Sweet Bunion Productions

2007 Collegiate Nationals Wrap-up

2007-04-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well, after an intense 2 days of competition in cold, rainy, windy weather, monday rolls in all sunny and warm just as all the collegiate athletes are leaving Reno.
Big thanks to the CSTV folks and Jim Litchfield for throwing together another excellent event this year. Lots of extremely talented paddlers from all corners of the country came out, the competitions were tough and in the end we have the results:
Saturday's boatercross saw snow in the morning, leading many competitors to sport drysuits for the event.
The women's final was first, unfortunately local favorite Lizzy English (UNR) jumped the gun at the gate, causing her to be DQ'd. That left the race open, with Hannah Farrar (Dartmouth) taking first, Diane Gaydos (UC Davis) second and Kim Russell (COCC) third.
The men's race paralleled last year's competitors closely, pitting Andy Maser and Lane Jacobs (both from Oregon, and in the finals last year) against each other. After 50 seconds of furious paddling, Lane came out first for a repeat victory with Andy a close second. Matt Fithian of Garrett College rounded out the podium.

Sunday morning we woke up to snow flurries downtown, but thankfully slightly higher water than the day before. Good news for the freestyle comp. Hole #3 on the Truckee was a little shallow, so folks had to be careful where they decided to throw their moves and what moves they decided to throw. Once again it was cold, but that didn't stop anyone from going big.
Two 60-second rides with the scores added together decided who would move on to the semifinals. After the men's prelims, Jesse "Weasel" Murphy (UC Davis) was in first with a flurry of tricky-wus, McNasties, Phonix Monkeys and clean cartwheels, followed closely by Dan Simenc (Skippy- Boise State), Jon Meyers (Western State), defending champ Jacob Selander (North Carolina), Lane Jacobs (Oregon) and Eric Bissel (Arapahoe CC).
Following a short break, the women's heat began. These ladies stepped up the comp this year, throwing lots of vertical cartwheels, cleans, splits and big loops. Hannah Farrar (Dartmouth)- yesterday's winner- advanced to finals in first, Jamie Cooper (?) in second, and Kim Russell (COCC) in third.
In the finals, Kim Russell threw a ton of vertical right-cartwheels but didn't have the variety that Hannah and Jamie did, and ended up taking 3rd. But, it was 3rd in her first freestyle comp ever- not bad.
Hannah and Jamie did the unthinkable after their rides- tied. Which meant only one thing- another punch-out heat. These ladies were tired, but threw down good rides regardless. Hannah took the podium in first place and Jamie second.

The men's semis were intense. Defending champ Jacob Selander's rides were solid, but unfortunately not enough to advance to the final 3. Jesse Murphy, Jon Meyers and Lane Jacobs all threw impressive rides with tons of variety and moved on. It was obvious that the weekend of competing was starting to take its toll on these three, they looked a bit tired during their finals rides. Nonetheless, the rides were good, and Jon Meyers (second last year) got his turn on the podium in first place, followed by Jesse and Lane.

Something new this year was the overall champion- combined scores from the Boatercross and Freestyle- Hannah Farrar won the women's with first place finishes in both events, and Lane Jacobs won the men's, with a victory in the boatercross and a 3rd in the freestyle.

Good times were had by all in America's Adventure Place- Reno.

--Jacob live in Reno!

Oh- and videos to come soon. Just need to do a little editing on the plane back to North Carolina this afternoon.

Video update

2007-04-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

So the food coma post-dinner has me stuck in front of my computer doing a little editing...

so here's a link to some footage from today's practice:

Wheeee! Click ME!

More to come tomorrow.... hopefully it'll warm up a bit...

Jacob out!

Welcome to the Icebox!

2007-04-12T14:24:00.000-07:00

Landed in Reno yesterday morning, just in time to get in a good afternoon session at #3 downtown (where the freestyle comp sunday is going to be held). Good to be back at this spot- lots of tricks possible and not too hard to pull off a lot of stuff.

But it's kinda cold.

Woke up this morning to this-

Macy's backyard... uh..... man, i love february! er, crap- it's april, huh?

Anyway, the snow had melted by 11, so it was time for a morning/ early afternoon session.
The water had dropped a little from yesterday- making the hole a tad shallower and bonking a bit more regular. Not to worry, all the tricks are still possible, but you gotta be careful.

After an hour or so of freezing, I decided to break for lunch. Where I am now.

Drying off my wet capilene.

The dryer's almost done, and it's time for the afternoon session! Good times.
I've been taking a bit of video footage, I'll try and edit that up and post it tonight.

Live from Reno!

--Jacob

Holy crap, it's almost April!

2007-03-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

Huh, this semester is flying by... just realized that there's only 6 or so weeks left in the term (I should really get cracking on writing my master's, eh?), and only 3 until the 2007 Collegiate Nationals! (ooh! check out the website too...)
While Dan and Leif and others are creeking in Cali right now (I think...) I'm still in NC working away and tring to get out and playboat a bit. Been a decent amount of water, few days local on the Neuse and Haw and a trip to the Charlotte park here and there. And plenty of pool sessions.

Although today it's sunny and 80 and change, so it's gonna be a lake flatwater session.

Better than smelling like chlorine.

Word.

--Jacob

More eye candy... good stuff.

2007-01-17T11:03:00.000-08:00

Been doing a little editing lately, here's a couple short clips to "wet" your palette. Best if you reduce the size of the windows media player window for a little more clarity.

Canyon Creek, Washington.
3 mile run just outside the Portland, OR area. Pretty consistent flows all winter long, good for your waterfall and mellow boulder garden fix. Here it is at a fairly low(ish) flow.

Falls of the Neuse
The classic Triangle area wave, here it is at night at about 4000 cfs. Good times.

And coming soon to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, the super low-budget film featuring some classic west coast water (and possibly more, we'll see...) and grad students taking full advantage of their very low amount of free time...
Melt preview #2

Take it easy,
--Jacob

Liquid Habitat

2007-01-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, been a while here. School is an ass-kicker, but I keep telling myself that it'll be good in the long run. But in the meantime, winter break allows for a trip home to the Pac NorthWet and nothing but kayaking. Did I say playboating? nope. Been home for 3 weeks and in a playboat twice. Yes, it's creeking season!

So for the last couple weeks I've been paddling the Habitat 74 and noticed that there's a lot of people out there wanting a review of this thing. And here's one for y'all! (good lord, did i just use the phrase "y'all"? man....)
First off, big props and thanks to Alder Creek for being so supportive for the last few years and letting me snag this boat for 3 weeks and give it some love. If you're in the NW, be sure to check them out, or just head to their website.

Some background first- me, 5-6, 130, maybe 135 soaking wet, paddling for 10+ years now, former pro now turned professional grad student (wo-HOO!), no manufacturer affiliation at the moment.
The Habitat- damn, that's a sexy looking boat. plenty of room to pack gear into (did someone say cali overnighters? i'll take a couple!)
For a 74 gallon boat, it definitely doesn't handle or feel like something that big. did a good job at floating over a lot of stuff (okay, at my weight i tend to float over most stuff), and kept its speed well plowing through hydraulics.
The defined edge from the seat to the stern digs in and holds nicely carving in and out of eddies, able to snag those necessary 1-boat eddies at the top of class 5 drops with ease. Once in said drop- predictable, easy to keep the bow up and easy to control the speed. Hit the brakes when you want, or hit the gas and accelerate quickly (holy crap, that's a big hole! gotta speed up!)
I was impressed by the soft landings. Boof the crap out of a drop or 45-it, the semi-displacement hull takes the impace and softens it out, keeping the back of the paddler feeling a bit better.
If you end up plugging the drop, the habitat resurfaces quickly, actually accelerating away from the base as it does. Nice.
Don't know how familiar you are with Canyon Creek, WA, but landing Champagne with about a 30 degree angle sent the boat flying away from the drop, 2 strokes later and I was set up perfectly for the next boof at hammering spot.
And comfy. But- again, the only boat I'm not comfy in is EJ's Fun. The little one. As in the one that's only 5-4.
Hopefully the student loan fairy comes soon and I'll be able to get a Habitat. Anyone want to buy a Java?

Oh- here's some pictures. Sorry about the poor quality, I pulled these off of video footage with an older editing platform.

Hagen Gorge, WA

Sweet Creek (gotta love that name), OR

Now, I gotta be at the airport in a few hours to fly back to NC. Ah, school. Does it ever end?

--Jacob

BC Without Beta

2006-09-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

While everyone back east was facing the trials and tribulations of competition, Leif and I embarked on a kayaking adventure of our own, a little closer to home. British Columbia is large, full of incredible mountains, impressive scenery and high quality whitewater, and up until recently was largely unexplored... by me. Leif and I decided to go see what was up there in the wild and maybe, just maybe we would get some good video footage for our forthcoming kayak flick.

The first step to any successful mission is to go to the store and buy some guidebooks, topo maps, and do some research on the internet. We decided to skip that step and go to Skookumchuck instead. Turns out that was a pretty good choice because we had a sweet 5-day session at Skook during some pretty premium tides with minimal crowding. Big air was the name of the game as usual... that and trying to explain to confused tourists why we were paddling upstream and continually falling on our heads. We even surfed an early morning tide and were lucky enough to be the only ones there. By the end of those five days we were too sore to continue pushing the edge of the freestyle envelope, so we went to Squamish for some world class creeking.

