White Salmon: Green Truss: another day, another cave rescue

The Green Truss in summer can be a real treat. This weekend, we had sunny weather with temperatures pushing 100 degrees F. You know it's a hot day when you can sit safety in the mist coming off Big Brother in total comfort, wearing shorts and a lightly-insulated drytop. My lines were good this weekend, so I got to be the rescuer in the scenario below.

Steve and I yard Eric out of the cave at the base of Big Brother
(photo by Chris Arnold)

Lower Wind: handpaddling Shipherd's Falls, melt line

I tried to prematurely boof a little to give my bow more downward momentum into the seam. I don't think I can get all the way under the foam pile to the downstream side without higher flows or a bunch of water in my boat. Either would be a scary proposition.


(Thanks to Ryan Young for the footage.)

just watched a hand paddle fly out of the boat on my roof and get kicked into the median by a passing car on I-405...good ol' carnage run!

26th Annual Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival

Ryan Scott made a sweet little video for the Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival this year. I almost completed a fakey forward flip off the ramp, at 2:59 in the video:

Northwest Creeking Competition: East Fork Lewis River extreme race

The second year of the newly-reincarnated NW Creeking Comp went off with a bang April 11-12, 2009. The race, party, huckfest, and camaraderie were sick, as expected. The Columbian wrote an article about it, featuring a photo of me doing an old school pirouette whilst waiting at the hole by Oly's house for some other kayakers to come down:

Upper Clackamas play: Joe Bob's

Joe Bob's is better at higher flows, but it's fun enough at around 2850cfs. Paul filmed me working on clean spins:



...and doing some sort of proto-blunt:

PDXkayaker Film Fest 2008: Semi-Pro Spotlight

Luke managed to get 2nd place in last year's PDXkayaker Film Festival, with Semi-Pro Spotlight:



I shot much of the footage used in the film. Luke and I were going to co-produce our effort for the contest, but he just had more spare time in the week leading up to the contest. I'd say he represented, for sure. The Johnny Ott BZ Falls carnage clip was a huge crowd pleaser. Ahh, memories.

Liquid Zen - "Where did you leave your shoes?"

After ten years of study, Zenno believed that he was ready to be made a Zen master. One rainy day, he went to visit the famous teacher Nan-in. When Zenno went into the house, Nan-in asked: “Did you leave your umbrella and your shoes outside?”

“Of course, I did,” replied Zenno. “It’s only polite. I would do the same thing anywhere.”

“Then tell me this: did you place your umbrella to the right or to the left of your shoes?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea, master.”

“Zen Buddhism is the art of being totally aware of one’s every action,” said Nan-in. “Lack of attention to apparently minor details can completely destroy a man’s life. A father hurrying out of his house must never leave a dagger within reach of his small son. A Samurai who does not polish his sword every day will find that when most he needs it, the sword has grown rusty. A young man who forgets to give flowers to his beloved will end up losing her.”

And Zenno understood that, although he had a good knowledge of Zen techniques when applied to the spiritual world, he had forgotten to apply them to the world of men.

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My thoughts on the above Zen koan as it relates to kayaking have made an appearance over at Scott's Liquid Zen blog -- check it out. I'm honored to be included with such esteemed kayakers on that site.

North Santiam: OKCC playboating clinic

On Saturday, I tagged along with the OKCC playboating clinic, handpaddling from Niagara to Spencer's on the North Santiam, with flows around 1050cfs up top. EJ took some pictures:

helping portage Packsaddle dam

EJ's and my Astros at Packsaddle dam

The highlight of the day for me was getting 4 ends while spinning around in a series of whirlpools at one of the squirt spots. The awesome part, though, was watching everyone make progress. Thanks to Michael Williams and EJ Etherington for leading the trip. EJ's trip report is up on the Riot Team site.

Teeny Weeny wave, low flow Upper Clackamas

I haven't updated in forever!

Here's a clip of me on Teeny Weeny last Sunday, shot by Paul. Getting used to the new(-to-me) Riot Astro 58. This was not my best ride of the day, as I was getting pretty tired. After flubbing 3 handpaddle rolls on the eddy line, I barely pulled it out.



Thanks for the footy, Rio Raul.