok, but not as good as the first one. Freemont Canyon 2011

I won the ice cream game with my clean first lap. Freemont Canyon 2011

Apparently there are also some rapids below the main gorge, but we haven't been able to get a good estimate of how difficult they are at 2000. We might return to do a little more exploration, since it was kind of a long drive for a single rapid, although the scenery was hard to beat. This would be a great run for someone just starting into creekboating, in order to get a taste of the commitment required on more serious runs, since although the rapid is straightforward, it does pack a bit of a punch, and once you're in the canyon, you are not going to be able to change your mind.

BRG10K!

2011-04-03T00:35:00.000-06:00

Burnt Ranch Gorge is the usual go-to run for local paddlers in Arcata CA. It's about a 5 mile run, with some beautiful walls and some fun little rapids. The difficulty is that perfect in-between level where a playboat is perfectly manageable, but a creekboat is not boring. In the summer, the flows don't drop much below 600 cfs due to dam releases, and BRG is usually the only thing going. In the winter, the flows can get up to 2 to 3 thousand, which is a fun big water level.

This spring break, Natalie, Dave and I were passing through Arcata during a big storm, and I took the opportunity to lead Dave down a quick high water lap at about 2500. The next day we surfed a tsumani, which was a unique experience. Then that night my friend Dan Menten called and said he was making a Burnt Ranch run the next morning. I was not that enthusiastic, since we had already run it once, and BRG was the daily run when I lived in Arcata. However, it's always fun to paddle with Dan, so the crew decided to give it a go.

Imagine our surprise when we checked the levels that morning and found that Burnt Ranch was at TEN THOUSAND. Apparently Dan had known this would probably happen, and he had assembled a rock solid crew: Dave Da German, Kyle Hull, and us, as well as a creature craft crewed by Wes Shrek and legendary mischiefmaker Paul Gamache to offset the "rock solid" part and add some excitement.

I haven't been too subtle with the foreshadowing about the high flows, but let me try to describe exactly how different the run is at TEN TIMES the normal high water flow.

Here is the first rapid, Pearly Gates, at "high" flow. Note the pointy rock to Natalie's right.

"High" flow - about 1300. From an old album

Now here's that same rapid, shot from a slightly different angle, at "are you kidding me" flow. Note the strange wave to Natalie's right. Yeah. Connect the dots.

"Are you kidding me" flow - about 10,000 BRG10K

If you want to get a more comprehensive comparison, we did a whole photo shoot that "high water" day. The photos are here. Keep an eye peeled for the shot of Natalie in the "showerhead" between two big rocks in #1, and try to compare that to the 10K shots of the end of #1.

I won't go through a blow-by-blow commentary. I'm too lazy. There is a great description of the day on Dan's Blog. Basically, many rapids disappeared, some new holes formed where before there had been just dry rocks, and the whole mixture was a blast. We made an extensive scout of the set of rapids that are creatively named #1, #2, and #3, since at this level they form one big long rapid. That was where we took most of the photos. Here are a couple of my favorites, but there are more in a slideshow at the end.

A batch of lemmings at the bottom of #1. Dave Da German, Kyle, and Natalie. BRG10K

Kyle runs right at #3, over the rooster. BRG10K

American Dave ends #1 backward. BRG10K

Natalie in the calm before storm #3. BRG10K

Dan looking shocked about the entry to #2. BRG10K

Creature Craft rocking #2. BRG10K

Creature Craft getting rocked and then rolled in #2. BRG10K

Eventually they stopped trying to roll, and accepted their fate. BRG10K

Long (oh, so long) story short, they made it. BRG10K

American Dave redeems himself with a smooth line on #3. BRG10K

As sometimes happens, the rapids where we stopped to scout and take photos went really smoothly. The exciting parts of the run were below #1,2,3, when we didn't scout, we just guessed what the line would be based on our knowledge of the run at low water. However, we made it just fine, apart from one really rowdy ride by Da German in the entry to Gray's Falls.

"See, we really should have tipped the boat up like this..." BRG10K

Then we all hung out in the bathroom at takeout to stay out of the rain. Good times were had by all.

Bathroom party! BRG10K

Here is a sick video that Dave Da German put together.

Here is another link to Dan's blog.

If Kyle Hull had a blog, I would link to it here.

Dave Schmitt is also cool but blogless.

Here is a slideshow of our photos:

Tsunami Surf!

2011-03-24T14:20:00.007-06:00

This is basically a repeat of a post I put up on the fluid site, but it's got a few more bonus photos.

On Monday, March 14th, just days after the 9.0 quake in Japan. Leif, our buddy Dave Schmitt, and I headed to Arcata to catch some big waves. Moonstone beach in Trinidad was definitely not behaving normally, with waves breaking much further out and the water sloshing in and out more dramatically than usual.

From Tsunami Surf

the 'tide' goes out and the 'tide' comes in. All in much less than a minute.

I felt like I already had a full day on Willow Creek so I didn't get in, but I watched the boys catch some great waves and conversed with a very classic Arcatan (someone who resides in Arcata- but may not have a house). The next day the waves were just as big and the surf was much more organized. I got in then and threw the four biggest pan-ams of my life (sorry no photos!).

From Tsunami Surf

Dave and Leif kickin it.

From Tsunami Surf

Me, earlier on the same day on Willow Creek. Because I couldn't write a post without at least one shot of myself.

Okay, here is what you've been waiting for........Leif gets tubed!

From Tsunami Surf

If you look closely you can just see the hull of his boat in the tube.

From Tsunami Surf

He's in there somewhere, and according to Leif, backwards and upright.

From Tsunami Surf

And he rides away clean!

All in all, we had a pretty great day, especially Dave- since it was his first time surfing the ocean.

From Tsunami Surf

HERE IS THE EXTENDED SLIDE SHOW:

All in all, it was a pretty darn good day!

Not much happening right now

2011-03-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

So, it's been so long since we posted anything that I figured even the relatively minor adventures of this last weekend were worth writing about. Nathan, Spencer (a.k.a. "buddy") and I took a weekend trip to the BV playpark. It was cold, the water was low, and we were out of shape. It was better than not kayaking, and we had a blast.

Here is a quick photo essay of the trip.

"Are you serious?" As we were packing to leave, Spencer realized that weekend trip meant an overnight stay. BV in March

"They've kidnapped me, sweetie! Send the money and maybe they'll release me sunday afternoon." BV in March

Spencer gets ready for the cold water. BV in March

Nathan gets in while we complain about the long lines. Dustin Urban was there ahead of us. BV in March

Spencer at the LoDo wave at 400. BV in March

Dustin seemed to be able to throw just about any trick at this spot, but this loop by Nathan was pretty much the only move any of us did all weekend. BV in March

Spencer's cold face. BV in March

Nathan and Tucker having some fun. BV in March

Me throwing a blunt. BV in March

Flushing out my brain with a chilly mcnasty. BV in March

Getting changed in the cold cold wind. This was the worst part of the day. While in the water, my gear kept me warm, but once I got naked afterwards... BV in March

We stayed at Nathan's parents' house, and woke up to some fresh snow up in the hills the next morning. Motivation levels were low, so we didn't take any photos once we got in the water.

There was less wind, but then again, all our gear was coated in ice from the day before. BV in March

It was cold enough that our "wet" gear was actually still dry, since it was frozen solid. This seems to be happening to me a lot this year. BV in March

Spencer gets ready for more fun. BV in March

Next week, Natalie and I have spring break, so we'll be writing from sunny California.

