More Posters

More posters!

again, just showing the picture and part of the layout parts, not finished up yet....

Posters for Paddle Club

I'm trying to crank out some posters and brochures this summer to use for the paddling club at school.  This also gives me a chance to experiment with photoshop (just got it!).  Stay tuned for a few pictures of what I finish.

First one:

I am currently working on an Endless Summer photoshop.  I am hoping that the drysuit thing comes through and the poster can take an "endless summer through drysuits" angle.  Something like, "The Endless Summer, 'It may be cold outside, but it feels like summer in this drysuit.'"

Regaining Confidence after a Swim

Here is the footage of my swim.  A few things to note:  When a camera is tilted too far down to make for good kayaking footage, it makes for great swimming footage.  Having to hike out really shakes your confidence the first time.

Hold Tight for Summer

I haven't posted anything in over a month.  Sorry, but its been a very eventful semester.  I have quite a few posts to write, videos to edit, and pictures to post.  Finishing up exams right now, but I will have all summer to add some old stuff and post some current things from my return to the southeast!  I have to say that I really miss the Green.  Can't wait.  On the water in the SE on the 13th!  More to come soon.

Goals

I want to run Metlako Falls without swimming or bloodying any part of my body before I graduate college.  I've been thinking it over for the past few weeks, and I decided it today.  I need to start utilizing the great park-n-huck drops around here and I have people to go with.  It is just kind of a lofty goal that I am not sure I will make it to, but it will be fun to try.

I'm Scared

Immediately after my swim on the Truss, I questioned how this event would affect my paddling, and especially my confidence, and what exactly it would take to get back to that level again.  Obviously, continuing the paddle that river without incident helped, but I spent the next couple days in a conscious shock.  I told everyone what happened to me, hoping for some kind of resolution.  Based on what I had heard from other boaters, I knew I was going to feel weird and scared, and I kind of sat there waiting for it to sink in.  

The next Tuesday, I paddled the Upper Wind.  The level was medium/low and it was only class IV, but it felt a lot bigger.  That was one of the scariest days of paddling I've ever had.  But the hardest thing to deal with was the conscious fear.  Normally kayaking is scary in retrospect, I never feel out of the zone.  But on the Wind, I was scared in every rapid.  I'm sure my reaction time and movement suffered.  My sphere of awareness shrunk, leaving my running rapids pretty poorly, and I flipped once.  During the flip, my helmet cam hit a rock and was knocked off (luckily I had a back up piece of p-cord), but it didn't help my confidence.  Combine that with the inability to untie the knot due to cold hands, and I was feeling pretty helpless.  In the class 3 I kind of settled down, following a former Olympic slalom boater, trying to gain his skills by choosing his lines.  It felt good after that, but the bigger part of the river left me feeling gripped.  I didn't have good memories to look back on.  I was happy to get back on the water so quickly after my swim, but I wasn't happy with how kayaking felt.   (It probably didn't help that I hadn't repaired the tear in my drysuit...).  

After a week or so, I went through the helmet cam footage from my swim.   To be continued...

Bull Run: First Paddle Club Instruction Session

So Niko, Ben, and I decided to test out our paddle club instruction skills by taking Ben Hoffman (who will now be referred to as Hoffman to avoid confusion) down Bull Run, a Sandy tributary.

Bull Run is a class III run with a short little slalom course at the put in.  Its a beautiful river mostly made of conglomerate and weird ass boulders.  At the level we ran it at (low), it was pretty boney.  The weird rocks and low water made most of the run pretty technical class III boulder garden moves, which are not easy for a beginner.  Turns out this was Hoffman's first time on whitewater; most of his kayaking experience was in the ocean.  He had a pretty good roll, and his strokes were decent.  We later found out that his balance was very good and his instincts were aggressive.

Before we put on, Niko decided to give his drysuit to Hoffman, this was probably the best decision of the whole trip.  We put on and did some ferrying, which resulted in Hoffman flipping on an eddy line... He rolled up fine, but was pretty shocked at how cold the water was.  After his first couple eddy moves, we decided to progress down river.  Our 3 instructors to 1 student ratio worked out well as our time was inexperienced and hadn't developed much chemistry yet.  Our roles ended up being one of us, usually me, at the front, boat scouting and running stuff to see if it was possible.  Then Hoffman would follow one of us, usually Niko, down and usually Ben would run clean up.  We all had turns at each role, which we good for me, as I felt that I didn't get much trip leading experience at camp.

