Middle White Salmon: handpaddling Maytag and Husum

(Willie's custom expert handpaddles)
These suckers (crafted by Hucky McChuckinstuff) are just under half the surface area of my large handpaddles, and even smaller than Riveraholic's small handpaddles. My first time using them, on September 9th's Carnage Run, was a hoot.

It'd been quite a while since I asked anyone to have my back on T-rescues, and even longer since I'd felt gripped in the big eddy at Fish Creek. With my heart racing, I undertook the run without knowing for certain that I'd be able to navigate, much less have a combat roll. Things went very well, and I even got my surf on several times.

My hand roll has to be a bit more optimal with the tiny handpaddles, which is good training. I find that taking many more (but less powerful) strokes gives me a better cardio workout on the river, and requires better boat control, more focus on river reading, and more premeditated obstacle avoidance.

Friends who've started handpaddling recently after months of encouragement from me have been having a blast and extolling the virtues of this pursuit. Me to them: "I told you so!" We had 3 handpaddlers at the first and second Carnage Runs this month, and 4 last week at the third. People wanting locally-made handpaddles should hook up with Hucky, a.k.a. Tango Charlie.

The following Saturday, Luke, Ryan, and I set out to conquer new turf with our handpaddles, having honed our game on the Upper Clackamas. This was my second time using the insignificant pieces of plastic known as "Willie's custom expert handpaddles", and the White Salmon would prove once again to be a sizable step up for someone so used to Fish to Bob's on the Clackamas.

This clip (at Maytag, the first rapid of the Middle White Salmon run) starts with me (background) succeeding at my second frantic roll attempt in the boils below the top drop with Luke shouting encouragement in close chase, as Ryan runs the 2nd "drop" (foreground), followed by myself and then Luke:


(Ryan, Willie, and Luke on Maytag, with handpaddles. Footage courtesy of 'Nette from Next Adventure's staff blog post.)
The run was challenging, as I don't know it very well, and line planning has to happen much earlier in each rapid when I'm in the tiny handpaddles. My focus slipped at one point, and I found myself center-broaching on a rock in the shallows, where I flipped. An advantage of the handpaddles in this situation was that I was able to crab-walk upside-down on the rocky bottom, from my back deck over to my upstream side, and roll up from there, protecting my head/shoulders/etc. from the menacingly shallow riverbed. There is probably a whole sub-sport to be had in dynamic playboat moves that incorporate the riverbed, but I'll leave that revolution to someone else. ;)

This clip of Husum has Luke crushing the tricky low-water boof, then myself, followed by Ryan, having more interesting lines. I can tell you that handrolling in froth with something smaller than a DVD case strapped to each hand is an interesting exercise. The word "swim" ran through my mind briefly when I got pulled back into the maw after my second capsize. Luckily, it was all the more easy to feel and grab the downwater for an inverted escape from the chunder zone:


(Luke, Willie, and Ryan on Husum, with handpaddles. Thanks again to 'Nette from Next Adventure for the footage!)

Squirtboating: Weasel Gathering, underwater footage

I had a blast figuring out how to sink at last weekend's Weasel Gathering. I'm so grateful to the small community of Northwest squirtboaters for letting me try lots of boats and giving me crucial pieces of advice at just the right moments. I managed to get 6-8 consecutive submersions, with a max of 8 seconds, once I was in a boat that worked for me. (Noah's KOR was just right in a very Goldilocks way.) I came in last, but posted no zeroes. Not bad for my second day on the river in a squirtboat. What helped me get fast results was having read Squirtboating & Beyond and then rereading it again after doing a lot of playboating, before ever getting into a squirt boat. Handpaddling my playboat a lot and getting partial mysteries doing so at high water Big Eddy on the Clackamas helped a lot too, no doubt. The hook is set; now, I just need to knock off a bank so I can get a custom squirtboat and accompanying gear.

