Christmas is for children

and that is why my brothers and I were acting like kids, staying up way too late playing video games.
I just have to say that "Guitar Hero II" rocks!

Sheepscot Falls Time Lapse Video

This is a split screen video that compresses over an hour of surfing into just over 5 minutes. It's a great way to see how much this surf spot changes as the tide drops.

notice how there are two main waves on river left, with a short time when people can catch the stuff in the midde. Towards the end of the good surf period, boaters will often head way over to river right where a wave/hole forms at lower levels.
Watch towards the end of the video how the wave on the left side of the top screen suddenly turns into a hole. It's a good blasting spot that washed towards the middle.

T'ville Video Report (December 2006)

This is a fun spot that runs often in Connecticut; all year play, just different quality at different levels.
This level is the high end of the "low" levels for the beach hole (a.k.a. "Whipper's Wimpy"). It's a good example of what it looks like, even though this is just a bit high and flushy. It gets more retentive as it gets lower, but also starts to get shallow. Always a trade off, but always fun too....



I hope you enjoy the split screen with the closeups on top and some sped up action just to show the line of us taking turns jumping into the playspot

Here are some photos of the post paddling fun in the parking lot. Yes. It was getting dark, but the weather has been exceptioinally warm for December and a few of us just didn't want to do anything else but enjoy mild weather and hang out together like it was summer time.

Daryl giving Jeff's flaming devil sticks a go

This photo is sideways because Daryl deserves a sideways photo (being a professional photographer and all...)

Here's D and Jeff with Daryl's trials bike. He has an open relationship with his bike so we all got to take her for a spin.

boaters doing good things

What can I do to help?

Interesting Facts

we all know boaters who have helped environmental causes. Many boaters have a positive impact on our world. I'd like to take a moment to point one out who is having a direct positive impact on some people. Jessie Stone. She has a nice hook up with Jackson Kayaks so you'll get some news about her organization through them sometimes. Right here I'd like to share the card I made for her this past summer as she was traveling the northeast raising money for Soft Power Health.



take a look at the website to see more information about this wonderful organization

Soft Power Health

Donate

Agers Falls (pt 2)

More photos sent to me by John of Jeff Sharpe, Ted DeVoe, and me (Scott Barnes) going over Agers Falls this October during the Moose River Festival in New York


Jeff



Ted



Me

This is really a great festival every year. For some people it is the end of their paddling season, a last hurrah before breaking out the snowboards and skiis. For others it is the official start of Fall/Winter creeking season. We had some fairly mild weather during the day, but saw snow at night during the festival. Good thing the festival is inside. (and a good reason to head down to Slickers bar afterwards to "warm up")



Agers is a terrific waterfall that is about 18' high (some say 15' but I think it's closer to the 18)
for many people it's their first real, vertical waterfall. It can be run far far river right for the first timers, towards the middle for a nice easy boof, and way river left for the adventurous.

Agers Falls (pt 1)

the following photos were sent to me by John Wallace.
He is from Maine so that makes him cool before you even meet him and realize that he's cool even if he wasn't from Maine.

This first part is 5 photos of Corran doing a wave wheel in his large Critical Mass. He's such a small dude. You should see the jacked up seat and all the foam he has inside this thing just to make it work for him. Silly silly Corran. He designed the boat and still forgets that it's for large dudes.

But first, let's start with a nice photo of John getting a great line off of Agers on the Bottom Moose

old school

ok, so it's not that old, but it does seem like a very long time ago (remember when the Phat was a short, hard-core creeker? and the Disco was a radical boat?)
back in 2000 Riot was still innovative
we had good water in the spring and some great releases in the summer
I was travelling alot and my friends were willing to put up with the slow pace of having a video camera around



this is the first sequence I ever put together using Final Cut Pro
i've done lots of other stuff since (that is better) but it's fun to look at the old work and good to see a few people kayaking who no longer kayak at all.

T'ville freezing freestyle

ok, so not much cutting edge freestyle going on here, but some fun never-the-less
what more could you ask for besides running water, some kind of playspot, and a bunch of friends who just refuse to give up when the weather gets cold.....



the spot was a little flushy,but we made the best of it and had a great time. I'm looking forward to next weekend. Hopefully I have a little more cold tolerance and can avoid as bad an icecream headache as this past weekend.

"big" squashtail vs. stock squashtail

slightly more stern volume

a bit more foot volume

a little more knee room

RISK Session report (part 1)

Little Compton, Rhode Island
about 50 people showed up for this surf session
the waves were just a bit overhead and closing out fast but people were having fun in all sorts of kayaks
playboats, surf boats, and me in my surf/play boat
Here's a helmet cam video of a session