I recently put together a short video tutorial on how to flat spin on a wave. I wanted to follow up with a few more details than I could fit into the video. First lets cover a few wave surfing basics. Typically you want to do your tricks starting at the top of the wave. You want to initiate the move as your boat slides down the wave toward the trough. How do you do this, though? First get familiar with moving your boat around on the wave. You’ll want to get good a put your boat at specific points on the wave. Steer the boat with your eyes. If you want your boat to carve left, look left. If you want to carve right, look right. As a general rule you want to lead all of your moves with your head. Your head follows your eyes. Your shoulders follow your head. Your hips follow your shoulders, and your boat follows your hips. Just by looking left or right you will naturally do the rest of whats necessary to carve your boat in that direction without ever thinking about “dropping an edge.”

Now the gas and brakes… Assuming your in a front surf (facing upstream), leaning forward with your body will make you slide down the wave. Leaning backward will create more drag on your stern and pull you up the wave. If you’re back surfing this will be the other way around. Now if you lean back a little and carve hard you will go up the wave toward the top. Be aware of the boundaries of the wave. You don’t want to go so far up that you fall off the back or carve so hard that you fly off the side. I recommend trying these techniques out and getting comfortable moving around on the wave before you start trying to spin. After all, we all need to crawl before we walk.

If you’ve been working on spins you have probably heard people say you need to keep your boat flat. What do they mean exactly? We all learned to lean downstream in the beginning. This is to avoid flipping and while it works, it is one of those rules that you get to take liberties with as you progress. Perhaps what we should say instead of keep your boat “flat,” is keep your boat parallel. You want the planing surface of your kayak to be parallel to the water under it in order to allow your boat to plane or slide. These means if you’re sideways on the wave you need to let that upstream edge down a bit. This is definitely the tricky part and it’ll take some practice to get the hang of. Let it down too much and you’ll be hanging out with the fish, but not enough and you won’t be able to spin and you’ll drag off the back of the wave. After you’re comfortable moving around on the wave practice this by side surfing on the wave. If you’re heavy on your downstream edge your boat will bounce and toss around and you will work your way up the wave and eventually off the back. Try to let your upstream edge relax some. When you hit the sweet spot your boat should slide down the wave sideways and feel really “loose.” If you go to far you’ll get some roll practice.

Ok. Now that you’re comfortable with those skills lets get into how to do a 360. I am going to break down the steps as if we are spinning to the left, but it works the same in either direction.

First Get to the top of the wave.

Right when you start to slide down the wave look over your left shoulder. Plant your left paddle blade back by your stern. You should be able to see your grab loop, your paddle, and whatever is going on downstream. Your shoulders should be parallel to your paddle shaft. This ensures your body is “wound up” which will maximize your stroke.

Take a back sweep. Not a back stroke but a sweep. Push your paddle blade directly away from your boat. Keep looking at the downstream part of the wave. As your boat gets to 90 degrees apply pressure with your left knee. This is going to keep you boat “flat” and loose making it much easier to spin.

When you get to 180 degrees you’ll need to “rewind” your body for the next stroke. Look over your left shoulder again and spot the bottom of the trough. Pick a point and stare at it. Put your right paddle blade in the water next to your bow and take a forward sweep. This needs to be a sweep so be sure to push away from your boat. Also you will need to switch which knee is holding pressure to keep the boat “flat.”

As you come all the way around to 360 take a couple strokes to make sure you stay on the wave. As you practice you may not need to take the forward sweep. This is called a clean spin. You initiate with the back sweep and hold your paddle out of the way as your boat goes all the way around.

I hope this helps you master that spin. If you have questions feel free ask me out on the water or stop in The River Store and ask about getting some instruction on your playboating. If you missed the video you can see it here….

I found no shortage of any of these things on a recent trip to the gorge. After a long drought in California and a few days of good work I had a little money in my pocket and no reason to hang around home so I decided a quick trip up to the PNW was a good first adventure for the year. I was there for only four days of paddling and I was able to get 5 personal first decents and personal record high decent on the little white. I decided to start off with a little warm up since it had been a good two months since I had been able to paddle any “real” water. We paddled the Green Truss section of the white salmon my first day in town. I had never done the truss before and found it to be a little different than I thought. I was expecting big drops with stout holes but instead found  more continuous rapids. There were stout holes and some quality boofs but at least for the flows we had it seemed pretty forgiving in nature. None of the holes really felt like they wanted to punish you. There were definitely some rowdy rapids that were super fun. I went flying all over the place in double drop and came stern squirting out of a few others, but I never felt like I was gonna get beat down. Everything seemed to flush pretty good. Overall the run is just good fun. The only nerve racking part is the wood. I wouldn’t want to be swimming on this run, but I don’t really want to swim any run for that matter. Below is a picture of Dave Fusilli flying off big brother in the new 9R.

