liquid-addiction

Beginner Kettle Run

2011-08-08T20:59:00.003-05:00

Rachel, Barb, Lisa, and Kim all got their first whitewater runs in on a steaming hot day on the Kettle! Nick was along for his first run of the year, but looked like he’d been at it all season. Amy and I were there to help guide them all down the river at about 460 cfs.

Because of the state shutdown, we had to start about 1.4 miles above the normal put-in at the Highway 23 bridge. This gave us a great warm-up and a chance to learn some final skills before jumping into the whitewater.

When we did arrive at Banning, we took out, scouted Shoulder Hole and had lunch. The bugs were vicious and we looked more like a bunch of pox victims than paddlers by the time we got back in the boats. That didn’t slow anyone down, though.

From there, we put in and the newbies got their first taste of whitewater bumping down through Shoulder Hole. Everyone aced it! From there, it was off to the races. The waves in Teachers and the rocks in Mother’s delight each claimed one swim, but other than that the newbies absolutely owned the river.

The highlight of the day for a few of the newbies was the seal launch off of a cliff into the river. At this low water, the fall was probably close to 15’, so it was definitely exciting! Not a bad way to jump start a paddling career!

By the end of the day, we were all bug-bitten and tired, but definitely left the river as successful whitewater paddlers!

Wolf Video

2011-06-02T09:29:00.000-05:00

Here's the video from the trip down Section IV...

Peshtigo and Wolf

2011-05-15T16:54:00.004-05:00

What do you get when you mix 8 good paddlers, 3 warm and sunny days, and some great whitewater? A ton of fun.

That was exactly the situation May 6-8 in Northeast Wisconsin. For those who haven’t been there, it’s a beautiful area with several fun class II-IV whitewater rivers set in white pine forest. It’s where I spent much of my early paddling days, and going back always feels a bit like going home.

Bill K, Brian J, Nora, Amy, Mike T, James I, and I all played hookie from work and drove out Friday morning. Amy and I arrived at Bear Paw in the early afternoon and shortly afterwards James and Mike arrived. Nora, Bill, and Brian had all arrived earlier and were out on the mountain bike trails in the area. Once they returned, we all headed out to the Peshtigo.

Peshtigo

The Peshtigo is about 40 minutes from Bear Paw and has some the most continuous whitewater in the Upper Midwest. There’s a bit of a paddle from the put in, but then the fun is on for the next couple of miles. It was around 700 cfs (8” on the bridge) for our trip.

The first three rapids (creatively named First, Second, and Third Drop) are packed close together and include a big side curling wave feeding a hole in the middle and several river-wide ledges that had to be punched. Our group tried various lines through and around the features, and everyone styled it.

On Five-Foot Falls Bill led us through a sloping river-left line with 3 consecutive holes at the bottom. It was a fun route I hadn’t tried before and everyone made it through, though me and one other paddler got flipped in the final hole.

The final rapid on the Pesh was Horse Race, which is a long, curving rapid with a fun and chaotic final slope to it. I had Amy follow me down and she absolutely nailed her line. Everybody else picked their way down, taking a couple different variations of the same line. Great rapid, great fun, no flips.

Wolf, Section IV

Section IV is one of my favorite runs in the Midwest. It’s a long, its got a lot of flatwater on it, and you have to pay to run it, but those downsides are more than made up for by the beautiful scenery and fun, unique rapids.

There are 6 main rapids on the run and 5 or 6 more minor ones. The entire run is within an Indian Reservation, and the Menominee have kept the shorelines almost completely natural. There are no houses, no docks, and almost no man-made structures at all. Instead, it’s white pines, leafy trees that turn beautiful colors in the fall, and lots of wildlife. The only exception is the rafts. If you go between Memorial Day and Labor Day, it’s generally jammed with rafts. If you go outside of those times, though, you can pretty much have the river to yourself.

Each of the main rapids is unique from the others, and each changes significantly with different levels. When we ran it, the level was just under 700 cfs. That level opened up some different lines in Upper Ducksnest and both the Upper and Lower Dells. The line we ran through The Upper Dells involved riding the top of a barreling side-curler into a large, chaotic hole. The left line through the Lower Dells was looking very sketchy, but the far right was good and there was an easy line down the middle from left to right. There were also a few awesome surf waves in the canyon.

The biggest difference was Big Smokey Falls, which was about 4 times wider than it usually is in the fall. Instead of a narrow slip-n-slide lead in, it was more like a normal rapid with holes, waves, and side-curlers leading toward the falls. There was a bit of a hole at the bottom of the falls, and those that didn’t boof generally got flipped, but spit back out relatively quickly.

On the whole, it was a great trip. I’m already looking forward to the Fall Colors trip!

Section III

On Sunday most of us had to get back to teach at the intro night for Canoe U, so we opted for a quick run down Section 3 of the Wolf. The level was high enough to let us shoot right through the boulder gardens.

Boy Scout was a fun dodge and eddy fest with about a million possible lines and good river-running fun. Hanson’s had good surf at both the upper and lower tiers. There was also an audience of several fisherman on the rocks on river right.

Gilmore’s had several good, lively surf spots in store for us. It was at just the right level that you could wash off of one feature and right onto the next most of the way down the rapid. The surfs were mostly fun, bouncy pinball fests and it was a great way to end the run.

Cold, wet, and fun weekend!

2011-05-03T21:32:00.000-05:00

What do you do when it’s about 40 degrees, windy, and rainy? Lots, actually. The weather last weekend definitely left something to be desired, but it didn’t stop the fun!

Saturday morning began with the Get in Gear 5k race. It was the first time I’ve ever run a race in raincoat, but Kim and I and a couple of other friends managed to have a great time and get some much needed exercise. Saturday night was a pretty awesome birthday party, so Happy Birthday Ben!

Sunday is where the real action started, with a trip up to the North Shore. The Kettle River Paddlefest was going on in Sandstone, but neither the freestyle competition in full winter gear nor the downriver race against a 25mph headwind was all that appealing.

Instead, a whole bunch of paddlers headed up to the North Shore of Lake Superior to hit the creeks. The recent rain and snow had run right off of the saturated ground, so the creeks were flowing!

There was a large group that was doing laps on the Lester, and it sounded like they had a great time. Nora, John J, and I decided to head up to the French instead to see what it was like at a medium-low level. For John and I, this was our first time running that river.

We weren’t disappointed. Even though the water was low, the French had lots of little ledges on it combined with a few big slides. We definitely donated some plastic to the rocks, but there was plenty of water to have fun.

All three of us had cameras, so there are no shortage of pics. These are just mine – the others have better ones, but I haven’t been able to get them yet. I’ve also included one video here, but there will be more to come from Nora’s helmet cam when I get around to editing them.

Verm Weekends

2011-04-25T22:46:00.000-05:00

Well, the old Vermillion has surprised me again. After missing out on the two prime weekends on the North Shore, the shallow class II-III river seemed like a pretty meager substitute, but it turned out to still have one more trick up its wet, chilly sleeve.

I went out for an afternoon run with Bill and Bob mostly just to get on some water and catch up with a couple of guys I hadn’t paddled with in quite a while. I was having some knee problems that made it difficult to get into the playboat, so I was down there in a creeker. It was a nice day with great company, but I still didn’t feel the excitement that paddling always brings.

Last weekend, a whole group of paddlers went down for a run, and this time I was able to get in the playboat. We had a blast. There were paddlers I’d known for years, some I’d only met once or twice, and even a couple people that were totally new to me.

Graeme, who is the only person I know to paddle the same model boat for as long as I have, finally got a new one! It was great watching him put it through its paces. There were also some people that were still getting their feel for some of the features, so there was plenty of new-ness to go around.

The water level was good (about 165), the energy was great, and we ripped up every feature on the river in a way that I haven’t done for probably close to two years.

So, now that my stoke has been refueled by some great paddling companions, I’m looking forward to some upcoming trips! Wisconsin, Canoe U, and (hopefully) another trip out to Colorado are all in the cards for the coming weeks, so it should be awesome!

SYOTR

Polar Plunge!

2011-03-14T22:25:00.006-05:00

Wow, the 2011 polar plunge was a huge success! People donated over $2100 to Special Olympics for us to jump into a hole in the ice in Lake Calhoun. It was definitely cold, but also definitely worth it.

This was my fifth Plunge, and every time has been a day of awesome energy and crazy fun. This year was no exception, with 9 other Plungers in our group. We met up for breakfast and a little liquid courage in Uptown, then headed on the shuttle over to the lake. At the lake is always a crazy and fun scene. There’s music, all kinds of crazy costumes, hot tubs, and of course one big hole in the lake. The best part of the whole thing is the energy that comes from a couple thousand people all soaking up the fact that they’re about to do something crazy! Our theme was W-W-W-Where’s W-W-W-Waldo, so be sure to look for Derek (aka Waldo) peeking out in the pictures!

We had a ton of fun, but that really is balanced by how much good the money will do with Special Olympics. We really can’t thank those who donated enough!

First Verm!

2011-03-13T13:56:00.002-05:00

I finally made it down to the Vermillion for the first time in 2011. For the first time in a long time I wasn’t part of the ice-breaking crew that made the actual first run of the year, but it was pretty chilly all the same.

The temp was about 17 degrees when we put on, and there was a stiff wind that added a nice bite to it. Nora, Amy, and I were all bundled up under our dry suits, though, so once we started walking/climbing/slipping our way towards the put-in we were fine.

This was Amy’s first winter paddling experience, and the ice ledges and frozen gear didn’t slow her down a bit. She did great, even practicing surfing down in Donut!

It was also Nora’s first descent in her new Big Dog kayak that she won in a nation-wide contest. Though she was still working on getting the outfitting set, it sounded like the boat performed well overall.

As for the river, the level was probably only about 75cfs, but it was running winter-fast, so there was fun play at both Railroad and Donut. Mostly, though, it was just nice to back on the water with friends. Looking forward to a new season!

Krabi and Ao Nang

2011-02-16T20:40:00.003-06:00

From Koh Tao, Kim and I headed across the narrow strip of southern Thailand to the Andaman coast. The combination of a 6.5 hour ferry ride and 2.5 hour bus ride meant we arrived just about sunset on the first evening.

This area’s known for beaches, gorgeous cliffs, impossibly steep mountains, and more tourists than you can count. It lived up to all of those. The weather here is hot – really hot. The weather on the rest of the trip has been great – warm, but not uncomfortable. This was the sweating-in-the-shade kind of hot.

Overall we were impressed with the landscape of the area. The steep mountains and sheer cliffs combined with beautiful beaches to make unique and absolutely gorgeous views. The only problem was that it was a bit too crowded and touristy for our liking. We made a rough guess that tourists outnumber locals about 1,000 to 1, and that 1 local is working at a hotel, restaurant, or tourist shop.

The main reason we came was to do some sea kayaking along the limestone cliffs that make the area famous. We made it onto a tour that took us along the huge limestone cliffs with caves reaching back from the water. We squeezed through a tight canyon with huge palms hanging off of pockets in the cliffs and monkey s following us in the trees. Our tour came out in a lengthy mangrove swamp where we paddled between the crazy tangle of roots standing above the surface of the water. The whole thing took a couple hours and was definitely worth coming over to Krabi for.

Koh Tao by Kim

2011-02-10T17:48:00.001-06:00

Hello! It’s Kim, guest blogging.

On Friday morning, we left Surat Thani on the Southern end of Thailand’s Gulf coast on a coach bus bound for the port. At the port, we caught a ferry that took us to Koh Tao via a couple other islands. The ferries were run by a company called Lomprayah; they were packed with people but nice, fast, and air conditioned in the cabin.

We arrived in Koh Tao late Friday afternoon and much to our delight, our dive operator’s site (Crystal Dive) was right next to the port. We got lucky and got a bungalow for three nights in a nice, brand new unit just a few doors down from the dive shop. As a break from our hectic past two three days, we got dinner at an Italian restaurant and then Thai back, shoulder and neck massages. They were great for only 300 baht, but man were they brutal! Our masseuses cracked both of our necks and I thought my head might snap off.

Saturday morning we grabbed breakfast and signed up for the afternoon dives through Crystal. This place is by-the-book to the extreme – they scrutinized our dive logs and certification cards and might have required a refresher course for both of us, but fortunately we were just shy of their 6 month cut-off from a last dive to require that. Whew – we’ve spent enough money on this trip!

After a quick lunch, we headed out on the boat which was full of mostly students either completing their open water or a more advanced certification. The dive master for our group of 3 “fun” (aka not participating in any course) divers was Richard, a young guy from England who only just obtained his open water certification last September and has logged over 200 dives since then. Having not dove since August, I felt a bit rushed by the operation as they were really quick about getting us geared up and off the boat. Both dives were great for seeing aquatic life – we saw two turtles! My ears hurt a lot on the second dive though.

For dinner, we went to a place called Safari and were surprised by how dead the town (called Mae Haad) feels at night. Where is everyone on a Saturday night? After heading to nearby Sairee Beach (the more tourist/party area) for a bucket of a vodka mixer and being the only people in the bar, we reasoned that the diving community must be early to bed and early to rise.

After Sunday’s breakfast, we again signed up for the afternoon’s fun dives and were again grouped with Richard, and two other men – one from Ireland and one from California. I wisely took some cold medicine to help my ears and employed Bryan’s suggestion of continually equalizing my ears on my descent and it helped immensely. Aside from a flooding problem with my mask which caused me to surface momentarily, it was a much better dive for me and I focused on staying horizontal, not using my hands, and enjoying the underwater sights! The second dive was to a drop called Twin Peaks which had some amazing angelfish, coral and stingrays.

We ate dinner at Dirty Nelly’s the island’s obligatory Irish bar (again, it was completely dead) and ran into Andrew, our dive group member from Ireland.

All in all, Koh Tao was a great place to visit and is definitely THE place to go in Thailand if you want to scuba dive. Lonely Planet says it is the number one place in the world for issuing scuba certifications. It’s a shame we don’t have one more day to dive. Perhaps Krabi will offer something…

Chiang Mai

2011-02-07T07:54:00.003-06:00

We flew into Chiang Mai, which is in the most mountainous region of the country. The weather’s a couple degrees cooler than Bangkok, the pace of life is just a little slower, and there’s a great mountain backdrop to the city.

Cooking Class

When we checked into our hotel, we pretty much just dropped our bags then immediately set off for our Thai cooking class. The teacher’s husband picked us up in his pickup truck, which we road in the bed of. We stopped to pick up other people from the Netherlands, Columbia, and the UK. They wound up being a great group and made the evening alot more fun.

Our instructor was Vannee, a short, fiesty lady with a great sense of humor. In between instructions and tips we were treated to good-natured barbs at her husband and comments about what we were doing.

Once again we were able to choose dishes from a menu. I made pad Thai noodles, massaman curry, sweet and sour chicken and fried bananas; Kim made fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, green curry, and spicy flat noodles. This time we ate each course as we prepared it. The food was awesome and she gave us each a recipe book with complete recipes for everything that was on the menu. Look for Kim and I to host a Thai/Cambodian food night soon!

By the time we finished cooking and eating it was near 11:00. We were stuffed and tired, so we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

DAY 2:

Bamboo Rafting

We got picked up at 8am to start a day of adventure in the hills outside of town. We started off by climbing aboard bamboo rafts that were about 20 feet long and 4 feet wide. They were made of long bamboo poles lashed together and came with a local guy at the front with a long push stick to steer.

We travelled down a narrow, windy river with beautiful scenery and class 1-2 rapids. We were riding standing up, with nothing at all to hold onto, and on bamboo poles that flexed under your feet so you rarely had stable footing. It was great! There were four tourists per raft and it was sort of a cross between surfing and being in a conga line. Shifts of balance and shouts of “wooooo-Ahh-WO!” were nearly constant as the raft navigated the turns and obstacles. It was a totally unique experience and a lot of fun!

Elephant Ride

The raft ride ended at a little suspension foot bridge. When we walked up from the bank, a family of Elephants were waiting for us, munching on Palm leaves. There were two adults and a baby, who carefully picked up a hose and brought it to me in his trunk so I could give him a spray.

Before I had the chance, though, our guide was rounding up the group. Up from the river bank came 5 or 6 more elephants, and these were already outfitted with seats on top for riders. To get on them, we had to climb up to the second story of a small building that was there and board from the deck. Really surreal to be up that high to get on something…

The ride took about 45 minutes and wound through the forest, crossing a couple of small streams and zig-zagging up and down the hills. The elephants were allowed to roam off the path a bit, which they frequently did to grab some leaves to chew on or just to take a different route. Ours was pretty docile, as her baby was walking with us. At one point she even stopped for a couple minutes so he could drink her milk.

The ride was an awesome experience and I have a whole new respect for how smart and social elephants are.

Waterfall Trek

Our final adventure of the day was a “jungle waterfall trek” that turned out to be a short (1 mile?) walk down an unpaved road through the forest with a nice 30 foot waterfall at the end.

The falls was beautiful, coming off of domed rock so that the top 3rd was a steadily increasing slope and the bottom was vertical. I hiked up the side to find that there’s another little waterfall and pool at the top. The whole thing might be runnable, though there’s a layer of rock running diagonally across right above the vertical part. If you could keep from having the boat damaged as you cross that, I think it’d be a real fun ride.

We had the option to swim in the pool, but the air temp was still fairly cool and no one felt inspired to try it out. Afterwards we drove 1+ hours back to town, had dinner, and called it a night.

Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

2011-02-03T00:13:00.003-06:00

Cambodia has been the biggest surprise of the trip so far! Siem Reap, which I had pretty low expectations for, is fantastic! The city itself is pretty modern, with lots of parks and open space, including nice greenway-style landscapes all along the rivers. Prices are reasonable, US Dollars are the preferred currency, people are very friendly, and the pace of life is generally just slower than in Thailand. What surprised me most, though, was the very large and vibrant tourist area of town.

Pub Street:

Around the area called “Pub Street” it’s like a mashup of Bangkok, Cancun, and Paris, if that makes any sense. It’s got tight, narrow streets and alleyways lined with great restaurants and bars from around the world (local Khmer places, Irish pubs, Mexican restaurants, etc). The area also a ton of massage places and cooking schools. With every place having sidewalk and/or balcony seating, it’s a perfect spot to sit, enjoy the beautiful weather, and have a drink.

When we arrived, Kim and I wandered around a bit, reserved a cooking class for tomorrow, had a snack, then went and got massages.

The massages were not your typical American style massage. Instead of using oil and rubbing/kneading the muscles, it was a combination of stretches and pressures that wound up feeling great. After an hour of that ($6 per person), Kim and I were feeling the best we had so far!

We topped the night off with a meal of Khmer curry and soup at the Kmher House restaurant. The food was delicious – flavorful, sweet, lots of fresh veggies, and just the right amount of spice. Funny moment, though, when Kim learned to beware of carrots! Sh e ate what she thought was a mini carrot out of the soup. Turns out it was an extremely hot pepper. I discovered this as I watched her face turn bright red, start sweating. and her eyes start watering like crazy. Turns out that little “carrot” was in there to add some flavor and spice to the soup, not to actually be eaten.

On a last Pub Street note, “Fish Foot Massage” is everywhere. Every block has a big tank with a padded bench around it. The idea is that the fish come and eat the dead skin off your feet, and that it’s supposed to feel good. To me, it felt a combination of severely ticklish and just plain weird. I was squirming around like a little kid through most of it. Kim had no such problems, however, and appeared to enjoy both the “massage” and my anguish thoroughly.

Angkor Wat

The ruins at Angkor Wat are a world heritage site and were what drew us to the area in the first place. Though there is the Angkor Wat temple itself, there’s also a larger set of other temples scattered throughout the area.

We mistakenly (in hindsight) visited Angkor Wat and only Angkor Wat. I say mistakenly because it was expensive ($20/day plus a supersized tuk-tuk fee), not that much more impressive than the surrounding ruins, and can be seen from the road without paying for entry. The surrounding sites are free and offer a similar experience.

As for Angkor Wat itself, the ruins were built in the 11th and 12th century out of sandstone. The upside to the soft rock is that it allowed for the absolutely beautiful relief carvings covering almost every inch of everything. The downside is that the soft rock doesn’t hold up well over time, so the ruins are in somewhat rough shape. There are numerous UNESCO restoration projects on various parts of the site to help bring it back to its former glory.

Because of the high admission price, it seems they have a problem with people selling second-hand tickets, so now they put your photo right on the ticket. If you’re caught at the ruins without a ticket, it’s a $100 fine.

The day was made more expensive courtesy of my inability to do simple math. As we were walking into the Wat, we were swarmed by the usual peddlers selling everything from water to cowboy hats. One kid, however, was selling guide books. There were no guides around, and not much for information posted around the site, so this didn’t seem like a bad idea. The price of the book that was printed by the UPC was $27.98. I managed to talk the kid down to $4, which had me thinking pretty highly of myself. After he agreed to the price, he asked if I could pay in Thai Baht, rather than dollars. This was fine, as I still had a bunch of it. The problem was that I confused the conversion rate of Baht and handed him a 1,000 baht ($32) note, thinking I was giving him $3.20 and started walking away. I have a feeling this happens to lots of people and was why the kid asked for Baht. About ten steps later I realized my mistake, but the kid had wisely vanished. So, I now have a very expensive guide book if anyone wants to borrow it.

Cooking Class

The next day, Kim and I rented bikes and went back to town to explore more. We checked out the markets and more around pub street before the beginning of our lesson in local Khmer cooking. The class was a ton of fun spread out over about 4 hours. We started by choosing the dishes we wanted to make, then headed over to the local market, where we got a good explanation of what all of the ingredients we would use are and how to pick them out. After that, we headed back to the restaurant, whose open-air top floor is setup as a mini cooking school.

The class consisted of an instructor, Kim and I, and a very friendly couple from the Baltic region. I made chicken Amok (traditional Khmer dish) with a mango salad and Kim made spring rolls and green curry. We also made sweet sticky rice with Mangos for dessert. As a garnish, we leaned how to make roses out of tomato peelings!

The class went great and we wound up with more food than 10 people could eat. It was all delicious, but we wound up giving a bunch of it to the other couple in our group who had a fridge and microwave.

I got to drive a Tuk-Tuk!

After cooking, we found Mr. Happy. Nope, not kidding. He’s a tuk-tuk driver that speaks excellent English and has a demeanor to match his name. He’ll take you pretty much anywhere you want to go from countryside tours and temples to shooting ranges, all with a big grin and plenty of shenanigans along the way. If you’re in Siem Reap, definitely recommend him!

We decided to take a countryside tour to see some other wats and check out what the area looked like outside of the city. It was a great ride and that was how we came to realize that we’d have been better off just exploring other ruins and skipping Angkor Wat itself.

Along the way, two interesting things happened. First, we decided to check out the shooting range. This was definitely a unique adventure, where you get to shoot your choice of military weaponry in a cinderblock tunnel. We figured that we’d never get a chance to try something like this again, so why not? The guns are all old (Vietnam or Khmer Rouge leftovers) and in less-than perfect condition, but it was pretty cool anyway. We got to try shooting a 7.62mm K-50 automatic rifle, which is amazing in that it has absolutely no recoil. Kim and I went through 30 rounds shooting at some old tires in a brick enclosed area and decided that was good enough.

So, back to the tuk-tuk. We got about 1/3 of the way back to town, chattering with Mr. Happy all the way, when he looked over his shoulder and said “You want to drive?” I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. Sooooo, up to the front I went. In Cambodia, the tuk-tuks are different from Thailand. They are basically a normal motor scooter that tows a carriage instead of the one-piece Thai machines. I was a bit wobbly for the first hundred feet or so, but then got the hang of it and was soon happily zipping along at about 30mph. All of the locals we passed would instantly crack a

smile when they saw me driving with Mr. Happy and Kim riding along in the back.

Along the way we learned that Mr. Happy has a very interesting back story. In the mornings he works as an English teacher in a Siem Reap orphanage. He was an orphan himself when he was young and volunteers as a show of gratitude for those who taught him years ago. We wanted to visit the orphanage, but it was now getting pretty late. He offered to take us early in the morning, but we didn’t want to risk being late for our flight out. We wound up donating a 50kg sack of rice to the orphanage instead, which we went and bought from a local market.

Bangkok

2011-02-01T09:46:00.001-06:00

Bangkok was everything that we were told – frenzied and crowded, but packed with cool things to see, do, and eat. From the dozens of temples and statues covered in gold to the smells of fish at the markets, there was always something to check out.

Our hotel (th e Erawan House) was located in a sort of “Old Bangkok” with incredibly crowded, narrow streets and people everywhere. It’s also right next to Khao San Road and near most of the other tourist attractions. This wound up being a great spot to stay because everything we wanted to see and do was within a short walk/tuk-tuk/water taxi ride.

Another thing that is everywhere is people peddling stuff. They kind of take it to a new level here, though, going so far as to wear official-looking uniforms with fake (but very convincing) credentials around their necks or planting “random” people to seem like their giving you helpful advice from a stranger, not a vendor. As an example, when we tried to tour the Grand Palace, there were uniformed people with credentials around their neck stationed right next to the military guards at the entrance who would tell you that for some reason you can’t go in right now. The reasons tend to be 1) that you can’t get in with shorts on (which is true, though the palace has pants/skirts to borrow for free once you get in) or 2) that there is some kind of “Buddhist Ceremony” occurring at that moment (there isn’t). Instead, the official-looking individual will suggest you visit a nearby attraction instead and return later. They then helpfully find a taxi or tuk-tuk to take you there. The scam is that the taxi/tuk-tuk will inevitably stop at places you don’t want to go in order to try to get you to buy stuff you don’t want before taking you to the other attraction. At one point, we had 3 people (an “official” at the Grand Palace, a driver, and a “coincidental stranger”) all working together (even though they were all in different locations) to get us to go to a particular travel agency. They are very good at doing it subtly and it’s surprisingly convincing. The bottom line that we discovered is to believe printed signs that you see, and absolutely nothing else.

But enough about the cons. The Grand Palace (once we did get in) was definitely something to see. It was filled with different temples and buildings that have every inch of them covered with gold, statues, and multi-colored tiles. It really is a sight to see and worth elbowing the “officials” outside out of your way for.

We also got to see the Reclining Buddha, which is sheer size is amazing. It’s probably over a hundred feet long and sits alone in its own building. The statue itself is gold, and the bottom of the Buddha’s feet are black stone inlaid with Mother of Pearl designs. It’s pretty impressive.

The river boats are also something to see. There is the cheap (50 cents) but crowded water taxi service that is a good way to avoid the traffic of Bangkok streets, but there are also the faster long-tailed speedboats that give 1 and 2-hour tours of the city from the river. These long-tails are about 2 feet wide and 20 or so feet long. In the back is a large car engine just sitting on top of a mount, completely uncovered. The engine has a long control tiller in the front for the operator and a 10’ shaft at a shallow angle off the back. At the end of the shaft, just barely below the surface, is the prop. When these things are revved up, they make a big rooster tail off the back of the boat.

The food has been fantastic. We visited a couple different markets and restaurants and really haven’t had a bad meal yet. Curry dishes, pad thai, veggie dishes, and even banana french toast have all been great. One funny thing is that many of the restaurants around our hotel have the same menu. Not just the same items, the exact same menu. The only difference is the name on the cover.

Kim and I also got foot massages on Khao San Road. Now, Kim does pedicures and stuff as often as most girls do, but I’ve never had anything done to my feet by anyone. Aside from a quick scrub in the shower, I don’t even really touch my feet, so this was more than a bit strange to me. I think spent about 2/3 of time twitching and convulsing from being tickled, but the lady doing the massage managed to keep from laughing at me too hard. When it was over my feet did feel pretty good, but I think in the future I’ll stick to the head-neck-back massages.

Our final “attraction” before heading out to Cambodia was something that I’m pretty sure only civil engineers and their spouses would ever do. We took a 30-minute taxi ride to check out the subway system and the sky train. Now, don’t get me wrong, they were both very nice and it was cool to get to see the more modern part of town (including a free, outdoor boy band concert), but I was sort of chuckling to myself the whole while as we explored and photographed Bangkok’s transit system so Kim could give a presentation on it when she gets back to work.

So, that was pretty much Bangkok. Crazy, hectic, exciting, and infinitely interesting. It was a unique and very cool experience. Now, off to Cambodia!

Honeymoon!

2011-01-29T07:23:00.002-06:00

And we''re off!

The huge, white 747 that was waiting for us at the airport was a very happy sight. After months of waiting, Kim and I were finally setting off for our Honeymoon! We owe a huge thanks to all of our family and friends that contributed to our Honeymoon Registry and to Peter and Kathi, who were kind enough to give us two Buddy Passes for Delta Airlines. Without all of that help, there is no way this trip would be possible for us. The plan is to see a lot of Thailand and a small part of Cambodia, along with two days visiting Peter and Kathi in Tokyo on our way home.

So, off we go on the 747.

MSP-Tokyo: We got Business class seats! Thanks to Peter and Kathi's passes, we get an automatic upgrade to Business class when seats are available. It's pretty darn amazing. Kim and I are like little kids up here playing with the 10-button seat controls, the complimentary slippers, and all of the other toys they gave us for the flight. As awesome as those toys are, though, they're nothing compared to the food! Dinner would have held its own against any upscale restaurant meal I've ever had. The biggest problem now is trying to get comfy after eating till it hurts. Definitely could be worse! In between playing with the gadgets and eating, I managed to start reading Into the Wild, finally got to see Avatar, and even got some work done! Kim watches some movies and then is lucky enough to be able to catch some sleep.

Tokyo-Singapore: After a short layover in Narita (Tokyo) airport, I'm excited to see more of Tokyo on the way home. We got glimpses of all kinds of little unique products and customs that make me think getting out in the city should be a blast! But, that will be for another day, as we get back in the air for the next leg of the trip. This time we're in coach, but that's fine with us. We're both still full from the first flight and ready to try to get some sleep.

We arrive in Singapore around midnight, and spend the night in an in-airport hotel that rents rooms in 6-hour increments. This is perfect for us, as our next flight leaves 7 hours after we land.

Singapore-Bangkok: 4:45am comes awfully early when you get in bed at midnight. But, it also gives us a chance for a quick shower before heading to our first regional flight of the trip. We're taking Tiger Air up to Bangkok and we should arrive before 9am. This should give us the whole day to start exploring the city and help get us acclimated to the time zone. To give you an idea of the time change we're working with, we left home at 1:15 on Wednesday and we're arriving in Bangkok at 8:40am on Friday. All told, it was about 33 hours from the time we left our house to the time we arrived in Bangkok. Whew!

Baptism!

2010-11-02T16:07:00.013-05:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything! It was an amazing summer, with too much going on to even bother trying to sum up. Of all the great things, though, the best was when my beautiful girlfriend of nearly 5 years and I said "I do" on a gorgeous fall day in October. When we get all the pics back, there will be a post, but for now, here's something that I do have some pics of:

The huge storms that rocked the entire state sent the Kettle River soaring to over 9,000 CFS and the North Shore creeks into flood. Luckily, the rain fell on a Tuesday, so by Saturday the Baptism gauge was lookin' good!

We spent the night in Two Harbors, then met Dan, Dave, Andy and for the run Saturday morning. Joi and her husband were nice enough to come along as drivers and photographers for us. The new gauge for the river said 12.7', which was supposed to correlate to 2.7' on the old gauge. That would be a nice, moderate level and keep the river at mostly manageable class IV run. More importantly, it would give me my first shot at running 35' Illgen falls.

We didn't have to get far down the river, however, to find out that the correlation is not very accurate. The river was definitely higher than 2.7, making everything bigger, faster, and pushier.

Confinement Canyon had some nice big waves and a big pourover towards the end of it that forced the boater to make a very quick S-turn to avoid getting sucked into the hole. It looked like a good boof would have allowed a kayak to fly right over the hole, but I was too rusty to give it a shot. That rapid went fine, though there was a scary moment when Dave got his leg caught in the rigging of OC-1 and was getting swirly-ed by an eddy. He made it out, though, and we continued on.

There was lots of class II-III boogey water until we made it to Kramer's choice, where the river is split around a car-sized rock in the middle. At this level, the flow funnels right into a very large wave/hole about 5 feet upstream from the rock. With the water moving extremely fast and so little room to maneuver, we decided to walk it.

Just downstream was Gustafson Falls, where the river falls over several big rocks into a hole in the middle. We hiked down and took a look, then Dan gave it a go in his canoe. He had a great line right down a tongue through the rocks, then his OC-1 floated over the hole like it was no big deal. It was pretty fun to watch. There was a kayak line along the river left, but nobody was feeling ambitious enough to bring down the boat and give it a shot. In hindsight, I would have liked to have run it, but at the time it seemed smarter to move on downstream.

After more class II-III, we came to Illgen Falls. It was a beautiful, thundering sight to behold. At that level, the entire pool is filled with the boiling, churning outwash. The force of the water looked strong enough to just about rip a boater in half if they wound up in the curtain. Since none of us had ever run it before, we decided it was a bit crazy to try at this level. I've since heard that the super-aerated boils make the drop boof-able at that level, but that's a big chance to take for a first try. I definitely want to run it, but I'm willing to wait for a level that I can tuck and huck.

After seeing the river level, we decided that the lower sections would be lots of portaging for very little paddling and so we called it a day. Despite the short day, it was a really great experience. The scenery was gorgeous, I got to put the boat on a new river, and I got to paddle with a great group of friends. I had a smile on my face all the way home.

Crazy Times

2010-08-17T21:31:00.006-05:00

The last 10 days or so have seen some crazy weather and some crazy water. Getting major thunderstorms every couple days around the metro has pushed the Verm to levels that have not been seen in the 10 years that I've been kayaking. It peaked a couple of days ago at over 1,200 cfs. If you're not familiar, the normal level for this time is less than 60 cfs. And of course, I don't have the helmet cam anymore.

I had the rare pleasure of paddling it last Friday at around 700cfs and found it to be a high-speed ride through some pretty crazy stuff. I had paddled it at a similar level many years ago when I was just a newbie and it had scared the living daylights out of me. This time around, it was fun to just marvel at the speed the water carries you as you try to dodge the nasty spots.

Speaking of nasty spots, there are two to be avoided at that level. Railroad is big and powerful, but can be avoided on river right. I don't think it would hold you that long if you were caught in it, but it would be a wild ride. The trick with Railroad is that Triple is high-speed, large-scale chaos leading right up to it. Things happen so fast that if you get flipped or otherwise find yourself off-line, you may find yourself in the maw of it before you even realize where you are.

