Hunt's Shorts: How to Brown Claw

Last Descent: Silverback Section of the White Nile

This is a short Video of my experience on the now underwater Silverback Section of the White Nile.

Enjoy!

Africa: Nile Special Night Sesh

Photo- Jacob Slobodian(left) Kalob Grady(centerleft) Nick Simpson(centerright)

Alex Anderson(right) Jordan P( bottem)- Courtesy of Jacob Slobodian

It was 9:30 on a Tuesday night, sitting at the bar sipping a coke and talking with Jason, a Brit who had been working here for the past year. Along with me were a few other New River Academy students. Lorenzo, one of our coaches was sitting at the table talking with some of other NRA teachers. We were discussing the wave just 5 minute paddle up the river, one of the best waves in the world named after a beer, Nile Special. Generally its about a 9 foot tall, tow on wave. Meaning you have a rope attached at a point up stream, and in order to get onto the wave from the eddy, you hold onto the rope, swing out, and surf onto it. Jason was telling us about how, because the river is dam release, it hits maximum flow at night, and when it peaks out the wave gets stickier and you can surf on. Most of the time the left shoulder is flushed green, so if you ever throw, and land too much to the left you will flush off. He told us that when the river went up, the left shoulder formed and the wave got wider, stickier, and we wouldn’t have to use a rope around midnight. 5 of us walked over to Lorenzo and began to beg for him to let us go out with Jason to the wave. After all, it was a full moon. We could all tell he really wanted to go as well, but as we were all still with the school it was a hard decision. After much discussing with Jason and the rest of us he finally said yes. Though the water was not quite high enough yet. We knew that the water on the beach had to touch a stump, it was about 2 inches away. Lorenzo said that if we were going to go we had to go now, otherwise he was going to go to bed. Though Jason said it was not going to be worth it. So our group slowly disbanded and drifted back to their tents. Alex, a student at NRA, and myself decided to stay at the bar and talk with Jason for a while. After about an hour, around 11, he went off to check the level. He came back looking somewhat excited and saying that it was just barely touching the stump and that in about 30 minutes it would be perfect. We ran over to see if Lorenzo was still awake. He was so we told him the news, he told us to go round up the troops. After telling the others we sprinted to our boats and threw on our gear, jumped in. We went over a quick buddy system so that we would lose anyone and paddled up. It turned out it was not quite high enough yet, luckily we brought the tow rope up. So we took turns for about an hour and a half operating the rope. Even though the wave was not yet paddle on, it was still the best level we had ever been at it. For the first hour the wave had a big, sick green face to launch off of and a solid pile at the top. For the last bit of our session, the water had come up even more and it was not just about paddle on. The wave also got much stickier, and even a little trashy, I had a few pretty hardcore window shades. Tired out we finally headed back in, all exclaiming about the sick paddle session. Definitely one of the more memorable events so far on the Uganda Semester of New River Academy.

Jordan P

Africa: Week 1

Winter is over, at least for me. After a sweet six weeks of winter vacation, snowboarding whenever, and sleeping quite a lot, now its time to get back to work... If you can call it that. For now I am sitting here, on an island, in the middle of the White Nile river, in Uganda, which in fact is in Africa, in an everlasting summer. It's the dry season, so the suns out, hot as can be palm trees all around. The nice part about dry season is the lack of mosquitos, at least during the day. Though every night they come out in swarms. Though by sunset I am generally already asleep, safe in my tent. Wake up in the cool morning air, just as the sun begins to tip the horizon. Monkeys running through the trees(somehow they made it onto the island). During the day, while we have classes, whether they be in the shade under a tree, in one of the few chill spots(domes with a roof and couches, pillows or hammocks) or maybe next to the river, sometimes even in the river. Generally, even with school, its a very relaxing day on the Harry Lemon( yes that is the name of the island we are staying on). Only every once in a while will we come in contact with a Cobra swimming in the water, though it is advised to use caution when sitting on the grass due to the large biting ants. Overall just a chill day, until we get to the river that is.