The Lower New

2011-01-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

As the end of last semester came to a close, Leif and I decided to leave behind to snow and ice laden streams of Colorado to seek warmer environs in the North Coast.

Colorado, Brrrr New River Gorge

California, ahhh that is better! New River Gorge

I have wanted to run the Lower New River ever since Leif and I left Arcata for graduate school in Colorado about three years ago. I was finally rewarded with a perfect sunny day spent in a spectacular gorge with a perfectly padded flow.

Scouting the Confluence of the New and Trinity. This was a perfect padded flow. New River Gorge

Voted "Best Photo of the Day" compliments to Natalie for a quick shutter finger and to Leif for knowing that
being slightly offline on the "portage" rapid would make a better photo. New River Gorge

We took my brother along just so that he could show us how the tall drops should be run, in reference to the day we taught him how to huck waterfalls on the Green Truss and he promptly showed us up. Lucky for our egos, there were no tall drops so instead I got to show up my big brother by pushing him along after getting stalled out in smaller sized holes.

Lending a helping hand - straight to Russell's back.

And just because I have to keep references to the double rainbow song alive:
Oh my GOD, it is a double BOOF! What does it mean!

Double boof... All the way across the River! New River Gorge
(I can't even capture it on my camera.)

Check out the slide show below for some other great photos from the day.

Check out Nuskool Dan's video of the lower new here

Mwave 2010

2010-12-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

The famous M wave, located near Montrose Colorado, is probably one of the best waves in the world. Perhaps not the absolute best, but definitely in the running for the top ten. Considering the fact that it's located in the middle of the desert and runs consistently well into october, it could be the worst wave in the world and it would probably still be one of my favorite spots. Montrose is only about 7 hours from Fort Collins, so I consider the Mwave sort of like my backyard spot. Natalie and I get out there as often as we can during the late season. The wave is shallow, scary-fast, and cold, but it can serve up some huge air. Here are our best photos from this season. Natalie especially had some big breakthroughs this year.

Last year, we would post every week or two, with whatever photos we had taken lately. Consequentially, some of our real great shots would get buried in a flood of "merely awesome" photos. This year, we decided to wait until the season had ended, and put together one post with just the best photos. However, as soon as I started selecting and editing photos, I realized how huge of a task this could become. Eventually, here in mid december, I have decided to just freaking post them. I could keep agonizing for another full year. I don't think that I'll ever really feel like the photos are truly perfect.

Here's one example of the tortuous editing process.

"Your head is a-squished" M Wave 2010

This is the final version that I posted, but let me step you through some of the thought that went into it. First, of course, I tuned the colors to carefully transform Chrispy's bright green boat to a mottled purple, because I thought that would look better. Then I used the clone tool to move him down a little closer to the water, so that it would look like I get more air than he does. Then the real questions started. First of all, title. Should it be "your head is squished," or "squish squish" or maybe no title at all? In the end, I went with "your head is a-squished" to try to capture the spirit of the squishing. I also considered adding a word bubble, but I just couldn't figure out which direction to have the little arrow point for the words. Then I noticed that some of the grass over on the far bank had gotten trampled, and considered going back to re-shoot the whole thing. You can imagine how long it took to go through the thousand or so original photos that we had.

Anyway, here are a couple other really notable photos. There is a slideshow at the bottom of the page, which has a handful of photos of Chrispy with no shirt on (for all the ladies out there). It's sort of like an internet dating thing, except Chrispy didn't sign up for it, he asked us not to post it (but make no mistake ladies, he is single... for now). I am really proud of the photos we selected for the slideshow.

Natalie working on her clean. M Wave 2010

Blunting is fun again. M Wave 2010

Natalie gets a nice launch. M Wave 2010

Natalie finishes the launch. M Wave 2010

Air screw number 113. This was my favorite move this season. M Wave 2010

Until next year...

Quick photo shoot

2010-11-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

Although some people might say it's getting close to the end of the season, there is still some paddling to be had in colorado. If I can just hold on for one more month, it won't be the end of this season, it will be the beginning of next season. With some huge releases on the Big T (about 450 cfs today - the highest I've ever run it, and about as high as I would want to see) and a broken dam promising solid flows through Barrel Springs for some time to come (I had nothing to do with that broken dam), this could shape up to be a strong finish to 2010.

However, it is November, and the two things I listed are just about the only two things running in the entire state of Colorado. A week or so ago, Natalie and I got desperate enough to drive up to Poudre Falls for a park n' huck photo session. It was a long drive for a pretty diminutive drop, and right when we arrived and stepped out of the car to scout, a light snowstorm started. We were both pretty grumpy. Natalie took a look at the level and a look at the sky and decided to just shoot photos. I cinched up my new lifejacket and decided that I just couldn't go home without splashing around at least a little. I took a quick couple laps, got back into my dry clothes, and headed home to run some errands.

Although there's no action here, I really like this shot.Poudre Falls

When we finally got around to looking at the photos, much later, I was blown away. They are beautiful. It was pretty low light, which makes for very difficult shooting, since you either have to bump up the camera sensitivity and get noise, or keep the sensitivity low, but shoot at the widest aperture possible, which makes it very hard to focus. Natalie managed to get some surprisingly crisp shots, and I managed not to screw up my lines too badly. Well, my lines weren't perfect, but I left our a bunch of photos. I couldn't resist posting my favorite shots.

Second lap off the first falls. Poudre Falls

Here is a slideshow of the top 10:

All photos by Natalie Kramer.

Next week, I will finish combing through this season's mwave photos.

Low water continues remorselessly

2010-11-06T18:19:00.000-06:00

Well, I suppose that despite the unseasonably warm weather, the paddling season might be starting to get close to finishing, although that's totally a matter of opinion. However, my favorite part of the end of the season here in colorado (which is a lot like saying "my favorite part of being eaten by a giant octopus...") is the Big Thompson. Near the end of the season, there are usually a couple good releases through the Big T, and it makes for some awesome paddling. It's a pretty good run even when other stuff is running, so in the late season when Gore is down to 1,000 and Barrel Springs is at its winter level, the Big T suddenly seems like the best run ever paddled by humankind.

Over the past couple weeks, these last few releases have made my life an emotional rollercoaster ride. One minute it's perfect at 200 cfs, and I'm dancing around my office, the next, down to just 70, and I ride home to lie in bed and cry myself to sleep. At one point, I got desperate enough to run it at 80 cfs, which was admittedly on the bony side, but surprisingly fun. I have my own names for pretty much every move in the 1/2 mile long run, but at 80 cfs, I got to experiment with some totally new lines. I also finally got a look at a couple of the rocks that I always seem to piton at normal flows. This will help me plan better lines once there's water again. I also had a handful of laps at medium flows, which were even better than the low flow laps.

I've picked out my favorite photos from the various trips we did, and put them in the order in which they are run. Have fun guessing which photos were at 80 and which were at 200. Here's the slideshow.

Here are some of my favorite favorites showcased.

