Playak News Flash 2010-06-23

Playak News Flash - June 23, 2010
The world's latest paddling headlines.

News Watch Headlines

SUP Video: Werner Team Rider, Andre Niemeyer, Heads South Werner - Andre Niemeyer and the boys are featured in a recent issue of My Local Line Up. Check out the video of Baja's East Cape.

Italia Pt III – In which Luke and Nick encounter a boar, before a huck and a mini epic… Palm Blogs - It was a beautiful warm spring evening when Luke and I found ourselves in the Aosta Region of northern Italy, on the banks of the beautiful Ayasse river, with a good level and a bottle of wine.

Kayaking with Jesse Coombs and Chris Korbulic (videos) Outside Blog - Jesse Coombs and Chris Korbulic, of Eddie Bauer's First Ascent team, took a gaggle of kayakers out on the water on Saturday, then headed back out on the river alone on Sunday to get in some extra runs. Filmmaker Allison Otto caught up with them on Sunday as they paddled through Class IV rapids on the Roaring Fork. Check out the video above.

Middle Fork of the Salmon Level 6 - Stig and I made the long journey from Ottawa to Syracuse via car and then a hop, a few skips and a jump to Boise Idaho. From there we met up with our compadres Tom from Shred Ready Helmets, Morgan from North Water and Mark from Mountain Equipment Co-op. After a quick meeting at the airport to collect our goods quench our thirst, we all made away in the family wagon to Stanley Idaho, the home of Middlefork River Expeditions.

Raffuse Creek Exploration CKS Squad - When Todd calls and says "hey man, ive got something sweet, wanna go to BC this weekend?", It probably means its gunna be a good old fashioned BC bushwack to a worthy creek. Then he texted me some photos they had taken when they scouted it a few days prior. Pictures of clean waterfalls and a kickass gorge met my eyes. I dropped other plans and headed up to the squamish area.

Fibark 2010 Team Pyranha - Hannah Kertesz throwing down in the Salida Hole where she ended up 2nd in the Junior Women's class!! Read on for more results and photos from the last 4 days at Colorado's oldest & biggest whitewater festival. We're all exhausted after another busy Fibark weekend. Demshitz Jared Seiler and Dave Fusilli were out of all competitions due to injuries, but there were still plenty of people representing in all of the whitewater kayaking events.

Paul Schauer: Butt-boating hero The Roaming Dials - Like so many runs I thought maybe a bit too stiff for me and my packraft, Disappointment Ck was Bradford's idea. That would be Bradford Washburn's namesake, Brad Meiklejohn.

Thigh straps rule. I don't care who says otherwise The Roaming Dials - This month I've been able to put a few days in while strapped into my heavily-modded yellow Llama. First Scott Solle invited me out with his swiftwater rescue class on Eagle River. NOLS Alaska was there in numbers and everyone who tried out the thigh-strapped packraft was in agreement that it's a qualitatively new and different experience. Straps got my son back into boating and the swiftwater class was the best money he's spent this year, he said.

Some more photos of the Teva Games Team Pyranha - Here are the promised photos of the Teva Extreme Outdoor Games 2010.

Claire O bags Silver at Euro Freestyle Champs PeakUK - Claire O'Hara does it again! Already World, European and British Champion in Ladies Squirt Kayaking, 28 year old, Leeds girl, Claire O'Hara has gone on to achieve success in a different discipline of kayaking : this Saturday, in Lienz in Austria she won the Silver Medal in the Ladies European Freestyle Kayaking Championships 2010.

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 2010-06-20

Playak News Flash - June 20, 2010
The world's latest paddling headlines.

News Watch Headlines

Video: Tanya Faux - 2010 Steep Creek Championship at the Teva Mountain Games playak.tv - A short video featuring Tanya Faux from the Bud Light Lime Steep Creek Championship at the 2010 Teva Mountain Game. Faux finished in first place for the women on 6.3.10 up at Homestake Creek. The Teva Mountain Games are a project of the Vail Valley Foundation.

Summer fun on Soča Gene17 - Every year from mid August, the River Soča plays host to our second run of teaching trips in Slovenia. The prefect clear blue water with it's boulder garden white water, lends to one of the very best paddling classrooms around. It's a near unbeatable spot to develop confidence and be introduced to the very finest of new school kayaking technique. The pristine landscape adds a wonderful back drop along with fine food and great beer, Slovenia has everything for a great paddling holiday.

Summit Creek, WA Sweet - Summit creek was discovered last year by a young group of Washingoton brothers known as the Wells Bros. They live in Trout Lake only 5 miles from the put in of the infamous Green Truss run on the White Salmon and have been searching the area for little stashes like this. The basic deal with this run is that, you need a bit if rain to pump the normally dry river bed up to enough water to scrape down this high mountain drainage ditch. Once you get the water you need it is an amazing place with two very steep and clean basalt gorges to run.

