Playak Weekly Digest - week 17

Playak Weekly Digest
The world's top paddling links in week 17, 2010.

News Watch The Best Creeking Paddle Outside Blog (Wednesday 28th) **** - As a general rule, a good creeking paddle should be as tough as a bull's horn, lighter than a Mexican pilsner, and far less expensive than your boat. Dry Meadow Creek A Wet State (CA) (Sunday 25th) **** - So far this year has proved to be a good one. For the 5th or 6th write-up in a row I am going to start by saying, "this run has been on my list for a long time." I believe the first time I saw pictures were on the dreamflows whitewater photos page followed a short time later by the photo on the cacreeks write-up. Video: Steve Fisher at the Moses Mabhida Stadium playak.tv (Friday 23rd) *** - Things to do with the new Moses Mabidha Stadium in Durban, South Africa. The Way of "Tox" Evan Garcia (Wednesday 28th) ** - Once upon a time there was a little dwarf named Tox. Tox lived in a mountainous region on the East Coast of the United States of America. He knew little about the outside world, and kept to quiet never coming anywhere close to any cities or humans. One day while he was hunting small rabbits he caught sight of something strange. Interview with Jeremy Wade Outside Blog (Saturday 24th) ** - Fishing may be a hobby to you, but for Jeremy Wade, host of Animal Planet's River Monsters, it's a way of life. Wade scours the rivers of the world for the stuff of legend, and we're lucky enough to bear witness. Viewers have seen him catch a lot of big fish, including a human sized Goonch Catfish, but most of the thrill comes from watching the hunt. We caught up with Wade just before the new season begins. Carrying your Kayak Dagger Blogs (Monday 26th) ** - I never thought much about carrying my kayak because it was something that my peers in the sport have always expected of me. My understanding from the start was that I needed to be able to carry my kayak by myself if I wanted to participate in the sport. When I first started teaching women I held that same expectation for my students. Video: Kayaking Japan Fukiwari waterfalls 滝 playak.tv (Wednesday 28th) ** - Min Ryan and I running fukiwari fall in Gunma Japan. Thanks to Ryan and Gabe for making the vid. Snow Boatercross! Jackson Kayak (Wednesday 28th) ** - Two weekends ago Mt. Rose ski area let us organize a snow boatercross event. They used snow cats to build up the couse that we wanted and let us put on a great show for the closing weekend. Corse We Can! Team Pyranha (Saturday 24th) ** - Filming for Means of Production 2 has been continuing in Corsica! But it hasn't all been simple fun and games; oh no. April 4th: Lucy and Luke picked me up from my grandmother's house in London and we shot off at high speed to catch our ferry. However things took a turn for the inconvenient when Luke's radiator exploded just before reaching the dartford crossing. April 26th Giant Final Dump Of Gold LVM TV (Tuesday 27th) ** - So I couldn't let this contest end with out sending some pics in from the great mank state of Colorado. First up is extreme tuber Rolf Kelly on the black canyon's waterfall before the fun mile long portage. In Between Swims: a blog with podcasts Rapid Magazine Blog (Friday 23rd) ** - That's the hook for this great idea: a blog with podcasts—audio recordings of interviews—rather than written stories from some of whitewater's most talented paddlers and biggest movers and shakers. The Good, the Bad and the Old Level 6 (Tuesday 27th) ** - First, the bad. It's been a long winter of school and I've spent 6 months out of my boat, other than a single rolling clinic in the pool. The Rockies are still locked up in ice and there is more fresh snow on the mountains than there is water in the rivers. This means I conceded to go and paddle the Elbow River at 3.5 cms, a rather bony level, then traveled for 4 hours to get to the Wigwam River and waited over an hour in hale storm for the shuttle. At least it was at a good medium level. North Fork of the Kern, Salmon Falls A Wet State (CA) (Sunday 25th) ** - So this run has not been on my list… ever. I never really had any desire to do these runs. I had run Chamise Gorge a few years back and had run Ant Canyon several times. Running them separately had always been fine by me. But then this year (2010) as the Kern River Fest was approaching, we decided to make the long drive down to the Kern Friday night. Since I had work on Monday I needed to get a sufficient amount of boating in in the two days that I would be at the Kern. The West Fork Gorge Northwest Video Scrapbook (Friday 23rd) * - The West Fork Gorge flows south between two major drainages in the Columbia River Gorge. Many paddlers have driven over the main branch of Major Creek, but few consider actually looking upstream enough to find the gorge. I had heard tales of fifty foot waterfalls and an un-runnable gorge. Warm Water / Big Lines – Villain S on Cain 1.8′ Jackson Kayak (Tuesday 27th) * - How's the Villain S paddle in big water? Smooth like butter on North Chick yesterday! Thundershowers doused the parched SE sending gages spiking and kayakers scrambling to the rivers we almost wrote off till next year. Expecting reasonable flows, I met up with Terry Smith, David Levitt, and some guys from Indiana at the put in and was surprised by the volume upon reaching the put-in – 1.8" makes that top section much more fun and the real rapids far more challenging...

