Gunnison River Festival 2011

Gunnison River Festival this year was an overall successful event, even though there weren't that many competitors, due to worlds. But their was just enough to make it a great event. Here are some overall results.

Pro Mens

Craig Kleckner

Mike Patterson

Dave Fusili

Junior Men

Evan Schehrer

Hunt Jennings

Steve Anderson

Pro Women

Kat Levitt

Nicole Mansfield

Junior Women

SageDonnelly

Anna Schehrer

Sage Kitson

Big Smiles, Big Sur and Glenwood Waves

Glenwood.What a Big Wave summer for Colorado. Big Sur and Glenwood waves have been at great, high flows for weeks.

Glenwood, 21K. Fun, Fast.
Leif.
Big Sur.

Big Sur was between 24 to 28, 700, which created a good foam pile and steeper shoulder then at 22k and lower when the wave is mainly glass. Big Sur also has a 2nd wave/hole that is faster, more dynamic with an eddy. In addition there are some other easier waves. As you can see from the photos many people can happily paddle at the same time. Long rides with friends, big smiles. Casual scene, not crowded. Nice Camping in a beautiful desert side canyon nearby with good shade and hike.

Chris Menges and Morgan Shredding on SUPS.

Chrispy inviting paddlers and surfers to join in.
Group surf.

Second faster wave. Big Sur.River right side of Glenwood.

Crispy and Pat.

Update from Worlds

Today I am competing in the finals for the World Championships in freestyle. I have been in 13th place for prelims, 10th for quarter finals, and now going in to finals in 5th place. You can watch the video of my ride that got me in to finals Quarter Finals Ride. I am super excited to be competing in finals since this is my first worlds. Please get the full Haley Mills Worlds Interview. You can watch the live feed on the ICF home page http://www.icf-freestyle.de/ Wish me luck I am going to get ready to compete with 4 amazing women.

2011 Fibark Freestyle Finals

The Arkansas River was cranking at 3,400 CFS for this years Fibark competition. The Salida hole became a flushy wave and competitors struggled all weekend to stick tricks in the feature. Check out a few video highlights from the weekend.

Women’s Pro

Kat Levette

Natalie Kramer

Nicole Mansfield

Liz Block

Men’s Pro

Mattieu Dumoulin

Greg Parker

Michael Palmer

Quinton Barnett

Jed Selby

Lyons Outdoor Games Freestyle Update

The Lyons Outdoor Games was last weekends stop on the event tour. Lyons is a small town and puts on a smaller, yet very fun event. The festival always has a great atmosphere. It is more laid back and is all about gathering with other boaters to have fun.

The freestyle event was scheduled to start on Friday. After working in Denver, I raced up to Lyons and arrived at 3:50. I had never paddled before in the Meadow Park playspot and was lucky that the freestyle started 30 minutes late so I could get a few practice rides in. The hole was small and had a funky surfers left corner, but kayakers could plug hard for big loops and still get all of the harder hole tricks.

With US Team members gone, there were only 5 women and 10 men competing in the prelims. The women simply reseeded and everyone moved on the finals and the 6 men moved on due to a 5th place tie.

On Saturday, Adrienne Levknecht won the South Saint Vrain creek race beating out 6 men. Then in the Team Boatercross, I had the opportunity to be an 8 ball. Paddlers had to do push ups, run with their boat, and finally paddle downstream past a few 8 balls. As an 8 ball I got in some good hits including a blow to Stephen Forrester’s face. Sorry Stephen!

Photo by Scott Sady

In the women’s finals on Sunday Devon Barker took the honors with great and consistent rides. In men’s finals Mattieu Dumoulin scored 1010 his first ride which would be hard to top. I had 560 and was sitting in second. The announcer, Jeff Campbell, told me I need 1020 to take the lead. In the eddie I told Mattieu I was going to score 1020 and then had a great ride scoring 1020. I was momentarily in first until Matteau’s second ride scored 1040 which I wasn’t able to top. Mike Patterson rounded out the podium with some impressive rides.

Thanks to the organizers and sponsors for putting on the event. Oskar Blues, Smith, and the town of Lyons.

Freestyle Results

Women

Devon Barker

Kat Levette

Elaine Cambell

Jessica Yurtinas

Adrienne Levknecht

Men.

Mathieu Dumoulin

Greg Parker

Mike Patterson

Jonny Meyers

Billy Bob Malesky

Quinten Barnett

South Fork Kaweah

I try to make multiple trips a year to the Kaweah drainage. Its a really magical place to be with great scenery and even better rapids. I had originally intended on running the upper stretch of the South Fork however when we showed up with water high over the recommended levels every one took a second to review their decision. The group split 50/50 and I chose to head down stream one run for the Shatner Ranch Run. Dubbed for his large ranch that you boat through! All in all we had one swim on our trip, and it ended up being a great day. I love the personal first decent and hope for many more this year!

For more information on the South Fork Kaweah please check out this link.


I hope you all enjoy the little edit I put together for the trip.

