The Grammy Awards have nothing to do with kayaking, and no the Dems haven’t come out with the “Brown” album, yet. However I managed to boof through the front door, infiltrate the Hollywood elite, and bring some “low-class” to an otherwise highbrow event.

I think they knew I was from Tennessee

"I'd like to thank God, brown, and all the stouts that got me here"

Like Batman’s signal in the sky, the raised brownclaw attracts kayakers anywhere

the talent loves demshitz

I did find that musicians make a lot more money than kayakers, based in the number of Bentleys, Lambourginis, and limos. I think the trade off is fair though, I doubt they get to boat and experience the places we do on a regular basis.

Check out the very first outing of the Loki on our local home run, the mighty Tryweryn in North Wales. For more info and where to find a demo go to www.pyranha.com/Loki

Paddler Andy Butler
Filmed by Tom Laws
Edited by Andy Butler

Here is an update of some of the epic missions we got up to in BC last summer/fall.
With Whistler bragging record snow fall in the winter (over 16 meters fell) the summer was guaranteed crazy high water and a super long season. Low and behold it did not fail to impress. For the first 2 months of the season the Callaghan was sustaining record high flows, unreal kayaking. I believe the saying used most often was “high side of peaking out” for almost every river we put on. This sure made for the perfect training ground for up north. Having completed the Triple Crown the year prior, our sights were set on the Homathko.
We had the crew which consisted of myself (Ric Moxon), Chris Gragtmans, Pete Lodge, Xavier Engle, Louis Geltman, and Nate Klema. With a bad ass crew, filled with optimism, semi witty jokes and hard out banter, what else do you need?

We were checking the online gauge and the weather forecast at Tatlayoko Lake for weeks. It seemed like the river was never going to drop in with an average flow of 600 cms and spiking to over 2000 for the majority of September. Having heard about a crew getting evacuated at flows similar to this we didn’t want to be putting on too high, or have the river blow out on us. Then we lucked out, the potential for a window (which is all it was), the temperatures were expected to drop for 4 days and minimal rain in the forecast. With myself and the double hard Alaskan (Xavier) feeling overly optimistic, we made the vital phone calls and everyone hit the road. Geltman the champ drove through the night from the Hood, staying awake on a healthy mix of chewing tobacco and coffee, arriving in Whistler at 6am, squeezing in 1 hour of sleep before the 10 hour drive north.

We started the drive with the online gauge saying around 470 cms, still way to high. Having got beta from some worthy sources we were advised that 350 is the high side of good. Every time I hit the road to drive north it’s always an incredible spectacle. Unbelievable fall colors and guaranteed crazy weather. As we drove we went through a number of thunder storms, adding to the dubiousness of our decision to go for the window. Any talk of the river blowing out was soon squashed by unfounded optimism. But to our blessing when we rolled into camp it was crisp clear skys and night time temperatures dropping to around -5, perfect.

We put on Tatlayoko Lake the next day. We had an unknown water level which at the time we were guessing was around 400 cms for day 1 and hoping the river would drop to the perfect 350 for day 2.
Well I’m not going to lie the Homathoko is stout, full on class 5! Lots of must runs, mega continuous, technical moves one after another. Through out the course of the river it transitions from first class steep creeking to crazy big volume as the other tributaries flow in, unreal.
Perhaps one of the highlights of the trip was the third tragedy. Scouting from high up on the left side of the canyon rim the river was hooning, big terminal pits, huge crashing waves and a 9 feet tall river wide wave hole (which would be a guaranteed beat down). After a considerable amount of deliberation, banter and again semi witty comments we all convinced ourselves that is was good to go, with a weak point forming every 20 seconds. We rightfully called this rapid “dubious at best”. We decided that the best method of running this was just blue angel, truck and trailer. That way at least a few of us should get through or all be high fiving each other in the hole. It turned out that we all made it, some brash digging and power strokes pulled us all through one by one.

I recently read an old article about Doug Gordon and their experience on the Homathko. Wow these guys are soldiers, with limited knowledge on the river and the lack of online gauge these guys put on in July when the river is over 1000 cms, well over 3 times the newly founded recommended flows. This made a large proportion of the canyons portages. These guys had to make a 30 hour BC bush wacking portage around Great Canyon and set up lines to cross the blown out side creeks just to get themselves and gear over. I just want to say you guys are an inspiration, its pioneers like you that make these rivers the classics they are today.
Just want to say a big thanks to Pyranha, the Large Burn is an incredible day and expedition kayak. It handles great when loaded, unloaded, where ever! Wouldn’t want to paddle anything else. Also, I would like to thank Chuck the owner of the logging camp at the take out. He gave us a warm shower and a cup of coffee. We recommend staying there for a night at the end of the trip.
Apologies for the lack of photos my camera broke on day 1. Instead of taking photos my Canon D30 now screams at me and flashes ERROR 99. If anyone knows how to fix this please help! But check out my buddy Nates blog for some pics. http://www.coloradokayak.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

Cheers team for such an epic mission!

Last weekend saw the first ever River’s Source Whitewater Symposium at the River Dart, Devon, UK. The event is set to become a favourite fixture on the UK whitewater calendar with something for every paddler interested in whitewater!

