WV Molan-ing

Here's a lil video to watch of Dave surfing the new Molan in 5-Boat Hole in West Virginia. I was certainly a lil jealous watching the video wishing I was out east surfing and trying the fun new playboat..... but, then I woke up to the sounds of bombs and a snow report of 19" so I'm oK with it.

But, just another lil something something to get us all excited for kayaking season!

Team Pyranha Videooooooo

It's still snowing someplaces, but it's melting in others. I guess winter is about to be over, so here's a little eye candy to get ya stoked for the upcoming kayaking season. Check out this fun promotional video Dave Fusilli put together. It showcases what some of the team paddlers have been up to and includes clips of the NEW playboat... THE MOLAN!!

Also, check out this schedule of the Pyranha US summer tour. Hopefully you can stop by one of the events and demo one of the new 2010 Pyranha boats including the revamped Burn, Molan, and child-sized Rebel.

Until then, HAPPY POWDER!

Pre-season salt river trip

Living in NM, the Salt river in Arizona is an easy day drive away.
Not sure why I had never been on this river before, I was determined to get on it this year. After a hectic job working at the NM legislative session for 35 days straight, I rallied a few friends and we headed out to do a pre-permit wilderness run of the Salt. The key to doing a self support kayaking trip is to find a raft :)
Mike Pagel was kind enough to drive from Fort Collins (16 hr drive vs our 6 hr drive) and provide the raft support for us. It's hard seeing your good kayaking buddies become rafters, but after loading on all the food and beer, I wish more would convert.
The wilderness run of the salt is a 60 mile (including the day run) trip through beautiful canyons and spiky spiny scenery. I would rate it 9 out of 10 stars in terms of beauty. The whitewater is not bad either. Mostly class 3 with a couple 4's thrown in to keep you on your toes. I highly recommend this trip. Most folks do this trip in 4-6 days. We busted it out in two and a half in order to get home for work (some of us).
We had a great time, good friends and a special place.
I can't wait to go back and spend a more lesurily pace in this amazing place.
Permits are required after March 1st.
Salt river permit Info
No permit needed before that, but all rules and regulations apply. You are on Apache land when you launch, please pay attention to the fees due there and where not to camp as long as you are on the reservation.
Enjoy the photos......

Stocked up with good premium beer and the new 2010 Burn


Pagel and Lex rigging up among the masses


Not sure who this is, but he was happy.


We let all the Pre-season crazies launch in front of us. 12 rafts in this one group. We passed them pretty quick and never saw them again


kayaking buddy turned rafter and loving it...


Are we lost?


Carter and the ray of light watch as Pagel gets us beer....


Cot = great sleep


The first tall cacti, and it is tall-up to 30 ft tall. each arm=100 yrs of living


Nothing like a good rafting buddy to start the day right...


floating...


entering a canyon


Lex at Blackrock...


Lex was commissioned by the forest service to count fish


Matt at Blackrock...


Pagel=smooth


great friends and great beer....


enjoying the view


Sunset...





Nice camp...


Alien Pagel has landed..


Burgers-Elk- and Onax. Yummy


Carter break-dancing for whiskey


followed by bootie beer chaser...


Fire games...


con't


River trips are lonely...


Great camp


morning


Contemplating melting into the wilderness


Lex at Quartzite


Forest service contract renewed...


Matt at Corkscrew


notice the driftwood 15 ft above Pagels head? that was from when the salt hit 100,000cfs in February...


I'm tall, but this big boy was at least 20ft tall....


My religion!


I'll be back again next year. Enjoy the upcoming runn-off and be safe out there. Beers, Atom....
PS, the new 2010 Burn was really nice. Review coming soon....

