roaring fork kayakers

Royal Gorge, California

2011-09-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

This summer was the best summer of my life. We started out having a nice long PNW spring/summer with plenty of flow up here in WA, and then we continued our stoke into the best place to kayak ever, California! We rolled into Tahoe late one night and packed our stuff for 3 days on the royal gorge. I had heard so much about cali overnighters so clearly I was real stoked. Immediately blown away by the incredible granite slabs and rolling hills of California, we met up with a huge crew of stout runners. The crew was myself, EG,Ben Brown,Rush Sturges, Benny Marr, Dan Simenc(skippy), Shannon Carrol, Katie Scott, Robby Hogg, and of course the notorious Seiler brothers.We put on with our boats packed up and bumped down a little bit of mank we shortly got to Heath springs gorge with 2 awesome waterfalls back to back, heath 1 and 2. All photos by Robby Hogg.

Heath one is a very cool 40 footer with a stout entrance that you can run if you want. Treats. All Day

Just after Heath 1, the Gorge turns a small corner, then heath 2 looms. Heath 2 is Another beautiful drop which lands in a badass gorge with a small exit. It has a cave on the left so running far right is the best choice. We fell off these waterfalls one by one! 12 people! It was a glorious huckfest!!!!

Ben Brown Droppin into Heath 2!

This is a big one to boof-stomp but hey.... when in rome.

After Exiting heath 2, there is a really cool gorge with tight walls and sick whitewater for a couple miles.

Cali Scenery.... It aint too bad.

Then you arrive at Camp at Rattlesnake falls.Camping on Cali overnighters is truly an awesome experience... Its warm, never really rains, and there are stars filling the sky.

The Camp, and most of the crew, Camp One at rattlesnake falls.

Cali Livin! No tents, no bullshit.

We awoke to the roar of the nearby rattlesnake falls. We then proceeded to devour the stout for breakfast.

Eg layin some serious late-evening treats here as fellow crew look on.

Myself droppin rattlesnake in the sunny california morning.

We continued downstream to one of the most infamous drops in all of the land, Scott's Drop.

This thing is a savage 40ish to 40ish footer that has some really serious consequences. 4 people in our group decided It looked good to go.

The Savage Beast.

Rush went first. He drove up on the curler and pulled a crazy sick boof off the top drop.

All there is left to say is... BOOM!

Then EG went.

Evan 2/3 way down Scott's.

Then Skippy proceeded to stick it, followed by the young baby bird... Ryan Lucas.

Baby Bird spreading his wings!!!!

Rush, Evan, Ryan, and Skippy all stuck this frothing stout, and continued to get the Royal Flush(or in other words running every major rapid in the royal gorge).

A nice lunch spot! BROWN!

We continued downstream on day 2 of stout running.

A sweet 20 ft split falls.

We arrived at the lip of the notorious Wabena falls sometime in the afternoon. This waterfall is a big boy for sure. Its about 65-70ft tall, with an entrance rapid and a funky flake on the lip. Luckily we had a huge group of Huckers... and 10 of us flew off it with varying success.

Up on the left you can see us all scouting it throughly.

Rush Droppin in!

After some good lines, and some bad ones we re-grouped and continued downstream. With 20 or so miles of class 4 left we camped out on our 2nd night on the river.

Camp night 2.

It became evident that mosquistos like young kiwi blood.

Baby Bird's back after an evening meal at camp.

Royal Gorge proved to be one of the most amazing rivers I have ever done. The scenery is awesome, the whitewater is absolutely incredible, and the crew was awesome!

Royal Gorge is the first edit in Bomb Flow episode 3! Check it out!

A PNW Spring!

2011-06-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

This spring has been a cold/rainy/snowy one for us all up here in the PNW. It never really warmed up until about a week ago, but that isnt to say that the rivers havent been running. Luckily the rain has kept flows up pretty well, and finally we are getting some snowmelt. The PNW never has disapointed me.. there is something about this climate and the rivers around here that allows for something really good to be in... pretty much all the time. If it isnt local, then its usually only a couple hours away and is probably incredibly high quality. This spring has re-affirmed my thinking that the PNW is easily one of the best places to live as a kayaker. Even during school there is usually class4-5 that is running and possible to rally after classes are
done for the day
.
A good crew before a fun couple games of bowling.

Early spring is all about runs like Robe Canyon. With so many good class 4/5 rapids in a bigger volume feel, this river is up there with the best.
The Robe Canyon race was a great time and Robe offered some awesome early season entertainment.

Jure Poberaj and myself took 6th, While Tao claimed the title.
Finally my classes ended for the summer, and i couldnt have been more stoked to get some kayaking in. So stoked we motivated to paddle a small rapid right in downtown bham on whatcom creek.

Luckily Bellingham has some incredibly good whitewater just outside of town. The Middle Fork of the Nooksack offers an amazing class 5 run with great boulder garden rapids, then continuing into a beautiful gorge and some great bedrock drops. It is probably one of my top 5 favorite rivers in the world.

Dropping into the first big rapid of the gorge "leap of faith".

Looking back up the rapid.

I then spent a weekend with the local bham crew, Ryan Bradley clued me in to a waterfall (35ft or so) about 2 hours from bham that nobody had run.Leif Embertson, Ryan and myself headed up there and found it to be at perfect flows. Kindey creek is a small trib to Cascade creek(more of a river actually), and is located up the Skagit river drainage.

The falls! BROWTOWN!

Coming into the lip.... treats time. I went first, and good buddy Leif followed right behind with a sick De-la style boof-stomp.

Leif laying some mad treats... kindey creek style.

As spring continued, I made a short trip down to Hood River area to race on the little white and hopefully run a stout on my birthday(june 5th). Yup 22 years old now. I met Up with Evan Garcia, Todd Wells, Sam Friehofer, Erick Johns, Olin and kiwi Ryan Lucas for some good times. Evan and I raced together on the LW race... unfortunately the last couple weeks of school diminished my fitness level and as Evan pulled away from me in the front, i fell behind wheezing and coughing. Any day on the little white is a great day however.

LW race... coming hot into boulder sluice.

Evan in front going quite a bit faster than myself after claiming two titles at the gran prix! He's killing it.

Sam Freihofer gettin steezy on boulder slucie!

Todd Wells showing that the LW is his home river and he isnt afraid to throw some downriver freestyle in there.

Evan doing what he does best.... true treat layin on spirit.

After a fun day on the LW, we proceeded to have a fun little gathering at the beaver lodge. We woke up only slightly hungover on my birthday, and got motivated to go fire off a stout. We drove up to the Lewis river, with one thing on our minds, the Upper Lewis Falls. This thing is a stout 25 footer into about 20... with a tricky scrapy lead-in. Evan and Todd ran it and styled it, followed by Erik, then myself and Ryan and Sam. We all had good lines and it couldnt have been a better birthday present to be stoked at the bottom of a super fun drop with all my friends. Pura vida.

Layin treats on the perfect juicy 15 footer above the stout. this was a super fun little waterfall.

Myself boofing the top drop big! I landed so hard my skirt exploded, and i ended up running the next 20ftr with no sprayskirt. Luckily i was able to hang on and didnt fill up too much.

Flying off the top drop.... weeee! if you look closely you can see Todd and Erik down in the pool below.

My view at the top of the second drop with no skirt attached! Luckily i was able to get a good boof.

The view of myself from the top.
Here is a short teaser from the day.

After a great birthday I headed back up to bellingham to find that one of the local creeks was in at a good flow. Clearwater creek is a tributary to the Middle Fork Nooksack and offers some really fun sandstone bedrock boofs.

Dropping into the slot rapid, a fun narrow little slide.

Just another sweet bedrock boof, Clearwater style.

Any rapid named "boofs per minute" is fine in my book.

One of the lower boofs on boofs per minute(BPM?)

Here is a short video of Clearwater, or as we call it... C-DUB.

Then I went to scout a drop that has been on my mind for sometime... Racehorse Creek falls after being first D'd by boomer a couple years ago, i figured it was time we went and checked it out. I scouted it, and found it to be at perfect flows. I sent evan a picture and they flipped a U-turn on their way to MT, and made their way up to Bham.

Ryan and Evan ended up being the ones with the balls to step up to this drop, and trust me... its really stout.

Evan on the top drop, a sweet sliding thing to a good 25 or so footer. Treats!

Evan went first on the big one, a crazy 15-20ft drop onto a slide that ends in a tiny pool. He had a good line turning sideways at the end and "hockey stopping"

Ryan went next and immediatley convinced me that I wasnt going to run it. He entered only about 6inches to a ft to the right of evan and lets just say it didnt end right.

Ryan rag-dolling down this slide. It will be a great carnage of the year shot indeed. Luckily he was fine and we went back to Bham to celebrate everyone being ok.

A photo by local Photographer Rhys Logan. here http://www.rhystomahawk.com/photography-blog/2011/6/10/this-title-sucks.html is a link to his website and check out the amazing shots he got that day!!!

The next day after a fun-filled night we headed to the best that ballingham has to offer.... The middle fork at a perfect flow.Rhys came and shot some awesome photos again... check out the full story here

http://www.rhystomahawk.com/photography-blog/2011/6/13/raging-yakers-round-2.html

Gnar-Car and Gypsy-Wagon headed to the put in of the MF.

The Crew gearing up for some Roosting brown MF.

Another sick shot by Rhys... dropping into the MF gorge. Me, Sam, and Evan.

Sam and Eg in the warm-up rapid for the MF gorge. Then it gets real in there. Rhys killing the photos.

And Just around the Corner "leap of faith", the first rapid of the gorge.

Evan made a small day edit from the MF.