Video: Andrew Holcombe - 2010 Steep Creek Championship at the Teva Mountain Games playak.tv - A short video of Andrew Holcombe from the Bud Light Lime Steep Creek Championships at the 2010 Teva Mountain Games. Holcombe finished second for the men on 6.3.10 up on Homestake Creek. The Teva Mountain Games are a project of the Vail Valley Foundation.

Video: Tao Berman - 2010 Steep Creek Championships at the Teva Mountain Games playak.tv - A short highlight video featuring Tao Berman from the 2010 Bud Light Lime Steep Creek Championships presented by Thule at the Teva Mountain Games. Berman finished 3rd overall for the men on 6.3.10 at Homestake Creek. The Teva Mountain Games are a project of the Vail Valley Foundation.

Yule Creek Sweet - Couple of days ago I got off work and that was the right time to meet up with Demshitz crew to run something big. We met up in little town called Marble close to big Colorado mountains in Aspen area. After last week when was rainy and cold, it finally got sunny and warm again. We couldnt have a better weather for our run on the Yule creek.

Iceland sweetness... Sweet - I simply love this barren island to the west of Norway. Extreme conditions all around, yet with people that always seem lighthearted. Being norwegian I guess I feel related to the icelanders, seeing that a lot of norwegians moved here during the Viking age. Fleeing the politically unstable Norway, they settled on this windswept island of fire and ice. And big waterfalls..

Upper Blackwater; Revisiting a West Virginia Classic Fluid Blog - In the state of West Virginia, the Upper Blackwater is as classic of a steep creek as it gets. There are 62 major Class 5 rapids in the 2.5 mile run through a beautiful canyon. The run features more 4-8 foot drops and boofs than any other creek in the area and also runs fairly often. So it's a wonder that it had been 3 years since the Dogg had paddled that run. For years, it was one of my favorite runs and I logged somewhere around 100 runs during the period before 2007.

Powers Outdoors' Employee Demo Day Draws One Conclusion: JACKSON KAYAKS ROCK!!! Jackson Kayak - This past weekend was Powers Outdoors annual Employee Demo Day. Powers Outdoors is a Jackson kayak dealer in Michigan, and sells kayaks from all 3 of its locations. "This is the our chance to get the staff on the water so they can try out all of the boats they will be selling throughout the summer," says Jacob Slominski of Powers Outdoors, "lucky for us, this is our homework.

Kokatat Supports The Kamchatka Project Playak - Kokatat, the 39 year-old independent paddle wear and accessories company is proud to announce their official sponsorship with The Kamchatka Project. Bryan Smith, a long time sponsored Kokatat Team Member, will lead an expedition of six Whitewater Kayakers as they explore the Siberian mountain landscapes of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, one of the last truly wild places on earth, in an effort to raise public awareness of the complex relationships between the place, its people and its fisheries.

Videos from the WC1 & WC2 Daily Paddle - The International Canoe Federation (ICF) have published these two videos on their Youtube channel. A total och 50 minutes paddling entertainment.

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 Weekly Digest - week 24

Playak Weekly Digest
The world's top paddling links in week 24, 2010.