Lyons outdoor games

This years Lyons outdoor games was as fun as ever, with awesome weather and great levels for all of the competitions. Last year SSV was raging high so we had to change the race to above the narrows, but this years flows were a nice medium for a race on the narrows. Only 9 racers steeped up this year but it was an awesome friendly vibe at the race with everyone just excited to be going fast and to have a racer to safety team ratio of 1:3. I didn't have my best lines but still tied ofr second with stephen foster, but all of us were no match for Adriene Levknecht who smoked all the boys with smooth super fast lines. Hopefully more locals will come out and race next year! Enjoy the pics shot by Nick Abrams.

Me on lap number one

Jonny Meyers

Kurt braunlich

Adriene Levknecht fast even with one hand on the paddle
race lap 2
Creek racing and Oskar Blues beer, life is good

Lap 1:



Lap 2:

Surfin' the Stampede

The Stampede section on the Upper Dolores has many surf waves in a scenic couple miles. A little local gem in south west CO. The waves have been fun this year with the high flows.

Some have great eddy service.

The warm up hole.

The levels and the features change through out the day.

Paddling through Aspens, Red Rock, and green pastural farms. Easy bike shuttle. Or just paddle the first set of waves, and walk back.

Cruising to the take out.

Badfish Stand up Paddle Boards!

Mariela and I went to Colorado for a few weeks in May and June. It was an action packed two weeks, with Paddlefest and Teva Mountain Games. If you've never been to the rivers out west, you are missing out. We stayed in Buena Vista, CO and surfed/paddled: Numbers, fractions and the BV and Salida Playparks.

Carving it up

We were able to surf some of the Badfish Boards, both down river and on waves. Mike and Zach are at the forefront of river surf design. It was awesome to surf some completely original designs.

Stand up River surf is a very new medium. Kayaks have been surfing river waves for years but SUP boards are relatively new.

Ollie

Badfish stand up Boards are available in a variety of sizes. 5' 11" to the 9' river runner. They are all hand crafted in Salida,CO.

Matt getting low!

If you are in the state of Colorado and you like to SURF? Get over and check out the boys at Badfish. If you just have to have one, get em at CKS!

See ya on the river

Aaron

Teva Mountain Games: Freestyle Results

Photos by Kaleb Timberlake

The Teva Mountain Games went off last weekend in Vail. If you have never gone, Teva puts on a huge festival featuring kayaking, climbing, biking, running, and dog events. Venders were out in full force promoting their company by handing out free gear and there were free outdoor concerts.

I competing in the freestyle event on Friday and Saturday. Competitors struggled to score high rides as the features was hard to set up, fast, and flushy. After prelims I was in 7th place and moved on with 15 other men. In semis, I kept flushing and only scored 170 my first ride. Luckily I was able to put together a better second ride of 660 points, just 10 points below the cut. Finals was exiting to watch as Dustin, EJ, and Dane battled it out for 1st place. It was close, but Dustin ended on top with 940 points.

Other highlights included free shwag (including 4 free Chipolte burrito coupons), watching the World Cup for bouldering, and the Xavier Rudd concert.

Mens Final Results

Dustin Urban

Eric Jackson

Dane Jackson

Mathieu Dumoulin

Bryan Kirk

Greg Parker

Mike Patterson

James Bebbington

Casper Von K.

Stephen Wright

Nick Troutman

Rush Sturges

Scott Sady

Michael Tavares

Jacob N.

Womens Final Results

Emily Jackson

Ruth Ebens

Haley Mills

Lauren Burress

Nikki Kelley

Tanya Faux

Elaine Cambell

Adrienne Levkneckt

Cali warm up

This spring I had 2 weeks off from school in late april so I headed out to cali to open up the season right, Nick abrams joined me for the trip and we meet up with a few friends along the way. We started off on a little creek called shirtail creek, it was a super fun tight steep creek and a great way to kick off the trip.

Boofing the first rapid, photo: Nick Abrams

Nick in pretty poor lighting

After a late night on shirtail we were lucky enough to stay at our friend Tera's house in Auburn and decided to do a two day run on deer creek, it was a great trip but was cold and rainy so I left the camera in the car which I regretted when it got warm and sunny the second day. Overall upper deer creek is a great run with only one portage at our flows (1200 cfs) but if you want to do the just keep going through the lower the shuttle for the upper took 6 hours.
After deer creek we headed into chico to see the sights and to drink some tasty beer, the next day we did butte creek which is an awesome little run with my good friend and bad ass chica lizzy english.
From there Nick and I decided on a 3 day mill creek run that drops over 4000 feet in just under 50 miles, this run was the highlight of the trip. Nick and I were able to hire a shuttle driver for pretty cheep and spent 3 incredible days out in the bush. The lower 30 miles was were the best whitewater was found and amazing scenery that looked like something out of hawaii. It is the best class 4+multiday I have ever done, check out: A wet state for a great write up

Nick on a typical drop on the upper
Nick cooking up some of our 1.5pounds of carne asada on night one of mill creek
Nick running the last rapid on the upper
Nick soaking in the scenery on the lower
Nick running typical class 4 gorgy lower mill creek whitewater

This trip was an awesome beginning to the season, I got on a new run all of the days out there except one (49 to bridgeport which is mandatory if you like worldclass class 4-5 boulder gardens. Check out the helmet cam video below for some more media from the trip.

Photos of Buena Vista Pro Rodeo

Stephen Wright, Big air

Emily Jackson

Men's Finals.Dustin Urban's Clean Mcnasty.Eric Jackson

Haley Mills, setting up for Air.