After a good day out on the river there is nothing better than getting together with friends for food and beer. We rallied back at Demshitz Palace to make home made pierogies.  Here is shot of the crew hard at work. Don’t worry no kitchens were destroyed in the making of this outstanding meal.

One rog all cut, stuffed, and rolled. Now we boil them. Then we fry them. Then we eats them.

After a good run on the truss, a good meal, and few beers I was feeling pretty stoked to fired up the little white the next day. It was a good foot higher than I had ever done it before which didn’t sound like anything the night before when we were discussing it over beers but the next morning when we were at the put in and I could see with my own eyes how much higher it was than when I had been there a few years earlier, I had to look deep inside to find that stoke from the night before. People say kayaking is really a mental sport and I agree. I have been losing the mental game for the past two years. I took a couple scary swims and I have been struggling to get my head back in the game since. I’ll admit, there was a point when we were at the put in when I thought about backing out. Looking at the river I knew it was higher than I had ever done by quite a bit and I had a moment of doubt. I’m not really sure what prompted it but somehow in that moment I knew it was just time to get back on the horse so to speak. My knees literally shaking from nerves I carried my boat down to the river and got in. I was a little shaky right off the bat and flipped in the landing at boulder sluice. I got pushed up against some rocks and had a hard time getting back up but manage after a couple attempts. At this point I was pretty fluster and wondered if I made the right call. I looked around and realized that I was committed now. There was no easy way out. I took a few breathes in the eddy to slow my breathing and regain my focus. I find it really helps sometimes to just remind yourself to breath and relax. Refocused I took on the rest of the run and as I started flying off drops that stoke from the night before found it’s way back to me. I am really glad to have had my Shiva on this run though. The rocker in the bow and the boats forgiving nature definitely contributed to having a successful run. It’s funny to me how by the end of the run I thought I must have been out of my mind to consider not going. Below is Rob Fusilli falling off S turn on the LW.

After a second awesome day on the river we did a little Demshitz wine tasting. Yes you read that right. Demshitz is sophisticated.

On my third day in the gorge we decided to travel a whole 30 minutes away to check out the west fork of the Hood River. There really is so much white water in such a small area that 30 minutes is a long way by comparison. It’s not all class V either. I know that is what you hear about from that area all the time but there really is something for everyone. There are plenty of class III and IV runs and some scenic class II runs too. Paddlers of all skill levels can have a good time in the Columbia River Gorge area. The west hood was super fun continuous class IV read and run. It is the kind of river that I really like. There are enough rocks and river features that you can make up interesting and challenging moves as you go down stream but there is really nothing that you have to make. You could just float everything pretty much right down the middle if you prefer. It had some really pretty mini gorges and the occasional surf wave. I’d be stoked to go back to the west hood for sure. I think this would be a perfect run for a boat like the Nano. It would be great for doing the little creeky moves and that flat hull would be perfect for the surf waves. We were having too much fun on the west hood and forgot to take pictures so I guess you’ll have to go see this one for yourself.

My last day in the gorge we got a sweet trifecta. We did upper Trout Creek into Trout Creek into Upper Wind. I think if you do Upper Trout the others are kind of a package deal but since I’ve never done any of them before I’m counting them as three personal firsts. Upper Trout was probably the most continuous thing I have ever paddled. We watched the gopro footage after and it really was just boof after boof for a solid 7 minutes. The water was screaming fast which was a little unsettling a first but really fun once you got into the rhythm. This first picture is from Dave’s helmet cam looking at the three boats in front of him with a boof between each boat in the shot. The camera really doesn’t do justice to the gradient here.

Looking back upstream you get a better idea of the gradient. It was like this from start to finish. This was another time I was super grateful for the shivas rocker and forgiving edges. You could barely blink the water out of your eyes before you were going off the next ledge and needed to boof again. Below Rob is chasing me into one of the very few eddies where you could stop for a sec and catch your breath. 

