Playak Weekly Digest - week 44

Playak Weekly Digest
The world's top paddling links in week 44, 2010.

News Watch Interview: Omer Stinger Playak (Friday 29th) ***** - 12 years of running sea kayak trips in Greece, Scotland, Ireland, Seychelles, Japan, Alaska etc...we only use high quality kayaks and our clients are mostly experienced paddlers. we run 3 kayak centers in Israel (Herzeliya, Ashdod & Akko) were we teach sea kayaking, whitewater (on the Jordan river) and surf kayaking. We also have a kayak base in the Dodecanese Greek Islands and in the Seychelles (during winter)... Trio Knocks off Stikine in One Day Paddling Life (Monday 1st) *** - Hats off to those guys," says Hilleke, part of the first group to ever do the run in a single day with Dan DelaVergne, John Grace and Toby MacDermott in 2005. "When we did it it was the most intense day of big-water kayaking I've ever had. And knowing Booker, I'm sure he didn't portage much. Altai 2010 - 3rd Part Tomass Marnics (Saturday 30th) ** - Continuation of the story about our trip to Altai. Here Today Gone Tomorrow: Urban kayaking PDX River Explorers (Saturday 30th) ** - This mission started with an email from my buddy Nate who informed me of a unique opportunity to paddle a short section of creek below Lake Oswego Lake. The email outlined that the City of Lake Oswego would be draining Lake Oswego Lake in order to remove and then replace an old sewage pipe that was located beneath the lake. Nate's email include some specific information regarding time and flow. He told me that the lake would be drained using large pumps and combined with the gate used to release water there would be adequate flow to run the creek. A better way to run The Fluffster Mt. Hood H2O (Wednesday 3rd) ** - Here is Matt trying out a line that has been attempted a couple times by people in our crew this year. While it lines you up nicely and is probably a good low water line, both Matt and Nate say its hard to get speed, so a little surfing may be in the cards if you try this line over a thousand. James Reeves throwing it down! Level 6 (Sunday 31st) ** - A couple of videos from L6 global team member and current World Squirtboat Champion James Reeves! Keep it up James! The Triple Crown Team Pyranha (Sunday 31st) ** - Both myself and Maxi Kniewasser were lucky enough to complete the Triple Crown (Stikine, Alsek, Susitna) this fall. Early in the season Maxi mentioned how keen he was to paddle the Alsek and having heard the stories from Daz Clarkson it sounded like an awesome trip. For myself I had been thinking about the Stikine for a while and was really keen to train hard and give it a go and Maxi said he was up for round number 2. So there it is, the original plan thrown out there, all we had to do was train super hard and earn enough cash to make it happen. White Water Kimberley… Astral Currently (Wednesday 3rd) ** - In February 2010 Lachie Carracher and Anthony Yap lead an international rafting and kayaking trip on Australia's largest river the Fitzroy. The international team of 11 from Africa, North America and Australia drove 4000km from Melbourne to the last road access in the Kimbereley, an outback airstrip from here they charted 4 light aircraft to place them in the most upper reaches of the Fitzroy catchment. The team then paddled from Manning Creek, into the Barnett river, further onto the Hann and after 2 weeks the team reached the mighty Fitzroy. Start of the Summer Jordan Searle (Wednesday 3rd) ** - Since arriving back in NZ the weather has been terrible with heaps of rain, snow in October and just outright dismal weather. Last weekend, however, this all changed and we managed to get some great weather and bagged the Whitcombe Prices. This season I am turning my focus towards video, in hope of producing a grassroots white-water film at the end of the summer and because of this I am going to throw up some short teasers of the trips we get on. New 2010 Chilean Creek Season KayakPucon (Monday 1st) ** - Is so good to be back in my home town Pucon again, Iam so ready to start another season here and I so happy to find good water level in some of my favorite rivers. Pucon is full of rain and mountains are full of snow, is good new for this summer. Pacific Northwest Huckfest 2010: Part 2 Fluid Blog (Tuesday 2nd) ** - Since I had flown all the way out to Oregon, I wanted to paddle some runs that were off the beaten path and avoid the local after-work type runs as much as possible (such as the Green Truss and the Little White). Not that these aren't great runs but they have been done so many times that a trip down them is an insignificant as winning the Nobel Peace Prize has become. After a light day of mountain biking, ELFing Kokatat Blog (Saturday 30th) * - ELFing extends our boating season, and here on the Arkansas it is possible to boat year round. The term "ELFing" (Extremely Low Flow paddling) is a term coined by Jim Snyder, one of kayaking's founding fathers. Fest... Dave Goadby (Friday 29th) * - Over the past few weekends I've been busy attending kayaking gatherings. First of all was the Wet West Paddle Fest in Fort William, then the Etive River Race and finally the Pyranah Fest in Bala. Green Race day 1. It begins Ross Herr (Tuesday 2nd) * - After my last class and a short shift at work I knew I wouldn't be able to calm down enough to sleep. I hopped in my truck and split for the south. A week on the Green River Narrows is what I need. I got to Saluda in time Friday night for some awesome local feasting with Isaac and a good nights rest. Saturday brought all kinds of people to the river. It was awesome to see the locals and fast gunners who have been training for months styling their lines. Its Official- New Guinness World Record! Immersion Research (Tuesday 2nd) * - Just got word yesterday that Andy Corra's record has been certified by Guinness after 10 weeks of credentialing!  He is now the new world record holder for "Longest Distance by Kayak in a 24 hr Period".

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