Wonder Midget

Our goal reached!

2009-06-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

While Michael is still up for pushing the teams vertical miles in the Eddyflower Vertical Challenge this weekend with Devin as they plan on a weekend of lap after lap on the Little White. Well, OK. 5 laps since that's the limit that can be logged in.

But our goal of $2000.00 has been blown away with currently $2240.00 and a few days to go for anyone that wants to give.

It is gonna be awesome to help out with the First Descents Camp in Washington this year knowing we helped fund one of the campers trip their!!!

Well done Team Midget Torture

Memorial Update for the Eddyflower Challenge

2009-05-26T23:29:00.000-07:00

We are within five dollars of our being halfway to our $2000.00 goal for First Descents! As for our vertical mileage we are sitting around 19,000 feet total which is currently over twice that of the others in the Weekend Warrior class. Not too shabby....

The past weekend, we found outselves with the Williams clan up on Icicle Creek campground "8 Mile". we spent the first day on Ingles and Peshastin Creek. Devin and Michael got two laps in on Ingals. Sunday was my birthday and we attempted to access Little Wenatchee but after a few hours tring to get the Dodge truck through snow drifts and having a few miles to hike in on a run no one had done. We opted to through in the towell and drive all the way back to Ingals and Peshastin for a lap. Gotta love when you break camp at 930am to make it to a run by 4pm? Ouch..... it wsa still fun as the levels had risen a few inches and the entrance rapids were much more stout. With some 8 or so paddlers on a creek only 30 feet wide you can imagine the excitement that got created around every corner.

Monday was our last day and with levels still rising on Icicle Creek, EJ took a group down lower Icicle and we all did the play run on the Wenatchee from the dam to Cashmere. At just over 9000cfs almost all the waves were good to go. For the first time Trinity was in and we had a blast catching several surfs in the crowded eddy line that is the Wenatchee on Memorial Weekend...

I've got some good pics and vid I'll get though soon and post...

Team Midget Torture off to a good start

2009-05-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

While the midget opted to not boat this weekend. Midget Torture logged in some quality mileage! Michael Williams put in three laps on the West Fork of the Hood, One lap on Dee to Tucker while instructing his OKCC class and a lap on the Upper East Fork of the Hood. Shannon Williams did three laps on the WF Hood and the Dee to Tucker run. Myself did three laps on the WF Hood and EJ Etherington boated up in Washington somewhere and we'll see what he adds to the 8850 vertical feet already logged in to Eddyflower...

Things are going well with great weather and with the upcoming three day weekend where all but EJ will be up on the Wenatchee drainage. We'll see what gets logged in!

The mileage doesn't mean anything without sponsors donating money to the challenge! Our goal is to raise $2000.00 to bring one teen to the White Salmon's first First Descent camp!!! You can help make that happen by pledging anything you can spare to a great cause and a good tax deduction as well.....

donate at: http://www.eddyflower.com/MakeDonation.aspx

Thx, Corey

MIchael's Time was Due!!

2009-05-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, May 10th myself, Devin, Shannon and Michael Williams went out to the Tilton River to run the Gorge section. A fun class IV run that we all enjoy for several reasons. It's got several quality drops spread out through the gorge. The river is usually ours alone as few from the PDX area trek the 1.5 hours to get there. It's one of those runs that you can take your playboat if your adventurous at normal flows to catch the many quality waves and holes along your way or you can bring your creeker so a safer passage downstream. We tend to find ourselves on the run in the Winter with low 30 degree air and cold water so the creekboats come out.

This trip was in the Spring which is a rarity for us so all four of us were in our playboats. The lead in to the run is a few miles of class I+/II till you reach the gauge and the gorge and the action begins! Flows were around 1100 to 1200 cfs. I little lower than we tend to find ourselves there but that brings some of the play in with good eddy service. I don't know any of the names but the main play hole we usually stop at. It's a near riverwide hole was the best I'd seen it. It was retentive enough for Michael and Devin to throw down in but exiting it on either side or simply flipping and you were free. It was my first time dropping into it and after being away from my boats for a few I really found myself enjoying the rivers again.

We made our way down river to what we joke as the "last rapid" on the run. It's an inside joke from when Michael took me and Devin down it for the first time a couple of years ago. We ran the drop and he looked back at us and said, "well guys, that was the Tilton! What did you think?" We were all excited and were kinda bummed it was over. OK, except the fact that is was 20 degrees out and the water was freezing on our gear. The run was amazing!!

We float around the 90 degree corner to all see the biggest boulder garden that is longer than the eye can see as it drops down some 100 yards of hole/boulder dodging goodness. Michael then looks back and says, "OK, I think that was the end of the whitewater!" We all laughed and paddled the 1/2 mile of flatwater across the lake to the take-out at the day use park. A memorable trip that has kept us coming back every since. :)

OK, so back to the day at hand and we're all at the top of the "last rapid". Michael as normal heads towards the river center towards a island boulder that we run just off the right side of the rock with a right flair boof. Michael drives at the rock and what happens next I can only tell from my perspective, the next few seconds. He drove up, running dry onto the rock and launching his playboat vertical in dropped out of my side, off the ledge in a inverted burningman! We all laughed as he'd ate s**t on it. We watched and waited for him to come into view downstream. The rapid drops some 8' at a near vertical drop where we run it at. The right side goes but the right gorge wall is badly undercut so this line is fun and deemed safe.

It usually is, but what happened next is told to me via Michael Williams and Devin. When Michael did his "inverted burningman" off the drop it placed him into a low head style horseshoe pocket hole. We quickly found the pourover ripping the paddle out of one hand and then both. He tried handrolling but that didn't work and we soon was out of his kayak. His kayak, paddle and himself got to go for a proper cleansing cycle. He'd ball up and try to go deep but kept finding his shins slamming into a rock underwater. Resurface for a quick breather and repeat the cycle. Anyone who has spent a time in Bob's Falls knows the feeling! Been there! :( It's a bad place to swim and with everything Michael said he was doing right. Nothing was working and we were all out of sight above the drop that you can't set safety on, scout or portage! We assumed we would pop out in a sec or so we all hoped but nothing changed for the duration of maybe 30-40 seconds in real world time.

Devin was close to the drop and had been ferrying upstream waiting for the "all clear". After some time he decided to go ahead and run the drop. Michael missed the line so I think he was confident in making it so off he went. Me and Shannon sat on river right in a eddy waiting to see Michael. Devin hit the flake off the right side of the island and he was too out of our sights! Eek!!

According to Devin, as he approached the flake and was digging in to take his boof stroke his saw Michael's black Sweet helmet starting to surface right where he was about to boof to. I quick adjustment and next to no boof and he landed just off of Michael. Michael hesitated to grab the shiny new Biscuit playboat Devin was in to not pull him in with him. Once Devin was out enough Michael grabbed onto the stern grabloop and Devin pulled him free of the nasty hydraulic. Best even was at the same time Michael playboat and paddle came free. Weird!

Me and Shannon then ran the drop in the same spot as the others had and joined the two recovering the boat to run the "real last rapid"

It was Michael Williams first swim in 15 years in which we wasn't able to self resue himself and he got rescued by a 14 yr old who thinks of him as a big brother and mentor to all that is kayaking. Michael said he knew that day would come but he hoped it would be a few more years down the road.

I'm just happy everyone was ok and our Eddyflower Vertical Challenge team is still complete. Go Team Midget Torture!! Oh a quick vid of Michael booty drink out of Devin's shoe which was filled with Rum and fruitjuice! :)

The big brother on Big Brother

2009-03-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

Devin has been running the Green Truss for some time now and has ran BZ Falls several times but Big Bro' has a element he was unable to get his head around. He's kinda affraid of heights! That's not good when you're running a vertical waterfall in the 20' range.

Sunday the plan was for me to take him out to run the Little White with Todd Anderson, Boomer and the Wells brothers. Levels ended up at 3.5-3.6' on the stick and Devin was uncomfortable to run it that high so when I mentioned it to Todd. Boomer and Todd were both awesome and just said, "let's go do the Truss then?" I really respect people that aren't into pushing people into things. It's a bad combination on whitewater.

I did not have my creekboat so I zipped down to the clearcut to hike in to Big Bro' and got there just as the crew that had grown to around 9 paddlers reached the lip. I got into position with my camera. Trying to not get myself or the camera soaked with the downpours. I noticed Devin was still in his boat in the eddy on the top left of the falls. He was thinking about giving er'!? Wow, a weird place for me not being available for safety but I know the others in reach will provide any support needed if he was to end up in the cave or get injured in the drop.

Several ran in and the next thing I know Devin is ferrying out into the current. Here are the pics in sequence of his first lap over Big Bro'.

New blog started

2009-02-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

To keep my kayak adventures seperated from those that follow the midget's I've started my own for TR's and personnal crap.

paddletheaddiction.blogspot.com

cheers, Corey

Wind River on Ice

2009-01-27T20:38:00.001-08:00

No footage of actual kayaking but of the put-in and take-out. Is that weird or what!

Slideshow of EJ Etherington's playboat clinic on Lake Cr

2009-01-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

OKCC and instructor EJ Etherington had a good turnout out for the first playboat clinic on the season on Lake Creek at 9.5'. These are pics of the class. I've got pics of Devin I'll be putting up seperately as well as a few of Todd Anderson as he and his girl Nicole came through Grassy Lawn while we were there.

till then,

Playboat spot on Butte Creek

2009-01-06T13:16:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Devin was off the water after having a day surgery to remove a lump on the inside of his mouth. It's developed since last January when we were down in Jalcomulco Mexico. He bit through his lower lip after running a slide and taking his paddle to his face. Andrew Holcombe was down in Mexico around the same time teaching a clinic with Esprit Rafting and mentioned it took him several stitches and finally a broken tooth or two before he learned to correct it himself. Hopefully Devin doesn't follow that path!! :)

So last Sunday with Butte Cr estimation flows off the Pat Welch's site of 1400 and slowly dropping. Myself, Lisa, Michael Williams, and Andrew met up for the normal run down to the falls that with Michael we've always taken out at. My neck gasket tore at the put-in so I opted to play shuttle bunny and set safety on a few of the log point we saw on the drive up. All wood was ducked and Michael and Andrew fired up Butte Cr Falls without incident. Prior to running the falls I offered them if they wanted to paddle the runout down to the Hiway 213 me and Lisa could pick them up there. I saw several good ledges downstream of the falls past the bridge. They opted for it and off they went.

When we met up at the lower take-out on 213 they both had smiles on their faces and said their was a couple perfect playspots that Michael referred to as good as Lake Creek. At 1400cfs which was juicy for the run above the falls in a playboat. It would be a good idea to maybe take both boats and switch to a playboat or just hit up the play on the lower leg of the run.

Next time it's at similar flows we'll head in with the Biscuit and camera for hopefully a good time.

cheers, Corey

Lake Cr 12/27/8 Video

2008-12-30T04:23:00.000-08:00

Video of Devin testing out the Liquidlogic small Biscuit prototype on Grassy Lawn and Mill Wave. As well as myself, Michael and Shannon Williams. The end of the video has what The Horn looks like at 18 feet!

Swollen Sweet Creek Scouting 12/28/8

2008-12-28T22:59:00.000-08:00

So I'd heard lots about Sweet Creek near the Lake Creek playboat run for some time but had yet to make the drive downriver to Mapleton and up Sweet Creek Road to the run. With the flooded out Siuslaw at 18.3' there was no chance eith me or Devin would be putting on but we couldn't resist the temptation to drive down and check it out!!

Here's what we saw..... the pics at normal flows around 8.5' are all by EJ Etherington and can be seen on the write up on Oregonkayaking.net. All flood pics are by myself.

Lake Creek Weekend 12/27-28/08

2008-12-28T21:52:00.000-08:00

This weekend myself and Devin finally got to see Lake Creek, OR for what it really is and then some. Last year we were only able to make it out for what turned out to be a low run around 8.5 to 9 feet. The good come in around 10.5 and are good with eddy service to 11.5 feet. Friday we decided to head down with Michael and Shannon Williams, weird to say since they just returned after getting married the other week! Congrats ya two.. We planned to head down Saturday morning early, boat, stay the night in Florence and boat again Sunday before returning home.

All went as planned getting down near Mapleton, OR to the creek. As we were driving down I was checking the online gauge located on the Siuslaw River which Lake Creek feeds into near the end of the run. It was coming up from 7.5' Friday gradually and looked to on line for 10.5 to 11.0 for us. We scouted the only real rapid on the run, "The Horn" and got our shuttle done. Michael knows the run very well so he showed us the playspots as we headed down. There are tons of catch on the fly with several named ones like, "grassy lawn","mill wave", "the ledges" and "red hill wave". All were in and we spent most of our time on grassy lawn and mill wave. Devin was finally able to put the prototype small Biscuit through it's paces and he was very excited with it's performance. He's loved his LL Pocket Rocket and now the Biscuit will make that transition into the boat a very pleasant one. During the run the levels kept creeping up and got near 12.0'.

Once done with the run and shuttle we headed into Florence to get a room and eat at the famous clam chowder place "Mo's". Great food at a descent price and we then returned to our room to rest up. During the night the rain kept coming and we found ourselves with just over 16' on the gauge!! Wholly crap! Over 15' it's highly recommended that you're on your game as holes in "the ledges" get very sticky. Luckily for me and Devin was happy to join suit was to hop into our LL Chico and Grande Jefe's instead of the LL Ronin and Biscuit. There would not be much play other than what your could catch as you ripped down river. This isn't a creek at this point! This run rivaled your big water runs like the Lochsa or Crooked in character. Michael only had his playboat so he went down with it and Shannon opted to run shuttle not having a creeker. Good call in my mind.

We put in this time at the upper put-in for a warm up to get a feel of the beast and watch all the wood floating down with us. Creepy watching large tree's to small branches shoot past you when you're on a wave? It also gave me a opportunity to get a feel for my new creekboat! The Grande Jefe is similar in size with the Nomad 8.5 I'd been paddling. I'll compare the two later on. I'm not sponsored like Devin so I have nothing to gain by my opinions. I was very on the Truss with the boat and it proved to perform as I wanted on big water too.