Since we had no beta on any of the local runs we decided to drive up the Cheakamus river and peer into the canyon. It looked good, so we drove up the road a ways and met a dirt biker on the way who happened to know where the putin was. Sweet. The run started off with a technical 12-footer and then crashed through boulder gardens and ledges for a couple of miles. With our appetites wetted for BC whitewater, we drove up to the Soo River that afternoon, placed my bike at the alleged takeout and drove up the road five or six miles until we found an suitable access point. The run was even sweeter than the Cheakamus, sporting one superb walled-in class V gorge and numerous steep boulder gardens. We thought we were starting to see what BC boating was all about, but we were wrong.

We read on the internet that the takeout for Callaghan creek was at a bridge. A quick glance at the trusty road atlas showed only one bridge, so we parked the bike at a campground just downstream of it. Perfect, now for the put-in. It seemed smart to drive up along the road that ran parallel to the river to find a good access point. After four or five miles of driving up the gravel road we encountered a road construction project. We asked the workers where we could get down to the river and they didn't seem to know, so we continued on to a viewpoint for a big waterfall near the Callaghan. We decided that the tiny creek that fell two hundred feet into a rubble filled canyon below us probably met up with the main river somewhere. So we bushwhacked down the steep canyon walls toward the creek. Of course there was not enough water to paddle the side creek so we sloshed down a mile or two, ran three small, dried-up waterfalls and plopped into the milky blue Callaghan. This run was sweet not only for the 3 or 4 waterfalls, of which one is a perfect 25-footer, but for the steep boulder gardens and powerful rapids. This was classic BC creek boating. The locals had told us it would be far too low, but only a spoiled girlyman afraid to put some scratches in his boat would call it too low. We took out, euphoric from the paddle. Then only a long bike shuttle separated us from our next trip on the Ashlu.

Bryan Smith, a Washington state native turned Squamish regular, and his friend Joey were kind enough to show us down Box Canyon of the Ashlu. This is perhaps one of BCs finest class V runs. Having local paddlers to guide us was imperative, though, as many of the drops in Box canyon are both un-scoutable and un-portageable. I can’t really tell you much about the Ashlu because it is kind of a blur in my mind. I was nervous putting on, especially once it started hailing and thundering, but managed to style most of the lines. The canyon was phenomenal with smooth, polished, vertical rock that extended straight up from the river. The drops were steep and super clean with fun boofs and continuous action. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes class V and knows a boater that lives in Squamish.

It is important to note that the Ashlu is currently threatened by an impending hydro project that will siphon the water out of Box canyon and other sections during most of the year. While we were there, crews were already logging along the access road in preparation to widen it to bring in the equipment necessary to construct the dam.

From Squamish we drove over the mountains to Lytton, home of the Thompson River and base of Hyak Rafting, where an Australian kayaker we had met up at Skook was working for the summer. We sampled the Frog wave and whitewater of the Thompson, as well as the two beautiful gorges of Cayoosh Creek. But the real highlight of that area was the Lower Stein River.

The Stein River is typically run from Stein Lake down to the Fraser River which is about a 3-day wilderness trip. Usually the lake is accessed via float plane or an excruciating hike over snowy mountain passes for a whole day. Turns out float planes are expensive and we didn’t have enough time to hike in to Stein Lake. The alternative is to hike up-river from the confluence along a trail until you have gone as far as humanly possible and then collapse at a reasonable campsite. Leif and I and an Englishman known to us only as Burt, took off up the trail one rainy morning. That evening it only took two gigantic meat and cheese sandwiches each, courtesy of Hyak Rafting, and about 3-dozen granola bars to satiate us after the grueling hike. We stayed up late looking for meaning in a warm campfire before passing out under a tarp around 8:30. Once we regained consciousness in the morning we noticed that nature was all around us. It had snuck up on us in the night and now we were surrounded. There were tall, rocky peaks and forests and a clear green river crashing down through it all. There were bears too... we didn’t see any, but they were there. The woman at the visitor’s center had told me all about the grizzly bears.

As for rapids there was really only one. It began right where we put in and ended about 10 or 12 miles downstream when we hit the Fraser later that day. Most of it was really nice, continuous read-and-run boulder gardens. There were a few larger ledges and holes. And there was one sweet rapid called the Devil’s Staircase which is a series of five or six powerful ledges backed up on one another amongst a congested boulder garden. Paddling loaded boats through it was a little out of control, but it just made it that much more fun. Of course the Rocker allowed me to style my line through it. There was more whitewater after that, but it was just a blur of continuous class III-IV. The whitewater wasn’t super hard, but the whole experience of the wild Stein makes me want to return to run the rest of the river.

