Playak News Flash 2010-02-28

Playak News Flash - February 28, 2010
The world's latest paddling headlines.

News Watch Headlines

Adrian Tregoning: Sungai Lambai – Jungle Creek! Part 2 I went up and got into my boat. Hugh gave me the signal to wait and I assumed Andrew was getting into position to video and for safety, as the next rapid was just below. My heart started beating while waiting around. After what was probably less than a minute I was given the go ahead and dropped in. It was one of the more intimidating rapids that I've run but I felt good. I lined up and boofed into the pressure area and charged out no problem.

Adrian Tregoning: Sungai Lambai – Jungle Creek! Part 1 Thursday, 19 November. Breakfast was some cake type stuff, and something similar to what we called vetkoek, neither of which appealed me so I wolfed down some monkey nuts and that was that. It was partly cloudy and quite hazy, it looked like it was to be a hot day. But no matter, another day of excellent kayaking lay ahead of us!

duemmstuff: The Last Day in New Zealand We had to climb into a dry river and wait for the water release. It wasn't the nicest feeling when an alarm on the dam went on. But it sure was spectacular as the water started to swarm in over the rocks and make them into some threatening rapids. When the river was at full flow we only had little time to scout the first rapid. It was huge, but we had no time to hesitate. We decided to run the right line, which isn't so commonly run.

Dagger Blogs: World Class Kayak Academy: Chile 2010 Spending the last four weeks in Chile as a student at World Class Kayak Academy has become one of my better life experiences. Aside from being able to kayak amazing rivers every day, I'm studying in one of the most beautiful and culturally rich areas of the world.

Dagger Blogs: Nat Geo's Monster Fish of the Congo show now on iTunes! For those who have been looking for a way to see the TV show we did for the National Geographic Channel on the Congo River, I have great news! We just found out that it's available to download from the iTunes store in its entirety for the first time ever.

Palm Blogs: NSR 2010 – The boat is made! The UK's National Student Rodeo 2010 is only 2 weeks away, and each year Palm Equipment make a custom NSR Kayak as the prize for the winning uni's Club.

Nantahala Outdoor Center: 2010 Pyranha Burn The boat front surfs easily and spins well if you're into that. As Jason mentioned, it climbs over rocks so well that you might think it has an auto-boof button built in. With just a paddling jacket on, I couldn't convince myself to do roll practice in the Nantahala, aka.

Kokatat Blog: Grand Canyon of the Mad River Only two known prior attempts have been made on this isolated twenty-five mile stretch of whitewater, one resulting in a hike out in darkness, and the other taking 3 days to complete. When Ben Stookesberry called the night before our descent with ideas of tackling the Grand Canyon of the Mad in one single day, I thought hard and long before committing to what I knew would be a difficult but significant undertaking.

Roaring Fork Kayakers: Hood River: another sick weekend After a nice run on the Truss, we started an evening of debauchery. The world class crew reunited had a killer night, needless to say lots of brown dancing went down. We awoke the next day not feeling incredible, but we still rallied to go do some kayaking no doubt. We checked out money drop, a nice 50-55ftr with a crazy fast lip.

Dagger Blogs: Mapping the Mekong to Protect Fish This 11km wide section of waterfalls at the border of Laos and Cambodia plunges 45 feet through a maze of vertical waterfalls, flumes and cascades:some runable, many terrifying. While descending the runable parts of the falls was part of our mission, finding the best way upstream was our ultimate goal.

Liquid Projects: A Marsh Winter Here's a short video of some highlights of one of many sessions at Marsh Weir this winter.

Ross Herr: My Custom SUP project As a college student this SUP will be built on a budget. For blanks I am using 3 pieces laminated together of DOW polystyrene purchased at the local hardware store. We bent the rocker into the tip and tail during the lamination process.

SeaKayakPhoto.com: The Bogle Hole, Colvend. Once through the narrow cleft in the rocks we entered we found the most delightful hidden cove backed by a lovely sandy beach.