After the warm up we came into "the ledges" starting near the left bank and I watched Michael in his playboat charge over a few large waves. As I crested one I got a glimpse of Michael climbing a huge near river wide ledge hole. What happened next sent a shiver down my spine as I was on the same line. At the top of the hole he was rejected flipping back into the hole and began getting chundered! With what felt time 20-30 mph current I watched for where Michael was getting worked and charged the ledge hole at full speed. I hit the turbo on my shiny red boat and punched the hole within 10 feet of Michael making it through without issue. Michael spent a few in the hole before flushing out after some fun loops. There are multiple ledge holes that you dodge while boat scouting through them. I then found myself in the front and ran "the horn" first. The rapid flushes out at that flow but had some huge waves with laterals crashing in. Good stuff!! Just after "the horn" is another pair of offset ledge holes. At the lower 11.5' we went down the middle in between them. This looked to still be the ideal line. The entrance is a right elbow that wants to push you left as you come into the ledges. We'd initially talked of running the far right but as we creeped around the corner the right hole looked to be scary big and Michael adjusted for the middle line though the holes. It worked quite nicely. The hole was as big or bigger than the next rapid at normal flows, "bus spot". "Bus stop" at 16'+ was nothing but a couple large waves. I briefly caught the first wave and can say I've surfed Bus Stop!! LOL.

"Red hill wave" becomes to ugly holes that Devin spent time in the lower one in the Chico and was happy to playboat out of it. "Mill wave" was in and Michael had a great ride in the wave hole, I blew off being too far surfers right catching it. Devin said he had his best surf in a creekboat on it but the eddy service didn't exist so we were hundreds of yards downstream while he was on it. Bummer...

In the end when we got off the water as Shannon gave me a ride back up to my Subi I found that the creek was at 18.34'!? 18.0' is flood stage for the Siuslaw River and most of the water was coming down Lake Cr. over the Siuslaw. It was just plain BIG!!!

We also went down to Sweet Creek to check it out at flood stage. Pics to come!! As well as video from playboat Lake Creek.

What can you do with a broken creeker? Ideas!

2008-12-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

So you creek most of the year and occasionally land on a rock, piton, rock spin, boof a 20' waterfall? By any chance do you end up with a garage full of kayaks? I remember a video from the PDX Film Festival a couple years back my Mike Long in which he is picking through a stack of kayaks to figure the one he wants to take onto the L-Dub. As he grabs one out, he points out the cracks, dents and general shape of the fleet of broken boats much like the Navy does in a ship graveyard.

Only one problem. Steel ships can be stripped and melted down into the next fleet of ships. Not so with the choice of material that gets us down our favorite creeks. There are a few avenues for recycling but to the most part they are just garbage. Even many recycling programs the stuff has no end placement and makes it into the landfill anyway. I've taken that "so called" dangerous asbestos tiles my work removed, triple bagged and I took them to Metro and threw the tiles into a pit not 100 yards from the garbage you took to curb. Hmmm....

Mike Olson or commonly known as "Oly" had given me and my boys a great idea last winter when at New Years they brought out a couple snow sleds made from old creekboats. It's easy to do with a reciprocating saw or other saw.

Here's a few pics of our new Liquidlogic Chico snow sled. It was cut big enough for one or two passengers. The length so far seems to give nice speed on the test run Sunday with the recent and rare dumping of snow in the Portland area.

Devin modeling it out.

Devin and Ryan testing out the tandem capability.

The sled in action at one of Devin's friends neighborhood.

Oddly enough the sled was not my priority of the use of the old Chico shell. It was to be my first attempt at a kayakers x-mas tree? What does that refer to? To me it utilized a broken creek shell, a drill. few strings of lights and a broken paddle. Hmmm... something I have a few of sitting around!! Paddle pieces taken off the river we've carried out and such. I cut the boat in two at the widest point in the midpoint of the Chico for shape and stability with the reciprocating saw, took a 1 1/4 hole saw and drilled through the nose and into the grab opening to place the paddle piece into. I trimmed the length accordingly. Next came the fun part. The lights. I didn't want to just string lights with the wire exposed around the outside. Tree limbs help with that normally so I decided to run the wires internal. Oh boy!! That required taking all the bulbs off the sockets. In this case 100 bulbs. (I was gonna do 200 but two sections of my lights didn't work out of the box so 100 worked for now) I used small style socketed lights with round bulbs for the size and so the round bulbs wouldn't fall back through the holes. 5/16 drill bit did the job.

Ryan was small enough to lay inside the nose and push the sockets into the holes so could put the bulbs on one at a time. This takes a while but it's a fun family project. You can then dress it up as much as you normally would but may need to drill a few hole to attach bulbs or strings on it. Slippery boat is good in the water, not so good to drape ornaments on! :)

Here's a few pics after dressing it a bit. I'm not 100% done yet but you get the idea. Any color would work but the white Liquidlogic plastic gives it a frosted appearance which you normally pay a lot for...

Close of the nose. You can see the bulbs popping through the shell.

A brighter shot to show the kayak tree as it normally looks.

I kinda like this pic for it's night before x-mas look. I'm sure the boys wanta know where the presents are though!

If you have any other uses with pics I'd love to post them as well. I've heard of planters but have no such pics. The mailbox cover on near the White Salmon is a classic too.

cheers!

UUC - It all started with a drainplug?

2008-12-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

So I haven't posted anything in a bit for the same reason most whitewater blogs have been getting rusty and neglected. No Water!! We did get a good dumping several weeks back and got on Opal Creek a few times before it snowed in, Upper Wind once, we've have gotten on the Truss section of the White Salmon 3-4 times in the past several weekends. At 1.75' and all coming from the top, it's been really good. (except the day me, Devin and Michael Williams all forgot pogies and with 39 degree air and low 40 water it plain sucked. I opted to not run Big Bro' that day cause I could not grip my paddle for sure get the boof off the flake. Sp far I have a good half dozen runs over Big Bro' with improved lines each time. Last weekend it was the Truss on Sat and N Santiam from Big Cliff Dam down to Mill City. Devin took that run off to hang with friends. Friends that don't kayak? Poor kid!! Just kiddin' Dev.

So now ur up to date with the past month.

Devin had gotten sick towards the end of this week so he was MIA on this Sundays trip down the Upper Upper Cispus. Levels for this stout class V run started at 740cfs on the gauge and rose up to near 1000cfs during the day. We expected it was rising with the light rain we had the entire time up there.

I myself have been fight walking pneumonia the past three weeks and haven't been to the gym during and my skinny ass can use all the muscle it can get. Lung capacity was been the biggest issue and energy levels have been slacking. This trip to the UUC was the first test of my low energy output on a stout run.

After several people fell off the trip emails due to sickness or broken boats it came down to myself, Chris Arnold and Eric Arlington. We all are fairly new to the UUC and plaid it safe most of the way down. The run is by far the most wood infested I have yet to run. Add the steep boulder gardens and things can go wrong quickly. The first warm up waterfall has wood just downstream and while Devin and Joe Stumpfeld ran it my past trip we all walked it on the left with ease. The run was going good and I felt pretty strong which I was happy to see.

I knew of possible wood in the bottom of a drop I believe is called "prelude to island". Oregonkayaking.net shows Jesse Coombs running it in the write up on the far left. Anyway, there is a tree blocking the left to center of the river making you run a sketch middle right line boofing right to cut far river right directly above a wood/ rock sieve. I told Chris and Eric the line we took and they both went without incident and it was my turn. As I made the right boof turn my right blade was too close to the hydraulic and my planned stroke turned into a flip and I got quickly pushed the 5 feet into the sieve! As soon as I touched the wood I knew where I was and pulled my skirt and grabbed onto one of the 6" pieces of wood sticking out of the water to stabilize myself. My boat went into the rock sieves a few feet away. I still had my paddle in my hand. I was able to get myself up onto the bigger rocks and Chris hopped rocks to help me get it unpinned and drained. I'd highly recommend just portaging the whole rapid till the wood is gone on the left. We knew better! Eric while draining more water out while I got over to river right bank dropped my drainplug in the water and was never seen again.

With a little less energy we headed downstream. Another piece of wood "the 3 foot variety" is blocking the center left to right bank. Last time with EJ having more water at that point the line was safer running far left. We all ran it OK but we all kinda boofed up onto the tree with the ability to get denied and pinned. Portagable on the right and visible prior to committing.

Island soon came up and I could feel my lack of motivation setting in. I hate the left slide line as it usually drops you into the bottom hole of the right channel. The right line runs you through a narrow pothole drop about 6' wide. I have yet to see anyone style the first drop hitting their boof. Eric went first. Flipped between holes but rolled up before the second one. I hesitant, went second. I just don't like the drop but portaging is a pain. I had a descent line not flipping or getting stuck in either hole and Chris went last with good results.

At a rapid called "the squeeze" where the river constricts again into a s-turn that slams you into a rock outcropping on the right wall. I once again didn't get the best line and hit my bow on the right wall. It shot up onto my stern, smacked by bow on the over head tree and got violently endered. My back was a little sore from that one. This time I just couldn't get a god setup and had my first swim in a benign runout in quite some time.

More boulder gardens and we had one last portage around more wood. Portage on either side. That and the right hillside slide downstream signals the entrance to the Behemoth Gorge. A fun stretch of holes that would be a lot more fun to get stuck in if Behemoth Falls wasn't but 20 yards downstream!! Christie Glissmeyer and myself both got a quick tour of the last big hole on my last trip. Eric set safety at that hole today which was great to have. I got flipped in the hole but rolled up to catch the right eddy in time.

Chris was on the left bank after running the gorge first and Eric was above me. They both asked if I was gonna be the probe and I decided. Sooner the better I felt. I charged out from the right eddy with good right to left angle over the entrance slide portion of the drop. Last time I fell off the slide into the meat of the falls. Didn't want a repeat!! I charged a bit too hard, hit the flake and shot of the remaining 15'? sideways. Landed upright but the hydraulic quickly flipped me being parallel to the curtain. Rolled up quick to find to my horror the boils were forcing me into a part of the falls I'd only heard about. The eddy pocket left of the curtain!! I tried with all I had, even at 100% I'm doubtful the outcome would have changed.

The eddy is a place one doesn't want to visit! It's about a paddle width wide from left wall to the curtain of the falls. The boils continue wanting to shove you along the wall and into the curtain. I was still in my boat but trapped without either paddlers able to see me or know anything. Chris could see the exit of the falls and knew I hadn't made it out while Eric had no way to know. For the next several minutes I would try to paddle out, get rejected, forced back into the curtain, go up either end that it hit and paddle back away to get spun 180 and repeat. I was not coming out of the eddy without two options: Chris that was on my side of the river got down along the cliffs. I near impossible task without himself falling into the the river or I paddled into the curtain and got the beating of my life and with a slim chance in my mind come out downstream without imploding my skirt, getting shoved behind the curtain in the back in or out of boat. Swimming downstream means I'd be swimming towards my favorite "bastard hole" and a solid class V boulder garden while Chris and Eric could do nothing.

I took being in my boat and stuck till I got put into the curtain against my will or ran out of energy. After what seemed like a lifetime I saw Chris' head above me!! He threw down a rope he'd already anchored off to me. There were not grab point on the wall with the exception of a small pothole a couple of feet up. I tried several attempts at getting my paddle to stay and finally did. The boat was not a option for me to anchor into the rope so I pulled my skirt, holding onto the rope and pulled myself up onto the pothole and my boat disappeared into the curtain. Oh well!

This only provided a short term fix with Chris unable to pull me up from directly above via that rope. I used a carabiner and my safety anchor on the front of my Astral PFD to tie me to the rope. Chris then quickly worked his way downstream and lower to a point he could pull from and wanted to throw another rose to me. The plan: untie myself from the one rope and jump towards downstream aka the curtain and boils. I kept trying to get him to pull me straight up but he said that wasn't a option and after a few attempts to get me the rope. I did want didn't come willing or naturally. Jump. I finally did and I'm glad Chris is big enough anchor to pull me away from the curtain. That then sent me swimming the left line by the "bastard hole" Out of sight I made it to the left bank but the eddy wanted to not make it so easy.

Now safe and below both drops I found my boat and paddle were in the large recirculating eddy on river right next to the falls. I later found that they had decided to throw my paddle from above into the eddy after I'd tied the paddle to the rope I'd been anchored to. I was confused for a second till I found out why. Both Chris and Eric had good lines over the falls. Chris ran the "bastard hole" eddying out river right and Eric paddled into the right eddy to attempt to get my gear out of it's grip. In the end Chris with my PFD throw rope went up over the right cliff to the eddy within a punchbowl and the two of them retrieved my boat and paddle. Chris made a good call and hopped into my Nomad and with my paddle ran the "bastard hole" Eric had already ran it and got stuck in the hole. When he came out of his boat he was briefly stuck in the hole and I found I had neither ropes with me and could only watch hoping for the best. He and his boat flushed out and he self rescued all but his paddle that I could only watch it head through the class V boulder garden till out of sight.

Chris roped me over to my boat and we quickly headed down through the rapid. At one point I ran a drop, flipped getting pushed up against what felt like a large boulder with a small diameter piece of wood against it. I quickly pulled my skirt, flushed around it with boat and paddle into a eddy.

We charged down through the mile or so runnout and got to the take-out at 4:10? It was dark by 4:30! Scary....... :(

That now makes for the worst day paddling in my life. But at least my life goes on!!

Tally for the run:

me - wood/rock sieve rescue
me - 2 swims out of my boat
me - getting stuck in the left eddy of Behemoth
Eric - lost throwbag at Behemoth
Eric - lost paddle (last seen traveling through the last class V boulder garden
Chris & Eric - a shit load of river karma for helping me

me - oh, did I mention my Nomad 8.5 ended up with two large cracks under the seat during the run. I noticed the biggest prior to Behemoth Gorge.

Lesson learned:

Safety classes and continued practice of rescue skills can and will save a friends life.
Always wear a drysuit or equivalent in cold water. It quite possible saved my life several times on the UUC today from hypothermia!!

Video of Chris Arnold on Island rapid.