So, the river was technical, like, hard class III technical, not ideal for a first timer.  Combined with the shallow water, sharp rocks, and cold water, we had all the makings for a bad day for a beginner.  And, on paper, it probably would have looked like a bad trip.  3 swims, a couple scraped knuckles, some great upside-down rock interaction, a close call with an undercut...  But somehow, Hoffman managed to love every second of it.  It was super inspiring to see that look in someone else's eyes.  Besides the passion shining through his eyes, Hoffman definitely has the right stuff.

Through the multi-move, technical boulder garden rapids, Ben constantly surprised us by making past many hard moves, and saving it a couple times after being unable to make the right move.  Niko said that he would look back and be surprised to see Ben still upright.  This kid was a fighter.  Multiple roll attempts every time; many, many balance adjustments; frequent instinctive bracing; and active self-rescue.  You can't ask for much more in a beginner.

Instructing in such a focus way led me to a couple insights.  I found myself, like many instructors before me, yelling at my student to PADDLE PADDLE PADDLE!!!   Unfortunately, that never seems to help.  What is skill students lack that cause them to not paddle?  I think its pretty clear that most students would paddle if they felt able or didn't have something more pressing.  I'm starting to think that balance is the real problem.  Whenever instructors are yelling at their kids to paddle, the kids always look unstable, and from experience, I can say that when you are trying to not flip, it can be hard to paddle until you've trained yourself to balance BY paddling.  Beginners don't have this experience yet.  So I decided that I am not going to ever yell at someone to paddle again... if I do, it means that I suck as an instructor.  Other skills need to be worked on first, probably on flat water such as bracing, balance, and strokes.  And on the river, students need better water reading skills so that they can keep their balance and will be able to place strokes in the water.

Speaking of strokes, I really need to get that last eddy turn stroke, I feel myself doing the down stream boof-y stroke to get into the eddy, but I find myself not stopping my moment enough with my next stroke, or not getting enough turn, or something.  It might be that my boat is too big, but I think by observing Niko and working on a drawing Duffek, I will be able to get the rotation and momentum stopping that I need to catch micro-eddies like a class V paddler needs to.

Another Canyon Creek Run

I ran Canyon Creek at pretty low flow.  It was kind of scrape-y, and my lack of skill in water reading led to many rock interactions.  I think my boating style is defined by scraping on every rock I can in low water situations.  But it wasn't a total fail, I had a pretty good line a Kahuna, though I was caught leaning back again.  That rapid gets easier every time as I am again reminded how important landmarks are to having a good line.  The boil line sends you right down the flake at perfect angle every time, without that marker, your pretty much going off blind, which doesn't usually end well.

Boaters with a slalom background fascinate me.  There skills are so solid, their strokes so efficient, and their lines so un-rocky.  They almost always manage to find the deep water and carry ridiculous speed.  Their posture is perfect, and they never look like they are working that hard.  I think boating with guys like that is going to make me a lot better as many of their strengths are areas where I don't feel quite as strong.

I was able to do a little more river reading and decision making on this run as Toby's was pretty low water, and most of the guys wanted to fire up the right line or some weird middle right line that wasn't very good. I ended up running the sneak which was pretty scrape-y at this level, and I ended up not having enough right angle and slightly pitoned a rock, not fun, but I feel like I am learning a lot about scouting by no following so much.

Media Pursuits: First Overlay

Fooling around with photo editing software... I have about 3 runs to write up.  I think my blog is taking a turn for the serious.

East Fork Lewis

Though I was happy to gain so much experience in so many areas from my swim on the Truss, I was looking to do some slightly easier paddling.  I think I found exactly where my skill level is right now, and I am going to try to solidify my skills before stepping it up again.  Had a quick run of the Upper Wind during the week which is fun, but a little scary because I hadn't patched my drysuit.   Luckily, I didn't swim, and only flipped once.  

I'm pissed, I wrote all this shit about EFL, but internet died as I tried to publish... lost all my words.  I'll finish this later, anyway, watch my video!



Fun day, low flow, good waterfall practice. Music: Ms. Fat Booty by Mos Def

First Class V Swim: The Green Truss

Still editing video, but I had my first real swim. It's been year since I've been out of my boat for real, and it sucked.