And that was that. We ran the shuttle from Lytton to the Stein trailhead, packed up the car and drove back to Portland that night. Leif continued on to Arcata the next day where he is bumming around for the next year. We’ll have lots of video from our trip in the next Sweet Bunion Production, but unfortunately, I don’t have any photos.

Later,
Dan Rubado

Dude, don't drop that!

2006-09-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

So, I went kayaking once, and it was really fun. Maybe I'll do it again someday when I finish grad school.
After a long summer of field work and an excessive binge of plane flights and overpriced airport beers, I landed in Minnesota to word at U MN for a couple weeks in a geochemistry lab. My job was to turn big rocks into very small rocks, and then drop said small rocks in lots of fun acid to dissolve away everything but the quartz. "Why do we need the quartz?" you might ask. Well, I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you. Anyway, the end product that goes through more chemistry which I didn't have time to do is a nice, fine, white powder.

uh, does the DEA approve of this?
What's the street value of this stuff? Maybe I could pay rent!

What exactly am I working with again?

So the days would normally start out by walking into the lab and spinning the "Wheel of chemicals found under the fume hood", and finding out which one you were going to drop that day. Chemicals found on the wheel include- Water (you're probably drinking a glass of this at the moment); Hydrochloric acid (pretty close to water, it might sting a little); Hydrogen Peroxide (probably have this in your first aid kit); Nitric acid (Ouch! It burns!); and everybody's favorite, Hydrofluoric acid (Warning: Fatal if inhaled, absorbed through skin or swallowed. Speedy attention is critical! Get medical attention immediately!)

You thought I was kidding, huh?

What is this, space camp again?

It's always fun when the delivery guy brings more hydrofluoric acid, and you get to wheel a cart across campus that is full of 200 lbs of acid, each box has a set of warning stickers on it, one of which includes a 12" tall skull and crossbones with big lettering "POISON" on it. You get a lot of weird looks.

Yeah, I'm on my way back to North Carolina, might head to the brand-spankin-new whitewater park in Charlotte in a couple days. Stay tuned for photos/ video of that bad boy!

Live in the MSP airport!
--Selander out!

Melt preview

2006-06-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Yo-
I said I'd get some editing done and a little preview of the west coast kayaking binge video together, and here it is!

Melt

--Jacob

Don't forget to pack your big boy pants!

2006-06-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, once again poaching wireless. This time from a coffee shop in Golden, CO, where I just finished a nice play session to break up the Cali- North Cackilack drive.

Just got off two classic runs in Cali, did Devil's Canyon on the Middle Feather right into the Clavey. Devil's canyon is typically a 3 day run, but we tend to rally through the class 4 boogie and make 3 days into 2. Good times. My buddy Alex came out from NC to join in, it was his first taste of true California whitewater and after getting lit up in a big hole he was nothing but a shit-eating grin for the rest of the trip. Beautiful scenery, top notch rapids and warm weather. What more can you ask for?

How about another overnighter?

YES!!! I'LL TAKE ONE!

Just as we were taking off the Feather, I got the call from Burnham- "Dude- we're putting on the Clavey and doing the upper and lower into the Tuolomne in 2 days. Pack your overnight stuff and get ready for some Cali class 5!"
So I had no choice but to drive the 6 hours from the Feather to the Clavey and arrive at the take-out at 3 am and sleep for a couple hours before rallying with the crew to the put-in.
Now the Clavey run involves ~20 miles of class 5 on the Clavey proper and another 7 or so on the Tuolomne (did I spell that right?) at 6500 cfs. Good times- big water play in a fully loaded creek boat.

I'd write more on these runs, but I gotta get driving. Got tons of video footage from both and the previous month up in OR/WA and my crash on the South Yuba (14 stitches!), hoping to get a little teaser up within a few days!

Oh yeah, and major props to Dan for kicking some ass on the Wenatchee!

--Selander out!

Wenatchee Fest

2006-06-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

A little update action from the Wenatchee River Festival last weekend...

Photos are courtesy of Brian at Leavenworth Mountain Sports. Leavenworth Mountain Sports, AW, some other companies and many volunteers put on an awesome event that included all kinds of crazy races and then the real competition: freestyle!

Dan setting up for something Huge while a random dog looks on.

I just thought everyone out there should know that I won. Yup. First place. I got two... count 'em, two... Wenatchee River Festival etched beer glasses. Every time I drink some water out of those glasses, it tastes like victory, too.

We had it up at upper rodeo hole, the turbulent little loop hole that sits about a hundred feet upstream of Rodeo hole. Rodeo hole itself was disappearing as the river dropped, but that brought in the upper hole for a premium level. Not the typical big feature action that you get on the Wenatchee, but it has that exciting little eddy that is really short and presses right up against the rock wall.

The loops were big, the ends were mostly clean, and there were some good back loops too. Not quite enough room or control in the pit for bigger moves like mcnastys, orbitals and tricky woos.

So the end results were:

Me (Dan Rubado)
Josh Bechtel
'Little Dave' Garringer
Taylor Robertson
Steve Bailey

There were obviously other things going on too, but I was just there to surf, myself. Drunkards was at a sweet level when I first arrived on Friday and the big aerial wave moves were great. I didn't get any video though, and then the river dropped. But there's still plenty of snow so it could come back!

Paddle hard out there!

-Dan Rubado

Mt. Rainier National Park and Huck Special

2006-06-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

After a while on the good ol' Wenatchee drainage with some big water play and creeking, I headed back to Portland to get in some classics like Bob's, Green Truss, Little White, etc...

This past weekend Rubado and I headed up to Mt. Rainier with some Portland boys to check out some park and huck possibilities within the park. Now, we weren't exactly sure if kayaking in the park was kosher or not, so we left the boats on one rig in a parking lot and piled into another to go scout. Paradise creek was the main objective, and we scored big with a 300-ish yard long series of slides that totalled between 100-120 ft high. Away from the road so as to not attract the attention of the rangers or gaping public that would think we're nuts and call the rangers.
We tossed our gear (which included many varieties of camera) over the side of the road behind a snowbank and changed while other members of the crew went to go grab boats.

Kris Wilson and I were nominated to be the first down the slide, with myself being first. Crash test dummy, I like that.

Selander between the first and second pitches...

I was suprised by the smoothness of the slide, from scouting it looked super bouncy, but it went on smooth like KY.

Everyone went on to fire it up a few times, but not before long when Dan and I were filming at the top here comes along Mr. Park Ranger. Luke is just about to run the slide when he looks at us and says "Oh, f---! Ranger! Busted!" and takes off down the drop, leaving Dan and myself.

Ranger: "Hey, are you guys the ones parked up on the road there?"
Jacob: "Yup."
Ranger: "Does one of you own a black dog?"
Jacob: "Yeah, that would be (insert random name here). He's down at the bottom filming."
Ranger: "Well, he needs to put the dog inside the car- you can't have them tied up outside. It just creates a problem for the park wildlife. Don't want a couger coming along and eating the dog..."
Jacob: "Okay, I'll let him know!"
Ranger: "You guys know about Narada falls just downstream, right?" (Narada Falls- 100+ ft onto rock)
Jacob: "Yeah, we're not even thinking about touching that."
Ranger: "Okay, You folks have a good day!"

Okay, enough storytelling. More pictures.
Rubado on the bottom of the first (and biggest) pitch

Pytel routing the second pitch

Johnny Ott on the last two drops- don't want to miss the boof on the 14- footer, pitoning will ensue...

Alright. Time for me to load up my home and head south to California. Land of endless whitewater and the place where the playboat stays on top of the car...

--Selander out!
Home. Rent is currently averaging $3.05/ gallon.

p.s.- I am in no way endorsing kayaking in national parks. If you do, be VERY careful to not disturb the native plants/ animals. Footprints in a pristine glacial meadow are an eyesore.

Pallets with nails and class 5 for breakfast

2006-05-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well, seeing as how the Cali snowpack is melting faster than an ice cream cone that just fell out of a 4 year-old's hand onto the sidewalk on a hot summer day, I've spent the last week up in Washington. Where the snowpack has been melting fastern than an ice cream cone that just fell out of a 4 year-old's hand onto the sidewalk on a hot summer day. Huh.
First stop was the Wenatchee, which by the good ol' semi-reliable Northwest River Forecast Center (go NOAA!) was predicted to rise and level out at about 12k, which is the primo play level for some really big waves. First day it was about 9k, and the play was mediocre, but levels were rising so high hopes for the next day were had by everyone.
Woke up the next morning to the sound of boulders moving along the creekbed where I was camping and 90 degree temps by 9am (gonna be a warm one!) and as I drove back into Leavenworth plenty of trees and old-growth forests were making their way through Tumwater Canyon. I don't know if you've ever seen Tumwater at high water, but it would take some serious balls to run it in a kayak. These trees, man, must have the biggest balls ever. Not even catching eddies. Just routing gigantic class 5+ right down the middle. I'm sure all their buddies on shore were scouting and yelling out beta, but damn!
Down at Rodeo Hole we were a little afraid of surfing. Not due to the size of the feature, which was at an absolute perfect level, but due to trees, 2x4s telephone poles, pallets, etc... coming downstream and taking rides alongside you in the pile. Not super fun to see a tree with the "Claw of DEATH" branches sticking off of it throwing 20 point cartwheels in the hole while you're waiting in the eddy. Or the pallets with lots of rusty nails floating downstream. Or the full size old-growth TREE that decided to stop off in the eddy for a bit.
Ugh.
The rest of the run was sweet, with the exception of Drunkards' being washed out. Level must be a little high. Turkey Shoot, normally a benign little wave, was pretty fun. Managed to work leftie air blunts, stabs, flashbacks and attempt the occasional McNasty or loop. Good times. Snowblind was epic. More waves than you could shake a stick at.
And good ol' Suffacator. Never dissapoints above 14k. Skook on a river, that's all I'll say.

