belated weekend update

(The cable modem at home was out over the weekend.)

Wow, it's been all Clackamas all the time of late. My playboating has really come along, though...I'm gaining better control over surf waves, and nearly-reliably flatwater cartwheeling (example) my RAD 195...on one side, at least.

Sunday. Once again, I hit the upper Clack, playboat style. This time, with Scott W. a.k.a. Werewolf. We ran into Todd R. and Ken H., and I got more highly-valued tips from the old-schoolers. I'm feel so blessed to have these old hands at the game advising and encouraging me.

Saturday. Playboated the upper Clackamas with Kourtni. More progress playboating, and a nice day out. Teeny Weeny and Joe/Bob's Hole gave up nice rides for me. Turns out that Kourtni is not a half-bad boating companion...who knew?!?

Thursday. Got out after work with Luke S. on the waterfall section of the East Fork Lewis River. It was nice to see Oly, and I got a bit more insight into Screaming Left Turn, which is probably the most technically challenging rapid on the run.

I've been a bit timid since I smashed my nose on Canyon Creek. Fairly peeved with my helmet manufacturer (who shall remain unnamed for now) for their continual delaying of the release of their full-face add-on. I'll be firing it up again, but with this year's 150%+ snowpack, I'm in no hurry.

Looking forward to Lochsa River, Idaho for Memorial Day. Also, this summer's Northern California trip with the elders should be quite nice. Man o man, I love kayaking. It might be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Northwest Creeking Competition coming April 12th/13th

The first annual Northwest Creeking Competition will be held on Canyon Creek, Washington during the weekend of April 12th/13th. On the 12th is a downriver extreme race with four classes of competition, followed by a simply smashing party at Oly's place on the East Fork Lewis River with video premieres, competitor prizes, a bitchin' raffle, and much good times. The 13th will hold a freestyle waterfall huck competition to see who can run Sunset Falls with the most style.

I'm proud to be helping to organize this event. Our goal is to bring it back to being the community-based and conservation-oriented event that it was it years past. Mad props to Luke S. (in the foreground on the flyer) for being the driving force in making it a reality. If you click the image thumbnail above, you'll see the flyer I made for the event. My longtime friend Bo R. will be heading up from Medford to check it out, and I'm starting to get pretty pumped for it.

grand finale OKCC pool session

Tonight marks the final OKCC pool session of the season at Clackamas Aquatic Center. Scott W. might be able to score a squirt boat from Joel M. for me to try out, which would be interesting, as I've never been in one on the water. Scott and I will help Luke get boats to the pool tonight. I helped some folks with rolls last month, and got quite a thrill out of seeing the joy they felt when they nailed it. I'll split my time between helping folks out and working on my own skills tonight. It's a fun time.

Update. What a great way to end the season of pool sessions! I was able to throw a half-dozen ends in a row. I can cartwheel reliably now...if I'm in a RAD 175, RAD 185, or a squirt boat. :)

Scott brought a Bigfoot (squirt boat), and I gave it a go. The wave machine was on already, so my first squirt experience was a wobbly one. Without the proper outfitting, I could only stand a few minutes, but I was able to cartwheel some and easily roll that (medieval torture device disguised as a) boat. I'm stoked to do more squirt boating, for sure. In the short term, I need to practice and get in shape for the upcoming Northwest Creek Comp, though.

this summer: EddyFlower Vertical Challenge

This summer, I'll be participating in the EddyFlower Vertical Challenge as part of Next Adventure's team. (Wow, Mom...look! They put my picture on the site!) The Vertical Challenge is a competition for teams to kayak the greatest total vertical drop amount possible in a month (May 15 - June 25), with the proceeds benefiting the First Descents program for young adults with cancer. I'm stoked to participate! See the above links for more info. Here is the description from the site:

EddyFlower proudly presents the second annual “EddyFlower Vertical Challenge”, a contest of endurance, skill and mental determination. The competition is simple: you and your paddling buddies paddle as many runs as you can endure for 32 days and, to give your paddling purpose, the challenge involves raising funds for young adults with cancer. At the end of the event, the team in each division with the most vertical feet is crowned champion.

mellow day

Well, I opted to not head out for the Wind race. My buddy Tony took second, and His Honor Luke S. took 6th. Lots of loot for everyone.

