I’ve been going on whitewater kayaking trips around Seattle nearly every week since January ’09 and I usually take video, much of which so far has ended up just stored on my hard drive.  Between that and the pictures other people take it seemed like a huge waste to just let that stuff sit around, so I’m starting this blog so we have a place to share it all.

I’ve got a ton of video to go through which I hope will eventually end up on here.  If you’ve got kayaking photos, video or just want to write about a paddle or review a kayaking thing your tried feel free to drop a line to submit a post.  So far it looks like I’ve recruited one guest poster who takes helmet cams (thank you Greg :) .

By the way, I’m not an expert paddler, just a Class III-er looking to move up.  A big thank you to the WKC (Washington Kayak Club), I’m not into clubs in general but I have to say they are an awesome group of people who are a blast to kayak with, many are great paddlers and everyone takes the time to help out newbies.

Update Nov. 2009:  I have to add that after kayaking the Skykomish a lot since the summer I also owe a big thanks to the Professor Paddle boaters too, who for whatever reason end up on that river a lot more.  The WKC and the Professor Paddle crowd aren’t entirely mutually exclusive, but there is this odd little rivalry in terms of how they approach kayaking in some respects – it’s kind of interesting.  Anyway, the PP boaters are a blast to boat with and have helped me a lot in terms of improving.  I’m still what I would consider a solid class III paddler so have a lot to work on, but at least now I’m capable of occasionally scrabbling down a Class IV without having a massive yard sale.

Update April 2010: OK, after doing literally over a hundred runs through Boulder Drop (the Class IV rapid on the upper Skykomish run) since last July and jumping into Anderson Hole a bunch of  times I can say I feel pretty comfortable overall on moderate Class IVs, which for me means Boulder Drop up to around 2700 cfs.  I’ve done it up to 3800 cfs, and had a super-interesting (and let’s face it – very fun) line down it in the Jackson 2Fun, my current favorite boat, the other day at 3600 cfs, finished off by a close-up encounter with House Rocks and then a spectacular roll through the wave after that.  (Cruddy line, great roll – an ongoing theme.)  Thus, my most recent post about looking for whitewater kayaking slalom videos, since I know in order to get comfortable in more difficult water and also to start being able to catch micro-eddies  (or, in my case, sometimes even just eddies) like you need to for creeking I’ll have to improve my boat control.  Of course this is all assuming I survive my second go at Tumwater tomorrow. ;)

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Leave a Reply

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Anti-Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree