Astro takes Silver in Japan and gets donkeyed in Charleston, SC

click here to see video of Japanese Riot paddler, Kenichi Ito, aka "ESPA", ripping it up.
Last week we received great news from our friend Hiroshi Enomoto in Japan. Japanese Riot paddler, Kenichi Ito, aka "ESPA," took 2nd at a big wave freesyle event in the Astro. Good job ESPA! Looks like a fun play spot. Apparently he was throwing huge aerial back stabs and pistol flips.




Watch Kenichi's video click here

Other news...
Over the weekend I was down at the East Coast Canoe & Kayak Festival in Charleston SC. I happen to be out in my Astro in the lake, doing some flat water cartwheels and whatnot. The funniest thing happened. These people came riding by me on a donkey.




Then this other guy passed me on a smaller donkey. He was in a hurry and I didn't have time to really get to know him. Good thing Kyle Lynch was there to capture the moment in photographs. Otherwise you might think I was lying.


Man. Lot of donkeys out there.

Spencer Cooke, Team Riot

Another Riot First descent in Afghanistan!

I recently did another solo first descent of an Afghan river, this time ticking off the Daryo-i Ghorband (Ghorband River) which flows from the pass leading from Kabul to Bamiyan, the place where the massive Buddhas were blown up by the Taliban. Following my successful first decent (and first ever kayak descent of a river in Afghanistan) of the Panjshir River in September, 2005 (for an account of this descent, go to http://boatertalk.com/blog.php?userid=willvdb&blogid=52 ), I scoped out the Ghorband on the way back from a field mission with my work for the United Nations Environment Programme and decided that the time was right to get on it. Two days later, my wife Lelania, who shot the pics and vids of the descent, and I were back in the Ghorband Valley to hit it up.



The run was fun class 3 and 4, with about 7 solid class 4 rapids and the rest fun class 3 boogie water that was just a joy to get down given the perfect weather and awesome scenery surrounding the river. I boated the best 11 kilometers of the river, putting in at a village named Bagh-i Afghan (Garden of the Afghans) and taking out at the village of Pul-i Mattak (Mattak Bridge), which was alongside the main Salang Highway route going towards Kabul from the north of the country. Along the way, I passed blown up Soviet and taliban tanks and armored personnel carriers, as well as mine fields and mud homes that have changed little since the 16th century.





The locals were stoked to watch the action and whole villages would turn out to watch me boat by, with kids running down river trying to keep up and old men constantly calling out asking me to stop and have tea with them in the homes. The security situation in the valley was very good and made for an extremely pleasant trip and the river awaits other boaters that are willing to brave the travel to Afghanistan to check out the endless whitewater possibilities throughout the country.





For more info on Central Asian and Afghan Whitewater, check out my website: www.kayakistan.com
(it is new and material is being added daily, so check back frequently)

Cheers Y'all,


Will

New River Dries at 24,000 CFS

New River Dries @ 24,000cfs (8.9mb)

New River Dries @ 24,000cfs (896kb)


Welcome to the New River Dries. One of the world’s greatest waves when the water runs. This past weekend, Billy Boylan and I originally planned to hit Five Boat Hole on the Lower Gauley at 7,000 CFS; however, upon viewing the gauges the following morning, we decided to change our plans.

I noticed that the Dries were at 24,500 that morning, a little low, but still good. So, I met Bill in Weston, WV at the local Wal-Mart, dropped his car, and we headed down I-79 and Rt. 19, the whole two hours to the New River Dries.

When we got to the put-in, much to Bill’s dismay, the put-in waves appeared lackluster. The top wave was the only wave in, and it pulsated, occasionally greening out completely. We watched a few people surf and do roundhouses before we decided to put our gear on.

Needless to say, the wind had been taken out of Bill’s sails. Alas, the semi-local was not discouraged, as bad days on the Dries of the New are incredibly rare. So, we unloaded the boats out of the bed of my black Nissan truck, put on the gear (Bill’s was wet and cold ;-), and headed down to the river.

