Liquidlogic Ladies Lounge

The Simple Life... Grand Canyon Self Support

2011-12-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

Carpooling to Lees Ferry (the put in) my mind was racing; "Do I have everything I need? Will my body agree with paddling 20-30 miles a day? Do I have the mental and physical strength to paddle 280 miles to Lake Mead?" Eight hours later, I realized that all my thoughts would become reality in less than 24 hours. No more questions, time to enjoy the trip and stop planning.

Back in September I hurt my shoulder flying off my mountain bike, so I was a little nervous about my shoulder's strength. I, however, kept in shape by running, pilates, and lots of bodywork on my shoulder. The river was running 20,000 cfs so I knew I could always just go with the flow and use the water to get me down. Luckily my intuition was right, and my body felt strong as soon as I put my paddle in the Colorado River.

The weather was absolutely perfect; 60 degrees and sunny. I almost felt overdressed in my Kokatat dry-suit with built-in booties over my fleece outfit, but as soon as we hit the first rapid, Badger Creek, I was happy that I had a sweet Gortex suit dry-suit protecting me from the cold big water. I was glad to have a pee zipper on the back. My first Grand trip I had no relief zipper, and it became a 20-minute adventure of taking off the dry-suit. A back relief zipper takes less than one minute.

Full of anticipation on what the Grand was going to offer us, we stopped at mile 17 to camp. The days in November are short, so I scrambled to find that perfect spot for the tent. Opening the dry bags for the 1st night is somewhat nerve racking. The question, "Do I have everything?" popped into my head. I started setting up my tent, sleeping stuff, and pulled out dinner supplies. Yes, I remembered everything, at least I thought. Having a big group is always a pro to a self-support trip, because there is an option to trade supplies and food. The freedom of kayaking or hiking when and where you want is grand, however supporting others in the group is priority in having a successful trip.

Having a group that you can trust is key; looking out for others paddling is important on a long self-support trip. At times the rapids actually felt easier than the big boil lines that like to pull the stern into the vortex of the tornado-looking water. Staying healthy and strong is also huge in paddling 20-30 miles a day. I have come to realize after 10 years of paddling, that most kayakers are humble and trust worthy people. I was happy that the group of gals and men on this trip were amazing people. Having 5 other gals to talk to about our past paddling adventures gave us an instant bond.

As the days passed by, the routine of getting up, pooing, making breakfast, packing up the kayak (takes about 20 min), and paddling another 20 miles to a badass hike or camp became a zen-like experience. The simplicity of a self-support trip made me fall in to rhythm of what my ancestors may have experienced. No cell phone, no drama, no deadlines, just pure living. I started to notice the rocks, the walls, the animals living in a complete present time. Looking at the stars between high canyon walls, with absolutely complete quietness made my mind silent for the first time.

The night before Lava, the group brought out many drinks to share, we had treasure hunts stashed for our group so we never ran out of merry drinks, and water. Whenever, I ran out of water I simply purified the water from the Colorado, and so far I feel great. On chilly nights, I put the boiled (purified) water in a nalgene in my sleeping bag for instant warmth. In the morning the water was cool enough to drink. Hydration is key to stay healthy and strong.

The next day we started paddling downstream to the well-known rapid, Lava at mile 180. Having 3 people in the group who have paddled the Grand before, brought old stories back from this rapid. Yet at the same time, the past seemed like a fuzzy dream. Most of the group skirted the left, and a few went right. We had one swimmer, and she kept her paddle, and boat together. She, stayed warm wearing a dry-suit, and the river's power humbled our souls. we paddled a few more miles and came upon a rafting group hanging out on a sunny beach. They were about to have some bootie beers (an old boater tradition, if you swim you must drink a beer from a bootie), we decided to join them. Our group of kayakers and rafters enjoyed cold drinks for at least an hour together.

The next few days, blew by. The rhythm of packing, and unpacking our kayaks became effortless as space opened up in our boats. I realized, after the 9th day that I over-packed food, since I still had a full dry bag of dehydrated beans and rice. The only things I finally realized I forgot were tortillas and socks. I traded gorp for tortillas, and luckily my good friend Lana, let me use a fresh pair of socks for a long hike.

I also figured out the easiest way to pack my boat. Here is a quick rundown...

Put the big yellow dry bag in the front (sleeping bag and thermo rest), shove canned chicken, purifier, and pan behind the foot pegs.

-Put groover in next and press with all my strength against the other dry bag to fit my water bottle in.

-Pack the back crevasses with fuel, canned food, and sandals.

-Put tent and poles into the back hatch area, along with 4 other small dry bags. Press hatch down with full strength.

-Put plastic box with day supplies in the back of the seat as well as, two other small dry bags that contain day supplies (food, hiking shoes, camera, sunglasses, first aid kit, and hair conditioner that I applied daily before paddling).

-That's it, takes about 15-20 minutes and a cup of coffee to load about 80 pounds of gear.

The last 2 days we had 40 miles of flat water, I was excited to see the Lower Granite Gorge past Diamond Creek. The rapids that started off the canyon, were beautiful and long. As soon as we hit the flat water, we realized the impact of Lake Mead: 10 foot silt banks, lined the river walls, and rapids disappeared. Looking for the last campsite became and adventure due to rain and no available campsites. I learned patience is a true virtue. We luckily found a campsite that sat upon about a 20-foot bank. We pulled each kayak up with a 75-foot rope, and it became a team effort that made us appreciate each day we had a perfect campsite and sunny skies.

Finishing off most of the drinks and food that night, we all had a feeling of true accomplishment.

A week later, I look back at this trip and, ask myself, What is the purpose of a self-support kayaking trip? I realize that my life can be claustrophobically filled with drama, cell phones, computers, TV, and Americanized material things. The irony of feeling opportunity and openness in between the deep narrowness of the Grand Canyon walls answered my question.

The answer is...Simplicity of life brings true joy of survival.

Cheers-Lisa Marie

*If this is goal of yours, to self-support kayak down your favorite river, go do it. Plan, save, and achieve. It's well worth all the effort. I suggest starting with 2 days down your favorite river with a loaded boat. Then check out new rivers for extended days. Protect, share and enjoy! :)

Self Support Grand Canyon

2011-11-13T15:40:00.000-08:00

Next week I will be paddling for 13 days on the Grand Canyon with a fun group of paddlers from Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon. 10 guys, and 6 badass women! The women are Lana Young-Hood River, Tammy Ritchey-Colorado Springs, Susan Hollingsworth-Portland, Jenn Peterson-Portland, Tina Swan-Denver, and Lisa Marie-Salida.
The last few months I have been pondering on what I should bring and how I should pack. 2 years ago I went with the liquidologic self support crew on the Grand. It was a trip of a lifetime and that is why I'm coming back to the deep ditch for more fun!

As a virgin kayak self support I learned from Boyce, Woody, Ted, Kelly, Will, and Klause the best way to pack the XP, to be comfortable, and enjoy the canyon at its best in Jan. of 2010. Thank you guys!

Self support is the way to go down the Grand (self support basically meaning, you carry all your food, home, clothes etc...) No rafts helping! Having everything in your own boat is awesome. If you want to eat, you eat. If you want to poo, you poo. If you want to go on a side hike, you hike.

There is a magical feeling when you paddle through fun class 4 with over 80 pounds of food, your house for the night, clothes, and of course drinks. Its an amazing experience and I'm excited to see and feel the mighty Grand again.
The big question that keeps coming up.. how do you fit everything in the Remix XP 9? So I thought I would write a quick Grand canyon prep blog and then come back to tell you how the trip went. We launch Nov. 20th, we will be back into reality on Dec. 3rd.

Here you go! Also check out this awesome website for more information...
http://kayakcamping.amongstit.com/

Below is a photo of the kitchen: Food, bowls, fork, spoon, 5 gas ,Pocker Rocket MSR stove. The red NRS dry bags has snacks and lunch (did not want to unpack). Soap, sponge for cleaning. Small pan for pancake making. Water purifier and waterbottle, coffee cup, and canned chicken for dinners. The only thing that is missing is a small pot. Gotta get one of these before I go.

Here are the items packed in 2 drybags for kitchen and food.Everything else can fit in the nooks of the Remix XP. (will show you photos of how to pack your boat on my next post)

Here is the house: sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent, and of course a foam pillow. Pillow can be used as back support when paddling if in a drybag. Pretty sweet! I make this a priority due to having a bad neck. Remember the word...comfortable, that's how I roll! Lol

Sleeping bag, pillow, pad and tent fit in 3 drybags.

Clothes for the 13 days (warm layers, hiking clothes, shoes, hat, gloves etc...) Kokatat drysuit. Other paddling gear not shown. Fits in one dry bag. Photo that is not shown (first aid kit, flashlight and poop pvc pipe)
In my next post I will show you how to pack the Remix XP 9 and give you more details on the Grand Canyon 2011 trip.
Oregon and Colorado kayakers paddle together on a magical ride! Yippie

Be back soon!
Lisa Marie

The Elusive Left Line

2011-08-06T14:41:00.001-07:00

Ok so I did tell everyone that I would do my next blog post on South Silver but I got a request to do a post on the Elusive left line of Sunshine. So here it is. I've been running the left line for a few years now with many different variations of the line. I started in a long boat and then slowly moved into being more comfortable in a short boat running it. Now that the rapid has changed, at the lower levels its actually more comfortable to go left than right for me. There's days where you have really really good lines like the one above. And...There's sometimes lines like the one above that hurt a bit more and aren't nearly as pretty.

So heres the deal. The left line is more scary than being in a cage with a Great White shark. Yes, I'm watching Shark Week. Ok, its not that scary. But there could be some bodily harm done if the line is messed up bad enough. Running too far in the middle could be a back breaker and too far left could mean hitting the left rock and breaking ribs, flipping right into the rock in the middle and hitting your head really hard. Here's a photo of Sunshine from the left side of the river with no water. You can kind of see the landing area on the lower left side of the photo. Its tight. Between the rock on the left and on the rock on the right you have to land just right to have a good soft line. These photos are just from the other day. I am coming out of the river right staging eddy with a little bit of speed but just enough to make sure that I will make it all the way across the river.
As you can tell from these photos I am really only taking one stroke. Its a really big right stroke. Making sure to keep my core taught and being sure to not drift downstream too far too early.

At this level, this photo shows a really good spot for the lineup of the rapid. I really like to have my right hip just on top of the last amount of water coming off of the rock. My left hip would at that point be on wet rock still but barely. Lining up the landing. Keeping my bow pointed straight or even a little to the left taking a right stroke. And launching off of the sweet spot!

So, there it is. My breakdown on the elusive left line. Hope you all learned a little bit!! For real now, next up a sweet blog on South Silver!!

See ya'll on the river.

Opening Day of South Silver

2011-07-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the massive delay. I can't believe that its been almost a month since I've been home from California. A lot has happened in the last few weeks and I havn't really been in the mood to make a funny or entertaining blog post. Alas, I really want to share my adventures with everyone that enjoys reading my posts so here we go.

Another post with not many photos but I think that comes with the territory when the only eddies to stop in are all washed out... South Silver is known for one of the "most forgiving class 5" runs in California. At high water I wouldn't call it forgiving at all. There's no eddies and there's some really big holes. Toby being a stud while running the extremely stacked up "teacups" section. Ross, being a good boy and standing at the bottom of the Teacups holding a Speedloader rope making sure no one goes accidentally floating into Skyscraper. Skyscraper at this level was definitely runnable but it also had a terrifying pocket on the right at the bottom which would be a really scary place to end up.Ross Herr amidst the 4th teacup in the rapid. Alongside him, his amazing girlfriend who hiked in to take photos.

Myself, enjoying the sunshine and the heat of South Silver. The rapids in here (at this level) are large and in charge for sure.

Telling Toby thanks for the grab into the eddy so I didn't drift into Skyscraper backwards. Also telling him how much fun this river is!!! We headed downstream to the portage and then gave Plastic Surgery a good look over before blue angeling down the meat of this stacked up set of rapids. I sadly have no photos of this rapid since we were all so excited about it!After that awesome day at South Silver, Toby and I drove to the Sierra National Forest. It was dark by the time we made it out there but the moon was so bright that Toby told me where Dinkey Dome was. I had dreams about granite slides all night long. I woke up in the morning and looked out of the back of my car to see the view above. I knew there were good things to come out of this day.

Up next, Super Dink! Also known as the "Infinislide". The name says it all.

The Wedding of a Century

2011-07-25T18:54:00.001-07:00

Yea I know this is a kayaking blog. But there are no kayaking photos on this post. Sorry. This post is to show what I saw through my lens during John Grace and Chelsea Christiani's wedding. As most of you know the name John Grace as the maker of LVM and Penstock Productions I know him as my big brother and a huge inspiration. Being able to be present during this union of people was really special.

So I got to stay at the Grace/Christiani wedding venue pretty much the whole week coming up to the wedding. I got to see the stresses of planning a wedding and making sure it goes off without a hitch. The venue was Chelsea's parents house nestled in the heart of the High Sierras outside of Auburn and every day it looked more and more ready to host a beautiful wedding.On the day, we made sure John Grace was on time (this time) and ready to say his vows. He even waited patiently for his perfect bride to walk down the isle.Chelsea and her father Larry walking down the isle. The hug that they shared before he handed his daughter over to John was a tear jerker for sure. Norbert (the dog) came in shortly after the emotional hug because he was the ring berrer. John and Chelsea exchanged rings and they were married within the hour! :-)The newlyweds sharing a kiss on the "fertility egg". Who knows... maybe there will be some baby Grace's in the future.I feel it 100% necessary to just say that Tommy Hilleke is still a bad ass. He is so good at kayaking but he is also a pro at making kids! Specifically boys! This is his absolutely amazingly cute (and handsome) family. From left to right, Polly (one of the most hardcore women I have ever met in my life), Bodie Green (the baby, 1 year), Tommy, Dax (2 years), Daniel (4 years), and Kelly (the old man, 5 years). Thats right folks, four kids in less than 6 years. All of the kids have their own little attitudes and they are all so so awesome!!!!!!!Every table at the wedding had a different river name or waterfall name. Instead of it being table 4 or 6 it was Royal Gorge and Cherry Creek. A very genius way to mark tables.

Before dinner I found a real live cowboy!The couples first dance together.And we all danced the night away!Just want to note that my perfect boyfriend flew all the way across the country for the wedding and we closed the dance for down! I was so happy to see him for the weekend right in the middle of my three week California tour.

Hope you all enjoyed the photo's even though they weren't of kayaking.

Up next... South Silver!!!

