I suppose this is long out of order from my travels this summer but I just came across an SD card with all the shots from my trip down Westwater Canyon. It’s crazy that I’ve lived only 3 hours away from this beautiful place most of my life and never took advantage and hopped on a trip until this year. It was the perfect way to wind down after the crazy excitement of the Outdoor Retailer show where we launched the new Liquidlogic Stomper and all the other great products with Legacy Paddlesports. I was pumped to meet up with my good friends from First Descents and share some sun, beers, and good times in the canyon. I mean, truly, that’s what this sport is about. As much as it feels good to push yourself, and seek challenging whitewater. It’s the times spent with your friends on the river that really makes you keep coming back for more.

Canyon entrance

We rolled up the night before launch and set up the rafts. Unfortunately, one of the groups with a raft wasn’t able to make it at the last minute so space on our two rafts was very limited. I decided I’d just roll self support style keeping more space in the rafts for the important stuff like food and beer. I moved my seat forward just a little and had plenty of space for my two watershed futa-floats, 70′ speedloader throwbag and camera gear. My bags held my sleeping bag, pad, jetboil stove, and change of clothes. The Freeride 57 still rode awesome and I was stoked to have it as we set up camp at Little Dolores and Jason, Matt, Angie, and I had an awesome surf session until the sun went down that evening.

It was an awesome trip with great friends. Here are some shots from the weekend.

Loaded up Freeride

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Scouting Skull

Matt going for a deep line

Peta guiding smoothly

Even Brianne, a total hater of all things Brown Claw and fun was caught enjoying herself.

Camp

Freeriding

Flotilla on the flatwater cruise out… Good times

Shane Benedict, Jordan Poffenberger, and I rallied into Ontario for a quick 5 day trip on the Ottawa river last week. The flow was around -1ft making for some great options right outside our door. This was my first time to the Ottawa and I’m sure it won’t be my last. It’s pretty crazy showing up with nothing but farmland in every direction and knowing there is world class kayaking somewhere close by. We were there to test out the design of some new Composite Playboats that Shane has been working on, but we took some breaks and went out freeriding too. Here is a quick video from Push Button and Corner Wave.

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I finally have sorted through the hours of video from our sessions at Big Sur a couple of weeks ago. Shane was in town on a surfing mission and we took full advantage of every day starting in Glenwood in the mornings and making our way to Big Sur in the afternoons. Both waves were amazing in different ways. Glenwood was big and bouncy with a nice foam pile, great to work on new moves, and Big Sur was smooth and glassy so we borrowed some stand up boards from Hobie and our friends at BadFish River Boards. By no means are we awesome at SUP but we sure gave it everything we had and got some awesomely long rides. It’s amazing how much you can learn when there is no limit to how long you can stay on the wave. I think Shane held the record for longest ride staying out for at least an hour. Here are some shots thanks to my Dad, Gary and check out the video too!

Doesn’t get much better than this:

Obviously he’s stressed out:

But he can shred too:

Tommy Hillike was out on his board:

The Bad Fish Boards are made for this stuff and obviously a step ahead when it comes to river waves, they can even make me look good:

Trying to get rad on the 12 footer:

Here is the edit, we took so much footage from so many different angles, unfortunately I lost some good shots but I think it still turned out okay.

The new Liquidlogic Freeride 57 and 67 is finally out and in stock at your local retailer. John O’Neill from Alpine Quest Sports went down to Glenwood with me to test it out and see how it performed on a big flushing wave. At the higher flows of around 25,000 the river left side was definitely getting flushy and you had to really pay attention to not get washed off. Especially for those in smaller more park specific boats it was difficult to get long rides. John and I had planned on trading off and each taking some rides in the new boat but he ended up not wanting to trade me back, he stated the boat was perfect for catching waves on the fly and really easy to make it back to the eddy for more action. I had to wait to try it another day with Shane Benedict when he came to town at a slightly lower flow around 22,000. Click on the video below for some of that slippery wave riding action.