American Whitewater has released our 2012 Annual Report, it can be downloaded by clicking here. A couple interesting points from that report are: First, we are very fortunate to have a highly diversified revenue stream. What this means for a nonprofit is that if one stream were to dry up, other sources of revenue can carry the organization. This is critical for long-term organizational sustainability. Second, our lean administrative model means that .85 cents on every dollar passes through directly to support river stewardship efforts. This ratio, 15% of expenses spent on administration and fund raising, is a low overhead percentage in the nonprofit world and a demonstration of our commitment to protecting, restoring and enjoying whitewater rivers.

Read the full story over at American Whitewater.

The Lunar Orbit is another of my favourite moves. It looks quite complicated but actually its much more simple than you might think.

Its just a Stern Squirt into the bow end of a cartwheel. You start it from a front surf/ blast in a hole. You can even practice the motion of stern squirting into cartwheels on flatwater to get a feel for the move before trying it in a hole.

Step One:

Lift your bow up onto the green water so that you’re sitting in a front surf. You lift the bow using a big sweep stroke and place the nose of your boat slightly pointing in the direction you plan to rotate.

Step Two:

 As soon as you reach the front surf, drop your upstream knee so that your edging upstream (catching the water on your tail), at the same time as this tense your core & look around in the direction youll rotate and using the back of your blade pry the boat into a stern squirt.

Step Three:

Now your boat will have gone vertical and started to rotate around that prying blade.  To keep it in control have a marker directly upstream of you and keep looking ahead of the boats rotation ready to spot that marker just before you slam the bow down again.

Step Four:

 Having spotted your upstream marker, switch your pry stroke into a push stroke, keep your weight forwards and aggressively as you can push the bow under the water.

Finishing the move:

 After this last end you can either do a big back stroke to make sure you retain in flushy features or in more retentive spots you can continue into more cartwheels or other moves as this move links very well.

Main points to remember:

- Make sure you set your angle & edge correctly on the initiation.

-Keep your core tensed and use your pry to stop yourself from just catching an edge and falling over upstream.

-Look ahead of the boats rotation ready to spot that marker.

-Play around with how far back & forwards you lean during the move to get it fine-tuned.

Good luck and get paddling,

Pringle

Read the full story over at Dagger Kayak Team Blog.

Check out the latest paddlesports gear over at NRSWEB.com.

A paddleboard would be a lot more exciting than this.

Learning how to stand up paddle with your dog can be a rewarding experience for both of you, if it’s done with care.  How to SUP With Your PUP guides you through simple training and is designed to make the learning process smooth and safe for human and pup.  It includes everything you and your dog need to SUP  - from types of gear to a full training plan.

Maria Christina Schultz, outdoor enthusiast and ACA certified Stand Up Paddleboard Instructor, lives in Virginia with her husband and two Australian shepherds, Riley and Kona.  Shultz, who works as a graphic designer, also has a degree in education and hands-on experience in animal training.  She created this “how to” guide so that others can enjoy similar adventures with their best friends.  How to SUP With Your PUP is her first book and can be purchased from the ACA eStore.

Read the full story over at American Canoe Water Blog.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

WHITEWATER GROUPS PROTECT LAND AND ACCESS ON THE CONTOOCOOK RIVER (NH)

American Whitewater and Merrimack Valley Paddlers have reached an agreement to purchase a 10-acre parcel fronting on Contoocook River in Henniker, NH. The land serves as an important launch point for whitewater paddlers enjoying the popular section of the river that runs from Hillsborough to Henniker. This section of the Contoocook River contains rapids ranging in difficulty from Class II to Class IV.

The two groups are working with the Five Rivers Conservation Trust to establish a conservation easement that will permanently protect public river access and the ecological value of the land. Continued access to this section of the river will draw paddlers to the region, benefitting the local economy.

“We are very pleased to have been able to protect access to one of the most significant whitewater paddling opportunities in the region,” according to Bob Nasdor, American Whitewater Northeast Stewardship Director.

