Well it’s official Mom and Dad, I’m no longer a virgin, I have finally found what life is really all about, kayaking in California. I’ve waited so long to have my chance at the goods all over this beautiful state and I’m pumped to have an entire month ahead of me with nothing on the agenda but to kayak as much as possible. We hopped in the van and rallied out of Hood River after one last high water lap on the Green Truss. Stopped and said hi to Shon Bollock working on his new movie that you gotta check out the trailers for HERE. Then hustled down to Sacramento Int’l to pick up Will Rostron and Rolf Kelly. We drove through the night thanks to some navigation errors (you can’t always trust GPS) and finally took a break only to wake up, call the rest of the crew, and find out they were 2.5 hours in the other direction with their sights set on Big Kimshew. So back on the road we went up all kinds of twisting Cali roads and found the spot we thought to drop in.

Here is Rolf our fearless leader checking out the scene below after taking a wicked fall while hiking down.

After finally making it down to the river I was so pumped to finally be in the magic of Cali where you can go bigger, slide longer, and stay smiling for miles. Here is Will on the first falls of the Kimshew, a perfect way to break us all in on a beautiful 20ish footer of granite goodness.

Jake, (sorry I don’t know your last name) caught a strange flake in the lead in but luckily the pool was deep, and it sure makes for a cool shot.

We definitely caught the river on the lower side of good and the in-betweens from the first falls to Kimshew falls was a bit low. Showing up to Kimshew got us all fired up and the River just picked up pace from here on through. This bouncy 40ish footer got the team fired up with good lines by all.

Here is Sean Lee probing first.

Followed by Will:

Then Andy Blanksley from above.

The photographer gets no love but it was great getting shots of all the CO boys firing things off. I had smooth lines too and was very surprised with how softly the Stomper landed off the drops. More awesome gorged in slides and boofs lead us down the next main event with Frency up next. The seal launch into the entrance sent you right into the current making set up quick and probing into the depths o so good and soft.

Here is Andy off this beauty as well.

Tom Janney was kind enough to grab my camera while I tested the Stomper’s ability to plug as well. Yeah it does that too:

From Kimshew Falls all the way to the takeout was just awesome, tons of boofs, slides and fun in an amazingly beautiful place. We were so lucky to have Brianne on this one to sweet talk and wink her way down and get the van through the locked gate saving us from having to hike our gear the 5 miles back up the road. Here is how the Kimshew lets you out, Will running the final drop with an awesome landing that sends you deep. From here we hauled to the Middle Feather and I’ll have shots up from there soon so keep checking back.

Currently Brianne and I are in Hood River volunteering as the photographer for a First Descents camp located up at the Panorama Lodge. These are an amazingly inspirational group of people that drive me to continue to raise money and awareness for such an awesome program. If you don’t know who they are, please click on my banner, find out, and donate to help change someone battling cancers life.

With the camp starting on Thursday we came in early to hang with family and get some laps on the little white. The little white salmon, I believe, is in the top 5 favorite rivers for anyone that’s been lucky enough to set foot here. It has long boulder-garden rapids, steep horizon lines, clean boofs, and everything else in between. It makes for the perfect place to showcase and test Liquidlogics latest creation the Stomper 90! The new Stomper 90 is the perfect addition to fill your quiver of LL boats. It takes the ability to boof over everything that the Jefe Grande brings, the speed and agility of the Remix, and adds it’s own special flavor with it’s flat hull and unique edge profile. It is by far the fastest whitewater kayak I have ever paddled. It has changed the way I paddle and I continue to learn new and amazing things as I get more comfortable running a flat-hulled creeker. It will be coming out around August and will be the perfect addition to the Remix or Grande you have already or will be purchasing soon. Here are some GoPro photos from a couple of laps down and an edit rocking my new Black Ops Jefe Grande and of course the Stomper 90.

One of the awesome views down the river.

A cool action shot.

Geoff Calhoun representing for Demshitz on the L dub.

When in Rome…brown.

Here is the edit. Stomper 90 on the lil-white. Be aware, music may have lyrics not suitable for small children. My gear seems to be running a black and yellow theme this year so it’s only fitting.

Homestake Creek race attracts people from all over the world. It’s the opportunity to gauge yourself with the best paddlers in the sport. Olympians, future Olympians, World Champs, world cup slalom kayakers, and even the locals all show up to put down their best two runs. Racers come for the $2,000 cash prize, the fame, the american women, or just for the love of competition. This year was some of the tightest competition I’ve ever seen in kayak racing. No one person stood out as the obvious choice for the leader. The flow was around 100 cfs making it just pushy enough to bounce off some rocks and not enough to make it any cleaner. Keeping your kayak up to speed was key with so many direction changes and places to accelerate all over the course.

Teva and the Vail Valley Foundation really know what’s going on when it comes to timing as well. They had on location the exact same timing system used for the Birds of Prey World Cup Ski races in November. So, when Honza Lasko and Mike Dawson tied for first place down to the hundredth of a second there was no questioning it and they fairly split the winnings between themselves, each taking home $1,500. Local transplant Jakub Nemec also crushed his way down finishing 3rd place for the men. On the ladies side it was Adrienne Levknecht holding the top spot for Team Liquidlogic. She killed it on both her runs with her first run good enough to put her in the top 10 of the men!

Brianne Horton was on the camera again capturing some awesome moments from the event. Check them out below.

Mike Dawson, tied for 1st.

Honza Lasko, tied for 1st.

Jakub Nemec, 3rd.

Adrienne, stomping her way to 1st.

Isaac Levinson, with a strong 6th.

Me, Liquidlogic Black Ops style, 12th place.

Nicole Mansfield, representing for Demshitz women.

Till next year, start training hard ‘cus you know the competition is.

SYOTR

After the PaddleFest weekend we grabbed Ted Keyes, the Liquidlogic rep for the western U.S. and routed a lap down Pine Creek to cool down from our first weekend of Colorado sun. I grabbed a Remix 79 from his truck and we all followed down in close Team LL style. Such a beautiful river and great way to end the weekend of fun.

Another beautiful pic from Brianne:

The crew in close comfort:

Of course, enjoying the sun in Colorado is never too good to be true. Monday morning we woke to 40 degree temperatures that quickly dropped as we climbed up the pass for some training runs on Homestake creek. I was pumped to put some scratches on my brand-new Black Ops Jefe Grande and get a feel for my local run again. Here are some scenes from the high water training laps on Monday morning.

Isaac flying down his first training run of the season:

Mike Dawson, another strong contender about to take his Leap of Faith on the bottom drop. Definitely trickier at the higher flows:

Honza, the Czech representation:

And we finished up just in time for the strong storm to swing in. Snow in the end of May, only in CO:

Here is a quick video clip that Team LL Isaac Levinson put together from one of his training laps. Enjoy: