Playak News Flash 2008-12-30

Playak News Flash - December 30, 2008

News Watch Headlines

Team Riot Kayaks: We Were Almost Home When… We decided to take a trip to Mexico. None of us (JJ. Shepard, Toby Mac Dermott, and myself, Nate Elliott) had been there before, but it seemed like a good place to go for a few reasons; we could drive, the timing was right (Nov.-Dec) and there would be waterfalls. We all have crappy vehicles but we decided that my 1991 Toyota pickup with 302,000 miles on it would be our best bet. We packed light and hit the road.

Evan Garcia: Gol Gol 3rd Round With a well thought out plan to go and hit the goods of Argentina we took off once again from the safety of our shack in Pucon, and loaded the Kayak Pucon van for a mission to El Bolson. Little did we know our trip had a terrible fate lurking in from birth. From our night of sleep at the Gol Gol we headed over the pass to Argentina and got a slap in the face when they told us we couldn't enter because oft he kayaks.

Jackson Kayak: Rodrigo From Chile Sends In This Update Hello there my dear Jackson Kayak Team. What can I say, pucon have more and more surprices every day and every year, I was running the Nevados river for some years and was all the time very popular the normal TakeOut, but no more.

wavesport.de: Jakub's X-mas Update From New Zealand After couple of weeks I finally got to some pictures of me and my mates Martin Bednar and Pavel Hurtik. I have met them in Auckland and it was random as hell. I was out of money and they had a car. Finally they said I can join with them in a car so we work and paddle together.

Wonder Midget: Swollen Sweet Creek Scouting So I'd heard lots about Sweet Creek near the Lake Creek play boat 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!!

Adventurous Experiences: Very Happy Christmas!! I hope everyone enjoyed a splendid day of eating drinking and socializing... With plenty more to come! Many thanks to Fiona and the team who organized the Christmas re-enactment at Tynwald Hill.

Hans Heupink: Werner Paddles - Ferrule System Updated Werner has redesigned their Adjustable Ferrule. The button is now flush with the shaft. The old button -shown in the pictures- popped out about half a centimeter. Some paddlers complained about occasionally snagging, or even worse: unintended release of their split Werner Peddles . The new design of the ferrule system should prevent this.

Dash Point Pirate: Tacoma Is Getting A Kayak Park! Waterway Park doesn't really exist yet, but rowers, kayakers and other non motorized boaters will soon be using it. Tacoma City Council members approved a contract last month for construction of a kayak float at the head of the Thea Foss Waterway that will provide boaters with long-awaited access to an easy launch site.

Rapid Magazine: Submit Films To Reel Paddling Film Festival: Rapid Media now accepting film submissions for the 2009 Reel Paddling Film Festival. New this year is the Best Environmental Paddling Film category and the PRFF People's Choice Award.

DeRiemer Adventure Kayaking: Bhutan Oct 24th- Nov 4 Class Ii-iii: A Queen, Sonam, And Preparing For The Coronation. While our time in Bhutan began in early October, our first group of kayakers arrived on October 24th. All were familiar faces. Everyone had been on trips with us before. Although for a few, many years had passed. So we enjoyed quite a reunion, sharing pictures of new family members and stories of our last adventures together.

WRSI: Alzar School In Mexico Well, we have just one day before our group of US students arrive in Mexico. We have been scouting out the rivers around our main base camp here in Jalcomulco. They are incredible! Today we paddle the Rio Actopan, which is a continuous Class II-III rollercoaster. You start at a small waterfall, which you can choose to run or not run, then encounter three fun rapids in a tight canyon.

Isle of Man Kayak: Sea Kayaking Isle Of Man - Surfing Ramsay. The waves were half the size they should have been! The wind had shifted through 30 degrees and no longer opposed the receding tide. Still, most of us had driven the full 12 miles from Peel to Ramsay.

SUP Surf Mag: Coming Soon: Stand Up Paddle Fitness Boards There is a movement on the horizon toward a group of stand up paddle boards that are designed specifically for those who have come to the sport for the fitness benefits of stand up paddling. Speed, stability, durability and fun are what this genre of boards is all about. If you've been on the hunt for fitness-oriented board, the future holds some exciting things.

Fat Cats: Nepal 3: The Humla Karnali Following a week of delays, cancellations and AWOL pilots we finally flew from Surket to Simikot high above the Humla Karnali. To all of us except John the landing felt dangerous and short, but our Alaskan bush pilot assured us it was easy.

Werner: Jump Start Your 2009 Whitewater Season At Rollapoolooza Presented by Raleigh Parks and Recreation the annual Rollapoolooza will take place in the Pullen Pool near the NC State campus on January 24th. This a great event to get you ready for the New Year of white water kayaking ahead. Get great instruction from team paddlers of all the major white water companies.