Almost the end of football season

2008-10-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Man, what a season for ups and downs it has been for both Devin and Ryan's football teams. Ryan's went 5-3 and made the playoffs this weekend. Ryan's 5-6 Centennial team will face Molalla's undefeated 8-0 on Saturday. Devin's team on the other hand had many coaching or lack of issues this season and had a unfortunate season of 2-6. Though they didn't win many Devin had a good season as the lead running back and outside linebacker. In every game Devin would only come off the field in a extra point attempt or if he wsa injured. Or in reality, if he got hurt. He came out for a play and they'd through him right back into the next play. Not much rest for the poor kid but he wouldn't of had it any other way.

The only downside to the playoffs this weekend is that we were almost ready to buy tickets and fly back to watch the Green Narrows Race in North Carolina. The take-out is LiquidLogics base of operations!! Of course we planned on getting on the Green for our first times as well. I wouldn't miss Ryan's game to watch a race on the Green so there is always next year.

Good luck Ryan!!

Devin turns 14!!

2008-10-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend has two big events. The end of Devin's football season. The next time he plays, he'll be in High School! Wholly crap time flies by.... The other is Devin's fourteenth birthday on Sunday. I can remember back four years ago when I first got him out on the Klickitat with my friend Lauren Boehm. He was so cute in that Stohlquist drysuit all bunched up around him. It was a womens small but still big all over. Now he weighs close to my own weight and can hold his own when we, I'd say playfight but I've ended up with bruised ribs out of a few exchanges.

Here a few pics of him at 10 yrs old.

Off Season Ink Work

2008-10-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

With the water levels being not up to par during the Summer I've been able to satisfy another addiction of mine. Tattoo's!! Most of my ink is associated with whitewater or outdoors. The lastest is my backpiece being done by Jason Bradbury at Atomic Art in Portland, OR.

In the pic, the shading and outlining is all done after 9 hours and coloring it in starts next month. Good thing I have a drysuit!!

Upper Deschutes TR Big Eddy to Bend

2008-09-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

All photo's taken/provided by Josh Mckeown on previous lower water runs

We had to run out to Bend to grab the small LL Biscuit prototype from Christina Russell last weekend. Luckily for us Christina recommended that we bring our creekboats along to run the stretch of the Deschutes that is above Bend and runs into town. What better than doing a IV to V run and paddling into town for lunch!! We decided to run from Big Eddy down. With access to several of the big drops via roads that run along the Deschutes you can put-in and take-out at multiple spots. Benham Falls V, Dillon Falls V, Lava Falls V and Meadow Camp IV to V. Not sure on the overall length of each or combined sections but I believe Christina said that Big Eddy to Bend was 8 miles. Sounds good. The flows were 1800cfs, almost twice as the write up we'd looked at on Oregonkayaking.net and Christina and Josh told us it was medium flow to the locals in Bend. High I'd say for the normal PDX boaters that head out this time of year normally when the irrigation district is only releasing the lower 900 flows. At 1750cfs pics would have been hard to pull of and being our first time down I'm usually too nervous to throw a cheap SLR in my boat!! It was raining as well. Lava1 was full of weird currents that required you to punch a large boil on river left to catch a eddy or keep driving left into the left channel to avoid the riverwide ledge hole in the right channel. Me and Devin both were a little under the weather from driving 3 hours and opted to portage Lava1, the first s-turn into the eddy. Josh, Jon and Christina met us in the eddy and we ran down through the second s-turn in the left channel. The line through the lower was stay far left just like the first 1/2. The bottom ledge had a descent hole but even being left of center as I ended up was fine if straight and ya punched it.

Josh Mckeown hitting the line in the first 1/2 of Lava1 at 900cfs

Below Lava1 was some boogey water referred to as "cut-em-up". Apply named for what happens if you swim out of Lava1. We ran it far right but it was just read and run class IV.

A long pool after the boogey water and we found ourselves at the lip of "Lava2" One note about the rapids on this run is that all the drops have big horizon lines that prevent you from seeing anything downstream. One exception is "Lava2". OK, not really but when you see mist shooting high into the air past the horizon line you get the gist. Christina felt it was better to give verbal lines on this one and like "double drop" on the White Salmon. You'd probably walk it if ya looked at the beast!! The line was far left till reaching a big pillow of water blasting a huge boulder and cut hard-hard right to hit a boof avoiding the huge keeper hole. Check the write up on Oregonkayaking.net. You'll see the huge boulder in the photo next to the paddler. They refer to it as Barry's not Lava2 that I'm told the Bend boaters call it FYI. That's where you start to make your move and it the photo of Steve "melting the hole". That's the huge hole you don't want to be around at 1800. The rock to Steve's right creates the boof flake we hit. Believe me when I say that you can't paddle hard enough to make the move at that flow. I was digging in till the flake.

Looking down into Lava2 at lower flows of 900cfs

That is the Lava Falls section and now we continue onto Meadows Camp.

Christina Russell on "Amazing" on the Meadows camp section

According to Christina this is the order of rapids on the Meadows Camp section:

"Playtime"
"Damn it"
"Amazing"
"Mario Bros"
100%

Meadows camp is rated 4+ at lower flows but at 1800cfs it's full on V. The change from the two sections isn't too severe but the geology/ seives/ consequence for sure does. On the Lava Falls run a swim in the hole would be bad due to the lava river bed and some wood pinned in a few places to watch out for. Down in Meadows Camp it's less of a lava flow and the rocks are undercut and seived out. "Damn it", which has a irrigation pipe firing out from river right wants to slam to into a huge boulder that Christina mentioned later is a seive and getting on the left side or swim at the boulder could be bad. Plus she said there is wood stuck in the seive as well. Yikes!

Christina Russell on "Damn it". You can see the irigation pipe on her right

The line me and Devin ran was literally ferrying our boats from the eddy above the pipe on river left at the pipe outflow, as close to the pipe the better. It's a lot of pressure and like a big curler pushes you towards the river left undercut boulder. I ended up on the right side pillow of the boulder and braced my way around the right side back into the current. It's very unusual to say the least.

Mario Bros is unlike any other drop on the run. The river becomes very channelized and with all the exposed lava rocks, wood gets snagged easily and is a always changing in the rapid. Christina took us down far left then back center right for the second 1/2. Jon and Josh took two different lines all together ranging from center to far right at the top. Guess it all goes at 1800.

100% is another classic huge horizon line and the last final rapid. Christina tells us, "the line is down the middle". Sounds good. I follow Christina and as I see over the horizon there are three offset huge boulders and we're gonna shoot between them. It's basically a flairing paradise as I head up unto one pillow, turn and head into the next. You don't have much choice about this either. Devin later told me that all he saw was me heading at one boulder and though, "oh sh*$". Then realized that was the line. I think we got the biggest laugh out of 100%.

All in all, I think the write up on Oregonkayaking that happens to be the only one I found doesn't do this run justice and the lines mentioned at the 900cfs would give one really bad day at 1800cfs. I'm hoping Christina and Josh get a write up to Rackley for the 1800 range. This run is up there with the Crooked without the length and runs year round at varying flows. Josh said 2100cfs was the perfect flow!!

cheers, Corey

2nd Annual Football Team Rafting Trip

2008-09-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

This year I changed things up a little from the Deschutes float of last year. Devin had worked for Wet Planet Rafting in White Salmon, WA with Heather Herbeck on their kids kayaking course over the summer. In trade Jaco from Wet Planet gave us 6 spots or one raft guided down the Orletta and Middle sections of the White Salmon River. For 3 on the team that went. It would be their first times on whitewater, two went with us on the Deschutes last year and one has been rafting with his mom and grandparents in the past. None though on anything like the White Salmon! In the end they all had a blast and the pics show how bored they were on the run.

Much thanks to their guide Matt and the rest of Wet Planet for taking the experience they will never forget!!

Idaho playboating with the Biscuit

2008-09-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

NF Payette's Lower 5

2008-09-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

Just a few days prior to Labor day weekend, I decided to make a trip out to Idaho after seeing a section of the Snake River "Murtaugh Canyon" was in. The weekend was focused on getting out to Twin Falls to hook up with LiqiudLogic rep ted Keyes and a few friends of Ted's. A bonus was LL's prototype playboat "Biscuit" in the medium size was in Ted's posession as well. Most likely head back to the Payettes and run a couple sections as well. I'll get to the "Biscuit" and Murtaugh Canyon in the next post.

Last minute planning Ted mentioned I should bring Devin's Chico Jefe along to run the NF Payette with him and friends. Uh, OK!? So far it was gonna be playboats only. I'd already loaded the car in preparation of leaving after work so now I had to head home and through in a creek boat? Fine...

Levels for the NF looked good for Devin's first time down the Lower 5, considered the easier stretch of the class 5, 15 miles of continuous whitewater. We had ran into HR boaters Joe Stumpfeld, Bryon Dorr, Rachel Crowder and a few others the day prior after a SF run. Devin was gonna run the Lower 5 on Monday with them and then we'd drive 6 hours back to Portland. Devin had a blast on the run and they added "Hounds Tooth". Part of the middle 5 as the first drop of the run. Several pics in the slideshow are Devin, Joe C1'ing and Bryon with the hand grab on "Hounds Tooth". Other pics are random shots taken as I drove along the run. The pic of Devin running down a tongue is the last big rapid of the Lower 5. What's funny to me is that he's inches away from one of the biggest holes on the run and he's casually wiping the hair out of face!?

2008-08-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

pic by Shane Benedict

Pics of the new LiquidLogic Biscuit's during testing on the Ottawa in Canada.

The plan is to hopefully get our hands on a medium Biscuit on our trip to Idaho this weekend. While it should be too big for Devin to throw around like the small coming out. It will give us a little taste of the new Biscuit!!

Upper Upper Cispus TR

2008-08-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

The crew taking a break on a side excursion near the take-out.
The put-in waiting for the HR crew to show.

This past Sunday me and Devin got to test the question as to which is more fun and harder. The Little White Salmon or The Upper Upper Cispus? The common rivalry is the LW is more continuous with individually easier drops which makes for a fun run as long as you don't get stuck in a hole, pinned, lose grips with your paddle (a common issue) or break your boat on a rock you should not have boofed onto. The result usually is pulling out a breakdown paddle or hiking out. I've heard of a paddler swimming 3-4 times on the run upon losing his boat and hiking out. Another one is a paddler breaking his paddle and going throw 2-3 breakdowns and then having to hike out. The LW is littered with more boats and paddles than any other run that I'm aware of in the NW!!

The UUC on the other hand has pools to collect yourself between the drops but several big class V bouder gardens, several with wood in them and a mandatory waterfall referred to as Big falls or more commonly just Behemoth. Behemoth set the levels that padders run the UUC at. Too high and the stories of bad lines over the falls resulting in getting worked in the hole directly above the falls in the gorge, getting behind the curtain of the falls or having a bad day in the hole below the falls 40 yards.

So off we go to find out in our own opinion.

It's a 2.5 hours drive from Portland, OR to the take-out near Randle, Wa. That makes it one of the longer drives the PDX crew head to as the local runs drop out and the UUC comes in. We met up with a paddler in Vancouver to carpool, Rick Cooley. Rick that had been oddly enough on our first run on the Green Truss run of the White Salmon. We then drove up to the t/o to meet with Ej Etherington and a few others he'd ran the UUC with on Sat and camped nearby. Also, a crew from Hood River was coming up. In the end it was 11 of us in one big crew making our way down. Me and Devin were the only virgins on this day. That's good in that they know the run, the bad is we didn't plan on looking at any drops with the exception of Island and Behemoth. That kinda made us nervous and Devin was pretty quite up to this point.

At the put-in we were told the first fun falls was a portage with wood in it. All but a few hiked their boats along river left and put in below the falls. The ones that paddled down ran the falls eddying out river right to portage the pieces of wood in the run out rapid. Devin decided to put in right above the falls, run it and portage like the others. He had a pretty good left to right line on the falls, flipped, quickly rolled up and made the eddie with no problem.

As we headed down river we came to some pretty stout boulder gardens that were a blast. All you could see was a trail of multi-colored boats heading downstream. normally 24 would be in sight at a given time. We'd eddie out into a large pile of boats and start it all over again. Rick was great at letting us know the lines through the drops.

At Island. I believe it's rated V+ in the WA guide books. The rapid consists of the river splitting around a island with the left side being considered the easier line with a slide into the hole on the right channel as the flows come together. The right side has a narrow channel into a ledge that's hard to boof and then getting right to avoid the same hole the left side feeds into. We all ran the right channel with varying different outcomes but all resulting in a fairly clean line. Devin's line was last and he plugged the ledge hole, claims he rolled up, we never saw him upside down so this happened prior to resurfacing. He then made the right line at the bottom hole with ease.

A few more drops down and we came to a narrow drop that had wood at the bottom on the right side. With no scouting we weren't sure of the angle or move necessary to avoid the wood. My line provided the most entertainment when I didn't get left soon enough, smacked the right wall at the wood, stern squirted up onto the wall and then flushed under the wood. The wood wasn't pinny at normal flows it seems. Oh good!!

A drop before Island the normal right channel was choked with wood and we had to portage on the left. Devin and Joe Stumpfeld? put their boats up on a big boulder to slide in. This caused us to not head down with the others as they started scouting the gorge above Behemoth. We opted to just run the gorge off verbal lines given that worked. I missed my line and dropped into the sticky hole you run on the far right side. After a brief beatdown I flushed out and quickly caught the left eddie above the falls to scout. We watched everyone run the gorge and another ride in the hole and a stern squirt resulting in a flip and we were clear of it. Several ran the falls blind knowing the line, some scouted it. All from the left side then fairing to right eddie. From the right eddie you can easily make the right to left move over the falls to hit the line. I ended up being the last man standing up there since I helped Devin with his boat and filming his line over the falls. He had a great line and it was my turn.