As a matter of fact, the MF is running right now and I must go get my boof on. Signing off here, until next time-Fred

Stay tuned.. there will be tons of amazing videos coming to Bomb Flow TV soon. We will be dropping our Chile footage Bomb Flow TV Episode 1- Chile soon as well as all the stuff here in Bomb Flow Episode 2- PNW style.

Now get out there and go kayaking! its summer after all!

BOMB FLOW TV

2011-04-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Bomb Flow TV is an internet based series of HD kayaking entertainment brought to you by Myself and Evan Garcia in conjunction with Bomb Flow Magazine, a new kayaking mag brought to you by Bomb Snow and Tyler Bradt.www.bombflow.com Every month or two weeks there will be a new online video up that will have some of the best footage from coolest kayaking around the world. Evan and I have been working on coming up with something to do with our footage for a long time and this is it. The future of online kayak videos. Check out the teaser here, and make sure to stay tuned for Episode 1!

Cheers! And a big thanks to Anton Immler who has also helped us tremendously with the use of his footage.

Dipper Creek 2010

2011-03-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

Well I know this post is pretty late but i thought i would put up some pictures, a video and a little story from the few weekends I spent there this past October. Dipper Creek was 1st Descented by The Range Life guys back in 2008. They walked up and down the creek and scouted it all out to make sure it would be good. Thanks to them this creek has now become one of my favorite. Dipper is located past the Elaho drainage up the Squamish river in British Columbia. In 2009 I went to dipper and had the time of my life, and 2010 was just as good and a little more scary with higher water. Dipper Creek is the true creeking experience. It flows from a glacier high in the Tantalus Range and weaves its way into the most committing and beautiful gorges ive ever been in. The gorge walls on your sides are shear 400 foot cliffs. The creek starts off with a bang with a stout double drop "Double Dip" then continues quickly into "Big Dipper" a stout 70 ft tall slide that ends in a huge hit as you slide into pretty much green-water. Then it goes something like this... 20 ft slide... perfect 30 ftr, Long stout slide "Roudy Flatwater"... and it just keeps going. The majority of the time in the creek there is no way out unless your friends are on the rim and vertically extract you. It includes a very involved portage which although not a very long portage, takes about an hour to complete because of all the roping, rapeling and sketchy climbing involved. It then goes into another gorge where you still cannot escape. And in the midst of all this there has somehow been a way through the creek the past 3 years. Luckily. The next gorge is one of the coolest places in the world indeed... vertigo gorge. You drop into an incredible teacup with huge mossy gorge walls, but only after you drop a pretty stout 25ftr with a hard to boof sliding entrance that lands in a small pocket. Basically this creek is the true creeking experience because the rapids are scary, you are comitted, there are portages, and its incredibly beautiful. Its a great time!

Brian Burger, Niko Peha, and Ethan Smith chillin at the campsite at the take-out of dipper.

Still from a timelapse I shot... Cool glow from the campfire!

The massive tree at out campsite.... the loggers left this one standing.

You know its cold when.... Morning at dipper in october.

Brian pretty stoked to paddle!

Me, Jonas and Ben stoked to have finished the Upper and Middle Gorges with no real troubles.

Waking up at 7am in a rain-soaked tent after a classic BC night... Just hoping that the vertigo gorge is not too high after some rain.

Brian Burger dropping into the depths of Vertigo Gorge.

I wish I had more pics for ya... but most of my focus was on video.

Speaking of...

Here is the Vid.

Pucon Season... Chile

2011-03-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

Well recently i've really been slacking on blog updates. I am back in the cold, rainy northwest corner of washington state waiting for some snow to melt so i can get out on the rivers. Reflecting on my time in chile, it was easily some of the best months of my life. I worked hard on the filming side of things this trip so most of my pictures in this blog will be from friends. Pucon is really the epicenter for great creeking in chile. It's an amazingly cool little mountain town with an incredible amount of beautiful an fun rivers right close by. The rivers around Pucon offer a couple different styles of creeking.... big waterfalls on the palguin... granite slides on the nevado.... ridiculously fun boulder garden rapids on the rio puesco... technical low volume drops on the carhuello.... stacked basalt waterfalls and slides on the turbio... the list goes on. I spent quite a bit of time in pucon this year and we had some really good times, and sometimes we even had good lines.
Volcan Villarica on Christmas day in HDR. Shot from Ian's place in Pucon.... A beautiful sunset with a great backdrop.

Another HDR shot from the same location!

The Turbio is a small creek outside Pucon that only runs with heavy rainfall. It is a very unique creek that carves its way through a basalt canyon with lush vegetation. This place is the closest place to Jurassic Park that I have ever seen. It rained hard and we woke to a perfect level for the Upper Turbio Stout.

Looking at the "stout" at the top of the Rio Turbio..

Stoked to have run such a cool complicated rapid. Good times. Photo:LJ

Evan about to bomb off the 25ftr then directly into the slide! Photo:LJ

Stoutmaster Erik Johnson on the Turbio stout.Photo: EG

Like i said... hes a stout master.. Erik layin treats. Photo:LJ

This rapid is very unique with a 25ft waterfall then straight into a technical slide with a big hole at the end. It's a good one.

Volcan Villarica at night... Long exposure. Photo:Fred

Middle Palguin is the Local "stout" Its the best, cleanest, softest, safest and one of the most fun 70 fters out there. It doesnt get much better than this for tall waterfalls. This waterfall is easily one of my favorites because it always seems to be good. At high water, it sends you to the depths into a frothing choas... but usually lets you go with no scratches. At low water as long as you have a decent line, it is just so soft and smooth. Middle Palguin has a place in my heart for sure.

Fusilli, Thinhrum and Myself getting ready to fall off Medio.

Thinhrum seal launching into the Middle.

EG the killa running stout 10, soon to fall off middle directly afterwards. Photo: Eric Parker

Myself all in the Hyrup with a little boof-stomp action.

Myself on my first run of the season... get that bow down. Photo by Tom.

Just a little preview of what went down on the filming side of things. Getting those dolly shots dialed at the MP lip.

The Palguin Race added some fun to the summer!

The Upper Palguin race... Erik in the top hole about to steeze out a loop, myself upside down boofing the second drop, with Seth directly under me. Luckily no one got severely injured.

Evan and Jared enjoying some delicious Crystal beer on Christmas day.

A bunch of dirty gringo kayakers having a nice Asado for Christmas dinner.

sy.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/new-years.jpg" alt="" width="510" height="382" />The crew all dressed up in drag ready for a fun time on New Years.

The Puesco is one of my favorite rivers in the world. It flows from the argentina border towards the small town of Currarehue (about 20 min outside of pucon). It has continuous steep gradient all the way from the base of Volcan La Nin to the bottom of the valley in Currarehue. This gradient is not occupied by waterfalls, but rather a couple hundred really fun boulder garden rapids. This is truly an amazing place and I cannot explain how fun the puesco is!!!

Another beautiful sunny day on the Rio Puesco. I love this place it is incredible. One of my top 2 rivers in the world.

One of the 3 million great boofs on the Puesco in the middle of the Tres Truncos rapid. I love this river!

Skiing on Volcan Villarica in December... what an incredible view! I was able to ski the volcano twice when i was there.

Don't fall in... The crater on the top of the volcano.

The view from the top... the town of pucon, lago villarica and lago caburga with more volcanoes in the background.

The Rio Nevado is probably one of the most fun rivers out there. It starts with an incredilby fun granite slide, then continues with fun waterfalls and unique granite boofs and slides. It runs through a beautiful canyon and is really the mini-cali of chile.

Cheers to another great day on the Nevado... at the takeout of course.

Brownin on the slide! Photo :EG

A little stern mounted GoPro Action here... The slide again.

"crack drop" Photo:EG

GoPro shot of "Wall Falls"

Coming over the Lip of "Demshitz Drop.. the tallest and most stout rapid on the nevado.

Stern Mounted GoPro.... Dropping Into Demshitz drop!!

Evan laying some incredibly g-d out treats on Nutrients... one of the best boofs around.

Griff and I Chillin in the beautiful lower nevado gorge!

Rodrigo's First D on the Carhuello. This thing was a stout!

The Crew In Latitude 39, our favorite restaurant in Pucon with ice cold beer and delicious food. Me, Evan, Thin, Anton.

And on the last night before Thin and I left for the US, we drank Pisco and in true chilean fashion Evan cut my hair into a flourishing Chocapanda or in english Mullet!

The Pucon Season this year was super fun and we were able to paddle some of my favorite rivers in the world. Pura Vida!

My footage from chile will be online sometime but in which form we are not sure yet stay posted....

Patagonia... So Much Beautiful!

2011-01-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

After an amazing trip north to the rio claro, we returned back to pucon for a few days of the classics. We then motivated to head south. We gathered a solid crew, Fusilli, Myself, Nicole, Anton, and Thinhrum. Although Pucon surely has incredible kayaking and is a fun town to be in, there is a lot to be said for traveling all over the country of Chile. There is something incredible about exploring this place. The longer I stay here, the more I want to explore and find cool rivers and beautiful places. This is exactly what we did on this trip. We first hit the rio llancahue. On just the other side of rio palguin, the llancahue is a super fun run with incredible scenery.

Thinhrum stoked to be on the road.

A very cool lizard chillin out at the Llancahue.

A screen shot from my GoPro of the bridge rapid on the llancahue.

After a nice lap an the llancahue, we checked out one of the most stout rapids in chile. The Dirty Gerd.

Oh yea... the dirty!

Chile is an incredible place. The further south I go in this place, the more beautiful it gets.
We then headed a bit further south near Lago Ranco to an awesome river, Rio Florin.

Lago Ranco is an amazing place indeed.

This was our campsite at the Florin. Gotta love this place!!

Nightime at the Florin.

The hot springs at the Florin. Chillin out drinkin 5 liters of delicious chilean wine. We woke with mild hangovers for a beautiful thanksgiving day on the Rio Florin.

A screen shot from my GoPro dropping the Big One on the florin.

Nicole Mansfield firing it up! Running the big one!

Thanksgiving day with demshitz!

We then continued our journey south to the rio corrine... A super beautiful fun class 4+ river.

Our campsite at the Corrine! True gypsy style!!

Beautiful mountain view from our campsite.

You know life is good when this is what ur looking at.

On the Corrine there is a natural land bridge where the river literally dug a hole through the earth. Very cool gorge here.

After a day on the corrine, we decided to check out a small tributary to it. We put on and found a few very cool drops and a 30 footer that unfortunately didnt go.

Here is one of the more fun drops we found.

After good times at the corrine, we packed up again and headed far south to Puerto Montt where we caught a ferry over to Hornopiren. Hornopiren is home to a super fun river called the rio Negro.

Chillin out on the Ferry to Hornopiren.

Driving the long dusty road to hornopiren... Carretera Austral.

After arriving in Hornopiren we spent a few fun filled days running the rio Negro and camping out in an amazing place. The Negro is a super fun run in a very cool basalt riverbed with tons of awesome boofs and clean waterfalls. It was cold and rained almost the whole time we were there, the weather in southern chile is very unpredictable.

The take out... right at our campsite. Anton being a stuntman in the background.

Fusilli and I ready to lay some treats.

Fusilli layin that brown down!

Anton flying off an awesome perfect 20 footer.

Thinhrum with the lookback brown.

One of our favorite rapids... A sweet winding entrance to a treats 6 footer.

How do you get wet wood to light? yes.. add gasoline.

Standard procedure. Brown it.

Crazy Swedes and their shoe surfing!

We then Returned to Pucon to greet the arrival of more demshitz!

Here is a long exposure shot of volcan villarica... Check out the glow from the lava.

check back for a pucon update!

Chile! Rio Claro and Pucon

2010-12-12T04:38:00.000-08:00

Well I have made it to chile after lots and lots of traveling. I cant express how much i love it down here. It is an incredibly beautiful country and has of course some of the best kayaking in the world. We arrived after 10 hours of flying, then spent ALL DAY sitting at a bus station in santiago awaiting a bus down to pucon.
Gypsy Life!!
We caught our bus and 10 more hours later we arrived. Ian picked us up and we headed to the rio turbio.
After a day and a half of rest we got our kayaks and loaded up for an amazing trip north to the Rio Claro! The claro is an incredible river in a very unique basalt gorge. Its one of the most amazing places I've ever been.

A rediculous stout at the claro.

In the deep incredible gorges of the claro.
The Garganta del diablo "throat of the devil".

Nicole Firing down the stout.
Fusilli doing the same.

A still from my helmet cam. This is one of the most unique rapids i have ever run. Its incredible in the deep gorge of the claro, at some spots it will be flat water but only 2 feet wide. Very Cool.

After the garganta, you drop into gorges that are incredibly narrow, and a couple rapids are super narrow slides.

Thinhrum running the second one.

Here is my view of the same rapid.

After spending 4 days at the Claro, I must say it is easily one of my favorite rivers. Its warm, the drops are very clean and the canyon is one of the coolest places in the world. Me encanta este rio.
Here is the video I made from our trip down to chile, and the days we spent at the rio claro.

Rio Claro, Chile W/Demshitz from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

We then headed back down south to Pucon. After some deliberation, we headed to the middle palguin.

Flying down the stout!

Here is a sweet video from our first middle palguin run. Big thanks to Immersion Research for making a sprayskirt that i dont worry about imploding.

Middle Palguin w/ Immersion Research from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

We paddled a lot of the pucon goods for the next few days, the nevado, the upper palguin,the carhuello. We then decided to pack up our stuff and head south. Stay tuned for more from chile!

Fear Canyon of the Elaho

2010-10-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

This is the final installment of Evan, Candace, and myself's trip to BC this summer. We headed for an evening run on the classic big water run in the upper squamish river valley drainage. As we bombed through some sweet rapids without scouting( Evan had done the run 3 years prior) Evan got stuck in a nasty hole and had an intense beatdown. I'll let the video tell the rest of the story.

Here is a photo of me running the last rapid on a later trip this summer. Photo by steve arns.

Fear Canyon Of the Elaho from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Thanks to my Watershed drybag, and a great amount of pure luck, my beloved Canon 7D was returned.

Tatlow Creek, BC

2010-10-11T00:24:00.000-07:00

Tatlow is one of those creeks that i've been hearing of for a while, and although I never really knew exactly what is was like, I knew it was good. My assumptions were confirmed this summer when Evan Garcia, Candace Sanders, Steve Rogers and myself hiked for hours just to reach this beautiful place. And when I say beautiful, I mean it. Tatlow is a creek coming out of the high mountains near squamish, BC. If you know much about BC, you know its one of the wildest places around. Going up into the mountains in BC gives you that real "im out in the wilderness feeling". After hiking about 5 miles or so, on which I happened to forget water like a true unprepared gypsy, we made it to the river and drank a few CFS of water to fuel us. We were then greeted by some of the best rapids and waterfalls to be found. It was a great time even though I thought I might pass out from dehydration. Candace and Steve hiked into the creek right at the best stack of waterfalls with a great 40 ft slide in it. It was another great day on the river.

Check out this sweet Video Evan and I created from our day on the river.

Tatlow Creek, BC from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Evan after a couple miles of flat... about to tackle the steep hike up. Which proved to be very hard without water and in the summer BC heat.

Typical abandoned BC logging roads when hiking to the creek.

Me paddling below the infamous "wall drug" rapid.

The money shot, Evan and I dropping over the 40 ft slide.

Sliding down rocks is fun.

Another amazing photo by Candace!

BC mountain wilderness at it's finest.

All shots by Candace Sanders.

This summer's BC tour was one of the most fun kayak trips ive been on. We had a great time hiking around in the mountains and doing some really quality kayaking.

Ashlu Box Canyon and Browtin Lions

2010-09-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

Its a good feeling when a very large mountain lion right outside your tent leaves. This is how I felt on one of the nights me evan, and candace spent in BC. After an intense game of go fish, we finally settled down to sleep at our campsot near mamquam falls. I awoke in the night due to my gypsy therma-rest deflating. I lay awake listening to the BC wilderness outside. After laying for sometime I noticed very faint footsteps just a few feet away. My mind ran.... Bear, no the footsteps are too soft(but still sounded prominent). It only could be one thing really; most our worst fears of being out in the wilderness is the danger of mountain lions or cougars as we call them up here in the northwest. I lay frozen to the ground. After concluding that yes there was indeed a cougar right outside my tent. I decided to simply wait it out and hope that it wouldn't attack me. After laying there still with adrenaline pumping through my veins in that oh so primitive survival mode that we all get when in danger, I waited and after several instances where i could literally here the cougar sniff my tent feet from my head the cougar had seemed to leave. I no longer heard and soft cat-like steps outside my tent. I then fell back asleep and woke with the sun shining through my tent. I got up, unzipped my tent and greeted the day. The nagging thought that a cougar was very close to my tent was confirmed when just outside my tent, and all around the camp there were very large catlike footprints. We arose, cooked some breakfast and I asked Evan and Candace if they had heard the footsteps outside our tents, they both had slept through it. It was further confirmed when Candace walked down the road, and with the sides of the road being heavily wooded and lush heard something following her. She called us and we came and threw some rocks into the woods to possibly scare it. We got back to camp, packed up our gear as fast as possible and peaced out. Close call. We then proceeded to the Squamish Adventure Center and checked flows on the internet. Candace searched cougar instances in Squamish, and found that a couple had a stand-off with a full grown cougar right exactly where we were camped. Here is the article
After escaping narrowly with our lives(exaggeration) we headed up to the Ashlu Box Canyon, one of the best kayak runs in the world in my opinion and had a great day.
All photos by Candace Sanders... some of the sickest shots eva!

Looking downstream at 50/50... one of the hardest rapids to style that ive run.

EG doing his thing and making a frothing stout look easy. As usual

Evan with one of the sickest lines i've ever seen. Its a rare occasion that 50/50 gives you a line you can really stomp out and be proud of. EG hit this one perfecto and did a massive flying boof.

A pre-stout brown keeps everyone happy and regular.

Me dropping into the froth only to be rejected and plug deep.Out of the 5 times I have run this rapid, twice I have had great lines and three times I have gotten beasted... im thinking next time i have a high chance of styling it if it were to live up to its 50/50 nature.

Finally it happened, that moment where it all went the way you could hope. The brief instance in time that makes me so happy to where I can officially say I want to be a kayaker till the day I die. I finally hit a really sweet line. Here I am leaning it over, only to bring it back and boof it out.

Airing it out- probably the best feeling around.

The next day we headed back to the Box and met up with Bryan Smith, Tim Loubier and Kevin who brought something special for us to play with.

Oh yea! the Phantom HD gold. up to 1,000 frames per second in crystal clear HD. Be sure to check out the footage once Bryan gets done color grading and editing. here is a small teaser.

Reel Water Phantom Tease from Bryan Smith on Vimeo.

We then did some Laps on 50/50 and the small drop just above the Bridge. It was a rad day here are some sweet pics.

EG with the back-boof.

Brown!

Shane Robinson droppin into 50/50.

Greg bustin a fat freewheel like its his job.

Here is a Sweet Video Evan and I put together from some footage we collected on our GoPro's and my 7D.