Weaver sinks into the Weasel at previous, higher flows.
At the end of Sunday's session, I volunteered to shoot some underwater footage of Tim Hollar dropping at The Weasel. To prepare, I swam into the downwater and rode the mystery with swimfins and one handpaddle, which was a trip, indeed. It's as if there is a creek beneath the river that follows the contours of the bottom-most part of the riverbed. It would be nigh impossible to stay in the "body mystery" while filming, but it was an instructive experience nonetheless. For the following footage, I just stayed in the seam on the surface, upcurrent from Tim, and managed spacing by kicking forward with the fins or pushing back with the handpaddle. Thanks to Joel Meadows for letting me use his camera, and thanks to Tim for the use of the goggles and snorkel.


(footage by yours truly, who has no "S" in his name)

Whitewater Kayaking Lifestyle Videos

In the absence of completed trip reports for recent adventures, I offer you these glimpses into the kayaker lifestyle. This clip is from the informal White Trash Party 2009 at Northwestern Lake, on the White Salmon River. The annotated video says more than I ever could with mere words:


Some months later, Adventure Technology had a farewell party at the plant, with a Pimp & Ho theme. Katie and Josh were probably the best pimp and ho of the party, respectively. Here's Josh playing on his unicycle with a both feather boa and a light buzz tied on:


Any whitewater kayaker who tells you that they don't see this kind of thing every weekend is obviously hiding the truth. It could be a cocktail of pride and shame, or maybe they're trying to bogart the fun all for themselves. Trust only those who can look you in the eye and assure you that this type of shit happens every day...

Upper Upper Cispus: Behemoth from above

I'm still pulling together media and words for my Chelan Gorge trip report, so here's a clip from a Cispus run we did in the meanwhile.


(video by Travis Lee)

Lower Wind: handpaddling Shipherd's Falls, melt line

I tried to prematurely boof a little to give my bow more downward momentum into the seam. I don't think I can get all the way under the foam pile to the downstream side without higher flows or a bunch of water in my boat. Either would be a scary proposition.


(Thanks to Ryan Young for the footage.)

26th Annual Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival

Ryan Scott made a sweet little video for the Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival this year. I almost completed a fakey forward flip off the ramp, at 2:59 in the video:

PDXkayaker Film Fest 2008: Semi-Pro Spotlight

Luke managed to get 2nd place in last year's PDXkayaker Film Festival, with Semi-Pro Spotlight:



I shot much of the footage used in the film. Luke and I were going to co-produce our effort for the contest, but he just had more spare time in the week leading up to the contest. I'd say he represented, for sure. The Johnny Ott BZ Falls carnage clip was a huge crowd pleaser. Ahh, memories.

White Salmon: the Farmlands

Hit the Farmlands at just below 4ft on the Husum gauge with Tony Bizone, Joe Stumpfel, and Allen Satcher. This was my first time down, but I can see why they say this is the perfect level for the Farmlands.

Sidewinder is the first big drop on this section:



After some generic Class III-IV rapids, paddlers come to Lava Falls:



Joe Stumpfel making Lava Falls pay (he was a hair right of where he wanted to be, forward to 0:48 for the action, I was too lazy to edit):



Tony Bizone killing it on Lava Falls (he was two hairs left of where he wanted to be):


Off Ramp is the last of the major drops on this section:



I boated well this day, with a flip and snap roll near the undercut on Sidewinder being the lowlight. The more I boat the Riot Magnum 80, the more I like it.

Fall Creek of South Sister: exploratory boating

Luke Spencer, Chuck Taylor, Johnny Ott, and I had a blast exploring a steep, Class V, micro-creek in the Bend area over the holiday weekend. There are several gorgeous drops that made all the hiking and scouting worth it. For example:


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After the run, asking around on BENDkayaker if this was a first descent yielded a response from James Fredericks to the contrary:

It's really cool you guys did the run! Unfortunately, you don't have the first descent. In June of 1995, my friends Kent Koeller, Chip Hogan, and I first ran the stretch from the upper footbridge (about two miles up from the parking lot) on down. All the falls except the big one were run. So, one of you guys ran the 35 footer? I personally waded out and it was waist-chest deep at the bottom!

I went back again that July with Jayson Bowerman and did the run again.

I do believe that the one who ran the 35 footer has the first on that falls. Thanks for the report, and stop in at Alder Creek in Bend-I work there Mon-Thurs.

Waist/chest-deep is enough to boof into, so I nabbed a first known descent of this chunky 35-footish waterfall (officially named Fall Creek Falls):

Chuck and I in silhouette
As the first person stupid enough to run this waterfall, I dub it Confusion Falls. Reason being, when I was standing atop the falls and preparing to fire it up, Luke (a.k.a. Mr. Magoo) thought I made the sign for "I'm calling it off" when I had actually made the sign for "inner calm". Luke called off the troops, and when I gave a long "I'm firing it up now" blast on my whistle, I took Chuck's "I'm over here, Willie" whistle blast as a "you're good to go". Lesson learned: don't oversign. I almost named it Placebo Falls, since the safety was purely imaginary.

me and my line on Confusion Falls
It's good that I greased my line, as none of my crew were there to provide safety or document my run. I landed in the foam pile a couple feet from the maul, 30 degrees from sideways, and 30 degrees off the horizontal. Immediately upon contact, I lifted my bow to make sure my scoop was shallow. I may have just grazed the bottom. I surfaced without flipping, noticed one of my paddle blades missing (landing in a low brace seemed prudent for this drop), and looked up to see a rather astonished-looking European tourist staring at me with his mouth hanging open. Looking to the other side of the pool, I saw a disbelieving Chuck Taylor sitting in his boat, waiting for me to hike down. I feel lucky that nothing bad happened when I took the quick way down, considering the major miscommunication.

As a bonus, I got to work on my C-1 skills on the Class II runout. It was interesting and fun, but I'll stick to two blades for now, I think.

Here is a short video clip of the falls:


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I'm sure I'm going to be hearing "pictures or it didn't happen" about this one! I'm tempted to go back and fire it up again to get some photos for posterity. This run has enough quality that we'd like to go back and do some wood removal, so I'll probably get the chance. I doubt I'll take that chance, though. In hindsight, it only happened the first time due to a perfect storm of a great water year, a solid crew, and my own lack of experienced judgment. I'm aiming to be a little wiser in my second year of boating. :)

You can check out Luke's scouting report from when he checked this run out last summer. Luke has a full trip report up, as well.

Hospital Rock: a taste of Cali carnage

Ah, my first Class V swim...full story to come, but check out the following media for a teaser:




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North Fork Clackamas

Luke S., Ryan Y., Allen S., and Paul M. fired up the North Fork Clackamas at low flows. Much of the run was bony and woody torture, but Stairway to Heaven was nice indeed. Here is a shoddy low-res video of Ryan firing it up. (I forgot to up the default video resolution when I got my insurance replacement handset.)

higher-resolution Truss video

I've uploaded my Green Truss videos to Vimeo, which means they're much higher quality.

better footage from sunday's truss run

Erik Weiseth was kind enough to bring CDs to Pint Night with high-resolution video of the Truss from weekend before last. I uploaded them to Google video, before I saw how much better they look on Vimeo:

me on Big Brother (the goods start at 00:24, when I leave the eddy):


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me on Double Drop (should have paddled forward right instead of back left after the first drop):


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japanese guy's backyard practices on youtube

This guy is fo sho using video to improve his flatwater playboating skills, which are already quite good (see clip below). I wish I had a lake in my backyard. His YouTube channel has almost daily clips. What an animal!

with no further ado...

Well...it's been 7.5 months, 125 river days, and a no-portage personal first descent of the Green Truss since I started kayaking, and I have finally created a paddling journal (this blog). Here's video of that Truss run, with me (red boat, blue top, black helmet) appearing at 0:17 and 2:07:


I'll be trying to document my exploits here for the benefit of friends, family, and my ego. ;)