East Meets West

2011-07-24T12:11:00.001-07:00

So we decided a few days before the wedding to go on a mission to Loves Falls on the North Fork of the Yuba outside of Downeyville (which hosts one of the most bad ass downhill trails to ever be ridden). We figured it would be a quick, easy, fun day. Little did we know, Love's was still pumping high and we weren't about to go in there with a crew of 7 that we had. Even though we were all relatively good paddlers...Some of the crew was pretty fired up, until we saw this "little" guy waiting for us in the middle of the scouting trail. You can see it (staring straight into the camera) in the middle of the photo. Very well camouflaged too. We all felt like this was an omen and that we should go elsewhere for our kayaking ventures through the day. We hastily grabbed the dog and turned around to head back to the cars. After a few hours driving (over the mountains and through the snow!!) we found ourselves standing at the side of the Upper South Fork of the Yuba, The Summit Run. I thought this was an interesting place to put a house, right in the middle of the river.We had gathered the river was a bit high but not un-runnable by any means. The first rapid, Three Blind Mice, straight up kicked me in the ass. But really it kicked me in the ankles when I petoned so hard at the first drop that I lost my paddle. There I was, in a huge rapid, with no paddle, and what I thought, no hand roll. Alas, I flipped over and somehow ended up in the smallest eddy on river right that a girl my size could find and I rolled up. Grappling onto the rocks, I watched the whole rest of my crew paddle past me and I was left all alone. That was a lonely feeling. I figured out how to get out of my boat and climbed out of the mini gorge we were in only to see Tommy Hilleke's smiling face at the top asking me if I was ok. It was the hardest hit I have ever taken and I was definitely shaken but good to paddle still so we headed downstream.

Pictured above is Jeff Paine the Freight Train entering into a rapid I can't remember the name of. I just want to note, it was July 5th and there is still snow on the mountains in the distance. There is lots of snow out there this year people!There are so many good rapids on this river but all I had heard about was this one rapid called East Meets West. Jason Hale, styling this rapid down to the "T" for sure. It has a great lead into a waterfall about 20 feet tall into the mandatory melt all the way to Taiwan. The Freight Train taking the boof line, in the new Black Ops Liquid Logic boat, but still ended up somewhere in southern Australia, I am pretty sure. The one and only, Tommy Hilleke, seconds after his swim out of East Meets West. I was sadly sitting upstream (because I was going to follow him) and all I could see was him going off the lip and then everyone on the shore scrambling for their ropes, I knew that he had just swum. Needless to say, I was really scared then!!!So I finally got my guts about me (after I cleaned my shorts out) and I headed downstream, here I come!Looking like its going to be a good line!Oh gosh, maybe I can save it from here!!Nope, there was no saving it. I pretty much freewheeled the bottom drop. It was so soft and nice to land in it was like a pillow under there. I rolled up and paddled out partly laughing partly sad because I didn't get a huge boof!

After the slightly scary and kinda fun run I came home to find the bride to be mowing the lawn! Even while shes doing yard work shes still good looking!!

I got to ice my ankles and sit at the computer the rest of the day. :-(

Coming up next..... some wedding photos!!!

The Bachelor Party

2011-07-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

Not many photos of this one, since the crew we were with was pretty well known for their straight up mobbing downstream. This photo is of John and I hanging out at the camp where we spent the night on the Rubicon. That is the look of a big brother.

The Bachelor party crew consisted of Jon Grace (the groom), Tommy Hilleke, Jay Moffat, Jeff Paine (the freight train), Little Dave, Toby McDermott (budget) and yes... myself... I know I'm a girl. But Grace thought it fitting that I come along on his bachelor party.

We were all hoping to get onto Royal Gorge for the Bachelor Huckfest but the water didnt drop out until the week after the wedding so we were left with only a few options. Since the takeout was so close to the house we were all staying at we chose to head to the Rubicon. We had heard a lot of different things about this run, one saying that it was a nice class four run, another saying that there were a few mandatory portages and it was big water class five. The latter was a bit more correct.

Rules for the Rubicon: 1. If you can see the bottom, run it. 2. If you can't see the bottom, have someone get out and scout, then run it. 3. Bring your Toby. 4. If Toby doesn't give a double thumbs up, walk the rapid. 5. Bring a pressure cooker. 6. And a huge bottle of Correlejo tequila. 7. When you swim, make sure its in a pool. 8. Always look ahead of you. 9. Dont make blind right turns...blind... 10. Don't fall in the river.

We were all super stoked on this run. Big water and some massive holes. We had four swims out of a pretty solid crew of paddlers. Jay swam twice, once because he made a blind right turn. Toby swam out of the most rowdy pocket hole after a solid thrashing. Freight Train just plain swam.

On the last portage of the day John forgot his camera sitting on the side of the river and didn't realize it until 5 miles downstream when we got out for lunch. So him and Tommy did the ultimate and went straight back to the put in and ran the whole run in 5 hours the next day. But it won't go unsaid that Tommy broke his paddle and John Grace swam out of the last hole of the day.

If you ever get a chance to get on this run at 1000 cfs, do it. The run is awesome. There are four portages that are pretty mandatory and one that we did was terrifying. But all in all the run was awesome and a great way to celebrate the amazing union of two super cool people.

Next up, photos of the big day!!

Cali Goods, Part 1

2011-07-20T07:36:00.001-07:00

So I got to head to California after an awesome trip to Colorado this year to not only do some awesome creeking but see one of my good friends, John Grace get married to the most awesomest woman ever. Toby McDermott and I loaded up my trusty Subaru and headed west into the sunset.

I think at this point I was almost sleeping and Toby woke me up from my slumber to see this amazing view... over the Oklahoma flatlands...

We took I-40 West the whole way, somewhere around 2300 miles later we found ourselves at the put in to the main Keweah. Everything was still pumping so Hospital Rock and the East Keweah were out of question, but there is nothing wrong with running some big water class 4 after an epic 40 hour drive.

We added to that drive by going further north and heading to the Whiskey Flat Bridge, the takeout to the Secret Stash on Big Kimshew. We had heard the flows were right and that it was going to drop out pretty soon so we rallied to get on it.

This was the end result of our load onto Jason Hales truck. Which also included 8 people. We ended up having a crew of 11 on the river with us.

People in California are so smart!! They all use Werner Paddles!!

Since the day was pretty much just full of mad bombing and making sure that we made it off the river before sundown there aren't many pictures of kayaking. Sadly. This is the Island Drop its the first (of very few) portage.

Since we were looking from above these were the only rapids that you could see on the drive up to the put in. To scale, that slot on the left was somewhere between 8 feet and 10 feet high. You roll around the corner and head right where you are sent off your first very nice 20 footer of the day. There was much more where that came from.

The only time that we really stopped was to hang out at Frenchies Forty. We ate some food and rehydrated. We were planning on going straight into the Secret Stash after we finished the run and we knew there were some big rapids in there.

Jason Hale, our fearless leader.

Myself, stoked at the end of the trip. Happy to be with such an awesome crew of people and stoked to have just run some of the biggest rapids of my life, blind. "You can only run a rapid blind once."

Big Kimshew into the Secret Stash is like starting on a micro creek way up in there and then you end on a full on river with some massive holes and some really rowdy lines to be made. There is no other river that I have ever been on that has given me this much bang for my buck. Super sick run.

Oh Spring, How I Love You.

2011-05-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

So this year has been a pretty slow start for my paddling. Im not paddling as much as I normally do since I am now back in Paramedic school here in Asheville full time. I still do paddle more than the average weekend warrior. Above is Mark Zwick. Of Zwick's Backender, on the Green River right here in North Carolina. Which, to clear it up, he really told me it was a forward ender because he was backwards once he hit the hole at the bottom. Hes living over by the NOC where we were for the first annual Cascades Race!

This race was awesome. Its all road side and we had bout 22 people come out for it. Check out that coverage on www.shaneslogic.blogspot.com . Just gonna say for the record, Liquid Logic swept the field by taking 5 out of the first 6 places.... including myself.

have also been "training" on the side for a 26 mile road bike race that goes up the notorious 17 switchbacks of Green River Cove Rd. Jerrys Baddle is a race down the whole Green River Narrows and then jump on a bike and head around a 26 mile loop that goes through historic Saluda NC , up and down some huge hills, and finishes next to the river. Its also a fundraiser for ALS so the entrance fee goes to a good cause! P.S. the river was a bit higher that usual so there was definately a pucker effect going on prior to the race., as you can see from the photo above.

Since the Green River is my home river I am out there a lot. Especially lately with school really cramping my style. So one day last weekend Shane surprized me with this awesome BRIGHT PINK Jefe. I was so excited! It even matches my fingernail polish. Immediately, my style came back.

Riding high on the Flying Squirrel above Gorilla, spotting my landing for a hopefully clean run through the Notch.

All of us here in the Southeast are enjoying the sun and the warm weather. We are already wearing shorties on the river and almost too hot! Woody is wearing his spring cotton by now.

Sunshine! Airing it out.

Releived I made it through one more day on the Green River in my awesome Pink boat.

So now the question is, how do ya'll like it? Would you paddle one? Give us your feedback and also at the same time check out the awesome black ops colors that we are doing coming in June!!!

www.liquidlogickayaks.com

Now that its warm here and I am on a short break from school I went to the Ocoee over the weekend and I also started this new thing, called "mountain biking" its really fun. :-)

Hope its warm where you all are!! Happy paddles.

I leave you all with this awesome photo of the breakfast that I ate the day of the Green Race last year. Breakfast of champions clearly.

All photos by Shane Benedict himself.

High Water Insanity on the Washougal River,Oregon

2011-01-17T10:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an epic day for boaters in the Pacific Northwest. Everything, and I mean everything, was flooding. The photos that have emerged of the rivers such as the White Salmon and the Clackamas are nothing but crazy! Some of us decided to head up to the Washougal River for a play run. The night prior (when we were planning) the flow was 2,600 with a forcast of heavy rain. We only expected it to rise to 6000 max. The morning of- 12,600! With those flows in mind we spoke to a good friend, Paul Kuthe about his experiences on the run at 14,000. He said he went as safety for a rafting team but that there was epic play to be had. It was big but you definitely wanted playboats. With that knowledge, we followed eachother up to the take out to find ourselves in shock at the flow. Little did we know, it was actually peaking t 20,000 cfs! The Washougal, to our knowledge, has never reached this flow and potentially has never been run higher than 14,000. ***Note- we just discovered the max flow to be reached in 1978- 26,000 cfs. WOW! So there you have it, it HAS been higher. I would be interested to see photos from that flood! We have a few photos from the shore but there were NO eddies and no way to get good shots of the day. One of the many people stopping to check out the river and see what we were doing, got some footage which completely lacks the perspective. ( I'll post the video later in this post.)

The put-in made all of us class five boaters pucker up. There wasn't really a spot to get in. The flow was so high that the trees were halfway underwater. I managed to find a "calm" eddy but that was me in denial. It was pretty chaotic really. This set the tone for the entire run and boy were we in for a day.

Just downstream from the put in we joined with the main Washougal from the North fork of the Washougal. In the first minute we heard what we thought was either thunder or shotgun...turns out the entire riverbed was shifting. Rocks were tumbling down the river with us. Definitely made us all feel insignificant. The run was quite possibly the most intense, biggest whitewater I have ever paddled. The crux of the day was a rapid (normally class 3 at 2,000 cfs) called Big Eddy. We scouted from the road but obviously could not grasp the true size. We all thought it looked like a few nice play waves and "stay right". Well, coming in to Big Eddy, I got hit by a tree coming down. It slammed down on my stern in one of the massive boils and sent me shooting forward. None of us stopped in the eddy that looked as though you couldn't get out of it. We rallied through waves that must have been 20+ feet tall and so completely non-uniform that there was very little "river reading" going on. There was a diagonal hole on the bottom left which we all avoided but we were ll thinking the same thing- "don't swim". We shot through the rapid only to find we were missing one person. Turns out, he eddied out above the rapid and as we thought, couldn't get out of the eddy. He had to hike up to the road with his boat. But we were starting to worry we were going to be on body recovery. Here is one of the rapids downstream of Big Eddy. It is shot by a onlooker....We show up in the video around 00:25.

I am so glad I jumped on the run and was very VERY happy to be with a competent crew. We all were humbled by the experience. Stay safe out there and if photos of the day come in, I will post them for sure!

Stay safe out there :)

-Tina

Copper Creek for Christmas

2011-01-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

This post is a bit delayed as I was on my Christmas vacation. :) Just before I left pdx for the holidays in Bend, I headed to Copper Creek with friends. It was a tad low but defiinitely runnable. I believe it was 30 degrees out....brr! I was totally prepared for the day with my Santa hat and lucky Christmas socks. Knee high red and green sparkle socks just complete the kayaking ensemble. ;) Besides, there is nothing better than bringing the Christmas cheer to the river!

When we got to our first bridge on the way to the put-in, we were blocked off by what looked like a cement truck....nope. It was a truck dumping dead Salmon in to the EF Lewis. They said they were "returning them to nature" but it still seemed pretty polluting...especially when we paddled past the hundreds of fish stuck high in the trees from previously higher flows. BUT nevertheless, it was entertaining and an interesting way to start our day :)

(Below) Wait...those aren't LIVE salmon :( Awww I'm sad.

(Below) putting in...very carefully...things were pretty icy

(Below) Scouting Big Falls

(Below) I pulled out the camera quickly to capture the third ledge of the Final Five...which is difficult to get good shots of....

(Below) Me running Horseshoe

(Below) Mister Josh on Horseshoe

Sooo pretty....I never want to leave...and then I think of the warm and fuzzy clothes waiting for me in the car and getting dry sounds good!

Here is the video we put together of the day....it was a great day on the water....next time, however, I will actually take a stroke on the third ledge of the final five ha ha. I was definitely a bit too relaxed!

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year and makes 2011 the best yet! :)

Happy Paddling as Always,

Christina

Das Hagan Creeken

2010-12-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

Let me just take a moment to tell you how excited I am about being done with this semester... I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy happy happy happy! :) I think that about does it. I am finally getting time to go paddling and that's about all I want to do. Today, after a few days of heavy rain...and I do mean heavy, Josh, myself and a few Hood River and PDX kayakers headed up to Hagan Creek.

I have been wanting to get back on Hagan for years now after my first time down it with the flu. Let me just say that I did more walking than paddling the first time down so I was stoked to return and actually paddle everything! Hagan is considered a class 4+/5 run and drops 260 fpm. The hard part with Hagan is there are no guarantees. Hagan doesn't have a gauge so you have to check the EF Lewis and Washougal to figure out how much water is in Hagan. It is also heavily impacted by freezing levels and with it being winter, we had to consider that. We managed to hit it while it was a medium, ish flow. Way more water than the last time I was on it. Perfect flow for clean lines and less elbow bashing! EF Lewis was at 3300 and the Washougal was at 3800 for your own reference.

There are four major drops on Hagan: Hagan Daaz, Euphoria Falls, Teakettle Falls, and Crack in the Earth. For a full, comprehensive write up, check outhttp://www.oregonkayaking.net/creekframe.html . Jason Rackley has a bomber site for us, Oregon paddlers to use. He pretty much rocks my stinky socks...

Please note-the memory card filled up above Teakettle and Crack in the Earth so I supplemented the head-cam with footage from our handheld camera :) Enjoy!