The White Nile is a very high volume river. The Nile Special rapid, named after the beer, is about a ten minute paddle upstream, and a ferry across the current to get to the waves. There are two waves the come in at a different time of day. The first wave, Club Wave, comes in around 8 or 9 in the morning and stays in until about 12 to 1. The second and more famous wave, Nile Special, comes in around 2 or 3 and stays in past dark. Club wave is a pretty sweet, 30 foot wide, 5 or 6 foot tall wave/hole (river right is a wave and river left is a hole) This wave is sweet for the begging/intermediate play boater, as its fairly sticky, with a good pile and bouncy. Nile Special on the other hand is a tow in wave, and is a 9 foot tall green monster, and if you know what your doing you can get some of the biggest tricks there.

Every day we switch between the two, due to having to do school we are only able to go to one. The waves are some of the best I have ever surfed, and with switching to a the bigger Biscuit 55, I am able to get huge amounts of air with some of my tricks. I am not much of a wave boater but I have been able to hit some massive air, Pan ams and Blunts, and every once in a while I can hit a huge snappy Blunt-Nasty Combo.

So far, though only my first week here in Africa, it has been one of the more spectacular weeks of my life. I am afraid I am currently unable to continue writing about what amazing experiences I have had here already, due to a lack of battery power and time. But definitely check back in for another post next week.(which will hopefully be accompanied by pictures.)

Jordan P

Rio Claro

The Rio Claro is a beautiful gem of a river in the Andes Mountains south of Santiago. This river valley is surrounded by, though not entirely huge, impressive rocky mountains with an arid, desert like forest. The river has crystal clear water, by which I mean you can see straight through it down to the very bottom. Which makes jumping off of high rocks and bridges quite scary due to the fact that you can see every rock as if no water lay between. The deep gorges are carved through black volcanic rock and granite to create one of the most unique rivers on earth. The canyons here are anywhere from twenty to a hundred and fifty feet tall, generally no more than ten feet wide, with huge pot holes carved in between drops. There were four sections in which we got to run with New River Academy, Siete Tazas(seven teacups), Garganta Del Diablo( throat of the devil), Entre Saltos(Entry Waterfalls), and Veintidos Saltos(twenty-two waterfalls).

Siete Tazas:
The Siete Tazas or seven teacups are seven of possibly the most perfect waterfalls ever seen. Though in reality there are only really three real waterfalls, and the other four are very fun little two to eight foot ledges. The run starts off with a bit of a hike through the Siete Tazas national park then down a near vertical dirt cliff face down to the river. We would generally carry our boats down a very steep dirt path through some trees and bamboo to a small platform halfway down the slope. From there we would lower our boats down with a throw rope into the deep black volcanic canyon. The canyon walls are vertical, extending far above us. The put in is a small eight foot seal launch and then about a fifty foot paddle over two small rapids to the cauldron above the first drop. The first drop is by far the hardest of all the teacups, it is a waterfall with about a eight foot sixty degree slide to a twelve foot drop into a tight ten foot wide gorge with water boiling off both walls pushing into a small cave on the left as the river bends. Though the cave is not bad while in a boat, it is somewhat unpleasant to have to fight out of it. This flows out into another flat cauldron and then into a sick eight foot sliding boof into another perfect cauldron. Then a small ledge which must be portaged due to a bad placed log across the entire river. Luckily there is a nice little spot where it is possible to push your boat up and over the rocks instead of getting out and walking around. The next one is another fun seven foot ledge, which one can either boof or attempt a pogo flip out of a plug. Then after that is a sick little three foot ledge into an awesome cave right above the first twenty footer. The twenty footer is insanely clean from top to bottom and lands in a perfect, large flat pool. After that is the second perfect twenty foot waterfall with a vertical slide into about a eight-teen foot free fall into a second huge flat pool. Before and after every single drop is a perfect flat cauldron, and every drop is as beginner friendly as it gets. Then the take out is to hike along the edge of a sketchy cliff above a deep gorge to the viewing platform. If one were to keep paddling into the gorge below the last waterfall it would lead into an inescapable gorge which leads into some class V+ rapids and a sixty foot waterfall. Non of which is portagable.