The second, nastier feature is the ledge into Fisherman's. At this level and above it's a huge, extremely retentive hole that takes up the entire center section of the river. It can be snuck along the right or left shore, but only right along the shore. As was kindly demonstrated by a certain paddler on Friday, going into it leads to a very long and violent surf that I'm pretty sure is inescapable right side up.

Finally, the river at this level is generally lined with undercut walls. I mean they're literally everywhere. You don't notice them at normal levels because they're above your head, but now they're right at the surface and we saw boats and boaters get pulled under them. Luckily on the shallow ones, but something to be aware of.

I uploaded the only picture that I got that really shows anything useful. It's the railroad pool from the bridge. You'll notice the rock is nearly under and the downstream flow now spans the whole valley. A photo I tried to get but failed was the river flowing right over the ledge on river left after S-bend. You can paddle right off of it now. I also threw up a shot of the gauge just for fun.

This weekend's the Midwest Freestyle Championships, so we'll see how I do after being absent from the course all summer. At least I know it will be fun, even I bomb in the comp. Looking forward to it.

Diving Weekend

2010-08-08T20:03:00.006-05:00

I skipped Wausau again this weekend. As much fun as I have out there, I've felt drawn to other things more strongly this summer, and this weekend was no exception. Instead of the 3+ hour drive out there, I made a much shorter journey with Nick to Stillwater to dive in Square Lake.

Square Lake has a large area designed for divers, with 4 underwater platforms and various other things to discover like the tail section of a plane, a sunken canoe, some fish crates, and other fun things. The platforms even have different things on them, including the "scuba biffy" in case you've really gotta go.

The water was warm and the visibility wasn't too bad. We got to play with lots of panfish and a few largemouth bass, but over half of our time under was spent searching for one of two things. The first was a pair of Fossil sunglasses that was dropped by one of the swimmers above us. He gave us a pretty good idea of where they'd be, and it didn't take us too long to find them.

That's when the second item became lost. Apparently when I came up and took my mask off to tell the guy that I found his glasses, my helmet cam fell off. I had never worn it scuba diving, but figured it might be fun to try out. Since I wasn't wearing a helmet, I had it hooked to a head strap that came with it. We searched for a very long time, but never found it. I'll have to head out there again soon and try again, but for now it's gone. : (
It really sucks to lose, but on a lot of levels I was shocked that I was able to have it for so long without losing or breaking it. It suffered several kayaking rock blows, spent some time snow kiting, went snorkeling and more. If I can't find mine, I'm definitely getting another.

On a happier note, Kim also did some diving this weekend, although not with me. She did her classroom and pool training for her certification and it sounds like she had a great time. She'll do her open water dives later this month, then she'll be fully certified and ready for some diving!

Crazy, fun weekend!

2010-07-29T09:17:00.009-05:00

The first order of the weekend was the RedBull Flugtag on the Mississippi River in St. Paul. For those who don't know, it's a contest in which home made, human-powered flying machines get launched off a 30' high platform over water. Some flop, some drift down, and one flew. We got to see Major Trouble and the Dirty Dixies (the pic that looks like a WWII bomber) break the all-time world record with a flight of 207 feet. Luckily, it was well witnessed as the party down on the river was 90,000 people strong.

From Weekend

After Flugtag, Dennis and I headed down to the Verm for a fun evening run. The features seem to change every time I've been there this year, and this trip was no different. There was wave surfing in Triple Drop, fast and bouncy spins in Railroad, great blasts in S-turn, and a crazy day down in Donut.

To add to the fun, we ran into Mike L down there, who I hadn't seen since Sturgeon more than a year ago. He was ripping the hole up and it was great to see him again.

From Weekend

On Sunday, there was no time wasted getting back to the fun stuff. We headed out to Corcoran for the Muddy Sunday volleyball tournament. Yup, it's about like it sounds. Lots of mud with lots people diving around in it. Our team did well, coming 4th out of 40 teams. The problem is that by winning we had to keep playing - over 20 games in about 7 hours. By the end we were filthy and exhausted but had an awesome day. Definitely going back next year. These are the before and after pics, plus one of the tug-of-war contest.

From Weekend

2nd Annual Mississippi River Paddle

2010-06-28T09:12:00.008-05:00

1 big river, 5 Americans, 2 Irish visitors, a car accident, and an extremely ornery tugboat operator; those was the makings of the 2nd annual voyage through the locks on the Mississippi. Among the awesome group of boaters was Kim, who I'm convinced is becoming hooked on kayaking! Well, at least hooked on kayaking once a year on flatwater, but it's a start!

From Mississippi 2010

We put in at Boom Island on the North side of Minneapolis around 11am, but not before we had a small fender-bender while running the shuttle.

From Mississippi 2010

We had a couple first-time kayakers and even more first-time on the river kayakers. Within a couple minutes of leaving the island, though, everyone was gliding along past the downtown skyline like old pros.

We made it straight into the first two locks without even having to wait - it was reeeallly nice after having some delays last year. We even had a nice chat with the lock operator at the second one, who told us all about the lock and the new hydro plant they're installing next to it. Meanwhile there were Egrets fishing from the pools of water that form on the lock gate as the water drops.

From Mississippi 2010

From there it was several miles of scenic flatwater as we passed below the 35W bridge and past the U of M's Minneapolis campus. We stopped for a snack at about the halfway point, but were back on our way pretty quickly. We had awesome weather (86 degrees and partly cloudy) and we didn't want to waste it!

From Mississippi 2010

About a half mile before the Ford dam and lock, we noticed there was a barge some distance behind us. We were about 1/2 way between the lock and the barge. Judging by the distance to the lock and the distance from the barge, we knew that we could make it without interfering with his travels, so we just picked up our pace a bit and made it to the lock well ahead of him. The lock was closed and filling when we arrived, so we and the barge all had to wait for it to open. When it did, the barge entered and we waited for the next cycle. That didn't stop the barge driver, however, from yelling various curses at us for being in his way. This is still somewhat of a mystery to me, as he had to change neither course nor speed for us and we did not delay him at all. But, he did manage to make himself look rather ridiculous as he threw his little tantrum from the top of his decending boat.

From Mississippi 2010

All obnoxious boat captains aside, we finished our voyage just downstream from the dam at Hidden Falls Park in about 4 hours. The Irish folks, unfortunately, finished the day with not only the experience of a day on the river, but a good dose of sunburn to remember it by. Everyone else came through unscathed, and I definitely think that this year counts as another great success. Here's to next year!

From Mississippi 2010

Continuum Weekend!

2010-06-07T18:16:00.004-05:00

From Continuum

We had an awesome and groundbreaking group for the Canoe U Continuum this year! They flew through all the skills we could teach them with time to spare. So, with the extra time, we decided to run them down sections that (to my knowledge at least) no Canoe U class has done before.

From Continuum

We spent both days practicing on the Lower Louey, using our normal stomping grounds above and below the 210 bridge to work on some skills. For the first time, though, we had students running over Tablesaw to start their runs off. Everyone did great, and even a boater that slid off kept his cool and dug his way out of the eddy jail on river left.

From Continuum

More significantly, though, was what we did downstream. Normally we do some work at Big Glassy and take out after that. With this group, however, we were able to actually run both First and Second Sister! First sister was particularly difficult at the low levels we had, but the students were charging it! Most people were taking the left line down and going for a boof over the hole. There were a couple flips but to my happy amazement those students just picked up their boats, took a second shot, and conquered it! It was great to see that level of enthusiasm and drive.

From Continuum

We walked Octopus and made our way to the bone yard where the students got a trial-by fire on choosing lines, technical maneuvering, and dealing with rock pins.

From Continuum

Finally, we scouted Swinging Bridge though the students decided to save that for another day. Something to look forward to! After a long weekend in which we pushed them hard, it was good to see that they weren't afraid to exercise judgment and make the call to save that one for later.

From Continuum

In all, it was a great weekend with awesome students. I've come to love Canoe U because the students have such awesome stoke that you can't help but catch it. It's a great shot of enthusiasm as your coming down off the spring boating high.

To all of the students - GREAT JOB! You guys are becoming really solid boaters and I hope to see you guys on the river this summer. And if you ever need someone to join you on a run, just let me know! Also, to see all of my pics from the weekend, click on the "My Web Albums" link on the right of this page open the Continuum one.

To Bob and Jeremiah - It's always awesome working with you guys. As the new kid on the block, I feel like I'm learning as much as the students. You've got me looking forward to next year!

From Continuum

Colorado Trip

2010-06-04T12:12:00.007-05:00

I know this is is a bit belated, but WOW what a trip! It was one of those weekends when you never knew what to expect, and there was a surprise around every corner. Water levels went from low to screaming high, we stumbled upon a paddling festival with tons of big names, ran into lots of friends from the midwest, and had tons of crazy moments on the water.

The group that went out was Caleb, Jade, Nora, and myself. Only Nora had ever paddled the Arkansas before, and that was at a much lower level. We had planned on paddling on our own, scouting what we needed to, but mostly just running-and-gunning the endless rapids. We also had some help from a couple former midwesterners who now live in CO with local beta that was priceless. To our surprise, however, we quickly found ourselves surrounded by even more friends including Jeremiah, Tina, Missy, Tommy G, and more.

We had a got a huge surprise from Mother Nature on our way out, as the spring thaw finally hit the Rockies. Apparently they had been getting snow until right before we came out, then that week the temps really climbed. The day we arrived the high was in the 90's and the low in the 70's, and that was at 8,000' (Buena Vista)! The temps stayed up and the mountains let loose. The Arkansas level was about 1100cfs when we left Minnesota. It was 2800 when we arrived in CO, and 3400 by Sunday.

The huge levels threw our plans pretty much out the Window. We traded the numbers and a possible Royal Gorge run in for the Fractions and Brown's Canyon. At those levels, we wound up with nearly endless wave trains (some as high as 10') with a few boulders and holes to dodge for good measure. It gave us plenty of fun without having to be too cautious or spend much time scouting.

The highlight was Brown's Canyon with Jeremiah acting as our guide. Big water, huge boat chase, and tons of fun. It's all detailed in an earlier post, so you can check out the details there.

We did the Fractions twice - once the first day and once on Monday. The Monday run was our quick Goodbye run before beginning the long drive. We did over 7 miles in the high flows (including one thorough shore scout) in just over an hour. It was a blast.

Here's a couple videos to check out: Mine is the first one and it's about 7 minutes long. Unfortunately Movie Maker and I had another battle over sound editing and I lost, so the soundtrack is a bit screwed up. The next two are parts 1 and 2 of Caleb's video. Each is about 10 minutes long, but they're much better edited than mine. Check 'em out!

Mine:

Caleb's (Part 1)

Caleb's (Part 2)

Colorado Trip - Brown's Canyon

2010-06-03T21:29:00.014-05:00

I'm still working on editing stuff, but here's the first video. It's from our Sunday paddle down Brown's Canyon with the Adreson's. It was huge at about 3200cfs and rediculously fun. It was probably the highlight of our trip with lots of gigantic features. Jeremiah, Missy, and Tina were awesome for bringing us along.

The huge water wasn't the only story that day, though. In the middle of the run we had a boater take a swim. The boater made it to shore quickly and without incident, but the boat headed downstream into one of the most challenging sections of the river.

After thinking "wow, that looks big down there - do I really want to dive into it blind?" I decided that yeah, I definitely did and peeled out of the eddy in pursuit.
I was immediately faced with a wave train that was large enough to allow multiple paddle strokes on the face of each wave. I'm thinking the first wave was close to 10'. The huge waves made for good scouting, though, and I was able to spot the empty boat ahead. I caught up and was able to flip the boat, but found there were no good eddys around. So, we kept floating downstream at an amazingly swift pace.

About now is when Jeremiah caught up with me (he was in his playboat). We struggle to get the boat, which was submarine-ing despite its floatbags, into the small eddys that we came upon. All the while, we tried to take turns watching downstream and calling pourovers and other hazards as we approached. As we worked our way down Widowmaker and the Steps, this teamwork saved our butts because it was impossible to wrangle the huge flooded boat and read the river at the same time. I swear the boat was intentionally fighting us, getting caught in every eddyline, bouncing the wrong way off every rock, and diving deep at every opportunity. I think the two of us got it at least partially into 3 eddys, but it refused to stay long enough to secure it.

Soon Jade and Caleb joined the effort and we started making real progress. All of us were now working together in what became the finest example of teamwork I can think of. We had people watching and calling the river ahead while others took turns using their momentum to coax the flooded boat where it needs to go. It still did its best to resist, and it required about 5 hand-of-god flips to keep it upright. We pushed, pulled, bulldozed, and towed it towards eddys. On one, we got it in and Jeremiah jumped out of his boat to secure it while we tried to hold it in. The boat subbed under the pushers once again, and headed back into the current like it was radio-controlled. Seriously - the Army could use that kind of evasive maneuvering equipment.

Jeremiah, now out of his boat, was running along the rocky bank trying to keep up and hopefully grab it the next time we got to shore. The remaining three of us kept at it and eventually Caleb was able to give it a final Herculean shove into an eddy where we pinned it down and got it out.

The total chase encompassed around 1.5 miles of continuous whitewater. We navigated huge waves, nasty holes, eddylines that would suck down a creek boat, and plenty of big rocks. I think it's the most physically exhausted I've been on a river. Unknown to us, however, the eddy we finally got it into was about 200 yards from the first calm stretch of river all day... That's luck for you. I got the first portion of the rescue on helmet cam, but then the battery died so I didn't include it in this video. Watch for scenes from it when I get the Blooper reel together, though.

For now, enjoy the video, and I'll post more as I finish them!

From Colorado May '10

Canoe U!

2010-05-23T22:00:00.005-05:00

Well, it's that time of year again! Like last year, Bobzilla and I taught the Novice Refresher course, but our students absolutely kicked butt, so we actually got a bit beyond what we had planned. We had 6 very strong boaters who weren't afraid to push their skills and try new things. I hope that they were able to feel as much improvement as we saw, because it was pretty impressive. As a bonus, we even had warm weather this year! Looking forward to the Colorado trip next weekend, then the Continuum class the weekend after!

New Friends, Old Favorites, and a Surprise BLT

2010-04-11T20:19:00.006-05:00

Early Saturday morning Caleb and I drove up to the Lower St. Louis for our first run of the year. It was just us in one vehicle, so we packed a bike along as our shuttle. When we pulled up to the put-in, however, we saw that the bike was definitely not going to be necessary. There were several boaters in the lot, and more that were already running shuttle for the Upper section.

Everyone was interested in running the Upper first, but Caleb and I didn't have time to do both. Luckily we met Todd (aka Metrix) in the lot and he was up for hitting the Lower with us. Todd turned out to be both a really nice guy and a great boater, so the trip was a blast.

The level was about 650cfs and we all managed to keep ourselves upright for the most part. The only flip was me getting lazy on the 210 drop and having to roll along the river-right side rocks.

The highlight of the day was Caleb making his first decent of Octopus - Congrats Caleb! All three of us took the right channel, down the curving slide at the bottom. I had almost forgotten how forceful the eddy fence at the top of the rapid is, but managed to just squeak by the rock downstream.

On the way home we got a bit of humor, too. Caleb and I stopped at the Hinckley Dairy Queen, where Caleb ordered a bacon Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, etc. We got the order to go and were back on the road. After the first bite, Caleb noticed something missing from his burger - the burger! Yup, they had put bacon, cheese, veggies, etc all on the bun, but forgot the actual burger. So, he had a surprise BLT for lunch instead.

Despite the food glitch, it was a really great day! Check out the helmet cam photos and footage in the video below!

Engagement Dive

2010-03-29T21:43:00.003-05:00

Here's the video from our dive trip in Jamaica. As you can imagine, I had some pretty un-ordinary requirements when I was trying to book the dive. I contacted 3 dive companies with my idea, and Everett from Resort Divers was the only one who said "No Problem, Mon." This turned out to be good fortune, because he and his staff were amazing. Friendly, patient, professional, and completely committed to making the dive awesome. I truly can't recommend them highly enough. I wanted a video of the dive, so Everett hooked us up with Steve from Video Vacations, who was also totally into making my plan work.

Everett and the dive instructor were already informed about what I wanted to happen, so while Kim was in the pool doing the Discover Scuba training, I had about an hour to fill the videographer in on the plan. This was key, because the videographer was the one who had the treasure chest and would have to hide it for us on the dive.

As you can see from the video, everything went great. I really could not have done it without the ideas, enthusiasm, and help of the dive crew. Also, I have to note that the quality of the actual video from Steve is great. I had to shorten it and shrink it significantly to make it YouTube-able. That's why the image quality is now low and the editing gets choppy in parts.

Big thanks to Everett, Steve, and everyone who helped with the dive. If you're in Jamaica, go with them!

Engagement Story

2010-03-25T22:48:00.004-05:00

I'm so proud and happy to say that Kim and I are engaged! As many who know us can attest, this engagement was a long time coming. That’s why I figured that I had to at least try to make the engagement worth the wait. So, here's what I came up with:

The Short Story: I kidnapped Kim and held her underwater until she said “yes.”

The Long Story:

Thursday, March 18th, 6am: Kim wakes up and I tell her that she'll have to cancel her hair appointment for Friday. She asks why, and I say that it's because I'm stealing her away for her birthday. She says that she has to ask for time off, and I say that I cleared it with her bosses weeks ago. She asks where we're going, I say Jamaica. Her birthday's 10 days away, but I just said that was supposed to add to the surprise factor.

