Northwest Creeking Competition: East Fork Lewis River extreme race

The second year of the newly-reincarnated NW Creeking Comp went off with a bang April 11-12, 2009. The race, party, huckfest, and camaraderie were sick, as expected. The Columbian wrote an article about it, featuring a photo of me doing an old school pirouette whilst waiting at the hole by Oly's house for some other kayakers to come down:

Northwest Creeking Competition 2008: a great success for the community

We had 80+ racers for the event, and the weather and water level cooperated perfectly. Big up to Luke Spencer for being the lead organizer. I think the turnout this weekend surprised everyone involved. If it's any bigger next year, we'll rival the legendary Green Race. (Photo at right is yours truly boofing Hammering Spot during the race on Saturday.)

Sunday. We had a huckfest on Sunset Falls (video by Cory Morton):


Before it started, Dingo, Jesse, Cory, Neil, Johanna, and I put in a few miles above the falls for a run. Johanna was killing it for her first time in a kayak (inflatable though it was), and doing on a solid Class III/III+ run. I tried out my newly-repaired AT2 paddle (warranty repaired to a 0-degree offset) and was loving it until it broke again. It's true what they say -- nothing paddles quite like an AT. If only they were stouter. I'm told the AT Flexi is not as brittle. Back to the factory with it, I reckon. After the huckfest, it was time to break everything down and load it back in the cars for the trek back to Portland. Oly and Brenda were consummate hosts, as always!

Saturday. We had a stunning turnout for the race! 80+ racers and plenty of spectators and event volunteers made for a fun crown on and around Canyon Creek. The weather and flows could not have been more optimal: 70 degrees and sunny, with the level 3-4 inches below the unit. The higher flows seemed to catch some people off guard, especially those who'd only done the run in the relatively dry weeks prior to the event. Around 8 boaters found themselves swimming out of Prelude to Thrasher, and a few racers found the need to take a quick dip mid-race, probably just to cool off. ;-) Party.

Austin Rathman put together a video of the race:


Cory Morton put together a slideshow montage of kayakers on Thrasher and rafters on Big Kahuna:


Friday. Feeling well-worked from a more celebratory-than-usual Paddler's Pint, I managed to rise early enough to gather my gear and some roadsigns for the weekend, and ended up driving my own car up to the event. More to come...

Northwest Creeking Competition coming April 12th/13th

The first annual Northwest Creeking Competition will be held on Canyon Creek, Washington during the weekend of April 12th/13th. On the 12th is a downriver extreme race with four classes of competition, followed by a simply smashing party at Oly's place on the East Fork Lewis River with video premieres, competitor prizes, a bitchin' raffle, and much good times. The 13th will hold a freestyle waterfall huck competition to see who can run Sunset Falls with the most style.

I'm proud to be helping to organize this event. Our goal is to bring it back to being the community-based and conservation-oriented event that it was it years past. Mad props to Luke S. (in the foreground on the flyer) for being the driving force in making it a reality. If you click the image thumbnail above, you'll see the flyer I made for the event. My longtime friend Bo R. will be heading up from Medford to check it out, and I'm starting to get pretty pumped for it.