Below: Snug as bugs in a rug

Below: our crew chillaxin'

Below: Me runnin' Hagan Daaz

Below: Nick Jacob rockin' the Remix on Crack in the Earth

My view through Euphoria...

This is definitely one of my favorite creeks in the Pacific Northwest. Quality drops SO close to home. Amazing. I wish it ran more often but that's part of the charm :)

Hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas and out on the river enjoying the winter!

Stay tuned for photos from my trip down Copper Creek!

Merry Christmas!

-Christina

Tis the Season for Kayaking!

2010-12-10T22:58:00.000-08:00

Behold! My BEAutiful Christmas tree. I'm particularly fond of this one as the bubble lights are on and working. :) You can't have a Christmas tree without the bubble lights. You also can't have winter without the paddling...or gingerbread cookies (but I'm behind on the cookies).

Last week I headed on up to the East Fork of the Lewis River for some fun in the sun....er...rain. Yep. It's the Pacific Northwest and in the winter, it rains everyday. WOO HOO! This means that although we all look like we haven't seen sun in years, we have SWEET paddling...everywhere. Anywho, last week I drove up to the EF for some good ol' class 4,4+. We were hoping that flows would stay high enough to run Copper Creek to EF but they dropped off too fast. BUt EF still seemed like a good idea. The flow was about 1600 cfs which meant that the gorge would be fun for sure and last time I ran this, I didn't get to run Horseshoe Falls...I have a bad habit of breaking things and that time, I broke my fingers :( (Not pottery class for weeks). Here is a vid that Josh put together since the helmet cam was firmly mounted on his noggin. Enjoy! :)

East Fork Lewis River, Washington from Josh Mckeown on Vimeo.

(Below) Das put-in

(Below) a pretty fuzzy photo of Sunset Falls thanks to the mist
(Below) Me catching my boat as it attempted to run the falls without me...how embarrassing BAHAHA
(Below) Me on Horseshoe Falls
(Below) Just had to post this...pretty shot
(Below) Chris at the bottom

This is my "dead week" which we all know isn't really "dead". I still had class and am studying my bum off for finals on Monday. BUT, I can be excited because on Tuesday and Wednesday I'm goin' boatin'! :D

Stay Moldy out there and don't forget to get some sun....

-Tina Tina Bo Bina

PS In the event of a spontaneous Monopoly game...I'm ready with ma money!

Thanksgiving Day Paddle

2010-12-01T12:51:00.001-08:00

Last week, I got to spend Thanksgiving with Josh's family in Bend. Fortunately (and unfortunatly) we were going home in the middle of the first big snow storm of the season. My sis and I followed eachother down hwy 197 and were confronted with some of the worst black ice I have ever driven on. UGH. I was convinced we were going to slide off the road several times. Felt great to hit snowpacked roads as opposed to ice. As we all know, nothing can help you with driving on ice....other than going SLOW. 5 hours of driving later and we were soaking in the hot tub while the snow fell....pretty awesome start to the holiday!

On Thanksgiving day, we woke up to clear skies and 18 degrees. We decided to celebrate Turkey day in the best way we know how...kayaking! :) We opted to run Riverhouse as we guessed Dillon and Lava would have been snowed in. over 2 feet were up there and we didn't feel like getting our vehicles stuck!
In true Thanksgiving spirit, here is a joke for ya that I'm particularly fond of :

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. Theparrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.

Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious
and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to
change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only
polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could
think of to 'clean up' the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot.
The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and theparrot got angrier and even more rude. John, in desperation,
threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the
freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked
and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet.
Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened
the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out
onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I
may have offended you with my rude language and
actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate
transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I canto correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude.

As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a
dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very
softly, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

The view at Josh's house

Josh trying to "get to the river"

"I'm comin in hot!"

Me on Ogre

It's official: winter is here!

I am almost to finals week and the boats are permanently on the roof of my car. FINALLY!!!!! I have one more semester to go before my capstone and it couldn't come any sooner. I am over it. What I'm trying to say is that there will be more posts from me over my winter break :) I know how to paddle? ;) Stay warm out there and enjoy the season!

-Christina

Green Race 2010

2010-11-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

Photo by: Crystal Gustin

On November 6th 2010 the 15th Annual Green River Race began at high noon with Isaac Levinson leading the pack off the starting line due to injuries from Pat Keller and Andrew Holcombe. John Grace thought that it would be fitting that he put me in the pack with the boys since I did end up 17th last year tied with Brian Kirk. So with my number 18 bib and between Jules Campbell and Brian Kirk off I went. My whole family had hiked in this year which includes my mom, dad, my sister and her loving boyfriend. I was trying not to think about my line at gorilla with my family standing at the notch when I left the starting line at Frankenstein.

Photo by: Michael Hood

I had my boyfriend yelling at me from river left below Frankenstein, I was trying not to think about what he would think if I crashed during the race…. My long boat was doing some of the lines that I had trained it to do but had a few bobbles. Pacing is important in a 5 minute race. Coming through Go Left I heard people shouting my name and yelling to go faster, I tried. I came around the corner at Chief and attempted not to look at the crowd for my family, came through the notch with my eyes shut and took a deep breath. I happily bounced past speed trap with immense speed and was off to run the slides.

Photo by: Michael Hood

At the end of the race I was so happy to see the girls timing but I knew that I hadn't gone as fast as I could. At that point it was all up to the other girls and how fast they went. I began hiking up the trail to do my second run, I had pats on my back, people handing me hot chocolate, water, whiskey. I ran into my family at the notch and they were all ecstatic that I had made it through my first run still intact, now I just had to go do it all again in a short boat.

Photo by: Crystal Gustin

Rolling up in the Notch

Needless to say I was so happy when I got into my short boat and I was off racing again, going fast and taking chances. I knew at the end of this run I would be with my family and friends drinking a beer and watching all the rest of the racers come through. It was a huge day and a tad stressful until I heard the results during the party at Woodys after an awesome dinner by the twins. I had won the Green River Race again, bringing home a sweet piece of glass for the third year in a row.

Now we have 362 days till the next one! A huge thanks to all of my sponsors who I couldnt do it without, Liquid Logic, Werner Paddles, Shred Ready Helmets, Immersion Research, and Astral Buoyancy Company. More photos to come soon.

Playing Hookie

2010-10-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

Yes...I did it...but my teachers were cool with it ;) There was a good reason!

Josh's sister just delivered her first baby girl last Wednesday morning at 5:59am and Josh and I headed back to Bend for the event. While we were down there, we decided to go boatin'...YAY!!!

Here are some picks of our boatin...enjoy! We did a Dillon to Lava at about 1350cfs...nice and fluffy :)

PS Bend has CLEAN air. Holy cow. Atleast, coming from PDX, it sure smells fantastic!

PSS I forgot how bad the lava rock is on my boat!

Coming in to Lava one- the 'great swirly' (it only get's worse as the flow goes up)

Onward to Lava 2!

I think I remember how to do this.... Lava 2

Lava 2...AKA the rapid that will hand you your a$# if you aren't on top of it!

It felt amazing to be back in my boat. It made me realize just how much I love love love paddling. This may sound silly but it feels like there's a hole in my heart when I am not out paddling. :( Soooo this trip made the world look much better. Can't wait to get back out there! Halloween Truss paddle here I come! :D

Stay wet out there and enjoy fall!

-Tina

Oh Be Joyful, We Are

2010-06-15T15:08:00.001-07:00

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. Leland and Andrea also made the trek and they made our first day so much easier by driving their house across the river, only to later get stuck in the middle of the Slate on the way back. But that is for later. Grace stoked that he made it to the top. Biscuit doesn't know if she is in the right place and Tater is smart enough to just not care and enjoy the view. Slide in, go ten feet, drop 12 feet vertical immediately. What a great way to start a run. It only gets better from here. Isaac doing what he does best, sitting up straight. Same drop, different angle. Myself, stoked to be back on one of my favorite runs ever. So fast, so bumpy, so many amazing drops in a short period of time.

John Grace airing the right side out. Myself, sitting in arguably the coldest spot on the river. Note the snow behind me. John Grace going down S-turn getting ready for an amazing 8 foot boof, action alley for sure. Still going down the next slideGetting ready to turn the corner and get the goods. The goods. That's all I have to say for this drop. The beautiful 25 footer in the middle of the run. We hiked up and ran it again a few times. It is so worth it. 80 degree heat, in a dry suit, hot out of the water, perfect in the newly melted snow water. Everyone discussing their run off of the waterfall and deciding what to do next... hike back up and do it all over again? Go to the camp and drink whiskey? I vote another run!!! Grace and I looking happy but slightly dilapidated. It was so hot on the mountain side but then looking at the drainage there was so much snow and it was CLOSE! But melting fast for sure. We can't complain about the scenery either. Pat Keller dropping the sick boof after the normal takeout to drop right into Avalanche. This boof was well worth scaring the crap out of myself both days while running Avalanche.Grace styling the crux of Avalanche. I heard a rumor that all of the wood is gone from the bottom of this drop now, which makes the rapid not nearly as scary if this is true. But I also heard the last rapid in the run is totally unrunnable. The wood does have to go somewhere.. Turn the corner after Avalanche, grab a few breaths at 10000 feet, and get back into why this run is so amazing. Myself in the next long slide with snow covered mountains in the background. Colorado is not an ugly place :-)So, after all is said and done. Everyone came out happy, tired, and hungry. Back to camp life below the amazing drainage of the Slate river. Crankee and myself playing some football at camp after a great day of paddling. We got up and did it all over again the next day. It's not a bad life that we all live.

Get out there and go paddling!! A trip report from the Teva Mountain Games in Vail will be coming soon.

Happy Paddling!!
Adriene

Another Sick Southeast Video

2010-06-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hey people of the world wide web, Shane and I just got back from Colorado where we got some goods in Buena Vista, Vail, and Crested Butte. But for now, for your viewing pleasure, a sick video of the southeast. This is why I love where I live.

Trip report soon.

Evan Garcias Southeast Video!

California of the Southeast

2010-05-18T08:35:00.001-07:00

So we have been blessed here in the Southeast of the United States of America by all of the rain that we have gotten this spring. I was lucky enough to catch the elusive Toxaway river again this year. The crew hiking up to run the Put-In rapid.

Photo By Leland Davis

Adam and I at the Put-In slide doing an awesome headcam video that you can watch. This is literally the best put in rapid that I have ever run in my life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hZ8UPOdpmc
Check out the video that Adam posted!
Photo by Leland Davis

Photo By Leland Davis

Myself, Evan Garcia, and Leland Davis. If you havn't checked out Leland and Adreas new book, it is definitely worth the money. It has the best runs in the country and around the continent!
Photo By Adam Bixby

A few months ago there was a deluge of rain and it caused a few massive landslides. Some on the roads (I-40 and the Ocoee road) and some were on the rivers. The Toxaway had a huge rock fall into a rapid called Pungee Stick, we have now renamed the rapid to Mini-Landbridge. This huge rock fell in perfectly flat to make seal launching ideal. Now its like a Magic Carpet Ride. Hey, some people do say that the Toxaway is Disney on crack....
Photo by Leland Davis
Going down!!! With the brown claw out.
Photo By Leland Davis
Energizer Rapid. From the top this rapid looks so good to go, then you look at it from the bottom. Photo by Adam BixbyEvan Garcia BRAPPING Energizer. This rapid is so massive.
Photo by Leland DavisOne of the last rapids of the day, Wintergreen. A sick off vertical 20 footer into a 60 foot fanned out slide.
Photo by Adam Bixby

All in all the whole crew was stoked on the day that we had. This is by far one of my favorite rivers in the southeast, even with the four mile hike out and the multiple portages.

See you on the water!

Liquidlogic Remix Xp Field Test-Rogue River

2010-05-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I've been out of the blogging world lately due to attending nursing school in Portland,Oregon....BUT before I know it, I'll be on to spring semester. WOO HOO!

Over this summer's break, I snagged a Remix XP 9 for a self-support trip down the Rogue River with Josh Mckeown. He was in the Remix XP 10 and between the two of us, we are proud to say, "We love the Remix XP's!". At first I was skeptical when I got it fully loaded- loaded meaning about 95 pounds for me and 120 for Josh. I wasn't sure how it would do, fully loaded down. BUT if Woody could take it down the Grand, I would be fine! PS for those of you that are shocked at the weight we had in the boats...let me just say that we had everything with us...including the luxuries. I know, I know but when you go down the Rogue, you HAVE to splurge. Take for example our crazy creek chairs and the S'mores. :)

The Remix Xp9 and 10 both have a ridiculously comfortable seating system that allows for maximum modification. If you need lots of hip foam, no problem (I had 7 foam slivers on each side ). If you need a booster pad, no problem. When it comes to loading gear, there are easy to open hatches. There is a LOT of room for food, gear...whatever you need. My boat turned in to the pantry/refrigerator. We put a cooler pack in the back of my boat for the refrigerated goods and loaded dry goods in Josh's boat. I had the tent, sleeping pad and bag at my feet. Stove and cooking goods were stashed right behind my seat. Thank goodness we didn't have anything to portage. It would have broken my back!

Let me just say that we had some wonderful beverages on board....

Coming up on Blossum Bar...

I went on a hike with my orange juice after Mule Creek Canyon...

This is what we did at night...he he he

Glow Poi! :)

Campsites are everywhere!

Beautiful!

We LOVE the Rogue River. It is such a special place in Oregon. This is a multi-annual trip we do and with any luck, we'll get back on this fall....but the snow is coming soon! Cross your fingers!

Hope you all are getting out and stayin' wet!

-Tina

Raven Fork Goods (cont)

2010-05-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

So we got Raven Fork twice in a row a few weeks ago and Liquid Logic team members girlfriend was awesome enough to hike in for day two and shoot some SICK photos. All photos by Candace Sanders, paddler: Me!

Above- Two years ago I ran this rapid, Big Boy, and successfully broke my nose which then lead to a surgery and a week recovery. This year I came back with vengeance and I was ready for the hit at the bottom. Hes a soft landing though.

The best sequence of photos that I have seen in a long time. Candace rocked these photos, mad props to her! This is the drop at the top of Mike Tysons, dropping into the ring with a rowdy boxer. So sick.

We got Toxaway a few short days later and I will have photos up of that shortly. Check out the video that Gareth Tate made of this marvelous day on the Raven Fork. Make sure to watch it all the way through so you can hear Gabriels beautiful singing. :-)

Raven Fork Spring Update 2010

See you on the water!

Team Liquid Logic on Ravens

2010-04-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

Nestled in the heart of the Appalachians in the Great Smoky National Park is a river. A river called Raven Fork. Within this river are all things that are good. No Baileys though. The hike in is only slightly grueling, just be sure to not fall into one of the massive holes between the boulders.

Myself and some of my closest friends just got this river twice in two days. A pretty intense two days if I do say so myself. With perfect levels on Monday we hiked in. Even though we knew it would be a little chilly for a bit. Still raining we were able to make the best of the best river in the southeast. With my brand new Liquid Logic Jefe ready to go run the SH!T!