Last drop Siete Tazas Jordan & Clay Whitaker- Photo- Jason Terry

Garganta Del Diablo:
Our last two days in the Rio Claro valley, the coaches decided to take all of the more experienced paddlers down Garganta Del Diablo, or the Throat of the Devil. They decided to split up the group so there would not be so many people in the canyon at one time and so the other half of the group could get pictures and video. I got video of them on the most famous drop in this run and then ran it the next day. This run is further up river from Siete Tazas, though is separated from the Seven Teacups by a class VI, unrunnable gorge. The run begins immediately after Entre Saltos ends. The first drop seems to fall off the face of the earth into a huge ominous cavern with mist exploding up from the bottom of he drop. From above the drop, it truly feels as if you are dropping into the Throat of the Devil. As soon as you drop into the gorge there is almost no chance of being able to get out of he canyon until you have finished the run. The first drop is called the ski jump, and it is a sick twelve foot slide into a twelve foot boof. It is definitely one of the cooler drops I have run. Once I hit the huge boof I was stuck in the gorge. When in the gorge it does not feel much like a regular river canyon, it feels much more like being in a cave. The cliff walls extend far over our heads and only ever so often can I see the sky. Just around the bend is one of the most famous slides in the kayaking world. As we came around the corner we spotted all of our fellow students who had run the drop the day before waiting to get their shot. Each of us down in the water took turns drifting up to the edge of the drop to peer over and attempt to see the slide. When you see the pictures and videos, even when you are just standing on the cliff above looking down at the drop, you have absolutely no idea what this water fall actually is. When you see a picture of it, it seems like the sickest drop known to man, in reality, it is far better than you could tell from any picture. The curving slide itself drops around twenty-five feet into a free fall of another twenty-five feet. Now when I say this I don't think one could possibly understand how big this is, especially after looking at a picture. The amazingly perfect banking slide, is almost less of a slide and more of a vertical waterfall. By the time I reached the bottom of the slide I had already fallen twenty-five vertical feet in less than twenty horizontal feet. The hit at the bottom is very hard and feels much like hitting a brick wall. Once at the bottom of this drop the supreme feeling of awesomeness hits me. By that I mean it just feels really good to be at the bottom of this amazing drop in the most amazing gorge I have ever seen. There are several more drops in this generally less than ten foot wide canyon. There are two rapids in which requires a boof into a four foot wide, barely wide enough for your boat slides, one is about seventy feet long and I managed to flip halfway down it and get dragged on my face until the end when the river widens back up to seven or eight feet wide. There are a few more boofs placed randomly throughout the rest of the run. At one spot in the gorge a huge waterfall falls from the darkness high on the cliff wall and creates, if you believe in it, one of the most spiritual places on earth. Siting behind behind this waterfall with windy spray sparkling on ones face in the darkness of the “cavern” with black walls stretching far far above me pushes me into pondering the marvels of mother nature.

Garganta Del Diablo Jordan Poffenberger- Photo- Jason Terry

Entre Saltos:
Entre Saltos is an extremely fun, no particularly hard run with some fun rapids and a very fun waterfall. There is a short class V+ section near the beginning that we always walked with New River Academy. Then as soon as we put in after walking around the class V section, we put in right above the biggest drop on Entre Saltos. The drop is about a seven foot boof/slide into another twelve foot boof into a large pool at the bottom. After the big drop are a bunch of smaller ledges and drops between two and eight feet tall. Then there are three tougher drops at the end. One, I call Gnardrop is a very tough drop, you have to push your self over some rocks and then charge left as the river turns right, most of the water goes into an undercut wall, so you have to boof this very sketchy ridge rock that sticks out on the left side of the river. Most of the time a line through this will not look very clean, the ridge rock isn't exactly a straight forward boof, and to make it even worse there is barely any water flowing over it. Also, because the rock isn't a straight drop off all the way around, when one boofs it, one tends to reconnect with the rock right before landing, which is a pretty terrible feeling. The next drop is called Cool Eddie drop, once again, named by me. As in the name the drop has a very cool Eddie. It starts off with a cool six foot slide and then the river makes a hard left turn into a five foot boof into a large hole in a small seven foot wide walled in canyon. There is a huge pot hole eddie on the right guarded by a really cool curler made by the slide. One can catch the eddie in between the first slide and the second five foot boof. The eddie is perfectly calm and as a overhanging wall over stop of it. The last drop, I call Boca drop for some reason or another, is a twelve foot near vertical slide into the pool immediately above the entrance to Garganta Del Diablo

Biggest drop on Entrea Kai Wen Pai- Photo Jordan Poffenberger

Veintidos Saltos:
Veintidos Saltos, in English, means twenty-two waterfalls, and is definitely one of the coolest runs on the planet. It starts off with a class V seal launch right above the first eight foot waterfall. If one were to screw up this seal launch one could end up going over the waterfall in some very strange positions, as the landing of the seal launch is less then three feet above the lip of the drop. As soon as you drop off the seal launch you are already deep in yet another, for the most part, inescapable gorge. There are eighty foot tall vertical cliff walls around, all the way until the end of the run. Almost nothing is scout-able and the run is completely committing with no chance of escape from this amazing gorge. After the eight footer which has sick boof line off of the left side which lands in an eight foot wide canyon, roll around the corner into a small cauldron right above a large horizon line. This is the twenty-five footer, possibly the cleanest twenty-five footer known to mankind. The line is center left, or center right, or anywhere one could want to go. It is possible to boof or to pencil, the waterfall lands in a massive pool with almost no consequence at all. After that, there is some fun little boulder gardens with small boofs hear and there. The entire time on the Rio Claro, nearly every rock that makes up these rapids and waterfalls is easily visible because the water is just so pristine and clear. After some boulder gardens the Veintidos Saltos Ski jump comes up. The Ski jump starts below a really cool little pool under an over hanging wall, the top of the drop is about a six foot gentle sloping slide, the right side of the slide simply drops off, where as the left side rolls up the side of a wall and kicks the water out and away from the twelve foot drop. If one banks up hard on the left side, it is possible to launch yourself off and have one of the biggest boofs of a lifetime. The Ski jump lands in a perfect pool with a large rock shoal that one could hop out to get pictures or empty a boat. The water rolls around the right side of the rock shoal under another overhanging wall. There is a large rock, most of the water is going through a small crack between the overhanging wall, and the huge rock. A kayak may or may not fit through that crack, so in order to avoid finding out, it is best to run into the small channel in front and to the left of the boulder in the middle of the river. Then on the other side of the rock the best way to have a clean line is to get backwards into the water flowing out of that crack and hit a left boof in about two strokes to avoid the undercut wall on the right side below the ten foot drop. Below this, paddle through the steep narrow canyon and come upon a small horizon line right before the river makes a hard right hand turn. About five feet past this three foot boof around the blind corner there is an eddie on the right that is worth catching to take a quick look at a massive horizon line that appears to be heading straight into the cliff wall a little less than five or six feet downstream of the eddie. Now the reason it appears to be running directly into the wall, is because it is, at least partially. This is the thirty foot waterfall, and the right side does bank off the wall, though the left side is not much better as it connects with rocks halfway down. So the best line is to attempt to go right off the middle and simply tuck. Now after this traumatizing experience of surviving one of the scariest thirty footers in chile, paddle on down to the final hard drop on the river, it's the double drop. It starts off with a weird little ledge into a hole that drops immediately off into a eight foot ledge that lands in a small pool right above another seven foot, very clean drop. The first half of the rapid is nearly impossible to do cleanly. Though it is fun none the less. After this it is a short paddle through the rest of the canyon which slowly fades down. Paddle the last few small drops and then hope out right above this bridge that crosses the river, which also happens to be the put in for Entre Saltos.