Ashlu Box Canyon from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

GRRRR!

Crystal Gorge 2010

2010-08-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago after being in Salt Lake City for the outdoor retailer show, Evan Garcia, Candace Sanders and myself made the drive back to my hometown of Carbondale, CO. The saying home is where the heart is is true, being home was great, and Evan and I were stoked to find that Crystal Gorge, one of the best kayaking runs in CO was in fact running. We loaded up the flatbed ranch truck and drove up into the beautiful mountains of Colorado. Marble,CO has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Here are some amazing photos that Candace shot of another great day in the good old CO.

Looking down into the town of Marble,CO.

Evan and I above the lower gorge.

Me on Zute Chute.

EG steezin out a nice boof stomp.

Evan and I chillin in the Gorge. This is one of my favorite places of all time. The inner crystal gorge is a magical place, its very narrow and incredibly beautiful down there.

Clearly Evan feels the same way.

After Eg ran, I proceeded to gloriously catch an edge and eat shit. Made for a great photo!

Evan looking onto MIller Falls, a set of stacked frothing stout waterfalls just below the inner gorge, they have yet to be fired up.

On the drive back home we were lucky enough to hit Penny hot springs, a nice natural hot springs right on the river. Check out this sweet video from the day.

Crystal Gorge 2010 W/LiquidLogic from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Callaghan Creek Festival 2010

2010-08-20T11:31:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago was the Calaghan creek festival near Whistler,BC. Calaghan creek is a beautiful classic BC creek with sick rapids and beautiful scenery. The festival was to raise awareness about the fact that like most creeks in BC, the Calaghan has a hydropower license on it, and could be dammed soon. Being one of the most beautiful and fun creeks in BC, it would be a terrible thing to lose this river. Some of our most precious creeks are already lost to damming projects, like the Ashlu. We need to fight the damming of rivers like this. The festival itself was a great time. We camped right at the Calaghan takeout. The race was a huge success. There were 18 people in the race altogether and about 10 people paddled the creek that day running safety and enjoying the sunshine. There were about 20 spectators that hiked in to watch the race at the biggest waterfall. I was surprised to find out that Kurt and I won the race because there was some competition for sure. And just like any event it wouldn't be complete without a little carnage, a few swims were had and only a few kayaks were broken. Here are the final race results.

Fred Norquist - Kurt Braunlich - 16:55

Matt Kompass - Ben Hawthorne - 17:09

Mark Basso - Benjamin Hjørt - 17:23

Greg Dashper - Mikael Aubin - 17:29

Jakub Drnec - Matt Mackinnon - 18:17

Jordie Mackenzie - Bryce Shaw - 18:31

Spencer Cox - Sean Allen - 20:05

Ali Marshall - Steve Arns - 23:40

Jonas Grünewald - Leif Embertson - DNF

Cold river cooled beers were had at the takeout followed by a short awards ceremony and then talk from Jakub Drnec of the BC Creek Protection Society. We then started the party up by watching huckin huge's new flick, Haymaker. A good time was had by all, and it was all in the name of saving the calaghan. Steve Rogers shot some incredible photos of the event, check them out.

Steve Arns talking about how the race works.

The scene before the start.

Kurt and Leif chillin pre-race.

Me chillin before the start of the race.

Layin treats on the top 15 footer.

Spectators watching just a regular old spectator sport?

Jakub and Matt coming through a sweet curly rapid just below the first waterfall.

Ali and Jonas chatting about something.

Me in front with Kurt right on my tail. We were running close.

A crumpled nose. Calaghan is not super nice to vacant kayaks.

Observing the damage.

3rd place- Mark Basso and Benny Hjort

Ben Hawthorne and Matt Kompass taking second. Nice work guys.

Me and Kurt taking the victory south of the border to Bham.

Max getting his party on!

Overall the event was a great success. Everyone had fun, and i'm excited for next year. Calaghan truly is a beautiful run!

Interior BC

2010-08-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

Recently Ive been paddling quite a bit actually. One of the better trips was a few weeks ago to Revelstoke, BC area. We left Bellingham around 9pm, and started the 7 hour drive to Revelstoke. We arrived at a makeshift campsite at around 4am. We slept, woke up and rallied the rest of the drive into Revelstoke. After meeting up with our friends Joey and Blair, we found that the Pingston was too low. After much debate we headed to one of the cleanest 60ish footers around, Sutherland falls.
And it was a good flow.

Blair Trotman ran first and had a great line.

I ran next, and did somewhat of a boof to stomp. It didn't hurt at all surprisingly, probably one of the softest landings ever, even though it didnt look like it.

I was fired up, so i ran back up and ran it again.

This time I had a decent line, plugging but twisting a bit at the end. It hurt much more.

Todd ran next having by far the best line of the day. Unfortunately his paddle caught the water wrong and his shoulder was dislocated on impact. We got him back to the car, got his gear off, and relocated his shoulder. We headed back to Revy to recuperate, spent the night at Joey's house, and awoke in the morning with St Leon creek on our minds.
Me, Todd and Chris on the Ferry to St. Leon Creek.

St. Leon creek has some amazing drops. The put-in is just down hill from a natural hot springs with a lot of nudity, and pachuly oil. We put in and came upon a sweet triple drop. An 8 footer to 5 foot boof with a nasty hole, to a sweet slide. I did probably the biggest aerial brown i have ever done on the top 8 footer. It was nice!
Brown!!! The first stage of the triple.
The second stage of the triple.

Me starting the fun slide. This triple drop was very fun!

Chris at the end of the sweet slide. It mellows out in-between the drops with some fun boogie water, then all of the sudden we came upon a huge horizon line. A very fast, fun slide awaits. Probably around 80 feet long and maybe 60 ft tall. It was very fun.

Me on the slide. Speeding into the pool. After the slide comes a sweet mini gorge that unfortunately was choked with wood. We portaged, and the gorge ended in a sweet 30ish footer.

The last falls, a super great, clean waterfall. Gotta love BC.
Chris chillin out with a beautiful look back up St. Leon Creek.

After St Leon we proceeded to meet up with a bunch of Mt. Bikers, and had a pretty fun night filled with lots of beer drinkings and hot springs.

I didnt feel great in the morning so i took a little nap in GnarCar. Chris thought it would be funny to take a picture.

We finally gained motivation to go kayaking. We arrived at the Kuskanax river, a sweet class 4 ish section with some great waterfalls.

Kuskanax river with some beautiful classic BC gorge scenery.

After the Kuskanax we hiked up and ran sweet park and huck 20ftr right on the side of the road called Gardener creek.
The top drop on gardener.
The last falls on gardener.

...and from the bottom.
Check out the sweet little video I put together from the trip.\

Interior BC/ Sutherland Falls from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

This ended up being one of the most fun paddling trips of the year for me. We were able to find some stuff that none of us had done before, and all in all it was a great trip. We are bummed about Todd's shoulder he is having surgery in september and no doubt after that he will be back out killing it as usual. Heal up buddy.
Until Next time.

All photos By Chris Tretwold and Todd Gillman

Hamma Hamma Falls

2010-08-08T22:14:00.001-07:00

This spring Evan Garcia, Pat Keller and Candace Sanders rolled up to the northwest on an epic stouting mission. They called me up and told me to meet them out on the OP to check out Hamma Hamma Falls, first descented by Todd Gillman a couple years back. The falls is a stout 20 footer into a 60 footer. Its stout. Pat ran first and killed it, Evan ran next and styled it as well. I ran and had a good line despite having to battle a little undercut wall on the left. It was a great day. Here is a sick Photo that Candace Sanders shot of me on the second falls.

Then a few weeks ago Demshitz came through and were ready for stouts. So we headed to Hamma Hamma once again. The video tells the most complete story. Check it out.
Demshitz represent.
This is one of my sickest videos to date for sure.

Hamma Hamma Falls W/Demshitz from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Canyon Creek Of the Nooksack

2010-07-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Canyon creek of the Nooksack is a small tributary that comes in just below the canyon section of the north fork. It comes from high mountain valley that reaches almost clear to the Canadian border. Although all the runs on the Nooksack nearby are almost all bedrock style, Canyon Creek is much more manky. After a short bushwhack down a steep hill, you will come to the creek, which at this point consists of landslide boulders, creating terribly manky drops. We spent the first little while portaging. After running a few manky rapids we finally came upon some bedrock. The creek got better and better after that besides the loss of my GoPro HD to the river gods.
Jamie Klein on a semi-clean manky drop.
Me coming through the first drop of that good ol' stuff we love-bedrock.

Chris Tretwold airing it out on a sweet boof.

Here is a little video I put together from the day.

Canyon Creek from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

The nooksack river valley has some really great kayaking and anyone in the Bellingham area should definitely check out the area.

SurvivorGoat 7... Kayak Edition

2010-06-27T10:02:00.000-07:00

Mike(the mountain man) Miller introduced me to survivorgoat at college this year. Survivor goat is a web series compiled of only some of the greatest feats of mankind itself. Survivorgoat is all about extreme. Survivorgoat is all about being stout. Survivorgoat 7 kayak edition is taking Survivorgoat to a new level. It brings sarcasm to the world of extreme kayaking, and makes light of how serious some paddling films are. Check it out

Survivor Goat 7.. Kayak Edition from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Raffuse Creek Exploration

2010-06-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

When Todd calls and says "hey man, ive got something sweet, wanna go to BC this weekend?", It probably means its gunna be a good old fashioned BC bushwack to a worthy creek. Then he texted me some photos they had taken when they scouted it a few days prior. Pictures of clean waterfalls and a kickass gorge met my eyes. I dropped other plans and headed up to the squamish area. We made some delicious food at Bryan's house, and went to sleep stoked to go explore Raffuse creek. We woke up super early and drove to the creek which just happens to be crossed by the road to Skookum Creek. We hiked a few miles up the creek on a nice trail. Then we picked the least menacing spot in the dense bc hell f*@k, we did some classic BC bushwackin down to the creek. We put on, and ran through some really cool mini gorges like this one.