I left that evening for the west side of the Cascades to meet up with some friends and rallied up to Bellingham, where some small drainages had decent water levels. Just about the only places in the state (or coast) with reasonable levels.
There was a catch. It was still so hot, that you had to get on things early in the morning before the snowmelt kicked in and bumped the flow up super high. All right! You guys want some class 5 for breakfast?

--Selander

Videos are cool

2006-05-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

yo-
check out this video of Dan being a bad-ass in Chile last winter.

Dan in Chile

And I just threw together a brief vid too-

Selander doing some stuff in a kayak

jacob live in albuquerque! poaching my friend's neighbor's wireless!
soon to be in california.

oh yeeeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh.

Bob's Hole Rodeo

2006-05-11T03:35:00.000-07:00

The big event of Oregon for the year went down on the Clackamas this Saturday. With all of 12 pros in the men's class, it was pretty rockin'. The spectator turnout was also somewhat below average... probably all related to the fact that Bob's wasn't in for the competition. But we had it there anyways! Because we were determined to throw some big tricks whether there was a wave to do it on or not.

Anyhow, we ended up including all four waves (top hole, first wave, Bob's, and the curler) in the competition. You could use whatever combination of features you wanted during your ride. That was a pretty sweet way to do it, actually. It made for some good variety. The top hole was actually really sweet. It was just a bitch since it required a hike at that level. Bob's was super flushy, but the curler was pretty sweet for blunts and backstabs.

Once the World Class kids showed up the event got started. I ended up judging for juniors, experts and women. Brooke Winger took first in women's, Devon Barker (props Team JK) got second, and Christie Glissmeyer placed third. Then the World Class kids took over the judging for men's pro.

I had some sweet rides in the top hole in the first round of the comp and was able to float down to the curler for some blunts and stabs. To my surprise I ended up going into finals in first place! Sweet. I think that lit a fire under Andy Bedingfield and Karl Moser, though. Everyone started trying to huck themselves off the small features in finals. I had a couple solid rides and out-scored my prelims rides with loops, splits, ends, cleans, blunts and stabs. But Karl and Andy went for the unstickable helixes, clean blunts, and donkey flips. It was risky on their part, but they had nothing to lose. The judges counted the big moves, though. Karl took first, Andy was in second, and I took third.

Tao, Matsell, Bechtel, and some other good paddlers finished in there somewhere as well.

Anyhow, another weekend, another comp. It was good times, especially since I got to drink an awesome porter in Estacada while eating a delicious chicken burger at Fearless brewery.

Peace out.
-Dan

Footy from the College Nat's

2006-05-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

CLick HERE!

Click on the kayaking button, and check out the goods from the semis and finals from boater-x and freestyle.
Right on. I gotta get back to finishing up the term so I can head to Cali and play in some snowmelt that's rushing down some granodiorite, or perhaps quartz monzonite. Plutons.

--Selander

American Festival

2006-04-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

Yo, props to Jacob for his big win at the Reno Collegiate! Sweet dude. Yeah, I didn't fair quite as well at the American, but managed to throw some mini air blunts and back stabs on the micro green wave where the event was held. The top three were locked in with Stephen Wright, Kincaid, and EJ and I battled it out with Dave Garringer for fourth place, but he ended up defeating me, so I took fifth.

So, on Sunday, Stephen and I decided to go run Golden Gate on the South American. I borrowed Stephen's Super Hero, which is fast and handles well in the big stuff. There was only one hitch in our plan... neither of us had run it before, so we didn't know how to get there (or how to get down it for that matter). Anyhow, we eventually found a boater with a guidebook and got the directions. We got a late start, but figured we would try to make good time and scout efficiently. After the shuttle was set we got on the river to see a VERY healthy flow which happened to be rising with the rain. Basically, a long, difficult, semi-epic ensued, resulting in my first swim in eight years! To keep it short, we were reading and running the first couple miles... I found my way into a rather large hole, didn't have enough speed to punch it, got worked violently for a while, breathed in some water, then got worked a little more before I decided to bail out instead of trying another roll. Stephen rescued my stuff (thanks dude). It was a little disheartening since we were only a mile or two into our 10 mile class V+ journey and all of the biggest rapids lay downstream.