After we got to the Trout Creek section it got a little less continuous and the gradient eased up some but the general character stayed about the same. There were still plenty of sweet boofs to be had in this section though. There was one kinda sketchy log we had to negotiate. Doing most of my kayaking in California, I’m not really accustomed to seeing trees in every rapid on every river but in the PNW I seems to just be part of the experience. Once we got down to the confluence with the upper Wind the character of the river changed dramatically. The rapids on the Wind reminded me a lot of the rapids in the Grand Canyon except, they went on and on and on. This stretch was super fun although I think the edges on the Burn may have been more ideal for this last section of our trip. The river was still flowing really fast. There were plenty of big holes lurking in here too. When you got in the trough between waves you really couldn’t see beyond the wall of water in front of you. When you got up to the peaks you had to do a quick scan and look for warning signs of giant holes in your path. Overall it was really fun and I can’t wait to go back and see what other awesome runs the area has to offer. I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of what is there for sure.

I started this with a trip to Las Vegas. Huh? I know, not the typical outdoor adventure that I would normally write about, but this trip was a little different for me. We only spent a total of maybe two hours doing you typical LV stuff. The main focus of our trip was to photograph an art collection. Those photos are not available yet but if you’re interested send me a message and I’ll keep you posted when they are online. We did pretty well at getting out to explore what outdoors Vegas has to offer. I’ve always been pretty uninterested in going there. I don’t really like the idea of being in such a crowded busy place where everyone is focus on just one thing, money. However, if you take a short ride you can quickly be in a place that is much more to my liking. We explored a little bit of Red Rock and Calico Basin while we were down there. I would have never guessed such a cool place was so close to LV. The best part is, once you get out there you can’t really tell that you are that close to such a big city.

Amy really likes to be photographed in holes in the earth.

Pretty nice views in Calico Basin. It was a bit cloudy when we were there. It was almost hot the next day when we went to Red Rock.

They made me take off my shades for the photo so I’m all squinty. Some how this is better than wearing sun glasses?

Two sisters in another hobbit hole.

Obligatory iPhone selfie

Just as we finished up our hike and were headed back to the car the clouds parted and the sun came out. Better late than never. I really liked the blue sky and the clouds behind the red rocks.

We caught some pretty nice sunsets while we were there. If it weren’t for the pole and power lines it might not be obvious that we were in the middle of suburbia. 

It has been a little more than a week since I got off the Colorado River at Pearce Ferry, and there hasn’t been a day yet when I didn’t relive some part of the trip. This was my first trip through the Grand Canyon. In fact, it was the first time I’ve ever seen the canyon other than in photographs. It is difficult for me to think of the right words to describe such an amazing place. It’s even harder when to describe the feeling of living on the river in this place for 17 days. I will do my best to do it justice here but I’m sure I cannot fully convey this experience just in writing. If you’ve been there then you probably have some idea what I mean. If you haven’t been there then I should start by saying this. When you get the chance to go, go. Stop whatever you are doing and just go. Trust me. Life will be there waiting for you when you get back. You need to see this for yourself.

The canyon views look promising right from the start. Here we are packing up the rafts after breakfast on launch day. Everyone is pretty excited to get on the river and see what waits downstream.

We had planned a pretty short first day just to get everyone settled in. We stopped on this apparently sandy beach only a few miles downstream of the get in for a snack and a last glimpse of civilization. The beach turned out to be a quick sand like mud that had us all trying to not lose our shoes as we fought to extract ourselves from knee deep mud.

Our trip launched on September 30, which I think is the ideal time to go to the canyon. They stop letting motor rigs go after September 15th so you don’t have nearly as much commercial traffic zooming by on the loud boats and taking all the good camps. I had heard of this being a problem for other people in the past but we didn’t have to worry about it at all. This time of year is also after monsoon season. We had two overcast days with very light rain the night between them but otherwise it was blue sky all day every day. Highs in the mid 80’s and lows in the mid to low 60’s. Perfect weather for sleeping outside. I not sure why but we didn’t see any scorpions until our very last camp where we did find just one. I’m thinking maybe the cooler night temps made them less active, but we were told they’re everywhere and still never saw any. I didn’t put shoes on hardly at all for the two and half weeks we were there. I was worried about finding scorpions in the sand with my bare feet but fortunately it wasn’t a problem and after a couple days I didn’t even think about it any more. We never saw any snakes either which I was ok with. We did see tons of blue herons and a lot of big horn sheep though.