Bryan Smith photo.

We then reached some cool low volume boofs like this one.Chris Tretwold Photo.

The gorge started to get a little deeper and steeper we came upon this sweet Double Drop.

Boofs like this don't suck.

Todd Gilman Photo

Cool shot of me resurfacing. TG photo

The second stage of the double, good stuff. CT Photo

Chris Tretwold charging of the first part of the double, reppin dat WA apple phat! Tg photo

MMM The second drop from above. Tg photo

Shane and Bryan in some fun boogie just after the Double Drop.

After some cool boogie and mini gorges, the Creek got quite a bit steeper indeed. We came upon this, and of course Chris Tretwold fired up some stout wood removal by walking across the big log, then sawing a smaller log in half so we could run the stuff that came below.

It was definetly brown.

The eddy just above a sweet 25ish footer.BS Photo

And Todd Launching off of just another sweet BC waterfall. BS photo

The 25r from downstream, with the crack rapid soon afterwards. CT photo

And me dropping in on a really cool boof to crack drop.CT photo

From Downstream, Photo TG

And Bryan exiting the crack.TG Photo

Shane getting a nice boof into the pinch, stylie! Shortly after these quality drops, there was another waterfall in the 25-30ft range with a weird crack entrance that then proceeded to land on rocks. With higher flow, it would probably go, but the rest of the creek would be terrifying.

Shane Peering into the crack.

The creek then proceeded to throw a few walled-out, woodblocked smaller drops, so we had a couple proper BC portages.Up, out of the gorge, then yes right back down in through spikey plants and moss-covered rocks.

We then proceeded to meet the bridge that we had decided to take out at. We started the day at 8, and ended at 7:30 or so, it was a solid day of kayaking indeed.

Here is a short video I put together of the day, Check it out

Raffuse Creek Exploration from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Overall the creek was not quite a classic due to the amount of work required, but there were some great waterfalls and beautiful scenery.

Check back soon for more!

Ashlu Box Canyon Teaser

2010-05-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

The Ashlu box canyon is one of BC's best kayak runs. It runs through one of the most beautiful gorges I have ever seen and unfortunately it is not free-flowing anymore. This past winter it was dammed. After the local government denied the building of the dam, the government of BC created a law to over-ride the local squamish governments power to deny the project. The dam was built. Luckily kayakers fuaght for releases. Keep our rivers free flowing.For more info make sure to check out http://www.therangelife.com
Here is a short teaser from just another great day kayaking in BC.
Stay tuned for more.

Ashlu Box Teaser from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

5Point Film Festival

2010-05-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, I left Bellingham, WA to go home for the weekend. The 5point filmfestival was happening in Carbondale,CO my home town. It was a great weekend with lots of great films. My Metlako falls short played, along with some other very good paddling films. Tyler Bradt came and played Dream Result, which is a great film and has some epic kayaking indeed. My favorite film of the whole festival though was Anson Fogel's film Wildwater. Anson uses state of the art technology to create the best kayaking footage I have ever seen.I flew into denver and of course right when I hit the mountains the snow started.

A snowy spring drive in CO.

Rolling into town getting a good view of Mt. Sopris, damn it was good to be home.

I spent some quality time on my trampoline making brown flips and such.5point filmfest.
A full house at the festival, and a quick screening of my metlako falls video on their super sick blu-ray projector.
Brie, Julie and Beda 5Point filmfest girls who organized the whole event. Thanks a bunch!

Introducing my film, Metlako falls.

This is a slightly shorter version of my film in a bit downgraded quality.

Metlako Falls from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Here is a teaser of Anson's incredible work. This guy inspires me to make films, best footage out there.

WildWater Trailer - New Version from Anson Fogel on Vimeo.

And of course, Rush and Tyler's Film Dream Result was super good as usual.

Overall the weekend was awesome, make sure to check out http://www.5pointfilm.org and come to next year's festival!

Metlako Falls Video

2010-05-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, i've sat on this footage for sometime and Im sick of hiding it, here is an edit from our run down Metlako Falls earlier this year. Shot on Canon 7D and Gopro HD.

Metlako Falls from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

A longer version played this past weekend at the 5 point filmfest. It was a great time.

Robe Canyon Downriver Race 2010!

2010-04-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

The 2nd Robe Canyon Downriver race was a huge success this past weekend in Granite Falls, WA. Todd Gillman put on a great race, and there was a nice turnout of 16teams! The weekend started out nicely.. I finished classes on friday, and was stoked for the weekend to come. Saturday came and in the evening we met up with a great crew for some of their first times down Robe. Rodrigo, a good friend from Pucon, Chile even made it up for the fun.
The crew after a great saturday evening run. Left to right, Rodrigo, Mike, LJ, me, Kurt, Louis, and Niko. Photo:LJ

We drove back to Bellingham that night where we met with the largest of burritos! Casa Que Pasa is whats up(if ya know what i mean)
LJ diving into a class 5 burrito. Lj is used to stouts so it was no problem for him, he styled the line and ate the whole thing! Damn thats a burrito right there! Photo: Rodrigo

The morning dawned and we drove down to Robe with the flows looking higher than we expected(which was great, 5.8 might be the best Robe level out there, and we got to race on it!)

A super good showing of kayakers at the take out, ready for the day's festivities.
Photo:Rodrigo
Racers walking to the put-in. Photo by Ethan Smith. It was great to see so many teams fired up to race and tons of people just plain stoked to be out there. Gotta love events like this.. brings out the true kayakers. People are out there to have fun and run the river not to win any money at the end. I love the passion people have for our sport to all gather for such a fun grass-roots event.
Racers putting in on the flatwater above the run.There was a great showing! Photo: Ethan Smith.
The Racers getting ready for a great day. Somehow Niko and I missed this shot... Demshitz is out to lunch.
Lj looking onto Last Sunshine rapid, the third rapid of the run and indeed one of the sweetest.
Ethan Smith, Portland boater running last sunshine on a beautiful day.Photo: Cody Payne Thanks to Ethan for running safety/taking some great photos!
Chilean Paddler Rodrigo Tuschner running "da real shit" with that chilean estilo weon!
Rodrigo kills it and is always fired up to go kayaking, gotta love this guy, never seen a frown on his face when he's out on the rio. Check out his website, Kayak Pucon. If you ever go to chile, this guy knows the rivers super well and has a great shop in Pucon so make sure to visit his site before your next south american paddling adventure!
Rodrigo immersed in frothing brown that is Robe canyon.
Brian and Aaron Johnson, the winning team amidst some fun boogie just after last sunshine. Photo: Cody Payne
Kurt and Louis, the third place team killing it just below last sunshine, these guys are incredibly fast with some insane slalom skills. Photo: Cody
Me approaching last sunshine. Photo:Cody Payne
My teammate, Niko Peha killing it in the race on only his second time down the river! He styled every single rapid except for the last hole which got him good.... He did insanely good for only running it twice. Unfortunately he swam out of the last hole, but we had a great run otherwise and it was really fun running the rapids right after each other with Niko right on my tail. Good times.
Brian and AJ the winning team running super close at Last Sunshine. Photo:LJ
Kurt Braunlich lining up for last sunshine... This guy is such a stylie kayaker, absolutely crushes it.
Tretwold getting some vertical in Last Sunshine, the gnomes are strong here.
Me boofing Hotel California, a pretty big hole with Niko right behind me. Photo: Ethan Smith
Todd Gillman and Bryan Smith at Hotel California photo:Ethan Smith
Bryan Smith charging into the bottom of Hotel Cali... sick shot by Ethan Smith
A new-zealander boofs hotel california. Cool shot by LJ
Downstream view, LJ photo
Racers Paddling down from the finish line.
The Awards ceremony. It was great to have everyone there, a good group of paddlers for a super fun event.
Ben Hawthorne hands his Robe over to Brian Fletcher.
Chris Tretwold and Way-rad Mcgnarly got the Gnome to take home after swimming into the finish with pure style.(The gnome is the prize for the slowest team) Ethan Photo.
Here are the Final Results. an (s) means there was a swim involved.
(1) Aaron Johnson / Brian Fletcher (27:56)
(2) Rob McKibbin / Ben Hawthorne (28:45)
(3) Kurt Braunlich / Louis Geltman (29:07)
(4) Jon Prentice / Darren Albright (30:38)
(5) Sean Bozkewycz / Adrian Kiernan (31:59)
(6) Bryan Smith / Todd Gillman (32:52)
(7) Hale Hannaway / Jon Dufay (33:58)
(8) Brad Xanthopoulos / Marco Colella (34:23)
(9) Jonathan Ehlinger / Andrew Oberhardt (36:10)
(10) Scott Waidelich / Nick Hinds (36:41)(S)
(11) Steve Arns / Matt Kompass (36:50)
(12) Fred Norquist / Niko Peha (38:03)(S)
(13) Ken Olivier / Sam the Kiwi (40:27)
(14) Shane Robinson / Brock Gavery (40:54)(S)
(15) Don Beveridge / Darcy Gaechter (41:30)
(16) Chris Tretwold / Ryan Bradley (55:15)(S)

Overall it was a great weekend. Big thanks to Todd Gillman and the TRL boys for putting it on.
Photos by LJ, Ethan Smith, and Cody Payne.

Check back soon for a Robe Canyon Video

Spring is here! I love snowmelt.

2010-04-26T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well the past couple weeks I have been paddling hard, "training" for the Robe canyon race which went down this past weekend(check back in a few days for a write-up). The snowmelt finally started up here in northern washington and some of my favorite rivers bumped up to decent(but not ideal) flows. I have been spending the last week on some of my favorite runs, Robe canyon, Middle Fork of the Nooksack, and the Horseshoe bend section of the North Fork of the Nooksack. It has been great to be able to paddle almost everyday. At one point this week, I paddled 6 out of 7 days while still being in school... that aint bad, although I wont mention how it affected my grades haha. I paddled robe 3 times, Middle Fork twice and The North Fork once. So in other words life is good right now. being able to kayak this much is awesome. Here are a few pics from a sunny day on the North Fork, the home class 4 run.

Me entering Bench Drop on a sunny afternoon on the NF.
Oh yea... BROWN.
Entering a lower in between rapid.
Soul cruisin' in a shiny new Jefe Grande... Lovin that boat.
Boofing into SAT.

A fun boof in the middle of SAT.

I then met up with Cody(demshitz made star) and took him down a nice class 3 section with a beautiful view of Mt. Baker Cody loves Demshitz.

It was a good day on the Rio! The NF is beautiful. Pics by Cody and Fred.

I shot some great video of Middle Fork that will be out soon.

Spring Break! Little White Binge/Robe Canyon

2010-04-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

As final exams ended for the winter quarter, shouts could be head all over campus, "SPRING BREAK!!!!". Each person was glad to be done with classes and to have a nice 10 day break. While some people went back to their homes, some flew to mexico or drove to canada to get plastered. I loaded GnarCar up and had one thing on my mind. Kayaking. The water levels were low. I knew one place where even if it isnt raining.... the shit is running. The Little White Salmon. Probably one of the best rivers in the world, no definetly. I drove down to hood river with the goal of kayaking until my arms fell off. The first day we had a great run on the Little White.
Here is a great shot of Orion Meredith styling spirit falls like its a damn fashion show. Photo Fred Norquist

The Little White Salmon will always have a place in my heart, it has some of the most quality rapids out there, and travels though a beautiful northwestern basalt gorge with tons of greenery. The water comes from an underground aquifer which gets filled in the winter by rianfall, then runs all througout the winter months and even into the spring and summer. The water is Crystal Clear with an incredible aqua-marine blue tint to it. The little white is an extremely special place.

After a great day, I drove to the Wind River Festival which was a great time with good brew, good food, and some good stories around a bonfire. I woke up, and met up with a motivated Seattle crew ready to charge.
We put on the Little White around 9 having a good run, and my first run down spirit falls which was a success. Then we headed to the Truss to make it a double WHAMMY! By the end of the truss, my arms were sore and It ended up being a great day, I reached my goal of portageless Ldub and Truss. I said goodbye to my seattle friends and drove over the bridge to Hood River where I cooked some dank pasta in the parking lot at the kayak shed.Gypsy style!

I spent the night at my buddies house, and awoke being incredibly sore. Probably too sore to kayak. SHRED ALERT! haha

So I spent the day hiking around taking pictures of the waterfalls in the area.

Multnomah is a stout. Probably runnable(that is possibly sarcastic).

The Lip view! Holy STOUT! you can see the bottom drop's lip around 500 feet below.

Good scenery in the Columbia River Gorge.

Pretty!!!

After a good day of hiking and photographing, I headed back into HR, met up with some friends and hopped the fence into our favorite hotel hot tub. It was purely for therapeutic reasons of course. We did this everyday for the rest of break, Gypsies!

The next 5 days I ran the Little White everyday. I made a sick Video edit from some headcam footage taken over those days on the LDUB.

Check it out, personally I would say its one of my better Video creations.

Little White Salmon River Helmet Cam from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

And here are some pretty pictures. Spirit falls is beautiful place. It is a place that instills fear in me. It is a waterfall unlike any other I have run, significantly more consequential with Chaos below, and a bad cave on the right not to mention a huge frothing boil, or the fact that many people have had back injuries on this drop. After running spirit once and having a decent line, I was out to style it perfectly.

Jay Gifford Contemplating Spirit Falls

I ran and didnt have the greatest line... boofing too big will really hurt on this drop. Im really glad I didnt end up injuring my back. Photo By Erik Boomer

Oh yea! haha ouch! Photo: Erik Boomer

That was my second line on Spirit, one decent line, one huge boof, and on my last run I finally had the perfect line that I wanted oh so bad. Its in the video. Check it out.

My sad face leaving LDUB. I will be back have no fear.

It was friday, I had run the Little White 6 times and the Truss once. I was sore, and school was to start on tuesday. I headed north. After sleeping at a good friends house in Gig Harbor, I woke early and met the BHAM crew at Robe for a lap. Hitting Robe at a lowish flow isnt quite the LDub, but when water comes into Robe canyon, its a damn good day. It was still a good day for sure.

The Bham Crew about to hit up good Ol' Robe Canyon.

We took Adam down for his first time, so we were taking things slow, which allowed for plenty of time for me to hop out and snap some shots.

Chris Tretwold of the Bham crew in T1. Photo Fred Norquist.

Looking downstream at T2 and into the depths of Robe Canyon. Photo Fred Norquist

T1 and 2 are some pretty fun warm-up rapids, but once you come to Last Sunshine, Its on. Definitely my favorite rapid of the run.

Leif Embertson About to launch a sweet line off one of the greatest boofs out there. photo:Fred Norquist

Oh yea! The kicker giving Leif a nice boof into the fast moving current coming from the right. photo:Fred Norquist

Here is a short video of one of my best lines on Last Sunshine, God I love this rapid.

Fred Norquist, Robe Canyon, Last Sunshine W/ Style from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

One of my Favorite shots from the day, Jonathan, Chris, and Hale running Hole In the Wall. Photo: Fred Norquist

Looking up the Canyon with Faceplant in plain view.

Just after faceplant is Catcher's Mitt, a big hole and a good feeling drop to boof the piss out of. Here is Chris Killin it. Photo:Fred Norquist

Shortly after Catcher's Mitt is a manky pile of rocks created by a landslide that is normally portaged. Below the portage is garbage.

We wanted to attempt to cut a log out of Garbage that had been bugging us, and we want gone before the Robe race. Attempt we did or Chris did rather. However was unable to cut the log free due to surging water and sketchy sawing conditions. We concluded we would come back at lower flows.

Then we ran Garbage.

Leif dropping in. After Garbage, the rapids space out a bit, one of the best has to be 20ft waterfall.

Chris smear boof on the second drop in 20ft waterfall. This is a great one to Brown.

Jonathan, Chris and Adam coming into sight in Conversation.

Adam and Chris in Lower Conversation. Photo: Fred Norquist.

It turned out to be a great spring break. Im back in bellingham now, classes Just started. It looks like runoff will begin sometime soon, and be sure I will be out there paddling as much as I can.

Untill next time!

North Fork Stillaguamish Adventure

2010-03-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well I woke up way too early after a super late night. College seems to always convince me to stay up late.. especially when girls are around. After going to sleep at 3am, I woke up at 6am, loaded up my kayak gear and drove over to Chris's house. It was the earliest I had woken up in a long time. After talking to Chris, Todd and Leif the night before, all I knew was that we were going to explore something that the crew knew a little about, but not much. Chris had casually scouted the run in '08 and this is what he saw.
Photo:Chris Tretwold

Enticing indeed. After driving a couple hours south from BHam, and a nice 2 hour nap for me, we got to the take out. This is one of the most beautiful take-outs that I have seen. The river ends with a view of a massive Cascadian peak called whitehorse peak. It looked like this.We dropped Todd's subie off at the bottom, and continued on our adventure. We strategically placed a bike about half-ways down the run just in case we ended up spending the day portaging and bushwhacking through the northwestern forest. When we dropped the bike off, we found this burnt couch still glowing with embers...(not really) but it would have been sweet because it was damn cold.

Todd and Leif warming up. We then spent the next oh hour or so doing this.

Yea we were somewhat lost, and drove up the wrong road at least twice.

...And how do we get to the river? Lost on yet another dead-end logging road. Turns out the road "christian camp road" was yes in fact right next to the christian camp we had driven by probably 3 times. We considered consulting them on our existence, but decided against it. We found the river and put on, despite the low flow we found. The start of the run is class 2/3 and meanders in and out of beautiful gorges with a "heineken bottle" green tint to it.

Chris in the upper stretches.

The river continues like this for a few miles, which made me quite suspicious as to how the day was going to end because we were running out of distance to accommodate the gradient we had calculated. I expected the river to drop off the face of the earth, but I was pleasantly surprised when we realized it was all manageable. Here is our first view of the gorge, and the first "rapids" of the day.

Looked pretty sweet for sure. After a quick scout, Leif told us the lines and we dropped in. We found some sweet rapids indeed.

Me on the first rapids of the run, a sweet 3-stager with this at the end. Photo: Todd Gillman

The Remix kills it, even in low volume technical stuff.

Directly after this drop we caught a very small eddy, and climbed up some rocks and sticks to find this.

Gradient! and some manky waterfalls.

There is some really interesting geology here with some huge potholes.

Chris decided to take a short break in one. TG photo.

After scouting for a while, I figured I could pick off one of these stacked waterfalls.

Beautiful Sequence by Todd Gillman, nice shots!

We portaged the next two drops, a sketchy 4 footer that lead directly into a 3oish footer that landed directly on rocks. We continued downstream.

Chris and Todd contemplating the drops below.

Leif and Chris scouting some good drops, and some not-so good drops. Look at that tree! Thing is huge!

As we continued, we found some really good drops. A crazy 15 ft waterfall with a weird entrance from an eddy, then a sweet rock grind boof.

Leif entering the Sweet 15ftr.

And then about to drop over the edge of a really cool drop.

Chris killing a boof on the same drop from below. Photo TG

I got a pretty sweet Video shot of Todd From the top, check it out.

Todd Gillman NF Stillaguamish from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Me running the same drop, Good stuff! photo: TG

Just after this drop is a really sweet grind boof. Here is Chris showing us whats up with the rim grab.

Stylie! photo: TG

I got a nice brown off of this one, great brown drop, really.

We continued downstream, and we were greeted with some fun class 4 boogie water. It was getting somewhat late, we were tired, then we came to a sketchy 10 footer with rocks on both sides of a 4-foot landing zone. With the help of a fresh snickers bar in my stomach, I ran it, had a decent line slightly taggin my elbow on a rock on the left.

Photo: TG.

We ran some more boogie water and arrived at the take-out and couldn't have been happier with some New Belgium brews.

The day was a success, we didnt spend the whole day bushwhacking through the forest, we found some sweet drops, and got to be on the river. Couldn't ask for more.

It was a great day, we ran around 4 miles of river. Not to mention exploring a very cool river gorge. Man I love the PNW!

Thanks to Todd, Chris and Leif, this was a great trip, one of the best ways to spend a weekend day no doubt.

Cody Payne Demshitz Made Episode 1

2010-02-26T00:40:00.001-08:00

Well for the past few weeks the water has been super low in bellingham, but I can’t just not go kayaking, I have to go. I took my friend out for his first four times, and he is really stoked on it. I love teaching people who are excited about it because they make me realize how awesome of a sport kayaking is. Its so much different than most sports I do, so much more involved, and inspires the passion for adventure that is in all of us. This is why I Love kayaking, in no other sport have I felt like each new day was an adventure, felt like each day could end with me camping next to some river freezing.From the moment Cody sat in my boat, he has been non-stop just plain stoked on kayaking. He walked to my dorm room after the first day, and asked to borrow all my kayak videos. From what I hear from his roomate, he hasnt slept in days and Demshitz the movie has been playing for three weeks now. This guy just loves it. And im stoked to be teaching him because he loves it. I see the same stoke in him that I remember feeling when I started getting into kayaking some 6 years ago. Rock on!

Here is a photo from Cody’s First day on the river.

And here is a video from the days I took Payne to the river.

Demshitz Made: Cody Payne Edition, Episode 1 from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Hood River: another sick weekend

2010-02-20T20:12:00.001-08:00

The water has been low here in Bellingham, super low. After not kayaking since my last weekend in Hood Rio, I had to go back. Kurt and I rallied down from Bham to portland on friday night, and with no school on monday thanks to president's day we were stoked to kill it. Three days of paddling in hood river is super fun, some of the most concentrated, quality whitewater that I have ever seen. Saturday morning we had our eyes set on Ldub, but after a series of unfortunate events(gear being dropped off etc.) we settled for a lap on the Truss. I shouldn't say settled, the Truss is pretty under-rated in my book, it has some great quality whitewater(just not quite as good as LDUB). A big crew of my buddies from world class kayak academy were rolling in from Montucky to join us. It was gunna be a sick weekend.

Niko while waiting for gear, and waiting to go yakin.. sometimes dems gotta be patient.
We finally got on the river, here are Dan and Niko scouting big brother. Shortly after the stout crew of word class homies rolled up as well.
Chillin above big brother.
Davis Gove running big brother down the left.
Lil Dave Meyers having a clean line on big bro.
Me dropping in on Big bro.
Nate Garcia at the lip of Big brother.
Nate running BZfalls. Nate has a bet with lj to run it untill he swims....... he cleaned it.
Niko Peha on big brother, this guy kills it.
Erik Boomer and some other crazy rubber pushers styling big brother.
Sam Friehofer killin it.
Stylin BZ.
Stomped!
Griff Griffith a fellow CO paddler. This kid kills it.

After a nice run on the Truss, we started an evening of debauchery. The world class crew reunited had a killer night, needless to say lots of brown dancing went down. We awoke the next day not feeling incredible, but we still rallied to go do some kayaking no doubt. We checked out money drop, a nice 50-55ftr with a crazy fast lip. We scouted and decided it looked good to go.
The group hiking in.
Nate went first having a decent line, but landing a little over the bars and ejecting.
The paddle toss.
Davis Contemplating the stout.
He then ran, and ended up going over the bars as well.

I went, had a nice line folding into the seam, and plugging nice, but my skirt imploded and I ended up swimming. Check out the vid for some more footage.

Erik Johnson had a sweet line, but his skirt blew and he ended up swimming.
Sam Friehofer had a super sick line, but a blown skirt again made him swim.
A common sight at the bottom. Out of the 8 of us that ran it, 7 swam due to blown skirts and ejections. The other person boofed it.

Check out the video here

Money Drop from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Hiking back up to the car.

We went back to portland that night, went to bed early and got a lovely run on the LDub in the morning, then headed back to Bham. Tuesday dawned, and it only made sense to go get some Robe Canyon as I dont have class till 5. The level was 5.8 and it was super fun. After a wednesday of classes, we celebrated western wednesday, and I woke on thursday for my 8am geology class(which is a sick class but 8am is rough). Then I decided it only made sense to go run robe again before the water was completely gone hit it at 4.9 which is pretty low, I recommend more water. It was a good weekend/start to the week, I paddled 5 out of 7 days so I was stoked!

Metlako Falls

2010-02-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

Ever since I first saw the footage of Trip Jennings running Metlako falls, I knew I wanted to run it someday, after 5 years of kayaking, I finally got the chance, and felt like I could stick it. If you want to run a tall waterfall, this has to be the perfect one, its so clean, has a perfect rolling lip and large pool at the bottom. After a sweet day on the Little White, we set our eyes on metlako in the morning. When we arrived, the level seemed really low at the fish hatchery. After a mile and a half or so of hiking through a beautiful canyon with moss covered walls, amazing trees and incredible scenery, we got to the falls. It looked to be on the lower side of good for sure. However after some scouting, we decided it still looked good. We set up media, hiked up, and put on just above the lip. Dan Laham and I sat at the lip while people got media in position. Sitting at the lip of a waterfall like this is pretty cool, the horizon line is huge. The closest thing you can see is the other wall of the canyon, this is when you know you are about to go a long ways down. I watched Dan drop over the lip, silence for a couple seconds, then hoots of a successful run greeted my ears. I lined up, entered the lip, right stroke, soft left rudder, once I felt like I was free falling, I checked my angle to make sure I wasnt boofing or going over the bars, tossed my paddle to the side, tucked up bear-hugging the bottom of my Remix, and waited for the hit. BAM! I got ripped to the back of my boat, it was a big hit for sure, and incredibly resurfaced upright. I was stoked. I couldn't have asked for a better line really. A big thanks to everyone who shot media that day, Ben Hawthorne, Ethan Smith, Niko Peha, and Robbin.

The video footage will be played at 5 Point Filmfest aprli 29th-may 1st Check it out here http://www.5pointfilm.org/

The lip, with not as much water as we hoped. Its really cool how much moss is on the canyon walls here, its a pretty amazing place even if you aren't kayaking, really cool hike with lots of vegetation and interesting geology. Shot by Ethan Smith.
Dan Laham having a perfect line in his Jefe, Ben Hawthorne got this cool shot while having an extra paddle to throw to us in the pool.
Sick sequence of Dan by Ethan Smith. Dan had a great line holding onto his paddle, and taking it deep. His paddle broke, but it was already cracked so that is to be expected on a drop this tall. Sick Line!
Me entering the lip of one of the most perfect waterfalls out there. photo by Ethan Smith.
After the paddle toss, tucked up waiting to land, it was a really cool feeling free-falling for that long. Photo by Ethan Smith
Sick shot coming off the lip. photo by Ben Hawthorne.
And about half way down, you can see my paddle next to me right after I tossed it
A shot from My GoPro HD that was shooting video from the back of my boat.
At the bottom stoked to be down there and to have had such a good line.
Gnar Car loaded up for some LDUB.

This wont be my last time down Metlako, cant wait to come back and run it with some Juice!

Misto Gorge, Portage fest 2010

2010-01-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

Well I wouldn't say Misto Gorge has the best whitewater around, that's for sure. However it is a very cool gorge, and is almost like a geology field trip with some really cool different rock formations. I woke up saturday morning as most college students do with an extreme hangover. I had a hard time motivating, but from past experience I've found it is almost always much better to go than not to go. I rolled out of bed, loaded my kayak stuff up, and drove to meet Kurt Braunlich to do the Misto Gorge for both of our first times.

Hungover much? And no I did not get in a fight, the shiner is from Ernie's canyon, I had an unfortunate interaction with a rock. Im pretty sure it won. Luckily ladies love a guy with a black eye.

Driving over the Nooksack.
Beautiful PNW scenery on Mt. Baker highway.
We arrived at the put-in, my subie(Gnarcar) was looking good as usual.

