Playak News Flash 2011-02-20

Playak News Flash - February 20, 2011
The world's latest paddling headlines.

News Watch Headlines

First Ascent Kayakers Head to Brazil to Shoot Kayaking TV Series First Ascent - In 2010, Ben Stookesberry, Brazilian Pedro Oliva, and I faced some of the most difficult whitewater in central Brazil. Thanks to Pedro's desire to be the face of kayaking in Brazil, images from the trip were produced into a television series for a Brazilian network. (You can watch last year's trailer here.) To capture 13 episodes, we covered thousands of kilometers through the great diversity of the southern Amazon Basin, and met many challenges, but are back again! This year, we depart from Manaus and travel along the most voluminous river on earth, the Amazon, north to the tri-border region with Brazil, Venezuela, and Guiana.

Uganda 2011-movie clip Peter Csonka - So we are back from Uganda and finally I was able to finish the movie clip from there. How I sad many times Uganda is my favorite winter destination. The waves , rapids , life there is awesome. Its easy just eating kayaking and enjoying the vocations there. Ok so we spoke a lot already about Uganda in the past articles ... just watch the movie clip.

Mission: Upper Palguin, fear and consequence Jackson Kayak - This Run has scared me for quite some time.…… I am not worried about me, but my people.… I have to manage the skills, the desire and the safety.… All things that I find easy to do on a river I know.… But I had not got to run the Palguin before the trip.… I had to trust the word of my Friends, Dave Hughes and Kurt Casey.… I trust them, but perspective has a fickle eye.… We pulled out at 9am for the top of the river and put in on the land bridge.…

An Ode to Dipper Creek Immersion Research - Dipper is one of the most beautiful and committing places I have ever been. The gorge is incredible, the rapids and waterfalls are incredibly fun but its a lot of work. There are a few involved portages as well as many must run rapids. I spent two full weekends here in early October filming. Dipper Creek is a magical place.

Tung Tung Gunung and a week of culture Andraz Krpic - Cahyana flows in an artificial irrigation channel, maybe an hour away from Tirtaseta's house. In a short stretch there are four fun waterfalls and one of the nastiest little weirs I had ever seen before. While there was a dead goat stuck in a weir to remind us of what could happen to us, the rest of the waterfalls are totally safe and really fun. Maybe the most fun fact is that you can't really control the angle of your boat on 3 of them because of a concrete kicker at the bottom of slides.

Records tumble again! SUP HQ - The windiest downwinder to date produced some amazing times for the 32 Stand Up Paddlers in the 6th edition of the PRIMI Naish series on Wednesday night. Due to the severe weather conditions with winds of up to 53knots (over 100km/h) entry was restricted to experienced paddlers only. The sea was rough with a 2m swell from the SW adding to the excitement. Very few of the entrants had ever paddled in such high winds and looking out into the bay from Milnerton all you could see was white mist from the wind ripping the top off the waves.

Valhalla, I am coming! West Coast Kayak Challenge - Every time I've thought about Vikings since I've known of Led Zeppelin I end up with Immigrant Song in my head. So today I went to test my new Kokatat Expedition Dry Suit. It's phenomenal, light, easy to zip yourself into and dry, of course. The only potential leaks were averted by not getting over excited, had I borrowed my daughters nappies I might have let go.

2/18/2011 - Black Creek Kayaking the Mobile - Tensaw River Delta - Every year I like to to kayak in foggy conditions. That way I won't get freaked out should a fog bank ever descend unexpectedly. On this trip, the first hour paddling in fog was in pre-dawn darkness. Was attempting to get a photo of tug boat lights in this shot but the camera focused on the fog. (2) Above right: In Mobile River, visibility was about 1/4 mile. Could not see the other side of the river.

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