The note I left on my office door. "Attention [Physics] 141 students: I had to go kayaking unexpectedly. Very sorry. I plan to be back at about 5:00." Full Album

Garbage Disposal, with some thick frost coating the rocks in the foreground. No snow or ice allowed until the offseason. Full Album

The one mini-rapid that I don't have a name for. It's between V Slide and Awesome Boof. Full Album

I even managed to convince Natalie to join me. Here she is entering the last rapid: Canon Shot Full Album

Here's an angle on Canon Shot that's hard to get. Natalie Kramer Photo. Full Album

Finally won the Glenwood Ender

2010-09-21T18:16:00.000-06:00

First off, I should mention that I don't think Natalie has ever NOT won at this event. This is the third annual Glenwood Ender, and Natalie has won the women's class 3 times. It's been a small field for the women's class but this is still pretty impressive. Before I started bragging about how well I did, I just figured I should give some credit where credit was due.

Well, now that that's out of the way: I totally won! Hell yeah! Every year, I've moved up a little bit in the rankings. Mostly that's because at the inaugural event Jonny Meyers, Jed Selby, and Conor Flynn were all there to beat me. At the second event, Conor was in Japan, and Jed Selby was too scared to show his face, so only Jonny beat me. This year, Jonny broke his back, but Conor came back from Japan, so it was down to me vs. Conor. I was further aided by the fact that the publicity for the Glenwood Ender didn't really take off this year, so there was a pretty small crowd of competitors. If anything, that just made the event more fun.

Before I start in with the detailed account of the mighty battle that took place, here is a slideshow of some of my favorite photos from the event.

Conor Flynn eyes the competition. Gwood Ender 2010

Considering the fact that this is the last event of the season (hence the name; it's a season ender) the flows were much higher than I expected. However, this made the hole pretty tough. Previous years, the levels have been lower, which made the hole flushier. At these levels, the hole was quite sticky, almost too sticky. It was hard to climb up the pile away from the green water to set up moves. However, in the immortal words of the event organizer, Ty Newton: "Sticky is good, right? Helps you stick your moves." (Those words were uttered just moments before swimming out of a particularly sticky playspot.)

Ty "Shingles" Newton. Gwood Ender 2010

The high water levels must have been quite intimidating for the huge ton of little kids that showed up. The pro class might have been a little thin, but this was more than balanced by the junior and cadet classes. The Kellogg family circus showed up. They're a family with 10 kids, and as far as I could tell, they all paddle. I was amazed. This single family probably made up about half of the whole competition. Furthermore, I was keeping track of the scores, and I think that every one of those Kellogg kids managed to beat their dad. In a few years, these kids will be crushing the whole Colorado scene.

The dad, Conor and I watch the gaggle of young paddlers. Gwood Ender 2010

Speaking of crushing, here's how the competition went down. In prelims, I had a couple relatively solid rides. I started with the fonix monkey each time, since that was a more technical move and a little harder to set up for. Once that was stuck, it was a hard battle to get far enough up the pile for another move, so I mostly finished off the rides with minor moves. I managed to place first in prelims, with Conor right behind me. His fonix monkey was not as strong as mine.

The junior and cadet classes were right after the pro prelims, so a couple of us stayed in the water for safety, although it was completely unneeded. In the junior class, Max Karlsson of the Swedish Junior Freestyle team took first, and in the cadet class, the Kelloggs completely took over.

Conor, Ty and I killing time between rounds.
Photo by Nico Rienaecker. Gwood Ender 2010

After the kiddie classes came the ladies. The women's class was very small this year. There were only three women. There were almost four. We convinced Shaina to come down from CSU to the Ender, but once she got there, she refused to enter. The nerve! Anyway, of these three, Natalie was the only pro, so it was no real surprise that she won, but she still put together a great show for the crowd, including her first ever competition mcnasty.

Natalie loops to victory. Again. Photo by Nico Rienaecker. Gwood Ender 2010

Finally, after sitting in the eddy getting psyched up through the other classes, it was time for finals. There were 4 paddlers in finals: me, Conor, Ty, and the hometown hero Phil Nylund. I was super pumped up for that first ride, and put together a pretty good routine. I managed a fonix monkey, a mcnasty, and I think an orbit also. I might have done both mcnasties, but I can't quite remember. Conor knew the heat was on, and threw some nice air under his loops, but wasn't able to keep his fonix monkey straight enough to impress the judges. Then, out of nowhere, Ty managed to bust out the loop to orbit combo. It was completely unintentional, but it was textbook precise. He was super lucky.

Conor cartwheels in finals. Gwood Ender 2010

Ty throws a loop. Notice that Natalie's loop was larger. Gwood Ender 2010

This put Ty ahead of Conor (and me ahead of both of them), and Conor started freaking out. He was sprinting around the eddy, grinding his teeth, and swearing a blue streak. He grabbed this big stick and broke it right in half. A raft full of fishermen came past in the boat chute, and Conor paddled up to them, pulled out his river knife, and sank 'em! Man, he was pissed. Alright, I may have exaggerated some of that, but the point is, Conor was so surprised by Ty's move that his whole game was out of whack. He wasn't able to regain his focus enough to get that fonix monkey straightened out enough to score. The final order was me in first, Ty in second, and Conor in third.

Leif wins! Gwood Ender 2010

All the podium finishers from the various classes, at the afterparty at Moe's.
Photo by Nico Rienaecker. Gwood Ender 2010

Now, to continue the glorious tradition of the original event, here are a couple pictures of people looking awkward.

Phil does some freestyle dance in finals. 10 for artistic impression! Gwood Ender 2010

My former instructor Peter Benedict shows that he took more time organizing the event than he did training. Gwood Ender 2010

Ty with one of his less successful lunar orbit attempts. Gwood Ender 2010

There is a video of the competition at the Kellogg Show which has footage of all the competitors. Natalie's mcnasty is at about 5:25.

Big thanks to Ty Newton for being the main organizer of the event, and of course all the sponsors, like Harley Davidson, Alpine Bank, and CRMS. We'll see you next year. I'll try to hold on to first again, and now Natalie officially has a streak to defend. Hopefully I didn't just jinx her.

Low Water strikes again!

2010-09-20T14:42:00.003-06:00

I've written a detailed blow by blow account of this trip, but there's also a slideshow, with a few extra photos.

Seems like just a few months ago that we were lamenting the low low water across the state of Colorado. Well, time flows in circles I guess, because here we are again in the shoulder season, back in school, with nothing to run. A series of long weekends caught up with Natalie and I, and we found ourselves stuck near home for a weekend, with only one day free to paddle.

"Nothing to run" - ha! I laugh in the face of low water. A few years back, Natalie and I drove up from Glenwood Springs to Fort Collins to run the Big South, and during the drive the discharge from the reservoir was turned down to just 20 cfs. We still had a great time, although it was a very long day. Checking the gauges this particular weekend, I noticed that they were letting loose about 50 cfs from the reservoir! Hot dog! We secured a shuttle driver (Natalie Beckman - sorry for any confusion) and got a nice early 10:00 start.

On the way up, we stopped off at Ted's Place for gas and met up with a pair of kayakers. There's been a bit of controversy surrounding this low water run on mountainbuzz.com, so I've decided to give pseudonyms to the two other paddlers. (I think that one poster said that taking a first timer down the Big South was like "taking the lord's name in vein" - worse than religion AND drugs, in other words.) I shall call our companions Duder and Buddy, as in "Duder was right behind me a second ago," and "Woah Buddy! Don't flip over there!"

