Butte Creek, Oregon

Hey ya'll, I'm new to the Riot blog and excited to be! I'm a 27yr old paddler living in Corvallis Or. You can check out more about me here.

On to the fun!

Jan 13, Butte Cr is a small creek near Scotts Mills. Its mostly Class 2-3 but sometime it drops over twisty steep ledgy drops that end in stompy holes. Its kind of schizophrenic but in playboats it can be pretty fun! Three of us, Mike L, James B and I went out hoping to huck Upper Butte Creek Falls: a 30ish foot river wide falls you can see here but sadly, we got snowed out and just headed back down stream. I like to be short on the words and long on the photos so here goes! Thanks to Mike for the photos, check him out at www.michaellongphoto.com













Cheers,

EJ

Big boats coming a little later - New video out now

To all the folks who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Magnum 80 and Thunder 76, you are going to have to wait just a little longer. We are receiving the molds a little later than we expected and now think we will have boats available by late Feb, early March. Hold your horses because these things are worth the wait.

In light of all the waiting I do have something to report that is available now!
Night of the Living Donkey is a new kayak/horror video I've been working on for over a year and it's done now. Fellow team Riot paddler Joey Hall and I have just produced this video, the first of its kind, a horror themed kayak flick. Zombie theme to be exact. Several extremely famous Riot team paddlers are part of the cast including David Finney, Nathan Silsbee, Cooper Lambla, Chris Gragtmans, Andy Gates, Alan Young, David Spiegel, Joey and myself. Mind you, more famous than you could ever imagine. The world premiere (that's the whole world, meaning planet Earth, which is at least several hundred feet around) is this Thursday night, January 31th, 200ATE in Asheville USA at the Pizza Company. They serve pizza there and it's good to engulf several piece. Please visit the web site to see all about the video and the zombies and horror and kayaking, purchase a copy and to view the previews in Quicktime. http://NightoftheLivingDonkey.com
Read this flyer and the legible words it has on it so that you understand what the details of the video going on, rambling about the countryside.


Riot boats look good in zombie movies to be frank, real good. Zombies look good in kayak movies. Special too.

Love,

Spencer Cooke, Team Riot

Early Morning Eternity

The morning after the Millrace Massacre I got up at 3:30 A.M. to head off in the freezing cold to Eternity hole. I picked up Alan and was on my way. We drove for 3 hours up the dark interstate till we came across Sylva, North Carolina. When we got to Sylva and looked at the temperature gage reading 30 degrees we decided to stop by Walmart to pick up some cleaning gloves. After we made our purchase we headed to Eternity. When we pulled to the side of the road at the hole we noticed that nobody was there, not surprising because it was only 32 degrees outside. Then we suited up and headed down the hill to the hole.

Alan Young throwing split-ends.

Andy Gates Looping.

Alan Young back-blasting for a Mcnasty.

After two hours of paddling in the freezing cold we decided to get out, not five minutes later the water started to go down.

Here is the video of Eternity hole.

Be safe out there.

- Andy Gates

In Search of Flight

There is something euphoric about getting air in a kayak. That feeling keeps you coming back time and time again in search of mankind's fleeting desire to fly. The laws of physics prove themselves strong every time--but for that moment, when you are in the air, flying, you can get a taste of what people have been trying to do for centuries: Fly.


If you are having trouble viewing the video, CLICK HERE

Some have said that the New River Dries are the best waves in North America. I certainly have not found any better to date. This was an epic March 23rd, 2007 day. I left my hometown, snow pelting me in my face as I boarded my truck, and saw the temperature on the First Mountain Bank sign read "24 degrees". I then went to pull away from the light where I had stopped, which happened to be on a very slight hill, and my tires began to spin. I thought to myself, "Today is going to be a good day."

Adam Johnson in flight on the main feature.

The landing from the previous shot.

Two hours later I found myself in a surprisingly empty parking lot at the New River Dries Put-in waves. The level was huge. It was snowing and below freezing; yet, no one was there. I was shocked. I thought to myself "F#@%", until Ben Guska, Andrew Holcombe, and Yonton Mehler showed up shortly afterwards.

Andrew Holcombe skies an Airscrew part 1.

Part 2 of the Airscrew.

Holcombe with a backstab--a scary thing to do on this uncontrollable feature!