The first rapid of the day is Anaconda. A very scary rapid that slithers through rocks and has made some huge undercut rocks. Keegan Grady boofing through the top drop.

Isaac LevinJoo boofing his way into Anaconda.

There is a waterfall on this run, among other things. This is Big Boy. Two years ago this rapid successfully broke my nose and put me off of waterfalls for a bit. 35 feet into a landing pad that is about ten feet wide. Pretty scary. Isaac went first and came out with a bloody nose, not broken though.

Evan Garcia (EG the Killa) stylin the Big Boy.

Isaac enjoying his day on this fantastic river about to drop into the ring.

EG goin for it.

Walking into the ring with Mike Tyson.

Almost getting knocked out by Mike Tyson. EG is a Jedi

Keegan entering Mike Tysons

Stylin it!

All in all day one was awesome. Day two was even better, but I don't have the pictures yet. We had a great crew of guys out there and even with a few wrecks or hole surfs everyone came out well. Check back soon for a sweet video and more awesome pictures.

Team Liquidlogic Mellowin' Out on the Rogue River

2010-03-11T15:13:00.000-08:00

Here's a trip I never posted photos from. Liquidlogic got on the Rogue River during some FANTASTIC weather and had the best river trip ever. Saw some BIG black bears, BIG ticks and BIG salmon. Fortunately the ticks were NOT on us and neither were the bears ;P

We opted for a purely rafting trip and left our kayaks behind...I know...crazy huh? Turned out to be the way to go. The river level was pretty low and we got the opportunity to row a friend's Puma. We are looking to invest in a raft and wanted to see what we thought of a smaller raft vs the larger rafts....conclusion- we want a bigger raft...Aire 15 footer. Heck yes!

Here's the highlights from the trip :) Enjoy and PLEASE call if you need extra paddlers...gear boaters :D

(Below) the put-in!!!

(Below) Our first campsite :)

(Below) the jump rock was jumpable...unlike last time

(Below) My turn jumping!

Below) Breakfasts always tastes better on the Rogue! Josh cooks a MEAN breakfast :)

(Below) Check out my Newt! He was sooo cute!

Below) Mule Creek Canyon...a calm spot

This is my favorite river in the world to do a multi day on and I am living for my break this August when I can get back on the Rogue. Get out on your own trip and enjoy every minute!

-Tina

Epic Afternoon in the Liquidlogic Biscuit!

2010-02-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

If there's one thing I've learned from nursing school...it's DONT WASTE YOUR WEEKEND! Despite a thorougly disappointing weather forcast, Bob's hole on the Clackamas was IN! bob's has a pretty good habit of shifting around due to a loose riverbed but this time, we were all stoked at the feature. Did I mention there were only four of us there?

Sadly, due to the overall lack of playboating in the state of Oregon, the last playboating Josh and I did was in the ocean at Newport...which is a completely different type of playboating- more like "survival playboating". We got lots of sharks on the coast and we routinely see them when we are out paddling around. Not the most comforting but I'll challenge a shark with my whompin' ATX paddle any day!

So...Bob's was good for me to dust off the cobwebs and get back at it! Temps were in the 60's, it was a bluebird day...and following the sesh, we busted a move up to Bagby Hot Springs. Doesn't get much better than that!

The Biscuit 45 was Grrrrreat on Bob's. Not only was it loose and bouncy, but it was comfy as heck :) Thanks for making such a comfy playboat...I never thought the words 'comfy' and 'playboat' would be in the same sentence.

Here are some shots from the day....if you are headin' out there on the weekends, give me a call...I'm a weekend warrior at the moment!

Hope everyone is gettin' out and having fun! Tomorrow, I'm off to run the Upper Wind...woo hoo! Fluffy water!

-Tina

Liquidlogic Team Dog-Pepper Salt Russell 1994-2009

2009-12-11T23:24:00.000-08:00

Pepper Russell passed away on December 10th. She was very sick and we had to make the decision to let her be at peace. She was a river dog and loved going on kayaking trips. She traveled everywhere with my family. Many people treated her like their very own dog and for that reason, I feel the need to post this. We will all miss her smiling face at the put-in's and take-outs. We will miss her disgusting tennis ball in our laps, and we will most of all miss her unconditional love. Please remember all the good times we had with Pepper. She is at peace now.

-Christina Russell

Westwater in November

2009-11-16T18:29:00.001-08:00

The Remix XP9 arrived at my house two weeks ago. I had never paddled the boat, but knew I needed to have a whitewater kayak that has plenty of space for my tent, sleeping bag, food, beer, water, down coat, firepan, and a poo system. I filled the kayak with 2 drybags, warm clothes, first aid kit, one breakdownpaddle, two waterbottles and about 5 beers.

Dave and I decided that we need to run Westwater Canyon as a kayak self support trip to get ready for the grand canyon in January. Little did we know that a major snow/rain strom was coming our way. Luckily I packed my down coat and 3 pairs of wool socks.

We arrived at the put in, dropped our boats and gear off; the ranger made sure we had a fire pan, poo system, and 1st aid kit. He looked at us like we were crazy.
(dave got to put the fire pan on the floor of the kayak which fit perfect in his XP10)

We dropped the car off at the take out and biked 14 miles of the kokopelli trail back to the put in. During the ride we saw a few antelope running off in the distance. We arrived to the put in and started paddling down stream. I was nervous at first because I think I had at least 50 pounds in my boat; but the remix was fast and very responsive. The first 5 miles of flat water went by fast. The gorge was beautiful and surreal, I felt like I was flying over the waves. I think I got about 4 feet of air off one wave.

We arrived at our campsite and started making dinner. It's so nice to have everything you need in your own kayak! It's nice not to have to rely on a raft, and it made me realize that you don't need much to enjoy and survive the outdoors. Sometimes I think we get caught up on material things and think we need paco pads, kitchen table, camp chair, etc... for a river trip. When it comes down to it, aren't we trying to get away from normal life? Back to simplicity?

It did rain/snow for about 4 hours that nite, and the tent collasped from the weight of the wet snow mixed with the intermitant rain. I thought a bear was crashing our tent at first! After Dave moved the snow off the tent, we were able to fall back asleep, thankful to have a warm dry shelter.

I can't wait to take the Remix XP9 down more rivers....The Salmon, Selway, Illinois, Virgin, Escalante, and Catacrat canyon are some of the rivers on our list...Starting with the Grand Canyon in January with the Liquidlogic Crew!

Simplicity...is what I'm learning with age

Cheers, Lisa Marie

Rain, Snow or Hail....Liquidlogic is on the River!

2009-11-16T13:14:00.000-08:00

Hello from snowy and cold Bend, Oregon! The down jackets are out and so are the pogies....nooo! Darn those pogies but hey, they're are brilliant. It's now officially that time of the year when you haven't quite adjusted to the cold and you choose to blast the heat in your car and get geared up in the front seat. Did I mention it's also time for the hot chocolate mug to become a permanent fixture in the creek boat? YES! You can't possibly go creeking without having a hot cup of cocoa in your boat. Let's see what else is new? Oh! I dyed my hair purple he he he! You should see my helmet liner! Anyways, back to the actual kayaking portion of the post....

Recently, a crew of us from Bend headed upstream to our "locally famous" drop known as Benham Falls. It is a solid class five drop riddled with lava tubes. It's technically not a falls but it sure is huge. Rumor has it that a TV crew filmed a rubber dummy gettting dropped out of a helicopter above the rapid and its arms and legs came up miles downstream at the end of the lava tubes. From top to bottom, 30% of the water is lost in these tubes. Definitely not reassuring if you happen to go for a swim.

The put-in was snowed in and the all wheel drive barely got us there. The water temp was sitting around 42 degrees and the sun was out. We geared up and checked out the drop. There was a little wood but nothing in the way... special thanks to Irina of Bend for taking the photos!

Here's a photo from a year ago when we ran it. The flow was substantially higher when we recently did it but you can get an idea of the scenery and the drop. Just add 300 more CFS and understand that the ledge drop in the middle of the river is a 12 foot drop. Perspective is the craziest thing.

(Below) Look at those beautiful Jefe's!

(Below) Me in the lead-in rapids

(Below) Just above the crux...

(Below) Cold but very happy!

(Below) All I'm thinking about here is how much I'm looking forward to eating a veggie burger at the local burger joint....not sure what those other folks are thinking though....

Special thanks to everyone at Liquidlogic for your continued support and enthusiasm for making the best whitewater boats on the market. Stay warm out there and remember your mug of hot chocolate!

PS Here's a picture of me and my partner in crime. Her name is Pepper and she is 15 years old. Please send good thoughts her way as she has gotten very sick and can't hear me or see me anymore. :( I'm sure she would wag her tailess bum if she knew you were thinking of her! Thank you!

Toxaway, You are the Greatest in the Land

2009-10-04T14:15:00.001-07:00

Hello!! Inter web world I am checking in from the South East just to tell everyone how Bad-Ass it is down here even in the midst of a sight drought. So last week it rained, and rained, and rained. The Toxaway got up to 9 inches on the gauge, this river is normally run at around -2 to +4 on the gauge, with 4 being really scary.

So few days later we went in at around 2 inches on the gauge with a solid crew, myself, Clay Wright, Adam Bixby, Isaac Levinson, and Stewart (sorry I don't know your last name). Adam had been in here the day before and he was saying that there were a few large changes to the riverbed, which was not surprizing. The first mile is a good warm up to the rapids downstream, continuous, steep and big. The rolled up to the first huge rapid formerly called Pungee Stick now named Baby Landbridge, for a good reason.

It rained so much down in this gorge that there were a couple of massive landslides. This one ended with a rock that landed perfectly flat in the middle of the river and now we just seal launch off of the rock and run the rest of the newly renamed Baby Landbridge.

This is what we were looking at from the river on river right. The immense scar that this rock left in the mountainside was insane to see.

Fantastic picture by Clay Wright seal launching into the abyss.

After a small portage Isaac and I put in on river right of Energizer, one of the largest rapids that I have ever run in my life. This is one of the most lonely places that I can think of. Isaac had already run the rapid and I was trying to get in my boat without launching into the rapid without my sprayskirt on. So I finally get it all figured out and take a few deep breaths and the rapid begins.... It goes....

And goes.....

And goes.... Ya its a pretty long rapid when all is said and done.

Will Lyons contemplating wether he can run Energizer as well as I did.

But the excitement is not over yet. Feeding Trough is one of those rapids that you drop into and ask yourself "why am I here?" Dropping into a 4 foot wide slot that ends in two ledge holes that try their hardest to flip you every time is always a good feeling, and slightly nerve racking.

We headed downstream to find that there was another landslide below where Landbridge is. So that means, not only are we seal launching eight feet into one of the largest rapids east of the Mississippi but then we have to make an eddy above the next rapid to avoid certain death in the trees across the river.

Being the good Liquid Logic paddlers that we are Isaac and I fired it up and we both styled it, caught the eddy below and portaged around the massive landslide.

Just below Landbridge is the last "big" rapid of the day Wintergreen. Sickest drop I have ever seen in my life. 20 foot waterfall into a re connecting 50 foot slide that all fans out. Fantastic drop, slightly painful but very good and very worth it, its a great treat for the end of the run. Just to give you an idea of how big this rapid is, look at the top left of the picture, Clay and Stewart are standing on top of the rock scouting the rapid... ya it's that big...

Happy Adriene, that I made it through another fantastic run on the Toxaway.

So all was successful after I strapped on my Shred Ready Full Face, elbow pads, Immersion Research drydeck, and Astral Green vest. My Liquid Logic Jefe treated me well and I added a few new scratches on my Werner Stikine paddle. I am now hanging in Flat Rock North Carolina getting ready for the Green Race and as always waiting for rain. Praying for rain.

Get out and go Kayaking!!!

Adriene

Out of Worlds but Not Out of Fun!!

2009-09-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

Hey all in the inter-web. Hope this blog post finds everyone enjoying all likes of water wether it be flat water of Lake Michigan, surfing on the Pacific Ocean or running the Gauley River.

My trip to Switzerland ended only a few days ago and I am already up in West Virginia getting ready to run the Gauley for another season!! Above is what the boat locker looked like at its best. Everyone in the competition left their boats here overnight and there were guards with dogs that will eat you!!!

The opening ceremonies were awesome. All of the countries had flags and they walked around in circles kinda like at the Olympics but not as cool. Or as lighted up. One of my favorite kids in the world Dane Jackson who ended up 2nd overall in the Junior Mens after Jason Craig who is another young ripper.

This is my beautiful mom who is the best mom in the world for all of you inter-webbers that don't already know that. She is my biggest fan and she is my biggest sponsor. Without her I would not be able to do the things I do, like go to Swizterland.

Even though my competition ended swiftly in Thun at Worlds this year, I still enjoyed myself to the fullest. I ended up in 28th place, lower than I would have wished but many people are just telling that it is a big feat to even make it on the US Freestyle Team. So, since I got knocked out early in the competition I had a lot of time to waste. So I wasted my time by going creeking!! Just like I would do at home!!!

This river is nestled in the heart of the Glacier valleys and is glacial fed, super cold and it rained on us every day that we were up there. Gotta represent some Shred Ready with the waterfall in the background, they made me a kick ass helmet for Worlds and they kept me warm with their awesome new styling sweatshirts.

I borrowed a few boats while I was overseas since all I had was a freestyle boat, my trusty Biscuit 45. I borrowed Arnd Shaftlien's Riot Magnum, which was actually a very good kayak, but not nearly as nice as the Jefe that I borrowed from, Phillippe Doux, editor and founder of Kayak Session. I had forgotten how nice it was to boof things in the beautiful Jefe. I went on two runs the first one was with Jessie Stones boyfriend and Clay Wright. I can't remember the name of the creek but it was super cool, really continuous class 3 with a few class 4's.

I also went on a few trips down the White Lachine (I'm not sure how to spell it properly), my wonderful mother came up with me one day to take pictures, and she did a very good job. The put-in down to where the man made 24 foot waterfall is all class 3 read and run that is pretty continuous with tons of good boofs and little eddys to catch. There is a quarter-mile of flat water above the waterfall and then suddenly you are boofing an awesome soft waterfall.

There is this stupid weir right below it that you have to boof, if you don't its a certain thing that you will have to get roped out of the hole. So I guess ya'll get the gist of what the river is like, it is short, an aussie named Lachie and I did it in 21 minutes.

So anyways my mom is an awesome woman and she took all of these pictures from the same creek!!!

On my second run of the day Lachie (an aussie) and I paddled down as fast as we could from thr top and mom hiked up from the bottom to see what the whole creek looked like. She was hiding in the bushes when she took this picture of Lachie and I choosing our line down the creek. This is pretty much how the whole creek was, super fun.

Me in my Team USA uniform representing for Astral, Immersion Research, Liquid Logic, Werner, and Shred Ready. So pretty!!!

The crew coming in after our first run everyone super happy.

I was the happiest person on the river to be able to actually boof some stuff and run something that made me think about moves. I was STOKED!!!

