leaving san diego

Before we left town this morning we met up with my good buddys Mario and David and spent a few hours driving around getting the surfers tour of San Diego. I also layed eyes on my dream surfboard, and I'm not sure I can live without it. The problem is, it costs waaay too much money...We'll have to wait and see how this one works out.

Again, thank you Jordan for letting us crash at your place, you showed us a good time, and we truly apprechiate it.

Mario and Dave, thanks for the tour, and all of the new gear. The CD is great and we enjoyed the new tunes. Check out Daves band at http://www.myspace.com/pauhana

We made it north a few hours, Ventura for those of you following our course. We tried and tried and tried to find some campsites, and everything is booked up...the waves are still slop, and we ended up paying far too much for a hotel room at motel 6. We are warm, dry, off the road, out of the car, and each have a bed to sleep in tonite, so we are doing pretty well all things considered. Tommarow is a new day, maybe some rideable waves and a place to camp.

Scott wants me to add that the other day I squeezed a fair amount of icy hot in my mouth thinking it was toothpaste. I very quickly realized it was not!

the sand of iego

So after almost 2 full days of driving we made it to the coast. San Diego to be exact. We drove over the rivers, through the woods, atop the mountains and finnally across the freakin Mohave desert to find 1-2ft onshore knee high slop. It looks like there are no waves in sight either. We stayed with a friend from VWC in her downtown apartment, went out, partied and had a good time all big city style. We may stay another day here in town, but the rain and crummy waves have our sights set north. On to greener pastures as they say...and maybe a few less people. Until then, pray for surf.

Yesterday we paddled the Rockwood Canyon, and we had a close call with Scott. He had dropped into one of the bigger rapids in the tight canyon, and flipped as he came out of a nasty hydrolic, got pushed up against the canyon wall and after repeated roll attempts getting slammed into a rock wall facing directly upstream he was forced to swim. I scrambled up the side of a jutting rock ledge with the throwbag but he was already swimming in the eddy. He couldn't hold onto his boat with the current pushing against a totally submerged cockpit and his boat got ripped downstream. Our good buddy Danny was in the lead and aware of Scott's submerged boat floating downstream so he was the only person in position to save the boat. Meanwhile I got a throwbag to Scott on the opposite side of the river and was able to pull him into the same eddy I had caught. Not knowing if Danny was able to save the boat or not we devised a plan. Scott needed to climb up the vertical rock wall and follow the railroad tracks back downriver to a vantage point of the river where the three of us could further assess the situation. Down river Danny had retrieved the boat, and the two of us waited for Scott to come into view. Scott was forced to climb back down the steep slope to the river. From there we threw him a throwbag and began to pull him across the fast moving current. The bag got wrapped around my leg and I could not hold the weight against the powerful current and got pulled off the rock ledge into the river like an Alaskan Crab fisherman. The throwbag was headed downriver with Scott on the far end. He made it back across and was reunited with his runaway kayak with plenty of time to finish the run. The both of us agree it was a great stretch of river and well worth the possible trespassing charges we could have received from the railroad company. We also agreed it was a valuable practice session for swift water rescue. On the way back into town we went spelunking in a Cave off of the highway and then further down the road, jumped off of this massive bridge into the same river we were boating prior.

Today we left Durango, spent a few hours in Farmington surfing their park, and now camping at a KOA with the luxury of Wifi. Tomorrow we are going to make our push into California. San Diego is first on the list. The trip is sick so far, it is so great to meet tons of new people and kayak all of these different rivers.

North Fork - Foxton/Arkansas - Brown's Canyon

The first day outside of the Denver area proved to be a fun run down the Foxton strech of the North Fork. It was a technical route with lots of traversing as we found our way through the upper rock garden. The middle stretch continted a fair amount of flat water before the the drops picked back up at the end. We found and awesome play hole towards the bottom in which Elliot and my bro Woody shredded. It was a fun stretch of river, and always fun to pladdle with some other companions so we appreciate Woody and Nate joining us for the trip. After spending the night outside Hartsel at Colin Medved's parents property, where we were completely spoiled, we ran Brown's Canyon of the Arkansas River. It was great having Colin alongside us in the river. He is an extremely knowledgable river guide and has lots of expereince on this section. Brown's was quite different from Clear Creek and Foxton with a much greater flow and bigger holes and wave trains. Elliot found good play throughout the river, and tackled the biggest hole head on. I found my favorite part to be the small rock jump about midway down the stretch. Once again it was great to have good company on the river, but we could have done with out all the commercial rafts. We later learned that this is the most commercialy rafted stretch of river in the world, and paddle fest only made matters more hectic. Our gear from Level 6 is sick. It is awsome to be able to lose the wetsuits and paddle dry. Headed towards Durango, stay tuned! Scott.

i just want to do hood rat things with my friends...

so i got up to denver on wed. since then, weve paddled the confluence, clear creek, golden playpark and today union playpark. the confluence was dirty and small... clear creek was humbling...i got jammed up in this little 3,4ft tight slot drop. got pushed into an undercut wall, and long story short went for a swim. scott ran into a rattlesnake on the trail, broke his paddle, and went for a quick dip in the creek too. afterwards we hit the golden playpark, had a good time and went back to denver. union playpark was decent, the flow was up and the water warm...big plans on the horizon. leaving denver tommarow. good times in colorado.

Pagosa Springs

still paddling a ton, boated the taos box acouple days ago with some guys from arizonza, river was up, and was alot of fun. yesterday I left santa fe, and found myself in pagosa springs co, and there is a sick play wave right down town so I did that for the better part of the afternoon. Camped at the river last night, and this morning met some guys from the local raft shop and we ran the lower box of the Piedra. Took a differant line through a rock garden which would be more appropriatly named sieve city, got snaged on a strainer, but lucky for me it was the end of the log, and I was able to squeeze my way off. the only damage was a rip to my spray deck, but I am confident I can patch it right up provided I can keep out of the water long enough for it to dry. I paddled the play wave once I got back, and now im sitting in the parking lot stealing wifi. there is a barbaque tonite here in town, so I'll do that,and most likely get up early and head to durango tommarow, unless I get ambitious and feel like going after the bbq. ill keep you all informed, dont worry.

been paddling every day recently. I camped at the river last night. got up and paddled this morning. The river is nice right now, theres a few really good holes to play in, and waves to surf. planning to paddle the box tommarow. we will see how that goes. until then.

talked to scott, the 20th I'm driving up to denver, parking my truck with all my earthly possessions at his house, loading up the boards and boats, and setting off! in other news the river here is still rising, but I think it will begin to level off. the wave is running super fast right now with a foamball on top. there is also a semi glassy wave just above the main wave which offers up some fun frontsurfs.the only problem is eddy service is almost non existant. souse hole at the bottom of the run is just a hydrolic with a massive wall of water seperating you from the takeout. everthing is good, and once again ive begun the process of packing up all of my stuff. seperating whats going, whats staying, and whats going in the garbage. get ready!

Level Up

so everybody say, Thanks Wes! Because of our good friend Wesley, we have a deal with Level Six kayaking. Now we will be able to get some much needed new gear. Thats huge dude, thanks alot! If anyone needs some new gear or apparell check out thier site http://www.levelsixinc.com .In other news, Scott is back in Colorado and we are gearin up and getting ready to hit the road. I have been paddling a ton, the river is at 2 grand right now (before was like 700) and alot of the playspots are getting washed out, but it is creating a whole new set of wave trains and hydrolics. The bad news is, because of alot of eddys washing out, it is a pain in the ass to get good pics and videos. I hope your getting excited, because I am freaking out. The 20th is almost here!!!