This mail contains a selection of the world's latest paddling news. To see all the latest news, videos, forum discussions and more, visit Playak News Watch.
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Playak Weekly Digest - week 08

Playak Weekly Digest
A digest of the world's most popular paddling headlines in week 08, 2010.

News Watch Headlines

***** Sunday 14th - Playak: Review: This Is The Sea 4 The format of the TITS-DVDs is a mix of shorter items about interesting kayak-personalities and special seakayak destinations, followed by some longer features about seakayak-expeditions. In every next DVD this format evolved to a higher level: the picture quality, the camerawork and the story-lines got better every time. TITS 4 topped it and won the most prestigious awards in the world of outdoor-filming.

***** Friday 26th - Adrian Tregoning: Sungai Lambai – Jungle Creek! Part 2 I went up and got into my boat. Hugh gave me the signal to wait and I assumed Andrew was getting into position to video and for safety, as the next rapid was just below. My heart started beating while waiting around. After what was probably less than a minute I was given the go ahead and dropped in. It was one of the more intimidating rapids that I've run but I felt good. I lined up and boofed into the pressure area and charged out no problem.

***** Sunday 21st - Adrian Tregoning: Luke Longridge on the Upper Sabie – a swim for my birthday I've always assumed that at some point in my life, I have paddled the upper Sabie at low water. Turns out I was wrong, and have only ever paddled it really full. Until this time. It was very low, which was probably a good thing, because I was paddling rather poorly. We ran all the rapids on the U2 section, and Hugh Twice caught me out a little.

**** Thursday 25th - Adrian Tregoning: Sungai Lambai – Jungle Creek! Part 1 Thursday, 19 November. Breakfast was some cake type stuff, and something similar to what we called vetkoek, neither of which appealed me so I wolfed down some monkey nuts and that was that. It was partly cloudy and quite hazy, it looked like it was to be a hot day. But no matter, another day of excellent kayaking lay ahead of us!

**** Thursday 18th - Team LiquidLogic: Jefe performs as Playboat On Calancasca river at a high level I tested the playboat performance of my Jefe. And yes it works well. I started with a nice entry move which is called Deep Diver going directly into a nice cartwheel.

*** Sunday 14th - Jackson Kayak: Surfing at Kelly's Whitewater Park I had the first surf in Kelly's Whitewater Park yesterday. I cannot believe it is here! The photo of the island and feature four is from a couple weeks ago while under construction. The rest of the photos are from yesterday. We surfed with about 300 to 400 cfs. The features are already fun to surf. I cannot wait for more water.

*** Thursday 18th - Trent Thibodeaux: Rio Claro The run is basically waterfall after waterfall after wallfall, all good-to-go. There are a couple of mandatory and unscoutable drops but it all goes and just adds to the excitement. The entré saltos section has the coolest rapid I have ever paddled, the "Garganta" aka swirly bird drop. After this is more tight slots, waterfalls and at one point we entered a dark hallway and when we rounded the corner a huge 70-80 foot waterfall was pouring in on the side.

*** Monday 15th - Adam Johnson: Rio Florin Stouts… After spending several weeks in Pucon, it was time to venture outside of the immediate creeking wonderland (what EG calls "Babylon") and onto rivers farther south.

*** Sunday 21st - Go-Kayaking: See Our Guide On How To Outfit Your Kayak!! Fitting in the boat is all about being snug and comfortable (very important) in the boat and not being able to move around in it too much. So the three points of contact are very important.

*** Monday 22nd - PeakUK US: Rio Claro The Rio Claro in Northern Chile is just simply amazing. The run is close to Santiago making it the perfect first day run for our Chile trip. Most know it for the famed 7 teacups, but upstream are some of the most amazing gorges and still more insanely perfect waterfalls to be run.

*** Thursday 25th - Fraser Valley WW: Vancouver Island Video 2010 This is a short video from paddling on the island in the winter of 09/10. It's the first FVWW video of the year and I'm sure it won't be the last, probably not the last island video either. There is some footage of the big slide and falls on the Ash River as well as some from Hemingston Creek and a couple clips from the Cameron River by Port Alberni.

