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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