Krys Peka, first lady of Peka’s 11 is getting the oars figured out on day 1. By the end of the trip Krys was one of our strongest rowers and was confident taking on rapids up to 7’s. Nicole riding in the bow here was a powerhouse on the oars despite having never rowed before. She would take the helm and motor through the flats at speeds no one else in the group could match.

Our group “Peka’s 11” was comprised of 12 different people. We had 11 at all times. We traded one at Phantom. We had a good crew of people that came together pretty well over the course of the trip. Very few of us knew each other prior to the trip. Some of us including myself had some concerns about this aspect but I think it turned out great overall. It was really fun meeting and really getting to know a variety of people from different backgrounds and experiences. The trip definitely had potential to go entirely different than it did. Of the 12 people on our trip only 6 of us had any kind of white water or river experience at all, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some had never slept outside before. Of those 6 with river experience we had one experienced raft guide who had never rowed an oar boat before. The only person who had rowed at all was our trip leader. He had rowed a small relatively empty raft on class II and III, but never an 18 foot 2,000 lb. barge on Grand Canyon sized rapids. I know there was some nervousness in the group about this at the beginning. I was a little worried but to me that just makes it all the more of an adventure. One more element of the unknown to go down the river with us. Will we be able to get all of our gear and food down, or will we have a really epic rescue mission to end our trip after only a few days?

At the beginning the size of the canyon seemed foreboding. The views were amazing but at the same time they seemed to emphasize just how committed we were to whatever was downstream of us. As the days passed this feeling would fade and the views would become simply mind-blowing.

We were able to get campsites with hikes almost everyday. This was a nice feature that allowed those not on cooking duty to meander around and explore some side canyons after getting off the river for the day. This little canyon was an easy walk from our very first camp spot. Desiree was the only other person to go explore with me. The canyon has a way of making you get to know people. Either your in a raft all day together or you are the only two people around for a few miles.

Watching the sun go down behind the canyon rim and the moon come up to take its place is such a great time. I’d go back just to do this. Laying on the beach next to the river watching the sun go down just might be one of my favorite things ever.

On our second day was got to our first real challenge for rowers. House rock rapid. This is the first 7 and the first rapid to test our inexperienced crew’s ability to actually maneuver a raft. We had one oarsmen fall out of his boat but otherwise good lines all around. Confidence definitely increased after house.

Looking upstream at the crew scouting house. The small dots of bright color on the right are people. The canyon is giant. This rapid has a couple big waves leading into a large lateral followed by a giant hole. I ran it twice in my Jed. On the second run I actually tried to get into the giant hole but the lateral actually guards it pretty well. I was headed right for the hole driving as hard as I could when I hit the lateral and was picked up and deposited to the right of the hole. I’m pretty sure in a raft as long as you’re square on the lateral you’ll be in fine shape. I don’t think you can get in the hole if you try.

Manny, the team medic, wasn’t quite square on the lateral and went for the first swim of the trip.

After house our collective confidence in our rowing ability was up, but it would still be tested several more times before we were done. Nearly everyone got some time on the oars and by the end we had a few people who were getting pretty good at it. (Disclaimer: when I say pretty good at rowing I mean compared to the rest of us. I haven’t spent much time around oar boats nor do I really know anything about them so what constitutes good at rowing in general I do not know.) In the beginning those of us who brought kayaks were discussing at the start of each day who “gets” to kayak and who “has” to row. By the end it was more who “gets” to row. For the flat water the raft was definitely the place to be. You could have easy access to food, water, beer, music, and tanning. You could stand up and walk around on the raft or roll out a paco pad and nap. If you were in a kayak you had to paddle to shore and pull all your crap out any time you wanted something and you can’t carry nearly as many beers with you. After a few days the rapids became almost an inconvenience. In the beginning I was stoked for the rapids and just thought I had to get through the flats, but after a few days it was the other way around. This trip is all about the place and the experience. Not so much the big rapids. Don’t worry there are plenty of big rapids but after a few days they’re all the same. The features are enormous but if you’re a skilled kayaker they’re so easy that after a few the novelty of their size wears off and there is no challenge. It is fun to paddle a play boat up a wave where you can take 5 strokes up the face and do a huge wave wheel off the top though.

I would caution you that the canyon can be so unbelievably overwhelmingly amazing that prolonged exposure may lead to a caneurysm, a condition where the mind literally blows. To minimize risk I recommend closing your eyes periodically.

Home sweet home. This was our second camp. We had hurricane winds and really awesome steak fajitas. This was the only time the winds were really a problem but you may as well get used to eating sand in your food. It will be in everything.

One down side of going in October is you don’t have a lot of daylight to work with. Less than 12 hours everyday and down to about 10 hours by the end. Whenever possible it’s a good idea to combine a hike with lunch stop and scouting a rapid.

I have heard mixed things about the quality of play on the canyon and I’m sure you will hear contradictions to my assessment but for what it’s worth here are my thoughts on canyon play. There are some rapids where down river play is really good. Wave wheels and kick flips are huge and awesome. However, most of the rapids I found to be very surgey making it hard to predict the waves. The peaks of the waves could disappear on crash on top of you suddenly and unexpectedly. There were some waves that looked like great surf waves but you were coming in so fast it was really hard if not impossible to catch them on the fly and very few had eddy service. There were many times I would come over the top of a wave and see what looked like a good surf hole but it was 10 feet or more to one side or the other and getting to it once I had seen it was not an option. One hole that I did catch turned out to be really shallow. You can’t tell the depth with the muddy water and I ended up plastered to the top of a submerged boulder instead of plugging for a loop. Personally I don’t think it is worth taking a kayak if you have raft support. Just enjoy relaxing on the raft and if you want some real excitement try rowing one of those things through the big rapids.  All that said I have friends who say they love playboating the canyon so I guess you’ll just have to find out for yourself.

Here’s another view that doesn’t suck.

It never gets old. I could float and stare at these walls forever. Occasionally you do have to tie your things down and put away what can’t get wet so you can negotiate a rapid before going back to lounging on your floating recliner.

If you’re going to take rechargeable devices such as mp3 players and speakers I recommend you spend some money for a good solar charger. We had a few that were not so great. In october by the time you get to camp you’re in the shade so it’s hard to getting any juice into our speaker for our themed party nights. It is hard to charge things on the river since you have to keep putting them away to keep them dry.

A lot of the camps are right above or below rapids. I really liked falling asleep to the sound of the river but for some the noise is a problem. Earplugs are a good idea if you’re not into hearing crashing waves all night.

You’re not officially in the Grand Canyon until you pass the Little Colorado River. The LCR flows under a freeway not far upstream from where in comes into the canyon. It brings with it all kinds of debris which collects in the eddies just down stream. There is a good hike here and a great chance to build some good karma by picking up some trash.

Roger “Admiral” Peka enjoys some wave wheels.

After a couple day we are finally in the Grand Canyon proper. Upstream of this is actually Marble Canyon. If nobody told me I wouldn’t have known. It is equally amazing to the GC itself.

As I understand it our experience is rare, but we didn’t see any other groups until day 5 or 6 on our trip. It was awesome to be so secluded. As it was, we only saw 3 or 4 other groups total the whole time.

There are any number of places that people will say you should not miss while in the canyon. These places vary with each person because we all get something different out of each place, but for what it’s worth here are my top four places you need to see. These aren’t presented in order of ranking but rather in order of which name I remembered first. I don’t have pictures of most of them. I was too absorbed in the moment to think about my camera.

Red Wall Cavern:

This is a giant cave in the canyon wall. Plan to spend a little time here. It is great for pictures. The acoustics are stellar. It would be a good place for a dance party. Also games of frisbee and bocce would be really good here. This is one place I really want to go back to.

Silver Gotto:

This was possibly my most favorite hike. You will want some decent shoes for this one and keeping your pfd and helmet on isn’t a bad idea either. It isn’t a very long hike but it consists mostly of chimney climbing waterfalls, swimming across a pool and then climbing another falls.

Matkatamiba:

This creek bed is carved through steep winding walls that seem to go forever. I walked up the small stream a while and around every bend I found another begging me to go farther. In places the small stream of water disappears under the ground and in the deepest spots it was barely enough to make a splash in but it was easy to see where powerful torrents of water had carved out the walls over many years of flash floods. It was really cool being able to see the current just by looking at the dry rock walls

Havasu:

I don’t think anyone would disagree that Havasu is a must see.  The canyon is beautiful with red rock walls, green vegetation, and kool-aid blue water. I actually have some pictures of this place further down in this post so I will let the pictures say what I cannot possibly describe. I will say this though. Havasu is the place where I coined the term “caneurysm.” Very very amazing place.