Buddy and Duder, anonymity protected. Full Album

While inspecting their unconventional boat transportation system, we found that Duder and Buddy were planning a low water run down the Narrows. I managed to recruit them with my glowing descriptions of the Big South. "Imagine the Narrows with rapids," I told them. "And longer!" Plus we had Natalie B. as a shuttle driver.

Those poor fools. It was so low that it wasn't even manky. It was on the low side of "dew on the rocks," and any dew there might have been had dried up with the morning sun. Our paddles were mostly used to lever our boats up and over rocks. There wasn't enough water to plant an entire stroke in. Ironically, Buddy flipped over in one spot because it was too rocky to brace.

Duder does a little hand paddling near the bottom of Primetime Gorge. Full Album

They might have advertised 50 cfs, but it definitely felt like less. I had hoped on more water coming in from side streams, but the ground is mighty dry this time of year, and the naturally flowing tributaries are almost nonexistent. We were glad with our decision to put in at Peterson Lake and skip the extra couple miles of flatrocks (like flatwater, but without all the water).

Natalie boofs. Full Album

Even with super low water, better to be in your boat than at your desk, so we still had a blast. Fortunately for us, there are still a couple rapids to be had, even at low water. The waterfalls are all still there, and most of them get taller at low water, since there is less water in the landing pool. When we got to Double Trouble, the signature Big South drop, we were so psyched up that Natalie and I both had to run it twice. Double double laps on Double trouble! It was starting to look like a triple waterfall, if you know what I mean.

Natalie's first Double Trouble lap. Full Album

Leif on Double Trouble. Photo by Duder. Full Album

Duder runs the first drop, which was hard to boof. This angle was pretty sketchy. I almost fell in the river. Full Album

Natalie on the second drop, which is pretty much an autoboofer at this level. Full Album

Double Trouble was definitely the main event, but there was still some action to be had. Most of that action was down at Slideways, but we were a little amused by how different Pincushion was at superlow water. Normally the move is a sliding boof to the left side. At our flows, the whole rapid was reduced to a six inch wide slide down a rocky chute with a big boulder backing up the landing pool. Natalie had an okay line but pitoned into the boulder in the landing. When I ran it, it went so bad that Duder and Buddy decided to portage. I won't go into the details. In hindsight, we might have been able to run an alternate channel over on the left.

Natalie dropping into Pincushion. Full Album

Slideways was the next steep drop that we shot. I picked out a line over in the river left channel, but it turned out to be a little sketchy, with a narrow pinch that sort of grabbed my boat a little too much. The normal line was so low that it was pretty much a seal launch. For those of you that don't know the Big South, here is the normal line at normal flows.

Natalie seal launches. Full Album

Duder and Buddy took a different line. Full Album

After the scenic entry to Slideways, the rapid normally zigzags a bit and drops into a moderate hole against the left wall. At low flows, this hole becomes a surprisingly tall pourover.

Natalie boofs the pourover. Full Album

The entry to this pourover is pretty tricky, with several rocks that want to bounce you the wrong way. Duder was next up, and had a little bobble at the top, but pulled it together for the boof.

Duder. Full Album

Before Buddy went, I gave him all kinds of complicated beta, about aiming left and hitting one rock in order to bounce into another rock correctly. It totally backfired. He bounced off a rock over on the right side and got thrown into the rockpile on the left. He pinned there long enough for me to take a photo or two and give some encouragement ("You got it, Buddy!") Before he flushed backwards through the rockpile.

Woah Buddy! Full Album

You might be imagining yourself pinned in that rockpile, and if you're like most people, you are probably imagining yourself in a somewhat nervous state. Perhaps you might even have felt the cold drip of fear beginning to trickle down your neck. I zoomed in on my photo of Buddy pinned, and found that Buddy is not like most people. If his expression had been a little less angry and a little more confused, I might have even quipped that he didn't know the meaning of the word "fear".

Fear? I think not. Full Album

Flush Full Album

Past Slideways, we started to take fewer photos, since the temperature was starting to drop. There were a couple more fun little drops before reaching the normal takeout. Natalie and Buddy decided to take the trail, while Duder and I pushed on all the way through the final Curtain Call gorge. The exit to Curtain Call was as fun as ever, but we didn't take any photos. I couldn't resist snapping a quick shot of the Curtain Call entrance, though, since I think few paddlers have actually laid eyes on the drop. Thinking back to several years ago, I'm pretty sure that the upper part of the rapid has changed, for the better. Some of the sieves have collapsed and filled in a little, making the rapid much less frightening to behold. However, "better" is a long way from "good to go," and we portaged with no hesitation.

Yes, definitely better than it was. Full Album

When we climbed out at the Big South trailhead, we found that our shuttle driver Natalie B. had arrived in the 5 minutes or so that Natalie K. and Buddy had been waiting for us. All in all, the trip went off without a hitch, and I can't wait to do it again.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

2010-09-11T23:44:00.000-06:00

As has become usual for our blog, I will include a slideshow first, so that those with short attention spans will be captivated by the pretty pictures. The captions tell most of the story below.

Natalie, Conor and I first ran the Black Canyon back in 2007 or 2008. We showed up, found out that our shuttle/guide had backed out, but decided to run it anyway. With the shuttle complications, we didn't get to putin until about 1:00, and although we had a great day on the water, the portage wrecked us. We had no idea where the trail was, and it took forever. We finally limped into camp about an hour after dark, only to find that cave camp was already occupied by some other paddlers. Basically, it was epic, and we all told ourselves the many things we would do differently if we ever came back. Of course, none of us would be coming back until the memory of that heinous portage faded away.

Flash forward several years (I can't say exactly how many, because my memory has faded a bit). Nothing is running but Gore, the Mwave and the Black Canyon, and Natalie and I have a 3 (or maybe 4) day weekend. After some long debates, we decided to return to that cursed crack in the earth and carry heavy boats for a mile through poison ivy. This time, I started training early. Every evening, I would wait until after dark, then put a couple rocks in my creekboat and practice climbing up and over the roof of our house with the loaded boat on my shoulder while Natalie whipped me (to simulate the poison ivy). I was ready for the portage.

If by "training" you meant "fall asleep trying to do homework"... Black Canyon 2010

Okay, I may have exaggerated the amount of training I did, but the main point here is that we did the Black Canyon. Unfortunately, Conor had to work, so we brought Nathan Werner instead, and called him Conor Jr throughout the trip. We spent the first day of our trip ripping up the Mwave as a warmup. (We'll have a post with our best Mwave photos at the end of the Mwave season.) Then early saturday morning (early - That was lesson #1) we payed our entrance fee and drove down to putin.

Nathan trying to find room for a camp chair in his boat. Black Canyon 2010

We made good time through the rapids, despite the somewhat low levels (it was running about 600 cfs). Soon we were deep between the canyon walls, glad with our decision to return.

Just a few rapids left before the portage. Black Canyon 2010

Natalie Kramer, Ballcrusher. Black Canyon 2010

The last rapid before the infamous portage is "The Falls"; an 18 foot curtain waterfall with a rock on one side of the landing. With the low levels, Natalie and Nathan were a little dubious about the high consequence boof, but I was fired up after watching Natalie nail Ballcrusher just upstream. I shimmied out to the lip of the falls and decided that I wanted to give it a shot. It went great. The water was just deep enough that the rock couldn't grab me, and I launched a pretty good boof. I was especially impressed when I was scouting to notice that the thin ribbon of water going off the falls had been flowing there for so many eons that it had eroded a trough about 3 inches deep in the rock of the lip.