Contributions from every corner of the industry provided an excellent range of courses, from learning new skills on the river with coaches at the forefront of whitewater paddling or hands on boat welding workshops through to tips on how to get your articles published and how to create the perfect exposure to go with them! They were also excellent value for a full days course with some, such as Canoe Kayak Magazine’s photography course, being completely free! To see the scope of the diverse selection of courses have a look here!

Paparazzi on the river during the free photography clinic! - Photo: Tom Foster

Team Pyranha were out in force with Team Coaches running a variety of courses, Team Paddlers on hand to help outfit your boat or take you through the features of the full fleet of demo boats. Pyranha’s owner and head designer Graham Mackereth and industrial designer Rich Taylor gave fantastic presentations on Saturday evening. Graham’s insight to the history of kayaking was outstanding, Rich then brought us right up to date and showed us how to design the Shiva using the latest CAD packages with CNC prototypes before a live audience!

Rich takes us through the process to design a modern whitewater kayak. - Photo: Tom Foster

Of course no trip to devon would be complete without a run down the upper Dart. Although levels were low, the Shiva was great for rock moves all the way down!

Paula cruising Euthanasia in the small Shiva! - Photo: Stuart Watson

Tom Foster about to go over the edge in the large Shiva! - Photo: Stuart Watson

Looking forward to 2013 event already. If you can’t wait to get back to the Dart come join us on and off the river at Dart Fest on the weekend 18th / 19th February.

Below: Steve on the Rio Valles, photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Adam on the Rio Santa Maria, photo by Steve Krajewski

Since my first trip to the Huasteca region of Mexico in 2005, I have returned almost ever winter for 2-3 weeks to revisit my favorite rivers in the area and explore new ones as well. There is an abundance of rivers in the region with a variety of options depending on water levels. Most recently, Steve Krajewski, Mark Newton, and I drove south from Alabama to spend a couple of weeks enjoying the warm waters and sunshine provided by the Huasteca region in December of 2011. Despite lower than normal water levels, we had good weather and an awesome time paddling many of the classic and a few not-so-classic rivers in the area.
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It has only been a couple weeks since I’ve arrived back from Mexico but I am still dreaming about the mountains, food, white water, and the beautiful women!  Mexico was the perfect playground to try out Pyranha’s new Shiva and here are the pictures to prove it –

We arrived in Vera Cruz, Mexico on New Years Eve and made our way south on New Years Day with high hopes to find a guide to get us to the put-in of the Rio De Oro.

 We were fortunate to find the local guide Fernando who lead us directly to the put-in.

Following our guide Fernando

25 footer

The Shiva is the perfect boat for roosting some stouts.  It was hard to adjust at first because I’ve been so used to the Burn’s edges but the Shiva’s rocker makes it easy to boof and the added volume in the stern and bow keeps the boat stable even in the rowdiest of water.

Setting up the hammock for the night.

After our successful run on the Rio De Oro we decided to venture down south to check out Aqua Azul which was too high so we ended up running the Upper Rio Tzaconeja two days later.

Christopher Kyle showing off his Shiva on the Upper Rio Tzaconeja.

The Rio Tzaconeja was a perfect river for testing the Shiva’s versatility and maneuverability. With plenty of slot moves and beautiful scenery everyone was smiling at the end of the run.

Cool view from the top of one of the main rapids.

We then made our way back up to the Aqua Azul which still had a fair amount of water.  We decided to do the upper section which ended up being my favorite part of the entire trip.

The Upper Aqua Azul = Spectacular white water and scenery.

The coolest gorge I have ever been in.

Scariest rapid I ran the entire trip, massive cave on the bottom right. You have to exit the rapid by splatting the rock at the bottom and angling left.  Ridiculous but the Shiva handled her well.

The cave drop on the Upper Aqua Azul

One word - Sketch.

Such an amazing run with rapids at the beginning and ending reflecting something similar to what you would see on the Upper Blackwater in West Virginia.  The river at one point went completely underground and required a portage into a sealed cave.

The river just all the sudden ends at one point and enters into a cave. Crazy!

We ended the trip with running the lower section of the Aqua Azul to the bottom five where one of our fellow boaters ended up breaking his leg on the first of the big five but that is a whole other story that can be read here –http://leifandnatalie.blogspot.com/.  Here are some of my favorite shots of the Shiva in action on the Aqua Azul.  Huge thanks to Shawn Yingling and Adam Johnson for the photos.

Christopher Kyle taking it all in

Christopher Kyle putting the Shiva to the test!

Roosting the Shiva off of one of the larger slides on the Aqua Azul.Â

Boofing made easy with the Shiva

This trip would not have been made possible for me if it wasn’t for my local kayak shop Starrk Moon Kayaks, where you can pick up your very own Shiva today.  If you are looking for more paddling porn to get you through this cold January you should also check out a collaboration film I did called The Full-Release Project on Bombflow’s site - http://www.bombflow.com/archives/the-full-release-project.

Peace,

Brenton Petrillo

Hello everybody!
We just finished to edit the movie about our kayak trip to Siberia 2011.

Tomass Marnics