I slid in with a bit to much momentum and got my bow turned downstream and decided to commit to the falls rather that fight for the right eddie. The result was a center to left move that didn't get me up onto the flake and I plugged the middle of the falls. Oops, not good. I disappeared for a bit and was happy to surface downstream and on the right side. The normal line over the ledge hole is far left but the boils were pushing hard right. EJ had told us the right side went. Preferably 5 feet off the right wall or just be pointing downstream with momentum. I ended up not getting far enough from the right wall as it makes the bend out of the punchbowl and got stuck in the right pocket below the hole. One wrong move and I was headed back into the hole. With only being able to us my left paddle it was tough but I was fortunate to dig my way out and run the final class V boulder garden. After that rapid the river dies to class II for a mile it seems and then the bridge we take out at.

It was a great run. Both of us considered the LW a better run with the UUC having a lot more consequence factor and more wood currently. It's now our top #2 tun we've done though.

Video of my failed line over the bastard hole as I call it below Behemoth Falls.

Lower Little White, A goal achieved!!

2008-08-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

Obviously this blog is about my son and this post is no different with one main exception. It's a goal that I've not tossed around till the past weekend to run the Lower section of the Little White River, what most just call the L-Dub. Yeah, Devin's been running the stretch now 5 times this Summer and by chance one of the youngest to have ever ran it. Once again Dane Jackson's name pops up. Austin Rathman took both down for their first times. He likes small boys I'm told. Sorry Austin!!

Last weekend Devin, myself headed out to the LW to meet up with a good friend of ours Michael Williams to take me down for my first time. Levels had dropped down to 2.8'. Most consider 3.1' to be the magic number but under 3.0' the run loses come of it's punch and becomes more technical and I liked the idea of it being more like the Egua that me and Michael had ran in Italy recently. Low, technical and holes that didn't want to eat you alive. Sounds good to me!

I bailed at the put-in! Why? The LW has such a history in folk lore in the PDX paddling community of people losing gear, throwing up or hiking out at the first rapid, "Getting Busy". A 1/2 mile long boulder garden in the 300fpm range. Plus, you can't see any of the run except Spirit Falls if you've hiked in but it fails to give a image of the rapids around this beautiful falls placed in a huge punchbowl. Instead we ran the Upper Little White, also rated class V though tons of paddlers especially outside of the PDX or HR area know or have done this run. It's a shorter version of Getting Busy and provided a really good glimpse of what would lie below in what a lot of people consider the hardest rapid on the run. I had a blast on the stretch below Schroomtrooper and feeling like I could tackle Getting Busy.

Fast forward back to today and once again I find myself with my son and good friend Michael Williams at the put-in for the L-Dub. Levels had dropped a little but still holding at 2.6'. I was in high spirits and this time it wasn't even a question of putting on. What lied downstream of course made me nervous but I'd told myself to not even worry of the lines on the big drops below Getting Busy and take one task at a time. You can't be concerned with making a omelet if you don't have any eggs. So lets get down to them and look at each one. It worked and quickly found myself sitting at a lip of a drop, getting verbal commands mostly and firing off several large drops like S-turn and Wishbone. Both in the 18-20 range I'd guess blindly and nailing my delayed boofs Gene17 had drilled in my head so hard in Italy. Thanks Simon Westgarth, Dave Carrol, Matt Tidy and Ed Cornfield for the instruction like no other.

One of the highlights for me was to see how proud Devin was of my accomplishment to tackle the mental game known as the L-Dub. I realized how special kayaking has become as a bond between us. Thanks Devin for believing in me when I doubted myself.

Fitting Comic Strip

2008-08-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

So why does this comic resemble mine and Devin's life? Especially in the Summer when I can only boat on weekends and the ocassional weekday evening run if the sun stays out late enough. The poor kid can get out everyday up till the start of Football season and that kicked in last week so now he's back to weekends like me!!

Oh waaa!!!!

New Website Address

2008-08-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

I finally registered the wondermidget name today and now the site is:

wondermidget.com

As I understand by blogspot the old address will still be linking to the blog as it had in the past.

cheers, Corey

Myself on Big Bro' @ 2.5'

2008-08-11T07:19:00.001-07:00

The End of the Weekday Runs?

2008-08-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

Last night myself, Devin and Michael Williams headed out to Hood River for what will most likely be our last run in the evening after work. In part due to me and Michael both unable to get away from work at 4pm and the sun starting to set earlier and earlier. Sunset was 8:30pm last night though it was more like 8:45pm it seemed.

With traffic getting out of Portland and a last minute job at work my escaping at 4:30 turned into 5:05 at I found myself at BZ by 6:30pm which had been the planned meet time but Michael had gotten there around 6pm and Devin had been in HR all week so I was the delay. We gathered all our gear quickly into Michaels Subi and we headed up to Green Truss bridge to gear up and climb down to the White Salmon River to cool down. It was in the mid 80's from the time we put on till we got off. OK, it dropped to 78 as the sun came down?

The run went great. Even though it's mine and Devin's first year being focused on the Truss and levels hovering around 2.6'we we're all comfortable keeping a quick pace downstream. With a put-on time of 7:11pm we knew there wasn't a lot of time to screw around. Big Bro' would be out for me and Devin's possible first time, I would run Lower Zig-Zag with the wood in it ( not because of time requirement but because I wanted to run it again! ), and me and Devin would walk BZ Falls unless Devin looked at it immediately and gave it a go. He looked briefly and shouldered his boat.

We walked off the water at Maytag at exactly 8:30pm!!!!!

Green Truss Video

2008-08-05T22:21:00.000-07:00

Video from last weekend on the Truss. Shannon's first time this season.

Playing at Spencers Hole in Gates, OR

2008-07-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

Video of Jefe Grande in Italy

2008-07-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

Devin becomes full LiquidLogic Team Member

2008-07-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

Devin has been paddling the Chico Jefe and Pocket Rocket from LiquidLogic for the past year now loving both. Today after talking with Devin LL rep Ted Keyes and the owner of LL, Woody Callaway. Devin is now a full team member of LL. Prior to now, Devin was still part of LL just some of the details have changed.

Rumors of a new playboat in the smaller people size may be coming down the pipeline. We'll see what Shane Benedict has in store at the OR trade show next month.

Congrats, Devin

Gorge Games BoaterX

2008-07-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

Devin and Brandon Wells taking 1st and 2nd place. Robbie Virostek too 3rd but didn't hang for the awards.

pics by Melissa DeCarlo and Katie Wagner

Devin along with four other youths had in it out in two heats with the top two from each heat making the finals. In the end Devin dominated his heat and the finals by a fair margin over the others. Devin and Todd Wells, age 16 had to chase down a boat from a swimmer below TopDrop before getting back up to their next heat. Guess the safety crew didn't feel it was important to have a boater in the water or ready to drop in if needed?

Devin being the youth winner then advanced to the Men's semi's where he was in first coming into Maytag by 20 yards when he flipped and had a kayak on top of him when he tried to roll, got his paddle knocked out of one hand. Finally able to roll up he paddled down to take 3rd but not advance to the next round but he did get to make his presence known with the big dogs!!

Summer Vacation in the Hood

2008-07-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a brief list of Devin's boating this week:

Sat 13: Farmies/Truss
Sun 14: L-Dub
Mon 15: Truss/MWS
Tue 16: Truss/L-Dub
Wed 17: Worked for me then went to the gym
Thu 18: Truss (two laps)
Fri 19: Truss (swims out of BZ Falls!!) 1st major swim too.
Sat 20: Truss (watched Gorge Games Extreme Race. Competed in BoaterX taking 1st in youth division)
Sun 21: Farmies/Truss

Poor life kid!? In the end 8 laps on the Truss, 2 laps on the Farmies and 2 laps on the L-Dub in 8 days.

7/12 &7/13 Busy Weekend in the Hood

2008-07-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

Devin and Austin getting ready to put in on the Little White Salmon

Pat Keller, with yes, hand paddles on the Little White!!

On Saturday, Devin and myself ran the Farmlands and Green Truss sections of the White Salmon at 3.25'. The highest we've both ran the Truss to date. The Farmlands 3.25 is a normal medium level and there were not many surprises but once we hit the Truss. Things started to get juicy really quick but not in a bad way. Many rocks were covered and with the exception of some bigger holes we both felt that the run cleaned up. We both portaged Big Bro', Bob's and BZ and Lower Zig-Zag cause of the wood. Every since I got beat in Bob's, Devin is very respectful of the drop and has not been really interested in running it. I'm kinda still working on it as well and it seemed much better at 3.25 than at lower flows as long as you stayed out of the pocket hole in the middle.

Our only real entertainment for the Truss was Upper Zig-Zag were I got spun around near the top, flipped and ran the majority of the rapid upside down!? It's nice to know that you can ride it out since the water takes you where you want to go anyway. Plus, once your doing a head rudder it's easy to not flip!! Devin got tangled with me near the bottom left undercut wall and we both briefly flipped and plushed through but Devin got to brace off the wall with his head. Oops! One thing that is amazing with Upper Zig-Zag is that even if you gap yourself 60-100 feet behind the person in front of you. If they get off line, you are on them like white on rice. Allen Thatcher who was behind Devin became too close for his comfort as me and Devin got tossed around.

Sunday I decided to take a break and let my shoulder rest and Devin got a email from Austin Rathman wanting to boat the L-Dub. The flows had dropped to around 3.2' finally and it seemed a good option for the day. The flows ended up being 3.3' and Devin had a blast running it with Austin and Pat Keller from Team Dagger. Pat is a amazing paddler that is alot like Devin. Not only in hairstyle but Pat started out ina kayak when he was like 6 years old. Pat being the animal he is opted to hand paddle the Little White without portaging any drop and even fired off Spirit Falls. I had hiked in to take some pics but after my scouting of Upper Little White. I got down just after he had ran it and got to only see Austin signal to me that everything went smooth and I saw the three head down river. Austin and Devin portaged Spirit.

This was Devin's second run down the Little White and he had remembered most all the lines and was even taking some of his own. Something that most people don't do till their 6-7th time down the run. It's impressive to see how well Devin's memory is to rapids. I've learned to not argue with him to much on a rapid. Though I still do. I'm a little stubborn too!

Wenatchee River Slideshow - July 4th Weekend

2008-07-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Fibark - Hooligan's Race Pic

2008-06-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

thanks to Shane Benedict of LiquidLogic for the pic.
I was able to get a pic of Devin during his favorite race or event of his whole trip to Colorado. The Hooligan's Race at the Fibark. It's like our "anything but whitewater float race" but on a insanely entertaining level.

Devin's team was named, "the young guns" with team members: Dane Jackson and Jason Craig from Team Jackson. Devin is up front in the yellow drytop digging in to pull the pool toy through the competition hole.

Devin joins "Team Bomber Gear"

2008-06-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

It's official, Devin is now part of the newly reborn Bomber Gear. Devin had met Rick Franken, the owner, last year on his way out to Colorado for the Jr Olympics. Sam Drevo had stopped by Ricks and Rick sponsored all the kids for the competition with a piece of clothing. Devin in the end came home with shorts and a underlayer top. The shorts he has wore most all the the Winter/ Fall boating season.I guess you could say he likes them.

When Devin was once again out in CO. Devin ran into Rick at the Fibark competition and offered Devin to join his team. I talked with Rick earlier today to finalize things. Devin being a minor I get to deal with these things. He just kayaks and has fun. Nice!!

Congrat, Devin.

6/22/8 Multi-River Day

2008-06-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

With my other addiction of tattoo's, which I got more done on Saturday, I opted for a casual day of boating. Well, that and I lost one of my river shoes out of my boat Saturday prior to my tattoo appt. while draining my playboat at Joe Bob's. That put a damper on the plan of Upper Opal, Opal and Opal Gorge run that we'd planned on. A mandatory portage in the Gorge without trusting soles above a bad sieve. Hmm, bad idea.

So, instead I called up some friends to find not alot of people getting out. Though, Kris Litz, a good HR freind was planning a trip down the Upper Wind. Why not? I loaded up the playboats for that run. Yeah, most people take creekers but it makes the run more entertaining and there is plenty of play on the run in the runnout that most people hate. Cause they're not in playboats!! I also loaded up the creekers with the hope of finding someone from the Wind run or HR boater to run the Upper East fork of the Hood. A awesome class IV+ 4-5 mile continuous rapid/ boulder garden. I'd done a few laps while Devin was in CO and had hoped it would still be in when he got back home. It was!!

After our run down the Wind which was pretty uneventful, one swimmer that sucks on that run usually and myself getting worked in a hole way up top above Initiation, the first class IV and the start to the busy stretch that follow for miles. After a few cartwheels I flushed out and though this was gonna pretty entertaining run.

Got the shuttle done and me and Devin were headed into Hood River to grab lunch and hopefully find someone to boat with. As I came into cell range I got a message from a friend in HR that had gotten my email earlier that I was looking at getting out today and by chance I was in his part of town a hour after he had called me. We were all up for the UEFH run and after me and Devin grabbing a coupl pieces of pizza to go and a few pairs of nose plugs from The Shed. We were off to the UEFH or Upper East fork of the Hood.

It was a true treat for me to share this run with Devin. I'm not running the Little White but this run is for sure challenging and has only consequences if you happen to find yourself upside down or into the wood that is always present on this run. There is one mandatory portage around a huge unrunnable logjam and a few optional ones that depending on how you feel about wood are easily walkable. Besides the logjam we walked three pieces. One being a hundred yards from the take-out, so we just walk up to our cars from there. It's a no brainer. Devin was all smiles from ear to ear during and after the run. Yeah, he asked for another lap. Not today!! I did my first flip and happily rolled before nailing a rock with my head rudder. I consider this run to require a solid brace and a optional roll. Most people that flip on the UEFH bail after hitting a rock or two and or lose their paddles out of their hands. A good friend donated his creekboat to the UEFH just Saturday.

If you see a blue Dragonrossi Mafia let me know and I'll get you in touch with it's owner.

The logjam from the bottom looking back up at it.