Ski Jump Jordan Poffenberger- Photo Tino Specht

For more photos- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102816&id=1466030811

Pichilamu: A Day in the Surf

It's a beautiful warm sunny day in the surf town of Pichilamu, Chile. Jacob, a fellow NRA student and I are walking on the beach towards the ocean. When we notice the size of the waves we begin to run across the sand. Before we can put in however we must walk along the beach towards a huge rocky point. We walk quickly along the water searching for the 3 people who we know are already out in the water. We managed to spot Kira, our English teacher, and Wayne another student way out several hundred yards away from shore, so far away that they are just little specks bobbing up and down against the massive waves coming in. Our head coach Tino is just putting in on the point. We finally get to a spot that appears to be a manageable place to paddle through the large 5-8 foot waves coming in. We make it out and surf the waves close to shore before Jacob decides to go back in due to problems with his boat. After I watch him surf in and hop out of his boat I decide to attempt to paddle out to where Tino, Kira and Wayne are. A seemingly easy task yet in-fact it is a major undertaking. It takes me nearly 15 minutes to make it past the breaking waves close to shore and out to more open water where only the truly huge waves will hit you. After a long while of paddling towards the small specks in a massive whitewash that are Tino, Kira and Wayne. A Seal pops up only about 30 feet away. I keep paddling slightly nervously because of the seal. All of a sudden a set of huge waves comes in, I boof the first one just as it is about to crash and fall 6 or so feet off the back side. That was Sick!, I try to do the same to the next one, however the next one is a bit bigger and my timing is just a little bit off. I paddle up to it and prepare to boof when all of a sudden I notice that I'm too late and it is about to crash on me. “Ohh FU.......!!!” is what comes out of my mouth when this 8 foot wave crashes right onto my chest and picks me up and thrashes me for a good 15 seconds and 100 or so feet. After that, luckily the ocean flattens a slightly and no more waves crash on me. Though as I make my way closer to my friends I notice the Seal popping up consistently 15 feet behind me for at least 15 minutes during my paddle. After a long long journey I have finally made it to the BIG waves and my friends. I notice the Seal pops up 10 feet in front of me, however the seal no longer worries me as I see Tino come down the face of a MASSIVE 15 foot wave and hit one of the bigger clean aircrews I have seen. We spent a few hours here. The waves at least the size of school buses. It is out here you notice the real power of the ocean. I cannot begin to describe to you what it feels like to come down the face of a 14 foot ocean wave, nor can I describe the feeling of the ridiculous beat downs that are delivered every time you attempt to surf one of these magnificent waves. Though there are two moments that I can remember that may help to portray the feeling of these waves.

The first one involving a massive 14 foot wave and possibly the biggest pan am/ airscrew of my life, if at least the loudest. I catch this huge wave, Tino goes over the green to my left. I am surfing on the border between the foam and a ridiculous 12 foot green face on my left. I edge and through the biggest pan am I have the ability to through. If I could guess at what I thought the size of it was I would say there must have been 8 feet of air under my head. I land slightly edged but mostly flat on the hull of my boat and peel off the wave. The landing Hurt, it half knocked the breath out of me and I don't initially notice the apparent earsplitting slap my boat made when I landed, But as I peel off the wave I see Tino and he has an aw sort of face. I paddle up to him and he exclaims that he heard it from behind the wave. Which if you have ever been on the ocean in waves such as those, it is often tough to hear things over the sound of the waves.

The second one is of a moment during a severe thrashing of mine, once again in a huge 12 or 13 foot wave, this time in the foam pile. I am upside down with my bow pointed towards the beach being dragged on my face by the enormous wave. All of a sudden I open my eyes and notice the water and foam a good foot or so below me, I see it coming towards me extremely fast and close my eyes. I feel the water hit me in the chest and continued to get Destroyed.

After many surfs and horrendous beat downs Tino decides that we should go in, due to non of us having a watch and knowing what time it is. So we paddle in attempting to catch rides on every passing wave. After about 15 minutes we make it close to shore, Tino and Wayne surf in and hop out of their boats.(Kira having gone back in earlier.). I catch a good sized wave and as it crashes plug for a loop and get a ton of pop out of it and bring it around to smack my hull back onto the water and surf the rest of the way up onto the sand and jump out of my boat. We hike up to the sand marveling at the magnificent day we have all just had out on the surf of Pichilamu.

2010 Season Video

Just a video I found that I made of the 2010 paddling season, totally forgot to post it up.