We ended up meeting up with a crew from World Class at the first portage and paddled the rest of the day with them. Well, we snuck and portaged the rest of the run with them. So, the water was pretty high, and in my humble, playboater opinion the rapids were really large and steep and some of them downright frightening. Anyhow, at some point, once the daylight started running out, the World Class guys decided it would be faster to just start portaging every major horizon line instead of trying to scout and then go back and run it. Probably a good policy. There were tons of rapids in there, and it would be nice to go back at slightly lower flows with an early start and run some of the bigger stuff. After the final portage around the very mean looking F111, darkness was on its way. We finished out the last couple miles of IV+ at a pretty quick pace racing to get out before dark. We reached the takeout right as things were getting pretty gray and dim. It was dark by the time the boats were on the car. Whew!

The story ends with a hilarious quarter mile hike down a rutted dirt road, that my car couldn't manage, in complete pitch darkness to retrieve Stephen's truck at the putin. 20 minutes of stumbling over rocks and feeling out the edge of the road got us to the truck and finally put an end to a day that seemed unwilling to end.

Collegiate Nationals Freestyle pics

2006-04-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

Okay. So after a nice, leisurely hung-over day of sitting on a plane sandwiched between a window and two beached manatees for 7 hours (why, God, WHY did they have to be on both my flights? and for the love of everything that is considered holy in this world, WHY did they have to say "Hey, let's sit next to our buddy again!" on the second flight? F@#$!!!) I made it back to Chapel Hill.
Flying really is a pain in the ass, you know?
Right. I decided to sort through the hundreds of pics from the weekend and post some of the better ones for you eye candy/ kayak porn viewing pleasure.

So here ya go!

Reno airport baggage claim, welcoming the 1000+ competitors for the weekend.

Competition scene during the first round of men's prelims.

Jon Meyers (finshed 2nd) setting up a McNasty.

Diane Gaydos, women's champ, getting a nostril full going for another big loop.

Lane Jacobs looping in front of the boom camera.

Jacob Selander looping in semi-finals. Big loops and Space Godzillas were par for this hole, which loved to give them up.

Jacob Selander and Diane Gaydos, men's and women's collegiate freestyle champions of 2006.

--Jacob

Collegiate Freestyle Champions Crowned!

2006-04-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

Whew... an intense day of competitions has finally come to a close. We started out with beautiful sunny Nevada weather, and later on it came close to rivalling the Oregon Cup for raininess and cold...
Water levels were slightly higher than they'd been the last couple days, causing the hole to be slightly flushier and harder to stick the big moves consistently. Very few competitors were able to stay in the hole for the full 60 second ride, patience and technique paid off.

First up was the men's prelims- 3 heats of 5 each, 2 60-second rides, both counting to see which 6 would advance to the semis. The field of 15 was cut to Max Bechdel, Lane Jacobs, Jesse Shimrock, John Meyer, Tyler Muntz and Jacob Selander (hey, that's me!).

But before the men's semis, the women had their chance to throw down. Since there was only a field of 8, the prelims were considered the semifinals, and the top three advanced to the medal knock-out round. Diane Gaydos, Lizzie English and Erin Griffith all threw big rides in prelims and advanced.
Lizzie and Diane hit big loops in the finals and Erin had a bunch of solid cartwheels, and in the end Diane and Lizzie advanced. The final rides were sick, but it was Diane's consistency and variety that got her the winning score from the judges.

Next up were the men. The heat of six was quickly cut down to three after a flurry of intense rides bursting with energy, big moves and lots of variety. Selander, Shimrock and Meyer came out with the top three scores and moved on, with only a 0.2 difference in scores between 3rd and 4th place.
On with the finals. Each competitor was given a 60 second ride, the top 2 scores advance and are given another 60 second ride and a champion crowned.
Jacob went first in the heat of 3, and proceeded to throw down the highest scoring ride of the day, out of any competitor in any class. The bar had been set for Shimrock and Meyer, who both threw down impressive rides. But someone had to go. Jesse was eliminated, taking the 3rd place spot on the podium. John was up first, and threw a big ride with a lot of variety but unfortunately flushed halfway through and lost some time paddling back up into the hole. I was up next, and after watching John flush (I was suprised, he had been throwing some of the sickest rides of the comp consistently) I knew all I had to do was stay in the feature for 60 seconds and save some high-risk moves for the end.
I played the first part of my ride pretty conservatively, and when the clock hit 30 seconds, I knew it was time to throw. I managed another 15-20 seconds before flushing, and then it was up to the judges to decide.