A Evening AT Joe Bob's

2008-06-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

Michael Williams on slide in Italy

2008-06-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

The Return of the Midget

2008-06-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Devin flies back from trekking around Colorado with the Hyde family and I get my little paddling buddy back!! While he's had fun in CO I did my best to keep up or out do him here and with the amazing water going on it wasn't hard to do. I hit Upper Quartsville, Canyon Creek, OR, Canyon Creek, WA, Copper Creek, Opal Creek and Upper Opal Creek sections of the Little North Fork of the Santiam. In the end of two weeks my new Nomad 8.5 got a few injuries I broke my AT2 yesterday rolling in a hole on CC, WA, but I wouldn't of changed a thing.

Oh Be Joyful a no go?

2008-06-13T14:19:00.001-07:00

Devin and company heard from a few at Fibark that had tried getting onto OBJ the day prior that the creek you have to drive across was 4' deep and to high to cross and the run would most likely be too high as well.

Poor guy will have to wait till next year but hopefully I can make it out next year as well so I happy at least!!

Homestake Creek Pics

2008-06-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

Child drowns on the clackamas story

2008-06-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

Thought that this story was a tragic situation and proof of what dangers arise when ropes are added into a dynamic environment. A simple throw rope thrown to someone inexperienced in handling one and not having a knife. A main reason why I don't prefer to throw a rope to someone without a knife.

My point is, "ropes can become a danger on the water very quickly."

They were also on the Clackamas going down a normally simple class I+ section but at 10k. High Rocks becomes very dangerous. My first experience into whitewater kayaking was in grade school when a friends dad who kayaked the Grand Canyon and others runs as I was told then class IV boater. Drowned at High Rocks while kayaking. He was pulled under by the boils that form at higher flows and will take you under the shelves and pin you there. A good friends mom use to be a rescue diver that has recovered bodies from High Rocks years back and she said it's pretty creepy down there.

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_061108_news_boy_scout_drowning.205543d6.html

Oh Be Joyful

2008-06-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd throw up a video from youtube.com of what Devin will be on Thursday. Oh Be Joyful in Colorado!!

FibArk

2008-06-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

Devin and the Hyde family made the two hour drive from Denver to the Arkansas River to start training for the FibArk competition this weekend. This will be Devin's second time doing slalom and being in a actual glass slalom boat. Something I'm glad to see with the limited slalom boating in Oregon and the major benefits it's provides to you creeking. People like Sam Drevo and Brad Ludden started out slalom boaters and have became amazing talented creekers.

The Hyde Family

2008-06-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

I found a few pics Mike Hyde had on the internet and wanted to put them on to remember this awesome family that is allowing Devin to stay with them and go boating everyday. Something that I'm proud of Devin's love for the sport and others enjoyment of wanting to be around him. It's not about what he can do on the water but what kind of adult he'll become.

This is Mike and his 8yr old son Henry. Henry even competed in the 8-ball race at TEVA this year. Though Devin said the others were gonna use him as a shield since the ballers agreed to not hurt Henry.

Henry Hyde surfing it up in his Jackson playboat. Devin has told me Henry is ripping it up in the surf. He's still a little shy and feels embarrassed if others are around, keeping him dropping into holes he can handle but may swim out of. Hmm, sounds like me. Devin is hoping to encourage Henry that it's OK to swim out a hole that most people are just gonna be impressed he was willing to give a try. We all swim and he's got plenty of time to work on exiting sticky holes for sure!!

TEVA Games -Weekend

2008-06-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

When I talked with Devin this evening after getting back from my fabulous weekend boating on Upper Quartsville twice, camped up along it and then fired off Canyon Creek lower 5 at 2.0' Thanks Lisa for putting the idea together and Chris Arnold for driving and that amazing second lap on Quartsville in 38 minutes!! Taking out just above the bridge in water rapid.

Oh wait, I just got a wee side tracked? At the TEVA game. Devin had decided to not compete in the steep creek race or playboating competition but he did the 8-ball race and downriver race. In the downriver he came in 30th out of 45 competitors of mostly adult men. Tao Berman took home 1st in the race. The 8-ball Devin raced and took 3rd in his heat of 4 paddlers. It took 2nd or better to advance but he beat Rush Sturgis so he just just happy with that!! Brad Ludden tried taking him out in competition hole but Devin dodged him. Todd Anderson took home the 1st place on 8-ball. Todd and Tao are just cleaning house at TEVA.

Video of Devin and Todd Anderson on Homestake Creek

2008-06-06T00:37:00.000-07:00

This is a video Devin sent me link to last night of one of his runs down Homestake Creek the day prior to the race. Devin was working with Todd Anderson on lines as you can see in the video. Todd and Devin eddie out while others continue down river. You'll notice in the second sequence on video that there is a cameraman on a zip line catching footage of Devin running a section. I believe Devin or Austin said LiquidLogic had a crew doing some filming.

The video is put together my Mike Hyde. Henry's father that Devin is hanging in CO with. I'm also told Mike's band is used as the soundtrack for the video!! Nice job Mike. I jealous of all of you at TEVA as we speak!! Oh, well? Devin's having fun and as a parent that's what matters:)

Devin hits TEVA

2008-06-04T23:01:00.000-07:00

Devin's trip to Colorado started out a little rocky with him getting sick the second day he was with the Hyde family in Denver. Much like a repeat of his trip last year with sam Drevo when Devin got sick on the way through Idaho heading to Colorado for the Jr Olypmics. Tuesday he was much better and got in a run down a man made course where he got in another swim!! Once again with a good excuse. He claims while surfing a wave, he had thrown his paddle into the eddie and when he later flipped, carped a few hand rolls and pulled his skirt. I tell ya. Playboating is dangerous!! Although, in all honesty. I'm glad he's gotten a few swims in lately. Even though they have been in mild whitewater. It's a really important thing be use to swimming with your gear. At some point, you're gonna be swimming in a hole or down a class V and be freaked out. Even more than mormal!! This time I don't think the booty beverage was enforced!?

Wednesday morning the Hydes and Devin headed towards Vail and a condo they'll be staying in during the TEVA games. Devin also had time to check out Homestake Creek. The site for the steep creek competition. A nice 450 fpm run that is less than one mile in length. Devin hooked up with Todd Anderson and others for a few laps down the creek that is flowing at around 120cfs. Apparently things went good with the exception of the last manky drop. "shit of a rapid". This rapid is giving everyone trouble and it will be Devin's biggest goal to figure out the best way to hit the line though it.

Highlights for Devin on top of competing and getting on new runs is the people he's getting to meet and paddle with. He told me he met Shane Benedict of LiquidLogic, Brad Ludden of First Descents and pro kayaker just to name a few. I'm told Devin had a camera taped onto his Chico for both runs today!! Hopefully I'll get to see the runs.

Tomorrow morning, Devin is planning on waking up early to get a lap or two before sign ups with Todd Anderson and Tao Berman!! Two great competitors that have a great training regiment when it comes to races like Homestake. Tao took first on it last year!!

Upper East Fork Hood - TR

2008-06-01T19:05:00.001-07:00

Devin's getting ready for Colorado

2008-05-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

We picked up a pair of Salamander Kayak Bags from Aldercreek Kayak to ship off Devin's Pocket Rocket and Chico Jefe for his 16 day trip with The Hyde family and compete at TEVA and Fibark competitions. Young Henry Hyde, age 8, should have a fun time working with Devin while he's there. The last time they were together they both ended up with mohawks!!!

Map of the Velsesia Whitewater

2008-05-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

I found this great map of the area in Northern Italy that I was in.

Val Sesia, Italy pics (of me!!) with Gene17

2008-05-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

Myself posing unknowningly, but hey. I look cool!!
The big slide at the beginning of the Egua. Above this slide was a technical class IV lead in that had a nice pin spot and a few holes waiting just above this 25-30' slide.

A fun drop on the Gronda. a upper trib of the Sorba. This was a fun drop with a right boof required to avoid the room of doom after pitoning. I learned that on my second lap but I was able to work my way out of it.

Cave rapid on the Sermenza. This rapid required a controlled turn left off a pillow into a ledge drop that if ran straight forward, you'd end up in the cave with boils and hole. This drop was on the last day and put everything we learned by Gene17 to the test. If you learned what they taught. This drop was a blast. I ran it twice with good results each time so I guess I got learned!!

My first attempt at a freewheel!! Landed it great with the exception of imploding my skirt but I was able to paddle to the eddie.

This was a drop just below Trumpet Falls on the Little Sermenza. It took the help of Alex Dey to remind me which drop it was. In part due to the angle Simon took the shot from which is above the falls looking down into it. The drop was in the 14-16' range and like Trumpet Falls. We ran this one blind as well. Good times!!

The first drop on the Sorba slides section. We ran laps on all three drops over and over to work on boofing and edge control. In the end. My left knee is still killing me to this day from shouldering my Nomad8.1 up the hills. I'm not whining. I just have a bad knee and brought it back to life. Oh, well?

The second drop on the Sorba slides section. We worked on boofing left into the eddie in the cave. In the beginning this move was killing me. After 2-3 laps I was nailing it like I knew how to kayak.

This seems to be a rarity in that I have high quality shots of myself kayaking. This is at least proof that I do in fact kayak!! If you ever get a chance to take a instruction trip with Gene17. Do it!! Simon Westgarth has assembled some of the best paddlers/instructors that's I've ever seen and had the opportunity to paddle with. Dave Carrol, Matt Tidey and Ed Cornfield are the shit:)

Upper Clackamas River Festival

2008-05-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the 25th Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival held up on the Fish to Bob's section of the Clackamas. We made it out for the competitions on Saturday. The always entertaining kayak mass start race, 2nd annual freestyle ramp and kayak relay race. The races went off as expected even with the record high water levels and another record for the competitions. SUN!! Low 90's to be exact. I was insane to say the least.

The Mass Start race is always a crowd and competitor favorite because you have to run Carter's in a playboat through two gates of Luke Spencer's choice. After changing the
gates 3-4 times they decided on the two 3 and 7 that should in short provide the most carnage! It didn't disappoint. With Carters blown out there was only fast moving water and one large hole that we had to punch directly behind the first gate. Most made it though upright but not necessarily on line anymore. Me and Devin both made it through OK. Though when I came out of the hole and headed down a steep wave I found Robbie Virostek surfing the wave directly in my path so a quick change of course kept us from coliding. In the end, Todd Anderson took 1st and Austin Rathman claimed 2nd even though Austin head ruddered a large portion of the run after the hole!

In the pic, Todd is bottom left with Austin upside down next to him, myself in the background with my white fullface and Devin in the hole on top right of the pic. You can just see his paddle. pic provided by Todd Anderson. Taken by Nicole Rose I believe.

The relay race was next and myself, Devin and Todd Anderson had decided to be a team and quickly added Christie Glissmeyer to our needed 4 kayak team. Making me the non sponsored odd duck out I guess. Oh well? Todd and Christie hadn't done Fish to Bob's before so we decided for Todd to fire out the first stage from Fish to above Carters, Christie to run Carters, myself, down to below Big Eddie and Devin would then carry all 4 beers to Bob's. Oddly enough that put me and Devin on the longest stretches but it was for fun and we were up for the challenge. All went great till my and Christie's transfer where I fought to get the 3 beers into the mesh bag me were using in a surging eddie. Once I got my crap together, I was in 4th at that point. I passed Robbie and Sandra to claim 2nd and Devin kept the pace and we ended up with a close 2nd place trophy out of it. The best part was Todd paddling along with us cheering us on like a drill sergeant!! Todd, you are in amazing shape for sure!!

Our trophy from the relay race!!

The freestyle ramp was a new 40' steep ramp that Devin did a few practice laps on a decided it wasn't worth the back pain on the landing as did I after my 2nd lap when I too landed flat and felt it for the next week. Talking later in the week with Ryan Scott who won the event. He stated, "it hurt his back as much as running Spirit Falls". Me and Devin missed out on the main portion of the event when we chased down Steven Olsen and his boat after imploding his skirt on the landing. A common occurance this year. We got his boat just below SlingShot and had to run all the way to Big Eddie to get back up.

Devin exiting the ramp in what I call, "training for Spirit Falls!"

Hagen Gorge in May!!

2008-05-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Paul Guinea on the second part of Teakettle.

Devin on Double Falls.
Devin in the boils heading towards the narrow slot.

Last Sunday morning I got a phone call from a friend that they were headed up to run Hagan Gorge. This is a run paddlers recently found in the Washougal tributary in Washington a few years back. This was a run that Nate Herbeck had been wanting to get us or more so Devin on this season but things just never worked out. We even headed out to run it once and when we got there the group decided to run the Upper NW fork in the NW Washougal. One note: it's referred to as NW apparently some maps call it the North fork and others the West fork. To make it right, it's now referred to the NW fork.

The put in requires a short hike through a clearcut section of forest that not too bad with the help of previous boaters making a trail a little more visible than the deers had previously done. It was quite a warm day to minimal gear was put on and the rest was thrown into our boats and off we went. Unfortunately my left knee has acted back up since Italy with all the boat carrying we did running laps on certain drops. Oh well, the price I had to pay was worth it!!!

Once geared up the group of 7-8 decided to split up into two group. Due to the nature of how small Hagan is and small eddies above many drops it proved to be a wise decision. Most of the rapids are shallow and low volume even with it being the highest most had ran it prior. Not so good on my brand new Dagger 8.5. Oh well? After a few fun class III drops we approached Hagen Daaz Falls. A fun easy 16-18 foot waterfall that we ran off the far right side without scouting thanks to Michael running Hagen the previous day. All went good and I think only Alex flipped in it and we then one at a time made it down to a eddie on river right that is directly above Euphoria Falls. This was a nerving eddie to catch cause we knew something exciting was just around the corner. There is also a little guard rock at the top of the eddie just waiting to deny you of scouting the drop. We all caught it and took a look via walking down the right bank that also serves as the portage trail if you don't feel Euphoria. Euphoria is fun shallow entry into a slide you run center left. Just left of the fan rock to avoid a dangerous piece of wood on the left that would not good to piton or pin. After the slide the riverbed makes a right turn into a short slide into a sticky hole. Running down the right side of the slide, boofing onto the bare rocks provided a fun route around the hole. A technique several of us had picked up from the instructors in Italy with Gene17.