On that note, I will leave the inter-web with an awesome picture of KC Jackson during the opening ceremonies.

Now I get to go run the Gauley!!! YAY see ya'll on the flip side!

Last Day before Competition

2009-08-31T03:46:00.000-07:00

Hello people of the World Wide Web. I am here in Thun Switzerland still, they havn't kicked me out yet thankfully. We have one more day of team training's until the competition starts. Most of us have been hanging out and just wandering around Thun finding little random things like the never ending well that is by the HUGE castle in the middle of town. Since we only get a half hour to train every day we have a lot of down time to sleep, walk around, and do push-ups..... or just sleep.

The last two days of practice have been pretty rough. The wave went totally out on us two days ago so we did a flat water session for a half hour. Yesterday the wave was there but getting really green so finally today we got a real wave and we were able to do our tricks and get our rides down pat. Oh ya the other people who paddle Liquid Logic Biscuits are three other C-1 ers. So there are going to be lots of pictures of me and all the C-1 ers!!

This is just an example of what the eddy looks like during an open session, I counted 36 people in the eddy for a 30 minute open session between team training's. Ya not everyone in the eddy got a ride.

So finally this morning we got in knowing that the wave had come back and we were all ready to rip. I felt like I had my first training session that was worth while. Maybe I am starting to get used to the wave? Everyone is crunching since competition starts tomorrow.

This is the castle that is in the middle of town. So as everyone might know, Switzerland is a neutral country. But they also have mandatory time for all of the men over the age of 17 to go into the Army. One of their bases is here so we see them all over the place. They have to come for three weeks a year until they hit 100 days, then they can keep coming or they can go on with their lives. So this also means that every household that has a male over the age of 17 has an

M-16 just laying around the house. This might be a reason why no one wants to invade Switzerland.

Hopefully I don't end up in chains before the end of this, represent the Liquid Logic!!

And now for the news that everyone has been waiting for, the newest team member to the Liquid Logic Team; KC Jackson. Not only is he the newest member but he is the youngest at just a few days over a year old. Happy Birthday KC!! He told me he wants to rebel against the Jackson over taking and paddle for a down home company!! Really, he told me that.

We have opening ceremonies tonight and the men start competing tomorrow.

So until a few days from now. I will keep everyone posted. Hope all is well wherever ya'll are and go get on a river, or go do flat water.

Peace, love

Training for Worlds

2009-08-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

Hey blogging community, its been a while since I have been on here. I have had a pretty busy summer between working for Green River Adventures in Saluda North Carolina, going to the Skookumchuck Narrows with World Class Kayak Academy or training on the Ottawa River with the US Freestyle Kayak Team.

I made it to Thun, Switzerland last week on the 24th of August and I was ready to get on the wave to "thun" it in. We didn't start training sessions until Wednesday so we had all day on Tuesday to just hang out and get over the jet lag. The training sessions are one hour a day for the US Team, that puts every paddler on the wave for 3 minutes a day.

The women are all working on dialing in their roundhouses, blunts and attempting air screws every once in a while. The wave has a nice lefty shoulder and almost no righty shoulder. In the middle the wave gets pretty steep and nice, but people are flushing off of the side of the feature a lot.

I have been getting up at 230 am to get to the wave when there aren't a lot of people paddling. But last night I got out there and we had 30 people in the eddy. Lots of people are enjoying the late night kayaking

with the lit up wave.

All photos by Brian Jennings during the US team training sessions. I will have more photos up in a few days of the area and all of that sort.

Until next time.

Caio and Happy Paddling

Queen of Gore Canyon '09

2009-08-24T11:13:00.001-07:00

My name is Maria Kallman and here's a little about me and kayaking that I realized recently when work obligations forced me to take a break from boating.
The sensation of floating and gliding on water, combined with the exhilaration of facing challenges both as an individual in my boat and with a group as a team is, for me, the definition of true joy. This sport is full of power, self-discovery, challenge, and gratification.
I grew up racing slalom, and while it brought me all over Europe for five summers when I was younger, competing eventually caused me to associate kayaking with pain from ongoing injuries, nervousness, and sometimes even failure if I didn't achieve a goal I'd set for myself. As you might imagine, this was not a very fun relationship with kayaking. While I wouldn't trade this past for anything because I learned the technical skills that allow me to run hard rapids with style (some of the time) and I got to travel to places many tourists never go, I believe that I've found a much more sustainable, healthy and fun pursuit in running creeks and rivers. Whatever you choose as your passion, in whatever realm, there's no better feeling than using your entire body, all your senses, and the power of logic to solve a problem, whether it's running rapids, climbing rocks or mountains, or navigating a mountain bike trail. It really forces you to live in the present moment.
I do still love to try to paddle fast though, and I started to dabble in creek racing last year which has been fun and humbling. But nowadays I paddle for the enjoyment of the intimacy with the river and friends, not to win races. If I race, it's the process of racing that counts more than the end result. The only race I did this year was the Gore race, details below! Enjoy.

There was hot weather and plenty of water
Racing off-the-couch made my day harder
But clean lines were had by BOTH women,
And both of us were winners in my opinion :) ...

But really, it was a fantastic weekend with water levels over 1300 and abundant carnage to watch! There were only two women (me and Natalie Kramer), and having been out of my boat for 5 weeks, I just tried to take it easy and have clean lines. That worked out most of the time, except when I got eddied out above Tunnel Falls and had to let someone pass me that I'd already passed... My time was 25 minutes and change, about five minutes slower than the fastest guy in a wavehopper!

Next year it would be fun to see more girls get out there and race!

Jefechico Rocks Meadowcamp

2009-08-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

Here is one of my fave after-work runs in downtown Bend. For this video, I took my Jefechico out for the afternoon. In case you didn't know, it's specially made for those of us that are "fun-size". It's perfect for Meadowcamp's whitewater: dynamic drops that always keep ya on your toes, no matter how many times you've run it! Meadowcamp is an Oregon style class 4/4+. Enjoy and don't get too dizzy! :D

Note- THANKS TO LIQUIDLOGIC FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT!

Untitled from Christina Russell on Vimeo.

-Christina

Jefe on Lava Island Falls

2009-08-08T21:45:00.001-07:00

After work, Josh and I like to head up to Lava Island for a quick paddle and decompress from work. Here is a video shot with my helmet cam on one particularly nice day. The paddler is Josh Mckeown...he had the right helmet with the helmet mount that day so for now, here is Lava Island Falls...from Josh's perspective. Look for me in the background when Josh looks back to make sure I'm still in my boat :)

Some background: Lava Island is a quick mile long run with sweet, twisty-technical drops. As flows fluctuate, so does the difficulty. At the very high flow of 2165, it's a solid class V+ run. This happened to be the highest levels I have ever had the pleasure of running it at, and also one of the highest flows we Bendites have ever seen on the Deschutes! I'm lucky to have gotten on it! :D Hope you enjoy the video and if you ever come out to Bend to paddle, be safe out there and watch out for that good ol' lava rock!

Hope you all are gettin' out there!
-Christina Russell

Musical credits go to: The Asteroids Galaxy Tour "Around the Bend"

Lava Island Falls 2160cfs Headcam from Josh Mckeown on Vimeo.

Day 4 on the Rogue River with my Biscuit 45

2009-07-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

Day 4 on the River

We woke up the next morning to clear skys and a light breeze. There were NO, I repeat, NO mosquitos yet and we sure enjoyed it. I got up early and had a cup of coffee with Debbie. Nothing beats hot coffee on the river. Slowly but surely, everyone crawled out of their tombs from the previous night and got things packed up for a full day on the river. we planned to do roughly 8 miles and just take the first good sight we could find.

After about an hour on the river, the wind really got going. It was blowing us upstream quickly if we didn't paddle. On the way down the river, we stopped at one of the famous jump rocks that Josh and his friends used to play at. Unfortunatley , it wasnt as warm as it usually is on the Rogue. BRRR! We will return when it's warmer! YES!

(beow) Our bug tent ...can you say PERFECT site?

(Below) Me enjoying some of the flatwater....

(Below) Kellie and Tyler in their cute, but masculine, raft ;)

(Below) eh he he he

(Below) our picturesque lunch break spot

(Below) the jump rock- twas cold water!

(Below) we were one awesome "herd" :)

After about six hours on the river, we found a great campsite on river left. Josh isnt sure what the name of the campsite is but it was a pretty sweet one. However, Josh and Kellie couldn't figure out why they hadnt camp there previously. We quickly learned why. The sun didn't set until 9:30 ish and until then, we were baking on sand. Ugh.

Josh found a shaded spot up in the trees where we enjoyed our dinner and gradually migrated back down to chill on the cool sand. Thanks to Tyler, we even had a fire.

check back soon for the final update...

Keepin' it fun and local in Silverton

2009-06-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

It just rained here in the tiny town of Silverton, Colorado for 24 hours, hard. In the spirit of keeping it local, saving gas, and paddling in our backyard I rallied the "Silverton A-Team" (Jen Ross, Michael Barton and I) to go run our local manky creek this afternoon, Cement Creek. When you paddle this one, you don't need to take your vitamins 'cause it's chock full of iron and other heavy metals from the mine debris upstream. Actually, I try to keep my mouth closed and stay upright. But it's not often that the gold Jefe nearly matches the color of the water!

Then, still wanting more excitement, Michael and I decided to go back to a run we had explored early in this spring, the rarely-run Mineral Creek off of Red Mountain Pass. The water was up, up, up from all the rain, but we thought it would be good to go because we'd scouted it for wood after it peaked and had previously ran it at a manageable level. But this time, in the first mile we found a lot of scary new wood and super fast tight blind turns. After barely catching a tiny eddy right before a drop with a hidden log in it, I decided that this was not condusive to my new project; that is, the Keeping Kayaking Fun project.
I realized this year that paddling should, above all, be good for the soul. For me, that's good friends, wild places, and the feeling of knowing water intimately. It shouldn't give me the feeling of just narrowly escaping severe consequences. If it just doesn't feel right, it doesn't matter if the run is "only" class 4, or "easy" class 5. So even though at lower water levels this is a pretty easy run, I had no problem walking out of there today. Live to paddle for years to come, and paddle to feel confident and alive. -Maria K.

P.S. Speaking of keepin' it fun: I got a quick lap in on the Upper East on a whirlwind trip through Crested Butte. Here's the greatest boat ever, the Jefe, boofing like a charm:

Day 2 and 3 of the Rogue River Adventure

2009-06-22T23:24:00.000-07:00

The next morning we woke up early and headed into Medford for a bit of a search. We needed some sponges and duct tape. A quick visit to Lowes solved that issue and we headed back to Leinman for a few hours of playtime.

Pretty awesome spot

The always graceful...getting in

Josh playing around...

Me establishing that my body is out of shape...darn that sick month I had.

After thoroughly wearing ourselves out on the water, we drove to Eagle Point where Josh's grandmother lives. She is such a sweet person and we wasted no time in getting caught up. She has a nice chunk of property with a GREAT pool...he he he this meant lots of cannonballing off the diving board later on. While Josh explained how the kayaking has been for us, I set out our gear to dry and smelled all the roses. Talk about bringing back memories of Texas! We used to have about 30 rose bushes next to our old house too. Anyways between the paddling, the diving board, the visiting, and pizza; we had an awesome afternoon in Eagle Point.

The rest of the family arrived at 9 ish in the evening after a full day's work in Bend. They were pooped from the long drive. Some discussion later, we headed off to bed and tried to catch some zzz's. This wasn't tough and I settled in to my bed snug as a bug in a rug.

_________________________________________________________________

Our trip leader, Josh, requested that everyone be up around 7:30 to get the day going early. A few coffee pots later, we were on the road with a 1.5 hour drive to get to the put-in. We arrived around ten at the Galice Ranger station where we picked up permits and organized our shuttle service.

We unloaded all of our gear from our truck and Tyler's and proceeded to pack our paraphanalia. Steve used an inflatable kayak while Josh and I paddled in our spud boats. Our gear boat was captained by Josh's mom, Debbie. She was actually one of the first women to row rafts on the grand canyon. She's a pretty impressive river rat! :) Tyler and Kellie captained what I would like to call the "Green Bean Machine". As Tyler would say, "It's cute in a masculine sort of way". Ha ha ha!!!

(Below) Our multiday crew... L to R: Tyler, Kellie, Steve, Josh, Debbie

Our trusty gear boat captain- Debbie Mckeown

Josh and I in awe of Josh's personal "table"... AKA Overthruster

The famous Rainee Falls-twas a fine line at this flow...no thank you

Behold! Our first campsite!

We all arrived at our first available campsite around 3 ish and we took it! There are a few primo sites on day 1 and we got one. It had a nice open beach area with flat camping available. This site just happened to be just across the river from Whiskey Creek cabin so that night Josh and I took a quick hike up to see it. Pretty cool! Those first settlers of the area were nuts. Talk about in the middle of no-where. wow.

Back on track, Josh and I were on cook duty for the night and boy did we cook up one mean meal! Spaghetti with marinara sauce and basil....WITH garlic bread! It pretty much kicked butt. Our only mistake was that we cooked TOO MUCH. Can you believe that? I think I ate the most out of everyone. How wrong is that?! Sun set around nine but I didnt go to sleep until I had spent a sufficient amount of time enjoying the stars. Beautiful! If only I had my telescope...

Check back soon for more pictures of the camp and our second day on the river....

This is Christina, over and out....

Rogue River Trip- Day 1

2009-06-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Rogue River Trip- Day 1

Leinman Playspot---------------------------------------------------------------------

This year, instead of our annual Wenatchee trip, we decided to take a multiday raft trip down the wild and scenic Rogue River. Everything just came together perfectly: good group, good weather, and available permits! wow. Josh was declared trip leader and he promptly organized everything. Having finished the trip, I can say that he impressively didn't forget anything!

Here are pics from the first day of our mini vacation :D. We drove to Leinman playspot near Gold Hill- Where Josh went whitewater kayaking for the first time as a kid. Pretty cool to go back there with him. It's about an hour from Galice where we would put on the river for our multi-day. Anyways, enjoy the pics and stay tuned for pics from our grand adventure on the Rogue River!

Below- Me likey the Biscuit :D

Below- Trying to stay in the hole...twas very flushy

Below- Holy poo!

Below- out humble abode...it's a bit cozy but it's home

I think Josh is happy!

Josh enjoying Leinman and not being a gaper like me

Did I mention that Annies Mac n' Cheese tastes amazing while camping? U should try it!

Hope everyone is getting on the rivers and remembering why they paddle- because it's FUN!!! :) Don't let that fact get away! Stay humble and paddle for yourself!

