Playak News Flash 2010-11-13

Playak News Flash - November 13, 2010
The world's latest paddling headlines.

News Watch Headlines

Balkan kayaking - part 1 (video) Freecaster - Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia. Paddlers: KAMIKSE

Mark Kalch's 7 rivers, 7 continents project Kokatat Blog - In 2007-2008 with support from Kokatat I made a small team descent of the Amazon River in South America. Beginning at it's ultimate source high in the Andes of Peru at over 5000m we rafted the entire length of the river to it's mouth off the coast of Brazil. This journey covered more than 4200 miles and took 153 days.

New CORE Team Paddlers and China First Decent Test CORE Paddles - After a couple of weeks of building some additional proto paddles I was able to send some new sticks out for some international testing. CORE would like to welcome some athletes to our test team. These guys are off to China to film a first decent out of the Himalayan plateau and have chosen CORE as thier main paddles for the trip.

First documented descent: Thomas creek falls Mt. Hood H2O - This was one of the best lines I have seen in person. In order to truly understand the consequences you will need to go scout this for yourself. Getting right and not too far right was not a gimme by any means. And despite the camera angle, this drop is every bit of 40 ft if not more as can be seen readily once you are below the drop. Pictures of low and high water scouts can be seen on oregonkayaking.net Nice work Matt!

Gauley and such Chris Baer - Commercial raft guiding in WV on the Upper Gauley is always rewarding. I have a stealer group of return clients that allow me to play hard and work on new and not so standard lines. Including the Double Death Spiral into Iron Ring, and just letting them go through the Box Canyon on there own.

Multi-Day Adventures in Nepal Team Pyranha - Kayaking isn't only about paddling gnarl. One of the most rewarding things that I have found about doing the sport we love is the ability to go to different countries and to see a side of life that very few tourists see. A rivers-eye-view!

Sluice Rodeo 2010 duemmstuff - The Sluice rodeo premier freestyle event was held in Dublin, Ireland this year and with over 50 entries – who said Rodeo was dead. Competitors started arriving to be welcomed to a sweet 2.5 meg release from the Dam above the feature, this made sure of a consistent and fair feature for the days paddling. Competitors travelled from all regions of the country to participate in one of the biggest events of the year and were a mix of skills and ages, all were welcome to join the rodeo where styling, fun and tricks were rewarded.

A Yankee In King Arthur's Court? P&H Paddlers - The race is in North Carolina about half way between Columbus and Hendersonville. (About 30 miles by helicopter from the P&H US headquarters.) Viewers park on both sides of Big Hungry Road taking up both shoulders for over a mile and a half. So, of course you have to walk to the trail head before embarking on the hike into the gorge. Some people, the author included, were already huffing and puffing.

Delta Kayaks Delta 10 Playak - The new Delta 10 is a very uniquely designed recreational kayak that brings a whole new level of innovation and performance to this popular market segment.

The Astral Green Jacket Long Term Review by Evan Stafford CKS Blog - The Astral Green Vest is the most comfortable and functional rescue PFD I have ever owned. While teaching rescue courses this spring I used it to demonstrate being live baited to rescue an unconscious swimmer, v-lowered into a rapid to access a pinned boat and towing abandoned gear to shore. I used the vest to rappel around an unrunnable falls on an exploratory mission in BC. I even tested the flotation on a birthday swim. In each of these scenarios the Green Vest performed.

15th Annual Green River Narrows Race Results + Videos WK Throwdown - Congrats to all Racers in the list below! It takes a lot of guts just to show up and attempt to ride the lighting during this wild day on the river…

Cuy--AKA Guinea Pigs Small World Adventures - Atsuko from Japan helped us get our season started last week. This was Atsuko's 4th visit to Ecuador with SWA! Atsuko is somewhat of a food connoisseur and enjoys exploring different traditional foods in the places she travels. So, this go around, she decided to dive in and sample one of Ecuador's most famous (or notorious) foods—the Cuy (known to us gringos as Guinea pig). Now, now, before you get all "oohh, gross, they eat Guinea Pig!" just stop and think for a moment that raising guinea pigs for food is no different than raising chickens, pigs, fish and all the other animals that we like to eat.

Making the most of short winter days SeaKayakPhoto.com - The Firth of Clyde channel is a busy shipping lane, in the past we have met RN nuclear submarines, RN frigates, RFA supply ships, tugs, tankers and bulk carriers here. It was a relief to land safely on Port Leithne on Bute for first luncheon.

Anaconda Adventure Race 2010 Global Surfski - Check out this nice video!!!!

Stripping in Public A whole bunch of Ing's - Somehow today I managed an after work excursion. Somehow I had enough energy to even think about it. Last week was full of parades, fancy dinners.....and much of the planning for things last week fell on me. now don't think I don't like to be busy; on the contrary. However there's busy...then there's last week.

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