Playak News Flash 2009-12-16

Playak News Flash - December 16, 2009

News Watch Headlines

Kokatat Blog: Freya Finishes Race Around Australia at Queenscliff On December 15 Freya Hoffmeister completed her circumnavigationof Australia in 332 days (245 paddling days)!

WRSI: Southeast Fall Report So this is my first check in and we recently had a good bit of rain down here in WNC. Recently due to this rain Joel Bostic and myself had the opportunity to get on the lower 1 to 1.25 miles of Upper Snowbird and the upper 2 miles of Lower Snowbird.

Todd Wells: Mexico Part 3: The Tomatas When I paddled off the lip I thought everything was going well, but as soon as I tucked, I felt myself go sideways, and when I hit with a powerful angle my skirt imploded making for a 'not-so-clean' line.

Nick Troutman: Bear Creek We continued down the rest of the river, running down all the drops which we hiked last time in the dark. This time we even had enough day light to rally back up for a second run. Dane, Clay and I put on for our second run with our lines fresh in memory, making for a speedy 45 minute rally down our second run.

Shane's Logic: The Drought Is Over Today the river was flowing over the dam at 100.5, which means there is 6" of water flowing over the damn and with the 1" plus of rain we had last night the river is cranking. When we got to the gauge it was reading a solid 19". Which is an awesome level because there are some really fun lines that open up with the higher level. There are also some holes and pushy current that come into play as well.

Evan Garcia: World Record, Amazingly Fashionable Ian Garcia and I decided to go first to set up safety for the Duo. Ian went first and then I waited about 15 seconds before going. My line felt super smooth off the lip but my skirt imploded on impact. Right as I came up, Ian was just surfacing as well. He had taken about 20 seconds of downtime! We both imploded our skirts and had to self rescue.

Dagger Blogs: Staying Strong this Winter Temperatures are below zero and the snow is falling but this doesn't mean that we can't be training for the day the snow starts to melt. Here are a few simple suggestions to stay in shape this holiday season.

LVM TV: Trip Report from Adam Bixby, Rio Turbio, Chile Rodrigo was about to head out to the Rio Turbio for some whitewater almost park and huck. The level was a little low but the lines were still good. I have never been to Cali before but the character of the river instantly reminded me of the videos and pictures i've seen.

Jordan Searle: Whitcombe from Prices - A first for many. After paddling the boogie water below Prices, and the bit before Colliers Gorge on the Cropp section, we found B-Rain and Gerard chilling out on some rocks. Little did we know Gerard had just had a swim, lost his paddle and had to wait for us to arrive with a split paddle.

Jordan Searle: First Kokatahi of the Summer Season At Crawford Junction we put onto the Kokatahi Branch for the 100m down to the confluence and there was definitely more water than either of us had ever had in there. As we ran the first couple of things we really felt the power of the Kokatahi and both our thoughts went to a trip a group of our friends had in there at a high flow.

WCKA Spring 09: Apurimac Multi-Day, A WCKA First! Day one on the Apurimac after a three hour drive from our beloved Cusco we hiked our boats through stone arches and over piles of rubble, through a small town and onto the river. This first rapid was a little tricky and about half of the group ran it, the other half walking, not wanting to risk messing up our lines in our unfamiliar, heavily loaded creek-boats.

This mail contains a selection of the most popular kayaking headlines. To see all the latest headlines, visit Playak News Watch.

To unsubscribe from this newsletter, fill in your mail address here or edit your profile.