I took a late afternoon play run in on the Clack, and boated well. I continue to develop the core strength I need to throw ends all day.

sunstrip to bob's, clackamas

With levels around 2550cfs, the Clack made for some decent play today. Todd, Ken, and Jim laid down some playboating science for this humble student. I'm a bit loose in my playboat these days, and both boats are leaking quite a bit more than is really practical. I detect an imminent boat-outfitting session...

park and play, joe bob's

I had a breakthrough day today parking and playing at Joe Bob's, at around 2750cfs. It was a great workout -- 2.5 hours, with maybe 15 minutes spent out of the boat. I completed an accidental back loop, aired 6 feet over the trough on a loop attempt, threw a couple of ends off the back of the wave, and just generally had longer and higher quality rides than I thought I was capable of. An hour and a half in, Tony S. and Eli L. showed up, and all three of us had some good playboating experimentation and progression. Tony and Eli bailed to check out the Roaring River put-in and take-out afterward. Hard beta is good to find.

clack attack, woo

Heading out this afternoon around 4:00 to playboat the Clackamas with Luke S. It's currently 3200cfs and dropping. Joe Bob's should be worthy, and the whirlpools should be nice.


Abort, abort! My buddy's lady left with his gear, so we had to settle for a Galaga tournament prior to Paddler's Pint. (Whoa! Sweet Galaga clone web game here!) I lost, 4-6. Apparently, competitive tabletop arcade Galaga is all about the kibitz. This is the offending machine:

So, no boating for Willie today. Picking a friend up at the airport tomorrow, so looks like Wind race practice runs on Saturday and Wind race run on Sunday, unless it gets too gushy. Riley wanted to hit Canyon Creek on Sunday to prepare for the April 12th race there. If the Wind is too high to race on, Canyon is probably going to be stout as well. Time will tell.

after-work paddling is back!

Gosh, it's nice to be able to head out for an after-work run again. Daylight savings time has its upsides, I suppose. :)

Tuesday. Hit a brown-tinted Clackamas River for a play run after work at around 3900cfs with Luke S. and Thor. More sick whirlpool rides at Big Eddy, and some nice surfs at Joe Bob's as well. At this flow, repeatedly attaining upstream to get on the wave is a solid aerobic workout.

weekend update - March 13-16, 2008

Sunday. Afternoon Clack play run with Kourtni went well. I had some sick whirlpool rides at Fish Creek eddy and Big Eddy, and I continue to hone my banzai line at Toilet Bowl...surfing the massive reactionary wave from river left to right, which lines me up perfectly for the Grand-Canyon-sized waves at the bottom. Got a decent wavewheel over the first wave and rode the next two out with my bow aimed at the sky. Ran into A&B folks and their blow-up toys at the take-out and tried to bum a shuttle, but they had already run theirs. Fortuitously, Kourtni was able to shake her hips at a passing vehicle with kayaks atop it, and we were in business in short order.

Saturday. Nice day playboating/creeking (in the playboat) on the East Fork Lewis River, with Luke, Oly, and Ken K. Level was 2300cfs or so, which makes this run a sweet-indeed blend of creeking and playboating. Highlight for me was the melt line on the left chute at Horseshoe Falls. I stuck it, went way deep, and emerged upright from the pile about 20 feet from the base of the falls. Pure bliss. Those guys think I'm a bit nuts, though. When I came up, I was about 5 feet off the bottom left corner of this marked-up photo:

Friday. Made it out to the Clack after work for a short run-and-play. Luke and I put in at Armstrong and ran down to Bob's Hole for a bit over an hour of good play. Joe Bob's seems kinder to me each time I try it. I'm gaining ground in the areas of wave-catching and front-surf stability. Level around 2800cfs.

Thursday. After handing Apple their own ass by presenting Linux thin clients to a local school district, I hauled my playboat out to the Clack for an after-work run with Diana. It was a perfect level for most of the rapids (~2600cfs), and we had an awesome run.

nose carnage update

Well, Dave G did not get a close-up of the carnage that occurred to my nose on Saturday. It's like he doesn't know that he's out there to be my personal photographer or something. Weird. ;) Anyway, this picture was taken Monday afternoon, and really does no justice to how awful it looked on the river, though you can see the black eye(s) that formed:

I'm guessing it probably looked something more like this on Saturday (file photo):

weekend update - clack, canyon creek, and rest

Sunday. I'll try to get out today, maybe an afternoon Clackamas run. The last thing I'd like to do is hit my schnoz again. EDIT: didn't make it out Sunday. Took the opportunity to patch myself up.

Saturday. I rolled out with Oly to meet Luke S. and Deek for a Canyon Creek run. Our group swelled to around 18 before it was done: Neal F, Chuck T, Ken Braumeister, Cory N, the midget and Cory M, R.T. and co. from Seattle, Mari and her "old-school boater husband", Ryan M, et al. Given the amount of people on the run, the carnage was minimal. Level was about 6" below the unit...pretty mellow.

