Well I’ve been here in Richmond, VA all weekend competing at the annual Dominion River Rock Festival and I don’t even know where to start. I arrived early Friday afternoon to do some boating on the Lower James and checked out Z-Dam with my friend Max Posner who is a very well-known Richmond boater. Later that evening were the Semi-Finals for the Canal Crashers which was one of the main events at the festival and sponsored by Red Bull. Big names such as Eric Jackson and Tao Berman flew in for the event to throw down.

Here is a good shot of me throwing my first attempt at an air screw.

It was my first time going off of a ramp but I attempted some different moves and ended up in sixth. You can check out the rest of the results here –

Canal Crashers Friday Night Results

My friend Max who I had been crashing with all weekend took 3rd beating out some tough competition.

Red Bull definitely knows how to promote themselves, with a sick DJ set up out of their body-wrapped truck.

Did I mention Red Bull knows how to put themselves out there?

The rest of the festival was a great as well with the boater cross on Saturday morning. Missed out on the semi-finals but was stoked to see so many of my friends advance. The finals never happened Saturday night because of severe thunderstorms so I tagged along with some local Richmond boaters to do a couple laps on Reedy. It was sick and I mean that in more than one way (If you’ve boated this creek, you know what I am talking about).

Due to Red Bull canceling finals, Jackson kayaks had their own ramp competition Sunday morning and I ended up placing third and won some cash money! This is a good thing since I am moving to Colorado for the summer to become a raft guide/boater bum. After the ramp I did another run on the Lower James with some new and old friends and couldn’t think of a better way to end an amazing weekend.

Photos courtesy of Rich Young.

This past weekend we had fun gambling, kayaking, and experiencing city life during the Reno River Festival.  The rest of Demshitz have been on official summer tour for awhile, but it was my first stop and I was stoked to get back in my Molan and Burn!

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Sayonara! We are out of here, off to Japan for some boating and to help out some friends! Just before stepping out the door, I was able to get on an obscure, but super worthy run: Long Canyon into the Rubicon River. This stout canyon (yes canyon, not even labeled on some maps as a river or creek) is one long gorge with drop after drop. Nothing too tall but just right. This combination led to some great bombing and linkage of rapids. Here are some photos and words by Darin McQuoid, a member of the Japan Expedition as well. Stay tuned here @ Pyranha and Huckin Huge for updates from the field in Japan!

After having a pretty scrapey season up to date, the words ‘SEVERE WEATHER WARNING’ were met with beaming smiles in the SUCC bunkhouse, as the club prepared for their week around Fort William. New members and older veterans of the club alike made the long drive north, and were rewarded from day one with fantastic levels on the Orchy. The water kept coming throughout the week, providing a healthy 6 pipe Upper Spean run to keep grins growing.

Of course water everywhere means two things for a university canoe club: first class boating and even better carnage. Some nailed lines, others failed lines. Most hucked up whilst the remainder mucked it up. But of course that’s all part of the fun of club boating and there were smiles all round for a great week that had an awesome vibe!

Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-DsHbUB2Vs

SUCC LOVE,

Southampton Uni Canoe Club

George Holmyard Committing to The Falls of Pattack

The Molan taking the plunge

Maybe we should have portaged this one?

  

It has certainly been a spring to remember in the Northeastern U.S. 

The combination of plentiful snow late in the season and freakishly intense April thunderstorms brought some local river systems to record high flows.  Old-timers in the Adirondacks saay they have NEVER seen this kind of local flooding.  There has been major devastation to infrastructre and people’s homes, but also some great paddling. 

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Dave picked me up from my home in PA at the beginning of April and we’ve been on the road ever since.

Our first stop was the Tariffville Triple Crown were we also did a boat demo for Collinsville Canoe and Kayak.

We held our own amongst some good slalom paddlers, and Demshitz even made the Newspaper click to find out why.

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