One advantage to the kayak is the ability to move around and find shade when it isn’t so plentiful for the rafts. You can also explore under over hanging ledges from the canyon wall and small cracks that the rafts can’t fit in.

Around every corner the canyon provides another amazing view and another corner to keep the mystery going.

Jeff Peka came in with only a few hours of kayaking experience and no rafting but turned out to be our strongest rower. Shame he had to leave us at Phantom Ranch.

The muddy water made it really easy for huge holes to hide among the brown blur. Here Alex Dey takes an 18 foot raft into a hidden hole and in the next picture below he is all but completely subbed out.

You can just make out Alex’s head as his entire raft gets buried in a giant hole.

Getting her straightened out. The massive features could send a raft spinning like a top. and you thought it was hard to recover in a little kayak.

The admiral drops into the same hidden hole. He isn’t swimming he is rowing and there are two people sitting in the bow in front of him…

… there they are.

Manny and Monika find a dryer line after seeing two rafts disappear in front of them.

For the kayaks this rapid is a playground. You’re flying around crashing through waves, laterals, and giant holes. Hard to see but there are two boats in this shot.

The sunsets in the Canyon were really ok. I mean since there was nothing better to watch why not watch the sun go down and silhouette the canyon rim.

Watching the moon come up doesn’t suck either.

My watershed bag takes in the view after running Hermit.

Hermit is a well known rapid name from the canyon. It was one of the half dozen or so rapids that I at least heard the name of prior to my trip. It is short, fast, huge, and fun. Justin and Des are about to pull a disappearing act in the big wave here…

… I told you.

“Hey there is a big trench running through our camp here.” “That mountain sure is big.”

This is one of my favorite pictures from my trip. Even an amateur like me can get a nice picture once in a while.

This is Elves Chasm. I should have put this on my list of do not miss. It is a really short hike back to this little waterfall. It’s a great place to rinse off some canyon grime.

An elf named Monika jumps to the pool.

The flying elf Manny attempts to reduce speed before landing.

Not a bad spot for a full moon party.

I think this is the crew unloading at the ledges camp. I could be wrong, but if this is the ledges camp it is sadly the only picture I have of the ledges. I’m bringing this up simply to say, camp at the ledges. It was the coolest camp spot of our whole trip. You’ll thank me later.

As promised, Havasu. Trust me, you want to stop here. We spent about 4 hours and that was barely enough. Plan a day around this hike.

If you have kayaks and you might consider carrying one up with you. The water was just a little too low when we did the hike to make it worth it but I thought about it. How cool would it be to get a couple boofs in a place this magical?

Havasu

Convinced yet?

How about now?

I really love sleeping outside. Since I’ve been back I’ve been trying to get Amy on board with just sleeping on the paco pad in the back yard. She thinks I’m insane to want to sleep on the ground when there is a king sized memory foam bed only feet away. I don’t see the problem.

The pumkin. This is a toxic hot spring. Too bad it isn’t more inviting. Pretty though.

Fresh mountain water shower. Creeper with a camera included.

My chacos love the canyon view too.

Organizing the logistics and herding the cats on trip this big is quite a job. Thank you Roger “admiral” Peka for doing such a great job. I’m glad I didn’t have to do all that.

The canyon provides.

Team Orange Crush getting ready for another day of crushing it in the orange crush.

Looking at our last camp as we load rafts in the morning and prepare for our last day on the rio. 😦

It might be the last day but Monika is determined not to let that dampen her spirits.

Somewhere down there is the get out. A few more rapids, a quick pit stop, 30 ish miles to float by night, and then the get out.

The canyon views were epic all the way through the last day though.

No reason to hurry to the get out. Everyone is in chill mode today.

The rock in the walls down here looks like a temple.

The temple built by the ancient Aztecs a long time ago was burned down by the vikings. (What?)

I can’t wait to go back. Such a great trip. Such an amazing place. Such great people to share it with.

April McEwen taking it all in.

Oh yeah. I’ll be back.

These next few pictures are not in chronological order with the others. These are from my gopro and my phone and so are out of place in the story.

I kept this picture just to point out how big that hole is that we are about to hit, sideways.

Just another day on the orange crush.

Pirates coming up on our stern!

This was a really cool thing to wake up to. We got in to the put in late the night before launch. It was dark and we couldn’t see anything. We slept on this boat trailer and woke up to this view. Pretty promising start to our adventure.