** Saturday 20th - Astral Currently: Asheville Goes to Overflow A few cold and snowy weekends ago I had the opportunity to paddle the Overflow Creek for the first time with a group of friends from Asheville. Its an incredible creek run with some really cool drops, and as we quickly learned its not a run to let your guard down as almost every drop has some type of hazard.

** Tuesday 23rd - Jackson Kayak: Stephen's photos from Rock Island Falls and Sieve City Clay, Dane, EJ, Nick and I headed out today in the cold to run the Falls and Sieve City. We all padded our Villain S 2.0 prototypes-great boat, great boofs, great times!

** Friday 19th - Fraser Valley WW: Ash River, Vancouver Island, B.C. The Ash River on Vancouver Island is a hydro controlled river. It doesn't usually release water in early February but that's exactly what it was doing while we were there on a three day boating tour for Curtis' Birthday. We're not sure why there was such good flow but we weren't going to complain. The flows were so good actually that the reservoir was spilling over the top of the dam allowing us to run the big ramp out of the lake into a small pool and off a clean 15 footer.

** Saturday 20th - CKS Blog: The Astral Green Jacket LE2 The Astral Green Jacket's been around the block a few times. It's really comfortable, lasts along time and is burly enough be your "go to" jacket for big Class V trips. Of all the PFD manufacturer's out there, Astral seems to be the one that is continually trying to progress into the next realm of quality, style and overall coolness. The Green jacket LE and LE2 are great examples of this.

The Playak Weekly Digest is a special Saturday version of the News Flash, containing the most popular paddling news of the past week. To see all the latest headlines, videos, forum discussions and more, visit Playak News Watch.
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Playak News Flash 2010-02-25

Playak News Flash - February 25, 2010

News Watch Headlines

Fraser Valley WW: Vancouver Island Video 2010 This is a short video from paddling on the island in the winter of 09/10. It's the first FVWW video of the year and I'm sure it won't be the last, probably not the last island video either. There is some footage of the big slide and falls on the Ash River as well as some from Hemingston Creek and a couple clips from the Cameron River by Port Alberni.

Jackson Kayak: John McConville Visits Peru Based out of Arequipa, our team was able to successfully complete 2 of the more well known rivers to the area. The Rio Colca which was first explored in 1981 by Jerzy Majcherczyk, and the Rio Cotahuasi which is even deeper than the Colca. Popular with tourist, these two rivers bring in all sorts of outdoor enthusiast such as trekkers, sight seer's, and even the occasional rafter all hoping for a glimpse into some of peru's oldest history!

Jackson Kayak: Stephen's photos from Rock Island Falls and Sieve City Clay, Dane, EJ, Nick and I headed out today in the cold to run the Falls and Sieve City. We all padded our Villain S 2.0 prototypes-great boat, great boofs, great times!

Jackson Kayak: Bald Rockin He had just put Bald Rock Canyon of the Middle Fork Feather on his list of things to do, and only three days after arriving we had perfect flows, warm weather (for February) and a great group consisting of Stephen, Taylor Robertson, Jason Craig and myself.

Liquid Projects: A Week In The Thames Valley After spending a week in the Thames Valley on a mini Kayaking holiday during my half term I decided to put together a video of some of my sessions, we spent some time trying out new angles of the weir and hopefully you will like the result!

PeakUK: Winter Hurley Session After spending a week in the Thames Valley on a mini Kayaking holiday during my half term I decided to put together a video of some of my sessions, we spent some time trying out new angles of the weir and hopefully you will like the result!

PeakUK: 'Camping' in Krakow During the colder months, the artificial white water course at Krakow has a tent erected over the channel, for a generous proportion of the slalom course. This eliminates the wind chill factor on the paddler and once inside and paddling around the tent soon warms up. Lighting within the tent, means that training is not solely restricted to day light hours.