After that the run mellows till the confluence with the NW Fork of the Washougal. At this point me and Devin had ran the rest down to the Main Washougal. Though, this time I felt a little more prepared for the big drops on the run that I'd previously portaged. Teakettle and Double Falls. Crack in the Earth has wood in it so it isn't a option. Teakettle is directly below the confluence of Hagen and the NW Fork. A two part drop. The top is a manky slide that we ran on far right into a boily pool around 35 yards long leading into a pourover with a pillow on river left and a pourover onto a boily mess that you skirt both by running right down the seam between the two. It's a run ride and I'm so stoked that the instructors at Gene17 gave me the knowledge on how to breakdown a drop like this and place my strokes appropriately.

We make our way down to Double Falls. A 18' vertical falls with a cauldron of boils that lead into a narrow slot guarded by a diagonal. It loves to flip you and at least knock you off line to piton the rock on the left. Devin had looked at this drop it the past and got to see Nate Garr run the slot upsidedown and a few others upright. In the end, on that trip he had decided to walk it after looking for 10-15 minutes. This time there was no question. He was giving it a go. After Michael Williams fired it off. Devin wsa next in his boat. We nailed the boof on the falls, made it thought the boils and got flipped on the bottom hole but came out fine. After a few others, I decided it was time for my nuts to drop. This waterfall! I too nailed the boof in the Nomad 8.5 and the diagonal sent me into the rock on the left. Pitoned, splatted the left wall and flushed out. Yippee!!!!

The rest of the run became lower as we went since all the water was coming off the top . In a boulder garden I got stuck in a hole briefly and pulled the best bow stall I will ever hit in a 8.5' creekboat. It stalled perfectly on it's nose and as I pushed down on the footboards, I was able to took downstream at the others that didn't understand what was going on till I finally came down without flipping and paddled to them laughing my ass off. They had thought that somehow I'd vertically pinned.

Proof you need a good helmet playboating and a chiropractor!?

2008-05-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

Video I found on youtube that just looked to painful to not put up on our blog.

Opal Creek and Opal Gorge Run

2008-05-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

Devin running Big Fluffy. photo by EJ Etherington
Last Sunday Devin made his second run down the classic Opal Creek section of the Little North Fork of the Santiam. In addition to the run Devin joined EJ Etherington down the Gorge section that is directly below Thor's Playroom. This run is a little ominous in the fact that there is a drop "Un-Un" that scares a alot of people from entering the gorge. In other words go with someone that knows the run. Un-Un is unscoutable and unportagable. Once in the gorge you are 100% committed. Flows were around 1200cfs according to Devin with makes for a juicy level for the mandatory portage but it was still doable on either side. They did the scary left side.

I was quite glad to get the email from Devin while I was sitting at the airport in New Jersey that all had went well and was OK. Joys of being his dad!!

Devin's 1st bootie!! beer free model

2008-05-12T10:19:00.001-07:00

photo's by EJ Etherington

Devin got his first swim in while I was gone in Italy. Although it was while C1ing in a playboat that he wasn't outfitted in on the McKenzie River. He claims he was falling out of it during his multiple attempts at rolling?

Sure thing little guy. We all have excutes!:)

Proof Devin likes the Chico's

2008-05-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

After this weekend on the L-Dub, we were contacted by a team member of Team Jackson to see if Devin was interested in joining Team Jackson! This would possibly mean free boats and joining the great team of paddlers that EJ has put together. Good friend Heather Herbeck is one such paddler on the team. Devin had paddled the Jackson Punk Rocker prior to switching over to LiquidLogic boats so he knew the boats. While he really liked the Punk Rocker he feels the Chico Jefe is the boat he'd prefer to paddle down the steeps. I'm glad that's the case of why he paddles the Chico and not due to the discounts he gets on LL boats.

In the end it's about the product you like not the company that gives you free gear. But it was really cool to get such a offer.

I'm off to Italy with Gene17 for a creeking clinic so I'll update the blog with Devins exploits in P-Town and mine when I get back!!

cheers,

Ryan Scott's trailer clip for Northwest Video ScrapbookVI

2008-04-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

Awesome clip with Devin's first run on the L-Dub, that is just a part of Ryan Scott's new video that is premiering in Boise, ID this weekend. We'll have to wait till the Clackamas Whitewater Festival May 17-18 for our chance to see it in it's entirety in P-Town. From what I here it'll be worth the wait!!

Good news, is that it'll be an all-ages showing!!

EJ's pics of Devin the L-Dub

2008-04-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

These are all amazing shots that EJ Etherington shot of Devin on his first run on the Little White.

Devin scouting Spirit and Chaos (the only two he didn't run)

Devin at S-Turn
Devin running StovePipe
Devin at Boulder Sluice
Devin in Island Rapid

L-Dub "Devin style"

2008-04-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

Ryan Scott doing it right!!
Jarrod, umm, Not so right? But great AT product placement at least!!
Jesse Coombs on Spirit Falls. This place is more amazing in person that any picture could do justice.
Sunday, Devin finally hopped on the Little White Salmon River with a solid crew consisting of Austin, Ryan Scott, Keel, Jarod, Lana, Geoff, EJ Etherington. Level was at a perfect 3.1' for a first timer. Devin ended running every single drop on the run with the exception of Spirit Falls!! I was told by the crew that he did a awesome job on the whole run. A very big thanks to Austin for showing Devin the lines down the LW, Ryan Scott for being interested in taking Devin down it and the rest for giving him a amazing crew to keep him loose and enjoying this first time experience.

The old question of, "should Devin run the LW", was answered this weekend. The answer is YES!!

Hopefully I'll get the pics from the trip from Keel, EJ and Lana here soon to post.

Klamath and Scott River Pics

2008-04-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

The kayaks getting strapped down onto the raft trailer for our trip down the Klamath. It was nice when we decided to use the trailer that brought all the kayaks to Ashland in the first place.
Devin and Robbie having a little fun boxing at the party Saturday night. All had a good time. As you can tell by all the smiles though Robbie did end up with a little shiner. Devin got the light gloves and Robbie had the thick padded ones. Probably a good idea with the way the night went.
Ty running a narrow line beteen the boulders after running the main line through a sticky hole Devin got worked in for a second or two in the playboat he was in on the Scott River..
Paul Guinea running the same line on the Scott River
Devin playing in a hole myself, Paul, Ty and Devin spent a fair amount of time in. Instead of racing we opted for a fun day on the water.

Canyon Creek Race TR

2008-04-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a few since the Canyon Race and I have yet to put anything up on the blog. Not sure why it took so long but here goes.

With the race coming up we had spent a few days during the week after work and many weekends getting laps in on Canyon Creek at several different flows to get a good memory of the rapids and the ideal lines for those flows. With Canyon being rain and snow melt fed it would be a guess as to what the rain gods would deal us on race day. What we ended up was nothing but spectacular. Weather turned out being close to 80 degrees. The water level was 3-4" below the unit. A great flow that would cover a lot of the rocks, make the holes just sticky enough to mess with those not familiar to the creek at that flow which proved an important strategy. Many good boaters got ate by the hole at the bottom of the boulder garden. One side note: while every drop on the run has at least one name, several 2. The boulder garden is just that. "The boulder garden with the hole at the bottom" Why is that? Several have commented,"it the only boulder garden on the run!". There is only one waterfall, "Big Kahuna". Why does it have two names it goes by. The world will never know:)

Anywho, back to the story. The evening prior to the race. I got a Migraine. Something I get to deal with unfortunately. It attacked me just as I was getting off work so I look my meds and made a run for home while I could still see where the heck I was going. Turn the lights off, crawl into bed and sleep for as long as I can usually is my only defense. It worked and by 9pm I was able to drive over to pick Devin up from his moms and back to my place and go back to bed. The next morning I could only hope would treat me well enough to at the least get Devin up to the race. If I ran Canyon myself I didn't care. I had not planned on racing but I did want to see him race at some point as well as get some shots.

By the time we drove to the take-out I was feeling 95% sure I'd be heading down the run. Yippee!! Thanks Imatrex!!

Once we got shuttled up to the put in after getting Devin signed up. Shuttle provided by Seattle Raft and Kayak and Next Adventure. We got geared up and made our way down the creek towards the first of the bigger rapids, "Swizzle Sticks". This would prove to be the first of many rapids that I immediately could tell Devin was having an off day for any number of reasons. Most likely just thinking too much about the race and lines down each drop. He dropped into the first hole in the entance and got a little surf session before pulling his way out only to drop into the big hole midway down the main part of the rapid. Once again he worked his way out but geez! This has never happened on the 10-12 previous runs in the past 3 months. I chatted with Devin for a minute or two seeing if he was OK and he claimed nothing was bugging him. "50-50" and "Terminator" didn't give him any problem and we made our way to "Prelude" or "Prelude to Thrasher". This drop changes quite a lot with different flows at 3-4" below the unit it tends to give boaters a bit of trouble. It's one of the most portaged drops and the only one that I have had the fortunate enjoyment of getting worked in without safety in place and swam out of. Not the best place to swim I might add with "Thrasher " awaiting 40 yards downstream. While Devin styled the drop as he usually does. I got flipped punching the hole and was glad to roll and pull myself out with the same stroke to paddle away from it. Dave Gridley who was next to run it after seeing myself and apparently the guy prior to me do the same things quickly paddled across above the drop. Got out of his boat and portaged it. Dave is a much better boater than myself by far but I'm trying to push myself to run it. If not, I will start portaging it every time and that's not cool with me. I believe 8-10 people got worked and swam out of "Prelude" during the race. A few boat even ran "Thrasher" before getting to the bank.

Race time: The racers were released every 60 seconds and they could step up in any order to the starting line. Devin was somewhere in the first 3rd to go. That made me feel good. He was relaxed and not nervous like I'd be in his place. I wish I had his nerves at time. Mike Long was the starter and someone Devin really respects though they've never boated together. Mike is in a lot of trip reports on Oregonkayaking.net. Devin's Bible you could say. Though Mike told me a while back at Pint Night to stop letting Devin read the reports. He knows all the creeks within a few hour drive and has a mental list of ones someday he wants to get on. One's he would not know of if such a site didn't exist.

I stayed at "Thrasher" for most of the kayaks starts so I got to see Devin run "Thrasher". Which to me was the most important drop to nail. He styled it as he has usually in part thanks to Dave Hoffman showing him his line down it and it seems to work quite well for Devin as well. I cheered him on after the drop as he paddled towards the boulder garden and he was gone. I knew I would not get to know how he did for some time and I was OK with that. He knows the lines and there was safety set at all the drops in case.

As the kayakers were winding down, I headed down river to "Big Kahuna Falls" to catch the rafts run it. I knew "Thrasher" would not be a problem for them so this should provide the best viewing of some carnage or styling of the 20' falls. It for sure gave a little of both. A little MiniMe missed the boof and plugged and flipped while the team that won from Seattle dialed the boof in like it was a hardshell kayak. A few others did the same.

In the end Devin ran a great race with a time of 6 minutes 6 seconds. Good enough respectivily for 15th in the Mens Pro Division or time wise 8th or 9th in the Advanced class that had 36 competitors in it. There was no youth class. There was only two this year. Devin and Robbie Virostek, age 17. Unless more race next year Devin would be the only youth so I'm guessing he will competing in the Mens class till he is truely a "Man" The only line has told me he missed was "Kahuna" where he didn't quite catch the eddie above the lip he uses to line up the boof flake with and plugged the drop getting pushed into the left undercut wall. Just getting over to the left side of the falls costs you 10 seconds. His time was within .2 seconds of Robbies.

To add to the fun after the race we all headed to Mike Olsen's place for a big party he throws after the Canyon Race's in past years and this one did not disappoint.

A special thanks to Ted Keyes, Devin's LiquidLogic Rep. for getting with Sam Drevo to loan us the Remix59 to train in and race down Canyon Creek. It was the a perfect fit for such a race. I believe I saw 3-4 of the Remix's out there in all there different sizes.

Sunset Falls Huckfest 2008

2008-04-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

Canyon Creek Race

2008-04-14T21:22:00.001-07:00

Unknown paddler getting freestyle points at Thrasher
Dave Gridley on Thrasher
James Bagley on Thrasher
Roberta stylin' Thrasher
Devin on doing a great job with the race gitters at Thrasher

Canyon Creek Slideshow Video

2008-04-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Thought this was a great to view race as I got to see it!!

Big Tree Falls Video

2008-04-13T23:50:00.000-07:00

Canyon Creek Levels

2008-04-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

With the race two days away. The water level is awesome and hanging around 4" below the unit!! Forecast doesn't predict rain so the water levels should stay steady with the snow melt as weather is suppose to warm up slightly though Saturday with possible highs of 74 degrees. Sun and water!? Now all we'll need is a little carnage!!

Amboy gauge currently is 4.8'.

Illinois R. (Green Wall) with and without Harvey's

2008-04-09T23:28:00.000-07:00

Green Wall as it is now with Harvey's Hole. Note the kayaker is just above the hole that's new. Flow of around 1200cfs. Kayaker is Brad Bassi with photo provided by Steve Stuckemeyer.
This is a picture I took last year of the bottom at Green Wall. Flow was 2400cfs.
This is a picture from last year of the bottom of the Green Wall.

Note there is no big raft eating hole.

Illinois River side creek slide video

2008-04-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Long description for a series of shots of Devin on the low water slide.

Canyon Creek Exrteme Race (This Saturday!!)

2008-04-07T09:43:00.001-07:00

This weekend will be Devin's first kayak race in the NW. While we don't focus on racing normally Canyon Creek has a special place in our hearts and for the little guy to even be allowed to race with his age makes it even more cool. If only there was a youth category regardless of how many 17 and unders show. Luke seems to be interested in adding the category next year so we'll see.

Devin's looking good on his lines and yesterday just the two of us did a quick lap and I got to try and keep up with him through the boulder gardens and with the Remix59 and his strength that didn't work out so we'll for me. I got to see him around the corner of boulders as he dropped over the next ledge. It was proof to me that he knows the lines for sure and will be safe on his own during the race. Of course there is safety all over the course but I hate to trust someone else with his life or safety.

This week will most likely be spending time at the gym a few nights getting ready!!

