Beatdown Blog

New Wake Team Member, Austin Hair

2008-05-13T17:29:00.000-04:00

The Wake Games were a pretty big deal this year in Orlando. Almost 200 competitors came to this event to compete. Its a different type of contest because every rider who makes it past the first round qualifies and is assigned to a team. There are ten team captains, and these are the pros who finished top 10 in the king of wake series last year. The captains choose 2 other pros and 7 other riders from different divisions. It creates an good atmosphere of sportsmanship at the competition, and is a great way for the amateurs to get to know some of the pros. Not to mention there is a $10 grand prize pack for the winner.

The first day they only took the top 20 pro's from about 70 who went out to qualify. I won my heat the first day and secured a spot in the contest. I was drafted onto Daniel Watkins team, along with Erick Ruck and some people from the other divisions. We had a pretty strong looking team, but Philip Soven and Shaun Murray were looking pretty good as well, with both of them having some of the top amateurs.

On Saturday I was a little bit nervous, but was able to put together a pretty good run, with tricks like backside 5, pete, and back mobe. I stood up my pass all the way until the very last trick in my second pass. It wasn't quite enough to take down Rusty or Dean Smith, who both stood up their entire passes, landing 7's and 9's. I ended up 3rd in the heat, with Shaun Watson and Mike Marsh right behind me. My teammates, Daniel and Ruck, didn't qualify for Sunday either. Our team wasn't looking too hot.

Shaun and Philip both racked up some major points in the amateur division, putting them in the top two. Shaun Murray's team had the lead on Sunday, and it would all come down to the fact that Phil would have to win. Rusty stood up his pass, again, in the finals, landing a backside 7 off the double up. Phil was the last rider off the dock. He stood up his entire pass as well, especially riding good on the rails, and it looked like he was going to taste another victory. Then, unexpectedly, he missed the boot off the double up and pulled a backside 5 where he was meant to do a back 7. It was enough for Rusty to claim gold, and also allowing Shaun Murray and his team to win Wake Games 08 and the $10K prize purse.

Austin,
Team SR

The Futaleufu Relief Fund

2008-05-13T09:54:00.002-04:00

Hello there SR Family.

This is a incredible bad news from the Patagonis Chile;
The Chaiten Volcano is in total eruption from the last three week, Chaiten, futaleufu and all the small town arrow are totally evacuated.
The situation is very dangerous for all the Flora and Fauna. Km of mountains are completely covered be ash and many animals die evey day.

At this moment the Futaleufu town and all the area is in serious risk of life.
If you want to help and colabotare be in contact whit: The Futaleufu Relief Fund
Some good friends from the Kavu team are colavorate whit the "Futaleufu Relief Fund, P.O. Box 2344 Taos, NM 87571.

For more local info follow http://blog.canal13.cl/chaiten/ the local TV News...

For all the kayakers that paddle in this incredible part of the Patagonia in Chile HELP and be informate about this very bad new...

Rodrigo Tuschner
Team SR.
CHILE

Reno River Festival

2008-05-11T14:03:00.005-04:00

I have been in Reno for over a week training for the competition. When I got here the water level on the Truckee River was pretty low which meant hitting the bottom a lot. The level came up during the week but was still at a low level but was high enough to not hit bottom nearly as much.
The city was great and every day there were spectators watching you since the play spots are right in downtown Reno. The festival was so much fun and the event organizers did an amazing job with this event and were super nice. The competition started on Friday with boaters who were not invited. There were junior men, men, and only 2 women (Erin Clancy and me). We competed in the event and knew we would move on the next day to paddle against the likes of Tanya Faux, Ruth Gordon, Emily Jackson, and Devon Barker and only hundreds of people watching. There was no pressure on Friday and I had great rides and Erin also had great rides. I came in First in the women’s open and Erin second. Saturday was a totally different day. There was over a thousand people watching the event which was the biggest event I have ever competed in which was pretty intimidating.
In the Men's class EJ came in first, Stephen Wright second, and fellow SR padler Andrew Holcombe third. In the Women's class Emily ripped it up coming in first, Tanya came in second, and Ruth third. Unfortunately I still haven’t been able to overcome my nerves in a competition and came in sixth place which is disappointing but it is what it is. Once I overcome my nerves I know I will be able to compete at the highest level for now I just have to get over the mind game. I am going home tomorrow night and have nine days to prepare mentally and physically for the CO circuit and then we hit the road for like a thirty hour drive to Steamboat Springs.
Take Care,
Elaine Campbell

Taylor McCullough Wake Update

2008-05-05T12:40:00.002-04:00

Team SR Wake member, Taylor McCullough (bio) has been tearing it up with podium finishes to start off the year.

Taylor has been to the 1st stop of the Gravel Tour in Orlando, FL where she won the girls division. The next weekend was the IWSF Pan Am Championships in Miami where Taylor won her 2nd consecutive title in the Jr. Girls division. Then 2 weeks later she backed that up with a 3rd place finish @ Wake Games back in Orlando.

David Nieuwenhuis Africa Update

2008-04-15T10:03:00.003-04:00

David Nieuwenhuis has just returned from Africa and sent in these pics and video.

The video is a short seg from my segment for a video called 'Valley High' which based on paddlers from the Ottawa Valley and should be out later this spring.