Andrew in survival mode taking a large bounce from the wave.

Part of the crew (from right to left): Yonton Mehler, Ben Guska, and John (?) from CO.

Soon we all put on the river. The day truly was a good day (as you can see). The photos say more than words ever can. A big thanks goes out to the Fayetteville crew for setting up the fire and filming (especially to Ben, thanks dude!).

Yonton goes big on a panam.

Clean Blunt!

Adam in the middle of a large panam.

Laid out: mid Airscrew

Ben Guska with a large blunt/panam off of the surfers left shoulder.

Andrew with another panam.

Until next time...

-Adam Johnson
WhitewaterFreestyle

canadian summer!

well, what else is there to say?
2007's summer in canada was awesome, i was competing in the worlds, working for owl and mkc at the ottawa and madawaska, been boating every day and met tons of interesting people.
and here's the result of this summer: me and my astro 58 on the ottawa and lachine, enjoying life...

photography fernando torres

photography fabian krummreich

photography erin rayton

i just can't wait to go back this summer!

peace, out,
sven

hi everyone!

this is my first contribution to the infamous riot blog, so i guess at first i'll try to explain who i am and what i do.
sven perschmann, germany, 25 years old, former student of english and sports, kayakinstructor, raftguide and member of the german freestyle team since 2006.
at the moment i'm staying in augsburg germany, close to the alps, a nice playhole in town and a pretty damn cool scene to hang out with.
from spring on i'm gonna be back in canada, then chile, then...
i'm supported by riot kayaks, kober paddles and artistic sportswear as well as the ahoishop. though i do enjoy creeking a lot i'm in a playboat most of the time.
my weapons of choice are the Astro 58 and the Magnum 72 and yeah, i´m biased but both these boats just feel as if they were made for me. and that´s how a boat should feel, shouldn't it?
besides the riot-blog i'm trying to keep track with my boating on bootfahrer and ahoishop.

i wanna say thank you to arnd schaeftlein for hooking me up with riot as well as vincent normandeau and jeff rivest for the great support in canada and a super cool time.

okay, but now to my actual topic:

LA MALATE

two weeks ago we were out in france for some bigwave riding and it was awesome.

la malate is one of europe's best and biggest waves, a super fast, glassy, steep, green wave feeding into a massive hole. quite intimidating at first but such a sweet ride.
i finally had my astro back out and i loved it!
but i think the pics and video speak for themselves...
thanks to Micha Schomann for the pics.

photography Erin Rayton

peace, out
sven

Fall Paddling in California

Running the Poe Dam on the North Feather

Although the reputation of California whitewater has reached a worldwide audience, most people think that after August there is nothing to paddle out here. Oh contrare'. Whitewater flows throughout the fall and winter months in most of northern California. Two fun class III runs flow on the South Fork of the American all winter long. This fall we saw releases on the South Feather (V), North Feather (III-V), and a section of South Silver (IV) below the well known class V section.

A fun boof on a seldom run section of the North Feather

Our "standby" run out here is the South Fork of the American. At normal flows it is similar in difficulty to the Ocoee. Unlike the Ocoee it not roadside but offers more opportunity for air with the price of additional flatwater.







Happy Paddling!

Dan Glauser

NEW RIOT SEAT for... Magnum 80, Thunder 76, Astro 58 & Nitro 58

Hello Everyone,

Well, with the advent of the Magnum 80 and the Thunder 76 in a couple of weeks' time, I figured some of you might want to know about one of the outfitting changes that is occurring in some Riot boats. A new seat, built to be released with the new river runner and creek boats this Winter will also be implemented into our existing "big-boy" boats, the Astro 58 and Nitro 58.

Here is a picture of Charles from the Riot Factory working on the large seat.


One of the most important things about designing boats for different people is that everything needs to be adjusted proportionately, including the outfitting. In this case, the larger Riot boats are designed to accomodate paddlers in the 180-250+ pound range, and the seat needs to fit those folks as well as the increased volume or length of the kayaks.

You can see from the prototype sketches that there is added length from front to back and side to side while still retaining the comfy, snug, fitting features of Riot's unique seat shape.

With Riot's already highly regarded outfitting this new seat will be warmly welcomed by larger paddlers who want to get into a Riot boat. That dream is now a reality.

I love Santie Clause,

Chris Gragtmans