Monkey arm off "The Falls" Black Canyon 2010

After that little burst of excitement, we started the dreaded portage. We had planned ahead this time. Last time, we brought tyvek suits to ward off the poison ivy, but long story short, they didn't work at all. It's hard to find a disposable suit that covers your ankles when you're 6'7". This time, we lathered up with biodegradable dish soap before starting, to help deter the poison ivy oils. Also, we had gotten a lot better beta about the route through the portage. Stick near the wall, right from the start. It may sometimes look worse, but having tried both routes, I can assure you that the wall is the way to go. Even with this superior route, it was a pretty long portage, but we just kept truckin' until we reached cave camp - before dark this time.

Before starting the portage. Black Canyon 2010

3/4 of the way through the portage. Black Canyon 2010

Once we arrived, we washed off the sweat and soap and enjoyed a delicious dinner of mashed potatoes and dehydrated chicken teriyaki before collapsing into bed. Except me. I had brought my quantum field theory textbook with me in hopes of getting some reading done, so I stayed up a little later.

Reading one last chapter from the QFT book before breakfast. Black Canyon 2010

Nathan lost in the day 2 portage. Black Canyon 2010

In the morning, we got up and portaged some more. That's what I love about this Black Canyon portage. It's a two day portage. The cool new thing to do is to run the last waterfall of the portage, but when we looked at it, Natalie said that I couldn't do it. I figure it was probably because I had accidentally brought my zero degree offset paddle, which is just not quite right for boofing into narrow slots. I grumbled a little, but a couple miles downstream, when we got to Great Falls, (the other "new waterfall") we all agreed that somehow it looked a lot more possible, so I fired it up.

Firing up great falls. Black Canyon 2010

After Great Falls, shuttle began to worry us. We had gone with a sort of free-form shuttle option. In fact, we hadn't even decided where we were going to take out. There's the 600 foot climb out at Chukar trail, or there's the long flatwater paddle through the Gunny Gorge to Pleasure Park. We stopped for lunch at the Chukar trail takeout, and decided that the creepy name of the Pleasure Park was just a little too weird, so we would go for the hike out.

Not much traffic for that hitchhiking plan... Black Canyon 2010

If stark desert beauty could have filled our stomachs, maybe we would have been a lot less cranky during that long afternoon. Chukar trail was dead. There were a bunch of cars, but we could tell from their parking permits that none of them would be leaving that day. We settled in for a long wait.

...yeah, not much traffic at all... Black Canyon 2010

The wait got longer, and we busted out the cellphone we had packed, to beg for shuttle from every montrose paddler we knew - Alex and Milo. We quickly realized that we had brought the wrong phone, because we didn't have either one's phone number. After a little thought and some calls home, we were able to get Milo's number, but he didn't answer. We made dinner and settled in for the night.

After the quiet evening and night, we were shocked when a huge convoy of vans and cars pulled in right next to our impromptu camp and disgorged a load of neatly dressed commercial fishing clients. They eyed our disorganized camp with some trepidation and seemed reluctant to engage in conversation, at least until we all got dressed and got out of our sleeping bags. After some negotiation (somebody wanted $100 to give us a ride to Montrose!) we were able to find someone with a truck that was heading to Montrose and willing to give us a ride to town for free, and down into the canyon to putin for an additional $20. We jumped at the offer, and started the long trip home.

14 hours later, pow! Tons of cars! Black Canyon 2010

All in all, this trip came off with far fewer hitches than our first attempt back in 2007. I would say that the memory of the portage will only take about 14 months to wear off. At this rate, I might even make two Black Canyon runs in a single season, after a few years of training. I just can't wait to get back in there.

Overdue Slave post: Outrageous!

2010-08-19T10:54:00.000-06:00

That's right, it is an outrage. How long overdue is this post? A month? Two months? Outrageous, I say, outrageous!

Natalie, Dave Schmitt, Will Parham, and I just returned (a month ago) from the Slave river in the Northwest Territories. (Will left early due to labral stresses, but that's another story.) This trip was the lowest water that I have ever seen there, and is probably about the lowest that river has been paddled by playboaters. The flow was 92,000 cfs, give or take a little day to day variation. We kept hoping that rains down south would bring up the flows so that the ultra low water feature called Rockem Sockem would come in, but it was too low. We needed about 110,000 cfs for that. No love.

Despite the unbelievably low flows, we were able to find a handful of waves. My favorite was Monster Schiesser, on Rapids of the Drowned, but that wave happens to be out in the center of the river (i.e. about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the nearest island) and favors moves facing away from the camera, so we didn't get many good photos from that spot. However, up in the Cassette rapids, the old school wave called Outrageous was a little less flat and flushy than usual, and has a great island to take photos from, so we got a ton of shots there.

Here's a slideshow of the absolute best 105 photos. It took a lot of work to trim it down from thousands, to 746, then to 105. Enjoy.

But if you don't have time for the full slideshow, here are a couple of my absolute favorites.

Party surf on Outrageous. We can fit like five people on here! Outrageous! Outrageous 2010

Natalie blunt. Outrageous 2010

Leif airscrew. Outrageous 2010

Will, before his labral issues. Outrageous 2010

Dave: Sun's out, guns out. Outrageous 2010

John nasty Mcnasty Outrageous 2010

Thanks to everyone that took photos. Sorry that I have not had the time to go through and credit all the photos. More posts on the way soon.

Colorado Competition Wrapup

2010-07-17T23:22:00.001-06:00

Natalie's final lap in the Homestake race. Full album

Well, it's that time again, where the competitions have more or less finished up for the season, and we have to brag about how well we did. This was a productive year for team Leif and Natalie. We attended the inaugural Auburn rodeo, the Teva Mountain Games, the Lyons rodeo, FIBArk, the Gunnison festival, and US freestyle Team Trials. In all but three of those events, at least one of us advanced to at least the first round of finals. Natalie had a top 5 finish at the Homestake creek race, and I podiumed at Gunnison. In fact, I actually took all three top three spots at Gunnison: First in the boatercross, second in the big trick contest, and third in the main rodeo. Also, it's hard to quantify, but I pretty much dominated the video of the Pine Creek race. My trashtalking was at a whole different level for that event.

Leif looping at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail. Photo by David Schmitt. Full album

However, if you've seen one rodeo, you've pretty much seen 'em all. At the beginning of the season, we were very motivated and took lots of photos, but after a couple weeks we began to lose energy, and focused more exclusively on paddling. Unfortunately, most of the photos from Auburn got corrupted, so we seem to mostly have photos of the Vail games. I was very pleased this year because Natalie and I were not the only paddlers in Fluid kayaks. True, those damn smiley faces still dominated the field, but there were a fair number of Solos and Nemesises putting on a good show out there.

Here's David Schmitt making a nasty face as he throws a mcnasty. Full album

Here is a slideshow of our competition photos from this season. Enjoy.

Shameless photo dump: Cali Surfing

2010-07-17T23:05:00.000-06:00

Beautiful weather, beautiful wave, poison oak everywhere. Full album

While we were in California this spring, we had a chance to spend a couple days at a really good wave (whose name I will not explicitly mention - this is still a very secretive spot). We tried to work these photos into other posts, but we couldn't really do them justice without their own full article.