Photos by Ben Marr

Tallulah to Dries

2008-04-14T21:48:00.007-04:00

Last weekend started with a eight hour drive to the Tallulah river, a river that only releases four weekends out of the year. We (New River Academy were stoked to get on this creek after being told it wasn't going to release in the spring then surprised when we heard the spring release was back on. The first day, we got on the water in the morning and took it slow since it was the first time even creeking for some of the people on our group. Luckily everything went smoothly for everybody. There the exception of a few dorked portages for people hiking back up for a second lap on Oceana, The largest slide on the run. Those ended in two people sliding down the side of Oceana, and diving in to a hole at the bottom.

Tino Looking down the middle line at Oceana(above)

Myself on the left line of Oceana(2nd from top)
Tino on a fun auto boof early in the run(top)

Once we got off the river and our calves had recovered from the 1127 stair hike in, we hustled back to the put in and made it just in time to volunteer to do the sweep run. Now that we all were comfortable with the river we could bust down for the sweep. Unfortunately the American Whitewater people didn't tell us that someone had hiked out of the gorge and left their boat, so we spent about 20 minutes at the bottom of Oceana confused calling for someone who wasn't there. The second day we only had time for one lap of the run and some video and photos. Then left to head back to W.V.
We got in late Sunday and woke up Monday only to find that the New River Dries waves were in. Most people would take some time off after hiking so many stairs, boofing so many drops, sliding down so much rock and sleeping in leaky cold tents, but it was the Dries. So after two days of great creeking it was two days of sick play boating.

Sam Fulbright goes for the Clean blunt.

The first day of shredding had three big waves lined up in the middle of the river. The first two were touchy and would green out, but the last one had a huge foam pile and dished out some huge moves. People threw down whatever they could blunts, panams, air screws, pistol flips, etc.

Tino hucks his stuff.

Sam Fulbright reaching back to panam.

The second day gave us one wide wave in the middle and several smaller more inconsistent ones behind it. Further down stream was the kahuna waves as well, which are not quite the Dries but you can still go huge on them. After the two days on the Tallulah and two on the Dries I went into a coma from exhaustion and woke up to write this update.

New River Dries Update

2008-04-14T14:00:00.002-04:00

Video update from the New River Dries and Talluah sent it by Team SR Member, Tino Spect.

Back in Henderson, NY

2008-04-11T18:15:00.001-04:00

I arrived in Henderson on Monday and the Black was around 17,000 cfs which is high for Inner City. I went up to Hole Brothers to see what Big Brother looked like and it was a burly looking hole. I drove down stream and found a sweet hole that you can do every hole move in. I paddled it for a couple of days and had great success with Phonics Monkeys and Mcnasty’s. I didn’t paddle today and am ready to hit Big Brother tomorrow. The level is like 22,000cfs and should be higher tomorrow with all the rain. Enjoy the video from the hole and I should have another video of Big Brother.

Enjoy!
Elaine Campbell

http://broadbandsports.com/node/15741

Hotel Charley 3: The Lost World Tour Schedule

2008-04-08T15:24:00.003-04:00

I just finished putting together the premier tour for Hotel Charley 3: The Lost World. Click here to see the schedule:http://www.jacksonkayak.com/jkfilms/hotelcharley3-tour.cfm

Click Here for the Trailer/Teaser

The new title from Clear H2o Films that is set to release April 22nd is The Lost World, Hotel Charley vol. 3. The meat of the feature length film features First Descents of wild, free flowing rivers from the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, the extremely remote Twang Region of India, and a descent down the soon to be dammed inner gorge of Brazil's longest river, the Rio San Fransisco. In search of this proverbial Lost World that exists in the world's last unseen gorges are film producers and 2006 National Geographic Adventure Heroes Ben Stookesberry and Jesse Coombs. Along with Jesse and Ben is a cast of characters that is as diverse as the locations in the film. From the ultra talented paddlers of Team Jackson including Eric jackson, Dane Jackson, Nick Troutman, Joel Kowolski, Chris Korbulic, and Darin McQuoid pushing the envelope in roadless Northern Newfoundland; to the stories and supper smooth of Indian/ Nepally Kayaker Lama Kundan in the farthest off corner of India situated between China and Bhutan.

In addition to the feature length film, the DVD the lost world will be jam packed with Bonus features including more incredible multi-day expeditions from Southwest BC, the Wind River Range of Wyoming, and Colorado's Southern Rockies.

If that's not enough Jesse and I want share our 3 week attempt to train writer Thayer Walker to become a class V boater; we called it the Crash Course. As a self proclaimed class 4 boater, Thayer spends 14 river days training in class 5 water in order to become a battle ready Expedition Boater. This is in addition to a Men's Fitness feature article of the same name that hit the stand in April 2008.

We look forward to seeing you at the premier and on the river!