Throughout the day I have assured Kim that I will NOT be proposing to her on the trip, and to just enjoy it for the birthday present that it is. I'm pretty sure she finally bought it. I start feeding her info about stuff to do and the resort we’re staying at in the hopes that it will be all she can think about… That night, we both pack quickly and try to get to bed early.

Friday, March 19th, 4:45am: My nephew, Neil, picks us up at our house. He'll take us to the airport, then watch the house and the cat while we're away. Big thanks to him - we really appreciate it.

I had the ring, the fake ring (to be explained below), and about 1 pound of lead pellets (again, see below) in a hidden compartment in my carry-on and was certain I’d have my bag searched. Fearing that Kim would hear or see something during the search, I knew I had to do something to prevent that. So, I called Jason, my oldest friend. Jason happens to be a big shot at the TSA and oversees security at MSP. I told him my plan, and he agreed to meet us at the security checkpoint at 5am so that he could distract Kim while I went through. Ironically her bag got searched, and not mine, but it was great to see J anyway. After that, we caught our 7am flight and headed to Jamaica!

We arrive at our hotel around 4pm. The hotel is huge and gorgeous. The weather is 86 degrees and sunny. Our room is a junior sweet with a jacuzzi and balcony right on the beach. Kim doesn’t get any time to enjoy the room, however, because I scheduled a massage for her at 4:30. This served two purposes: First, to give her a nice, relaxing start to the trip. Second, it got her away from the room so I could call our dive operator and go over the plans for the actual proposal.

That night we have dinner at the hotel, hang out by the pool, and walk by the beach. The next day is also relaxing, with some snorkeling, swimming, and sampling great Jerk cooking.

Sunday, March 21st, 9am: I had told Kim in advance that I was setting up a Scuba trip for us. The owner of the company, Everett, picked us up at our hotel and we drove a couple miles to where the boat was kept. Kim’s not certified yet, so she had to do a Discover Scuba course before we went for our dive. As luck would have it, we were the only two people going out that day, and there just happened to be a videographer waiting for us, too! I explained to Kim that photographers and videographers often go on dive trips, then try to sell you their footage afterward. She was a bit nervous about the dive, so she bought my story without too much thought.

While the dive instructor took her over to the pool for the class portion of her day, I started unpacking and explaining my plan to the videographer. I gave the videographer a small treasure chest that had been filled with a mixture of small lead pellets and epoxy. In the middle of the chest was a fake engagement ring standing up and clearly visible. To make sure the box would sink and stay put, I put just over a pound of lead in it. The videographer put this in the pocket of his vest, out of sight.

After Kim and the instructor came back, we all headed out to the boat like a normal dive. We reached the dive site after just a few minutes, and I was the first in. After me was the videographer, the instructor, then Kim. Once we were all in, we dropped down about 25’ to a bed of sea fans, corals, sponges, and fish.

Towards the end of the dive, I saw the videographer reaching into his pocket. At that point, I made sure Kim was not watching him, then watched where he put the box. Having worked all of this out in advance, the instructor then led Kim away from me and towards that spot. I dropped back and pulled a dive slate out of my own pocket, then snuck up to the Kim right as she was getting to the spot.

As she came up on a big, bright Barrel Sponge (looks like a neon barrel sitting upright on the reef), the instructor indicated that she should look inside. She did, and just happened to see a little treasure chest! She pulled it out and, with a bit of help, unlatched and opened it. She saw the ring and looked up at me. I held up the dive slate, which said “Will You Marry Me? “ Her eyes went wide, then she nodded “Yes!” and we were on our way to the surface.

When we got to the surface, Kim’s first words were “How did you do that?” Eventually I got an actual “yes,” too. We rode back to shore, where I did the proper one-knee proposal with the real ring and, thankfully, she still said “yes.”

We have the whole thing on video, but it’s currently too long for Youtube. When I find a way to rip and edit it, I’ll post. It’s pretty cool.

Polar Plunge 2010

2010-03-24T10:26:00.004-05:00

From Polar Plunge '10

I'm a little late getting this up, but definitely wanted to put it out there as a Thank You to all the people that donated to my pledge drive, and to our team's other pledge drives. Together we raised almost $1500.00 for Special Olympics!

From Polar Plunge '10

We had a beautiful day, with temps in 40's and warm sunshine. Unfortunately, that only made the water feel all that much colder! There's nothing that will take your breath away like going all-under in freezing water.

From Polar Plunge '10

It was a great day, we all had fun, and the Special Olympics got some much-needed support. Thanks again to all who donated!

Verm Video!

2010-03-18T20:46:00.002-05:00

Well, it took me awhile, and Windows Movie Maker has butchered it, but here's the video from the first Verm run of the year. The first few seconds are supposed to be choppy and fast-forward. After that, all of the weirdness is the Movie Maker program. Sorry.
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Season Opener on the Verm!

2010-03-14T22:51:00.007-05:00

Wow, what a day! In two weeks we went from cold and snow to sunny and 64 degrees! The ice finally cracked off the Verm, and Caleb, Dennis, Graeme, and I headed down to check out the first run of the year. The river gauge was still frozen, so we didn't know the cfs, but the gauge height was about 5.5 feet. Whatever the cfs, it was running high. Triple had some huge pyramid waves, railroad was steep, narrow, and kicking straight into the river left wall, and the rock in railroad pool stuck out of the water by 5" or so.

The upper portion of S-bend had two surfable waves, and the lower (normal) wave/hole looked like lots of fun. The only problem was it kicked directly up onto the rock shelves on River Left, so if you flipped while surfing you'd get quite a thumpin'.

None of us had ever seen Donut the way it was yesterday, which is impressive since between the 4 us we'd run it many hundreds of times at levels ranging from 35 cfs to over 800. It was a tall, narrow mound that was mostly green, but then there was a little side curler perched on top of it. It was like two features were stacked one on top of the other. Very strange, but fun to blast over.

Fisherman's had a couple large waves leading up to it, but the river-wide hole portion of it wasn't very sticky and was even greened out in parts. We ran hard left and walked right through it.

So, the run was high-speed, big waves, and lots of splashing. The ice shelves were mostly gone, but we still encountered logs and icebergs coming down. If you go, be careful. I had my helmet cam on, so look for that video in the next day or two for a 1st-person view of things. Also, thanks to Dennis who took the pics for us. Great job! Stay tuned...

Winter Update

2010-02-27T22:37:00.006-06:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've put anything up here. I swear, it's not because I haven't done anything fun. In fact, I've been having a great time in the last few months.

Kayaking season came to an end, but not until football season was in full swing. I was lucky enough to snag a seat to a Gopher game at the new stadium. The day was really cold, but the game was fun and the stadium was awesome.

My neighbor Rachel was kind enough to invite me to join her Broomball team this year. I hadn't played since college, so I was really looking forward to getting back on the ice! I definitely wasn't disappointed. The team was nothing but great folks and the competition was good every night. It really livened up the winter, and I hope to do it again next year!

New Year's Eve Kim left for 2 1/2 weeks in India, which looked and sounded amazing. So jealous! I started getting ready for a couple short trips of my own. I spent a couple days in San Diego attending and photographing Jocelyne and Alex's wedding - Congratulations guys! Then, Matt and I headed out to Colorado to meet up with Pete and hit the slopes. Pete was an awesome host, and we got three very full days of trees and powder at Copper Mountain and Mary Jane.

For Valentine's Day Kim and I tried a new experience - throwing clay at Fired Up Studios in Minneapolis. We did an introductory lesson and got to make 2 pieces each, the best of which were glazed and fired and now serve as food bowls for the cat. Really fun date idea and I highly recommend it.

After that we had an evening of culture at the Guthrie watching Kim's co-worker's son in MacBeth. The director put an interesting spin on the play and we had great seats.

Then, for the first time in two years, all the conditions were finally right for Kiting! Nora invited Caleb and I down to Lake Pepin to rip around in warm temps and steady winds. It was one of the best kiting day's I've had, and it felt great to be back out.

Caleb also had a heck of a day, going from a beginner working on getting moving to ripping around the lake as quick and easy as anyone out there. It was awesome to see him tear it up like that.

So, that's a quick glimpse of what I've been up to. Now that Spring's around the corner, stay tuned for all sorts of fun stuff!

Halloween Kettle Trip

2009-11-02T13:03:00.005-06:00

As if anyone needed further proof that snowflakes and wind make for great paddling weather, a great time was had by all on the Kettle River Saturday.

Mother nature decided to hand out both tricks and treats to us for our Halloween paddle. On the tricks side, it was barely above freezing with high winds and snow falling when we put on the river. On the treats side, however, we had good water levels, great company, and even a little sunshine before the trip was over.

Nora, Andy, Dave, Spot, and I arrived at the river in two groups, but were floating together by the time we hit Dragon's tooth. The level was about 3' on the bridge gauge (1400 cfs), which left us with not one, but two decent surf waves at Blueberry. If it was warmer, I think the 2nd wave would have been bouncy enough to try some blunts. The waves at the end of Dragon's tooth were also large and steep, and made for easy down-river wave wheels.

The kayakers also took advantage of the water running over Wolf Creek Falls in front of an audience of hikers. I had high hopes for getting a helmet-cam view of running the falls, but was foiled by the cold. Turns out rechargeable camera batteries don't last long in chilly weather and the camera died literally on the lip of the falls. Next time I'll bring some lithium ones.

Dead batteries aside, it was a great way to spend a chilly Haloween afternoon. Here's hoping the rains keep coming!

Black River

2009-09-28T09:49:00.005-05:00

Like a last-second touchdown pass that wins the game, the Black River became a great and challenging run after almost slipping into the realm of the mundane.

I hadn't been on the Black since 2003 and the times I had run it had been at very high spring flows. The dam provides water releases a few times a year, but I had never attended one. This past Saturday was a 1-day, variable flow release that would start at 400cfs and ramp up in stages, peaking at 1100 cfs before ramping back down.

The run begins just below the Hatfield dam. Most runs put in at a play wave about 400 yards downstream from the dam. From there down, it's a scenic class II-III river with a couple nice wave trains and a good stretch of flatwater.

Pike and I put on at the wave at 800cfs and were disappointed. It was small and not retentive. Front surfs were possible, but that was about it. We hung out until they pushed it up to 1100cfs, which improved the wave considerably. Still not an epic feature, but it was very surfable. After a few rides, we headed down through a couple of wave trains, slugged it across a mile or two of flatwater, and made it to the boulder gardens that lead to the takeout.

At this point, it had been a nice trip with great weather, but definitely not what I would call exciting. We loaded the boats into the truck and headed back to the put-in. By now, the level was down to 500, so we decided to take a look at the ledges that make up the 400 yards between the dam and the normal put-in. We picked up Matt along the way, who was looking for people to run the ledges with.

The ledges are steep and narrow, with lots of very sharp rock edges protruding everywhere. There's a river-wide hole at the top that looked both retentive and boney, and not at all fun to go into. It can, however, be run along the right or left walls without getting stuck in it. After that, you slide quickly through a couple head-high curlers before going over an 8' drop into a violent, but not sticky hole. That puts you into the middle pool.

From the pool, you head left over a couple of 4' drops and breaking curlers before going over another big pitch with a more powerful hole at the bottom. Luckily, the gradient has you moving fast enough that you can blow through it without getting hung up.

The hole section reminds me of the lower St. Louis in that it's Class III difficulty as long as you're on-line and upright. The consequences for going off-line or upside down make this one a Class IV section, in my opinion.

The ledges were definitely exciting and changed the mood of the whole day. It made the river a fantastic mix of fast-paced and mellow paddling all on one stretch. Big thanks to Pike for the videos, and to Matt for probing the run for us.

Lobster, fire, and lots of little states

2009-09-10T15:34:00.019-05:00

Big ones, little ones, male ones, female ones, cooked, and wild ones. Over the 6 days that Kim and I were in New England, we came in contact with just about every type of lobster known to man. It was great.

From New England Trip

I guess I'm a bit late getting this up, but I figure better late than never. A few weeks back Kim and I headed out to New England to visit Meaghan and Nick and see the sites. Neither of us had really explored much of New England, so this was a great opportunity. We went to Boston, Newport, Providence, Southern New Hampshire, and the Portland area in Maine.

From New England Trip

We started out in Boston, which I'd never been to before. We made our way around town pretty well, hitting most of the Freedom Trail, the financial district, the Harvard campus, and more. All, of course, while speaking with the heaviest Boston accents we could possibly produce. I don't think an "R" sound was heard that whole first day... To make our first night in Boston even better, we lucked out with a travel site deal at an amazingly high-end hotel right on the water in the financial district. It might be the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. Definitely beats the hostels!

From New England Trip

From Boston we rented a car and headed West to Worcester (aka Wustah) to visit Meaghan and Nick, who were kind enough to let us stay with them for a couple nights. They really treated us to a great time, including taking us through the whole process of picking out, buying, and cooking a live lobster and some other seafood. It was great fun and made for a delicious meal.

We got a bit of a surprise the first night, when we were woken up at 4am to a car horn blaring. I was the first up, and when I looked out the window at the parking lot I saw a Camry Hybrid with a small fire in the passenger compartment. No one was in or near it, so I went and told Meaghan and Nick what was going on and they called 911. While we were waiting for the fire crew to arrive, we watched the flames grow with surprising speed. Within minutes the fire had consumed the interior of the car and had flames towering over the car. The heat caused the various airbags in the car to explode randomly, adding some sound effects to the flames. When the firemen got the flames put out, a brand new Camry Hybrid was charred and we'd all lost a good bit of sleep.

From New England Trip

That morning, Meaghan and Nick took us down to Rhode Island to see the sights. We started off in Newport, which is a surreal town filled with little shops and seafood restaurants. It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed wandering the city and watching the fisherman unloading lobsters from their boats. We also drove out to see the old Mansions along the coast, including a tour of The Breakers, a huge and elaborately decorated mansion that was built by the Vanderbilt family. After the tour we resolved to build our own ultra-luxurious 70 bedroom home... Maybe next year.

From New England Trip

On our way back to Massachussets, we stopped in Providence to check out FireWater, a large-scale art exhibit set out on the canal running through downtown. It consisted of hundreds of floating baskets arranged throughout the river, filled with wood, and lit on fire. These floating bonfires were stoked by boats sliding along in the dark and adding wood to each basket. There were also Gondolas navigating the water with tourists and other clients while a variety of music played. We didn't walk the entire route, but we covered at least 4 blocks and both ends eluded us. We did stumble upon some fire-dancing performers, though, who put on quite a show. The scent of woodsmoke, sound of music, and sight of twirling flames made the whole experience surreal. It was a very neat surprise and a heck of a way to end our time in Rhode Island.

From New England Trip

From Providence, we made our way back to Massachusetts for another night at Meaghan and Nick's. The next day Kim and I drove up to Maine, stopping at a couple of New Hampshire wineries along the way. Our first stop in Maine was the Nubble Lighthouse, which is tougher to find than one would expect since GPS systems take you to a random dead-end street. The lighthouse was cool, though, and made a fitting start to our time in Maine.

From New England Trip

After the lighthouse, we stopped by the LL Bean mega-store, then made our way to Portland. Portland is a small, seaside city that is great for exploring on foot. We took a harbor cruise, a brewery tour, and checked out lots of local shops and restaurants.

From New England Trip

The highlight of Portland for me, though, was our lobstering cruise with Lucky Catch Cruises. Kim and I each got to go out on a working lobster boat and try our hand at opening and emptying traps, measuring lobsters to determine if they can be kept, rubber-banding the claws, and more. We also got to learn about how the fisherman mark their bouys to distinguish their traps from the others, how to tell male and female lobsters, and all about the regulations that protect breeding lobsters. We even caught (and released) a female that was loaded with thousands of eggs. As a bonus, the trip made for a great harbor cruise and took us past several lighthouses.

From New England Trip

At the end, we got to buy the lobsters we caught for $5 and carry them up the pier to one of the waterfront restaurants that prepared them for us.

From New England Trip

After Portland, we made our way back for one more night in Boston, then headed home. It was a really fun week and we were both surprised by how easy it is to see so many different places in such a short time. Now to plan the next trip...

Wausau 9-7-09

2009-09-07T15:13:00.006-05:00

It's tough to beat good playboating in September. The good folks at Wausau Whitewater added two double-releases on the whitewater course for September this year, and it was a great idea. When everything else is drying up and paddlers are normally turning to other ways to have fun, we now get an awesome get-out-of-boredom pass for the fall. There are two-day releases the first and third weekends of the month, and even though I won't be able paddle to both days at either release, I'm definitely heading out to each.

Caleb and I made our way out to the first release Saturday night and were treated to perfect camping weather while we caught up with the other paddlers. Sunday morning we got to take advantage of the first-ever breakfast buffet at the VFW. $5 for blueberry pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, and beverages! If you're camping out there from now on, leave the breakfast bars at home and head over there. It was awesome. After breakfast we were both off to a little bit of a rough start (maybe ate a bit more than we should have), but found our grooves after taking a morning break.

Caleb's been working on getting his cartwheels down, and after yesterday can definitely check that off his list. He was wheeling away in little drop all afternoon.