I was boating with another guy from school who is much better than me down the Green Truss section of the White Salmon. Definitely has some class V on it, especially at the level (just under 4 ft.) Niko had run this river plenty of times, but neglected to tell me that this was the highest he had ever run it. I think this was probably to my benefit because I was pretty scared anyway. If he had told me, I might have tried to hike out.

This river has a pretty big drop, Big Brother, which I have been looking at footage of for a while. Its almost 30 ft with a cave thingy on the right and a shallow landing on the left. At this level, the normal river right line wasn't really in, but a left line between two rocks over a fold into a big slide opened up. It looked pretty stout. Furthermore, the next rapid, Lil Bro had a boil line at least 4 ft away from the base of the drop. Niko said he was walking, so definitely was too.

The river started narrowing up and had more of a big water creek feel than the creeky, manky southeast stuff that I am used to. Adjusting to the new style and feeling pretty scared on a new river, I followed Niko down every rapid. We scouted double drop, which as Niko described, is just one of those rapids where you roll the dice on flipping. Niko styled it, but I was still a little confused about how to run a rapid like this. It looked flushy, so I have it a go. I flipped after landing the first drop and make friends with a couple rocks and rolled up in the pool. Not exactly fun, but it was nice to hit some rocks and not freak out.

Eventually we got to Upper ZigZag, which Niko said was pretty hard to describe the line. I followed him into the tight gorge walls to see massive curlers and reactionaries. I passed a flipped Niko who had gotten eddied out by the most massive curler I have ever run. I ended up having a pretty good line, which I attribute to my Remix that is probably too big for me, but works great in big water.
Next rapid was Lower ZigZag. Lower Zigzag used to have a big ass log leaning on the left wall, which added some difficulty and made the rapid pretty classic, but, due to the floods that cleaned everything else in the area, the log was gone. I was kind of bummed that I couldn't run the exact rapid that I had seen in so many videos, but I was really grateful later... Niko pointed out this little flake that was mostly washed over on this decent sized hole along the right side, that was the line. I probably should have followed Niko more closely, because I was too far right, barely boofed, and ended up surfing the hole. I think the video can capture this next part pretty well. I felt a little frantic during my swim, but I got out all right. After quite a bit of hiking and attempted hitch-hiking, I found Niko, who had gotten my boat. My paddle wasn't so lucky, but my brand new breakdown made me feel pretty good.

We put back in, but I was getting pretty tired and my nerves were starting to wear. With light running out, and no set shuttle from the bottom, time was working against us. We portaged BZ Falls extra high, which was to my benefit, but involved a little more portaging, which always exhausts me. We got to the 17 ft seal launch that is the sneak of BZ and I was DONE. Niko had to hold my boat and push me off, I actually asked him how to seal launch (which I have done quite a few times) b/c I was losing confidence in my ability to perform. Luckily we got the bottom and Niko found us a ride with some local boaters before I made it to the parking lot. I was pretty wiped, and I think this picture captures it pretty well.

I love how my drysuit makes my face look extra fat...  The picture was Niko's idea.  He said that pictures after runs like this are always the best, and I have to agree, despite my dislike of my fat drysuit face.  I'll post up the swim footage soon, just have to make the video not so damn long.

Ramblings

   Two more runs on Canyon Creek.  Water is still pretty high the second time.  I flipped at the same place on Kahuna and ended up swimming, but for much lamer reasons this time.  I botched my first roll, saw the harmless but scary looking undercut wall, and swam.  It was stupid.  That whole day was mostly bad lines.  But the good news is that this lets you get a lot of rescue practice!  Luckily, my bad line off of Champagne turned into a good rescue as I rolled up with an empty boat in front of me.  I was in perfect position to push it in to the eddy on river left, right before hammering spot!  The reuniting of man and boat took a little longer than it should have, but it all worked out.  I had an assist on another rescue earlier in the run.  I guy lost his boat at a rapid above Kahuna.  I chased it down and managed to pin it on some rocks, which was hard because it didn't have any float bags (n.b. always have float bags).  I got yelled at by the trip leader because he thought i was going to go off Kahuna chasing after the boat, which was not the case, I knew where i was, but everything worked out.
   Second run was at a much lower level.  I think it was around 640 CFS.  The river was much tamer.  A few of the earlier rapids confused me, but I felt confident that I could handle what was beyond every horizon line.  Though the confidence was great, my lines weren't as good, probably due to not scouting.  But I finally ran thrasher, quite well, and had a great line on a much easier Kahuna.  Definitely a classic run.

