Immersion Research 2009

This is an in-depth look at how to choose the right size IR rand skirt for your boat. As a side note, I filmed this by myself upstairs in our warehouse, so the  ”framing” isn’t exactly perfect- in fact the top of my head is cut off for a lot of it. Nonetheless, this should be helpful for anyone looking for a new IR rand skirt.

Baby on board. A few weeks before my son was born.

A note from Kara….please read post below about a threat to our local river, the Youghiogheny. I know most of you reading this will not only know the Yough, but will have paddled some section of it. For me personally, being born, growing up, learning to paddle, getting married and now raising my family on it’s river banks, I can’t think of a more sacred place. If I had to name one single reason why IR is where it is and why I am still living in Confluence…..it would be simply ‘the Yough’ and all that it brings and adds to the quality of my life–family, friends, lifestyle…oh yeah and paddling. Needless to say a threat to it’s quality to me is worth fighting for. So please read on….

A (growing) group of businesses and citizens  — who informally consider themselves “friends of the Yough” are sponsoring a fundraising party in Ohiopyle to directly support the Yough Defense Fund of the Youghiogheny RIVERKEEPER®.     (note:  Mountain Watershed Association (MWA) is home to the Youghiogheny RIVERKEEPER® )

Here are the details:

Come celebrate and defend the Yough!  YOU are invited to the Youghiogheny Defense Party!

This event benefits the Yough Defense Fund of the Youghiogheny RIVERKEEPER®

Numerous businesses and citizens are sponsoring this event with 100% of proceeds helping to cover

legal expenses incurred in defending the Yough from the proposed Curry Mine

Date:   Thursday November 19, 2009

Place:  Falls City Pub (Wilderness Voyageurs) in Ohiopyle

Time:  5pm  Doors Open (drinks available)

6pm  Food starts  (heavy Hors d’oeuvres)

7pm  Music (short sets) and events start

10pm  Format  evolves toward party/more music

Music will be provided by Clark Slater and Jess Hartman (and the Ferncliff Collective friends)

100% of your donation at the door goes to the Yough Defense Fund!

Your $20 donation provides:

Hors d’oeuvres

2 FREE draft beers or soda

Additional draft beer is cash bar; however, 100% proceeds go to the Yough Defense Fund!

50% of all other bar drinks (and limited menu) proceeds go to the Yough Defense Fund!

Live music with Clark & Jess   …and maybe even some “Yough-i-okie”!

Chance to win a door prize and maybe some FREE stuff!

Silent auction deals/steals!

Bring along your other “Yough friends”…have fun supporting the Yough!

If you want to join the growing core of individual “supporters” or sponsoring businesses, please email youghdefense@mtwatershed.com to see what you can do.   …but mostly we just want you to come have fun with us – your mere attendance will support the defense of this amazing river resource !

Finally, If you can’t attend, bummer! …but please consider visiting www.mtwatershed.com/donate.html and making a donation today in support of the Yough Defense Fund.
You may also send a check to “MWA”, home to Youghiogheny RIVERKEEPER®, at PO Box 408, Melcroft, PA 15462 (note “ Yough Defense Fund” in the memo line).
Thank you for your support!

To learn more about the benefit on Thursday and the Curry Mine download the pdf file below:

http://mtwatershed.com/resources/curry/pub_event_flyer.pdf

and for more info on the issue please visit http://mtwatershed.com/youghdefense.html

Thanks to all the great folks working hard to protect the Yough!!

The USRA Board has recently agreed that the Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival will host the 2010 R6 National Rafting Championships!

There will be Pro, Amateur, and Junior divisions.
The top 3 placers in both the Pro and Junior divisions will be identified as the U.S. representatives at the R6 Pre-World event which takes place in Costa Rica in 2010.
Go to the International Rafting Federation site for more details.    

Nationals will consist of: time trial, head to head sprint, slalom, and downriver disciplines.

Both volunteer and sponsorship support is needed.
Please respond to me if you are interested in helping out with this milestone event!

Tim 

http://www.oregonraftingteam.com/ http://www.usaraftassociation.com/

This is Stephen Forster here coming from Chile. Today, David Hughes, Tino Specht, and I ran a 30 footer on the Yesso River by Santiago. This drop had a class 5 entrance and a cave at the bottom. The drop was a lot of fun even though I broke my paddle. Now I am off to the Rio Claro to run some more, big drops Here are some pictures!

In august I posted some of our pics and the write-up from our time on the South Platte in August (see the orginal post here. ) I have finally gotten to getting some of the video edited…

Until Next Time…

Adam Goshorn

After spending two days in the headwaters of the Crystal River we made our way back to a local cafe in Carbondale to contemplate our next move.  While enjoying some breakfast burritos and wireless internet access we called Charlie Mix who was living in Durango for the summer.  Charlie explained that water levels were dropping fast and that if we wanted to catch Vallecito, we should come quickly.  Vallecito had been high our hit list in 2008 and was again for 2009 too, but so far we had yet to catch it on either trip.  Vallecito has been described by many as “the best mile of creeking in Colorado”.  With that in mind, we loaded up and hit the road arriving with enough daylight to meet Cruise Quenelle for a run.