I seem to have found my loops again, managing to land the majority of the throughout the day. It's a great feeling to be able to get in there and throw the moves with some confidence again. Wheels, spins, and loops were all working. Now if only I could get that to happen on a competition weekend...

We didn't take any pictures, but got some video in the afternoon. I missed Caleb's best runs, but you can get the idea from what we did get on film. He managed to get some strong runs for me, which seems to never happen once a camera comes out.

By the end of the day, we were both grinning like fools and happy as can be. Warm weather, warm water, great features and great friends.

Midwest Freestyle Championships!!

2009-08-18T21:23:00.011-05:00

From '09 Midwest Championships

It was like a gigantic party with all of your best friends, but with a backdrop of awesome whitewater and amazing freestyle moves for entertainment. That was how I'd describe the Midwest Freestyle Championships in Wausau this past weekend.

From '09 Midwest Championships

There were nearly 100 competitors going head to head in freestyle competitions, boatercross races, and other events. We had record numbers for nearly all of the levels of competition, but especially huge beginner's and women's categories. Both had big increases in both over last year and the weekend was definitely more fun for it.

From '09 Midwest Championships

Several pro and sponsored paddlers competed this year, as well as the local experts fighting for the top spots. The expert and intermediate level events were held at Little Drop, which was more retentive and versatile than last year's spot. That difference showed in the number of cartwheels, splitwheels, and other spinning moves competitors were hitting. Don't get me wrong, there were still plenty of big air loops and space godzillas, but it was fun to see some more balanced runs. Also, the new venue was way better for the spectators with tiered seating, lots of space, and no train bridge to get in the way of the view.

From '09 Midwest Championships

I participated in the Boatercross, the Intermediate Freestyle, and the Team Freestyle events. The boater cross was a head-to-head downriver race that started just above Big Drop and ended towards the bottom of the course. Along the way were obstacles and required moves that jammed all of the racers together and led to some great carnage. No one was injured, but Big Drop definitely saw its share of flips and pile-ups as heat after heat of racers piled into the side curling wave on river right.

From '09 Midwest Championships

On my first heat of boatercross, I nearly ran over someone as they flipped right in front of me in Big drop, then I flipped entering the eddy for the attainment. I rolled up, caught a lucky break climbing into the Little Drop eddy, and wound up winning the heat. After that, it was time to run back up to the top for the "Finals." Because there were so many competitors, however, we wound up with 9 finalists and had to split into two semi-final heats.

From '09 Midwest Championships

My semi-final run went much smoother, without me flipping at all. There was a bit of bumping and crowding in the Big Drop eddy, but the run ended up pretty smoothly with me finishing 2nd. That was good enough to get me into the Finals, where the boat bumping began almost immediately. I found myself neck-and-neck with a much longer boat just above big drop. As we entered the drop, he pulled slightly ahead of me and I was able to push his stern and send him off-line. That lined me up perfectly for the bouey, and then it was neck-and-neck again through little drop. Once again, I was saved by a lucky attainment move getting up into Little Drop Eddy and wound up 2nd overall to Collin Kemp, who (in addition to being a really nice guy) is supernaturally fast. Because I was either racing or running back up for the next heat, I didn't really get to see many other people's runs, but I know that nearly everyone gave it a shot.

From '09 Midwest Championships

The Freestyle was lots of fun to watch, with John, Collin, Craig, Tommy, Doug and others really putting on a show. I had a couple decent runs, but definitely know that I could improve upon them next year. I wound up 6th in the intermediate division.

From

Huge thanks to Julie, Cole, Collin, Chad, and everyone else who organized and help run the weekend. It was action-packed, full of fun stuff, and definitely made for some great memories for all involved. Also congrats to Melissa for winning the new boat this year! It couldn't have gone to a nicer and more deserving person. Speaking of the boat, that was one of a ton of really awesome prizes put out by Midwest Mountaineering, World Kayak, Whitecap Kayak, Jackson Kayak, Bear Paw, and more.

From

From '09 Midwest Championships

Twin Cities Paddle

2009-06-28T14:11:00.010-05:00

Last weekend Kim, I, two of my nephews, and three more friends rented (gasp) rec kayaks from REI and paddled 15 miles of the Mississippi River. We put in at Boom Island, just North of Minneapolis at 9am. By complete coincidence, this was also the time that they blew up the Lowry Bridge just upstream from us. As we were getting in the boats we were greeted with a huge double "BOOM!" If that weren't enough, we also put in at a boat slip right next to a makeshift houseboat that wound up in the newspaper that same day. We thought it was a bit strange that two people were sleeping in a partially-enclosed boat with chickens... Check out the link at: http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=102807801439&h=H5aNJ&u=u0IR6&ref=mf.

Anyway, after the put-in oddities, we started downstream towards Downtown Minneapolis. It wasn't far to our first lock/dam near the Guthrie and Stone Arch Bridge. This was the first time that any of us had been through a lock before, so we weren't really sure what to expect. We found the "Pull" rope near the entrance and got to talk via speaker with the operators, then were allowed into the lock. Once inside, one person holds onto a rope (do NOT tie it to yourself or your boat), then the others hold onto their boat. We're still not exactly sure why this is necessary, but I guess it keeps everyone in place and easy to keep track of.

To our surprise, we didn't even notice when they began lowering us down. We just suddenly noticed that there was a water line on the wall that wasn't there before. The descent is completely smooth and without any sensation at all, even in a kayak. That lock wound up being the tallest of the 3 we did that day at about 50'. It was a really cool experience and may just qualify as the slowest waterfall I've ever run...

After the lock we paddled past the Guthrie, the Gold Metal Flour sign, and other cool landmarks, then hit the second lock. This one was shorter (about 1/2 as high) and we breezed right through.

After the second lock you come up right under the 35W bridge, which was neat to see from beneath. It's very cool to see how smooth and elegant the bridge is. With no visible platforms, railings, or other structures, it almost doesn't look real. Pretty cool.

After the second lock and a few more bridges, we passed the U of M, with a great view of the Weisman art museum. A short stretch later and we were down to the Ford plant and our third lock of the day. We made it through smoothly and were put into a busier, but more wooded part of the river. We stopped for lunch at Hidden Falls Park, which was about 1/2 way through.

After Hidden Falls you move into a stretch of water that you would barely realize is in an urban area. Tree-lined shores, people fishing, and a lack of bridges or structures make it feel much more secluded than it is. The only thing that keeps you aware of your location is the amount of traffic on this stretch of the river - barges, day-cruise ships, pleasure boats, and even other kayakers.

By the time we could start to see the St. Paul skyline, we were all starting to feel the miles in our shoulders and arms. We were also trying to beat the storm that was closing in on us, so it was comforting when we could start to see familiar landmarks. As we closed on our destination, we past the Science Museum, the paddleboats anchored along shore, and all of downtown. Our last landmark was the Wabasha St. Bridge before we took out at Harriet Island.

We got the boats out, ran shuttle, and loaded up just as the rain started to come down. On the whole, we timed it pretty well. We ended up paddling about 15 miles with a strong headwind that nullified any benefit we might have had from the current. It really felt like an accomplishment when we finally made it. Definitely a good time, but next time it might be better broken into two sections, with the break at Hidden Falls.

Either way, it was fun and probably good for me to spend some time in a non-whitewater boat. Now to think of the next adventure...

Dan's Stoney River Video

2009-06-19T09:53:00.001-05:00

Dan F put together this awesome video of our Stoney River trip from this spring. Check it out!

Wausau Opener!

2009-06-08T22:53:00.008-05:00

Talk about making the most of a cool, gloomy day. The temps were around 50 with a breeze that made it feel cooler. The sky was heavy overcast, just waiting to rain. The great thing about kayaking, though, is that none of that mattered at all. Once I got the gear on and got in the boat, I was warm and comfy. And, as a huge and surprising bonus, the water was extremely warm. All that water sitting in the sun up in the reservoir definitely pays off.

So, that's how the first Wausau release of the year began. I got on the water early and had the place pretty much to myself for almost 45 minutes. I think the weather took a bit of the hurry out of people's journey from parking lot to river, so there was room and hole time to spare!

As always, it's great to be back at Wausau. The course is nothing but fun from top to bottom with lots of variety and friendly features. It's also a great place to catch up with and meet other paddlers. It was really nice to see Team Pabst again after the off season and I look forward to paddling with them this summer!

Nora took some time to guide some newer paddlers through the course. All three handled it really well and were surfing and punching through the features on their way down the river.

I was making my maiden voyage in my new (used) boat. I got a great deal on another Kingpin and couldn't pass it up. Mine was getting pretty worn out, but I still hadn't found another boat that I liked that much, so when I saw this one up for sale I grabbed it. Looking forward to getting a few more good years out of it!

After a frustrating year of regressing freestyle skills last year, I finally feel like I'm starting to get some of the bugs worked out on my tricks. I've pretty much got my loop entry issues worked out, now I've just got to get my arms up and speed up my rotation. That said, I did hit 3/3 in little drop and about 1/2 in the street bridge hole. The rodeo hole remains my nemesis, but I'll keep working on it.

That's it for now. I was hoping to get some helmet cam footage, but my warm-up run never ended, so I didn't get back to the truck to grab it. Next time... This week will be the Canoe U Survivor's party, then I'll be spending this weekend here, likely doing dry activities for a change. Here's to another summer of Wausau whitewater!

Pics:
1) checking out the new boat
2) Pamela running Big Drop
3) Doug, looking very Zen as he punches the rodeo hole
4) Pamela's brother (name? sorry!) punching Rodeo
5) Me getting a faceful
6) Mike M in the rodeo hole
7) Melissa in the rodeo hole
8) A huge, freaky looking bug on the rocks by Rodeo. Anyone know what it is?

Continuum Class

2009-06-01T12:20:00.014-05:00

What a great weekend! It was graduation weekend at Canoe U and I helped teach the Whitewater Continuum class. With Bobzilla as the lead instructor, 7 motivated and talented students, and 2 awesome safety boaters, it was tough to go wrong.

We had perfect weather on Saturday for our run of the top portion of the Lower Louey. We practiced skills and played on the features from just below the big rock tongue (which I've now found out is called Tablesaw) through Big Glassy. The dam was releasing 660 cfs for us, so there was plenty to challenge the students with. We refreshed the basics, worked on boofs and attainments, talked about how to get the most out of a short boat, and spent lots of time practicing moves in and out of the swift current.

Bob and I were lucky to have Jeremiah and Brian J, both expert-level boaters and great teachers, as safety for us. We were even luckier, however, to have students that were so good at rolling and self-rescue that the safety boaters were barely necessary. That left them free to help teach and keep students engaged.

Day two was on the Upper St. Louis, which was running at about 1700cfs. Our students spent lots of time working on draws and draw ferries, as well as surfing skills. It was amazing to see how much their paddling improved just over the weekend. By the end of the day Sunday the whole group was comfortable with moves that were brand new on Friday. Whether it was ferrying out onto 1st Wave using only a draw, taking charge and controlling the tempo through a rapid, making a mid-air boof turn to catch a micro eddie in the middle of 210, or any of the awesome moves made this weekend, the students were tearing the Louey to shreds. Throughout the weekend I saw every paddler in the group hit at least one major milestone moment like that. Watching them hit those moves and really take control was nothing short of inspiring and I was smiling all the way home thinking about the weekend's highlights.

Much of the credit for those improvements has to go to the students, who gave 100% to every skill we showed them. The rest, however, goes to Bobzilla for putting together a program that really pushes paddlers but never loses the fun and adventure that makes the sport so great. His creativity and technical expertise really show and I feel fortunate for the opportunity to teach with him.

A big thanks goes out to Bob Dodds for cooking a wonderful meal on Saturday night, complete with a flaming dessert! Also, thanks again to Alan, Chad, Art, and all of the others who put in the effort behind the scenes to make Canoe U happen.

Finally, big thanks to Jeremiah for taking the river pics this weekend. I didn't get a chance to take any, so he stepped in and got some shots of the students in action. Now I'm looking forward to spending a weekend in the Twin Cities and then to the Survivor's Party!

Sturgeon Video

2009-05-28T07:43:00.003-05:00

Here's some video from the weekend. Most of it's from the helmet cam, but some's off of my point-n-shoot as well. If I get a chance I'll try to put up some other clips as well, but for now...

Sturgeon Falls, eh?

2009-05-26T22:22:00.011-05:00

There was a great group of us that headed North for the long weekend to hit the big, deep waves at Sturgeon Falls on the Winnipeg River. The river was higher than I'd seen it, running somewhere in the neighborhood of 70,000 cfs. That made for some big waves, crazy eddies, and lots of pictures.

Dennis volunteered to ride up with me to pick up the motorboat at my family's cabin. Little did we know that the huge flow rate would make the boat nearly useless as a shuttle and rescue vehicle. But, now we know for next year...

We had beautiful weather, with warm, sunny days and cool, clear nights. Nora, Dennis, and I learned from our cold and wet past experiences there and reserved a Yurt to sleep in. Even though the weather was better this year, I've gotta say the Yurt was worth it.

The paddling was great - Mike M and Scotty were throwing rapid-fire blunts on Surfer's, Alon was gettin' dizzy on Triple S, everybody was getting some quality spins and bounces on the waves. The big eddy behind the island had the twin whirlpools fading in and out, so if you timed it right you got the moving-sidewalk ride back up. Then again, if you timed it wrong, you had a ridiculous and frustrating time trying to paddle up hill through the boils.

The coolest part of the weekend was Sunday evening when the wind died out completely and the water was just like a mirror. You could actually see your reflection while you were on Surfer's. From the island, it looked like people were surfing on folds of mercury. Absolutely awesome.

I also have to give Katie huge props for being able to literally self-rescue after a swim. She can wet exit, grab her gear, drain her boat, and get in and paddle her way back to shore - all completely by herself while floating downstream. It was amazing.

The only problem with going to Sturgeon is that you're never there long enough. For me, it takes about 1 full day to get my brain comfortable in the big water. Unfortunately, by then the body's usually pretty worn out and the two never really get in sync. Next year I think I'll take Friday off to get an extra day, and hopefully do some conditioning as well. Shockingly, it turns out that sitting at a desk 6 days a week doesn't qualify as a training regimen.

All in all, it was a great weekend with some awesome paddlers. We paddled, chilled on the rock, surfed ourselves silly, hung out around bonfires, and told endless paddling stories. Tough to beat that. I'm already looking forward to next time.

Here are some pics from the weekend:
1) The Bomber Gear twins
2) Melissa cruising Triple S
3) Scotty working on blunts
4) Scott bouncing Surfer's
5) Me getting eaten by the foam

6) Alon discovering the silk-surf on Surfer's
7) Mike M setting up for a blunt
8) Mike L in front of Big Mouth
9) Me in a low-altitude blunt
10)Mike L riding the glass
11)Melissa basking in the warm sun

I've got videos as well - hope to get those up tonight, so check back!

Launching Into Canoe U!

2009-05-18T13:44:00.011-05:00

From Canoe U

This weekend was the first River weekend of Canoe U! We had over 40 students, about 10 instructors, and a whole bunch of safety boaters. The weather was nice (cold in the evenings, but warm and sunny afternoons) and the level of the Kettle was close to 800 cfs on Sunday.

From Canoe U

I taught the Whitewater Refresher course with Bobzilla. We had a great student-teacher ratio with 2 instructors, 6 students, and 2 safety boaters - Jeremiah and Ben. Jeremiah was with us both days and had some rock-star rescues. Ben joined us the second day when we had very few swims, so both safety boaters were giving tips and assistance to the students instead of chasing gear. It worked great, and I think (and hope) that the students felt that way as well.

From Canoe U

Speaking of the students, we had Lynn, Drew, Dan, Tim, Derek, and Liz. Each student had some paddling experience, but wanted to get some additional technique work in to get the most out of this paddling season.

From Canoe U

We spent both days on the "upper" Kettle, the first day on the flatwater and then Blueberry Slide, and the second day running the whole river. The level was high enough to challenge everyone, and it pushed the learning curve a little steeper. While that led to a couple of swims on Day 1, it also led to noticeable improvements in ferrying, eddy moves, and general comfort in dynamic water by day 2.

From Canoe U

Day one was loaded with drills and stroke work to get a solid foundation of basics. Day two was putting those skills to use and incorporating water reading and river judgment to become more independent as paddlers. By the end of Day 2 students were picking their own lines, punching holes, catching mid-rapid eddy's and more. It was really fun to watch.

From Canoe U

Big thanks to all the students that participated in the class and made it so much fun! Also, huge thanks to Chad, Art, and all of the others who put in so much time and effort with the planning, logistics, cooking, and other behind-the-scenes work that made the weekend flow smoothly. Really looking forward to Graduation Weekend and the Continuum class!

Check out the "My Web Albums" link on the right of this page to see more pics. Thanks to Derek for taking a bunch of the on-water shots!

ACA Certification!

2009-05-10T16:52:00.011-05:00

What do you get when you combine 2400 miles, 7 states, 45 hours of training, and two awesome instructor-trainers? An ACA kayak instructor certification from NOC! The trip was great, and both Nora and I got our level IV certs.

I've always enjoyed introducing people to new experiences and activities, so teaching kayaking has always been one of my favorite things to do. I was an instructor/trip leader with the UW-Madison Hoofers for a couple years, then have been teaching informally in MN ever since. After law school I realized that I missed teaching classes and started looking into how to do it around here. Turns out that it was good timing, because Rapids Riders was looking for instructors. The only catch was that they require certification by the American Canoe Association in order to teach with them. So, I looked around for courses, found a good one at the Natahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina, talked Nora into coming with me, and headed out.

