Playak News Flash 2010-07-21

Playak News Flash - July 21, 2010
The world's latest paddling headlines.

News Watch Headlines

Pacific Northwest Huckfest 2010: Part 1 Fluid Blog - The East Coast summer doldrums had been taking their toll on me and I was in need of a change of scenery. Even as a professional kayaker (and undisputedly the greatest kayaker in the world), I have not been immune to the hardships of our struggling economy. Things had gotten so bad that I had sell autographed pictures of myself on street corners just to scrape together enough money to make ends meet.

2010 International Whitewater Hall Of Fame Class Span a Century of Dedication to River-sports Paddling Life - The International Whitewater Hall of Fame (IWHOF) Board of Governors has announced its 2010 Inductees. The five individuals from five countries were chosen by an international electorate. The eldest of this year's class was born 100 years ago and the five individuals hail from as many nations.

Lake Creek pictures Sweet - When I posted video called My Home I called Pine creek rapid my home run. It is true but its easy, accessable, convenience and fun run. In this blogpost I would love to introduce you some of my best home runs ever called Lake creek. It flows in valley next to the road no. 82 called Independence Pass. Most of the summer its really high and running bottom section would be pretty hard core.

Idaho Part Duex - In search of da boof CKS Squad - So following our Selway float a few of us decided to sample some of Idaho's finest whitewater. I mean we were in Idaho at the peak of melt with countless options around. Why head back so early? The results of our decision was countless miles of whitewater goodness peppered with a few hot springs, a little dealing, and a lot of camping in the rain.

Kamchatka Project :: Field Report Range Life - In the weeks preceding departure to the Kamchatka Peninsula for a project Bryan and I had been working on for almost two years, many of my close paddling friends kept asking about what kind of whitewater we expected to find. And the truth was, with so much of our planning and prep time focused on the salmon, the conservation aspects of our trip, and the general logistics, that we had no idea what to expect in terms of whitewater.

Teva Extrem Outdoor Games 2010 Valentin Grollemund - The week of June 7th to 13th, I drove alone from Rodez (France southern center) in direction of Italy where were waiting for me buddies to enjoy a couple days of kayaking before going ValChuisella for the Teva Extrem Outdoor Games!!

Dagger boats sweep the top spots at the 2010 Great Falls Race! Dagger Blogs - Paddlers in Dagger boats took all six podium positions in this year's Great Falls Race, sweeping both the long boat and short boat classes in Green Boats and Nomads. The Great falls race is held annually as part of the Potomac Whitewater Festival, which is a fundraiser for American Whitewater, and is one of the longest running extreme kayak races, first held in 1993 . Great Falls on the Potomac River is a spectacular series of cataracts with a multitude of channels and drops that are runnable depending on the river level.

Fierce battles at The SWEET Rumble BoaterX finals Sweet - It was Saturday night at the Sjoa River Festival, and as many years before, happy campers and local and global whitewater heroes showed up for the SWEET Rumble BoaterX event. At this years event we saw some of the fiercest boaterX battles ever to be witnessed. The racecourse was moved from the infamous Aamot falls on lower Sjoa, to the camp section just above. And the course was not made for first timers, we're talking mean and crowd pleasing gates and a seriously hard to cross finish line.

Story So Far….. Palm Blogs - Having had a great summer so far, I thought it was time to look back on some of the highlights. Starting in France, with some great fun runs in relatively high flows. Whilst there, I attended the annual Student Boater X and Slope Jam. Despite no longer being a student, there is still good competition to be had in the old boys or "bloater X" event along with the super fun Slope Jam.

Canyon Creek Of the Nooksack Roaring Fork Kayakers - Canyon creek of the Nooksack is a small tributary that comes in just below the canyon section of the north fork. It comes from high mountain valley that reaches almost clear to the Canadian border. Although all the runs on the Nooksack nearby are almost all bedrock style, Canyon Creek is much more manky. After a short bushwhack down a steep hill, you will come to the creek, which at this point consists of landslide boulders, creating terribly manky drops.

Detox in action on the Witte River Fluid Blog - With all this focus on the new composite boats the Detox is quietly going about making a mark on the industry. When I first heard about the Detox I wasn't completely sold, that wasn't until I saw it in action with my own eyes did I realise how badly I wanted this nifty new toy.

Team Leif and Natalie take third in the Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge Fluid Blog - eam Leif and Natalie (a four person team despite the name, which also includes Nathan Werner and Xavier Engle) placed third in the open class in the Vertical Challenge sponsored by Eddy Flower. This is the third year that Leif and I have done this event and the first that we've podiumed! As a team we racked up 62,445 vertical feet (19km). We stepped it up this year considering that for 2009 and 2008 we repsectively logged 28,425ft, 15,045ft.

Chris Jones on the road – part 3 Kokatat Blog - The Bhote Kosi (literally meaning: River from Tibet) provides an awesome opportunity for class 4 and 5 (mostly) roadside boating. For those looking for less action the lower Bhote becomes the class 3 Upper Sun Kosi and the class 3 Belephi Khola flows in from the west providing a range of runs all easily accessible from our riverside "basecamp". We're all surprised that the monsoon has not yet broken yet and the river is surprisingly low.

New Mexico SUPin CKS Squad - Northern New Mexico is going through the low water blues and I was itching to get on the water. My girlfriend Rachel and I have been wanting to get a couple SUP (Stand Up Paddle) boards for some time now. So now we had the perfect excuse. We live near a couple rivers and a bunch of lakes and were jonsin to try something new. So we bought a couple SurfTech SUP boards from CKS and hit the Lake right away. I bought the SurfTech 11'6 Soft Top Stand Up Paddle Board and Rach bought the 10'6 version.

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, click here.