Saturday Carnage. Wildcard IK crossover Markus got pinned upside-down between a boulder and the wall of the gorge, which was scary to everyone but him for a moment. I managed to bloody up my face with a close encounter of the paddle-shaft-related kind at Big Kahuna (a.k.a. Big Falls) by sneaking up on the undercut wall from below. I was in a borrowed LL Gus, and paid the price for a launch line gone awry, boof gone weak, and a melt line gone sideways. My nose was bleeding profusely from both nostrils and a cut by the bridge of it, so I was scaring the children with my bloody visage, for sure. Maybe Dave G got a good shot of it when it was fresh...time will tell. It looks a lot better since I cleaned it up, and I should only look like Meatloaf (per independent assessments by Dr. Peake and the Honorable Luke S) until the swelling goes away.

Reunion. Dr. Peake is returned from Mexico, and he, Kourtni, and I had a chance to catch up a bit Saturday night...the two that made it happen, and the one that couldn't. He shot some great photos down south, for sure. Summer schemes are still being hatched.

Friday. I got out on the Clack after work for a short run that actually included some decent play near Armstrong. Todd R, Jim, and Oldschool Ken gave me some good instruction in the fine art of surfing gracefully. By the time I got down to Joe Bob's I was actually applying some of it, even! Lots of work to do there, but it's getting better quickly. It was nice to see that my friend Diana actually boats these days. Level was around 1800...perfect for Teeny Weeny Wave.

open pdxk run on the upper clackamas

I posted this on PDX Kayaker on Friday:

Getting back to my roots, taking J.O.'s advice! ;)

The NWRFC forecast for Sunday looks to be about 2600-2700...one of the best levels for this run. Weather forecast is fair, too. If you have a hankering for a 10-mile run with some Class III this Sunday, meet us at Bob's Hole (Mile 36.7 on Hwy 224) at 10:30.

If you have any questions, feel free to give a holler or send an email. I'll be happy to show you down if you are new to the run.

Willie

And so begins a mellow trip down the Clack today. Got a couple of responses: a gal named Michele wants to join us, Paul M. will be heading out, and a feller named Todd might try to catch us on the fly midway down.

Weather is predicted to be partly cloudy with a high of 48 degrees. That'll do.

The flow is 2629cfs and dropping at Three Lynx -- Toilet Bowl should be nicely activated today.

The shoulder feels tons better this morning, and paddling motions aren't causing pain, so I'm stoked about that.

Post-trip update:
Paul M., Anthony E., Dave B., Luke S., and I had a great day in the sunshine on Three Lynx to Bob's. Todd joined us halfway down, and Kourtni was able to serve as a shuttle bunny owing to her going to the wrong put-in and finishing her run before we even got to where she put-in (Fish Creek). Betsy met up with us at the Hangar and good times were had. Nice day on the river. It was nice to see Alex D. and Shane on the river, too.

I was sorer than I thought from my Saturday fun times on Canyon Creek, but had a breakthrough cartwheeling the RAD 195 in the shoulder of a pourover hole. Surfing the massive pillow at Hole in the Wall while a raft and an unboated rafter were stranded in and above the Hole proper was a rush, too...looked like they had safety covered already. The wave at Toilet bowl was epic and my line was good.

Lots of raft and kayak traffic alike on the Clack yesterday. Level was 2600 at Three Lynx, but lots of cfs seemed to come in with the tributaries (Roaring River, Fish Creek, etc.), so it was pretty big by the end. The weather was mostly sunny and 65+ degrees in the sun...a wonderful taste of the spring to come.

canyon creek with the oregon rafting team

Should be a good level for today. :)

Post-trip update:
I learn something every time I go kayaking. This time the learning was intense and tiring. Canyon Creek was 2" above the unit (high-ish medium flow), and had many lessons for me. While I had several moments of brilliance, I managed to swim at Prelude to Thrasher after getting worked for a while.

Being worn out from my out-of-boat experience and agressively setting safety for the rafting team had me exhibiting some serious lack of grace at times throughout the rest of the run. Near the end I was upside down on some rocks and bruised the point of my right shoulder. Owie.

Thrasher was touch and go. I had a good line on Kahuna, and Champagne and Hammering Spot were kind to me today. It was a good, if strenuous and injurious, day on the river. :)

Edit: I forgot to mention that Mike G. and Sam D. were along in kayaks for the trip.