Cody Payne Demshitz Made Episode 1

Well for the past few weeks the water has been super low in bellingham, but I can’t just not go kayaking, I have to go. I took my friend out for his first four times, and he is really stoked on it. I love teaching people who are excited about it because they make me realize how awesome of a sport kayaking is. Its so much different than most sports I do, so much more involved, and inspires the passion for adventure that is in all of us. This is why I Love kayaking, in no other sport have I felt like each new day was an adventure, felt like each day could end with me camping next to some river freezing.From the moment Cody sat in my boat, he has been non-stop just plain stoked on kayaking. He walked to my dorm room after the first day, and asked to borrow all my kayak videos. From what I hear from his roomate, he hasnt slept in days and Demshitz the movie has been playing for three weeks now. This guy just loves it. And im stoked to be teaching him because he loves it. I see the same stoke in him that I remember feeling when I started getting into kayaking some 6 years ago. Rock on!

Here is a photo from Cody’s First day on the river.


And here is a video from the days I took Payne to the river.

Demshitz Made: Cody Payne Edition, Episode 1 from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

A sick weekend in Hood River

The water has been low here in Bellingham, super low. After not kayaking since my last weekend in Hood Rio, I had to go back. Kurt and I rallied down from Bham to portland on friday night, and with no school on monday thanks to president's day we were stoked to kill it. Three days of paddling in hood river is super fun, some of the most concentrated, quality whitewater that I have ever seen. Saturday morning we had our eyes set on Ldub, but after a series of unfortunate events(gear being dropped off etc.) we settled for a lap on the Truss. I shouldn't say settled, the Truss is pretty under-rated in my book, it has some great quality whitewater(just not quite as good as LDUB). A big crew of my buddies from world class kayak academy were rolling in from Montucky to join us. It was gunna be a sick weekend.

Niko while waiting for gear, and waiting to go yakin.. sometimes dems gotta be patient.
We finally got on the river, here are Dan and Niko scouting big brother. Shortly after the stout crew of word class homies rolled up as well.
Chillin above big brother.
Davis Gove running big brother down the left.
Lil Dave Meyers having a clean line on big bro.
Me dropping in on Big bro.
Nate Garcia at the lip of Big brother.
Nate running BZfalls. Nate has a bet with lj to run it untill he swims....... he cleaned it.
Niko Peha on big brother, this guy kills it.
Erik Boomer and some other crazy rubber pushers styling big brother.
Sam Friehofer killin it.
Stylin BZ.
Stomped!
Griff Griffith a fellow CO paddler. This kid kills it.

After a nice run on the Truss, we started an evening of debauchery. The world class crew reunited had a killer night, needless to say lots of brown dancing went down. We awoke the next day not feeling incredible, but we still rallied to go do some kayaking no doubt. We checked out money drop, a nice 50-55ftr with a crazy fast lip. We scouted and decided it looked good to go.
The group hiking in.
Nate went first having a decent line, but landing a little over the bars and ejecting.
The paddle toss.
Davis Contemplating the stout.
He then ran, and ended up going over the bars as well.

I went, had a nice line folding into the seam, and plugging nice, but my skirt imploded and I ended up swimming. Check out the vid for some more footage.


Erik Johnson had a sweet line, but his skirt blew and he ended up swimming.
Sam Friehofer had a super sick line, but a blown skirt again made him swim.
A common sight at the bottom. Out of the 8 of us that ran it, 7 swam due to blown skirts and ejections. The other person boofed it.

Check out the video here

Money Drop from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Hiking back up to the car.

We went back to portland that night, went to bed early and got a lovely run on the LDub in the morning, then headed back to Bham. Tuesday dawned, and it only made sense to go get some Robe Canyon as I dont have class till 5. The level was 5.8 and it was super fun. After a wednesday of classes, we celebrated western wednesday, and I woke on thursday for my 8am geology class(which is a sick class but 8am is rough). Then I decided it only made sense to go run robe again before the water was completely gone hit it at 4.9 which is pretty low, I recommend more water. It was a good weekend/start to the week, I paddled 5 out of 7 days so I was stoked!