-- P.S. Check out this great article in April '07 Men's Fitness: http://www.jessecoombs.com/media/mens_fitness/mens_fitness.html

Jesse Coombs
Team SR
jessecoombs.com
clearh2ofilms.com

Cane Creek Falls Report from Pat Keller

2008-04-07T13:12:00.008-04:00

Friday:
Classes until 2:30 left Asheville with Drew Duval and Dave Fusilli. Looked at a waterfall on the way there, but arrived at cane creek falls just after dark. there, we met Reed Minton, Bet Adams and Taft Sibley, who said they'd help us out with safety if we wanted to do something dumb. We walked down to the overlook and scrambled around in the dark (with headlamps) for
about an hour and a half, trying to visualize where the runnable line would be, and how much water was going off the beast. we knew the left side was clean coming in, but was absolutely horrifying due to the speed at which the water launches off the lip, and immediately goes vertical. on the right side, we could see a few holes and strange currents immediately before the
main flow launched off the lip, but in effect all that looking and (mostly) listening did for us was make us toss and turn all night with thoughts of dropping off, into that blackness. No more than 8 miles away from the waterfall, we found a bed and breakfast right off the road with a huge plastic elephant out front, painted orange with a huge T on the side. the owner, BJ was nice enough to turn the pizza oven back on for us, even though it was about 9:30, and their kitchen had already closed down for the night. well fed and red eyed from rubbing our eyes while visualizing, we chatted for a bit about everything we could think of other than the fall, check the flow and saw that it hadn't yet peaked, we went to bed happy, but ill tell you right now, i was scared shitless.

Saturday:
An alarm goes off at about 6 am. taft turns it off and i am terrified of the reality of the situation set in. i grunted, rolled over and went back to sleep for another half hour or so.
Drew started pacing around with nervous energy and shortly thereafter we
were all up and checking the level. didnt drop overnight! thats awesome...but really scary. dave said something along the lines of 'i dunno if thats a good thing or a bad thing'. Stopped at the gas station on the way there so drew could get some coffee. I was too scared to eat or drink anything but water and a few sips of his gas station coffee flavored water before we take this story any further, i want to take you into the past a bit. I first saw a picture of this beast when I was 14. I was in the Adventure Quest School at the time, and we were staying at the cabins over at rock
island. in one of our rooms, there was a photo of the falls from the overlook on the river left. it looked beautiful and massive, with a run in rapid. clay told me about where it was and his experiences with scouting it many times over the next few years, but i never actually made it over there to scope it out. last fall, Chris Graghtmans, Aarika Converse and i went on
a waterfall scouting tour of sorts and looked at fosters and greeter, but didn't go up to cane creek. knowing that it was a flat to vertical 80 some odd footer, i didn't have too much desire.
A few weeks ago at the ravens fork, i got to paddle with clay and a huge posse of bros, and when we got to the bottom the subject of Desoto turned to the possibilities at Cane Creek. he told me that he'd seen it flowing really really high not too long ago, and the left side looked great. he mentioned the right side being beautiful as well, but has always talked of the dangers
of the undercut wall to the right of, and behind the landing of the falls.
"it could be really bad" it's funny how sometimes situations in your life make it really easy to want to huck your meat. for example, on spring break this year, a huge rainstorm hit the northeastern part of Alabama like a ton of bricks on march 4th, the day before Daniel DeLaVergne's birthday. John Grace, Drew Duval and I drove down there in a real big hurry and knocked off the second, third and fourth descents of the monster. now, here i am, ready to huck my meat for reasons i will not go into here, standing at the river right overlook. the level looks
good.

The left side is what i start out thinking i would run. the decision was already made up in my head that i was going to run it...i felt good about the whole scenario, and my gut was telling me good things. I was surprisingly relaxed. when i climbed down to the lip on river right, I saw a
whole new way of running the falls. the right side would be more difficult due to the entrance holes, one of which was a 'v' hole, within about ten feet of where that locomotive of water flow went launching off into the abyss. i remember thinking that it didn't look all that big from there. funny how standing on the edge can warp your sense of depth in a major way. I saw three options as far as entering into the fall. i would love to go into detail about what i saw here, but i will not. i have too much respect for that waterfall to give away any of her secrets she was nice enough to show me. that waterfall could hurt someone really bad. I'd made my decision on running the right side. i didn't want to think about the wall at the bottom. it wasn't until I'd looked at it from the classic overlook I'd seen in the picture (on the left, up high on the wall) that i made my final decision on running the holes on the far right coming in, as opposed to a weird, bubbly boiling curler move at the lip, which could have sent me on my head or towards the wall. if the holes went well on the right, i would be on the flow moving right to left, away from the wall...but just to the right next to a scary kicker at the lip. i wanted to have my left
edge about eight inches to the right of said kicker. Reed and Bett at the bottom, Reed on photo and extra support duty, Bett on safety in boat, in case of a problem with the wall. taft was holding my camera at the classic overlook on river left, drew and dave on river right,
drew holding his camera. all was ready. When i was putting in, there was a couple that gave me a bit of a strange look as i ferried out into the main flow, and around the corner. one more eddy, one more chance to scout. i took it. one more chance for a slight line change. asked gut. did it. decided to hit the final v hole with a bit of right angle. In my kayak, put a little water in...not too much! didn't want to peel out and leave the safety of the eddy. cleared my mind, and peeled out. no way to back down now. coming in, i hit the first hole on the left corner. good. dropping into the v hole, i was terrified to see how big it was, and how hard it was actually kicking left,
right towards the kicker. went right through it and had only enough time for a back tap into a low brace before i was rolling over the edge. couldn't have asked for better placement. i went to vertical and pulled slightly on my right blade to set my angle at vert, then it felt natural to continue paddling down the waterfall. finishing on a left about half way down, i locked it up with my right blade forward and waited for the hit, kayak dead vertical. BOOM. one of those crumpling impacts where your mind has to reset. i felt pain in my hand, which I'd injured about a week and a half ago on my mountain bike, i felt pain in my neck, back, and ribs as well. once my mind had reset and i realized i was back on the surface, i rolled up
to find that i was exiting the falls out in the middle, far away from the horrifying nightmares that lurk in the cave. i looked back at the giant banner of brown and put my arms up to the sky, yelling and screaming as i soaked in the moment. it was only about 9 am.