In my opinion Vallecito is one of those rare rivers that lives up to the hype that surrounds it.  It is truly beautiful creek in a tight gorge with smooth boulders and a seemingly endless number of fun rapids and boofs.  We followed Cruise’s lead, rarely slowing down enough to document the run, but emerged from the depths of the gorge with ear to ear smiles that nothing could dampen.   We spent that evening at Cruise’s house catching up with the rest of the Alabama boys who were living there for the summer.  Late into the night we watched each other’s video footage, sharing all the stories from a summer of running rivers. 

Although it was very tempting to stay another day for more laps on Vallecito, the next morning we decided to turn our attention to a different run on our list, the Big South.  We left Durango mid morning and made it back to Aspen in time for another run on Castle Creek and the Roaring Fork before finding a beautiful crash and dash spot to sleep for the night.  The following day we drove towards Denver and spend that afternoon and the following morning running the Upper and Blackrock sections of Clear Creek before continuing our drive north to the Big South.

The evening we arrived at the Big South take-out, the last group was still hanging around after their run and invited us camp with them that evening for the first of two nights we would spend camping in mosquito hell.  The following morning as we drove to the put-in we found another crew of southeasterners camping along the road.  We pulled over to greet these friends and ended up catching a ride with them to set shuttle.  The put-in for Big South is actually on Weird Creek.  We had been told that Weird Creek is actually fun at high water, but what we found was a bang fest that continued to abuse our already heavily used boats.  Luckily the flow doubled at the confluence and soon the fun rapids and drops began.

Lot of rapids and a few flat stretches spread throughout the run make Big South a long day by most people’s standards.  Including the mileage on Weird Creek it is a twelve-mile run, but very rewarding, especially for groups like ours scouting their way down for the first time.  We rotated boat and bank scouting as necessary throughout the day, occasionally getting cues from other groups we caught up to then while they were scouting or portaging.  The larger named rapids were certainly fun, but one of the unexpected highlights was how many really fun read and run sections we encountered.  A perfect example was what is known as the Prime Time Gorge, a section where the river narrowed between tight cliff walls and containing several rapids in quick succession.  Boat scouting our way though this section felt more like Vallecito than the rest of the run on Big South.  After reaching the take-out we found another great free campsite along another tributary of Cache la Poudre, Joe Wright Creek.

Joe Wright Creek enters Cache la Poudre above the Spencer Heights section and we decided to spend our last day in the area checking out both runs.  We had planned to run Spencer Heights ahead of time, but I have to admit that I had never heard of Joe Wright Creek.  I guess that it will always overshadowed by its close proximity to Big South, but it turned out to be a great run in it’s own right.  The run is mostly non-stop with very few eddies.  It’s the kind of run where it really isn’t practical or necessary to scout and know the lines because all you can really do is follow the water and charge.  We knew from talking to other groups that the run was free of wood, but it sill made me nervous charging around blind corners and into the tight gorge known as Carnito Canyon.  However, our beta on the wood was correct and we emerged unscathed from what turned out to be our final river day of the trip.

The following day we made our way back to Buena Vista to take care of a few details before departing for Chattanooga.  A good meal followed by hot showers at the laundry mat prepared us for the long drive that was ahead of us.  The non-stop marathon drive was as brutal as can be expected, but a necessary evil to maximize trips such as this one.  That that end, we arrived back in Chattanooga TN after twenty two hours on the road just in time for Matt to start a twelve-hour night shift at his job.  I’m sure during that night he might have felt otherwise, but in retrospect… it’s always worth it!

You can see more of our photos here.

Until Next Time…

Adam Goshorn

Just to let you know we may not have DSL service back until Monday Nov. 2nd. We are creatively trying to find ways to get around this and keep up with everything internet based but you may experience a delay in hearing back from us via email or with trouble tickets.  If you have a question or something is urgent, please give us a call at 814-395-9191.

If you ever experience anything as frustrating as dealing with Verizon customer service here at IR, I will personally shoot the person you dealt with and buy you a beer.