2010 Season Video 1 from Jordan Poffenberger on Vimeo.

The Maipo Valley

This year I am attending New River Academy, a high school that travels around the world to paddle while at the same time being able to do school where ever we go. This Semester we are in Chile, the past 10 days I have spent in the beautiful Maipo valley an hour from the capital city of Santiago. For the first seven days we slept under small pavilion, some of us on the ground, others in tents, and a few of us(me) would hang hammocks up between the wooden columns that hold a tin roof above our heads. The camp ground “Cascades De Las Animas” is owned by our Spanish teachers family. It is an amazing place, surrounded by massive mountains and place right on the Maipo River. On one side of the river is the entire facility, wonderful wooded Campground, an awesome restaurant with live trees ticking out of it and the inside is all masterfully carved wood, a huge pool(though the water is frigid), a sauna, and a bunch of half built but beautiful cabins which will most likely be finished by the end of the year. On the other side of the river behind a locked gate at the edge of a bouncy wooden bridge there are the Estorga Family houses. They also hold a Mountain Lion, and two giant eagles in a cage, along with 150 horses and many other amazing things. We got a chance to take a hike up to our Spanish teachers house, it was about a ¼ mile hike up the side of a mountain to his ridiculous house. The craftsman ship that goes into these houses is superb. His house is made from stone and amazingly carved wood, and it is built around a massive boulder. From his house is an absolutely stunning view of the arid desert mountains and the single massive snow capped monster of a mountain in the distance.

Every day we wake up in the insanely cold morning are and have morning workout, which is either running, yoga, or arms and abs, which is pushups and ab exercises. Then we have breakfast and the first 3 classes. Then lunch time, and the next 4 classes. Finally, its paddling time. The first day we all paddled the lower Maipo, which is a sick class 3-4 super continuous run. It is nearly non stop he entire way, though there are no dangerous rapids. For the rest of the time we were allowed to choose whether we wanted to do the lower, or the much harder Upper Maipo. For the rest of our stay in the Maipo valley, I paddled the Upper Maipo everyday. The is much like the lower, except the smallest rapids on the upper are twice the size of the biggest on the lower. The entire river is like class 4, 6 mile long roller coaster ride of a rapid. Huge wave trains and large random holes, along with tons of super fun boofs placed every 20 feet is the trademark of the Upper Maipo. Right smack dab in the middle of the 6 mile run is a large class 5 rapid called the French Curve. The rapid involves a boof over a large hole into a extremely quick twisting rapid with a must make boof over a large curler. The consequences of not making it to the left side of the river is going into this massive curler in front of a massive boulder that feeds straight into a huge undercut.

We took a day off in an attempt to make it to the Thermas up in the mountains, but unfortunately did not make it due to rock slides across the roads. Instead we went the opposite direction up the Yeso river to check out some cool concentration camps of a old Chilean dictator and an awesome waterfall just across the road from it.

Here is a video from that day.

A Day in Chile from Jordan Poffenberger on Vimeo.

Now we have moved to Pichilamu, a sick little surf town on the pacific ocean. An update of this awesome town will come later once I have had some time to go kayaking and check out this sick place.

Spring Break

Two weeks ago my friend Dylan Evans and I, along with my dad made a trip to the New River Gorge area. What would follow the 5 long hours of driving to get there would be 4 days of epic brown making.( Brown being a kayaking term not referring to poop ;)

Me and Dylan at Grist Mill falls in Babcock state park

Day 1(Sunday): Got up somewhat early, packed up and hit the road. 5 hours later we make it to the New River dries with an hour or two of day light left. We played around up top for a little then decided to venture down deeper into the gorge in search of better waves. Because it was at around 8 feet on the Gorge gauge there wasn't much up top but we found some sick waves downstream a ways just as it was getting dark at what I believe to be the Kahuna waves. Dylan Hiked out early but I decided to stay a little while because I was having a blast on the top wave. It was definitely one of the easiest waves to set up for a trick I have ever been on. Perfectly green I managed some really big air blunts and nice pan ams and I think one Mcflush. Sadly no pictures. After the treacherous hike out just as the light was completely fading from the sky, we got some dinner and found a hotel.