Looking for some inverts. Full album

However, once I went through and picked out my favorites for a nice photo-heavy post, I realized that there wasn't much of a story. We came, we surfed, we blunted. The end. In fact, there weren't really all that many photos, since we spent most of our time surfing, and didn't want to get out of the water to shoot. Especially me. I barely got any photos of Natalie. So the post seems to be short of story, and short on photos. Well, tough luck. You just got tricked into reading it anyway.

Man, I look pretty good. Full album

Now a quick slideshow.

Bringin it Home

2010-07-13T15:05:00.000-06:00

photo by John Blyth

There was one phrase which always came to my mind over the course of about a week while Leif and I were in California: "We're Bringing it Home... This is what paddling is all about!" We had a series of paddling days in which each seemed to be better than the last...a great hometown rodeo in Auburn followed by a classic run down 49 to Bridgeport followed by a sweet class IV over-nighter on Deer Creek with our good buddies Alex and Alex followed by a day of adventure with just the two of us on not often run Brandy Creek followed by three days surfing an awesome wave on the Klamath while scouting wedding locations. The sequence of days couldn't of been better. I really felt like we were getting back to the basics, being on the water and enjoying it with some of our best friends. Not to mention that it felt great to go to my old stomping grounds in Calaveras to celebrate and cook my Mom a fabulous B-day dinner.

Below is a slide show from these few days. Unfortunately some of our pictures from 49 to Bridgeport and from Deer Creek got corrupted.

There will be more photos of Brandy Creek up on the Fluid Team blog and Leif wrote up a good description of the run on Eddy Flower.

John Blyth visits America

2010-07-08T22:09:00.000-06:00

John, amazed by our crazy American beers; Pabst. Full Album

Our friend John Blyth lives in Fort Smith, Canada, on the banks of the Slave river. (The average low flow for the Slave is about 100,000 cfs.) One of his nicknames is Johnny One-river since he only paddles on the Slave, but he always strenuously asserts that he has paddled more than one river - at least 4 or 5. Like the Ottowa, for example. Anyway, after several trips up to the Slave where we stayed at John's house for like a month at a time, we kept saying that we were happy to return the favor if John was ever passing through Colorado. This year he finally took us up on it. He had bought a new safari truck in Ontario, which he picked up in Calgary (who knows how that worked) so on the way back to Fort Smith, he stopped by Fort Collins... and California.

John on the Mwave. Does this mean that we leaked classified material to a foreign agent? Full Album

We had a couple weeks of shennanigans, justifying anything strange with "John, this is 'merica!" We ran the Fort Collins local run at something like 40cfs (mindblowing if you're used to 100,000cfs), then headed to Mwave and Escalante, and off to California for a couple of the pseudo-classics. Basically, John came to America and watched Leif and Natalie paddle. Obviously he had a great time. Enjoy the slideshow.

New post on the way

2010-06-16T09:40:00.000-06:00

Yes, globetrotting professional kayakers such as ourselves lead busy lives. This summer has been quite busy. We left for California straight after classes ended, planned out our wedding location, then came back to Colorado just barely in time to start the competitions. In the time between competitions, we've been paddling as much as we can for the Eddyflower Vertical Challenge, and it looks like team Leif and Natalie (which actually has 4 people on it) might be holding on to third place across the finish line. Of course your still welcome to donate to the cause, just make sure that you sponsor Natalie, not Leif- since Natalie inserted this sentence. Not much time in that complicated schedule to keep in touch with our adoring fans. I did have time before we left to dump a bunch of photos to the Fluid Blog, but they're out of date now.

Since it's been so long since we made any sort of post, I thought I would put up this one photo, as an appetizer.

Natalie on Brandy Creek, CA.

We'll make a real post soon, honest.

Leif did previously post an update of his (and my, but mostly his) Spring time paddling exploits in Colorado on the Fluid blog. I happen to really like this blogpost which didn't make it to our own site. Check it out for some of the paddling photos before we left for California.

Low water? I'll show YOU low water!

2010-04-11T21:21:00.000-06:00

Too low? I'll show you low water!

Low water looks like this:

As usual, I seem to have written a pretty long and frankly sort of boring article, yet again. Here's a slideshow which contains most of the one-liners but none of the whining.

Now, where was I?

After hearing the crushing news that the mwave was not quite in (too low), Natalie and I started investigating other paddling options. We were pretty stoked to paddle, since we were going to be joined by Conor Flynn, who we hadn't seen in about two years. He just got back last week from Japan, with his wife and son. I was really excited because last time I paddled with Conor, I think he might have beat me at the ice cream game. It was rematch time. Anyway, we looked into some options, and Escalante seemed like the best choice. True, it was a little on the low side, but to phrase it in a more positive way, the barometer creek was only about 50 cfs below "low". What we ignored was that this meant that the barometer was only running at about 66% the flow that it would need to be considered possible. But hey, a waterfall is still a waterfall, regardless of the flow, right?

So we loaded up, and drove to Escalante, meeting Conor along the way. On the drive in, we began to understand the meaning of "too low," (see photo above) but at this point, what else was there to do?

When we got to the gorge, it was so low that the normal line off the falls was pretty much dry. I can't say totally dry, because there was a hilarious little 2 inch wide ribbon of water flowing off right where you would want to go, but the normal line was a no-go. I decided that the full suit of armor would be appropriate.

The first few drops of the gorge were... technical. Yes, there wasn't much room for error as we worked our way deeper into the canyon. There wasn't much room for anything, really.

Yeah, that's it: "technical". Not low. Full Album

We eventually reached '57 Chevy. We weren't quite sure which flow category we were in. Here's the eddyflower table, and a photo of the fin.

Robideau Level (cfs) = Estimated Escalante Level (57' Chevy Fin)
0 - 149 = TOO LOW (fin very exposed)
150 - 249 = LOW (fin exposed)
250 - 349 = MEDIUM (fin barely covered)
350 - 599 = HIGH (fin completely covered)
600+ = CRANKIN

Here's Conor smacking his elbow on the infamous fin. Full Album

And just below that drop, I had to include this photo of Natalie making the "Awesome" face.

It's like she's facing into a strong wind, or afraid of something. Blue steel! Full Album

Well, despite our shenanigans, we finally reached the falls. As we'd seen from the rim, the normal line was out, but the water was mostly pouring into the normally deadly pothole on river right. We scoped it out for a while, and I decided to give it a go.

Having a conversation with Conor across the river.
The wet streak of rock on the far far far right of the photo is the normal line. Full Album

Check out this old photo of me firing off the normal line at normal flows for comparison.

The entry was a pretty narrow slot, pushing onto the left wall, which somehow made it pretty difficult to get a boof. I ended up doing a total meltdown, and coming up in a bow ender, but clawing my way out of the pothole. After the run, I immediately climbed out and walked back up through the river left cascade to try again, I was so ashamed. One my second run, I got a bit of a boof, but flipped in the pothole. Fortunately, I grabbed some current underwater while upsidedown, and was already out of the hole (literal hole, not like recirculating water) when I rolled up.

Attempt #2 made an ok photo. Full Album

Seeing my lines, Natalie figured that it would be hard to mess it up worse than that, so she geared up. She had all kinds of complicated plans, with speeds and angles and strokes, but her line went about like my first run. This was apparently a no-boof zone.

Natalie, dropping into the cauldron of doom. Full Album

Encouraged by seeing two other people do nothing impressive, Conor decided to give 'er a go. His line was indeed impressive.