Hasta Pasta,

Christina Russell
Bend,OR

Homestake Creek Race- Teva Mtn Games

2009-06-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

Day One of the Teva Mountain Games is always on Homestake Creek. Drive west of Vail and get off at the Minturn exit on I-70. Drive ten miles, and you get this view..... Though it is a short race it drops 400 feet per mile in one small section, full of fun spots to pin and get spun out.Tanya Faux and I went up on wednesday to train and she did a good job showin me the fast lines and how not to get pinned. Thanks for the support from you Tanya and your bad assness is sweet!!! This is a picture of the Worlds Perfect Boof, midway through the corse.Photos by: my mom. She is a wonderful woman. The goal posts, line one is good, line two is not so good..... rock is not fast, neither is backwards :-)Mom gets nervous when I race so she only took like two pictures during my physical race but I still love her. The race is nerveracking for sure, no flipping allowed, I want to keep all my teeth and my face and shoulders intact. Almost petoning at the first vertical drop of four at the end of the corse.Comming through eyeing the Worlds Greatest Boof, lining it up right to get the big one!!!Heading into the last rapid which is the hardest of all the drops with a hole at the bottom that will surf you for a bit, and then you get to battle with rocks to roll up...
My first race went really well, I was the first competitor of the Teva Mountain Games and I like to think that I set the bar high. After the first run Nikki Kelly, Tanya Faux, and myself were all less than 1.5 seconds apart from eachother. Nikki had a fantastic second run and came back to win it beating Tanya by 0.12 seconds.... you read that right...0.12 seconds. All the competitors, in third; Myself and Pat Keller both from Asheville NC, second; Tanya Faux from Australia and Tao Berman from Hood River OR, first; Nikki Kelly and Mike Dawson both from New Zealand. Everyone was way fired up to start off the Mtn Games with a bang, literally bouncing off of rocks.
The third placers commin out of the Southeast and representin well!!! Good job Pat

See you all on the flip side!!! Happy summer paddling

Adriene

2009 Worlds Team Trials- Glenwood CO

2009-06-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

In the end of May I packed up my 2004 Subaru Forester with my Red Biscuit and my Ice blue Jefe and drove to Colorado for a trip of epic proportions. It all began in Glenwood. I spent two weeks in Glenwood Colorado to train for the US Worlds Team that will be traveling to Thun Switzerland in August to compete against 30 different countries. It was a hard two weeks for me, without a coach or anyone to tell this "creekboater" how to do an air blunt. Luckily kayakers are very helpful and I found lots of people to tell me how to do things bigger and better.The Glenwood wave is a manmade wave that is right in the middle of downtown Glenwood. With one of the biggest rapids on the Colorado River only 6 miles upstream it is a great place to be. You can play in the morning and then go scare the crap out of yourself on Upper Death and Barrell Springs. The elevation got to me, being a southern girl the first few days were extremely rough on me. After three days of suffering it all got better and it was uphill from there. People were coming in from all over the country to watch and compete for a spot on the Team.The Biscuit killed it on the wave. I was very happy with how loose it felt and how I could throw it around using almost no energy. It is fast going down the face and really edgy, always keeping me on my toes!!!Emily Jackson and I took first and second place in team trials. Thankfully on my last ride I finally brought around an air blunt to take second place behind Emily. I guess this "creekboater" is a playboater too. ;-)
After all the results were in for Men, Women, and Juniors we all had a party surf on the wave to celebrate the new US World Team. Everyone lining up in the eddy above the wave. And then chaos ensued!!! Notice: Jeremy Lauks about to get creamed in the front of the frame, and EJ at the back of the fram who got pushed off the wave in a hot second. Also notice that Jordan, the C-1'er is about to get run over by Emily, what a great team building exercize!!!!The victorious four, Emily Jackson, Stephen Wright, Johnny Meyers, and myself. WaHOO!!What the team lifejackets will look like. Thanks to Astral for makin the hand stitched absolutely amazing looking jackets. There are 28 stars for the 28 people on the team and the team signed this lifejacket. There it is, the beautiful US Worlds Freestyle Kayak Team!!! Nice work to everyone and CONGRATULATIONS!!! WE ARE GOING TO THUN!!!

Adriene

Biscuit 45- Out of the Oven and on the River

2009-06-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Holy pooo! I just got my brand...spankin...new Biscuit 45! YAY! I just took it for it's virgin paddle down Meadowcamp on the Deschutes. I was a bit squirly but I L O V E D it. It's going to take some getting used to as the spin disk and sharp edges were removed. It is super fast on a wave and quick and loose in a hole. Liquidlogic really pulled a great boat out of the hat...er, oven. Nice work!

In a week, I will be taking it for its maiden voyage down the Rogue river for five days...YEAH! Can't wait to see what the wild and scenic section is all about. I'll make sure to get lots of pics and video so you all can enjoy it as well.

Stay tuned for a POV video of Meadowcamp and Lava!

Hasta Pasta,
Christina

Flow's are Goin' Up!

2009-05-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

YEAH! Flows are comin' up! Here are a couple pics we got the other day from Tyler Prinz. Tyler and Kelly Prinze were out to watch us paddle with their two crazy dogs, Ogie and Makita (see below).

(Above) Ogie on the left and Makita on the right

(Above) chuck it Tyler!

Local flows are now at over 2100 cfs...these shots were taken as it was rising at 1350. This canyon in Bend is super fun as it fills out a bit. It continues on down through Lava. We will have headcam footage up soon of Lava at summer flow which is an entirely different animal. First I have to get over the flu! Why oh why do I always get sick when it is nice out? Atleast I have the boats to stare at in the livingroom...wait...that doesn't help!

(Above) Josh deep in the canyon

(Above) me punching a fun hole

Stay posted for a helmet cam video....

-Christina

Carnage!

2009-05-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hola everyone! It's a been a while since I've posted so I thought I would drop a note and fill ya in on what's been going on out here. For one, school has been kicking my butt this term and I havent been able to get out as much as I would like. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but I just can't get there fast enough! Darn that long tunnel. Last weekend I finally got away from Bend for the Clackamas River Festival in Estacada, OR.

Photo courtesy: Dan Jones

The weather was warm, the booze were everywhere, AND Joe Bob's play way was IN IN IN!!!!! YEAH! :D I felt like a total gaper having not playboated in 6 months atleast but hey...it's all good right?

Went up and did a high water Truss run a while back and didn't jump at posting...then I realized that everyone loves carnage and can learn from the incident so....here is my beatdown in all it's glory.

The morning we put on the Truss, it was raining cats and dogs. And I don't mean the little yappers either...Im talking German Shepherds. BIG raindrops. Ok now that you have that image in mind, we put on the truss at what we thought was a flow of 3.25. The locals we went with thought this was about right and so we were all surprised to find the usual manky drops to be fluffy. Hmmmm. We made it down to Big Bro in record time and got out to find it really, really fluffy. Instead of there being a rocky outcropping where you scout, there was a hole. Oh boy. Josh fired it off going farther left than usual to avoid the massive boils heading to the cave. I was feeling really good about my paddling and jumped back in my boat.

Here I am powering toward the lip...nobody get in my way!

(Above) boofing between the veils...lots of agua!

So what the heck happened right? well, I went off and had a carbon copy line of Josh's. I chose to go off the kicker boofing left which worked with all the water...except I hit a big boil at the bottom and flipped. Got pinned on the corner of the cave and wasnt rolling, flushed into the cave and swam. Normally the cave is pretty mellow but there was so much water pushing in tthere that it was a constant battle to keep myself on the surface (The entire cave is super undercut). Josh tossed me a bag and he was unable to pull me out. The current was just too strong. Our partner from across the river tossed a bag after a couple minutes and with both of them pulling, I came out. Turns out the flow was over 3.75 and that is a guesstimate. Dang. Was in the water for over seven minutes and super stoked to have been wearing lots and lots of fleece under my drysuit. Hooray for fleece! Anyways, as I flushed out of the cave, the throwrope that had been floating in the cave with me wrapped around my leg and pulled me under. Thankfully, Josh quickly let go and I swam to the eddy. Once my soaking wet body was out of the river, the boys attempted to get my boat out of the cave. Chaos ensued as Josh jumped in the water and couldn't get himself out (I told you so) and then John Cramp fell in! Thankfully they were able to self rescue and with Josh hangin' on to my boat , was able to be pulled out. It was a very humbling experience and definitely made me feel tiny and insignificant. I will be nervous at the top of Big Bro next time for sure.

Thankfully, the only casualty we had were my pogies that flushed out of the back of my boat, and the lifter pad from my seat :( Despite all the duct tape, it disappeared. (Those pogies are in there somewhere! If you find em, keep em' as a gift from the river) Having no butt pad meant I would have a nasty second half of the run and seeing that I was a bit shaken up, I hiked out. My first hike out but hey. Josh hiked out with me for support and our photographer buddy, Tyler Roemer, gave us a ride t0 the take out where we waited.

All in all, I am happy I ran it and happy to be safe and sound. I hit the line I wanted and will learn from the experience. On the positive side, my lifter pad was rescued between rapids farther downstream! Hooray for brightly colored duct tape! Knew there was a reason for that. :) I will have to take a pick of that pad...Ive been using it for 6 years now and despite getting ripped out during several swims, it survives! Lucky pad.

For flow comparison, check out a juicy flow of 3.0....lot less water and a lot nicer
Note: the rocks at the top of the drop were exposed at 2.5 and completely covered by over a foot of water...had to have been over 3.75 feet. Scary. At 3.5 you run it far left...

Hope everyone enjoyed the carnage! Remember: Carry a throwbag, knife, and pinkit with you ALWAYS! You never know when this could happen to you! If it does, don't panic (like me) and work with your buddies. They are your lifeline.

Stay safe out there-
Christina Russell

Jerrys Baddle 2009

2009-05-05T18:18:00.001-07:00

It all started with some bikers, but really, they were waiting for their kayakers. No really, this race started with a man named Jerry Beckwith, for the people who have run the Green River in North Carolina, ya'll know the name, its on the plaque at the top of the hike around Gorilla. "I will run it, next time." Sadly Jerry passed away a few years ago of ALS. This race, Jerrys Baddle is for him, and his rememberance. So every year in the spring the kayakers get their long boats out and the bikers get their road bikes out and they come together. Or the real bad asses just do both the paddle of the Green River Narrows and the 26 mile road bike. Check out Shane Benedicts blog for more pics and more info on the race and who won!!! http://shanesliquidlogic.blogspot.com/ Here I am comming into the takeout after a grueling 43 minutes of hammering downstream. All photos by my mother who ya'll will meet soon!!The fist punch gettin my parter Bob High on the 26 mile bike ride all the way UP the road at Green River Cove Road. And hes OFF!!!! Bob kicked A$$ in the race and we ended up 3rd overall in the team event which is awesome. Huge thanks to Ashley and Brooks hookin me up with Bob, what an awesome person!!One happy girl, stoked to be done with the run and ready to bask in the sun next to the river and drink some brewskis!!!
This is Clayton Garr and Daniel Stewart (who works for LVM) who were fired up they could sit in the sun after their leisurely paddle down the river just to tap the hand of their unsuspecting bike rider, who was about to almost melt under the sun during the bike.The bikes all waiting in a nice line, awaiting the arrival of their peddlers. Whos bike is that with 2 tall boys of PBR? He might be hurting up those 18 switchbacks.....
After what seemed like forever, my biker finally came in and he did awesome!!! I was so stoked to have him as my partner he did great. Here he is reminessing about the ride he just did and how damn hot it was riding the whole way. He was pretty fired up to have a nice cool river right next to the end of the run!!!!AHHHH. What the body needs to rejuvinate! Friendship!! We ended up going to Green River BBQ in Saluda that night with a huge group of people and then we found ourselves dancing, thats right dancing, at the Purple Onion all night long. What a great way to make friends and have an amazing day outside!!! By the way Bob and I had never met till the day of Jerrys Baddle. We had a great time!!!!!

Hope the weather where yall are is as good as the weather down here in Flat Rock North Carolina!!! See you on the river!

Adriene

Escalante Creek, CO

2009-05-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

What's up ladiesloungers!! Hope all is well and everyone is enjoying spring. Darin and I loaded up the Subaru full of dogs, gear and food on our way to Escalante Creek. This beautiful creek snakes through sandstone making an incredible gorge with a handful of formidable rapids. The camping is amazing with all the amenities (BLM bathroom, shaded picnic area) all sitting on the rim of the lower gorge. The most visable rapid from camp is escalante falls but you can see 57 chevy and the lead in to magnetic wall. Saturday we scouted and the fin was totally under making the level on the high side of good. Darin and I put in with a group, but we were taking our time and scouting so it ended up being just the two of us. Couples creeking!! It is not often that it is just Darin and I alone, but sometimes it is fun. Cosmopolitan suggests it is good for relationships "to do things together", they may not mean class V creeking but it works for us. Leap of Faith is the first drop, its a 8 foot boof avoiding a rock below. It was super fun and I styled this one. The next big drop is Waterslide, there are two lines, one down the slide punching a tricky hole and avoiding a pothole eddy on the right. The next horizon lines were fun and led into a couple miles of super boogie with tons of blind corners, FU rocks and boofs. The next big drop I remember was Double Drop, the river constricts and the drop begins with a big boof over a ledge into some hustle to the next big boof. I loved my line here and felt like a queen sitting high in my Jefe in the first eddy after the drop looking back up at the accomplishment. Darin and I ended the day without heading into the lower gorge, but no regrets. Escalante has an extremely short boating season, but we look forward to doing it again, since its only about 2 hours from home sweet home Glenwood Springs.

It Finally Rained in the Southeast!

2009-04-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

So its been a while but it really did, finally, rain in the southeast. With the arrival of Liquid Logic team member and Demshitz boy, Evan Garcia, the rains started falling. Due to my work schedule I was sleep deprived, stayed up all night, and ready to get some whitewater boat riding in!!! I packed up my gear and drove to the put in to the Toxaway, a run that is one of the most unique of the southeast. Well needless to say, it was running, so in the pouring rain, on the side of the road I begain making the calls. Evan Garcia, Jon Grace, Pat Keller, Isaac Levinson,Grahm Seiler and Drew Duvall all got to the takeout and we got the shuttle run and finally got on the river. Evan Garcia gettin him some at the putin slide of the Toxaway.The boys all fired up that we finally got on this fantastic river. Pat Keller, Drew Duvall, and Evan Garcia.

Jon Grace on the first sick slide called Mini Gizer. Which, after a small portage around the mank-ity-mank is followed by Energizer.
The best, longest, rapid on this river. Its like being on a really sick as rollercoaster. With water splashing up on your face the whole time. Of corse, Adriene comes out with a little injury after a rapid called Feeding Trough. It was a good deep cut no need for stitches though. Just got to go to work with a black eye the next day. Guess I should have been wearing my sick as Shred Ready full face helmet.
Photo by Shane Benedict
So, after the 4 mile hike out of the Toxaway that almost killed me. I headed back to my cosy house with the devil dogs and slept like a baby. The next day I met up with Shane Benedict and Robin Betz for some high water kayking on the backyard run the Green River. Shane liked making fun of my eye, so here I am modeling it off in my AWESOME pink IR union suit with the drop seat, and my Paris Hilton sunglasses. Photo by Shane Benedict
My beautiful Ice Blue Liquid Logic Jege has to my most favorite-est boat on the market right now. She paddles so smooth, like a babys butt. Pictured above is Go Left on the Green River.
Photo By Shane Benedict
My big sister, my mentor, Robin Betz styling the right line at Sunshine.
Photo by Shane Benedict
And here I am not so styling the left line at Sunshine. Good thing the river was at 13 inches!!!
Hope this blog post finds everyone in 70 degree weather. :-)

Reminder go out and buy LVM 30 and the NEW Demshitz video, which is a bunch of stylin meat huckin!!

