With a freshly-broken MAC-1 and a Cali creeking trip coming up, I find myself in the market for a new boat. I grabbed Next Adventure's demo of the Riot Magnum 80 and headed out to Oly's after work for a demo run from above Sunset Falls to his place.I like this boat! It punches holes extremely well, and resurfaces predictably. While it doesn't hold speed well, it tracks to a line while also turning easily. I feel like the slight V-hull at the stern makes the rear-end more stable and the boat easier to boof. This will be my boat for the Cali Gnarr Creeking Roadtrip 2008. Big thanks to Luke and Deek at Next Adventure for working with me to get into it on such short notice.
On the way to Oly's I ran into the folks with the mongo conversion van and a bunch of Pyranha boats. I said high again, and continued up the road. As Brenda was shuttling Oly and I up to the put-in in her sweet Model A Ford, we ran into them again -- they were headed to Oly's to camp for the night. We doubled back, Oly gave them a quick tour and a bottle of wine, and we were back underway. After the run, I got to hang and chat with these two lovely North Cackalackans (pretty sure that's how you spell it). It was Leland Davis and Andria Baldovin, of River Gypsies. Leland wrote the flyfishing and paddling guidebooks for North Carolina, and Andria is behind the Yoga for Paddlers DVD, among others. Dang, they are nice people! Hoping to meet up with them again for some boating when they swing back through Washington after their British Columbia leg. It's very inspirational to see people making whitewater work well enough for them that they can be on the road for 6 months out of the year. Someday...
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