SeaKayakPhoto.com: Less Is More! This is another post for the benefit of our Canadian friends, who might have had their illusions of sunny and calm Scottish seas shattered by the recent series on the Mull of Galloway. Relax, here we are enjoying our second of three luncheons in balmy December conditions!

Small World Adventures: Upper Oyacachi Trip Report It was Chris and Hilary's last few days in Ecuador and they wanted to do "something different." So, we set off for the Upper Oyacachi--the 2 day trip from the town of Oyacachi up at 10,367 feet in elevation down to the town of El Chaco at 4,724 feet.

The Water Cycle: Río Llancahue: Iv+ About an hour and a half south of Pucon, the Río Llancahue flows off the southern flank of Volcan Villarica. We made two separate trips to this classic creeky run. The first time, we put in too high, forcing us into a silly portage back up to the road where we walked to a better put-in. Just below the put-in comes the highlight of the run: a beautifully clean 23-footer into a big pool.

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Playak News Flash 2008-12-25

Playak News Flash - December 25, 2008

News Watch Headlines

All Outdoors WW Rafting: If You Want To Drink The River Water If you have ever been on an All-Outdoors rafting trip, you might remember that #16 on our pre-river orientation is "Don't Drink the River Water." This is usually further explained by one or our lovely guides; while a little splash of water from the Tuolumne River won't hurt you, you probably shouldn't fill your Klean Kanteen straight from the river.

WW Rafting Blog: Maritime Laws Don't Govern River Rafting At least in West Virginia. The West Virginia state Supreme Court says federal maritime laws don't govern activities involving West Virginia's whitewater rafting industry. This stems from an accident on the Shenandoah River a few years ago, in which a party sued the rafting company for a mishap on the river.

Keith Wikle: Savannah C&k Aca Surf Idw Mar 6-8 2009 Savannah Canoe & Kayak will host the new ACA Surf IDW in Mar 6-8 2009.Nigel Law owner and proprietor will most likely be one of the coaches. It'll be worth it for most folks to get a test drive of the Riot Ninja and Mega surf kayaks.

Team Shred Ready: Shred Ready Fan Mefford Williams.... photo by mefford williams so everybody knows Norway. it's famous, especially famous among whitewater boat riders. everyone wants to hear about and see the big waterfalls, beautiful blond women and amazing scenery from Norway.

Team Riot Kayaks: We Were Almost Home When… We decided to take a trip to Mexico. None of us (JJ. Shepard, Toby Mac Dermott, and myself, Nate Elliott) had been there before, but it seemed like a good place to go for a few reasons; we could drive, the timing was right (Nov.-Dec) and there would be waterfalls.

Paddlin´ Ed: Wilson Creek Gorge Well, the rains finally came after a long dry summer and fall, and after several days of rain, many of the regional runs including Wilson Creek have begun to hold water for few days at a time now. So Sat. morning Dec. 20th, I was looking to paddle and contacted John H. about a Wilson Creek trip for SRVCC, and John welcomed me to join.

Fat Cats: Nepal 2: The Thule Bheri A 'secret' military flight loaded up in the cover of darkness took us to Jhupal in the Dolpa region of western Nepal where we could then hike down to the river and put onto the Thule Bheri. The river was amazing, fantastic class 4+ rapids for the first two days and then a pushy class 5/6 which tested us to our limits. The water was perhaps a bit too high for this section. The next day however reverted back to the classic whitewater we'd run on the first day.

Bama Boys: Mexico Part I Matt Wallace hurls himself into Puento de Dios on the Rio Tamasopo John Crain enters the Cave below Puento de Dios Greetings I just got back from San Louis Potosi, Mexico with Adam Goshorn, Leigh Knudsen, Jon Crain, Matt Wallace, Brandon Hughett and Alex Zendel. Within the epic 3 weeks of our journey we fired-up many creeks and rivers--taking only one off day during our time down there.

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Playak News Flash 2008-12-24

Playak News Flash - December 24, 2008

News Watch Headlines

Chasing Rain: Fun Forever Many moons ago (mid to late 90's), I saw someone in a squirtboat and thought it was the coolest thing ever, and wanted one. I found a used Projet and, even though it was too big for me, I was instantly hooked. The boat was originally dayglow green, possibly a two-tone dayglow, faded to tan, with multi-color tiger stripes. Some of the stripes were faded to brown too, so I repainted them red and purple.

Got Boof?: Glade Run As many of you brave or crazy enough to face the cold weather know, the water has returned to our part of the country. For two weekends the boating in our region has presented a multitude of choices and we amongst the Got Boof Crew have taken advantage of the opportunity to bag some new water.

