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

Flume helmet cam video

random YouTube kayaking links

creeking

freestyle

UK_play

surf_fin_history

mystery move

Georges

a quick shot of fun to show you what it was like before the hole completely turned into a wave with all of last year's flooding.
Oh the memories.....

Gangser, Salto, Crux

compare these
Salto/Gangster(playak)
as well as these boats
Gangster/Crux(playak)
and also try this
Crux/Salto(playak)

People are quickly becoming fans of the DR Gangster. I agree that it's a good boat, but was curious why so many folks were taking an instant liking to it. I suppose the positive design attributes of some other well-tested creek boats are similar in feel to this new boat. So, I thought I'd do a quick comparison, and playak is the easiest place to do that.

From the Art of New York

benefit
for victims of last year's hurricane Katrina in the gulf coast
all proceeds go to the gulf coast
money raised by the purchase of NYC area artists goes to gulf relief efforts
money raised by the purchase of gulf area artist goes to that particular gulf coast artist as a way to encourage him/her to continue pursuing their unique craft
http://www.fromtheartofnewyork.net

Farmington River (New Boston) and Halloween Party

Jeff was looking for a good boat to get back into kayaking after his shoulder surgery. Since I went through the same thing last year, we met on Sunday to go paddling. The New Boston sectioin of the Farmington was running just a bit over 5,which made for a fun day

above, you'll see Jeff, in the DR GANGSTER/Idra approaching one of the better rapids on the run.


Three weeks post-operation and in good shape. Maybe working in a physical therapist's office has something to do with it, but I think that Jeff is on the fast track to full recovery.


This D Man (or is it "A" man?) who laughed at me for boofing onto a hidden rock. SO, I have to make fun of him for paddling a pumpkin-orange boat and looking scary in this picture.


speaking of scary..... who is that infected zombie in a hazmat suit?


what a fun party at Maurice and Jeanne's house. All the local forest creatures showed up to hang out.


Ohhhh, creeking is going to be fun tomorrow......

Hubbard Brook Trip Report

It was a lovely, foggy, rainy day in the southern Berkshires. The Hubbard was not quite high enough when we arrived. But, after scouting a couple of things that were actually TOO high,and debating our next move, we realized that the Hubbard had come up to runnable levels. Surely, if it was on the rise, the run would just get better as the trip progressed...

Ted burried somewhere in the first drop. Melting down a creek boat can be fun (sometimes)


Andrew's first-ever drop run in a creek boat. He has only ever had playboats, so adjusting to something big and round took some time. He made this one look easy though.


Tim, showing us the classic line on this drop


Tim again, firing up the second major rapid of the run. This one has some serious pinning potential. Even with a lound sounding "THUNK!", he was able to keep going and finish the rapid. Amazing what a bulkhead and high volume bow will do... No wonder he likes that Solo


Andrew on the same drop just 1/4 second before his beautiful oops (er.... boof) over the rock that divides the current. (It's hidden just below the surface). I wish I had a better camera for this one. He really launched that CRITICAL MASS over the drop.


Ted in his well-worn Magnum ready to launch into Michaud Falls. The idea is to start a bit left, drive right through the slot with (or without) a boof, and then you are a pinball in play...


He ran it twice so I was able to get the same guy running the same drop from another angle. This would show about 1 second after the above photo. And also shows how good of a plastic welder Ted is. His repair job has been hold up to stuff like this for quite a while now.


Tim, running the right side of the rock at Michaud Falls. Depending on who you ask, it's either the sneak route or the hero route. The crux, like the main line, is all in the set up. And, it's a tighter slot.


Here's Jeff, who helped Andrew through a tough little section towards the bottom.

All in all, a solid crew. It was Tim's first time down this river, Andrew's first time in a real creek boat, my first time on Hubbard since going back to grad school, Jeff's paddle's last full river run before breaking the next day on another creek, and Ted finally getting to paddle after waiting for all of us to arrive in the morning.

The water continued to rise, and a quick thunder storm pumped things up again. Oh what fun!

Kenny Unser

Kenny took up C1 a few years ago for a challenge. In a short amount of time he has become a good "kneeler" and very sensitive about boat designs (having been a kayaker too). Just ask him about how much he loves that long effective edge on the that FISH he converted.

May people seem to be getting back into longer boats these days. Here you will see Kenny's "newest" boat, the SLASHER. He says that it is teaching him alot about technique,and I'm sure it will make him an even better C boater.

take a good look at the DragoRossi Fish and Perception Slasher. "Half the paddle, twice the man?" What if you are half the boat? Or depending on your perspective, twice the boat?

3 creek boat chines and rockers

DragoRossi MAFIA
review1
review2

look at the nice, smooth rocker transition used here to make a predictable boat

a flat spot in the center is important for high inititial stability, and to spread the paddler's weight out over a larger surface area, thus making the boat float higher in the water (you hit fewer rocks and skip over the boily sections easily)


what is VERY important in real creek boat is round edges so that you can just skip right over those little pain-in-the-butt rocks found on shallow sections and slides.


The back two feet can have hard edges that let the water release from the edge of the boat, gaining speed, and allowing the stern to turn more easily.

DragoRossi CRITICAL_MASS

review

http://www.dragorossi.net/drboard/viewtopic.php?t=202


Very smooth rocker transition. This allows the water to see the boat as one surface, thus making it faster. If the rocker break was too abrupt, then the boat just "pushes" water and plows around like a slow tug boat. The key is to make a highly rockered boat, but make the transition SMOOOOOOTH
again, note the nice flat spot for high initial stability and just a little bit of the planing hull benefit. No need for complete roundness in the middle. That would just make things unstable.

round EDGES (not hull). It's an important distinction that many people are not aware of. It's the EDGES of your boat that get tripped up, not the flat spot on your hull. So, the solution is to make them nice and round

Stern edges can be sharp so that the stern releases and turns instead of sticking to the water. Faster turning creek boats is what we want.

Drago RossiGANGSTER
very similar rocker to the Mafia, the stern part of the rocker just comes up a bit later, making the boat a little more "traditional"

a slightly wider flat spot in the hull for a super stable, familiar feel

very round and forgiving with high secondary stability while maintaining the benefits of the center flat spot
the roundness in the stern doesn't make it feel more fogiving (becuase the stern edge COULD be hard) but it gives the boat a more traditional, familiar feel to it. Kind like a cross between the Necky Crux, Eskimo Salto, and the grandaddy of all little creekers,the Topolino