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POWELL to POWELL
The fifth and final installment of the Powell to Powell film series follows the group of college friends finish its Colorado River journey from the source by crossing Lake Powell in a solar-powered raft. The series points to the need for water-use awareness and progressive solutions, as the population of the Southwest will continue to grow, “the river will not.”
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The Channel
09.16.2011
On a clear October day in the middle of the Ka’iwi Channel, the island of Oahu is a distant smudge on the horizon and 45-foot outrigger canoes, each carrying six strong men paddling full out, appear only as rocking torsos and slashing paddles glimpsed amid the swell rolling down from the north.
Inside New York’s 9/11 90-miler
09.14.2011
Some took more than 20 hours to finish. But at Sunday’s 90-mile Adirondack Canoe Classic, a decades-old, northern New York event that featured an international cast of paddlers and even some rowers, grade-schoolers and grandparents alike, it was a seven-paddler voyageur canoe team that toyed with course history. The Richard Reynolds Express-Forge Racing team rode sun-drenched (and still hurricane-flooded) rivers, swamps and lakes to a winning finish in the notorious “90-miler,” in 3 days, 11 hours and 32 minutes.
Updated: Video – Yellow Creek, 3rd Descent
09.13.2011
f the Internet is one huge smörgåsbord of people’s lives, plus Yahoo! celeb news and other super important stuff, then I suppose it’s OK to just post this little video here. Sure, I can’t tell you much about it, like where Yellow Creek is (my best guess is California). But it’s a tasty dish amid said smörgåsbord ala mundane…
26th annual Canoe & Kayak Industry Awards Announced
09.13.2011
The mood was electric and the music acoustic at the 2011 Paddlesports Industry Party in Salt Lake City on Aug. 5. Athletes, legends and industry employees flooded the venue for free food, beer, networking and the 26th annual Canoe & Kayak Industry Awards.
Bratislava Farewell
09.12.2011
Yesterday the Worlds ended. I’m talking about the 2011 Canoe Slalom World Championships, of course, not the end of everything. (That’s in 2012.) Riding in cars or buses or airplanes back to their homelands today, slalom athletes and coaches are thinking about this year’s racing season, and planning the next.
Coming Soon: ‘Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown: Volume 2′
09.12.2011
Scottish sea kayaking outfitter and coach Gordon Brown’s first DVD filled one void in instructional paddling videos and created another.
Bratislava #8
09.11.2011
France’s Denis Gargaud-Chanut and Fabien Lefevre, the silver medalists in Saturday’s C-2 event, made slalom history Sunday by medaling again in their two different singles classes. Lefevre claimed the Bronze Medal in Men’s Kayak, and—in the biggest surprise of these World Championships—Gargaud-Chanut is the 2011 World Champion in C-1 Men.
Boundary Waters Burning, but OK for Paddlers
09.11.2011
With wildfires affecting some 2,700-acres of northeastern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, paddlers are being forewarned of “rolling closures” in certain burn zones. Still, officials and locals are saying the Pagami Creek Fire—aflame since it was first detected, Aug. 18, after a lightning strike—has yet to seriously impact paddlers and paddling opportunities.
Bratislava #7
09.11.2011
“Why is this French C-2 team paddling on the same side?” I asked in the caption to my photo in Bratislava #3. Now I know that my guess was wrong: They weren’t “just hacking around.” In the C-2 final Saturday, that same French team—who I discovered is the legendary Fabian Lefevre and his partner Denis Gargaud-Chanut—was the last boat down the course…
Three Brothers (+1), Down the Mississippi
09.10.2011
Last night, the three Bragiel brothers—Peter, Paul and Dan, and their paddling friend, Tony Corella—pitched camp on a sandbar of the lower Mississippi River, about 20 or 30 miles upstream of New Orleans. It marked their 58th straight night out; they’d set out in two canoes from the Mississippi’s headwaters, Lake Itasca, Minn., on July 14.
Bratislava #6
09.09.2011
It was a disappointing morning for the U.S. paddlers, including for my sentimental favorite, the McEwan and Eichfeld team. The drama of qualifying heats lies not in the placings within the top ten, but “on the bubble”—those paddlers who are just inside or just outside the cutoff.
Hudson Bay Found
09.09.2011
The final day of Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho’s 85-day canoe trip from St. Paul, Minn. to Hudson Bay will be remembered in one way: “The overwhelming feeling was hunger,” says Warren, 22. “For some reason we didn’t eat… I don’t know why.”
Extreme Makeover, River Edition
09.09.2011
Washington’s Elwha River, currently diverted by two dammed reservoirs and twenty-four million cubic yards of sediment, is being restored to its original free-flowing form.
Bratislava #5
09.08.2011
t wasn’t exactly a quiet day at the course today, but the sound was not the roar of the crowd, rather the roar of the event-canceling wind. What’s a honed and hungry racer to do?
Bratislava #4
09.08.2011
Was I nervous this morning? Nah. It was just everyday forgetfulness that made me fail to put the battery back into my camera. And if I was completely exhausted after the the first C-2 heat, well, blame jet lag. It had nothing to do with watching my son race in his first World Championships.
Bratislava Chronicles #3
09.06.2011
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — The official Opening Ceremonies of the 2011 Canoe Slalom World Championships did not begin until 7 p.m. Tuesday local time, so during the day there was training as usual on the course. With boat and gear inspection taking place off to one side, it was a good chance for me to meet new people as they stood in line.
Bratislava Chronicles #2
09.06.2011
I’m getting the feeling that the 2011 Canoe Slalom World Championships has an inferiority complex. Today the home page for the World Championships features a photo of Michel Martikan with the caption, “Road to London Adds Extra Excitement to Canoe Slalom World Championships.”
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