Here are more photos from the Cali trip thus far. The day after getting off Big Kimshew we hustled over to Quincy, CA with our sights on some bigger water and the Middle Feather. This was an awesome way to spend our 4th of July. Even though non of us brought any fireworks there were plenty of American flag covered Budweiser cans to feel the holiday cheer. We loaded our boats full and it was a great opportunity to test out my Stomper packed up. The new outfitting makes it so easy to pack full of gear. It’s amazing how much stuff you can bring on the river. Here is most of what I brought and check out how the backband is up and out of the way.

The Middle Feather is normally a 3 day mission but with all the CO boys having to get back to their jobs by Tuesday and catch their flights Monday night we opted to crush through it a bit faster thanks to Tom Janney sort-of knowing the lines. All said and done it took us less than 24 hours to get through the canyon. Day 1 begins with a beautiful class III sight seeing mission. The crew ahead of me had a bear swim out into a rapid and check them out; a sight I’m jealous I missed. After about an hour of boogie the gradient picks up into some awesome boulder garden rapids with the most beautiful granite walls I’ve ever see on both sides for miles. Here is the main event on day 1 with Tyson and Tom showing how to thread the needle past this massive hole on both sides.

Our fearless guide Tom Janney:

Tyson Titensor close behind:

We made camp on a beach a few miles above Devils Canyon with a great view, fire pit, and even a grill which came in handy for the full rack of ribs I packed in the back of the Stomper.

Camp on day 1:

Packing in the protein for day 2:

Day 2 we all woke up early and got fired up for another day of big water class V. Again, Tom hopped in front and lead the charge. He had been on this run about 5 times before and impressively chose good lines most of the way through. There are so many rapids on this run it’s impossible to keep track. We rarely scouted or stopped in eddies. He confidently charged us through saying, “I think it’s this way…” and we would blindly follow. The holes are massive on this run and I was the first to test it’s power early in day 2. Not quite awake, maybe 5 minutes down from camp, I dropped into a big one and took my licks for a solid amount of time. Long enough for the crew to eddy out and enjoy the show but luckily I held on till it’s fury was over and it let me out still locked in to my Stomper 90. There were no swims on this trip and my eyes were open the rest of the day through. We reached the new takeout, just upstream from Milsap Bar on river left around noon and waited for our chariot to pick us up and say our goodbyes as the crew headed back to CO. It was an awesome trip and I can’t wait to get back next year. The flows for our trip were around 2,800 cfs.

Here are some more photos from day 2.

Jared Johnson charging in the morning:

Tom, rapid above the portage:

“Chunderboy would do it”:

Jake routing through Helicopter:

More coming soon, keep checking back.
SYOTR

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.

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.