Aloha Gang,

Howzit Y’all, Kainoa reporting back on beautiful Oahu. Well, it’s nice to be home from a two week travel extravaganza. I recently finished 4th overall and 1st. in my division at the Hennessey race in San Francisco. This race was incredible as it was a 6 mile long race around the famed Alcatraz Island. What a spectacle to paddle so close to the island. One of the really cool aspects of the race is that all the participants were in jerseys that had black and white stripes that looked like prison wear. This was insane as it must of looked really classic. As a young kid I’ve watched many documentaries pertaining to Alcatraz and the fact that it was assumed to be inescapable due to the currents surrounding the island. This was all the knowledge I had to prep me for the race. I could have done my research as I usually do with GPS and weather sites like NOAA, but I opted not to just to the race more interesting. Sure enough, the race was a blast! The boats and other crafts in the busy bay create moderately turbulent waters. This is a result of the boats wake hitting the shore line or the jetties and causing this reverb effect. This worked to my advantage at times of the race as I applied my down wind knowledge to catching these little “Bumps”(a term use in down wind racing, meaning open ocean swell created by the wind) which would carry me for about 5-10yrds at a time. As I headed towards Alcatraz I decided to take a very close line, and this brought me to about 10 feet from the island the whole way around. It was Killer to see Alcatraz this close it’s a monstrosity!! Now, paddling away from the island and heading for the finish line was a whole other story. The famous current finally showed itself on the way into shore. As there where a few people in front of me I was able to determine which direction the current was going and adjust my course. This paid off in the end as I was neck and neck with another competitor(Dan Gavere) and in choosing the right line due to the current seemed to have meant everything as I pulled away and put a 10 second gap on him by the finish. The guys at Hennessey put on a really great race and lots of prize money and great food and I look forward to next years event.
Following the Hennnessey event I traveled down to San Diego, bound for Dana Point and the Battle Of The Paddle race. This was “the most insane race” I’d ever done!!(Bar none) Sparky and Jerry Lopez surely out did themselves with this years event. I can’t wait for next year and my strategy this coming 2010 will be to train the whole year around. I can’t even begin to summarize this past Battle Of The Paddle because no matter what I try to get across it just won’t due the event justice, so go to http://vimeo.com/soulsurfmedia, or http:vimeo.com/6899550 to get a peak at the carnage that was displayed.
As for me the country(north shore Oahu) has been firing lately and early in the season so hopefully this is an indication for a super sick winter. I’ll be in touch and will have great stories to tell coming soon. Malama Pono(take care) for now and Aloha.

P.S.
Thanks to Werner Paddles and all my sponsors for the support and for believing in me.

Malama
Kainoa Beaupre

Scouting on the North Fork of the Crystal by Joey Jarrell

After a long day on Cheesman Canyon we had collapsed into our sleeping bags at the Corral Creek Trailhead.  The next morning, day three of our trip, we packed our gear back into the truck and headed to our next stop a short drive away.  Eleven Mile Canyon of the South Platte is mostly a class III run, but just below the normal take-out is long, continuous, class V rapid.  After about twenty minutes of scouting and discussing lines I was feeling hesitant and Jordan was feeling fired up and ready to go.   He geared up and the rest of us assumed positions at different points of the rapid with ropes and cameras at the ready.  Jordan charged the entrance and cleared the first tier of the rapid and then a bounce sent him upside down into the next tier.  He rolled up only to be knocked over again and repeated the process a couple more times, but stuck it out and emerged from the bottom of the rapid upright and unhurt.

Despite the results of Jordan’s run, Matt had his own line sorted out in his head and was ready to go.  Again we set up with ropes and cameras and watched as Matt began his descent.  Entering more slowly and slightly further left, Matt proceeded to smoothly descend the entire section without a flip or mis-stroke throughout.  After a little more discussion, Joey and I both decided not to attempt a run.  We loaded the truck again, got back on the road, and drove over Independence Pass and down into the town of Aspen. 

After a quick run of Castle Creek we met up with Anson Fogle for a late afternoon run on the Slaughterhouse section of the Roaring Fork.  We spent the evening of relaxing at Anson’s house and he joined us for the next two days of exploring and filming in the upper drainage of the Crystal River.  We had attempted to drive into the forks of the Crystal in 2008, but the road to the North Fork was flooded at the time and the road to the South Fork was still snowed in.  This failed attempt is one of the reasons we had decided to plan our 2009 trip for July and the plan was working out nicely.  We spent two days we spent rock crawling through the beautiful and remote landscape of the upper crystal river drainage.  While our driving to boating ratio was skewed in what I would normally consider the wrong direction, the scenery and quality of the drops made it more than worth it.  Despite the slow travel, looking back the two days in the headwaters of the Crystal River were some my favorite on the trip.

You can see more of our photos here.

Until Next Time…

Adam Goshorn

The hard work of the Oregon Rafting Team continues to pay off in not only developing our sport, but also in bringing the recognition inflatable paddlers deserve.

The soon to be released edition of American Whitewater is focused solely on inflatable paddlers. Bruce Reed and Tim Brink have been with ORT from the beginning. We are fortunate and blessed to be featured as the cover photo for the November-December edition.

Please support American Whitewater by joining their/our cause and attain a copy of this edition.

Happy paddling!

Tim

http://www.oregonraftingteam.com/ http://www.usaraftassociation.com/