This past summer has been an incredible one indeed! Living in the Pacific Northwest in Bellingham, WA has enabled me to kayak so much, I may actually be getting sick of it (lie).
Early summer consisted of a Rafuse Creek exploration where we found a lot of cool rapids and a couple of great waterfalls in this classic BC gorge, just outside of Squamish, BC Canada.

I returned to summer school in WA.  One day, while in class, I got a text from my good friend Evan Garcia. He was headed up to run Hamma Hamma falls, a stout 20 footer to 60 ish footer located on the Olympic Peninsula in WA.  So I left Bellingham, skipping class the next day and met up with EG, Pat Keller, and Candace Sanders.  Pat logged the second descent followed by Evan, then followed by myself.

Hamma Hamma Falls- Photo: Candace Sanders

As summer continued,  I got a call from Seattle, WA homie Todd Gilman.  He wanted to head to interior BC, Canada.  With that said, Chris Tretwold, Todd and I headed to interior BC.  The Revelstoke area has some incredible kayaking, and we had a great trip- see trip video below:

After I finished summer school, I drove to Salt Lake for the OR show.  Evan and I then cruised to my hometown. Carbondale, CO, which has one of the best class 5 runs in the state only 30 minutes away, Crystal Gorge.  We routed Crystal Gorge at a bit lower flows, but still had great whitewater.

Photo: Fredrick Zoot

After spending 10 days in CO, working and hanging with the fam, I drove back up to the Pacific Northwest.  Evan and I met up in Hood River and continued to BC once again.  We set our goals to route all the good whitewater around squamish. I also got my Lucky Charm  IR sprayskirt before this trip.  After doing laps on 50/50 drop on the Ashlu, and going deep and getting beatdown a few times, I must say this skirt is the best I have ever used.  I’ve never felt so confident that my skirt will stay on my kayak.  Cheers to that.
Then…..We got on the ashlu box.

50/50 Drop on the Ashlu

50/50 Drop Top View

Fred Winding Up the Boof

Below is the video Evan and I made from the Ashlu runs we got in this year:

We then headed to Tatlow creek, which is also in BC Canada.

40 Footer on Tatlow Cr

We then headed to Fear Canyon. We had a pretty epic day in there. I’ll let the video tell you the story.

Fred in Fear Canyon- BC- Photo: Steve Arns

The last month or so, I have been back up in BC, running one of the most incredible creeks in the world, Dipper Creek.

The Double D drysuit, Lucky Charm Skirt and Union suits/Polar fleeces have been working great out there in the most testing conditions in BC, Canada this Fall.

I am headed to Chile in November. Ill check back in with more south american waterfall goods.
~

Thanks IR!

Fred Norquist
Filmmaker/Kayaker/Gypsy