The project will also serve as a memorial to Cliff Eisner, a kayaker, as well as a local teacher at John Stark Regional High School, who died in a kayak accident on the Saco River in 2006. 

American Whitewater and Merrimack Valley Paddlers have secured in excess of $40,000 dollars in donations that will enable the groups to purchase and protect the property. The groups have received strong support from local paddlers, conservationists, public officials, and businesses from the Henniker area.

Additional funds are still needed to establish the easement and improve access on the property. Contributions may be sent to American Whitewater, c/o Took Access Project, P.O. Box 1540, Cullowhee, NC 28723

* * *

American Whitewater is a national non-profit 501(c)3 river conservation and recreation organization founded in 1954. AW has over 5,500 members and 100 affiliate organizations, representing tens of thousands of whitewater paddlers across the nation. American Whitewater’s mission is to protect and restore our nation’s whitewater resources and to enhance opportunities to enjoy them safely.

Merrimack Valley Paddlers is a non-profit corporation chartered under NH state law comprised of canoe, kayak and raft enthusiasts with special interest in paddling various whitewater rivers in New England, especially in south central New Hampshire.  

For more information, contact:

Bob Nasdor 617-584-4566

bob@americanwhitewater.org

Read the full story over at American Whitewater.

Fibark 2013

The worlds oldest white water celebrated it’s 65th anniversary this weekend in Salida, Colorado,

A small friendly mountain based city that is home to both an awesome creek race and a world class freestyle spot.

Both kayaking venues are level dependent and high water levels this year made for a big volume challenging creek race and a small flushy freestyle spot.

The Creek race changed format this year from boater x to giant slalom, Dave Fusilli was fast and smooth throughout the race and managed to finish in second place, with Craig Kleckner and Matt Anger following closely behind. Unfortunately both myself and Mike Patterson didn’t manage to make the second slalom gate and forfeited a 30 second time penalty, which put us firmly out of contention for the top spots … But on the bright side, whilst pushed of line during the creek race I managed to drop into the infamous pine creek hole and through three “unintentional” ends in the large Shiva … Freestyle for life!

The week leading up to the event we experienced some of the best levels for the freestyle spot and had some great training sessions with everyone looking solid, Unfortunately the levels rose in the last few days leading up to the competition which changed the spot from an incredible hole to a small flushy wave.

Craig Kleckner, Mike Patterson and myself all made it to semi finals, Craig through down some unbelievably quick air screws but unfortunately finished just outside of the top 5 in 6th place. Erin Clancy made it to the women’s finals but couldn’t quite put her best rides together on the day … But she is hungry for success at the next event!

In the juniors, Rowan Stuart threw down in the small jed and took the top spot in the junior Ladys, Brandon Hepburn had some awesome rides in the junior finals and took second place !

Henry Hyde took top spot in the 14&under slalom race as well as placing first in the ten mile downriver race, Everyone at Pyranha is expecting big things from this junior ripper!

Overall it was another succesfull event for team Pyranha, The final event takes place this coming weekend at Kellys white water park in Idaho.

See you on the water,

Bren

Read the full story over at the Team Pyranha Blog.

Hi there!
I have been traveling in USA since last 6 weeks. My first little project was road trip from East coast to West coast of US. Me and my girlfriend spend 3 weeks on the road visiting some pretty scenic places and different national parks. Once we got to California it was time to run some of high Sierra runs and I was quite lucky to get to Upper Cherry creek. Now the kayaking season in California is pretty much over and we are hitting the road again driving north all the way to British Columbia.

More photos on http://marnics.blogspot.com/

Read the full story over at the Team Pyranha Blog.

The North Fork Championship took place from June 6th-8th in Banks, Idaho on the North Fork of the Payette, one of the craziest rivers out there. Gradient + lots of granite + warm water = one of the sickest rivers ever!