Canyon Creek, back just in time

As you have probably heard, Canyon Creek is back.  After bitching about not being able kayak during the insane flood, I was able to reap the benefits.  The epic flooding washed out the giant logjam on Canyon Creek.  I would like to take credit for this happening, as it washed out as soon as I got to Portland.  But I think I will settle for having a great, close, classic run that makes half-day trip possible.
    The water was pretty high, I was expecting some hard class IV, but ended up getting a lot more than I asked for.  Luckily some locals showed up and showed us down.  I ended up flipping and going deep off of Kahuna, which caused my skirt to implode (first time!).  Pretty stout run for a newish boat, and a new style of river.  Many more canyon creek runs to come.

Copper Creek: First River in PNW

So I landed in Portland on January 14th, and not four days later, I'm kayaking class 4/5.  One of the guys I paddled with said that this was a good run to start up here on.  I have to agree.  Though we portaged "Final Five" gorge, I had an amazing time.  This run had many more big drops than I was expecting.  I have realized that despite my bit of class 5 experience, I have spent very little time running waterfalls.  I've run drops and ledges and slides, but few true waterfalls.  Luckily, the PNW is full of them, like few other places are.  I watched a lot of video before I came out here, and the landscape is as beautiful as it looks on camera.  The water is an unreal green, bursting with bubbles that seem to effervesce from nowhere.   The drops are stout and plentiful, the gorges are tight and committing.  The plants make me feel like I'm in Avatar.  It just feels epic out here.  I hope that I never lose the appreciation for and awe of the beauty of this place.

Music: Ted (Bibio Remix) by Clark

Album: Ted E.P.

Old Stuff 7: Cheoah

My helmet cam stopped recording after Bear Creek Falls, but I threw together what I had.  I didn't feel great about my paddling and it kind of shows.  The camera is too angled downward, but my editing was pretty good considering what I had to work with.  

PNW, finally

I'm sitting in my room feeling the mixture of boredom and pleasure that comes with being exactly where you want to be but being unable to do anything.  It feels like my plane has landed, but is still waiting for a gate to open.  Long story short, I have about half of everything I need.  I'm in Portland, but I don't know anyone.  I have a kayak and a paddle but no gear.  I have some webbing and trees but no slackline stuff.  I have climbing stuff but no way to get to the gym outside of walking (I could do it, but I have time conflicts).  I mean, its great to be here, but I would really like to have my car with all of my other stuff in it.

Also, I just got a kayak, but the outfitting foam extra stuff was left at the store, and I was too giddy from getting a new Remix 79 to notice.  The boat looks pretty sweet, and it barely fits into my dorm building.  Thanks to some creative thinking by my parents, I was able to stand it up vertically in the basement bike racks.  It BARELY fits.  The boat is 8'11" and the ceilings are 9'.  You do the math.  I was able to throw a couple bike locks on it, and it looks like it can't fall out or anything.  And if you are wondering what my RA will say when he sees it, you don't have to.  The RA boss or Area Director, helped me move it in!  Nice guy, but the latex gloves he was wearing seemed pretty weird.  Anyway, things are looking pretty good, people seem nice, I just have to make a move and get the rest of my gear.

I am waiting on my roommate to show up from who-knows-where.  But its not that bad.  I'm listening to a sweet genius mix and editing the small amount of Cheoah footage I have from last fall.  Now that I am here and its getting real, I am starting to miss the southeast.  I'll be back in the summer, but everything was so familiar there.  Being in Portland is like being in a foreign country, in a totally good way, but it is definitely foreign.  Everything will work out, but I've been waiting for sooo long.

Speaking of waiting and of me, my plane saga on the way over here was pretty awful.  I know that being able to travel across the country in one day is amazing, and I should feel grateful, but I really hate flying. It was your normal story of delays, running to gates, and missed flights, but the second flight has some great moments.  After waiting 5 extra hours in Minneapolis, our plane stayed on the runway from quite a long time.  I usually sleep on planes pretty easily; in fact, I have trouble staying awake.  Sleeping on planes is great, unless you wake up and your still on the ground...  Enough complaining.  Still waiting on my roommate.  I might try to talk to someone.  Cheoah footage soon to come.  Along with plenty of real new stuff.