Stingers on the Chattooga River

It used to be that we all paddled Stinger length boats down the Chattooga because that was all there was to paddle.  There were all these really cool lines that actually didn't work very well once the boats got under 9 feet because they were speed lines.  It was nice to be out there in the Stinger and get back into some of the fast moves.  There were two other extremely nice things about taking the Stinger down section IV.  One was how easy it made boofing the hole at Soc'em Dog, and the other was that lovely lake paddle.  Piece of cake in the Stinger!  Oh and listen to the sound track of the video below.  Dimitri obviously has style.  Shane

The First Official Nantahala Cascades Race

John, Toby, Adriene, Biscuit, Tater, and I loaded up the van and hauled a bunch of boats over to the First Annual Cascades Race on the Nantahala river Wednesday night.  Last week the call went out over the Facebook airwaves that there was going to be a race on Cascades.  We love us some extreme racing down here in the south so we knew we wanted to support this event on one of the classic southeastern sections of creek boating.  The race had a 5pm start, I love day light savings time so we had time to work most of the day then head over for a couple practice runs before it all went down.

As is per usual Toby "honey badger" MacDermott was faster, smoother, and in better shape than all of us so he took the top honors.  He was so fast I never got a picture of him.  Note the stylie medals made by Candice.  Thanks Candice!

Adriene laid down a scorching time as the only female entrant into the race.  In fact she hurt a lot of boys feelings by coming in 5th!  However the highlight of her night was meeting the infamous Mark Zwick.  If you have ever run the Green you will remember the rapid called Zwick's and you thought why in the world is this rapid called Zwick's?  Well its because Mark Zwick had that rapid named after him, and I will let him tell you that story.

The top 5 results as I understand them are:

1. Toby Macdermott
2. John Grace
3. Some asshole named Shane Benedict
4. Jon Clark / Tommy Yon tied
5. Adriene Levknecht


Here is a video I put together of my race run with a gopro and some other shots at Big Kahuna (the biggest rapid on the run) and a link to more photos.  Click Here 

Cheers  Shane

Liquidlogic at the NOC shootout and Demo

This past weekend I went over to the Nantahala Outdoor Center to show boats at the store as well as watch the action at the Shootout, which is the first event in the USAFK point series.  Liquidlogic had a few entrants and they showed proud for the event both in the new playboat Biscuit series, and older freestyle designs.  John Clark from NOC rocked a Skip in the C-1 category and was amazing out there slicing an dicing and throwing in the big loop on just about every ride.  Jordan Poffenberger came in Second to John in C-1.  He was throwing massive loops and doing this crazy McNasty entry move.  Maria and Adriene represented in the Women's category really well with 2nd and 3rd places.  Maria consistently threw blunts and roundhouses to tally up the points while Adriene looked destined for a disappointing performance when in the last few seconds of her last ride she threw a huge loops and stuck it in the very flushy feature.

We also had a big winner in the Attainment race.  Chris Hipgrave took the gold, beating a field of 20 plus by paddling UP river to Nantahala falls and then paddling back down the fastest while.  This race was fantastic to watch because it was a La Mans start.  Everybody started out of their kayak, then ran to their boats, jumped in, and paddled away all together.  The fun was watching people try to put skirts on quickly and then battling in the eddies for position to paddle upstream while 20 other people hacked away with ther paddles as well.  Chris was in the Remix Stinger race boat and made it look oh so fast.  Congrats Chris!

The Nantahala is also going to be home of the 2012 World Cup and 2013 World Championships.  It is going to be a great place to be during the time.  It should be like a world paddling village.  I can't wait.  Some of my favorite paddling experiences have been in situations where paddlers from all over the world are camping, paddling, and living together.  It is always a good time.

The NOC demo day was great as well.  Almost all the our boats were out at some time or another but none were out as much as the Remix XP 9 and 10.  It just seems like this is the boat of choice for a bunch of paddlers both new and old to the sport.

All in all a great time.  Here is a slide show of all different parts of the event.
Enjoy
Shane

First Day on the Green in the Remix 100

Well while Toby and Robin were getting ready for their practice runs in the new boat. I was walking down to the put in of the Green. All the way down to the water I was thinking to myself, "I hope this boat doesn't suck", "I hope I don't smack myself on a rock today", "I wonder if 23 1/2" is really wide enough to be stable", "I hope the bow is as up as I think its going to be", "I hope its fast", "I wonder if I am going to be able to make the turn". I mean cause when it really gets down to it I haven't designed a boat even close to this length. The longest thing I have done or helped with was the Remix or Whip-It and Whiplash in whitewater. So really as I was walking down I was just hoping that my educated guesses were going to be close. It really isn't until you float it out on the water and feel the balance yourself, well at least for me, that you really know what you have. So it was with great relief that I slid in from shore and felt the stability and then the glide while cruising down through the warm up water that I was relieved of most of my questions and worries.

Then I got to Frankenstein and proceeded to run the race line and go straight into the rock instead of missing it to the river left side. No damage to boat or body but it was a friendly reminder that the boat I was paddling was not the Remix 79 or Jefe Grande. Just a little bit longer.

My second run through Franks was much better as you can see I actually have a little angle going the right way.

Adriene and Billy styled Go Left like champs while I whimpered down the sneek the first day.

 Adriene fired up the Flying Squirrel line on the approach to Gorilla. She proceeded to go direct and ace the whole thing. I on the other hand wasn't so sure and my doubts made me pull hard on a boof stroke so I ended up in the eddie.

Billy airing out the Flying Squirrel line.

Me being happy I made the eddie.

But then once I did get turned around and lined up it was a beautiful thing to come flying off the pad with that much speed and I skipped right through the speed trap. I hope I can do that on Saturday.

Billy running the Groove Tube.

Adriene out on the dry line at Groove Tube.

Ahhh safe in the cave. Damn that thing looks long in that picture.
Thanks to Polk for taking the photos.

By the time I got off the river the folks up in Kentucky were probably in the midst of the race. I waited for several hours for the team to get out in the world where cell phone coverage exists. They gave a call and let me know that both Toby and Robin had managed to maintain their titles as Lords of the Fork. So that was awesome and I hadn't even swum once during my run on the Green. All in all it couldn't have gotten any better. Nice day.

Later
Shane