The wave was not bad; however, the level was dropping to a point where it was slowly going out. We were greeted by David Hughes and company, Brian Jennings, Shane Groves, LJ Groth, and Michael Crenshaw, among others, in the eddy (all of the usual, Fayetteville local rebels).

So, Bill and I took a few rides, and then found out that Brian Jennings, Michael Crenshaw, and Shane Groves were headed downriver. Kindly enough, they let us tag along. So, after a short session at the hole on the left below the waves (where Shane was lucky enough to enjoy a thorough beating, having his nose-plugs ripped off and his life jacket shove up to someplace around his eyes), we chose to head down to Big Kahuna Rapid.

Big Kahuna is about a mile downstream of the put-in, and, at this level, had an amazing wave on the river right hand side. For the short time it was in (as the water was going up and down mysteriously), the wave was fairly incredible. Any move was possible there, anything from curtsies to massive, water tossing aerial pan-ams. Check out the video, as it will give the perspective:

New River Dries @ 24,000cfs (8.9mb)

New River Dries @ 24,000cfs (896kb)

Mad props go out to Michael Crenshaw for shooting the video, thanks bud. Later, Shane and Brian decided to head downstream while Bill and I could not leave the spot. Unfortunately, soon after they left, the wave got flat with a big pile, and was not as good as before. No matter though, because when it was good, it was really good.

Bill and I proceeded to head downstream and got to the take-out without any climactic events. Since we didn’t have a shuttle set, and Brian and Shane had already left (as we told them to), I decided to hitchhike. Almost as soon as I put my thumb out, a car stopped and I hopped in. It was a maroon VW Taureg with leather interior, driven by a man named Dick. Thanks to Dick, a lawyer from Fayetteville whose leather car seats I got totally soaked, for giving me the ride back up.

Bill and I decided to do one more run, and found it to be good, but the wave at Big Kahuna had gone out; nevertheless, still a great run on the Dries. Later, we headed back home, chatting about the Upper Blackwater from the previous day and the run on the Dries from that Sunday. All in all, a great weekend.

Enjoy the spring,

-Adam Johnson









PS- The Astro is unbelievable on waves! It's almost too easy...

Tallulah River and the phantom water drop

Hey Folks,

This past weekend I got the chance to paddle with my buddy Coop and a bunch of other cool people riding around in Sanders' newly acquired "Huckabego" RV... We had sweet runs on the Cheoah on Saturday and then on Tallulah Sunday; thanks for all the food and shuttles boys!

Anyways, a bunch of my other friends were out at Tallulah, so we shot some cool video of Oceana and some POV headcam footage through the rest of the river. I am constantly amazed at how many people are running Oceana... it's a super dangerous rapid(especially the left line), and deserves some serious respect.

The headcam footage includes most significant rapids of the Tallulah, but unfortunately my lense is not shedding water as effectively, so there's a big fat drop right in the middle of the frame for alot of the rapids below oceana... Sorry about that, I'm gonna hit it with some rain-x today.

Hope you enjoy.

Download Tallulah Video HERE (22 mb)

Cheers,
Chris Gragtmans

Jesse Browns - New Riot Dealer in Charlotte NC

Last week I visited Jesse Browns in Charlotte NC. They were very excited that the US National Whitewater Center is being built just down the road from their shop. They are performing crazy acts of exuberance because of it.


Rob felt that he needed to show us how to dump water out of a boat.


This made Karey angry so he gave Rob a knuckle sandwich to the spleen. Rob found it humorous.


Later they were so happy that they both continued to wear the same grey t-shirt, jeans and sandals. They celebrated


Jesse Browns employees are now accepting fan mail. Call them at 704.510.0089 or go visit them in Charlotte at 8929 JM Keynes Drive, Suite 400, Charlotte NC 28262

Don't litter!

Spencer Cooke, Team Riot

Spring is here.