The area around the NOC had been pretty dry for the last few years, but as Nora and I headed South, we managed to bring a monsoon down with us to fix that little problem. It was raining the night we arrived and never really stopped for more than a couple hours. This was great to push the rivers up, but slightly less great for spending the week sleeping in tents.

Speaking of tents, we stayed at the Smokey Mountain Meadows Campground, which I can't recommend highly enough. It's in a beautiful spot, the grounds and shower houses are immaculate, and the owners are about the nicest people you could ever meet. They even let us move our tents under the picnic pavilion so that we could have a couple nights without getting rained on. This was a godsend because we were pretty much spending our days in the river, then our nights in the rain. Not the greatest scenario for drying stuff out, but at least it was warm...

The course itself was packed with a combination of classroom discussion, on-water skills development, rescue training, and teaching real students under the guidance of our instructor-trainers. We had lots of time on and in the chilly water of the Nantahala River. It made for a long week, but I think that both Nora and I learned a lot and had a great time.

Our group consisted of 8 paddlers of a variety of ages and experience levels, all of whom brought something unique to the group. They were wonderful people, and I feel lucky to have spent the week with them. Our instructor-trainers were Rob and Jason, and they were both awesome. They were fun and laid-back, but also demonstrated expertise to an extreme and an intuitive way of teaching that was helpful both as one of their students, and as a model for ways to relate to those I'll be teaching.

Now that we're back in the real world and our stuff is starting to finally dry out, I'm looking forward to getting out this weekend and teaching. It'll be great to meet all the new paddlers and try out some of the new teaching tricks I picked up!

Pics:
1)The whole crew
2)Jason demonstrating roll instruction
3)Nora teaching real students on Friday
4)Instructor-trainer Jason
5)Instructor-trainer Rob
6)Swift water rescue practice
7)Pretty much explains itself
8)Camping in the pavillion
9)Smokey Mountain traffic jam

Stoney River

2009-04-26T22:19:00.015-05:00

The Stoney river is a fairly remote stretch of Class II-IV whitewater near Babbitt, MN, and right on the fringe of the BWCA. Like many creeks in Minnesota, it only runs for a week or two each year, and I didn't even know it existed until Alan F invited me along on this trip Friday night. Since it's not too well known, I'll try to give a more complete description. Apologies for the length.

Well, about 9 hours after I found out the river existed, we were on the road. In Two Harbors Alan and I met up with Dan and Dave and we headed off into the middle of the Arrowhead. After finding the river and running shuttle down the logging roads, we put on to bright sunshine and temps in the neighborhood of 50 degrees. The river was at 2.8', which the guys said was a medium flow.

This river doesn't make you wait long to get to the fun stuff. About 40 yards downstream from the put in is the first rapid. It's only a II-III, but it's got some fun wave trains and gets things off on the right foot.

Not long after that, you encounter the first major rapid. Always Right Sluice is a curving, two-stage Class IV with a nasty little falls starting on river right, then a huge, powerful, barrel-roll hole that's about 5' high and 40' long (it runs parallel to the general run of the river, instead of perpendicular) and ends in a turbulent mess where it meets water coming from two other directions. This was the first time I'd seen a feature like that before and I was a little intimidated. It looked like it would easily pick up a boater and corkscrew him into the bottom over and over again as he moved down the length of the hole. I was told to charge the hole with as much speed as possible in the hopes of riding up onto it and around the huge mess. I took that advice to heart and hit it as fast and hard as I could get my boat to go. The advice worked, and I shot through it no problem. It was amazing watching Dan and Dave run it in open boats. Those guys are better and more fearless paddlers than I'll ever be. It was great to watch.

The next major rapid was Triple drop, a class III+ with a couple opportunities for unhappiness if you hit the wrong line. It also has a cool boof rock right in the middle. I missed my line on the rock, but Alan hit perfectly. At the bottom, Dan spent some time sport surfing a hole that I was happy to stay out of - and he was in an open boat. Afterward we sat in the sun and had lunch.

#3 on the notable drops list is The Box, a constricted canyon with the most impressive side-curler I've seen and it's very own geyser! After a II-III lead-in, paddlers get a 50 yard stretch of quiet to eddy out before dropping into the canyon. As the water funnels in, it drops about 20 feet and ends in a huge left-to-right curler that was well over head-high and smashed against the cliff on river right. As an added incentive to get left in a hurry, the river makes a natural fountain against the right wall towards the top. The water shoots straight up anyhere from 4-8 feet. It's pretty amazing to see. Anyway, you run the rapid right-to-left, paddling hard at the rocks on river left. As soon as you hit the shoulder of that wave, your speed doubles and you start moving diagonally to the right. If you hit your line, you ride up onto the top of the curler, through the crazy out flow and into a calm stretch. If you don't, you either get slammed into the stone wall and beaten silly, or flip in the outwash and get hammered by the cheese-grader rocks. Luckily, I got to skip both of those experiences and ran it clean. Dan amazed me by running it perfectly clean in his OC, and Alan led off in Dave's OC, making through the meat of it fine, then getting caught up in the outwash.

The last big rapid is Desensitization Falls (I called it Dome Falls in the video). It's 10-12' falls with a variety of lines ranging from auto-boof to auto-pencil. As I found, the difference between those two scenarios can be about 2 feet. After a boogie water lead-in, you follow the wave train down river left and off the falls. My first run I was just on the right side of the wave crests and penciled into the pool for my only flip of the day. On the second run, I lined up on the left side of the wave crests and had a perfect boof line. It's definitely a game of inches. It was really cool to see the OC's hit the falls.

After that, it was some flatwater (where we stumbled upon 3 huge Trumpeter Swans), some more II-III's, and into Birch lake to the take out. Mixed among all of the above rapids were wavy II-III boulder gardens and wave trains. There is some flatwater on the run, but not enough to be a problem.

Huge thanks to Alan, Dan, and Dave for having me along on the trip. It was great to paddle with those guys and exciting to watch them style rapids that I would have been certain were impossible in canoes. They also made great guides/instructors, and I don't know how I'd have made it down without their insight. Finally, Dan brought along his HD video camera and has put together some great video from the day. If you're on facebook, you can check it out on his page or mine.

I've got a couple more pics and short video clips from the day that I'll try to post tonight. Check back!

Kettle Again!

2009-04-19T22:56:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was a pleasant surprise. After having a crazy busy week that was capped by a really fun wedding (congrats to Meaghan & Nick!), I was happy, but lacking sleep. The original plan was to head up to the N. Shore w/ Nora and hit the French. When I found out I'd have to leave by 6am to meet up with them, however, I changed my mind and decided to do something later so that I could get a little sleep before the workweek started up again.

As it turns out, it was a great decision. Nate G happened to be looking for someone to do the Kettle with, and so we made that our new plan. It's always fun paddling with Nate, and it was great to catch up. Plus, I got to sleep in a little and (more importantly) had time to rig up my new Helmet cam before heading out! Huge thanks to Meaghan and Nick for the awesome gift!

The level was good (approx 3'), the water was starting to warm up, and it was great catching up with Nate. We did a video run through Dragon's Tooth, then went back up and surfed at Blueberry. Both the wave and hole above it were in, and we had a blast. The wave was just fast enough to get some small blunts in, which made for great practice for sturgeon.

Check out the pics and vids below. The videos are from the new helmet cam. Unfortunately, YouTube wouldn't play the music I set the first video to. Instead, it offered to automatically select a song that it felt would work and didn't require user rights to post. It chose a rap song in Spanish. Go YouTube. If you don't like it, turn the sound off and imagine "Standing Outside" by Primitive Radio Gods in your head. That was what it was supposed to be set to. After that debacle, I just left the two shorter vids w/o sound.

Enjoy!

1st Kettle Run

2009-04-04T19:06:00.005-05:00

There was pretty much an armada of kayakers on the Kettle today for what was my first run of the season. We had over twenty in our group when we put on, and as we were leaving we saw another group taking out. There were paddlers from the Twin Cities, Wisconsin, St. Cloud, Duluth, and more. It was really fun to see everybody, and to meet a handful of new people!

To make things even better, the river was at a great level (2.7' on the bridge gauge) and it was a nice mix of play and river running. The snow and cold stayed away for the afternoon, and we had sunshine on us for most of the run.

Newbie Aaron had his first day on a non-verm river and did great. Several of us ran Wolf Creek, even though it was a little low. There were a couple swims and a couple saves, but on the whole it was just a lot of fun. Bring on the '09 season!

Season Opener!

2009-03-19T09:34:00.003-05:00

We had a great evening down at the Verm yesterday, and the '09 paddling season is officially open at last! There are few things in life that make me as happy as kayaking, so I'm totally stoked to get another season up and running. We had a whole bunch of paddlers, including three Bryan's (one was a Brian, though), two Aarons, and a whole bunch of other folks. The water level was higher than the gauge said, maybe around 110 or 120. It was flowing fast, though, so there was lots of fun to be had. The put-in trail was its nasty springtime self, but everyone made it down in one piece. Big congratulations to Aaron W. who had his first ever river run! He did great, running the river without flipping, throwing himself into donut for an intro to surfing, and doing the cliff drop into Fisherman's pool. Looking forward to lots more paddling days to come!

I didn't take any pics yesterday, but Nora did. Check 'em out on her blog.

Polar Plunge!

2009-03-10T13:55:00.007-05:00

12 of us (though sadly only 1 other kayaker besides me) jumped into the not-so-tropical waters of Lake Calhoun on Saturday. The water was a bit chilly, but the day was a blast. We started with some beverages at Bar Abilene Saturday morning before jumping on the shuttle bus and heading to Thomas Beach.

Our team was named Shaking, Not Stirred. In keeping with the Bond theme, the guys all had tuxedo t-shirts and the girls had "Bond Girl" shirts. Next year, we'll have to try to get some fancy heating gadgets from Q before jumping in... This year we had to settle for the hot tubs that were graciously provided by the Plunge sponsors.

After plunging, we headed over to Famous Dave's for some nice, hot comfort food. It was a great end to a fun day.

Together our team raised over $1600 for Special Olympics. Thanks to all those who donated - S.O. is a great cause.

Now, who's in for next year?

From Polar Plunge '09

Congratulations!

2009-03-03T13:17:00.002-06:00

Huge congratulations to Graeme and Katie, who are welcoming the newest addition to their family! Her name is Murphy Elizabeth - here's a photo. Now we just need to come up with some sort of floating stroller... I bet the river waves would make a nice substitute for a rocking chair.

Upcoming Polar Plunge

2009-02-14T13:09:00.010-06:00

Who's up for some crazy fun for a good cause? I'm putting together a team for the Polar Plunge in Lake Calhoun on Saturday, March 7th.

For those of you unfamiliar, this is an event where hundreds of people line up to jump into the balmy waters of Lake Calhoun in winter. It's a great charity event, with the proceeds benefiting Special Olympics. I've done it a couple times before, and can say that it is a bit chilly, but also tons of fun. As you can see from the pics of one I did a few years ago, everyone's having a really good time. There's tons of people, everyone's pumped up, and the atmosphere of the event is amazing. There is a heated changing area and, in the past, there have been portable hot tubs. Not sure about the hot tubs this year, but we can hope...

If you're interested in jumping, you can join our team at:

http://www.specialolympicsminnesota.org/Polar_Plunge_App.php?step=register&event_id=9&team_id=982.

Each plunger must raise at least $75 in donations to be able to participate, but I've found that most non-plungers will happily donate in exchange for seeing the photos afterward. Each plunger must also wear shoes into the water. Team clothing/costumes are still being decided upon.

If you don't want to jump, but would like to help the team out by donating, you can go here:

http://specialolympicsminnesota.org/Polar_Plunge_App.php?regid=6652&step=pledge&action=showwebpage&event_id=9&team_id=982

A Good Cause

2009-02-03T10:01:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to put the word out that one of our local paddlers, John Pike, will be climbing the IDS tower to raise money to fight Cystic Fibrosis. It's a great cause, and there's a way that everyone can join in, without climbing 50 floors. You can donate to John's team online at:

http://www.cff.org/LWC/dsp_DonationPage.cfm?idEvent=9062&idUser=280818

Best of luck to the team, and let's try and raise some serious $$!

Mexico Trip

2009-01-22T22:32:00.005-06:00

I apologize for being really slow to put anything up on the blog lately. It's been a really busy winter and work's been keeping me away from the fun stuff. But, things are looking better now, so I figured I'd start getting caught up.

At the beginning of January, my whole family (neices, nephews, and all) plus Kim headed down to Cancun for a week. This is significant for a couple of reasons: First, I'd never been to Cancun before and hadn't stayed in an actual resort in more than 15 years. Second, my family hasn't done a vacation together since I was about 8. It was definitely very different from my normal solo or 1 friend backpacking trips, but it was more fun than I was expecting.

We stayed in a huge mega-resort (see photo) that had pretty much everything you could ever imagine, plus a couple of things. I checked out some of what it had to offer, but Kim and I tried to get out and try more unique activities when we could. These included a lot of scuba diving, a snorkel trip that involved driving tiny little speed boats through Mangrove channels and then ocean swells, a trip to the ruins of Chichen-Itza, cliff jumping in a Cenote (freshwater cave), and more. We had a great time.

These are the pics from the non-diving stuff. In order to keep the number of pics in each post manageable, I put the dive pics in two seperate entries. Hope you like 'em!

Cenote Cave Dives

2009-01-22T21:54:00.005-06:00

While I was down there I did one of my favorite dives yet - a Cenote cavern dive. We did 2 tanks in the Chac-Mool Cenote, about 45 minutes from Cancun. The dives are known as much for the amazing light show coming from the cave openings as for anything else. It really is breathtaking to come through a tunnel and see beautiful shafts of blue light. It looks completely unreal and you'd swear it was the special effects for some movie.

The water was very warm - 75-78 degrees according to my computer. Most of the dive was freshwater, but there are places in the caves where the saltwater from the ocean backs up the river and lingers. Because of that, we crossed the Halocline (division between salt and freshwater) several times. Each time we would go nearly blind because where the two waters converge becomes very blurry and hard to see through, like olive oil trying to mix with water. One diver said it reminded him of looking through the heat waves rising off hot pavement, only more intense. The other crazy thing about crossing the halocline is that your bouyancy changes drastically. You are almost twice as bouyant in the saltwater as you are in the fresh, so you had to take care to keep from rising into the ceiling in the saltwater or descending into the stalagmites in the freshwater.

Speaking of Stalagmites, there were only a few of those, but there were lots of stalagtites hanging from the ceiling. most were small (under 1'), but there were a couple rooms where they grew to 10' or more. It was pretty cool. There was even one huge room (maybe 80' feet long and 40' high) that had an air pocket at the top. That's the photo you see of me floating with my mask off. That air pocket was at one of the farthest points we entered. It was pretty cool.

Cancun Reef Dives

2009-01-22T21:39:00.004-06:00

While I was there I also did three dives on the reef just a couple miles out from Cancun. I wasn't expecting much, but all three dives were amazing. The coral was bright, colorful, and healthy and we saw lots of cool critters, including a green sea turtle, barracudas, a yellow ray, and tons of reef fish.

To make it even cooler, my first reef dive was with Kim, my brother, and two of my nephews. They were all doing a "Discover Scuba" class and I tagged along for the open water portion. All of them did great, and Kim's even talking about getting certified now! The only catch was that Kim's rental mask kind of tugged her face into a constant look of shock... It made for some great pictures, though.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T11:09:00.002-06:00

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Holiday season and a great start to '09. We've had a great start to winter, and it's time to get out and do some kiting!

Cool Video

2008-12-02T11:18:00.004-06:00

Here's a fun video for anyone looking for some travel inspiration. I don't know the guy, but thought it was worth sharing. If you'd like to find out more about it or watch in higher definition (recommended), check out his website at: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/about.shtml

Puerto Rico Trip

2008-11-23T19:59:00.008-06:00

I just got back from a short trip to Puerto Rico! I had decided that I wanted to spend my recent birthday abroad, and decided that I would go to wherever had the cheapest airfare. The only restrictions were that it had to be some place I hadn't been, and it had to be outside the continental US. I wound up in Puerto Rico, and had a great time. I spent most of my time in/around San Juan and on the small island of Vieques, off Puerto Rico's Eastern shore.

The Good:
1)Bioluminescent Bays
2)Genuinely friendly people
3)Endless beaches for everything from surfing and kiting to snorkeling and laying out
4)No passport necessary
5)No currency exchange
6)Mass Transit that's cheap or free (but see The Bad)
7)Perfect weather
8)Cell Phone Service (I wasn't even roaming)

The Bad:
1)No Hostels or hotels under $70/night
2)Mass transit is largely limited to the San Juan area and Ferries

San Juan
The San Juan area is made up of Old San Juan (which is the oldest permanent settlement in the territory of the United States), two resort areas (Condado and Isla Verde), and some residential areas. Old San Juan is a beautiful mix of old buildings, modern shops (including restaurants and stores from all the big designers), and beautiful vistas. Additionally, you can take a free ferry ride across the harbor to the Bacardi rum factory. The tour was free, fun, and interesting, and you get two free drinks with it. I definitely recommend it.