By about 11:00, we were at the rock island rapid, the great falls of the caney fork. it was running at a massive 30,000 cfs. the falls was out of question, but the rapid looked awesome! that is, if you could make the ferry to get into the main flow. as we were all hiking down, they shut off a few of the gates up top and the flow dropped down to a runnable 15,000. Drew, Dave and I fired on out above the falls, and immediately got lost in the water. funny, coming from asheville and a basis of creeks, to be all of the sudden in a mess of 15 grand, going off what is now a river-wide15 footer. luckily, we spotted the tree that i was trying to line up with, went around it and headed for the good line off the falls. around I'd say 300 feet to the left of the spout line, theres a huge cap rock. we ran just to the left of this, off a really cool sloping kicker line, away from a really horrible hole far to our left. all landed and came out fine, so we headed down. there was an amazing moment when we were all floating down that mass of water in a line, and we were all
getting doused by a trickle waterfall that was coming in parallel to the flow. i looked back at the boys to see if anyone wanted to stop, or if we were bombing. 'lets do this' was drews comment. coming into the rapid, i was again lost. i actually led us all into the middle of the top hole. from
there, we were all in our own worlds, dealing with the 300 yards or so massive curler waves, that progressively got bigger and bigger! AOW! hiked up for a second run. this time is was dave, taft, and myself. reed was filming with my camera and drew and bett were holding ropes in the rapid. again we bombed off the falls, this time to a crowd of locals. again under
the falls. again through the massive curlers in the rapid. AOW! from there, the 'clay wright's local park and huck tour' continued with a peek at greeter falls. at approx 50 feet, this is one of the most classic examples of what the plateau has to offer. flat, moving water above, then the water arcs off a 90 degree transition to vertical, into a pool which i know from a the low water visual on the trip (with aarika and chris), there ARE rocks in the landing. i remembered there was one big one one either side of where you'd land if you chose the left line, and the right of center
being moderately deep, but the most dramatic transition. hoping for high water, i geared up and caught up to the rest of the boys at the falls. drew greeted me with something along the lines of, 'how big of a hit do you want to take?' it was low. I witnessed the first three descents of greeter falls when i was 15. Harry Fields, Dave Grove, and Seth Warren all fired off that big daddy on the left, with varying success. one line started with a scrape, and ended on his head. another was a twisting scare, another good. i was scared of the left side. At the last minute, I chose the right of center. I knew the lip scared the crap out of me, but i was confident. couldn't remember how deep it would really be, but i was fired up anyway. paddling in, I got really scared about boofing. i was staring at the knife's edge of a lip. I could even see where the water turned white from about six feet upstream of the fall. took a few backstrokes above the lip cause i did not want too much speed, then pitched off. right stroke left stroke...not really planned that way ahead of time, but as with cane creek, its what felt right at the time. landing with a big WHAP, i was stoked to not hit the rocks at the bottom, and to have landed just a hair over vert, tucked. all fine except my hand (the previous mtn biking injury), which was pretty lit up after taking that hit. wrapped it
up, took some ibuprofen and drove home.

Stay tuned to LVM and LVM TV for
footage covering the tour.

Pat Keller
Team SR

Africa update from Ian

2008-03-25T11:20:00.003-04:00

Hectic would be the best way to put it. I've been over here for three months now and on the road since end of October, long time to be traveling but this trip has been far from slow. First month was awesome in South Africa, tons of paddling funny water situation there but good none the less. Then we hit the real epic stuff in Mada Gascar as we spent a whole month over there charging ,racked up 6 first descents, and tons of stuff that nearly had me crapping myself the entire time. The highlight was a 3 day decent dropping a thousand feet a day that would easily rival anything anyone has found in the high sierras with some of those Toxaway style big slide from the south east. Along with the 9 ft. croc that came flying out of the bushes in full attack mode only 5 feet from me and my boat.

Then came the hectic month of travel and horror. I made it all the way to where i am right now in northern Tanzania only three days from the Nile and the chance to leave the van behind for a while so that we can paddle every day and relax. That only comes after 5,000 km of shitty roads, numerous scouts of flooding rivers and two days on the Zambezi that was running at half a million cfs. The biggest thing i have ever done or seen. 30 ft waves crashing on your head and sending you 25ft under water. Thank god for the pack jackets between our legs to keep our skirts from imploding, as swims would for sure be fatal. but with that behind i am looking forward to a little relax time and then one more multi day on the Murchison Falls section of the White Nile where we can scare our selves running from crocs and hippos before flying home to sanity and the chance to make a little money. Hope the winter was well, and I cant wait for all that snow back home to start melting again.