Illinois River Trip (Devin's 1st time down)

2008-04-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Devin sitting on top of this slide we came across the first day of the Illy
Devin about half way down the slide. Next time hopefully it'll be juicy and a waterfall
Devin boofing a medium sized pour over in the Remix59. photo's by Corey Morton

Last year I had the opportunity to get down the Illinois River for my first time and while I'd wanted to take Devin down with me I was concerned about the run being a class IV-V overnighter that's really remote. What if something happened or he was in over his head? The levels had been rising that trip and we estimate it was around 2000-2400 cfs on the gauge above the run. One thing about the Illy is that there are a lot of waterfalls from creeks screaming with water after a rain. The gauge is only a reference tool and seems far from accurate to flows once on the run. The main rule is that you don't put on if it's raining or a storm is rolling in. The river flashes up quickly due to the steepness of the canyon and soil on the banks doesn't absorb the water resulting in the levels jumping from a low 800cfs to an out of control 4-8000cfs in several hours. The class V (green wall) has claimed lives of people attempting it at higher flows. From what I was told a group tried to eddie out above the Green Wall and found there wasn't any and washed into it.

This wasn't that sort of levels by any means but we were dealing with a small chance of rain and the levels were currently sitting around 1200cfs and predected to rise to 1750cfs or so. Cold, rainy but it's the Illy and I'm use to multi-day's in the rain.

IT'S OREGON!!

We considered playboats with the lower level but this being my second time down and at half the flow I was told the run would be pretty mellow but I wanted to be conservative. So we opted to big boats down and Devin borrowed a LiquidLogic Remix59 from Sam Drevo at eNRG Kayaking, who is letting Devin train for the Canyon Creek Race in the boat. The boat proved to be a great boat for the run with it's 9' length Devin was intentionally plowing through big hole, held a line well, boofed some of the biggest pour overs we had to date and with planing hull it's surfed on the big glassy waves effortlessly.

In all it was a great trip with a really fun group of friends and I'm bummed to be back home already sitting in from of the computer typing this. Oh well, we should be heading to do a lap on Canyon Creek later today!!

One note to mention about the Illinois' (Green Wall) is that while everyone usually spends 10-15 scouting it you'll want to walk down to the bottom of the rapid and see a new feature. (Harvey's) The river bed changed and there is now a huge stomping hole were there wasn't prior. We got to watch Mike Evan's rodeo his small cat (12' Sotar) for a minute till the bull tossed him out. Good news both Mike and his gear flushed right out. Talking with others camping below Green Wall several cats and rafts flipped on this new feature. Me and Devin, the only two kayakers that ran the Green Wall found sneak on far river left that required a commiting ferry that if went bad sent you right into the hole. We both hit our lines!!

Pics from Canyon Creek

2008-04-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

photo's are courtesy of EJ Etherington www.thisriverlife.com

Devin boofing Champagne
Lining up for Hammering Spot
Getting his boof on at Hammering Spot
Airing it out on the 8' ledge oddly named by the poor person that was the probe the first time Canyon Cr was ran. If I remember correct Ron Reynier's crew was the First Descent of this now classic.

Truss @ 2 5/8' w/ BZ Falls

2008-03-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

Devin on Little Brother or the Faucet as it use to be called.
pic by Eli Loper

"BZ Falls isn't a waterfall but a piece of hell shit on the river" quote by Scott Shipley.

Man, what a weekend. Canyon Creek one day and Truss section of the White Salmon the next. While Canyon was lower than preferred, the Truss was once again higher than we'd previously ran. The level proved to be still within our comfort and look forward to even higher flows. We both did opt to portage Bob's Falls which I happen to of had the please of being part of it's swim team. One of Ej Etherington's friends from Corvallis, Richard got his turn on rejoining the team for his second glorious time. His beatdown was pretty short and myself and James Bagley both had ropes out to him and got his reeled in quickly while his boat spent close to five minutes stuck in the hole till it came out on river right where Devin was and got a hold of it tell I got in my boat and paddled over to that side and grabbed it up and out of the water.

Devin looked at running Big Brother Falls once again and he gets more ready with each time. I've always been respectful of his judgement and I'm confident he's capable of running it correctly. His main reason is being a little afraid of heights. Not the line on the drop itself.

Devin also ran the main line on the left through "the wicked hole" while most of us ran the sneak on the right. He had a great effortless line that was sweet to watch.

Upon reaching BZ Falls, we had taken out way above it and as Devin got up to it, he looked at it. Watched several people run it and style it. Even Ej Etherington ran it in his Riot playboat. Devin was pretty sure he was gonna give it a go this time. We had spent 10-15 minutes looking at it on a previous run with Nate Herbeck and Ryan Scott. This time no camera or camcorder. My camcorder wasn't still working thanks to the rain from the previous days run. After Ej's run, Devin was 100% confident he was good to go and knew he could hit his line. He walked up to his boat, hopped in and waited for another paddler to fire it up. Ty almost got back into the falls after staring back up to it on river left. Even after that, Devin was ready to go and ferried out into the current, charged down at the horizon line. He told me later he was on the highest adrenaline rush of his life. Nailed his line, boofing down the middle and disappeared for a second or two and popped up on the right far away from the hydraulic. Rolled up and was elated to have styled one of the most feared drops on the White Salmon. One that alot of people that run the L-Dub don't even run.

He's an amazing kid and a upcoming talented whitewater kayaker. I hope to get footage Richard took on his camera and I'll get it up on the blog as soon as possible. Though, I'm sure I'll get more footage here soon on another run down one of Devin's top favorite runs.

There is now video linked in the comment section in this post. Devin's is the bottom .mov file.

Cheers, Corey

Canyon Creek @ 4.4' with ORT Rafting Video

2008-03-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Video of our trip down the Canyon Creek, WA with Team Riot's Ej Etherington, ORT Rafting, Chris Dawkins and Paul Guinea and other kayakers I didn't gt their names.

At 4.4' it was 8" below the unit. Hopefully not what it is for the Canyon Extreme Race next month. Come on rain!!

Astral Aquavest 300 adjustment

2008-03-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

The other weekend after a run down Canyon Creek myself, Devin and like 5 other people are standing around talking still all geared up. We all were wearing our Astral 300's and we got into a conversation about how nice it would be if you could adjust the shoulder straps to position the vest better. One of the guys who works for a kayaking instruction company mentioned that due to the rescue features there wasn't any such features.

This past weekend while gearing up to run the 3 Bears section of the Molalla. I was with Michael Williams and Shannon Crosswhite and I mentioned the conversation and they both looked at me and informed me that they are adjustable. What? Shannon pointed out the two strings. One on each side of your vest in the lower back corners. You can see them in the pics below. So I guess after you put the vest on, you can cinch the drawstrings to where you want the vest and then tighten the straps like normal up.

An old faithful gear item gets cheers all around.

I checked on Astrals site and they briefly mention of such strings so it's no wonder very few know about it. Did you?

Devin sporting his new Aquavest 300 that kinda started the whole issue. The bottom of the vest was sitting against his skirt and the back deck of his LiquidLogic Chico. We raised the seat up to help with clearance. It also gave him a wee more height in the boat that was an added bonus.

Devin pointing out one of the drawstrings for the shoulder adjustment. When they're not adjusted, they are a little hidden inside the pocket the towline goes into.

The vest adjusted up, though it's kinda hard to tell. But the feel is competely worth the two pulls of the drawstrings.

Cheers, Corey

Me and my projects

2008-03-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of metal fabricating at work and on personal projects and this is a unique one in that it involves kayaking, metal fabrication and digital camcorders. This is a prototype of a industructable, waterproof box that will fit in my kayak and allow me to still zoom as most other versions won't. A feature that's important since your filming a moving object that is coming at you or away from you.

More to come soon.

Pocket Rocket hits the snow

2008-03-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

The other weekend me and my kids headed up to Mt Hood in search for a hill to run kayaks down. For Ryan and Kaytlin, it would be just sledding but me and Devin were looking for a jump or trees to dodge down a steep slope. After driving around for a little bit we stopped at White River Snow Park which was suppose to have a great sledding hill a half of a mile hike in. With my little girl, walking that proved to be longer than we wanted. So after coming to a steep hill with a bunch of seedlings on it with room to shoot in between. We called in home for the next several hours and got to work.

After testing it Devin deemed it good enough and gave it a go. It proved to plenty steep and all three had a great time sledding down it. I got to be the chair lift for the kayak and never actually got a ride down myself. Good thing I'd brought a throwbag with us.

Me and Devin started building up a jump on the stretch he was going down and after a little trial and error this is what we came up with. Can't wait to head back up and built another one.

Canyon Creek on Sat and U Wind on Sun

2008-03-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday, myself, Devin and Dave Hoffman headed out for a planned 2-3 laps on Canyon Creek with a plan on working on lines down from Thrasher to above Tobi's drop. The level was 4.6' on the internet gauge or 4" below the unit at the put-in. Though I'd heard through the grape vine that several groups were gonna be headed out most likely for the same reason's. In the end we guessed around 16 boaters were on the creek at the same time. WOW!!

We were lucky enough to keep a good pace and stayed ahead of all the boats waiting their turns in eddies above drops and most likely a little carnage. I know of at least one nose banged up plugging Kahuna Falls.

One of the highlights to both runs was Devin having a OK line on Thrasher the first lap and a really good line on the second lap. In addition we ran Kahuna direct without eddying out above it like normal. Both laps we ended up too left to hit the flake perfect but we're gonna keep going at it till we find the sweet spot.

Sunday, myself and Devin met up with Kris Litz and some of her friends for a run down the Upper Wind. The gauge rock had water running through the horns that makes for a medium flow and to make it even more fun we opted for playboating it. We were the only two in playboats while the other four were in creekers. It was not my first time playboating it but it was Devin's. He was in his LiquidLogic PocketRocket and I went down in his new Ronin49. He still fit's great in the Pocket and the Ronin is a we bit too big for him to throw around as of yet, Too bad they don't have a smaller one out. As for me at 155lb, I loved the boat. I'm not the best playboater so I'm not gonna compare it's looping ability or anything like that but it help a line through the diagonals, holes and dodging boulders. It also had great hull speed and I caught several surfs in it. One other great feature was outfitting. My legs didn't fall asleep, nor cramp my toes with the shape of the bulkhead. Not something I can say about my Bliss-stick SuperRad. I will need to do a little adjusting to wear my shoes in the boat but that's my fault for not having a screwdriver or outfitted it at home with my gear on.

On Canyon I brought my camcorder but the battery ended up dead thanks to me switching it on earlier in the week and I'm still building my camcorder drybox for the new HD camcorder. Here's a recent pic of it's design. More to come and then the testing!!

Canyon Creek, WA at 5.1 feet

2008-03-02T20:42:00.000-08:00

Me and devin looking down at Big Kahuna. Photo by Keith DeWit

Today, me and Devin got to put a few new notches on our belts. Run Canyon Creek at a good flow. The water was 1-2 inches below the platform which makes it the highest we have run it. It's makes the run much more interesting than the low flows of 8-10 inches below. Most all the lines seems to stay the same. Terminator is a little more challenging in that you have to drive up and over a diagonal to reach the far left side to avoid the hole.

The other goal was to run multipal laps on it. Brooke, who I've met before was sitting at the take-out looking for someone to run with so Devin jumped at the offer so we ran shuttle and fired it up again. It was nice this time to just fire off Big Kahuna Falls and not sit at the lip forever.

One thing I noticed with the Chico Jefe on the run was at Hammering Spot when Devin boofed the right side of the ledge. The boat makes a perfect scoop as the nose resurfaces quickly and on line. Very impressive and should make a nice difference for the Canyon Creek Race.

The New Boat in the House "Chico Surfer"

2008-03-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

Devin got his new Chico Jefe in this week and it came with a little suprise. We knew it would be white. The flowers were a suprise. Yes, Devin has gotten hurrased a little about it but at the end of the day he likes the look of the boat. We already knew how the chico's performed, so that's no suprise. But, the boat properly outfitted makes it even more of a beast on the creeks. The only thing we're gonna check out is raising the seat so he can wear his new Astral rescue PFD. It's yellow, unlike everything else he's wearing that is black.

The Almighty Question - The Little White Salmon

2008-02-25T22:16:00.000-08:00

So I've known for some time now that Devin would start getting on runs more demanding that what I'm up for running for several reasons. Mental, physical or capable of doing. Come on now, I started kayaking at 28 years old. The concept of learning a new language is up there will learning all there is to know about whitewater and kayaks. He has a wee but of an advantage. We both live kayaking but in different ways. Kayaking for me is what I spend all week working on peoples cars for. To relax, exercise and push my mental comfort limits. Devin spends a lot of his free time eyeing beta on oregonkayaking.net, liquidkayak.com and other sites he comes across. Why? To learn of the runs, technique and all around love of that is whitewater. Hell, his only real swim on the river was the "staircase" rapid on the SF of the Payettes when I flipped our raft at the entrance when he was 10 years old. That day as we headed out towards Yellowstone National Park he looked at me and said, "dad I want to learn to kayak". Why? "I can roll it back up if I get flipped over". He had never sat in one prior to this comment. Hmmmm, guess he made a good choice begging me when we stopped off at the Shed in Hood River on the way home from the trip that he wanted to try out a Jackson 1.5. John Hart made us a great deal on a setup of boat, skirt and paddle.

Funny that I was more concerned that he'd only get the boat out on a few class II's before getting bored or outgrow it.

Back to my dilemma, I've had several people wanting to get Devin on the L-Dub or Little White Salmon. As well as few wanting him to hold off. At this point I don't honestly know what to say and Devin probably thinks it's funny that I've been babbling about this for the past few days. Sunday he had an invite to go with Ryan Scott and a crew Ryan trusted but Devin was chilling with some friends already and I was headed out to playboat the Upper Wind.

This would not be the first run without me that Devin has done. First time was the Farmlands on the White Salmon when I got a beatdown in a hole below Little Lave and had to climb out. The next day he ran it again with a great crew I trusted in part to clip into my kayak so I could pull it up the cliff. Then the other weekend he continued on when I had to hike out off the Truss after giving him my PFD. I love him and trust his on the water 110%. He's about at home on the river as a salmon itself it seems. Not so good on land. Just watch the ending of "Toxic Water" and you'll see what I mean. Sorry Devin!!!