Kokatat Blog: Dumpster Diving – the highlight of my Grand Canyon trip We're in a van headed to Flagstaff. We hired Ceiba, a company out of Flag, to pick us up at Diamond Creek and they've got a driver so of course we're having a good time telling stories, hooting and hollering. Maybe sneaking beers here and there.

Ben Brown: The new AMP vest from Palm The new AMP vest from Palm arrived in my letterbox a few days ago and it's fair to say I'm pretty excited about it. I have been using the Palm Axis Extreme vest for almost a decade so it was going to take something pretty special to convert me to something new! The Amp is extremely light, comfortable, has plenty of flotation, and has all the safety features that are required from a top of the line river running PFD.

LVM TV: Canoe Movie Golden Stroke Eli Helbert managed to crank out this goldie on the Rio de Oro last week while filming for The Canoe Movie. This was shortly before running 40′ La Gloria Falls.

Adventurous Experiences: Adventure Club - paddling progression It has been an exceptionally successful winter season, with milder conditions allowing for regular training sessions, used by beginners through to our highly motivated students and members of the Adventure Club.

American Rivers: American Rivers signs agreements for world's largest river restoration project After years of negotiations, American Rivers will join Interior Secretary Salazar, Oregon Governor Kulongoski, and California Governor Schwarzenegger today to sign historic agreements to mount an unprecedented restoration effort on the Klamath River, one of America's greatest river systems.

Jimbo Meador: Deep Water Kayak Fishing Pete Hinck, better known as "Palm Beach Pete," has mastered the art of deep water kayak fishing off the coast of Palm Beach. Pete is a pioneer and has learned by spending his time on the water and following his passion. Pete is a Native Watercraft Endorsed Guide and as a member of the "Tribe," he fishes out of a Native Watercraft Magic 14.5 that he has rigged to meet the demands of off shore kayak fishing.

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

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Playak News Flash 2010-02-22

Playak News Flash - February 22, 2010

News Watch Headlines

PeakUK US: Rio Claro The Rio Claro in Northern Chile is just simply amazing. The run is close to Santiago making it the perfect first day run for our Chile trip. Most know it for the famed 7 teacups, but upstream are some of the most amazing gorges and still more insanely perfect waterfalls to be run.

Adrian Tregoning: Luke Longridge on the Upper Sabie – a swim for my birthday I've always assumed that at some point in my life, I have paddled the upper Sabie at low water. Turns out I was wrong, and have only ever paddled it really full. Until this time. It was very low, which was probably a good thing, because I was paddling rather poorly. We ran all the rapids on the U2 section, and Hugh Twice caught me out a little.

Dagger Blogs: Rapid Magazine Reviews the Dagger Axiom Whitewater Series Be sure to pick up the Spring 2010 issue of Rapid Magazine, where they do an in-depth review on Dagger's Axiom series and interview boat designer Snowy Robertson.

Team LiquidLogic: Liquidlogic Team Europe on TV On February 17th the German TV Show Ehrensenf showed a scene from the Team Liquidlogic Europe's video Liquid Norway.

Charging Arc: Mexico ~ which way to the Big Banana? Adventurec is a great place to stay to explore the sections of the Alseseca and Pimiento section of the Alto Filo. You'll get great info and help there from the rafting and kayak school and the wealth of knowledge on hand from Antonio, Alex and Tom McEwan.

Go-Kayaking: See Our Guide On How To Outfit Your Kayak!! Fitting in the boat is all about being snug and comfortable (very important) in the boat and not being able to move around in it too much. So the three points of contact are very important.

Immersion Research: Gotta Love Bend in the Winter! There are not too many places in the US where you can hit up the river on one day, and play in the snow the next- Bend is one of those places! Flow this time of year aren't necessarily optimal, but there was still plenty of H2O to have a good time!

Werner: Werner Athlete Paul Kuthe Featured In "The Season" This is some of the best paddling cable cam footage I have seen. Beyond the cinematography, The Season is simply great story telling.

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

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