Ian Garcia,
Team SR

Patagonia & Dams

2008-03-19T09:58:00.002-04:00

Hello there dear SR Helmet Family.
The trip to south can't be much better, the Patagonia of Chile and Argentina is incredible.
We drive for 3800 Km. in 16 days to arrive in the magic Backer River, the Backer river is one of the biggest rivers in Chile and run with 55,000 CFS.
On the way to the Backer we visited the Gol-Gol river in Chile, the Escondido river in Argentina and the incredible Futaleufu river.

When you do a kayaking trip that long, the crew is something very important and this time we had a perfect team : Ema my girlfriend, my best dude Lj Groth, Evan Garcia, Severin from Europe and Juanito from Peru.

At the moment that we decided to do this trip, I was very interested to know more and more about the “Patagonia sin Represa”. This is a very big problem here in Chile, just because the goverment of Chile is ready to make a dam on the Backer and the Pascua River.

The big problem about this incredible Backer river is that next 2009 they are going to be built 5 different Dams that are going to be built on the rapid section.

Patagonia Sin Represas is fighting with the big electricity company Endesa and they want to built the electric dam in the big Backer and Pascua rivers and people is completely opposed at this dam project...

After have the opportunity to run this incredible river I feel totally sad just because all this beautiful place go to disappear and the future generation don't go to have the opportunity to run this awesome rivers....
Tomorrow we go to the mystic Middle Fuy for continue Run The Shit... So very soon some cool more picture....

From the very end of the world Chile.
Rodrigo Tuschner.

Paddling in Fayetteville, WV

2008-03-17T11:07:00.004-04:00

I left a week ago from Readsboro,VT. We still had about 3 feet of snow left on the ground and it was 20 degrees out. This trip I brought the dog and the cat. It was a 14 hour ride in great weather and the cat Laya seemed to enjoy it.

I paddled the New River Gorge 4 days so far and played at “Sweet Spot” on the Gauley. The New River Gorge has been at a great level and is big water fun! I’ve been working on macho moves and kick flips and am pretty sure by the time I go home I will get a few macho moves. I have been working really hard on the Phonics Monkey and have had awesome help from Kelsey Thompson and Bryan Kirk. I have a short video of one from the New. It’s not perfect but I’m happy with my progress.

I still have a week left and then I’ll head home to VT.

It feels so great to be paddling again!

Elaine Campbell

BRH Helmet Art Show in Asheville NC & NAWF experience

2008-03-12T23:19:00.000-05:00

The Shred Ready BRH Helmet Art Show is tonight in Asheville NC, 7-10 pm, clock time (aka, the time your clock tells you). If you are local and have time I highly recommend running down to Phil Mechanics Studio 109 Roberts St Asheville, NC 28801-3128 and check out the helmets. You can mapquest it. If you are familiar with Clingman Avenue or know where the Grey Eagle is, it's right across from that. I got to get a sneak peak last night and I must say there is some really cool stuff there, worth looking at. I got a few photos with my phone.

This one brought me back to the 70s, what little I experienced of the 70s

This one brought me back to HeeHaw Jones. I think HeeHaw's lawyers are not going to be happy. Uh-ohhhhhhh.

Here's me and the big guy himself, doing the helmet dance. Be the helmet, do the helmet dance.

There's the big guy and one of his little buddies, hanging out at the helmet art.

Pretty maids, all in a row.

I have created fire!

Ma Sherburne and the little lady would be proud.

Not to poo-poo all the helmet artists, but, Robert, the little guy on the left, he actually designed the helmet itself, so there.

Mean, awful, horrible human beings

Also, I just got back from the NAWF (North American Wrestling Funtime or North Alabama Whitewater Fans or Nasty Alien Wrench Farmers). I can't remember the acronym but it has something to do with the North, but it's actually in the South. Shred Ready is located in the Alabama North/South so I figured this blog was the appropriate venue for these words. I took some more pictures with my fancy phone camera phone. I had a fun time in snowy Alabama this year, my fourth visit to NAWF. This time I didn't get to win any NAWF money or NAWF prizes but I did have the honor of hanging out with famous celebrities from Jackson Kayaks, Dagger Kayaks, Wave Sport Kayaks, Riot Kayaks and other Kayaks. I was able to hear famous people refer to themselves in the third person, we ate fried chicken and baked beans together and we froze our clowny arses off in 30 degree temperatures all weekend. NAWF is fun.

The Mion Footwear guy was there. He is famous.

The Ben from the AW was there. He is famous. AW puts the AW back into NAWF.

This guy puts the Alabama back into Northern Alabama.

Chuck is famous.

Thanks for coming out. I also want to remind all people of hair lip hair growing potential that the IR Mustache King 2008 contest begins on April 1st. There are an unreal amount of prizes to be won for the bravery of hair farming. We are limiting the number of competitors to 40. There are still some spots available. TheMustacheKing.com

Love,

Spencer Cooke, Shred Ready member of team and owner of Effort Inc Effort.tv RapidTransitVideo.com Night of the Living Donkey Enter The Donkey

Chris Gragtmans is crazy, but I like him. DESOTO FALLS VIDEO

2008-03-03T15:44:00.009-05:00

Chris Gragtmans DESOTO FALLS video. You saw it first right here at ShredReady.com

My friend Chris and my other friend Chris went to DeSoto Falls last month. One Chris did the kayaking and the other did the camera...ing. I have looked up the Spanish translation of DeSoto. It means... the Soto, which makes this whole thing that much more amazing if I do say so myself.