Nearby, around the barrio of Isla Verde, are great beaches and spots to kitesurf. With nearly constant 15mph winds and warm, shallow water, it would be a fantastic place to kite. I tried to set up a session through Kitesurf PR for a day's worth of riding. My contact their was very friendly and helpful, but called me the morning we were supposed to go out and said that there wasn't enough wind. He said the forecast didn't look good, but he'd call me if that changed. He didn't. By 2:00 there were perfectly steady winds in the 10-15mph range but my phone never rang. Tried calling their number, but got no answer. So, no kiteboarding for me.

Getting around the San Juan area was easy. The city buses were quite an adventure - they were driven as if they were Ferrari's, so you had to hold on to something even if you were sitting down, but they were straight-forward to use and they were free. Ferry service across the harbor was also free and arrived frequently. Getting around outside of the San Juan area required that you either 1)rented a car, 2)paid large sums to take a taxi, or 3)attempted to use the unscheduled and confusing Publico minibus system. None of these options was very appealing to a traveler on his own, but luckily I found there was another way to get out to Vieques Island. There are charter flights from San Juan for about $50 each way. Since that was about 1/2 the price of renting a car for 3 days or taking a cab, it was definitely the way to go.

Vieques
The Island of Vieques is about 8 miles off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. The US Navy used a large part of the island for artillery practice until 2004, so much of the island is still undeveloped. The island is known for it's pristine beaches and its bioluminescent bay. The "bio bay" is a large shallow bay on the South Side of the island that has the highest concentration of dinoflagellates in the world. Dinoflagellates are microscopic critters that glow when they're disturbed. There are so many of them in this bay that the water literally glows whenever anything moves it. I took a kayak/swimming trip out into the bay and was absolutely amazed. The paddle, the kayak's wake, even the fish swimming underneath you all glow as they move through the water. To make it even cooler, the swirling water that follows the movement also glows, so everything has an amazing tail of light following it. If you dip your arm in and then raise it up, you'll have streams of light running down it. It's totally amazing and definitely in my top 5 coolest things I've ever seen. Unfortunately, my camera housing leaked on this trip and my old water camera is now finally dead, so there's no pictures.

The second thing I did on the island was go diving. I got in with a young group of German and Spanish folks who were about my age. They spoke excellent english, and we all got along great. Two of the girls in the group were new divers, so the dive was an easy one. The visibility wasn't great, but we saw some lobsters, an octopus, a HUGE eel, and some turtles. Unfortunately, the dive camera was dead, so I have no pictures. :(

I stayed in Esperanza, a small tourist village on the South side of the island. It's an extremely laid-back place right on the water with pristine beaches just a couple steps away and great snorkeling right in front of the the hotel. At night, you can sit on the piers and watch spotted eagle rays and tarpon swim by beneath you. Great Caribbean atmosphere and incredibly friendly people.

Good Times
On the whole, it was a fun and relaxing trip. I'd love to go back and do some kiteboarding and some more snorkeling. Definitely a nice break from reality

Water and Pics

2008-11-07T15:49:00.001-06:00

The rains are here, and the rivers are up! Both the Kettle and the Louey are at good levels and rising. I hope somebody gets out and takes advantage! I can't paddle this weekend, so I'll have to live vicariously through those who can. Get out and enjoy the water while it lasts!

These are some pics from the Wolf and Lower St. Louis that I got from Pike. I just thought they were cool, so I figured I'd put them up. Enjoy.

Congratulations!

2008-11-07T09:09:00.002-06:00

Huge congratulations to Graeme and his wife who are expecting a baby! They're due April 1st, and while I say that a real paddler would have timed it for the dry season, it's still great news. Here's wishing them all the best!

Go Vote!!!!

2008-11-04T11:14:00.003-06:00

Here's your chance to make a difference - don't waste it. Go Vote!

Also Congratulations Caleb for not only finishing, but passing his big test! Way to go!

Fall Kettle Day

2008-10-12T19:00:00.019-05:00

Nate G, Bryan and Sarah K, and I headed up to the Kettle river to take advantage of the recent rains and fall colors. We were greeted with warm weather, warm winds, and banks lined with gold and red leaves that would rain down whenever the wind blew. The level was around 3', which is high enough to be fun, but not high enough to give us anything to worry about.

For Nate, it was a return to paddling after a summer filled with work, training for the Twin Cities Marathon (way to go!), and loads of other activities.

For Bryan and Sara, it was their first time on the Kettle since just after Canoe U, and their first time seeing it at anything other than scrapey low water.

The Kettle is one of my favorite midwest rivers, largely because it's so different at every level. Today was great play at Blueberry (the wave/hole in the middle of the rapid was just like a 15' wide version of Donut), followed by some good-sized wave trains in each of the lower rapids. I was able to hit a nice wave-wheel in the wave train below Dragon's tooth, and we got some cartwheel practice in at the nearly-washed out Last Chance Ledge. Everyone also got to practice their stern squirts at the rock outcroppings between the Tooth and Hell's Gate.

Sara Had a big day, getting her first taste of bigger water and hitting 12' Wolf Creek Falls! She ran it twice, with a perfect landing on the second one. She used my boat for the drop, so don't let the green color fool you.

Bryan K had an awesome day as well. He was snapping up combat rolls with confidence and leading the group run-and-gun style down some of the rapids. He also made two good runs on the Falls and had some surfs on the glassy wave at Blueberry.

I had a good day surfing blueberry and playing in the wave trains, but my cockiness got the better of me at Wolf Creek. I have run the drop many times and have never had an issue (except coming up in the middle of a tree once). This spring I decided to run it backwards, and it went great with a soft and smooth landing. Tried the same trick today, but with very different results. I went over the falls and hit the pool pretty vertical. I felt the impact of hitting the water, but in the commotion of landing didn't notice anything too strange. I bobbed up vertically and the boat flipped upside down. I rolled up and heard Nate saying how I'd Piton'd and what a loud noise it made. I disputed that, saying that the noise must have been the boat hitting the water. Later I looked at my boat and saw that the back left corner was bent upwards about 15 degrees from what it should be. No cracks, no creases, just a slightly different shape than it was before. I guess Nate was right about the Piton. The good news is that it basically just gives me more stern rocker on that side, so left-handed spins should be even easier now!

Bent boat aside, it was a great day with surprisingly great weather. Hopefully we'll have a few more before Old Man Winter takes hold. Thanks to everybody for taking the pics, and especially to Nate for sending me the ones from his camera so quickly.

Fall Colors

2008-10-05T08:32:00.007-05:00

A cold night, a beautiful day, and some great rapids made for a fun trip to the Wolf. Bryan K, Sara, Pike, Dennis, and I headed to the newly-rebuilt Bear Paw on Friday night and ran Section IV on Saturday.

Friday night was quite chilly, with lows in the mid-twenties. We stoked up a nice campfire, put on some extra layers, and Dennis and I bored the others with paddling stories for a while. The night was crystal clear and the stars were out in full view. Despite the temps, we had a great time. Bryan and Sara (and their puppy) got to test their new tent in style. It must have performed well because no one had hypothermia come Saturday morning.

We started fairly early Saturday, meeting at Big Smokey at 9 to get our bracelets and shuttle. Speaking of bracelets, the price has gone up from years past - $30 fee + $5 deposit on the bracelet. The temp was still just above freezing, but the sun was out and warmed you up whenever it hit you.

Our shuttle driver was kind enough to drop us off at Sullivan's falls so we could avoid the 1.5 miles of flatwater from the normal put-in. Everyone ran Sullivan's, and everyone did great. For Pike, Sarah, and Bryan, it was their first real waterfall! After everyone did it once, we talked about how to Boof, then everyone ran it again to try the new move.

The Ducksnest rapids went by quickly enough and we surfed a bit at Dave's Wave before stopping to eat and bask in the sun at lunch rock. Perfectly clear blue skies helped the temp warm up nicely.

Everyone flew through the Upper Dells, and Bryan nailed a solid combat roll between the two holes at the bottom. The lower dells were more interesting and the group split with half taking the rock-tongue in the middle, and half taking the double drop channel on river right. The hole at the bottom of the tongue caused a couple flips (including an unintentional cartwheel), but everyone did great and there were no swims.

Big Smokey was where we noticed the shallow water the most. There were virtually no eddies in the entire slide leading up to the falls, and at one point the water was only about a boat-and-a-half wide. It was a bit hairy at that point because that tiny amount of water pushed right into one of the protruding rocks and it looked very much like you were going to smack into it. The tiny reaction pillow saves the day, however, and all faces remained intact.

The level was about 190. The rapids were all very passable, with Big Smokey being the most affected by far. There was little play, but it was a fun level for river running.

On a fun note, Pike bought a boat! Bear Paw had everything on sale (most is 20% off if anybody's interested), and they were getting rid of their demo boats. Pike wanted to pick up a creeker, and after trying on a couple different boats picked a red Jackson Hero. It should be a good fit between his Piedra and his EZ. They've also got a like-new Burn demo on sale for $700 if anyone's shopping for one...

Speaking of Bear Paw, I was floored by the path the tornado left. I knew it was serious (it was an F4), but I've never seen anything like that. There's a perfect path 100 yards wide (guessing on the distance) like someone cleared a highway through the woods. There's no transition area or buffer, just a perfectly clear-cut path that looks like loggers came through. Sadly, the path perfectly and completely enveloped the old Bear Paw. Happily, the parts that they've finished rebuilding are great, and there's tons of free firewood. Plus, it's the same super friendly and helpful people running the place. Good to see them rebounding so well.

Lower Louey

2008-09-29T12:21:00.006-05:00

Nora, Dave, Graeme, Pike, and I headed up to the Lower on Sunday to take advantage of one of the last fish-flow days of the year. We had a great time with lots of firsts. It was Graeme's first time on either section of the Louey, which is kind of amazing because he's definitely an experienced paddler. It was Pike's first time running the entire Lower, it was Nora's first day with her new creeking helmet, and my first time in my new boat.

We left the cities under a dreary overcast sky that was alternating between mist and rain, but about 45 miles from the river we left the clouds behind and had clear blue skies when we put on the water. The leaves were short of peak color, but beautiful just the same. Gorgeous day for paddling.

The level seemed lower than I remembered at fish flow, but that didn't stop us from having a great time. The first half of the river went by quickly and easily, with the only non-planned maneuver being me somehow getting turned backwards in the middle of First Sister and having to boof the last tier of the drop in reverse. Even that went fine, though, and we continued on.

We ran a river-right line through Octopus that I hadn't tried before. We hit the always-fun rock-slide entry and Graeme's splash put up a wall of water that looked like the spray from a slalom water skier. The middle of the rapid had plenty of rocks to dodge, but if you followed the flow you could make it without bumping aroud too much. It ended with a fun, corkscrew slide that dropped you nicely into the pool. Everyone made it down without incident and we got some video and pics. Check Nora's blog for the footage and I'll try to post my own videos on here when I get a chance.

The boneyard was, well, boney. I tried the left half of the river through the shallowest part. Don't do that. It sucks.

Swinging bridge was fun (as always), though a bit bumpier than usual due to the low level. Dave, Graeme, and I all wound up with some level of brace to get through it. Dave caught his thumb on the rocks and wound up with some nasty bruising for it. The slide out of the hanging pool went perfectly, though, and we all cleared snakebite without incident.

We had quite a crowd watching from the swinging bridge and shoreline. They were cool enough to clap and cheer for us as we paddled under the bridge.

Great weather, nice fall colors, good company, fun water, and no carnage (except for Dave's thumb). Awesome trip. I'll post vids/pics when I get a chance.

Jackson Hero Review

2008-09-29T11:19:00.005-05:00

I just had my first day in an '08 Jackson Hero and, since there isn't much in the way of independent reviews out there for this boat yet, figured I'd chip in my two cents.

About me:
Size: 5'11", ~165 lbs, 32" inseam, size 9 feet.
Experience: 8 years, primarily in playboats, but with some big water and creeking

What I was looking for was a boat that I could use on rivers that were too much for the playboat to handle -- mostly Class IV-IV+ stuff. Because of my background in playboats, I really wanted something with a planing hull. Some other comparable boats I've tried are: Dagger CFS, Pyranha Burn, and Liquid Logic Jefe.

My first trip in the Hero was on the Lower St. Louis River. It's a class III-IV run with steep, boney, technical drops. It was running at approx 350 cfs. On the whole, I was very impressed with this boat. It did everything that I wanted it to and was easy to get used to. It's short length let me make the moves I needed to in between the Louey's rock spines, and it's edges carved when I needed them to but didn't catch or trip me up. The boat also boofed easily, clearing Snakebite and other lesser holes without a problem. My biggest fear for this boat was that its short length would make it difficult to punch through sticky holes. Though I didn't face anything really huge, I pushed it through enough holes to say that I'm no longer worried about it at all. I'm not sure if it's the shape of the deck or some other design trick, but this boat walked through the holes as easily as the full-on creekers I've paddled.

In flatwater, the boat feels like more of a creekboat than I was expecting. Though it does have the Fun's planing hull, the initial stability isn't as rigid as the playboats I'm used to. It has more of a hybrid feel. Same goes for rolling. It was definitely easy to roll, but it had more of an even, gradual feel to the roll as opposed to the quick snap of my playboat.

I have noticed that the ultra-bouyant bow has a tendency to get pushed side-to-side by cross-currents more than other creekers. It doesn't seem to be a big problem, but is something that I'll have to get used to. The only other issue that I had with the boat was having to keep tightening the backband, but I've heard that you have to let the ropes stretch a bit when they're new. I also chalk some of that up to just not being used to that system.

So, I'd definitely give the Hero two thumbs up as a lighter-duty creeker. I'm looking forward to getting it out on some bigger stuff in the spring!

Verm Cleanup

2008-09-21T21:57:00.009-05:00

Sunday was the Annual Vermillion River Cleanup, and we couldn't have had a better day. The weather was beautiful, the volunteers were plentiful, the sponsors were awesome, and it was a great experience all around.

The river was in better shape this year than I'm used to. We only found about 1/2 as many bikes as normal, and less trash in general. It was great to see! Because there was less hauling to be done, a few volunteers were able to devote their time to trail clearing! Over the past couple years, about 8 trees had fallen over the path between the bridge and the falls. The tree crew cleared them all and trimmed back some of the overhanging branches that made it difficult to walk. The trail is now clean, clear, and as safe as it can be. Now if only we could find a way to get some stairs over there...

I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I decided to stay dry this year and do shore cleanup. Thankfully Alex (and later Mike J) brought water gear and waded the length of the river, pulling out all kinds of debris. In fisherman's pool Alex found an old motorcycle and several other large or stuck-in objects. Mike had an old climbing rope, so we rigged up a pulley system to drag them out of the water and up the cliff. The water guys tied on the object, Jay and Art rigged the rope through a tree-mounted carabiner, and I backed my truck to the edge of the cliff to provide the pull. It worked great for the Motorcycle and the first stuck-in bicycle (see the video on Nora's blog), but when we got to the second stuck-in bike we had a bit more trouble. I'm not sure what it was caught on, but the second bike was so stuck that we snapped Mike's 1100lb-rated climbing rope trying to get it out. Apparantly when the rope snapped it looked like a 100' bull whip, cracking like a gunshot in the direction of my truck. Thankfully, we were all standing well clear of the rope and nobody got hurt. Unfortunately nobody got that on tape, so the story will have to suffice.

Huge thanks to Nora for organizing the cleanup again this year. As always, she put her heart and soul into making it the best it can be and really pulled through. She got swag from lots of great sponsors, cooked tacos and homemade salsa for everyone, made the reservations with the Park, got us all gloves and bags, and made a kayak pinata! Thanks for all the hard work!

Last, I have to once again give a huge thanks to Jackson Kayak, Worldkayak.com, and Julie out at Wausau Whitewater because the boat I won at the Midwest Freestyle Championships came! It's a lime-green Jackson Hero, and I'm incredibly stoked to try it out. Though I haven't gotten it on the water yet, I have spent some time sitting in it in my kitchen (this is why I live alone) to get the outfitting just right. Can't wait to get it on a river. Thanks again to everybody helped make the event (and the raffle) possible!

Canoeing Weekend

2008-09-08T17:03:00.002-05:00

Kim and I met up with several of her friends down in Whitewater State Park this weekend near Rochester. We did some swiftwater canoeing on a narrow and windy river filled with stumps and other objects. While I think we had a pretty solid group of paddlers, these obstacles definitely caused some mayhem in the swift currents. We had one boat flip twice and another flip once. The other three boats made it through high and dry, so all in all, I'd say the canoes won the day with a score of: obstacles 2, canoeists 3.

After paddling, we headed back to the State Park for bonfire, excellent camp food, and some drinks. The weather was cool and fall was definitely in the air. Beautiful time for camping.

Photographers Wanted!

2008-09-01T15:24:00.004-05:00

Anyone know a non-paddler that wants to take some pictures? I took all of 11 photos at the release yesterday because the paddling there has just been too much fun to bother with the cameras. Yesterday's release was a blast! It was pretty much the usual suspects out there, plus a ton of newer paddlers who were practicing on the lower portions of the course. Aside from the course regulars (team pabst, Wagonwheel, etc), there weren't a lot of advanced paddlers present, so hole time was abundant and you had your pick of the upper features. It was pretty much just having fun in great, uncrowded features with a bunch of friends. Tough to beat that.