Conor later admitted that the plan was to put a stroke on the other side. Full Album

We had set safety at the cauldron, in case someone couldn't make it out, and we had all independently decided that if worse came to worst, it would probably be possible to make a couple small laps in the cauldron and attempt to paddle out (there was quite a bit of space behind the falls). Conor tested this hypothesis with the scientific method. It worked exactly as we had thought.

Time for plan B. Full Album

We also had some opportunities for creative photography. Here's Natalie on Magnetic Wall:

Woah! Splashing water! Boofs everywhere! Oh my god! Full Album

Looks pretty good, right? Like, it's low, but there's some gradient, there's some dramatic lighting, you know... It looks good. Looks fun. Here's another:

How tall is that slide? Man, I want to go run that! Full Album

Pretty much epic. Well, here's a shot of me walking back to my boat after taking those photos.

Is he... stepping over the river? Full Album

Not so epic all of a sudden. Especially not so epic when compared to the run that Natalie and I made a few years back. There was enough water to flip over that year. Here's the article: Escalante 2008

Needing just a little more of a mank fix, we hiked up for a second lap, without the camera. Of course, on that lap, we all totally styled the falls (especially me. I finally got a boof. It was beautiful.) but there are no photos. We drove back and met Conor's family over a delicious pan of enchiladas. Also, Ty was there. I gave him that autographed photo that he'd asked for.

Sunday, after much deliberation, Natalie and I decided to give Barrel springs a shot. We got confused and thought the Hanging Lake exit was closed, so we took an extra scenic flatwater paddle. It was artistic and cuddly.

Little kids, puppies, scenery. No room for any of those things here. This is a hardcore whitewater blog. Full Album

Of course, the Shoshone dam above Barrel Springs, cut the flow to less than 1/4 what we'd had on the flatwater, but compared to Escalante, this was like floodstage.

My boat is barely even touching the bottom of the river! What do I do? Full Album

Natalie's Upper Death line. Full Album

I'm actually about 3 feet offline, but I love this photo. I guess that a good photo is worth a bad line. Full Album

Natalie in the crux of Barrel Springs rapid. Full Album

Now, I have to get back to grading, research, and homework. Until next time!

Spring Break 2010: Droppin' Science

2010-03-26T21:56:00.000-06:00

As usual, I'll just start this one off with a slideshow so that you don't have to scroll past all the text to get to the photos, you can see them all right away.

Now, here's the deal. Last week was spring break, and in a surprising move, Natalie, who has a break, decided not to go, while Nathan Werner, who has a job, asked if he could tag along. After much deliberation, I gave the reluctant thumbs up. We packed up the car and rocked through the night to Arcata CA. While Nathan was "pushing the whip," (which means driving. I'm so hip.) I put in Fish outta Water By Chali 2na, and we discovered the catch line of the trip:

"I be droppin' science like girls be droppin' babies."

I couldn't really express why this line really resonated with the expedition, but it did. I mean, what does that really mean, anyway? I walk around funny for about 9 months, gain lots of weight, have mood swings, then have an incredibly painful process of... kayaking? Actually that sounds about right. Did I mention that I sometimes crave pickles and ice cream during the school year? But I digress.

We decided to split the trip about half and half between creeking and playing. We started off with some 18 foot surf in Arcata. Nathan was a little worried, and kept reminding me that his only surfing experience had been when he waded out into the ocean once as a kid. I pretended not to hear him. For hours at a time. Sure enough, the surf was awesome. Over the course of our three or four surf days, Nathan's attitude changed from: "Leif, what about all those rocks" to: "Leif, this totally rocks".

Unfortunately, the only photos that we got were a couple scenic shots of Nathan and I walking to the beach, and one picture that Nathan got of me doing a clean. And we don't have copies of the photos of us getting into the water. They were shot by Paul Gamache, who thought I was kidding when I said that the shots of us walking down the stairs would be the best photos of the day. He used Will Parham's camera so that I wouldn't get copies of the photos. It's hard to get pictures in the ocean.

Leif droppin' science at Camel Rock Full Album

Nathan got the full ocean experience. If you wear a drytop in the ocean, you will almost always get the dreaded "gasket rash". The latex gasket of your drytop, mixed with the beach sand, cuts into the skin of your neck, which is ultra-softened by the salty water. It's not uncommon to be put on suicide watch after a good surfing bender, since it looks like you tried to hang yourself.

Nathan's neck after a few days of surfing. Full Album

We also found time to make a run down the classic Burnt Ranch Gorge with Natalie's brother Russell, as well as the Smith river gorges on our way north. I included more photos in the slideshow, but here are a couple of my favorites.

Nathan and Russell enjoying Burnt Ranch Gorge Full Album

South Fork Smith putin Full Album

Brief flatwater stretch at the end of the South Fork Smith Gorge Full Album

While I was out in California paddling, Natalie's sister Stephanie was visiting Natalie back in Colorado. It was near the end of our time in Arcata that we got the awful news that while Natalie and Stephanie were out skiing, Stephanie overshot the transition on a jump in the terrain park and shattered her L1 vertebra. She isn't paralyzed, which is very good, but it was by no means a minor injury. She was flown to Grand Junction to have some pins put into her spine, and she was already walking just a few days after the accident. It looks like she'll make a pretty good recovery, but it's still a terrible thing to have happen to you. It definitely put a damper on our moods out in California.

Dampered moods or not, we decided to head north to do a little bit of creeking. We had originally planned to try to hit the Green Truss, Eagle Creek, and the Little White, but we decided that it would be prudent to take it pretty easy, given the happenings back home. We met up with a crew of Arcata paddlers, and took just one lap on the Green Truss before heading back to Colorado early.

I got some okay photos, but Arcata paddler Ben York got a ton of really great shots, especially of me, since I'm awesome. There are more photos in the slideshow, but here are my favorites.

A photo of Ben taking a photo of Martin Belden (the madman) Full Album

Nathan dropping Big Brother. Leif Anderson Photo. Full Album

Peter the Russian droppin' some science on Little Brother. Nobody told him that this wasn't "the line". Full Album

When we got to BZ falls at the end of the run, I felt like firing it up. The consequences looked manageable, and I felt like I was paddling well that day. Nathan and Ben both got sick shots of me launching a rocket powered boof...

Nathan's shot of my BZ boof Full Album

Ben's shot of me diving into the boiling soup Full Album

...and then they all laughed as I followed the rocket powered boof with a rocket powered beatdown. I didn't drop any science there. BZ falls dropped me, like a heavyweight boxer taking on a 98 pound weakling. I partied a little.

This is what it feels like to have science dropped on you. Nathan Werner photo. Full Album

Well, I guess my smooth style convinced Orion that BZ wasn't all that bad, because after watching me almost swim out, he decided to give it a go. I think it was a case of "it can't really go much worse than that". Where I boofed the hell out of the right side to get a nice photo of me airborne in the good sunlight, Orion focused a little more on running the rapid. His line was to follow the main current down the middle, and tuck hard.

Orion's crazy "the run is more important than the photo" scheme. Nathan Werner photo. Full Album

Well, as you may have guessed from my bitter tone, Orion totally styled the drop. He went deep and didn't even slow down. He resurfaced a good 15 - 20 feet downstream of the boil line and paddled away clean, like a jerk. Way to make me look bad, Orion. Plus the photo of him turned out pretty good, after all.