Spring is not far away!

The winter is soon about to let go for us on the northern part of the planet. But here in Norway there is not any place to kayak yet. So I figured I had to shear the great summer we had last year with you. And for those of you interested in festivals and events around the globe, I`ll say a few words about the Voss Extreme Week.
As you might have heard, this year held the highest waterlevels we have seen as long as I have been in a kayak. The spring was cold and rainy, and the low temperatures made sure we had plenty of snowmelt even in August. And when the snow was gone, it started raining, raining and raining. Thinking about it, it feels as if the rain kept coming untill it started snowing in December
Yes, it was cold and rainy, and it sometimes took an affort to motivate yourself to go out and kayak. When the air humidity usually was above 80%, and the temperatures stayed under 15degrees C most of the weeks of the kayakseason, providing dry gear for the next day was a challange.
The wet weather cost the Norwegian society millions in flood damage and gave me a few nice infections, but it also gave us the most incredible kayaking season so far. Constantly high levels meant that at least 10 different rivers within an hour, was runable at all times. Me and Eirik Øvreeide spent the summer well, and got to run some of the rivers on higher levels than we imagined was possible.
The rain and snowmelt also made the Voss Extreme Week a exiting event. High levels provided spectaclular competitions. The week is held every year in the end of june. It includes, kayaking, rafting, skydiving, base-jumping, paragliding, hangliding, downhill biking and skiing. People meet to compete or just enjoy their sport for one week, only interupted by great conserts and other social happenings, every night. Check it out at http://www.ekstremsportveko.com/!!
Rain prevented us from taking our cameras out all the time. But we used the chances we got, and I thought I would shear some pictuers with you folks. Hope you enjoy them!! (For more info, pictures and videos from the Voss area, check http://www.vosskajakkklubb.com/!!).
Dag

creek race in Quebec

If you're a creek boater and Quebec city is not to far from your place, you probably want to look at this website! www.adrenergie.com

We organise a creek race on the Basse Cachee river saturday may 13th

we have a video from the river on our website, have a looklook to give you an idea!

expect a lot of fun

see you on the river

Dominic

Nile Report # 5 Million

Greetings sports fans,

Well, I'm getting my life back together after a one and a half month trip to deepest darkest Africa. I tagged along with a couple of good friends from Canada and was able to experience the White Nile for the first time!

I'll keep this brief since there have already been hundreds of other posts about the White Nile... All's I have to say is that this trip has truly been a perspective shifting one for me in learning to appreciate just how fortunate I am. In spite of the miniscule amount of money that the people of Uganda live on, their attitudes are some of the best that I have ever seen. They walk for miles in the blazing sun for only marginally clean water, and in many cases are malnourished and not properly sheltered from malaria and other diseases. Yet they're extremely happy and welcoming. I think we all can learn a lesson from them, and I know I will think twice before complaining about any of my petty first world problems. (Dismount soapbox)





On to the boating... The water was a bit low, but we were still able to access Nile Special via a ski rope that Billy, Dave and some others built, and which we all pitched in for. It's still an awesome wave that gives up bow clearing aireals if you're patient.








Another highlight of the trip was certainly running the big rapids of the Nile. It's a much different beast than trying to stick
hard lines on a low volume creek, and it's certainly great practice for keeping your cool in big boils and holes. I'd have to say that Itanda scared the crap out of me when I ran it for the first time, especially since Ben Marr, Ed Smith and I didn't have a guide to show us down. The rapid is about a half a kilometre of sprinting back and forth to avoid some gigantic holes.



Cool, well I hope you enjoy the vid, there will be a full Uganda section on the new video, Enter the Donkey, by Effort Inc. Should be pretty good in spite of the name! ;)






Dave says: you stay classy San Diego!



Download White Nile vid Shaklacky! (22 MB)

See you on a river in the Southeast...