Hot Forum Topics Fluid nemesis medium (Gear) Check out these photos... awesome / Lance Milnes spray skirts (Gear) I Like! (Playak) Buyer's Guide: Boats & Boards: Super Star 2010 Top Videos NSR 2010 Carnage (Hoethir) Kayaking Japan Fukiwari waterfalls 滝 (LincGD) Nordheimer Race 09' and Swollen Middle McCloud Falls Rock Paper Scissors: Norway 2009 (paddle wild) A 7 weeks long kayaktrip in Chile (max.eberl) Upcoming Events Vancouver Kayak Club Whitewater Festival Canada, Vancouver, Apr 30 - May 2 Cal-Salmon Race USA, CA, Butler Ledge, Apr 30 - May 2 FrenchBroad RiverFestival USA, NC, Asheville, May 1 Annual Black Creek Kayak Festival USA, SC, Hartsville, May 1 Amazing Bronx River Flotilla USA, NY, Concrete Plant Park , May 1 - May 2 Hell or High Water Weekend & The Ottawa Valley Rafting Championships Canada, ON, Ottawa Valley, May 1 Puget Sound Challenge-Segment 3 USA, Seattle, May 2 Reno River Festival USA, NV, Reno, May 7 - May 9 Frontenac Outfitters 26th Anniversary Paddlefest & Open House Canada, Ontario, Kingston area, May 7 - May 9

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 2010-04-29

Playak News Flash - April 29, 2010
The world's latest paddling headlines.

News Watch Headlines

The Best Creeking Paddle Outside Blog - As a general rule, a good creeking paddle should be as tough as a bull's horn, lighter than a Mexican pilsner, and far less expensive than your boat.

Voting For The Golden Strokes Competition - Round 1 LVM TV - First let us say it was a real pleasure to see all the gold being laid down on rivers around the world. Thanks to everyone who submitted a photo or a video! It was no easy feat narrowing the field down to 16, but after much arguing around the office it is done.

The Way of "Tox" Evan Garcia - Once upon a time there was a little dwarf named Tox. Tox lived in a mountainous region on the East Coast of the United States of America. He knew little about the outside world, and kept to quiet never coming anywhere close to any cities or humans. One day while he was hunting small rabbits he caught sight of something strange.

Video: Rock Paper Scissors: Norway 2009 playak.tv - On the 27th May 2009 three of us went on a Kayaking trip to Norway. The cheapest student friendly route was to drive! SO we drove! The route took us from Edinburgh to Wales to Dover to Duncirque in France. Then we drove up through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark. From Denmark we got the bridges to Malmo in Sweeden, then drove up into Norway.....total round trip including driving back to Ireland = 6070 miles in a Fiat Scudo Van....WORTH IT!

Little Abiqua Creek Mt. Hood H2O - Steve and I spent some time driving through the woods on old logging roads last week before finally settling in on attempting Little Abiqua Creek when the logging companies decided plan A was not going to be allowed. The geology seemed favorable given the proximity to Silver falls, Butte Creek, and Abiqua falls and the gradient was respectable as well.

North Fork Stanislaus, Boards Crossing A Wet State (CA) - After two years of trying desperately to get folks to join me on this run, I finally succeeded. I have to admit though, I was a bit nervous that the run may turn out to not be that great (since I had had trouble getting folks to join me in the past) and that my group would hold me accountable for a wasted spring day when so much else was going.

Snow Boatercross! Jackson Kayak - Two weekends ago Mt. Rose ski area let us organize a snow boatercross event. They used snow cats to build up the couse that we wanted and let us put on a great show for the closing weekend.

Our Official Flow Predictions for California Rivers in 2010 All Outdoors WW Rafting - Every year is an adventure in California when it comes to weather and water. When the amount of annual precipitation for the State averages just 30 inches, you are never far from an extreme low or an extreme high.

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.
To manage your Playak subscriptions, please edit your profile (subscription settings are at the bottom of the profile edit page).

Playak News Flash 2010-04-28

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

News Watch Headlines

Video: Kayaking Japan Fukiwari waterfalls 滝 playak.tv - Min Ryan and I running fukiwari fall in Gunma Japan. Thanks to Ryan and Gabe for making the vid.