I'd like some input to this either way so please post a comment!!

I think I need counseling?!

2008-02-24T16:35:00.000-08:00

So at what point does your passion become and obsession? Judging by this picture of my living room I'm afraid it's quite clear!!

9 Boats, 4 Paddles for two people can't be healthy, right??

What the hell am I saying??

Kayaking is my life. Plain and simple... and what's wrong with that?

Farmlands-Truss Combo Run

2008-02-23T20:59:00.000-08:00

Devin on OffRamp from a previous run. photo by Eric Arlington

Devin on Double Drop from previous run.

Today put a highly desired notch in mine and Devin's paddling wish list. Not that either of us are ones to have a list of runs we want to get on. I'd rather run it right that survive the run to say I've done it and moved on.

The "Farmland" or "Farmies" is 5 miles of class IV to V whitewater that run into the 5 mile "Green Truss" class V run on the White Salmon River in Washington. The Farmies are good above 3' on the Husum stick in the Winter with 90% of the water coming through them and into the Truss section. The problem is the Truss gets more demanding above 3' so running the two back to back can be tricky unless your into a burly Truss run. We have yet to run it over the Winter 2.25' so that's something we're both looking forward to, To find our comfort level on the Truss.

Todays level was once again 2.25' like last weekends run but this time I got a phone call from Heather Herbeck wanting to know it we wanted to run the Farmies and the Truss. It would be just myself Devin and Heather till the Truss were several people were gonna put on with us. The combo makes for close to 10 miles of paddling with a small margin of flatwater all up on the Farmies before "OffRamp" an interesting drop at lower flows. It's a class V drop that you avoid a narrow slot at the bottom left if you like your shoulders.

Both sections were good times even though the Farmies were lower than I'd normally want to run it unless I was continuing on through the Truss. One main benefit is you don't deal with the put-in frozen cliff!!

The only fun I had on the run was my sprayskirt imploding on DoubleDrop. I was using my crappy back up skirt. I was determined to not swim and after coming out of the bottom hole I paddled the swamped Nomad over to the bank and drained it.

No Bootie Beer For ME!!!

A lesson learned

2008-02-18T20:07:00.000-08:00

This past weekend me and Devin headed out to Hood River for a paddle down the Truss prior to the "Toxic Waters" Premier at the River City Saloon. Devin stayed over at a friends house after a failed attempt at going paintballing for a friends birthday. Of course he stayed up till 1-2am and the result was him sleeping out to HR and crashing on Nate Herbeck's floor till the others showed and we headed to the put-in.

At the put-in we geared up, parked the cars and started roping boats down the frozen 20 foot cliff to the White Salmon River. Everybody was having a good time with high spirits with the Party to come and Nate Garr coming in from Idaho to MC the festivities. Once all the boats and paddlers made it down we slid into the river like penguins over the frozen bank and down the 8-10 foot ledge to the not so warm White Salmon. It's like 38 degrees year round.

The river was at 2.25 feet at the Husum gauge. Which can be misleading with the nature of the rivers source. Depending what time of the year it is, the ratio of water on the Truss can be from the top of the run or the springs that feed in from the left bank prior to the Zig-Zag rapids. It's quite amazing. In winter most or all is coming from up top. The springs are frozen on Mt Adams. It makes for the rapids before Zig-Zag almost a foot higher om the winter time than it is in Spring. This was the highest we have ran it too date but are slowing working our way up in a controlled manner. To learn our limits of comfort. Me and Devin were both happing with this flow.

Big Brother Falls is one that a large portion of paddlers that run the Truss don't run. It's not the height of the falls but the right cave and shallow rocks waiting you at the bottom. All but two of us were walking around it when Dave Hoffman looked over at Devin and asked, "Where's your PFD at?". Every eye then looked at Devin and realized he had spaced off grabbing his PFD out of the Heather's Bravada and didn't put it on. Nothing like running a class V run and not having your PFD on? To our luck, Big Brother is one of the best spots to hike out of the run.

Options:

1. Devin paddle across the lip of the falls with no PFD, hike up and out on his own.
2. Me and Devin hkie out together. Which means I'll be roping two boats up and out.
3. and the one I love!? I give Devin my PFD. I paddle across the lip of a falls I have no interest in running and hike up and out while the midget gets to continue down river with the others.

I think I drew the short straw and #3 was the best choice in my opinion only because I trusted Devin's skills to paddle the rest of the run that he knows and the safety of the crew that we were in the company with.

The fun part:

After getting him geared up I hopped in my boat and paddled across the lip oddly like my life depended on it. Made the eddie with no issues and started my trek onto the snow. The cliff heads around the falls and then up a steep embankment that was more challenging with 1-2 feet of snow. I used my throw rope out of my Astral PFD to tow my boat up the hill in 20-30 foot increments. Fun Fun!! I know Ken and Dave both told me how to get back to the road but when I made it to the top I saw no trail thanks to all the snow. 2-4 feet at this point. I headed down the hill thinking I'd hit the road soon. On my way down I lost my footing, slid and came to a stop still on the hill. Oh crap?! I had the boat in tow behind me and the rope was around my waist. He come the boat!! The nose of the Nomad 8.1 nailed my square in the back of my head. Luckily I had been wearing my FNA full face still. It wrung my bell but I don't want to think of the other optional outcome without it on. Keep your helmet on!!

I made it to the flats and waled right to the cliff of the same river I'd just hiked away from. Oops, a horseshoe bend. Yippee!! I get to drag my creekboat back up the hill and try to find my way out. In time I did and quickly came to a clearcut land that allowed vantage of the powerlines that run along the roadway. Nate was driving my Subaru by as I made my way to the road. I'm saved!! It's usually a ten minute hike. It took me close to an hour.

Conclusion:
1. I need to check Devin over more closely prior to putting on the river. He may be a talented kayaker but he's still only 13.
2. Devin may want to think about staying up too late and make possibly fatal mistake.

Sunday we ran another lap on the Truss and I got to complete the run. Oddly enough the majority of the paddlers in Sundays crew were underage boaters that hadn't been out partying and drinking at the Premier Party. We'd paddled with Christina Russell who is sponsored by LiquidLogic like Devin in a prior Truss run, Today we got to paddle with her younger sister Kim Russell. You could not meet a nicer pair of sisters that happen to love kayaking as well. Proof that family is quality!!

SYOTR

Orletta Section - White Salmon Video

2008-02-11T23:41:00.000-08:00

Toxic Waters Premier - This Weekend

2008-02-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

Come this weekend, we all get to see Nate Herbecks new movie at it's Premier in Hood River. I guess not all, the poor midget has 8 years till he can step into a bar in the US. Good ole Mexico!!

Guess we'll make it up by running the Truss with him on Saturday prior to the party....

Devin joins LiquidLogic

2008-02-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

Upon Devin testing out the Jefe Chico and loving the way the boat performed he has accepted the offer to join Team LiquidLogic. I ordered his new boat from LL and it will be here soon and Devin can get more familiar with the boat. As well as the Jefe Chico I have a Ronin 49 on it's way.

All while I'm paddling a creekboat with a duct tape weld on the hull of the boat.

Darn Kids!!

EFL Video with Chico

2008-02-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

Pool Session with Chico

2008-01-29T22:37:00.000-08:00

Since Devin was unable to try out the Jefe Chico last weekend we headed to the OKCC pool sesion so he could try it out on flatwater. So far it felt good, rolled easily. Devin said it rolled more like a playboat that his Punk Rocker in that it initially started rotating as a square boat does and then the boat shot up as it hit the radius.

I think we're boat interested to see how it react to him on the river. The transition from his old Wavesport Diesel to the Jackson Punk Rocker went amazing smooth despite the drastic difference in styles. The Chico not far off from the Punk.

Couple random shots of Devin throwing around his Liquid Logic Pocket Rocket without a paddle.

Upper Wind River (Winter Edition)

2008-01-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

Not you typical view of the take-out for the Upper Wind

The drive towards Hood River on Hwy 14 was slow going

The Liquid Logic Jefe Chico that Devin was suppose to try out this weekend. Till next weekend!!

Wow, what a odd but amazing weekend. Saturday morning I picked up a Liquid Logic Jefe Chico for Devin to try out since his Punk Rocker is still broken. Unfortunately I found out after getting the boat that Devin had sprang his ankle goofing the night before. The joys of being 13!! Since my Magnum is broken but repaired I decided I'd paddle the Chico since it was rated up to a 165lb paddler.

Now the drive. I knew that heading out to Hood River meant I was heading into the main storm coming through. As I headed down I84 I got turned back in Troutdale sue to road closure from a fatality caused by the storm conditions. I quickly headed up to Hwy 14 on the other side of the Columbia River to still make it to the Upper Wind River. As I headed down 14 the road conditions were gradually getting worse. The temperature was around 30 degrees and freezing rain and then big flakes of snow the further East I got. I got to the take-out finally 30 minutes late but Kris Litz and Jason Shroeder were patiently waiting and Pete and Meggie that had called me on the way out were just minutes behind me. We got geared up, transfered gear and headed to the put-in.

The river was medium-low and although high 20's it felt pretty good on the water. A far cry from the mid 70's we had in Mexico the last time I was on the water.

I was by far to big for the Chico with a little safety gear in the back and honestly don't remember most of the rapids other than trying my best to get the boat to manuver around the rocks and more than not plug the holes that I could not get it around. I'm putting the boat to blame 100%. I usually paddle a Riot Magnum creeker that has edges and I know I was way to big for the boat even at 160lbs. Hopefully next weekend Devin can get it out on the river and try it out. At least he got to sit in it tonight for a minute and liked it looks.

After the run with I84 still shut down and 14 at a standstill due to a semi stuck, Hood River sounded like a great idea. I got dinner with some friends and got to go for a ride in someone else's car sliding around HR. The highlight for the evening was his car sliding down the road near The Shed and barely hitting a ladies car that had already slid back down the hill, gotten hit by another vehicle and then by us. The best part was after hitting the car we shot into the entrance for the train station with the lady running frantically in front of us like a deer would do. We all got a good laugh out of it in the end. We abandoned that car for the night along with Jesse and walked to my car that was parked near the Hood River bridge and safely made it up to BZ in my Subaru. I love my Subi!! BZ got hit with around 24" on Saturday alone and we made the best of it tackling each other in the snow instead of kayaking.

Offramp on Farmlands Photo Video

2008-01-17T08:35:00.000-08:00

I've just started playing with photo sequencing so I felt that these shots would always work well in this format to watch. The pics are courtesy of Eric Arlington and were taken last year on Devin's first run on the Farmlands. Flow was around 3.4' if I remember right.

Mexico Photo Slideshow

2008-01-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

Week of Rivers in Mexico Video

2008-01-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

Footage from the Roadside or Tomata section of the Alseseca River and Pescados section of the Antigua River in Veracruz, MX

Lake Creek Video by Kate Howell

2008-01-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

Kate Howell was nice enough to paddle with me and Devin, Alex Dey, Ej Etherington and another Corvallis boater Aaron down for mine and the midgets first run of Lake Creek. I'd heard how much fun this run was for playboating but the timing just had not worked out in the past to get down on it. I's even planned a day a few weeks past with a day off and Devin being sick from school to head down with Michael Willaims but we were a day late and inches short. Although once again the levels had been prime the day before we were able to get the Corvallis crew to go ahead and run it around 9'. 10.5' being the preferred low. It seemed everyone was suprising happy with the change in the play at the lower level we spent at least an hour on grassy lawn. Even Alex who is less of a playboater than myself was quite happy with the long day trip down to Lake Creek.

We will be back no doubt.

video courtesy of Kate Howell

Happy New Years

2008-01-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

Sunset Falls photo by Robert Virostek

Devin and myself got to spend the entrance of the new year with Mike Olson family and friends. I have to say that it was my first time hanging out at Oly's and partying as well. Was a great time and place to let loose a little prior to heading off on Friday to Veracruz, Mexico for a kayaking trip with Esprit Rafting Co.

Mike had a group of Canadian friends that live near the Skookumchuck come down for the holidays that brought fresh Oysters, fish and prawns with them. Hmmmmmm goodness!!

New Years eve we got to try out recycled kayak sledding down a hill on Oly's property with a nice jump or small tree next to it waiting at the bottom for you. Devin found out the hard way the tree would move when you plow into it and then started going full speed down the ramp. We even did a tandum sled run down that was a blast except for the hard landing on you butt. I was quite impressed the use of a old broken kayak.

We did a quick run down the EF Lewis at a really low level and me and Devin were still able to run door #5 on Horseshoe Falls. It was cold. Snow and ice were still on the roads in spots and changing back into street clothes in Oly's shop was a real treat.

Happy New Years and can't wait to see what the new year brings. Maybe me and the midget new boats that aren't broken would be a start. We'll see when we're back from Mexico.

Cheers!!

Upper EF Lewis "way too low"

2007-12-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

Devin leading into Double Drop

Running Double Drop
Devin scouted boated both drops and felt they were both good to go and was the first to fire both of them up. None of that,"I want to see someone else run it first" stuff. Devin and Alex were the only two out of 8 of us that ran Double Drop and only myself, Devin and Alex ran Tombstone.

Tombstone

All photo's are thanks to Kate Wagner

A group of us headed up to the Upper EF Lewis River for a fun do what we hoped had enough water part due to the 1400cfs on the gauge and report from another ground that ran it the day before at 1300 that it was low but good to go. I don't think you'd find anyone in our group that felt it was the best choice for the day but we made the best of it and enjoyed running the big drops usually not run when there is actually water in the run. The drive up the road had Hugh's slipping around in the snow pretty good and I was quite happy the my Subaru even without the snow tires on on 8-10" of snow.

To quote a line out of "Liquid Insanity". "Ya want to see just how not in it was?"

To make the worse Devin's Jackson Punk Rocker cracked sometime during the run but wasn't bad enough that we had to repair it on the river and it must of happened near the end since that was the only time he needed to drain his boat.