Astro, Nitro, Turbo take top honors at NAWFest 2006

Thanks in advance to Buck Bowers, Riot Rep and Bryon Dorr, Go Big Distribution for the photographs.

Watch the 2006 NAWF video

Chris arrived in Atlanta from Uganda on KLM Airlines on Wednesday afternoon. When I picked him up his white Riot t-shirt, seemingly laden with hash browns and hershey swirls, looked like he had used it as underwear for a month without washing. He mentioned something about laundry service in Uganda... Could have fooled me. Other signs of his barbarianism included a partially grown, sparse, blonde mustache and beard. Looked like something out of Narnia or Lord of the Rings. I half expected his feet to be grown over with hair as well.
Ah, a great photo op of the bad hair. Pitiful if I do say so my damn self.

After hugging the kid (he's been in Africa for over a month) and throwing his stuff in the truck we headed westward for dixie land. Pink houses here we come.

NAWF, the North Alabama Whitewater Festival, was the purpose for our trip. We attended in '05 as well and had a real good time. This year proved to be bigger and better, rivaling the size of Cheat Fest, for example, but more focused on the competition aspect.

Friday, March 10th was the Short Creek Falls event close to Guntersville, AL. Here they hold a freestyle off the waterfall and a Boater-X race.
Two pics of Chris and I doing tricks off the falls... Keith Yell, local Alabama boy, took first in the freestyle of the falls with several really sick moves, primarily the rock spin to kick flip (can be seen in the video).


Chris paddled his Turbo 52 and I decided to try out the Nitro 58. We figured these would be great boats for this event. To our surprise we had great results in the Boater-X race. After making the cut from the prelim round we were faced with a 10-man mass start finals, which was scary enough off of a 15 foot falls.
Chris and I edged out Dave Finney in the prelims.

I lobbied for two, 5-man semifinals but got shot down. We were competing against Eric Jackson in this heat so hopes were low in my mind for winning a race against him. You start backwards and spin as quick as possible before hammering out 100 yards of flat water before the lip of the falls. I found myself co-leading the pack, side by side with EJ, clanking paddles on every stroke. About 20 feet above the lip I submissively decided it would be best to let him lead instead of both of us crashing and being landed on by 8 boats. As soon as I gave him the go ahead he swung around my bow at the lip of the drop, and to my surprise, got thrown off line. I stuck the boof and took the lead. As I was coming back up the eddy I looked over my shoulder to find Chris right behind me. We took 1st and 2nd in the race and I must say it was an honor to win, but most rewarding to beat EJ. It is a chore to beat him at any kayak contest, and a first for me.
Here we are in the finals, right above the lip of the falls.


Day two was the freestyle hole riding and big trick contest at the ender hole on the Locust Fork of the Warrior River. Chris took 2nd at this event.
Here are a couple shots of him throwing his nasty Space Gorriler.



Final results... Chris was crownd the NAWF '06 overall Champion. They gave him this zingy blingy trophy/cup thingy and $200. I got $100 for the Boater-X. Twas a good showing for Team Riot and a super fun event again this year. We will be back next year.

Ater we sent him this photo, Chris' Dad, Mike Gragtmans, emailed us back saying, "Spencer & Chris, Congratulations on your sweep at the big event......I am looking forward to collecting my cut of the winnings. That beautiful cup looks exactly like the cup that Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte drank from when they conquered most of Europe. This cup has been missing for centuries and it may be worth millions if it is authentic. An old wise tale talked about it being stolen by half-witted red-necks from the West (much like the one's that were in the pictures). Drive safely home. - Mike"

Sunday morning we woke up at 6am, a la Punk Rock blairing from a neighboring camper's car (nice touch), rolled to Rock Island Tennessee for two days of surfing, then headed back home to rest and recharge.
I-40 East, coming into Asheville under the full moon.


Watch the 2006 NAWF video

Enter the Mustache Growing Contest, win fabulous prizes - Start date is April 1

Later,

Spencer Cooke, Team Riot