April 26th Giant Final Dump Of Gold LVM TV - So I couldn't let this contest end with out sending some pics in from the great mank state of Colorado. First up is extreme tuber Rolf Kelly on the black canyon's waterfall before the fun mile long portage.

Video: 8 Ball Kayak Sprint playak.tv - The 8 Ball Kayak Sprint from the 2007 Teva Mountain Games. The Teva Mountain Games are a project of the Vail Valley Foundation.

Warm Water / Big Lines – Villain S on Cain 1.8′ Jackson Kayak - How's the Villain S paddle in big water? Smooth like butter on North Chick yesterday! Thundershowers doused the parched SE sending gages spiking and kayakers scrambling to the rivers we almost wrote off till next year. Expecting reasonable flows, I met up with Terry Smith, David Levitt, and some guys from Indiana at the put in and was surprised by the volume upon reaching the put-in – 1.8" makes that top section much more fun and the real rapids far more challenging...

Corsica is amazing! Jackson Kayak - What can I say – if there is any way to get yourself here for a part of the season or the whole season – do it!! I can't recommend it enough!! First of all, Corsica is a gorgeous island with snow-capped mountains that reach the sea.

Hawai sur Rhone for begining 2010! Level 6 - The year begins well! It was a January 1st as we like them with on program Wall " B " and a great left channel wave… The temperature was around -5°C and we were happy to have our level six Mitts!

Searching for Waterfalls Kokatat Blog - Kokatat Ambassadors Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic, along with Pedro Oliva, continue their exploration of the southern Amazon Basin in Brazil searching for the largest runnable waterfalls on earth.

The Good, the Bad and the Old Level 6 - First, the bad. It's been a long winter of school and I've spent 6 months out of my boat, other than a single rolling clinic in the pool. The Rockies are still locked up in ice and there is more fresh snow on the mountains than there is water in the rivers. This means I conceded to go and paddle the Elbow River at 3.5 cms, a rather bony level, then traveled for 4 hours to get to the Wigwam River and waited over an hour in hale storm for the shuttle. At least it was at a good medium level.

Video: A 7 weeks long kayaktrip in Chile playak.tv - A movie about a 7 weeks long kayak-trip in Chile. A movie from Anton Lehner with Anton Lehner, Florian Hartmann and Patrice Kaiser. We paddle many of the rivers in Chile from Santiago to the Rio baker.

Video: Paddling Steep Creek with Brad Ludden - 2009 Teva Mountain Games playak.tv - Take a ride down Homestake Creek in the Vail Valley with professional kayaker Brad Ludden. Get a first person look at what it's like to get gnarly in the rapids with Brad's helmet mounted POV camera. The Steep Creek Championship is part of the Teva Mountain Games and a project of the Vail Valley Foundation.

Brush Creek Race 2010 Level 6 - The Brush Creek Race 2010 was held just outside Kernville in Southern California. Below is a video from the event brought to you by Level Six and Shasta Boyz Productions.

Siddartha Re-enacted New River Academy - Last week for English class we finished our book Siddartha. Our project to review the book was to take 8 photos summarizing a section in the book and write a paragraph about each photo. Once there was a man who was sad because he defied his morals and became corrupt. His name was Siddartha. He traveled to the city from the forest in hopes of expanding his knowledge and learning on his own. He met a beautiful woman who told him he must be rich in order to do well in the city.

Carrying your Kayak Dagger Blogs - I never thought much about carrying my kayak because it was something that my peers in the sport have always expected of me. My understanding from the start was that I needed to be able to carry my kayak by myself if I wanted to participate in the sport. When I first started teaching women I held that same expectation for my students.

Fall 2009 Level 6 - Summer was spent as per usual boating on the Ottawa with the odd trip to the Gat to catch High Tension. This year however differed in that I finished University and am now have a degree. No plans to do anything with that right now. For the past month I have been boating in British Columbia with a group of friends. It is a little different to driving at home in Ireland, driving from Ottawa to Vancouver takes the same amount of time as it does to cross Ireland 12 times, so you can only imagine to road rage…

ICF's Planet Canoe showcases latest developments around the globe SNews - Planet Canoe, the official magazine of the International Canoe Federation, spotlights the latest developments in all disciplines of canoeing from freestyle kayaking to dragon boat, wildwater, adventure canoeing, kayak polo, slalom and more.

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.
To manage your Playak subscriptions, please edit your profile (subscription settings are at the bottom of the profile edit page).