Liquidlogic Ladies Lounge

Westwater in November

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers, Lisa Marie

Lava Tubes, Icicles, and Benham Falls

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

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

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

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

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

(Below) Look at those beautiful Jefe's!

(Below) Me in the lead-in rapids

(Below) Just above the crux...

(Below) Cold but very happy!

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

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

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

Toxaway, You are the Greatest in the Land

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

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

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

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

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

Fantastic picture by Clay Wright seal launching into the abyss.

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

And goes.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get out and go Kayaking!!!

Adriene

Out of Worlds but Not Out of Fun!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last Day before Competition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peace, love

Training for Worlds

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

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

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

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

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

with the lit up wave.

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

Until next time.

Caio and Happy Paddling

Queen of Gore Canyon '09

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

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

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

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

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

Meadowcamp from my Perspective

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

Here is one of my fave after-work runs in downtown Bend. Good, dynamic drops that always keep ya on your toes, no matter how many times you've run it! Meadowcamp is an Oregon style class 4/4+. Enjoy and don't get too dizzy! :D

Untitled from Christina Russell on Vimeo.

-Christina

Lava Island Falls Video

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 4 on the River

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

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

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

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

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

(Below) eh he he he

(Below) our picturesque lunch break spot

(Below) the jump rock- twas cold water!

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

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

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

check back soon for the final update...

Keepin' it fun and local in Silverton

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

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

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

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

Day 2 and 3 of the Rogue River Adventure

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

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

Pretty awesome spot

The always graceful...getting in

Josh playing around...

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

Our trusty gear boat captain- Debbie Mckeown

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

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

Behold! Our first campsite!

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

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

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

This is Christina, over and out....

Rogue River Trip- Day 1

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

Rogue River Trip- Day 1

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

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

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

Below- Me likey the Biscuit :D

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

Below- Holy poo!

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

I think Josh is happy!

Josh enjoying Leinman and not being a gaper like me

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

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

Hasta Pasta,

Christina Russell
Bend,OR

Homestake Creek Race- Teva Mtn Games

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

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

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

Adriene

2009 Worlds Team Trials- Glenwood CO

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

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

Adriene

Biscuit 45- Out of the Oven and on the River

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

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

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

Stay tuned for a POV video of Meadowcamp and Lava!

Hasta Pasta,
Christina

Flow's are Goin' Up!

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

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

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

(Above) chuck it Tyler!

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

(Above) Josh deep in the canyon

(Above) me punching a fun hole

Stay posted for a helmet cam video....

-Christina

Carnage!

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

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

Photo courtesy: Dan Jones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stay safe out there-
Christina Russell

Jerrys Baddle 2009

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

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

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

Adriene

Escalante Creek, CO

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

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

It Finally Rained in the Southeast!

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

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

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

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

West Coast Slalom Junior Olympics Qualifier

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

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

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

(Below) Alta enjoying the breeze

(Below) Mariah enjoying the course :)

(Below) Mariah stylin the gates

(Below) previous US Slalom Team member

(below) Mike Stahley charging the lower gates

(Below) Joyce Stahley making it look easy

(Below) Geoff Frank of Aldercreek

(Below) Rick Wright looking ahead...

Head-Cam Riverhouse

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

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

-Christina Russell

Cascade Creeking Video

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

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

Upper North Fork Tumalo from Josh Mckeown on Vimeo.

Happy Paddling,

Christina

Celestial Falls Part II

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Below) HOO HAA Oregon Tuck!

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

(Below) Christie's sequential shot...

(Below) Josh had a crazy line!

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

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

(Below) Look at that helmet hair! :P

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

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