At our second camp I got a sweet spot on a little shelf up on the canyon wall above the rest of the camp.

More views that don’t suck.

… downstream…

… and the previous two shots together in panoramic.

I know I’ve said this several time already but I can’t emphasize it enough. You need to see this place for yourself. Everyone should see this place for themselves. Even if you hate sleeping outside, you should still go. You won’t regret it. To help make your trip the best possible here are a few things I learned on our trip…

Canyon Lessons:

Bring more beer. If you have rafts going you have plenty of space. Bring more beer. I would say no less than 10 beers per person per day. Sounds like a lot I know. I rarely have more than one or two in a day at home but on the river you have no where to be tomorrow and you don’t have to drive anywhere so why not have a beer on the raft at 930 in the morning? Trust me, you can’t have too much beer. It will fit and the cans get smaller as you drink them…

Run the meat. The features are huge but just point ‘er straight down the gut and go for it. We flipped three rafts on our trip and two were flipped while trying to avoid a feature. Rafts are huge and heavy. Nine time out of ten it’ll be fine if you just keep it straight and hit it hard.

Don’t rent dry bags. During our flips people who rented dry bags from the outfitters got pretty wet gear. Fortunately it’s Arizona so things dry fast, but still not what you want. Get good dry bags for your trip. You will want them. I know they are expensive but get watershed bags. They are really worlds ahead of everything else. On that note, be sure to close them. I left mine open between my feet while rowing thinking this particular rapid wasn’t going to even splash in the raft. Turned out I was wrong and even a watershed bag isn’t too dry if it isn’t closed.

Tie your gear in. Double check this and triple check this. We lost a fair bit of stuff when flipping rafts and once my camera bag got ripped out of the raft despite my certainty that it was tied in. Luckily it was a watershed and I picked it up floating in the eddy at the bottom of the rapid with no damage to my equipment.

Do your own dishes. We set up our chore distribution so that the dish crew was doing all the dishes after each meal. This was by far the worst chore assignment to have. I think next time I would make it so the dish crew is responsible for the pots and pans and everyone can do their own dishes after each meal.

Don’t have people hike in or out at Phantom. We lost one of our crew at Phantom and it kinda sucks. He didn’t want to go home and none of us wanted him to leave either. Hiking out I think is a bad idea. Hiking in isn’t as much a bad idea, but if you’re the one hiking in it is important to understand that you are joining the crew that has been together on the river for about a week and you are the FNG. It is a tough spot to be in but a couple bottles of liquor hiked in with you will go along way to help you fit in with your new crew.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my pictures and endless ramblings about the stout ditch. Hopefully you found some useful information here for your own trip in the future. Thanks for reading.

See You On The River

Pete

This past weekend was the 2014 Moke Races. The race is an annual event put on by the Loma Prieta Paddlers. It takes place on the electra section of the Mokelumne (Moke) River just south of Jackson California. I have been to the races before but this was the first time in a few years that I made it down for the event. Saturday was practice day on the slalom course.  The course consisted of 20 gates spread over a class II+ rapid. Fast times were just under two minutes and the fastest time was just over one and half minutes. Saturday afternoon I lined up with more than 50 other boats for a mass start 3 mile down river sprint. It was chaos at the start line but we were spread out soon enough. There were some great battles for position as we charged down stream. I managed to secure a third place finish in my class and 6th overall. Sunday I was able to borrow a slalom boat from Tim Canavarro and enter my first slalom race in at least four years. It felt great to be back in a slalom boat after so long away. I surprised myself by taking 4th in the slalom race. There was a lot of talent that turned up for Sunday’s race and I’m stoked to have been able to do that well. Since the race I’ve been thinking I may have to get a slalom boat again. Just what I need, more boats in the garage. If you have one or know of one for sale for cheap send me a message. There is going to be another race on the South Fork American this weekend. I may have to race again now that I remember how much fun it is. 