Peter Csonka: Swechat Wave Sessions The hole in close city Swechat have water again. After longer break we can spend some time on the water again!!! The hole need the snow melting or rains. At the water level about 160 is it nice. It's a really slow hole where is almost everything possible.

Inflatable Kayak Blog: Cold Weather Paddling: Hypothermia Hypothermia is another condition to be aware of when paddling your hard shell, inflatable or folding kayak in cold weather. Hypothermia is a decrease in the body's core temperature to a level at which normal muscular and cerebral functions are impaired. There are two kind of hypothermia, Sudden and Long Onset.

SUP Surf Mag: Stand Up Paddlers Clean Up Haleiwa It was a morning full of smiles when several local stand up paddlers gathered in Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu to clean up the beach and historic Anahulu River after recent winds and flooding littered the beach with debris. Plastic bags, drink cups, window screening, and a plastic bucket were among some of the garbage pulled from the river. The most difficult thing to cleanup was the irrigation tubing.

Immersion Research: Chile Update From Jared And Dave Demshitz has been in Chile for the last month and a half and have kayaked a bunch of cool rivers reppin' IR gear! Chile may be sunny mostly everyday in the summer months, but some cozy warm dry tops and splash pants are mandatory and have been keeping us comfy in the snow melt rivers of Patagonia.

LL Ladies Lounge: Merry Christmas From Oregon! Hey everyone! I just got back from a visit to Eugene and boy am I tired. My sister Kim (a former Liquidlogic lady) just had her gallbladder removed(OUCH!) and is now snoozing on the couch as I type this. Send her good ju ju if ya can afford to...she's not exactly feeling her best!

playak.net: The Descent Into Madness - Now On 'in Between Swims'.... Just posted on 'In Between Swims:The Whitewater Podcast" - Kyle Dickman of the Epicocity Project brings us a reading of his article for Wend Magazine - "The Descent Into Madness." Kyle recounts the Epicocity team's harrowing adventure in Papua New Guinea, where he and the team did the first descent of the East Pandi River.

WRSI: New Zealand Hello from New Zealand! New River Academy's trip started off on the Kaituna River. This was a completely epic run, with a fun double drop and a 20 footer on it and numerous other little drops. The run leads into the Kaituna hole, which is an unbelievable playspot.

Fat Cats: Nepal 1: Pokhara We flew to Nepal with the aim of running the Thule Bheri and Humla Karnali in one season. But as we arrived in Nepal in October we had plenty of time to go to Pokhara and do some of the classic runs in the area. Runs we were lucky enough to do included the Madi Kola, Modi Kola, Upper Upper Kali Gandaki, Marsyandi and the Seti Kola.

Canadian Ckayaker: Paddling Swallow's Island - 6 Obviously either our charts were seriously out of date, this isn't an imaginary island made up by Fowler Wright, or the discontinuity we'd passed through at the headland was more serious than we imagined. Ahead of us, spread for kilometers along the cliffs lay a magnificent sea-side city devoted, it would appear, to a Club Med lifestyle. Hotels and condos stretched to the horizon, cascading off the cliffs into the sea below. All manner of watercraft filled the bay before us.

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Playak News Flash 2008-12-22

Playak News Flash - December 22, 2008

News Watch Headlines

Fluid Blog: Marc Girardin Joins Team Fluid I am pleased to announce that multiple C1 Freestyle Worlds medalist Marc Girardin is joining Team Fluid.Based out in Bordeaux, France, Marc is certainly one of the very best freestyle C1 paddler on the planet. He took the silver medal in both Penrith, Australia, in 2005 and on the infamous Bus Eater wave, in Canada, in 2007. Besides freestyle, Marc is also an avid creek boater (sitting on his butt this time, kayaking) and can frequently be seen in his Pyrenean backyard.

Team Pyranha: Madagascar just got back from an epic trip to Madagascar. The purpose of our trip was to run two new rivers over in Mada while filming for a documentary based around First Descents Cancer Camps. I flew over with paddlers Brad Ludden, Rush Sturges and Alex Nicks. Arden and Trask were there to film as was Dan Armstrong shooting photos.

Adrian Tregoning: Back of the Moon – A Satisfying Quickie My first trip down this section of the Riviersonderend had been in a huge hurry so I was eager to idle down the short, but enjoyable section with a small group. This time I climbed on with Rowan Walpole, Braam Rademeyer and Alex Rose. Alex was the first person to have paddled this section and knows it better than anyone. It was sure to be a fun afternoon!

Axel Schoevers: First Fsrt An American sea kayaking guide traveling from southern Chile to attend a BCU course in Baja California Sur that is run by a Dutch BCU coach from the Netherlands.