The vehicle from which this short film is coming to you is a brand new one by the name of Rapid Transit. Brought to you by Effort Inc and Effort.tv. The soon-to-be web site is RapidTransitVideo.com where one will be able to find all sorts of FREE, online kayaking films, video clips, podcasts and other booty, courtesy of Mion Footwear and Riot Kayaks! All featured Rapid Transit videos can be seen at Mion Footwear's site. A plethora of other videos will be available for viewing at the Rapid Transit site from a variety of kayak filmmakers.

The DeSoto video has been shot and edited by award winning video producer, Chris Gallaway (Green Race Movie), and is sort of a soft launch for Rapid Transit.

Shred Ready has kindly sponsored this first video for Spring 2008 as a way to congratulate and celebrate Chris Gragtmans for his successful descent of DeSoto. Since it was right in Shred Ready's Alabama back yard it seemed more than fitting.

Please enjoy,

Spencer Cooke, Shred Ready Team Member
Effort.tv
RapidTransitVideo.com

Morocco Surf Kayaking

2008-02-26T10:31:00.004-05:00

Hey guys, just giving you a quick heads up from across the pond in Wales. Nothing exciting here to report on, so I guess you’ll be more interested in the 4 month road trip I’ve just got back from. I drove down to the most northern country of Africa, Morocco with my mate Marc Holland. We went armed with surf kayaks and a Ford Transit van for our home in search of waves. In total, we covered 13000 miles and surfed the French, Spanish, Portuguese and Moroccan coast lines getting in some amazing surf sessions! We were a little nervous so we invited our good friends Joey Hall and Spencer Cooke for some good old American protection. It didn’t work cause they’re a couple of wimps…This was probably one of the best surf kayak trips I’ve been on so far… I’ll be doing a full report in CKUK magazine but for now here are a few shots from the trip! Thanks to S.R for the support!

Cheers,

Nathan Eades aka Yellowboy

Team SR

A Letter from Tino

2008-02-22T10:25:00.002-05:00

Dear Mr. ShredReady,

It's true rocks do hurt. But luckily I am in the land of love, wine, women, and whitewater. Chile! Man, have the past few weeks flown by. I’ve been all over the place to a few of the world’s best creeks and some of the best waves the ocean has to offer.

Mr. Shredready, I started off at the famous surf beach of Pichelemu and let me tell you that place is smoking hot. Great pastries (lemon pie!), wicked empanadas, everyone is super nice and the beaches are of black sand. That is why I say it is smoking hot. I can’t hardly bear it to walk in bare feet down to the ocean. Anyway the waves are huge. Perfect point break sets with two beaches to choose from. The big one or the small one. To give you an idea the small ones are still about ten feet tall home dog!

We then shot down to the Siete Tazas A.K.A the Seven Tea Cups. The Seven Tea Cups are a natural wonder that have made some of the most perfect waterfalls in the world. Each waterfall has a perfectly rolling lip into a super deep pool with plenty of space between the falls and the next rapid.

We then spun our wheels out of the desert and down to the Fuy river. The Fuy might be one of the best creek runs in the world with challenging rapids and great levels. The really cool thing about this run is that it comes out of a lake so all the water is warm and there are waterfalls and play waves everywhere.

After a week there we sped up to Pucon, which is where I am right now. Home to the best creeking in the world and some great little play spots with beautiful water and views. We go creeking every other day and on the off days we just go to a wave and playboat a ton. It’s the good life for sure. Hope everyone is doing well out there. Catch you on the flip side.

Best,
Tino

Standard Fullface Review

2008-02-18T12:11:00.002-05:00

Eric Zuaro has been field testing the Standard Fullface for us. Eric is a sick tele skier out of Teluride, CO. Here's the review he sent in:

The helmet works great. I have used it on a sunny pow day, a sweaty tour day, and a storm day.The major drawback to a fullface ski helmet is that they fog your goggles. The standard has enough venting and space in the face opening where this has not been a major problem. The only fog I get is when I am breathing heavily, usually after a cliff huck. I really like the light weight and low profile design. The goggles help hold the helmet in place and it feels very scure without choking me. I have dinged it off some tree branches and bounced it off the rocks a little bit (with my head inside it of course!) and it shows no more than paint chipping and scrapes at this time. If you decide to say anything about the standard's ability to not fog your goggles you should reccomend a top of the line vented double lens goggle, I am rocking the smith prodigy with mine. Here are some pics:

Hello from VT!

2008-01-24T20:50:00.000-05:00

We have had some strange weather here in VT. The winter started off great with 3 feet of snow. Then it turned bad when we got rain and 60 degree weather. Some rivers ran but by the time I got home from work it was to dark to paddle. It was a rough week when that happened all I could think about was paddling while I was sitting in front of a kid at work teaching him how to produce the /r/ sound correctly.