Well, with the sour taste of Orion's boot kicking my ass, Nathan and I headed back to Colorado to go see Stephanie and the rest of the Kramer family. Even leaving the northwest ahead of schedule, we only got a couple days in Grand Junction. We took a cool hike up onto one of the mesas east of town, where I got this cool photo:

Hiking in Grand Junction Full Album

... and we got to see the sight we had really been hoping for: Stephanie walking. Very carefully.

Stephanie with a pretty positive attitude. Full Album

Now I'm back in Fort Collins, not droppin' waterfalls, but droppin' real science, like the homework and research kind. Like girls be droppin' babies.

UGANDA: The White Nile

2010-02-06T08:37:00.001-07:00

For those of you who knew that we went to Uganda from Dec 17th to Jan 18th to kayak on the White Nile you have probably just about given up checking for this post especially since we originally said we were probably going to post while we were in Africa. On principle, I figured that I better get this written before I finished my month long post-trip prescription of Doxycyline (no Malaria yet). So, despite being slammed by such "-ing" activities as: TA-ing, grading, researching and skiing, I have finally managed to find a little time to do a little writing about our adventuring for your pleasure-ing.

From nile blog- part 1

I am going to write this up in three parts so that you, the reader, can just skip to the pictures/stories in which you are interested.
Part 1 =big water rapids in the Day 1 section
Part 2 =playboating photos mostly from the Nile Special (tons of these photos)
Part 3 = other such as: friends, scenary, wildlife etc. (not as many photos there as I would have liked)

PART 1: BIG WATER RAPIDS

From nile blog- part 1

JET LAG

From nile blog- part 1

Our first view of the White Nile from NRE campground

Leif and I showed up at NRE (Nile River Explorers) late night on Dec. 17th and the next morning hooked up with Jaime from Kayak the Nile to get our boats. Thanks Jaime! We spent an awesome day following the rafting trip down all the way through the Day 1 section. For the record, the Ugandan safety kayakers rip it up way harder than American safety kayakers. Also for the record, if you have blond hair and blue eyes, and are going to a sunny place, and are going to be on the water every day, DON'T take Doxycycline for malaria. The resulting sunburn/rash is not worth it. Pay the extra bit for Malarone. (luckily it was more rainy than it should've been while we were there so it wasn't so bad, but if it was sunny more often it would've been quite hellish for me.

From nile blog- part 1

The rafts attempt a boof and fail on Overtime. Photo by Leif.

From nile blog- part 1

Ben, who I met in Africa and amazingly enough went to my small town highschool in Angels Camp, CA, shows the rafts how to boof. Photo by Leif.

From nile blog- part 1

I show the safety boaters how it's really done. Photo by Leif.

At the end of our trip we returned to NRE and explored all the backchannels at Bugagali falls in Fluid Spices which neither of us had paddled before (they were awesome-the boats and the rapids). The first day Leif and I were raging for some excitement and without a guide we tried to find the steepest biggest way through the channels, we succeeded. We blindly ran widowmaker and picked a line which led straight into two huge holes. Fortunately Leif and I are very proficient at NOT swimming and we both came through fine in the end. The next day we wanted a re-match. After a careful scout we decided on a line that would've worked in a lower volume river but instead dumped us right back in the same two holes. We handled our second beatings quite professionally having already done them once the day before. We now claim that we know the line and if we had done it again we would've styled it. And, it was low water anyway.

From nile blog- part 1

Leif and I like our matching Spice boats. That's Leif's game face. Photo by Max Coney.

From nile blog- part 1

Leif and I blue angel it down the right side of Widowmaker which we are calling "the orphanage" to get a better look at the holes we partied in the day before (note big hydraulics on left side of channel). Photo by Max Coney.

From nile blog- part 1

Leif and I decide to go for a second beat down in Widowmaker. Photo by Max Coney.

Slide Show of other Back Channel Rapids:

I find it sad to think most of these incredible rapids will be buried under water very soon. The dam is well underway (see photo below). As an American who uses a lot of electricity in my existence it wouldn't be right for me to judge the dam as evil, wrong, or unnecessary since it will bring electricity to much of Uganda currently without electricity. But, at the same time I cringe at what will be lost: the rapids, some of the wildlife (especially the birds), and the beautiful dark night sky. I really hope that the world can pull away from these mega projects and start generating a more decentralized electricity and power grid which is less harmful to the natural world. I know that nothing lasts for ever and eventually the dam will be destroyed and the rapids restored, whether or not we humans are here to witness it is a different matter. I hope we will be.

From nile blog- part 1

Dam site, with rafts and safety kayakers just about to enter Silverback Rapid

PART 2: NILE SPECIAL

The real reason the White Nile was on Leif's list of rivers to run was playboating on the Nile Special. My goal was to learn to helix, which I did; Leif's goal was to move the clean blunts from the "every now and then" pile to the "most of the time" pile. In other words, to put another trick in the bag. Which he did. The waves served up some great air.

From Nile playboating

Leif throws a Large Helix in the Large Nemesis.

From Nile playboating

Natalie throws a Large Blunt in the Small Flirt

We stayed at the Hairy Lemon for about three weeks and surfed the Club Wave and the Nile Special almost every day. We also surfed the Hair of the Dog a few times and navigated Kalagali falls and Itunda falls. We would like to thank the Hairy Lemon staff, especially Michael and Maureen, for making our stay quite enjoyable. Enjoy the following slideshow!

Playboating Slideshow:

PART 3: OTHER interesting photos and my thoughts about my cultural experience in UGANDA

Although Leif and I didn't go to see any big game we did see TONS of really cool birds, some of which are shown in the slideshow below.

Check out this sequence of a bird eating a fish- it's awesome.

Unfortunately I didn't get as many photos of everyday sights as I should have. I'm a bit shy about bringing out the big fancy camera so a description will have to suffice. We went to a rural part of Uganda that has a pretty active outdoor adventure tourist industry. The landscape is covered with family sized farm plots of a variety of crops such as coffee, pineapple, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, sugar can and rice. It seemed to me that the women and the girls did most of the hard farming labor while the boys had a lot more time to 'hang around' with the tourists. The men typically had jobs going to market and operating the bodas (motorcycle taxis), matatus (van taxi/buses) and car taxis. The women could carry and balance amazing loads on their heads and I have never seen bicycles so well used and so well loaded to transport everything and anything you could think of. One thing that struck me was the huge number of children who always yell "Muzungu" (white person) and "howarYOO?" In talking to one woman I learned it is not uncommon for a woman to have 10 kids and for her husband to have many wives. All told, in general my impression was that the Africans in Uganda are hardworking, nice people who keep their houses and clothes impossibly clean given all the red dirt everywhere.

I would also like to give a shout out to OneMama, which is a small clinic I went to to have an ear infection treated. OneMama is just starting up and is hoping to open many clinics in the rural areas that pair traditional midwives with western medicine to help reduce the transmittal of AIDS to newborns during childbirth. They also hope to fight malaria through education and the distribution of mosquito nets. You can check OneMama out at their website

Thanks to all our new friends we met in Africa who took photos for us and paddled with us. Also, thanks again to Kayak The Nile for renting us boats, and getting us oriented when we first showed up in Africa. I highly recommend that if you go to Africa, you get KTN to handle the logistics like boats and airport pickup.