Sam and Tino took a vacation for kayaking and went kayaking........this is a hellish mission to find that Eddy Feeling. and they sent in this freaking update.
Hey Tom- Just wanted to send in the report from our China trip. Sorry it took so long, but the video looks great. As for now its about time to hit the road and follow the water around the southeast. the link: http://www.vimeo.com/3289393 Hope you're well, Sam
Back in December Tino Specht and myself decided to hop on a plane to China with our kayaks in tow. The game plan: make it to the Salween River outside of Gongshan, China in search of big waves, and bigger rapids. Few obstacles seemed to stand in our way once we made it to the New York City airport, all we had to do was catch the plane to Beijing, then a 38 hour train ride to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan Province, and then figure out the Chinese bus system to get north to Gongshan. Luck seemed to be on our side, and shortly after we got off the train in Kunming we picked up our boats and were on a 17 hour overnight bus by the afternoon. We rolled into the town Fugong
by late morning the next day, and again we managed to get on the bus to Gongshan within 10 minutes of arrival to Fugong. Happy to be on our way to the base town for the trip spirits were high as we followed the Salween north towards Tibet. Catching glances of possible waves worth surfing kept us entertained for the short 4 hours from Fugong to Gongshan, with our faces glued to the windows we motored on. We settled in for the night in our small hotel room excited to paddle the next day. We managed to grab a ride in a truck to go and scout out a few waves we saw the day before, and decided to camp at a wave discovered last year and deemed the “flying dragon.” It looked great from the road so we ferried our gear across the river and got ready to surf. As I dropped down onto the wave I began to realize that the foam pile was a bit larger than it appeared from up on the road. After surfing the giant hole a few more times to confirm in my head that it truly was a hole to get beat down in rather than a wave to catch air on we got out of our boats and set up camp for the night. The next morning we waited for the sun to reach the bottom of the gorge than began to get gear back across the river to head upstream in search of more waves and some big rapids. We opted to stay in the town for the night and head north the following days to explore the canyon upstream of Gongshan. With the convenient shuttle option of catching a ride north and paddling back to town it made life easy and allowed us some great days on the river enjoying the waves we found and the big water between. With the locals constantly cheering as we paddled past and good white water we felt very fortunate to be able to experience the canyons for another year. With many many good waves to surf and great big water the Salween is non stop fun, however, like most rivers in China it is threatened. The government has plans to build 13 dams on the river to help control the water, and generate power for the growing Chinese cities. Sadly we risk losing these gorgeous lands rich with culture as the land supports many different ethnic minorities, and supports one of the most bio-diverse regions in the world. As we left the river on our last day we bid farewell to the small town of Gongshan, as many people watched as we tied our boats on top of the public bus, reminding us of how fortunate we are to be able to experience these places from our kayaks before the are possibly lost in the effort to harness energy for our growing planet.
It was a low water day on LRC, but its always a good day when I'm on the water and especially on such a crown run. For while now we have been putting in at the falls consistently, as apposed to the standard Suicide section put in (even when the water is too low to run the falls). See what we do is simply put in on the middle ledge of the typical river left LRC falls line. It starts the day off with a blast and all smiles for us. Below is a photo of Ray Morton taken by me, i really like this one. And above is a photo of me taken by Ray. After good times and lines at the entrance falls, we headed off down the canyon. Passing up the photo opportunities of "Are you ready", "Martha's ledge","Mammoth", and "Terminal Eddy" rapids (for what reason i don't know)but we did however stop at "Avalanche" were i snapped some good photos of Danny(below). (SR standard fullface is a handpaddlers best friend!) Next up was "Mushroom boof" and some boogie until "Cable Falls." Cable Falls at low water has a couple options both at the top drop and the bottom drop, but the traditional low water line is far river left and here are a couple pictures of that line.... The bottom drop of Cable falls at low water has and still is one of my favorite moves out there. Its a drawn out flare into a two foot wide foam pile channel that you ride out. Here is the only successful photo of the day of my taken by Cruise. Then it was boogie on down to "Pinball falls" and its eddy hops. This has been my favorite rapid on the canyon since i first ventured in. It involves about 100 yards of class 4/5 eddy hopping or charging ,with many possibilities for lines, spilling directly into the meat of Pinball the falls dropping about 12 to 15 feet between two undercut boulders. Followed shortly by a couple ledge drops. We all had a blast charging straight into Pinball and never got out to take any photos or video......unfortunately.
So here is picture of me on the main drop of Pinball from another day for viewing pleasure. But we set our sight on another lap on Suicide and headed for it. The second lap was a blast, never getting out of the boat at all and finishing the lap in just under 15 minutes followed by a hike out to our ride at Pinball. Til next time, pray for rain -charlie simmons-
Challenges are presented to us every Saturday. Unlike in life, we know that on the seventh day we will be asked to dig down and step up. The rains have subsided thus our class IV-V rafting runs have diminished. In an attempt to emulate extreme conditions we decided to have a training day. This strategy worked as evidenced by the pulling of neck gaskets to breathe, and dudes doubling over so they didn't puke on their pretty new IR drysuits. We were all smiles in the end as every challenge and even failure presents an opportunity to grow.
Two paddle teams have participated in our sessions conducted 5 of the last 6 weekends. Here we come.
Survived! He was caught in an Avalanche last week near Telluride Colorado and tumbled over 80 foot cliffs and was buried for five minutes. His friends had the skills and got him out. Here is what he sent me.
Tom! I talked to the emt that was in the heli with me, he said if I had not been wearing the fullface helmet that I would be a veggie. I have not seen the condition of the helmet yet as i am still in the hospital but my bros say that it appears to still be intact except for some new scratches. Thank you for making such fine helmets, the standard fullface helped save my life!
We are all glad he is still with us. If you venture into the backcountry make sure you have the right equipment and your friends do too.
This off season I’ve been going to pool sessions, working out and using my speed bag. Jeff bought me the speed bag for Christmas and it is so much fun and a great work out. Best gift I ever got! Winter has been going well. We have a lot of snow and have been spending a lot of time snow shoeing.
It’s been really cold here lately and I didn’t want to go outside so I went through some video and put together a short video of myself training on Rt.3 Wave on the Black River in NY.
Rt.3 is not a big wave but one of the best waves to paddle in my opinion. It’s great for beginners who are learning to surf and spin because it’s friendly and not too fast. What I really like about it is when you are working on harder moves like the flip turn or helix on Rt.3 you really have to be snappy so you don’t flush. I’m not consistent yet with those moves on the wave but I’m patient and it will come in time. That’s what I love about paddling is that every day I take a step forward.
Tom Mull ,a freestyle, extreme sledder is rocking SR standard helmet, and he produced a video for Totinos.com go vote for them here to send them to the games.....You can vote everyday!!! HERE
But we set our sight on another lap on Suicide and headed for it.
-charlie simmons-