Here's the final:
Women's Collegiate Freestyle:
1. Diane Gaydos
2. Lizzie English
3. Erin Griffith

Men's Collegiate Freestyle:
1. Jacob Selander
2. John Meyer
3. Jesse Shimrock

Pictures coming tomorrow. Big props to Amanda Marusich for taking some shots!
And even bigger props to the panel of judges that worked hard all day- Rusty Sage, Macy Burnham and Jessie Rice

Now, it's off to party!

--Selander out!

Collegiate Nationals day 1

2006-04-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

So today was the first day of competition in the Collegiate Nationals kayaking events- the highly competitive and sometimes violent boater-cross.
Champions were crowned, folks were bloodied, good times were had by all.

The women were first to go, the final heat saw Amanda Marusich (Stanford), Lizzie (UNR), Shana (Garrett college), and Katie (U of Montana), (sorry, i don't remember last names for everyone). Right from the start, Amanda sprinted out to a commanding lead, and eventually taking first followed close by Kaite. Lizzie came in 3rd.

Amanda taking the lead in women's boater-X

Up next was the men's, the final heat matched Jesse Shimrock (Garrett College, recently out of retirement), Andrew Peterman (Stanford), Andy Maser and Lane Jacobs (U Oregon). It was a fierce heat, Shimrock's paddle had some contact with Maser's face, multiple boat on boat/ paddle contact, but at the end Lane Jacobs ended up crossing the finish line first. Peterman came second, then Maser in 3rd.

Jacobs and Peterman

Now, it's off to the music fest! Tons of live bands plaing in Reno tonight and tomorrow for the competition, good times!
Just have to make sure to be plenty rested for the freestyle comp tomorrow!

Selander out!

Do we go kayaking or to the casino?

2006-04-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

Collegiate Nationals 2k6:

So I get into the airport around 10 and i'm immediately met by some redneck dude driving a blue volvo. Thanks, Burnham!

The reno park is pretty sweet. one channel for slalom/ boater-x, the other freestyle with pretty sweet features. The main hole, #3, is situated smack-dab in the middle of downtown, you can surf and look up at the casino skyline at the same time. There's also a VERY convieniently located pub adjacent to the hole on river left, if you're so inclined after paddling.
The feature is sweet, name a hole move, think it up and do it! the comp should be sweet, people will have to go super-big if they want to advance.
Big props to CSTV for throwing down for this event, there's ads for it all over town, almost more hyped than the 2k3 world freestyle championships in Graz!

well, it's 5:15, i'm at Macy's house, and I think it's time to head back to the park for another session!
more updates to come tomorrow.... there's a coffee shop next to the ww park that has wireless... sweet.

Selander out!

American Fest

2006-04-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

Yo dudes.
I decided to avoid the whole carrying the boat on the plane with me to Cali and pay lots of money for that wonderful privelage thang and decided to ship it down there ahead of me. That's right... ship it. So I duct taped up my boat bag again (wavesport sucks!) and sent it on its way to Sacramento where we will be joyously reunited when I fly down.

I could have competed in that silly college rodeo with Jacob over in Reno, but I thought I would compete in the real rodeo on the American where all the cool people are going to be.

Yeah, so next stop Cali!

It's on!

2006-04-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

Word.
The Sweet Bunion Crew now has a blog. We're with the times, man. Look out.
And as the school year comes to a close (kind of...) we realize that the world wants to go kayaking vicariously. And that's where we come in. We go kayaking and cause some minor trouble, and the world wishes that they could join in. But we don't. I mean, really. Our cars are only so big. We'd love to take all of you along, but we just don't have enough room and nearly enough ramen to support everyone.

Rock on.

Here's the crew:

Dan "God of Spencer's" Rubado

http://www.jacksonkayak.com/jkteam06/danrubado.cfm

Jacob "C-Monster" Selander

http://www.unc.edu/~jselande/index.htm

"Famous" Leif Anderson

http://www.justfluid.com/rightleifanderson.html

Dave Stentiford

Yo Dave- I need a photo!

Peace out.
--SBP crew

Off to Reno!

2006-04-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

The Collegiate Nationals start friday! First ever ww boater-X and freestyle comp open to ONLY college students. Fortuantely, grad students count. oh yeah.

Time to call the airport and make sure I can check a kayak!
airline- "how big is it?"
jacob- "less than 6' long"
airline- "sorry, we don't accept sea kayaks."
j- "whitewater kayak. 6' long, 40 lbs."
air- "let me check with my manager"
j- "ok"
air- "sorry, he said no. it has to be less than 80" l x w x h"
j- "look at your website. it says vaulting poles are allowed. i do believe those are a tad over 80"."
air- "huh. i've never vaulted."
really?

Yeah, long story short the kayak is flying with me.
Good times, Jay Kincaid has already threatened me with bodily harm upon my arrival.

Right on! Next update from Reno!
--Jacob