The event is organized by James Byrd and this year featured a long race down the lower three, a BoaterX down S-Turn and a giant slalom down Jacob’s Ladder, one of the best rapids of the river.

The Long Race took place on Thursday, starting at Otter Slide and finishing in Banks, about 15 minutes of some flat and some amazing white water. Having run this sections a couple times I didn’t have my best lines and got surfed in a hole for too long during my race run, so I ended up placing 4th but quite far from first.

Saturday was the big day, we all rode with the bus from Crouch to Jakes and the show started pretty soon. After a warm up run 25 boaters did two runs down jakes trying to go as fast as possible while trying to make all the gates! It was hard, it’s such a powerful rapid and there are many features to stop/spin/surf you…it’s so good though! There was a lot of people watching and it was super nice out so it really was a nice day.

After the event was done we all floated down to Banks, enjoying about 10 more miles of awesome white water!

To my surprise I ended up taking second place on the giant slalom just barely ahead of Rush in 3rd and Louis in 1st! So stoked on the results and the overall event, huge thanks to James and Regan for all their work putting it together and to everyone else who helped out!

After the awards the only thing left to do was have some party Idaho style and wake up to another sunny morning for some more paddling, loving Idaho!

Check out for more at: http://www.northforkchampionship.com

Photos by: Alícia Casas, Colton Stiffler, Galen Volkhausen 

Read the full story over at the Team Pyranha Blog.

The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest is currently updating their forest management plan. The plan governs land use, resource protection, recreational use, and recommends areas for potential wilderness or wild and scenic river designation.  These Forests contain the Selway and Lochsa Rivers, Lolo Creek, Meadow Creek, and many other classic whitewater runs. 

For the past few months, AW has been sharing our input and concerns with the U.S. Forest Service.  We offered them detailed comments focused on river conservation and enjoyment.  Our comments had three main elements:

• We asked that the 40-year-old river management plans for the Lochsa and Selway Wild and Scenic Rivers be updated in the near future.
• We strongly opposed the USFS intent to remove protections for many streams that are eligible for Wild and Scenic designation by conducting “suitability determinations.”  Suitability determinations are agency analyses that consider the current political feasibility of congressional designation of a stream.  If the agency doesn’t think designation is currently feasible they release all protections for the stream.  This makes no sense: building political support for designations takes years of conversations with local, regional, and national interests.
• We recommend that the Forest Service finds more rivers “eligible” for Wild and Scenic designation.  Eligibility is good – it offers streams interim protection from dams and other impacts, and simply requires that the river be freeflowing and have at least one “Outstanding Remarkable Value” or ORV.  An ORV is any nationally or regionally significant attribute, and could be recreational, geological, biological, cultural, historical, etc.  As paddlers we are in a great position to share the values of the awesome rivers we paddle and advocate for their eligibility.  You can read the list of streams we recommend in our comments, or better yet read our eligibility report. 

So what can you do?

Send the Forest Service an email pointing out the areas or issues you care about: fpr_npclw@fs.fed.us

You can also visit this mapping website to indicate the special places you care about. You can upload photos there, or just describe why you want to see these special places protected for future generations.

Add your comments by July 1st.  The incredible rivers of Idaho thank you!

Read the full story over at American Whitewater.

Wet Planet Whitewater, conveniently located on the banks of the White Salmon River in Washington has become the ACA’s newest Pro School!  The Wet Planet facilities host an on-site rolling pool and provide the perfect classroom for any level kayaker.  They can even provide all the necessary equipment.


In addition to kayak instruction, Wet Planet also offers rafting day trips, multi-day river trips, river rescue classes and international river adventure trips.  


Learn the tricks of the trade from Wet Planet Whitewater’s professional instructors.


Location:  White Salmon, WA
Contact:  reservations@wetplanetwhitewater.com, or email:  jaco@wetplanetwhitewater.com
Phone:  800-306-1673
www.wetplanetwhitewater.com

Read the full story over at American Canoe Water Blog.