LiquidLore: Waterfalls Of Quebec, Part 2 Once again, the waterfalls of Quebec - although devoid of any major mountain range, Quebec has more than its share of fantastic waterfalls that you'd often associate with big hills and massive gradient. This is the second installment describing some of these beauty's.

Paddling Instructor Blog: Some Extreme Waves Getting Bigger - Wave Junkies Happy According to Wired Magazine, the largest waves in the Pacific Northwest are getting higher by seven centimeters a year but scientists don't have a clue why. Some researchers feel that this increase in wave height could end up doing more damage to properties then the impacts of rising sea levels causes by global warming.

Canadian Ckayaker: Paddling Swallow Island - 4 The adrenaline began to rush into my system as I felt the wave lift the stern. I dug in hard to accelerate the boat ahead of the wave and surf down into the mouth of the sea cave. From Wright's book I knew the cave was large enough inside to be able to maneuver once inside. The tide was nearly at it's highest, so the rock shelf he mentions rising out of the water at low tide near the entrance would be water covered and not pose an obstacle.

Double You Ess: Sweet Creek, Oregon Sweet Creek is a small tributary of the Siuslaw River, about 1 hour from Eugene, Oregon with the sweetest quarter mile of class IV/V park-and-huck 's out there. The run starts off with a bang with a super clean 8ftr, leading into a 8ft cauldron drop, dropping into a series of three chunky drops with some nasty holes.

rockratrobinson: Lacking In... A post popped up on the UK Rivers Guidebook the other week about how to deal with a lack in confidence whilst paddling. At the time I could draw some comparisons with what was being said and, only now, after having a day out in the Lakes on two rivers, which I have probably run the most, out of all the rivers in the Lake District, come to the conclusion that I may also have lost a bit of my confidence.

Dash Point Pirate: Kayak Dreams In the north end of Tacoma is a public beach which is usually crowded in the summer. Other than the beach the shore is dominated by very tall concrete bulkheads, and just off shore is a small island with tall concrete cliffs. The entire island is one solid abandoned concrete structure.

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Playak News Flash 2008-12-20

Playak News Flash - December 20, 2008

News Watch Headlines

Rivers of Chile: Rio Diguillin The Diguillín River (pronounced Dee-Gee-Yin) is a low volume winter/spring run in Chile's 8th region. Having a granite streamed, crystal clear water, and fun pool-drop rapids, makes the Diguillín an attractive springtime option.Nestled into a canyon at the base of the Chillan Volcano (3212 meters), the Diguillín receives it's water from the peaks located in Reserve National Nuble which straddles the Argentinian border.

Chris Wing: Freestyle Clinics If you are looking for a firm introduction or a keen eye to push you to the next level of freestyle, H2O Dreams will be offering freestyle clinics in Sylva, NC located at "Eternity Hole."  Dates are currently in the works but will include sessions this winter and early spring.

Werner: Paddling Life Features Werner's Win Paddling Life, an on line paddling publication, just wrote a story about Werner winning Canoe and Kayak Magazine's Accessory Manufacturer of the Year award. This award means so much to us at Werner because it is voted on by paddle sports dealers.

Rene van der Zwan: Greenlander (ndk) Continued 2 Last night I had to paddle away some frustrations and I took the Greenlander for my weekly visit at the kayakclub; a 20km paddle vv.It was very quiet weather with a mirror-like water surface. What I noticed first was that the speed of this kayak is much better than the AnasAcuta; also a hard-chine kayak. Arriving at the club 65minutes later means an average speed of 8,7-9,0 km/h, which is not too bad for a seakayak.

Jackson Kayak: Winter In Reno It's been unseasonably cold and snowy in Reno, NV these days: at least that is what I'm told. Compared to the Canadian winters I've experienced, this is a walk in the park.

Am. Whitewater: Working Group Takes On Future Management Of Lower Dolores River American Whitewater and various stakeholders have formed a Working Group in the Lower Dolores River Valley to update the 1990 US Bureau of Land Management's Lower Dolores River Management Plan.

surfski.info: The Gathering Of The Hawks – Fenn Cape Point Challenge 2008 Two magnificent races take place this weekend - the Epic 20 Beaches in Sydney, Australia, and the 48km Fenn Cape Point Challenge in South Africa. And each has attracted the cream of the national surfski racers.

Atlantic Kayaker: Cold Water Creeking he ability to go and get into some high adventure runs that end in an incredibly pristine ocean view is what the east coast is all about. We were fortunate to get hit with favorable weather patterns during the days leading up to the weekend and after some emails and phone tag a crew of us were ready to go hit the good stuff. Water was high, temperature was cold, beers were many and beat downs plenty.

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