Nora and Laura were both present and looking like rockstars. Both are on the verge of loops, Nora's got cartwheels now and Laura's starting to work on them. Its fun to watch and see them hit these new moves! Nora had some bad luck, breaking her new paddle when she got washed into some rocks. Though that was really disappointing, she made lemons into lemonade the way that only Nora can. She used it as an opportunity to try some different paddles and different offsets and wound up having a great day! To help offset the loss of the paddle, she got her new helmet so she was stylin' as she sampled the different paddles.

It was great catching up with the Team Pabst guys again. I don't think there's a better group of guys anywhere in the sport and it's always a blast paddling with them. I just found out that Matt's now a Bliss Stick rep, so it should be fun to see them showing off the boats this fall!

As for me, I had a great day and finally figured out why I was never coming out of the water straight on my loop attempts. Once that was fixed, it was tons of fun. I even hand paddled for a while and discovered that I can do both cartwheels and backdeck rolls without a paddle. Definitely a fun surprise.

As this was the last Wausau release of the season for me, I've really gotta say thanks to everyone out there that makes it such a great place to be. While there are many people behind these events, my hat is off to Julie for putting her personal and professional life on hold so that the rest of us can enjoy the course and all of the fun things that go along with it. In addition to organizing and staffing the events, Julie writes grants and recruits sponsors to make these releases possible, and is trying to get a new instructional program in place for next season. If you make it to either of the remaining releases, make sure you stop the registration tent and let her know how much we appreciate all the hard work!

Now everyone needs to wish, hope, pray, and whatever else you can think of for some big fall rains!

Midwest Championships!

2008-08-19T22:30:00.007-05:00

Wow, what a great weekend. I headed out to Wausau on Wednesday for a two-day freestyle clinic with Nora and Laura. The clinic was taught by two Jackson instructors: local Wisconsin paddling diety John McConville and longtime instructor/competitor Colin Kemp. The two had very different teaching styles that complimented each other nicely and in the end I feel like the clinic brought my paddling to another level. Huge thanks to Julie, Cole, Colin, and John for making the Clinic such a great experience!

The one downside (not complaining, believe me) to the clinic is that we spent such a rediculous amount of time boating and practicing that by the time the actual competition rolled around, my out-of-shape self was pretty much worn out. As such, I spent more time counting fish than throwing tricks in the competition. I actually almost swam after washing out of the hole during the team comp, and by the time I rolled up I was too far downstream to help the rest of the team. Apologies to Nora and Graeme for the fact that I contributed approximately 0 points to our "team" run, but thanks to them for stepping up and scoring big in my absence.

Speaking of other boaters, while I was struggling to stay upright, it seemed like everyone else was going huge! Team Pabst was well represented (as usual) and put up some big runs, with Jim going all the way to clinch 2nd in the Men's Expert class behind John McConville. Graeme was a spinning and cartwheel machine, and even landed some loops! Nora had great runs and made it to the Finals with a couple of cartwheels and some sweet blasts, all while proving that she's got more stamina than half of the younger boaters combined. Mike M was throwing gigantic space godzillas, and Melissa landed a couple of the biggest loops I've seen at Wausau. These are only a couple of the people who had amazing performances, but if I went through them all it would take up about 10 posts so I'll leave it at that.

There were some Newbies along for the weekend as well. Laura participated in the clinic with us and made some huge leaps in surfing, spinning, and controlling herself in a hole. Pike missed the clinic, but wound up entering both the rodeo (in the Expert class, no less!) and the boatercross. He did great in both events, including becoming a crowd favorite for nailing a couple huge enders in the competition. Bryan and Sara made it out for Saturday and paddled, surfed, and took pictures. Unfortunately I didn't get much time to actually paddle with them because of the competition, but from what I saw they were rippin' it up. Also, Sara picked up a new nickname - "Diagonal Sara" - for her uncanny ability to body surf the feature of the same name. Sorry Pike and I are so lousy with the throw ropes....

On the whole, the weekend was filled with awesome people, great weather, an amazing paddling atmosphere, and tons of fun. I'm already counting the days till next year's comp...

BUT.... To make an incredible weekend truly over the top required a bit of luck right at the end. The grand prize for the weekend was a free boat, generously donated by Jackson Kayaks. It, among many other impressive prizes, was raffled off to the competitors Sunday afternoon. To my total shock and amazment, Cole drew my name out of the jar first and I won the boat! Still kind of in shock over the whole thing, as I never dreamed I'd win, but I've pretty much had a smile on my face ever since. Quite the finish to an awesome weekend.

Pics:
1) Melissa giving lessons on how to loop HUGE
2) Me, in one of the few moments I was upright
3) Jim reaching out for victory in the expert division (if you don't count the pros)
4) Pike on his way up!
5) Melissa going ridiculously big
6) Nora digging deep for a loop attempt
7) Graeme gettin' dizzy
8) Craig, doing what Craig does
9) Jim showing his true colors

I won a boat!

2008-08-17T21:51:00.002-05:00

I won a boat, I won a boat, I won a boat! I WON A BOAT!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!

I'll try to post pics/stories from the weekend soon!

Wausau Baby, Wausau!

2008-08-03T11:14:00.006-05:00

Ahhh, so good to be back... After nearly completely missing out on Wausau all together last year, it sure felt great to get back. The course, the paddlers, the county fair and the VFW all made for one amazing weekend. It was great to see so many boaters that I hadn't seen in a long time (Brian & Marie, Mike & Melissa, Team Pabst, etc, etc, etc), and even better to see the newbies absolutely rocking on the water. Laura, Pike, and Bryan K and Sara all made the trip out and did a fantastic job surfing, punching holes, and navigating features. All four of them now have bomber combat rolls and got the chance to prove that again and again. All four also tried surfing in every hole on the river, ran the entire river from the reservoir to the bottom, and generally nailed every move they were supposed to. They've definitely landed solid class III boater status. I think the Gold Star for the day has to go to Sara, though, for nailing her first (and 2nd, 3rd, 4th....) combat roll, first real surfs, and for surviving a thrashing in Diagonal.

Even though she's not a new paddler, I think Nora's also got to get some props for her performance yesterday. Now that she's confident in her roll, Nora is absolutely tearing up the river. She's surfing everything (though it seems particularly difficult to drag her away from the rodeo hole by the train bridge) and throwing moves like I've never seen her even attempt before - Spins, Cartwheels, and almost landing loops! It's just plain fun to watch her and I can't wait to see her at the freestyle competition.

The folks at WKCC revamped the course again, changing nearly every feature on the river. For the most part, they made the holes less pushy and easier to control while maintaining or increasing retentiveness. There are also two holes at the very bottom of the river that are smaller and friendlier, yet deep enough to throw loops in. It's great. There are now about 8 really good places to throw cartwheels on the river. The only improvement that I wasn't a huge fan of was to the hole below the street bridge. It's much easier to surf, spin, and wheel in, but you can't dive your bow down for a loop without smacking it into the rocks. Not a huge problem because the hole's great for so many more things now, but it's definitely not the looping machine it once was.

In addition to the paddling, Laura and I hit up the Marathon county fair Friday night and had a great time looking at cows and going on a couple of really great rides. We even ran into Dave and his new bride there on one of the rides. Then we headed to the VFW for drinks with more than a dozen paddlers (including Team Pabst, of course).

I went into this weekend with high expectations and higher hopes and both were absolutely blown away by how much fun I wound up having. Now if only I could remember how to loop....

Muddy Sunday!

2008-07-27T20:14:00.009-05:00

If you've never played mud volleyball before, you're missing out. Jen, Joy, Kristen, Caleb, Jean, and Kressen played in a 1-day charity tournament today to benefit Habitat for Humanity. The tournament consisted of 32 teams playing on courts filled with ankle (or more) deep mud.

Since none of us had played in a mud game before, we had a bit of a learning curve. It turns out that you can't jump real well when your feet are suctioned into the mud, and its way harder to set or spike a ball that's weighed down with water and mud. So, we decided to slip, slide, and start playing like fourth graders. Underhand serves, passing over the net, and watching the other team screw up their attempts at offensive play became the order of the day. It worked pretty well, and at the end of the day we won 3 of our 5 matches (and nearly one the last). It was a great time and a fun way to get really dirty, and I'm definitely planning on on doing it again next year.

Pics:
1) The team - before
2) The mudmaker...
3) You have to duct tape your shoes on or you'll lose them to the muck
4) The ladies, after game 3
5) The game
6) Me, after game 4
7) Kressen and I
8) The team - after

Diving Square Lake

2008-07-26T18:46:00.003-05:00

Zach and I headed out to Square Lake to see if we still remembered how to dive. Since neither of us had been out since our Madiera wreck dive last year, we were both definitely in need of some downtime.

Neither of us had been to square lake before, and we were pleasantly surprised. Even though the visibility was only about 5 feet, there's plenty to see. There's the tail section of an airplane, 3 underwater platforms, a chainsaw, an underwater toilet (no kidding - someone mounted a toilet to one of the platforms), lots of fish, and more. The dive sites are all in about 20' of water, so it's a very safe and easy dive to do. The water's also nice and warm above the thermocline, so you don't need the extremely bulky 7mm double suits that we use in a lot of other lakes.

I got some pictures of one of the bass we encountered, the tail section of the plane (with a toy rake on top and guidelines leading away from it), and some other stuff. Unfortunately, my camera shut off about 1/2 way through the dive, so I didn't get pics of the best stuff, which we found later. This included a fish (Bluegill) that seemed to have fallen in love with me and kept "kissing" my mask and Zach sitting on the underwater toilet. I guess that gives me some pics to shoot for next time.

Update

2008-07-20T17:51:00.002-05:00

Well, the dry season is upon us, so blog posts are becoming few and far between. Thankfully, there's some fun stuff coming up in the next couple weeks (diving, Wausau trips, a mud volleyball tournament), so hopefully things will liven up a bit on this site. To kick off the fun times, there were two noteworthy events this weekend.

First, there was a great party last night that was hosted wonderfully by Brie. It was for several occasions, all centered around Meaghan: her upcoming birthday, her engagement to Nick, and to send the two of them off to their new home in Massachusetts. Congrats to Meaghan (and Nick) - can't wait to come out and visit you guys!

Second, Caleb, Dennis, and I headed to Taylor's falls for the afternoon. As much as I normally loathe driving that far such mild water, we had a pretty good time. There was a decent wave for surfing up at that top that gave some fun rides, though you definitely still had to earn them on the paddle back up. There was also some good eddy play and Dennis got a chance to put his new boat through a few more paces. All in all, it was a pretty good way to spend a few hours.

As a testament to the recent changes to the paddling community, that was the first time this year that I'd been part of a paddling trip without any women paddlers. It was great to have some river time with the guys, but it's also great to see the number of ladies in the paddling community now. Good times all around.

Here's to some fun in the coming weeks!

Newbies on the Kettle

2008-06-22T21:47:00.004-05:00

Today Dennis and I met up with Bryan, Sarah, Lynn, Pike, and Derek to head up to the Kettle River. It was low for playboating, about 570 cfs (2.2' on the bridge gauge), but a good level for beginners. When we got up there we also got the happy surprise of meeting up with Kate, who didn't get to paddle at all last year, and a bunch of open boaters from MN and WI. On a funny note, there were 4 Bryans (including the Brians) on the river at the same time, which made communicating a bit confusing. There were also three lawyers on the river at once (myself, Kate, and Derek), but fortunately there was no dam or flood gate that anyone could open up on us.

The group we were with did great. People were making their eddies, learning to surf, hitting their first combat rolls (way to go Derek and Pike!), and doing the seal launch. They even got some experience reading water and paddling without following anyone all the way through hell's gate. There were a few swims, but nothing too bad and I think everyone picked up some new skills.

The only major problem we had was the bugs. Anytime you were out of your boat you were instantly swarmed with hundreds of mosquitos. They were vicious enough to make scouting a rapid far more painful than running it blind could ever be. If you go, bring bug spray. Lots of it. And bring it down the river with you.

On the whole, it was a great day. Bryan K snapped some pics of people at Blueberry, so I'm anxious to check those out. Pike also was kind enough to get some footage of people running Hell's gate, though I'm not sure whose camera it was on. I got some video of the Seal Launch, but that's about it. I got a couple of them posted on my YouTube page, so hit the link on the right side of this page to check em out. Unfortunately, both the videos and the pics in this post were taken with my poor old point-and-shoot which got flooded last year and has kind of a haze thing going on with the lens. Just think of it as a diffuser and it's all good.

Congratulations!

2008-06-16T10:03:00.004-05:00

This was quite the happy weekend. First and foremost, congratulations to Dennis for getting engaged! I never thought I'd see the day, but I couldn't be happier for him. Here's wishing him and his soon-to-be family the very best.

On a less momentous, but still very happy note, Dennis and I met a whole bunch of new Canoe U grads down at the Verm on Sunday. The river was at a good level for beginning paddlers (~120 cfs) and the newbies really ripped it up! I was completely impressed by both their skill level and enthusiasm. It's really great to see. We were also joined by Eric (a solid paddler who's a transplant from Wausau), Paul B, and Barney and his wife. It was a great group and a really fun day. Congrats to the new paddlers on their first Verm descent!

Unfortunately, I was too busy paddling and chatting to get the camera out, so there's no pics. Next time...

Ole's Photos from the Knife

2008-06-10T22:17:00.009-05:00

A friend and co-worker of mine, Ole, came along up to the North Shore and took some pics of us on the knife. There's lots of great shots - here's a couple from his batch. Thanks tons for taking 'em Ole!

I also got one more video posted on YouTube (see link on the right) in addition to the ones in the post below.

Knife River

2008-06-09T09:11:00.008-05:00

The North Shore of Lake Superior got slammed with as much as 5" of rain in 24 hours last week. This deluge sent the river levels soaring upwards and brought the North Shore Creeks back to life.

The Plan was to hit the Knife river in the morning, then hit either the French, the Stewart, or the very high Upper St. Louis in the afternoon. Unfortunately, other obligations limited us to paddling Sunday only and the creeks that had flooded so quickly had flushed most of that water down to the Lake by then. The French was too low to run, we were told the Stewart was too low (though later found out other people made the run and found it low, but passable), and the knife was low but runnable. We decided to try and hit the knife, then go and get some big wave action on the Upper.

The knife was a bit boney, but we made it down all right. The only carnage occurred when Brian J took a bit of a beating when he flipped in the lower section of the river and tried rolling repeatedly while getting bounced off the rocks on the river bottom. It looked like he took several good knocks, but no permanent damage. We were disappointed to find a small forest of trees wedged into the river right channel of Fish falls, making what would have been a really fun, 2-stage drop impassable. Nora has pics of it on her blog. The good news is that it forced us to check out the "fish ladder" that comprises the river left channel. It's a c-shaped groove in the rock that is a class IV- to IV drop, depending on the level. Yesterday it had a couple of small waves/holes at the top, followed by an 8-10' falls into a turbulent hole, then some more waves/holes and rocks to dodge on the way out. Aaron was kind enough to probe the run for us, dropping into the torrent at the bottom of the falls and punching cleanly through. Once we saw how easily he passed through, Graeme, myself, and Bill K lined up and headed through. It was a fun little run and definitely made the trip more memorable. The next couple hundred yards of Class III were boney, but fun, as was the drop below the Highway 61 bridge. We all made it to the takeout safe and sound, albeit a bit late.

When we got back to the cars it was already 3:45, so we didn't have time for the Upper. While this was dissappointing, we decided to head over to the Lester and just run the short stretch below Almost Always as a consolation run. It was fun, but I'm definitely wanting more. Hopefully we'll get another good rain so we can hit the French, the Stewart, or maybe take Mike and Melissa up on their offer to guide us down the Lester. Next time....

These are a couple pics (both of Graeme at the bridge drop) and videos (me on the Fish Ladder and Aaron on the bridge drop) I took with my little POS camera. Ole was kind enough to give me cd's of his shots from the day, but I didn't get a chance to download and post them yet. I also have a couple more videos that will make their way to my YouTube page in the next 48 hours or so. Stay tuned!

Sturgeon Pics 2

2008-05-31T11:44:00.007-05:00

OK, here's the rest of the blog-bound Sturgeon Pics. I'll put more up on the "my web Albums" link on the right if people want to download them. Otherwise, if you want a CD with all 600 on there, email me and I'll make sure you get one.

Pics:
1) Bill K dropping in
2) Graeme in Chameleon
3) Evan running the waves
4) Brian J sending up a wave of his own
5) Evan catching Triple S full force
6) Tommy, Craig, myself, and Graeme on the Couch
7) Graeme and I chillin' on the couch
8) Craig throwing down a huge air blunt on Scary Wave
9) Tommy with the best seat in the house
10)Craig on Surfer's
11)Natalie catching Triple S

Sturgeon Pics 1

2008-05-29T22:27:00.007-05:00

Here's the first batch of Sturgeon pics. I'll have the rest posted this weekend. I also got one more video up on YouTube.

Pics are:

1) Tommy working on blunts
2) Me, about as happy as I can be
3) Me getting a back bounce off Surfer's
4) Craig showing how deep the Trough on Surfer's is
5) Mike J picking his line
6) Tandem surf - notice how much lower I am
7) Graeme in the foam pile
8) Craig looping Chameleon
9) Nora and Mike chasing waves
10)Craig back-bouncing
11)Nora staring into the jaws of Big Mouth
12)The headless cartwheeler rides again