Day 2: We woke up around 9ish, stopped at the Biscuit World for some delicious breakfast biscuits and headed to the dries. The Dries were still at a bit of a low level so we decided to go and check out one of the creeks on our hit list. Due to the lack of a massive rainfall the night before we decided to be someone conservative and go with the creek that was most likely to be running. We drove about 30 or so minutes to Glade Creek AKA Upper Manns Creek, in Babcock State Park. It was a little low and bumpy, espescially Grist Mill falls which was a 13 foot waterfall that pretty much lands on a big flat rock slab, except for maybe a 2 foot wide slot. Which after running it twice before dylan and thought it was impossible, then ofcourse, finally, dylan, getting the guts to run it hits the line perfectly off the 2 inch deep lip and boofs the Sh%& out of it. The rest of the rapids, even though low and scrapy were pretty sick. There was a nice little 5 foot boof onto a kewl little rock slide. Then a neat double ledged drop totaling about 8-10 feet, a 2 footledgeslide to a 5-7 foot drop. Straight into a weird little manky rapid straight into a boof where 80 % of the water flows straight into an undercut rock and the other 20% lands on a rock. Dylan had 2 laps on it and I managed 3 on this .5 mile run.

Day 3: On day 3 we woke up and headed to the Dries again to check the level, a bit higher but we decided to give it some more time to rise some more. So we headed to nearby Mill Creek, which flows into the New River Gorge right above Hawk Nest Dam. Mill Creek was also pretty low, but we managed some sketchy lines down F*&^ Up falls and made it down some neat little slides and a few other smallish drops. We made it to Mill Creeky falls, spent about an hour clearing a log out but after we cleared the log out determined it to be to sketchy due to what appeared to be a very shallow landing. The possible deep spots were not very wide and it was obvious that there was very shallow(2-6 inchs under the surface) rocks pretty much everywhere around it. So we choose to just hop out there and head back to the dries.

Dylan Evans

F&*^ Up Falls

Me

The Dries were at a near perfect level of 9.5 feet when we got there. Put in waves were SICK, we met Dave Fusilli there and threw down some seriously big tricks there. I managed to get some Big pan ams, blunts and a few blunt nastys. Definitly a sick day.

Day 4: This was our last day and the New had droped but we had checked the gauge of Glade creek and it looked higher than the first day we ran it so he just headed back there for a few more runs before heading back home.

Jordan P

New Year, New places to go.

Sorry it's been such a long time since the last post. I hope to begin posting every other week.

Since January 1st, I've been up to quite a lot. For the most part untill March I have been sort of taking a little bit of time boating. I tried to get out to Ski Liberty as much as I could this winter for some snowboarding.
During March I got back into boating and have been hitting a few creeks here and there, includeing a possible first D on Marl Creek down near charlottesville VA. My friend Dylan and I have also managed to catch the gorge on the Potomac at 12 feet or 200,000 cubic feet per second. At that level the island between the chutes is completly underwater and creates a MASSIVE hole over 200 feet wide. The water level in the gorge is probably about 50 feet up the cliff walls compared to regular summer levels.

Last weekend was NAWFest(north alabama whitewater festival) which was definitly one of the sickest events I go to all year. The Huckfest, one of the main events at NAWF was an amazing specticle. It was too bad however due to land issues, no spectators were alowed. Though I managed to get a ton of video and will try to post some of it soon. The waterfall huckfest consists of two evens. The main one being the huckfest itself which consists of everyone trying to throw the craziest trick off the 14 foot waterfall, the second being a boatercross down the waterfall around a rock and behind the curtain of the waterfall and touch a rock on the other side.
I managed to get 2nd in the c-1 boatercross, Probably would have gotten first if I hadn't forgotten to go behind the curtaino the waterfall.
The next event I did was the Freestyle competition. I barly got second scraped out by Dane Jackson by about 10 points for the first place spot in the c-1 catagory.
They had a ton of other events including a mountain bike race , which they had some absolotely sick courses set up, a slalom race, a pro wakeboarder competion, and a rock climbing competetion. There was tons of free swag geting thrown, launched, or tossed all over the place. Overall definitly one of the best events I've ever been to.

Today is the first day of Spring break so I will be running loads of creeks in this nect week. Will post hopefully by the end of the week again.

Will also try to get some pictures and video up sooner rather than later.




































Bye for now,
Jordan P