What we have been doing is going to pool sessions and watching lots of football. You all must know that the New England Patriots are the AFC Champions and are on their way to make history as the first team in NFL history to be 19-0.

All they need now is to win the Super Bowl! Jeff and I went the to AFC Championship game. It was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. To be at a game with that much at stake and win was unbelievable. I don’t know how many paddlers are football fans or sports fans in general but here in New England we love our sports. We have the World Series Champions the Boston Red Sox, the soon to be Super Bowl Champions New England Patriots, and the Boston Celtics who are playing lights out Basketball. It is a great time to be a New England sports fan. Two weeks left before the Super Bowl and we are very excited. It would be amazing to go to the Super Bowl but don’t have that kind of money to toss around.

Even with all the excitement of the Patriot’s all I want to do is paddle. Winter bring us some more snow and give us an amazing spring paddling season!

Take Care,
Elaine

LF Tour Across Germany

2008-01-24T10:18:00.000-05:00

Wasserski-Langenfeld (the SR wake and kite distributor for Europe) is kicking the Liquid Force Tour across Germany to promote LF and the new Shred Ready Standard. Go to http://www.liquidforce.de/ for more info.

Also, LF will be hosting Rock This Town to kick off thier tour. Rock This Town

Mexico

2008-01-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

Greetings Whitewater World!

I just got back from a sick trip to the country of Mexico... the place has an unbelievable amount of whitewater and some very very large waterfalls. Mexico is an awesome place to go for paddlers of all levels, but carries a special attraction for class V paddlers looking to step it up and start freefalling long distances.

Scouting in Mexico...

Pat Keller, myself and Jake Greenbaum rode down in Pat's truck, and met up with Austin Rathmann, Ian McClaren, Jon Meyers, and Lawrance Simpson in Valles, Mexico.

Ready.

The reward after 35 hours of driving!

Filming at the lip of the first drop of Day 1, the Micos. 2 ran, the rest did a sick rappel off the side.

Micos waterfall from below... about 75 feet of total drop and 55 feet of freefall... Lawrance knocked out the First D of the left side on this trip, sick!

After Pat and Lawrance ran the Micos, we did the beautiful travertine waterfall run-out below and packed up to go to the second huck of our trip, Cascada El Salto. This waterfall has to be one of the coolest looking drops ever, dropping about 100 feet over three tiers. I've always wanted to run this beast, but my head just didn't feel right to do one of the biggest hucks of my life, so I opted out.

Two bad lines on El Salto...

Unfortunately day 1 took Jon Meyers out for the trip. He flipped on the 70 foot second drop of El Salto and fractured his left elbow. McClaren flipped too and although he didn't break anything, his elbow wasn't quite the same after that... the big drops will get ya!

Getting hassled by the fuzz. They had big guns.

Another 6 hours south and the next day we found ourselves in the final destination for our trip, Tlapacoyan in the state of Veracruz. This is where the Rio Alseseca makes its 30 mile plunge from the mountains onto the coastal plan flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Other than the Middle Kings, I have never seen any other river with sustained sick, (marginally) runnable whitewater for so long. The thing just keeps falling and falling, and unlike the Kings, this river is formed by volcanic basalt, and its jungles hide a tonne of huge waterfalls. Several different sections of the Alseseca were our focus for the remainder of our trip in Mexico, and I can't wait to get back and explore more.

The jungle here just makes you want to run everything. "Looks a little low but the portage is horrible, I'm gonna run it!"

Austin on Rapid 1, roadside Alseseca.

Lawrance styling one of the coolest rapids in existence, S-Turn.

The author enjoying the tropics.

Great drop on the Pezma section.

Pat Keller doing what he does best... plug in first and probe that shit for us!

The trip came to an end somewhat abruptly due to pending school responsibilities and some sickness in the group, but I know that we'll be back. If you are planning your own trip to Mexico in the future, I would advise the following precautions:
1) Wear long pants to avoid poison ivy/bug bites.
2) Don't carry anything illegal in the car... you don't want to go to jail there.
3) Take the toll roads, they are very worth it.
4) Bring tonnes of climbing gear... ascenders, two big climbing ropes and rappel gear
5) Take a vehicle with big clearance, the speed bumps are killers.
6) Bring your A game, you can go as big as you want!!

The boys satisfied after an awesome trip. We're pretty tough in case you can't tell.

Until next time...
Chris Gragtmans

2008-01-15T20:02:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELSEASE
1/15/08

SHRED READY, INC. ANNOUNCES BRH1 Helmet Art Gallery to benefit American Whitewater

AUBURN, AL -- Oil and water don't mix. Or do they? Come discover firsthand as Shred Ready hosts the first of several art galleries featuring original artist creations painted on their new Standard helmet.

Phil Mechanic Studios in Asheville, NC will host the first event, called BRH:1, on March 13, 2008. Along with the event, Shred Ready has launched www.becauserockshurt.com to create a place where helmet art can be celebrated and discussed. The site will feature work from Artists around the country in various styles and media.

All helmets will be available for sale or auction with proceeds donated to American Whitewater. Sponsors include: Kayak Session and American Whitewater, LVM and Pisgah Brewing (who will be donating kegs!). Look for future galleries at FIBARK in Salida, CO, The Outdoor Retailer Tradeshow in Salt Lake City, UT and Gauley Fest in Summersville, WV. Looking forward to seeing you there.