News Watch Oh Be Joyful, We Are LL Ladies Lounge (Wednesday 16th) *** - Oh how Joyful it is. God gave us kayaks so we could kayak. So we did. After a sweet weekend in Buena Vista Colorado the Liquid Logic crew (and a huge southeast crew in general) made the migration to the snow covered peaks of Crested Butte, to get on a gem. We made sure to eat a hearty breakfast of a dozen eggs and a pound of bacon before the great hike into the cold waters of Colorado. Stakeout is over, Norway Lives on Wavesport Blogs (Sunday 13th) *** - So Stakeout is now over. As I sit on the train in Norway I have time to think back. In total 8 swims, 4 broken paddles and endless good times with the boys. Our group this year was: Myself, Rush Sturges, Patrick Camblin, Rudy Rampage, Benny Marr, Dylan and Max Davidson, Joel Kawalski, Eric Boomer and the Dutchie Caspre Van Klamthout. A solid crew to say the leist. This year was a little different from previouse Stakeout years, we had low water when we usually have raging high water. Non the less the boys were still keen to rally to quebec for some paddling and some good times with the Chicoutimi girls. Quebec is still a fairly untapped area. Greenland Film Wins Another Award adidas Sickline (Thursday 17th) ** - Jared Meehan's and Olaf Obsommer's film „Into Perpetual Ice" of the adidas Sickline Team in Greenland has won the Best NZ Made and the Hiddleston/MacQueen Award at the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival's film makers competition. Incredible footage (video) Judy Ranelli (Wednesday 16th) ** - WildWater North Fork Payette Teaser from Anson Fogel. Payette HIGH WATER CKS Squad (Sunday 13th) ** - This June The Paddling Community of the Payette got a surpise of HIGH WATER. This June was History The North Fork of the Payette got to around 9,000 cfs . Alot of awesome paddlers fired it up. Glenwood Spring Summer Sessions: video Nick Troutman (Saturday 12th) ** - Colorado has been super warm for the last several days. With all this warm weather means that the snow melts, and what does that mean? HIGH WATER! Astral Home Grown Promo 2010 Astral Currently (Wednesday 16th) * - After finishing up with school for the year at Western State College of Colorado, I packed my bags and flew out to Reno, NV to compete in Kayak Boatercross for the 2010 Alt Games. The Alt Games is a collegiate competition consisting of 14 non-traditional college sports such as wake boarding, skiing, snowboarding, flow boarding, skateboarding, beach volleyball and of course, whitewater kayaking. I had previously competed in the event in 2006 and 2007 (formally known as the Collegiate Nationals) where I placed 2nd and 1st respectively in the freestyle event, but I had yet to place in boater-cross. There's creeking in TEXAS!!!! CKS Squad (Tuesday 15th) * - Since this was my first day kayaking in Texas and these boys brought me out with them, it wouldn't have been right to bag her first. So, here's a true Texan boy, Richard Harris, gettin' the first D! Write-up: Middle Fork of the Yuba, Plumbago A Wet State (CA) (Monday 14th) * - Finally after several years of trying to motivate a group to do into this run, I succeeded. As Saturday morning began, my group was set at 5. Soon, two more were accompanying. Within minutes, another would join. Once near put-in we ran into other friends and the group grew by 4 more. Is 12 people too many when trying a 13.5 mile run that none of us had done before and had supposedly 4 portages? Meh, perhaps. In reality, we knew the big group would slow our progress so we set out and paddled quickly through the first several miles. A few hoped out to scope the first major horizon line but reported it good to go and the team dropped through. The only slow progress was made in mile 5 which will require several scouts and possibly a few portages. Yuba Gap Big Kimshew Double Header Team Swain SE Boating (Wednesday 16th) * - A few weeks ago I had one of my best weekends in Cali to date. I got to run what I would consider some of the best day runs California has to offer: Yuba Gap and Big Kimshew. Kimshizzle Sam Roil (Wednesday 16th) * - The last week in Cali has been the best of our trip so far. We started off with a sick day in the Arches national park in Utah on our way home from Vail, then we had a pool party at a mates place. We then got a little lap on the Slab creek section of the South fork American river - a cool little 4-5 mission. Thursday saw us back in the UMC (Upper Middle Consumnes) for a sick day of creeking. Unfortunately Josh took himself out of the game trying to plug V-Slide upside down - we had to nurse a very sick, very sore little man out of the rest of the run. Sam Sutton wins Team World Championship adidas Sickline (Wednesday 16th) * - Its hard to believe that it's already one year since I was the last time at the Italy Mountain Games – and now once again I am racing to win the Teams Race World Championships. This year it was a very strong field especially with the Germans and Slovenians. Therefore New Zealand had a team consisting of Johann Rozenburg, Mike Dawson and myself, so we felt strong and ready to make some Euros. The Pilgrimage to Oh Be Joyful Creek Shane's Logic (Sunday 13th) * - Oh Be Joyful creek is a pilgrimage for paddlers every year. It has all the makings of mecca for paddlers. If the season in the Crested Butte valley were a couple months longer there would be 100s of paddlers moving in for the summer but because the season is only a few weeks long it has the feeling of a carnival camp with new members rolling in daily and a frantic pace of paddling and partying up and down the valley. Big Kimshew Creek Evan Garcia (Wednesday 16th) * - Big Kimshew is one of my favorite creek runs in California…being only a day run this has got to be up there in the "most fun" category of all the rivers on planet earth. With the right flows and group, you will enjoy a mix between the Little White Salmon, and Upper Cherry…you can't go wrong. The rapids start out fast and hold to the class V character all the way to the last take out falls. Gilman Gorge, CO video and pictures Wavesport Blogs (Tuesday 15th) * - Week before Teva games I got a phone call from the boss of Timberline tours in Colorado that they are looking for a safety kayaker for this summer. Chance of getting paid, being able to kayak every day doesnt come every day so I said "Yes, of course!"

Hot Forum Topics Freestyle kayak help!! (Gear) Fluid Kayaks North America (North America) Best dry rucksack? (Gear) LA to mexico city Kayak in Greece Video Top Videos SKOOKUMCHUCK KAYAKING Fluid Detox Video Kayak Villa Gesell, Argentina. Cámara a bordo (Quique VG) Homestake Steep Creek Helmet Cam (WakaWai) 2010 Teva Mountain Games: Freestyle Kayaking (WakaWai) Upcoming Events ECA European Freestyle Championships Austria, Lienz, Jun 14 - Jun 19 South Sound Traditional Inuit Kayak Symposium (SSTIKS) US, WA, Union, Jun 18 - Jun 20 Kalamalka Classic SUP Race Canada, BC, Vernon, Jun 19 - Jun 20 1st Annual 'Go Fish' - Paddle Fishing Tournament USA, NC, Wrightsville Beach, Jun 19 Adventures NYC USA, NY, New York, Jun 19 Puget Sound Challenge-Susan G. Komen Paddle for the Cure USA, Seattle, Jun 20 Kootenay Whitewater Kayak Festival Canada, British Columbia, Crescent Valley/ Nelson, Jun 26 - Jun 27

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