I haven’t written anything for a few months now. In fact I kind of fell off the map. Even my closest friends were wondering what happened to me. You may have heard rumor or speculation about what happened. Please allow me to fill you in on what you may or may not know or suspect. I caught a not so rare affliction that can really put a damper on anyones kayaking habit. Last February I came down with ……. a job. Just when I thought it would never happen to me, it did. I was putting in 60 hours a week punching the clock from February to July. Having a real job is a strange thing for a kayaker. It is sort of a catch 22. Before I went to work I was running out of money and unable to afford gas to the next put in. After I went to work gas money was a non issue but I’ll be damned if I ever had the time to kayak. Monday through Friday were out for sure and by the time the weekend came, after 60 hours in the office I just wanted to sleep for two days.  I struggled for a while trying to find some kind of balance where I could still do some of the things I loved and just when I thought I was starting to get it figured out, I got laid off. Well, it was a short lived spell of the JOB. Some people get it and can’t get rid of it so I think I’m pretty lucky. I’m excited to have some money in the bank and free time again. Not sure how long it will last this time around but I do know a good way to find out. I have been working on getting back in shape these past couple weeks. It is amazing how fast you can get out of shape sitting at a desk all day.  Despite not having to work any more I am still really busy. I’ve been getting paddle sessions in on the Truckee river and the South Fork American. It might be a bad drought year but there is always something fun to paddle some where. I have been doing classes with Team River Runner more regularly and getting my niece and nephew out kayaking some too.

I liked the way the clouds looked on this particular morning while I was packing for the South Yuba. I managed to get a few runs in Before the water went away.

Some times I try to be artsy with the camera. I’m not sure I succeed that much but I thought this was an interesting photo worthy of sharing. I could have done it a little better but ok for a first go. Maybe I should take a class. (I am not affiliated with Astral, but I do really like these shoes)
I got a lot of days in on the NF American this spring. It ran pretty consistently for a while. Great training ground for newer paddlers looking to step up or playground for experienced paddlers.
Dylan and I spent a day trying to film some Loki action for the River Store to use on their in store big screen. I’m not sure it worked out that well though. I have a thing about cameras. If I know you’re filming me I will fall apart. Got Dylan out on the river for the day though so that was a win. I have really been loving the Loki. I have been using it as my river runner for a few months now and it is fantastic. I think my Jed might be getting jealous.

I got a little to high and dry on the spin rock at the top of the Floriston rapid but it made a cool spot to get a photo from. I love having this gem 20 minutes from my house.
I’ve been doing some mountain biking with my dog-in-law lately. Trying to get some cardio conditioning back and let’s face it, running sucks.

Well it might have taken a job for few months to get me here but I am soooo stoked to be back in the Sierras. These are my favorite mountains anywhere.

We had a great weekend on the river with the River Store doing free clinics with Team Pyranha. Afterwards we got to enjoy some tanning by the pool courtesy of John and Brandy Rogie.

One good thing about drought years is that it forces us to look for other places to kayak. It is easy to get a few places that you really like and just keep going back to them. I am especially guilty of this, but isn’t part of kayaking about seeing new places? Here we are stopping to enjoy the view on our way over to the Tiger Creek run on the Moke. It was fun and good to see something new. I also got to paddle the Tunnel Chute run on the MF American courtesy of the drought.

I spent a day helping out with a sea kayak demo in June. Not a bad way to spend the day at work. I know very little about sea kayaking but I think I need to try it out bit. I think it could be pretty awesome. I have for years now wanted to do a multiday self support out of sea kayak going up the coast.

This was earlier today. My nephew, Fisher (6, pictured), and niece, Elliot (10), ran their very first stouts. They were stoked to take on the rapids of the mighty Truckee River. Like any enthusiastic youngsters, they wanted to learn how to surf the waves. We spent a good deal of our afternoon paddling into the wave, flipping, swimming, and self rescuing. They had a ball and have no idea that they spent the day learning a solid foundation of basic skills for years of boating to come.

Spent a day last week paddling on Tahoe. The lake is oddly warm this summer. I’m not sure it is a good thing but I can’t lie, I do prefer the warmer version of Tahoe. It was such a beautiful day. The water is so clear. I was planning to take the kids up there tomorrow for some kayaking but I think they want to go to the river because “there’s no rapids at Tahoe.”

I want to take a snorkel and fins to the lake. Look how clear this is.

I really want to start doing more teaching. I am working on putting together a schedule for some clinics. If you’re reading this and are interested in improving your skills send me an email at pete.delosa@gmail.com I offer instruction on fundamentals of freestyle, advanced river running/intro to creek boating, and basic strokes. Group rates can be negotiated.

As always thanks for reading. I look forward to providing you more photos to help get through that daily grind. I know I needed it when I was there. Hope to see you on the river.

Cheers

Pete