For more information go to becauserockshurt.com

Press Contact:
Shred Ready, Inc.
(334) 239-0179
customerservice@shredready.com
www.becauserockshurt.com

China update from Tino

2008-01-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

CHINA! This is the new place to be. There are huge rapids, easy rapids, giant waves, small holes, canyons, open plains, cities, countryside, well you get the point. I was traveling with the New River Academy teaching their video class and helping to coach their world-class junior kayaking team! What a privilege. We paddled three rivers. The Mekong, Salween, and Yangtze. Each of these three rivers has a big water feel but all three have very different features. The Mekong is canyoned in big water. The Yangtze is a lot of flat water with a few big rapids but seemed to continue the trend of the rivers there being mind blowingly beautiful. Then there was the Salween river. My favorite. There are giant rapids on it but what I really fell for there was the play. There were some huge huge rapids that were just super fun. 15 feet tall with eddy service. It will make you fall in love faster that you thought you ever could. It was awesome to walk around there in my gear. People would touch you and your gear and for the kids I loved letting them try on my Shred Ready Helmet. All in all the culture and rivers combined for my best trip. I can’t tell you any more about it because the rest of it will be in the upcoming movie Shades of Green which is being made by Vital Films out of Aspen, CO! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season.

Paddle Hard,
Tino Specht
Team SR

Photos by: Sam Fullbright Michelle Yates Matt West Brian Boyle

Kyle Stidham Fundraiser

2007-11-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

Kyle Stidham Fundraiser to honor a great friend and his legacy to the people he touched.

With four months of me planning this great event the time was upon us. The first people through the doors were the Stidham family. They were really supportive and appreciative to all the hard work I put into this and brought a very large collage of the great life Kyle lived. Without the help of James Graham the website and raffle would have never been possible. We sat up the tables and got everything laid out on the table and awaited the arrival of the masses. Buffalo Wild Wings brought in DJ Lee, local renowned DJ for Red Bull and future DJ of the North Alabama Whitewater Festival (NAWFest.net) DJ Lee was even able to put announcements, raffle winners, beers to drinks, and any other information on the screen to keep people informed on everything that was going on.
Finally, it was time to begin the Alabama premier of Lunch Video Magazine #24 Does a Dog Fart When You Kick It? to kick off the great event. The event was held on November 9th, 2007 at 7:00 pm at Buffalo Wild Wings in Trussville, AL. This event was a special fund raiser for Matthew Kyle Stidham, a 24 year-old kayaker from Hamilton, AL., who we tragically lost to a kayaking accident in New Zealand. When we began the first video there was not a seat in the building. This special fund raiser is an attempt to help his family replenish the approximately 15,000 dollars that it took for his return and burial. Kyle was an inspiration to us all and as a local paddling community and we wanted to honor him and his family. Buffalo Wild Wings was kind enough to donate a dollar on all 25+ drafts and all the money from Sweetwater Hummer and Sweetwater 420 throughout the evening. The energy was incredible with everyone drinking as much as possible and people that were just up there were very supportive of this great cause. In addition we raffled gear from various companies, sponsors, and kayaking affiliates with all proceeds going to the Stidhams. The crowd was fighting over the new Wavesport Promo videos and t-shirts that we tossed out. For added entertainment, we had locally renowned caricaturist/cartoonist, James Hislope, who offered his talent and time to help honor Kyle. James thank you for all your help. He charged $15 for each drawing and donated 80% of his proceeds to Kyle’s family. Mr. Hislope’s portfolio can be viewed online at Myspace.com/JamesHislope. After the LVM premiere we started video number 2. This was a video put together by Kyle’s friends of Kyle growing up in the sport of kayaking and his maturity in life. It was great to see the family smiling and enjoying the life that they had with their son. We did a few more knock back of drinks before we began the premiere in Alabama for the Wavesport promo. People were so excited to see Charlie Mix on video for the first time and he was overwhelmed by the autographs he had to sign. Thanks to Charlie to being a great sport and the brunt of many jokes. I want to give a special thank to all the sponsors that helped with making this great fundraiser possible especially Buffalo Wild Wings for not only sponsoring the event but providing a wonderful venue for us. Later I was told that it was the busiest night in the great sport’s bars history. Thank you to everyone that came out for the great cause and support the person that Kyle was. In the end we raised almost 2,500 for the Stidham family. If you are interested in ordering LVM please go LVMvideo.com

Pray for rain so I can see you on the river soon,

Jeremy Adkins

Team SR

Chile Update with Rodrigo Tuschner

2007-11-20T10:13:00.000-05:00

Hello there my incredible Shred Ready Helmet, I am so happy to have time to write a mail after we run all the biggest water falls and the best rivers here in Chile with all my friends and some TV show from USA.

This year is very cool because I have the opportunity to film with my good friend Tao Berman and the incredible crew(Lj Groth-Todd and Chris) we have been boating for two weeks, running the biggest and most awesome water falls and beautiful rivers in the Pucon area here in Chile.

We find very good water level and the production was an incredible experience for me.

Have fun and enjoy the awesome photos.
Rodrigo Tuschner.
Team Shred Ready.
CHILE