West Coast Slalom Junior Olympics Qualifier

2009-03-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Riverhouse Rendevous Race (AKA West Cost Junior Olympics Qualifier for Slalom) Went to the race yesterday to take some shots of the dedicated racers. It wasn't over 30 degrees and the winds were kickin' up at about 25 miles per hour! BRR! We had icicles dangling from the gates which were looking like whirlwinds of death. scary. Needless to say, we had a great turn out! 25 racers!

The course had roughly 6 upstream gates and 12 downstream. I have to say, this course looked tough. Some difficult gates in there for sure. Props to everyone for braving the cold and racing!

(Below) Alta enjoying the breeze

(Below) Mariah enjoying the course :)

(Below) Mariah stylin the gates

(Below) previous US Slalom Team member

(below) Mike Stahley charging the lower gates

(Below) Joyce Stahley making it look easy

(Below) Geoff Frank of Aldercreek

(Below) Rick Wright looking ahead...

Head-Cam Riverhouse

2009-03-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

Finals are over! YEAH! I completed my four finals on Tuesday and boy does it feel good to be done. Here's a look at what I did between finals...took the new head-cam out for a test run :) Riverhouse is pretty mellow but a nice break between studies.

-Christina Russell

Cascade Creeking Video

2009-03-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a video I finally got put together of the Upper North Fork Tumalo Creek...It's a forty minute drive up into the mountains of Bend. SO worth the off-roading and the area is beautiful. LOTS of untouched creeking to be had. Going to scope out more this summer...there's got to be more stuff above what we ran! The gradient on the topos shows 600 feet per mile! Anyways,we are all very excited for the peak snowmelt. Enjoy this taste of the Cascades creeking....

Upper North Fork Tumalo from Josh Mckeown on Vimeo.

Happy Paddling,

Christina

Celestial Falls Part II

2009-02-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Just got the photos from Tyler of Celestial Falls...

We had so much fun that day and hope to get back there sometime soon :)...maybe when the put in isn't completely covered in ice....it was scary slick! If you head out there, be safe and have fun!

(Below) gearing up for a cold afternoon on the water

(Below) a rancher that lives across from the put-in...he was awesome

(Below) Me trying to not pee my pants...

(Below) HOO HAA Oregon Tuck!

(Below) trying to breathe.....it felt like I got kicked by a horse! I think I probably should have tucked a bit more :)

(Below) Christie's sequential shot...

(Below) Josh had a crazy line!

(Below) The yard sale...Josh got ejected and tore his PCL :(

(Below) a neat time lapse shot of the exit drop

(Below) Look at that helmet hair! :P

(Below) Josh scouting the drop of the lower gorge. His knee was killing him so he wasn't feeling his best :( Send him good ju ju!

(Below) Tyler had fun with time lapse shots...beautiful place for sure

2009-02-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

Celestial Falls

Height: 45-55 feet (depending on the flow)

Gauge: 235-260 cfs on February 1, 2009

By: Christina Russell

Last Sunday, Josh and I headed to Maupin, OR to huck Celestial Falls. Neither of us had run it yet but we had seen PLENTY of photos. It isn't called "Celebrity Falls" for nothin'! We have both been actively planning lots of paddling trips this year and we thought Celestial would be a kick in the pants after a few heavy weeks of school.

We left early on Sunday morning and picked up Tyler Roemer who is a fantastic photographer. Check out his work at http://www.tylerroemer.blogspot.com. After we grabbed him, we headed about two hours North where all you can see is rolling hills and farmland. We pulled over next to the trail down to the falls- it couldn't have been a stranger place to find a waterfall! We were in the middle of no where with NO water anywhere and FLAT land. The trail is about .25 miles down to the viewpoint where you can check out the upper falls (which land on rocks) and see the lower drop-celestial. The put-in was a bit tricky as the bushes were completely covered in ice (9 degrees the previous night) but we lowered the boats and seal-launched in.

Once you are in the pool above the drop, it's basically the point of no return. I guess you could find some way to get out but it would be a real pain!

Here's the footage of the day-Note- the height of the falls is mislabled...my bad! :(

check out photos from the day at: http://www.tylerroemer.blogspot.com

Anyways, Josh went first while Christie and I waited for the go-ahead from Heather down below.

I went after josh and was very happy with my line....and Christie followed me. :) All in all the day went pretty well...

Thanks to Tyler Roemer who took photos! We will post some of his work soon...

For more information on the drop check out http://www.oregonkayaking.net...AW is not correct on all the falls info.

Ice Ice Baby!

2009-01-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Honoring the local paddling, our friend Tyler Roemer came out to take photos of us at Dillon Falls. He is a professional photographer from Bend, OR and really does great work. Check out his site

at http://tylerroemer.blogspot.com/.

Anyways, we decided that we should have someone who really knows what they're doing come take photos as Josh and I are moving to Portland soon. I'm starting nursing school and neither of us know when we will be able to see these runs again. So here is Dillon in all its over photographed beauty...enjoy! :)

Hooray for local paddling! Check back soon for photos from out PNW huck sessions! :D

Happy Paddling,

Christina Russell

2009-01-26T09:39:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! The Kamchatka Project needs your help to get off the ground! Please check out the website for more information and enter the contest to win a pair of Rudy Project sunglasses!

"The Kamchatka Peninsula in Eastern Siberia is one of the last truly wild places on Earth. It is a place wherebetween one sixth and one fourth of all salmon spawn, a place with some of the densest brown bear populations in the world, a place with no dams, no massive extractive resource operations, less than one person per square kilometer, and only one major highway on the 600-mile long peninsula. It is a place that is unexplored, a place that is worth saving and a place that needs attention now. "

"A team of expert expedition kayakers will attempt source to sea first descents of the lllmahaka and Kapaza Rivers in an effort to help further a salmon stronghold in Kamchatka. Exploring by kayak will lead the team directly to the salmon, conservation issues and the cultures of northern Siberia."

http://www.kamchatkaproject.org/

Check it out and spread the word!

-Christina Russell

Looking Back on 2008

2008-12-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

My year started off with a "bang". January and February gave North Carolina good rain, which meant good water. Ravens Fork is in the Cherokee, right by the Smokey Mountain National Park. It runs even if there is only an inch of water in the watershed. This picture is of John Grace running a rapid called Right Right. This river is stacked with rowdey rapids and some priceless drops, it just never gets old.

April, just as always, gave us more rain and more kayaking!! This is the lip of Big Boy, the 35 foot waterfall on Ravens Fork. The danger of this waterfall is a rock in the right side that sticks out a little into the landing. There is only one other woman in history to run this rapid and its the Norwegian hottie, Mariann Seather. I decided to run it after much deliberation.

This is a horribly great picture of me at the bottom of Big Boy. I was the happiest girl in all of Cherokee that day, even though when I landed I hit my face on my paddle and broke my nose. The next morning I flew out to Bozeman Montana for 2 weeks to go snowboarding. When I got back I could still not breathe through my nose so I went to an ENT doctor and sure enough had to get surgery to fix the deviated septum and broken nose. That ended up being the most expensive day on the river that I hopefully will ever have.

This is the day that I (we) ran Big Boy. The whole crew; Billy Jones, Drew Duval, Eli, Dave Fusilli, and myself all ran Big Boy, thus we ate dinner at Big Boy we felt it fitting.

Around the same time the Toxaway ran. The Toxaway is located near Brevard North Carolina. This river is known for the biggest, longest drops in the southeast. It is filled with huge slides, big holes, and some great vertical drops. This rapid is called Energizer. Drew Duval is at the bottom of the rapid, that just puts it in perspective.

This is the same rapid from the bottom. Not only does it show how much it drops but also how much water is in there.

Billy Murphy entering at the top of a rapid called Feeding Trough. It gets really walled out in there, and you are just hauling when you hit the holes at the bottom.

The last "big" rapid of the day is Wintergreen. Its about a 20 foot vertical drop at the top into a pretty soft transition which sends you down a huge slide and at the bottom it was the fastest I had ever gone in a kayak, it was amazing.

In May, I got asked to go on a kayaking trip with Jon Grace. He wanted to go to Idaho to film some big water runs. The exact opposite of what I am good at. :-) This is him, doing his job, on the South Fork of the Salmon, at really high water.

We all acted like lemmings heading down this river. It was an absolutely amazing trip and one of my first over nighters on a river. We had a great crew and an awesome time.

This was taken at the takeout to the South Fork East Fork of the Salmon, by Yellow Pine Idaho. From the left; Ryan Casey, Myself, Jon Grace, and Freddy Coriell. I was honored to be able to spend a night in Yellow Pine with the fantastic crew that we had. While in Idaho I was also able to paddle the North Fork of the Payette at 3000. What a priceless run. Go if you get the chance, really.... Woody Calloway, Jon Grace and myself also made a few trips to Bladder wave right outside of Boise, its a fun surfing wave.

After I was done with my trip in Idaho, Shane Benedict (who got one day on the North Fork also) came to pick me and Jon Grace up and drive to Colorado. While we were there we did some great runs like Daisy Creek. The last rapid is pictured above called Rip Your Face Off. What a great name for a rapid, really makes you want to run it right?

We also got to surf Big Sur the wave on the Colorado River that only comes in at really high water. Jon and Shane had a fun time watching me window shade because I had never surfed a long boat in my life. After flipping like 10 times, Shane took pity on me and helped me figure out how to surf a long boat. It was such an amazing feeling.

While in Colorado I also got to compete in the Oh Be Joyful giant slalom race. There were great people, great rapids, and some of the gates were very strategically placed. I think that this is where creek racing will go at some point. It adds a whole new element. And just to brag a little bit, I took 7th in the slalom out of like 20 people. :-)

Also while in Colorado, I was able to compete in the Teva Mountain Games at Homestake Creek. We also went to Salida for Fibark and competed in that. At that rodeo I got 3rd place and earned myself a spot on the US Freestyle Team for the World Cup in Europe 2 months later.

So that brings us to; Prague Czech Republic, Augsburg Germany, and Thun Switzerland.

While on this trip I got to travel with Nicole Mansfield, a fellow Astral teammate. We got known as a the American Girls and we were always causing trouble somewhere.

This was a great trip and I was very happy to be able to go to new countries and represent the USA as a team member. I met so many good people and friends that I will hopefully paddle with elsewhere in the world.

When I got back to the States I was asked by Shane to travel to Canada and test out the new playboat, the Biscuit. Myself, Jesse Wilinski, and Marlow Long traveled all the way from West Virgina to Montreal to surf the Lachine rapids and then to the Ottawa to surf a few smaller waves.

Contemplating the next move I am going to make.

On the first of November at high noon, for the last 13 years there has been a monumental race called the Green Race, in Saluda North Carolina. I was able to race for the 3rd time and tied for 1st place in the long boat competition.

Just like the beginning of my year, the end of my year ended in a "bang" also. Me and about 5 other people decided to drive to Mexico from North Carolina. We headed to the Micos river and myself and Adam Bixby proceeded to run the biggest waterfall of our lives. Not once, but twice.

The put in drop to the Micos is about 50 feet on one side and about 60 feet on the other, Adam and I ran both sides once.

So, hopefully, everyone had a great year and I hope to everyone that the new year will bring new rivers, bigger waterfalls, less pain, and a better financial economy :-)

Ive got some huge thanks to some people that have helped me live my dream in the last year. My mom always has to come first, she is my right wing, I couldn't fly without her and even if I got off the ground I would have to fly in circles and that would suck. Shane, Woody, Allen, and Obie at Liquid Logic, for.... well.... everything....the laughs, the help, the dinners. Yonton and Brian at Astral for the awesome life jackets and the oh so comfortable Green Vest. Oh yea and for the lunches and dinners too. Jon Grace at LVM for believing that I can kayak, and for kicking me in the butt when I really need it. Roger at IR for being entertainment both on and off the phone and keeping me warm and dry while I am on the water. Tom and Patrick at Shred Ready for protecting my oh so important face and head. Last but not least, Danny at Werner, for always coming through at the last minute when I really am needing some help. You all are awesome and I don't know how to thank you all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Lets make 2009 the best year yet!!!

Peace and love

Merry Christmas from Oregon!

2008-12-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I just got back from a visit to Eugene and boy am I tired. My sister Kim (a former Liquidlogic lady) just had her gallbladder removed(OUCH!) and is now snoozing on the couch as I type this. Send her good ju ju if ya can afford to...she's not exactly feeling her best! :(

Despite gallbladders going rogue and needing be taken out, this year has been pretty friggin awesome and I wanted to say thank you to everyone that made it so awesome- Liquidlogic, Peak UK, Astral, Aldercreek, Girlrider, and my family. Without your help and support, I couldn't do this! Be on the lookout for cookies...*cough cough* did I say that out loud? :D

Here are the highlights of 2008-

The West Coast Women's Paddling Festival in Hood River, Oregon (Below)

The finalists of the ladies 8 Ball Race

Me having fun in the Crossriver on Skook(Below)

Last Tango above 50/50 on the Ashlu (Below)

Gotta love silty rivers...

The always fun, Callaghan Creek

Some drop on the Ashlu...they all are beautiful

To run or not to run...that is the question at 50/50

Smiling for the camera is easy when on the river....

My best friend, partner, international traveler, and computer specialist....Josh Mckeown

2009 will be another great year! Thank you all for your support and kindness on and off the river. Merry Christmas!

-Christina

Mexico 2008 Day 1 and 2

2008-12-17T17:26:00.000-08:00

Why hello there interested readers. Here I am (Adriene) in Mexico. Myself and four other bored river kayakers decided that it was time to get out of the southeast (cause it was cold and there was nothing running) so we drove south, pretty much on a whim. The first river that we hit was the Salto. We were all in need of some water and whitewater boat riding was first on the list.
Does this drop look familiar to anyone? It is the take out to the Salto and its the waterfall that Tao Berman ran on Stunt Junkies. When we were there, the water was a little high, and none of us wanted to fire it off first and get hurt for the rest of the trip, so we all (pretty proudly) walked away from it.

This is the same waterfall just from river left, next to the road. This is the only really big drop on the Salto run, it's like a 20 foot boof into a really nice soft landing at the bottom. That's Jake Greenbaum stylin it dirty style.The cool thing about this river is the travertine rock beds that the water flows through. Kayak plastic really sticks to it, pretty well. Thats a nice little eight foot boof that for me was more like a seal launch because I went in a spot that was a little too shallow to paddle over.....oops.This rapid was the only rapid that really had a move on it. It was a sweet eight foot boof into a slide that ended on the right side of the picture. Very pretty in there, very pretty.Have you ever heard of synchronized kayaking? Well neither had I until this day, when (named from left to right) Davis Gove, Adam Bixby, and Jake Greenbaum decided to all boof at the same time. Good timing kids. Jake called this drop the Aquarium Drop cause if a fish swam over it, you could see it like you were looking through glass in an aquarium, get it? Pretty sweet eh?So the next day we headed an hour over to the Micos river. This drop is the put-in drop. What a way to start your day right? So we had seen video of people running the left side of this drop but we had a little more water this day so we were checkin out the right side. A nice 15 foot slide into about a 45 foot vertical drop. Adam and I fired it off, Adam boofed it (ouchy) and broke his paddle, I went ass over tea-kettle, landed on my head, and ejected out of my boat....oops again. Oh well at least it was warm out and warm water. Jake at the put in, we were all in awe at this point.Hes such a handsome man, Davis Gove ladies and gentlemen!Thats me! At the top of about a 20 foot plugger far on the right side of the river. Fun drop for sure.Davis stylin some random drop on the Micos, pretty much the style of the day, boof and rally! At the end of the day, Adam and I were a little sore, I had a few bruises on my legs but all in all we had a great day. I gotta thank the people in my life that make trips like this possible, like my MOM! Shane and Woody at Liquid Logic (thanks for the Jefe!) Yonton at Astral for makin such a darn comfy lifejacket, Tom and Patrick at Shred Ready for the full coverage of the TDUB, Danny at Werner for loanin me a paddle at the last second, and Roger at IR for,,,, well just bein Roger!

Thanks everyone for a great trip! I will check back in a few days with some sick pics of the Alseseca! Stay warm and happy paddling.....oh yea and Happy Chrismahaunaquanza! Cant leave anyone out! Peace and love
Adriene

Weekend Before Final Exams

2008-12-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Hey there people! It's that time of year again- finals week! I have two final exams coming up tomorrow- 1 Anatomy and Physiology exam and 1 Biology exam. Both are comprehensive with LOTS of material but Im feeling pretty good about them. Almost done! This December looks like it will be a fun one- possible trips to the Olympic National Park, kayaking in Hood River/Portland area, surfing at the Florence Jetty, and even a little trip to San Francisco :) WOO HOO!

This last weekend, Josh and I headed to Portland to visit a friend and paddle on the Green Truss in Hood River. On the way to Portland, we stopped to check out the supposed class 5 drop that is only present when the resevoir is next to dry. Turns out, it was a class 4 boof with a nice slide- maybe we will hit it up next time but we were eager to get to P town.

Got to Portland and decided to check out a nursing school I applied to....U of P. Right now Im just waiting for my application to be processed and hopefully I will get in :) If so, Josh and I like the area a LOT- great thai food, quiet area, and easy access to the highway. Definitely stoked for the move. Anyways, moving on...

The party in P town kept us up late but we were still ready for a nice day on the Truss. Unfortunately for us, most of Hood River was up even later partying till around 5 am so getting a hold of people that were AWAKE took a while! Eventually we decided to head to the take out to see if anyone was there. Lucky us- we found five people ready to go :)

The level was pretty low- 1.49 feet which meant just about everything was a go. Big Brother was just about as clean as it gets, double drop is very steep but not sticky, and BZ is very very flushy. Put on the rio around 1 ish and it took us three hours to make it down. Good thing we got off when it did cuz it was getting dark.

I only got a couple pics in cuz it was so cold and we were a bit short on time....

Josh on Big Brother

Check back soon for more posts from Christmas Break! YEAH! Stay warm and cozy out there...in your drysuit :)

HAppy Paddling,

Christina

Green Race 2008

2008-11-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

Another year, another Green Race. This year was a pretty monumental year, one because the Dagger Green Boat came out for sale, and team paddler (for Liquid Logic) Tommy Hilleke was not able to come out because his wife was too busy having (or trying to have) their third child. My mom hiked in to watch (just like she always does) and this is just a fraction of the spectators that were out there.
The Green Race is known around the world for being one of the most intense downriver races. This year, however, had a different factor, low water. All the rapids are still good to go, but Gorilla gets scary, its shallow in the landing and there is a breaking wave at the top instead of a nice launch pad. Thankfully this year went on without anyone even running Gorilla upside down, and no injury at all. We did have some interesting lines from some well known names but all went without a hitch.

Photos by:Mike Cochran

See my head up there? Whoa!

Pat Keller won Long boat, Eric Deguil (FR) won Ironman, and Myself and Laura Ferrill tied for first in the womens division.

Busting through the pad, full speed ahead!

This race was the 13th Annual Green Race heald in Saluda North Carolina. Average times are about 5:10. Gorilla isn't the only rapid that racers have to style, there are more called: Frankenstein, Whale Tail, Boof or Consequence, Go Left and Die, Zwicks Backender, Chiefs, Flying Squirrel, Scream Machine, Neices Pices, Power Slide, and Rapid Transit. Gorilla sits right in the middle of all the action.

Doin the Shane Benedict, low water Gorilla, movin that elbow away from the veil.

Happy to have my face intact, shoulders where they are supposed to be and boat in one piece. Thanks to all my sponsors: Liquid Logic, Shred Ready, IR, and Astral I couldn't do any of this stuff without your help!

Till next time, Happy Paddling and pray for rain!!

Adriene

Black and White

2008-10-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

These shots are a bunch I took while in BC. I just

recently downloaded the new beta version of Picasa 3 and messed around with the black

and white.....enjoy!

Fall on the Ashlu

2008-09-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

Following a couple days spent on the Callighan, Josh and I headed South to the Ashlu. The Ashlu is the site of the new hydroelectric dam that will supposedly be done in the next year. We were lucky enough to see it before things change....

We arrived on Wednesday morning in hopes that our third paddler would show and some new friends from Squamish would arrive for a run down the Box Canyon of the Ashlu and the Mine Section upstream. Unfortunately, our third paddler did not arrive which meant that running the Box was a little sketchy - Dan "from everywhere" arrived and was eager to hop on it, but since two of us had not been down it before, we were all a bit nervous with only three people. Till next time Box! We will return. Due to time restrictions, we hopped on the Mini Mine section for two laps- VERY quick laps. It's a fun run with the final drop called Last Tango....super fun :)

Below- the put-in...note mini dam just upstream...this is where water will be pumped out and downstream to the hydroelectric site

Above-Me on the drop called Last Tango....a pretty beefy drop but eveything goes...it's got a somewhat sticky hole at the bottom :)

Stay tuned for photos of the Box Canyon of the Ashlu!

Happy Paddling,

Christina Russell

Holy Canada!

2008-09-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

OK. It's official. Im moving to Canada someday- the rivers are epic (and close to eachother), the people are the friendliest Ive ever met, and the wildlife is....entertaining. Bear country=fun country for sure!

Our first day in Canada was spent on the Upper Cheackamas and the Callighan- both are classics in BC that ya just cant miss. This is where I first learned that silty water and contacts make ya unhappy. Ha ha note to self for next time! Anyways, we didnt get any pics of the Cheack but here are some shots from the Callighan- a sweet class 4/5 creek with blueberry bushes all along the side of the river :) Enjoy!

Oh ho! This has got to be one of the best drops....the log drop(below). There has been a log in this drop for a couple years and ironically this year it washed out....only to be replaced by a log falling into the exact same place. River Gods are funny sometimes. Here is Josh giving the ol' log a nice bump:
Photo: Christina Russell

(Below) after taking shots of everyone else, and seeing some manky lines, I fired it off myself with a successful boof next to the log....but not too close!

(Below) Just in case you miss the drop, check it out from farther away....

Just downstream of the log drop is the cleanest thirty footer you could ever run. You cant really portage so one of our friends fired it off as her first waterfall ever! Awesome! :) (Below)This is a shot of me on my second run down.
Photo: josh Mckeown

(Below) Josh on the 3o footer

Photo: Chrisitna Russell

(Below)Our always smiling, trusted guide while we were in Canada- Danny

The Callighan is about 3-4 miles long but that's just a guess. Im bad with distances. We put on around 3pm one day and got off at 5:30 so if you have a guide it makes things go faster. If you knew the run like the back of you rhand I would bet you could run it in just under an hour.

The Callighan was a great run and our group made the trip awesome. Special thanks to Danny and Annie of Vancouver , Dan from everywhere, and everyone we met along the way. It was a privelage to paddle with you all!

Check back soon for pictures from the Ashlu!!!!

Happy Paddling,

Christina

Winner Takes All Race - Charlotte Whitewater Course

2008-09-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday, September 13, 2008 - Fergus Coffey and Dave Hepp put together a great event at the Charlotte Whitewater Course What made it so great, you say? It was a fast paced grassroots race with a diverse field of paddlers, reggae music, and good spirits.
Fergus Coffey and Pablo McCandless
photo: robin betz

It was cool because we had all kinds of paddlers representing. We had everyone from charlotte park locals, to creek boaters, to olympic slalom paddlers.

Here's the first heat at the starting line:
photo: robin betz

The race began with about 6 mass start heats at the top of the class IV channel. The top 2 paddlers in each heat advanced to the "winner's" bracket, and everyone else to the "loser's" bracket.
There were heroic 'baddles' for first off the starting line...
photo: robin betz

There was raft carnage sometimes...
photo: daniel windham

And there were elegant lines ;) Here i am, stoked! because I'm about to skip over this hole in my Remix 69 :) I might be slightly biased here, but I think the Remix was the boat of choice for the under 9' regulation. It was fast everywhere.
photo: daniel windham

After the field was split the top two in each heat kept advancing, and also the top five in the loser's bracket had the chance to win there way back in. In the end the top paddler's battling it out in the final heats were 1st place - Fergus Coffey, 2nd place - Butter, 3rd place - Chris Gragtmans, 4th - Pablo McCandless, 5th - Daniel Stuart.

Daniel Stuart chasing Pablo McCandless
photo: robin betz

We all pitched in five bucks to race, and the winner (Fergus Coffey) goes home with the loot. I think there was some kind of stash for 2nd and 3rd place too.

photo: daniel windham

Thanks to Fergus Coffey, Dave Hepp, the timers, and the Charlotte Whitewater Center and staff (and whoever else was behind the scenes) for hosting an awesome event!!

Isn't there Cheese in Switzerland?

2008-09-05T06:47:00.001-07:00

Ahh. Switzerland, the land of vast mountains, peacefulness, and lots of cheese... or something like that. :-) Here we are, Thun the final of three events in the World Cup 2008. Hard to believe we have all come this far in only three weeks. We all took over the car park right by the wave, every morning locals would wake up to dirty, smelly kayakers sleeping in parking spots. We, on the other hand would wake up to the bells of the Church pictured above, some sort of blow horn or other noise maker, or just someone coughing from the cold that was going around all of the World Cup competitors. Everyone was going out hard. How can't you? We have been together for three weeks and the relationships that you build with these people is amazing. We all knew we only had a few days left. Everyone was thinking about when we were hopefully going to meet up again, Thun 2009 for Worlds.The city had been working hard on making the "perfect wave" for last many years. They change the dam doors shown above to make a wave that people will wait in line for, for hours. Thun was undoubtedly the most beautiful destination in the whole World Cup and also the most convenient, nestled right in the middle of town, meaning all of the action. The water is warm enough to swim comfortably and clear enough to see the GINORMOUS carps swimming below us.This was a typical line in the eddy at pretty much every hour of the day. I heard that at one point it was 3 am and there were still ten people waiting in the eddy for their turn to surf. The wave was flushy so people got as many rides as they could before competition began.A fellow Liquid Logic kayaker doing a round-house in a Scooter.Me, doing what I do best, chatting it up with junior man Maxime from France. Most of the French team was paddling these composite boats called Gui-Gui Prods. They were quite cool and even though they were higher in volume they could go so big because the boats were so light, that's definitely a good idea for a playboat. Oh please don't window shade! I sadly didn't make the first cut again but my mind wasn't really in the competition while I was on the wave. I had found out that a good friend of mine had died while he was kayaking in Tennessee the day before. Isaac, I will always remember you with a huge smile on your face and loving your life. You touched the lives of many and will always be thought of on the river. The river, and the world, is a different place without you in it. May you rest in peace.Oh yea big back surf!

So, since I didn't compete very well, all I had left to do was go to the Losers Party at Cafe Mokka right down the road from the car park that we had taken over. As we all know I love men in uniform, and look, I found some! These guys are part of the Swiss Army and get this, they have drinking uniforms. Nicole and I "borrowed" their hats and wore them around for the night, wow we look good! The guys were really cool and explained that they were mandated by the government to do at least a year in the Army in their life. But Switzerland is known for its talented ability to stay neutral so really going into the Army there means finding more drinking friends.

Day two of the competition the Men, Women and Juniors all cut down to five for finals that would be held on Sunday. After all of the serious competition most of the competitors partook in a Big Air rodeo and King of the Wave. King of the wave was impressive and I'm sure that some people came out of it bruised and battered, but it was sure fun to watch!
Oh, finals day. The Frenchies definitely took the cake for being the loudest crew there. They had a 50 gallon drum that they were bashing on, this dude, and multiple different noise makers like a megaphone. We were lucky to have great weather so the girls were all tanning and they guys were setting up their cameras for the finals. Once the competition started everyone was awake and we all witnessed some of the best kayaking that will be seen.
Stephen Wright came on strong, doing both McNastys, both Phonix Monkeys, and a HUGE big air loop at the end of his ride. This ride put him in second at the end of the day which was great after his last 2 competitions ended with him in 6th place. The next ride that we saw was history. Pan Ams both ways, both helixes, huge Donkey Flips, and one last big Clean Air Blunt, done by the Canadian Nick Troutman. This ride ended up putting him second overall in the World Cup standings.

Huge congratulations to: Emily Jackson, for winning the Womens World Cup 2008 even though she was sick the whole time, that shows a true competitor. Ruth Gordon, who was always right there to remind Emily that she needed to work harder. Nick Troutman, for having the highest score of the whole World Cup and taking 2nd overall. Little Palmer, for getting third in Augsburg. Dane Jackson, for killing the competition that was much bigger than him in both C-1 and K-1. Jason Craig, for making me believe that 15 year olds can fly. Stephen Wright, for finally getting up on that podium and showing that wave who's boss. Dustin Urban, in third overall World Cup standings and on his soon to be addition to the family, Dustin and Katie will be fantastic parents. And to Eric Jackson, for being a true competitor and for his new addition to his family, KC, welcome to the world, I hope it is all you dreamed of, good luck.

I have one special thanks to Clay Wright. For pulling my head back up when it was down. For teaching me what really matters is not how well you do but that you enjoy doing it. He has instilled a new respect for playboating that I had lost a long time ago. If I had the chance to do this again, I would in a second. The places that you see and the people that you meet along the way, those things are unforgettable.

I'm off to the Ottawa in Canada for about a week then back to the dirty south.

Check back in soon!

Adriene