There is something about kayaking that makes hangovers go away. It could have to do with the cold water splashing your face, im not really sure, but either way its like magic. We put in, and paddled a few miles of flatwater before entering the 1st gorge.
Kurt entering the 1st of 2 sweet gorges.
We came upon this rapid in the 1st gorge, little did we know it was going to be one of the only ones we would end up running. After we exited the first short gorge, we paddled a mile or so of flatwater before entering the next. We came upon the first rapid. After a short scout, the rapid went but had a gnarly hole that fed into a bed seive. It was a no-go. After portaging on a pile of logs, we put in and ran a manky little class 4 rapid just after. Rapid number 2 for the day. We continued downstream, the next rapid, no-go, damn! We portaged again. This continued for a while. There is something about portaging every rapid, it turns more into an extreme walking event with your kayak, certainly fulfilling the adventure aspect of the day.
The lip of one of the portages, which would have been a sweet rapid minus a huge log through it just on the other side of the horizon line, damn! Getting out to portage this rapid was quite involved, we had to set some climbing gear in the gorge wall to safely lower ourselves down to a spot where we could get out of our boats.
Portage fest 2010! hooray.

After this portage, we ran another class 4 manky rapid (rapid number 3 for the day)before coming to this dam, a sweet clean 12ft damn that was fun for freewheelin.
Kurt killin the freewheel.
We then took out above Nooksack falls, a nice 60ft ish waterfall that lands pretty hard on rocks.

Nooksack falls.

We ended the day, and decided it would be one of those runs that maybe you do every couple of years, just to say you've done it.

Hope for rain, things are dry right now.

Middle Fork of the Nooksack

2010-01-27T13:00:00.000-08:00

Well lately up here in Bellingham, there has been not very much snow, but lots of rain. This is good and bad because well, we want snow for spring runoff, but we love rain for the good mid-winter runs on the different sections of the Nooksack. My personal favorite is the Middle Fork, if you link the upper and the lower, it could be some of the most quality kayaking i've done, combining two awesome styles of whitewater. The upper consists of class 5 boulder garden style rapids with tons of sweet boofs and some big holes to punch. The lower, or the "Canyon" consists of a sweet gorge with some great bedrock pool-drop style rapids with even more sweet boofs and beautiful scenery. I couldn't be happier when the MF is running, I skip all the classes I can afford to, and MF becomes the focus. Here is a video that shows all the major rapids on the MF over two sweet days of boating. Check it out.

Middle Fork Nooksack POV from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Sopris Productions Rasta Reel

2009-12-03T19:18:00.000-08:00

This is a short promo for the production company im going to start, its a combination of just a bunch of stuff that I have filmed.

Hope you like it

Sopris Productions Rasta Reel from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

LiquidLogic Remix Stinger

2009-11-11T16:36:00.001-08:00

Here is a sick vid that LVM put together of the New LL race boat. Looks super Fast, and We know it is becasue Isaac Levinson just paddled it to 2nd place at the green race. Nice work Ball!!! LL is killin it!

LiquidLogic Stinger from Lunch Video Magazine on Vimeo.

North Fork of the Nookgnar:Video

2009-10-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

The north fork of the nooksack river here in bellingham is pretty much our backyard run. It is a fun class four section. Its perfect for after class. I just wish it was a couple miles longer.

North Fork of the Nookgnar from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Dipper Creek Short Video

2009-10-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

This is a short video that I put together from my dipper creek trip. It is a sick little creek in a very cool gorge. Read more about it in the previous post.

Dipper Creek from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Dipper Creek... The coolest place in the world?

2009-10-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

Well since I last posted, I have relocated to the Pacific Northwest and am going to college at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. Have no fear.... This will still allow me to get out there and get on some cool rivers, I already have!! The past two weekends I have made the journey to BC where easily the coolest place that I have ever been does in fact exist. This place is powerful, mystical, wild, beautiful, and dark. This place my friends is Dipper Creek. It was discovered a few years ago by the range life boys who did all the groundwork and scouting on this one. The creek makes its way through a deep and powerful gorge where if one log is in the wrong place, you will either do the sketchiest climb of your life or you will be roped out. Big ups to TRL for taking the time to open this one up because it truly is one of the coolest places in the world. It was Friday. I sat in computer science class listening to my french professor murmur on about html code. I came out of a slight sleep when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked at my phone... 1 new txt message from Cody Howard. The text read... picking you up around 7 looking at getting on dipper if flows cooperate. I pulled my computer out of my backpack... the range life was typed into my browser. I spent the rest of class thoroughly reading through their posts of this incredible place. The stoke was on.... as class ended I sprinted to my dorm and organized my kayak gear in anticipation of the weekend to come. We drove to canada,eh!
After a freezing cold night, we motivated, and checked the flow. It was a good flow.

Our friends Steve, Ali, and Scott met us in the freezing cold as we geared up. Putting on kayak gear in the cold could be my least favorite thing to do in the world. After pushing past this.. my drysuit with ample layers of fleece felt nice once we started hiking in.
Cody bushwacking through the BC woods... on the way to our put-in on a small tributary creek.

The tributary we put in on was mostly a mank fest... untill we rolled up to a pretty nice horizon line.
This is what lay below, a perfect 35ishftr. ...Oh man this day is getting good I thought.
Ben Hawthorne with Cody looking on.

Once we reached the confluence of dipper and the small trib we were on, there was a mile or so of some fun boulder-garden style rapids. Then it drops.
Ali running a great double drop dubbed "Double Dip" by the TRL boys.
Ben running it from the top.

Great photo by Ali of Steve on Double Dip.

Then it really drops. Just after Double Dip, comes Big Dipper... it is Big too.
A perfect sliding 70ish ft tall waterfall awaits.

Ben got the First Descent on this guy.
Ben Hawthorne about to go speeding into a somewhat green pool.

Ali then ran it. After hearing that the waterfall went without incident, I decided to run it as well.

Great photo of me by Ali

Cody ran, then Steve.
Steve Arns recovering from a big hit.
This is the cool boof just below the big guy.

We hiked out bushwacking for a couple hours through devil's club... called it a day, and setting our sights on the Vertigo gorge the next day. After another freezing night in BC, we hiked in and put on... dropping ourselves into commitment. Luckily we had Scott, Steve and AJ on the canyon rim with a huge climbing rope in case of wood.
This is looking into the Vertigo Gorge from the Canyon rim.
Ali running a sweet 10 footer above the entrance to Vertigo.
This is the waterfall that drops you into vertigo gorge. It is a sliding 2o footer that lands in a pocket. Directly after that is a sweet double drop that looks like this.
This drop lands you deep in the gorge and a very cool place.

This place.

Ben and Ali chillin in Vertigo.

This is the view looking downstream.
Its such a cool place.... I had to take a self portrait.

Directly below the Vertigo room... a sketchy little crack drop. Watch your elbows here.
Just after the Sketchy crack drop is a sweet 15 footer.
Cody on the sweet 15 footer.
Just below that 15 footer is....Another sweet 15 footer that leads you out of the gorge.

The vertigo gorge, although only 5 drops is the most committed place I have ever been. It gives a nice definition to the word gorge. I have never felt quite so "trapped" by the earth. After the exit to the gorge, the creek then mellows out for a while untill you come to a big horizon line. We portaged this one, although Cody and AJ ran it later that same week. It is a 40ish footer that lands pretty hard on a rock shelf. Cody was able to boof out past it, while AJ took a hit on the rock. Below that drop is a marginal looking 20footer that folds in on itself. I was on the fence on this one untill Ali and Cody both ran it. It runs better than it looks. Just after that is the confluence falls where dipper hits the Squamish.
Sweet photo of me on the confluence falls.

I left dipper with the plan of coming back and completing the run the next weekend. It was a rough week. Cody and AJ stayed and did the other two sections of the creek while I sat in 8am math class...... I was jonesin. Luckily the weekend came fast. I left the dorms on friday night. While all my friends left to party... I left for the coolest place in the world. Ben met up with me in Bellingham, and even though we heard from Cody that dipper had dropped significantly, we were stoked to drop in again, and get the complete descent of dipper creek.

We arrived at the take-out with a beautiful sunset, and camped.

After another freezing cold night in BC we woke, scrambled down to the creek to make sure it wasnt too low. It looked lower.. probably 2/3 the flow we had the previous weekend. After scouting Big Dipper, I decided it still looked good. I ran Double Dip and Big Dipper.

Double dip is easily one of if not the best drop on the run.
My camera has issues sometimes.

Big dipper look close im scouting on river left.

It was a tad low... I would prefer more water... but when in Rome....
Ben and I then continued down the canyon into the section neither of us had done. This is Ben on Little Dipper, a few rapids after Big Dipper.
Little Dipper in the distance... cool gorge!

We continued down stream where we came upon a sweet rapid dubbed rowdy flatwater by TRL.

My photoshop skills arent very good but i put this sequence of Ben together running rowdy flatwater.

We continued downstream more and ran some very cool rapids.
Like this sweet s-turn slide. Just after this rapid we came upon a very tight rapid with an oldgrowth standing vertical in it. This was the most involved portage I have ever done... we roped the boats up a very steep sketchy hill, traversed and lowered the boats to the pool below. We then climbed down back to the boats needing a rope to avoid slipping into the gorge.

Stout portage!

Me roping down to the river after the stout portage.
We continued down the gorge, running some more cool sliding rapids... stay tuned for a little video soon. We hiked out of the gorge deciding not to run the confluence falls due to low water. It was another amazing weekend... If you get the chance to do this creek, do it because it is the full creeking experience, waterfalls, slides, gnarly gorge, portages, but mostly a really cool place.

My subie killin BC.
BC is dope.

River gypsies sleep in their cars when it is cold outside.
Hoosters (half horse half rooster) love BC?

Photos by Ali Marshal, Steve Arns, Fred, and Ben Hawthorne

Crystal Gorge In HD

2009-09-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while since crystal gorge has been running, the last day we ran the gorge, our buddy Anson came and filmed us. We attached a canon 5d mk2 in an underwater housing to my boat. It worked pretty well, he also hiked in and shot us on some of the other rapids with his red camera. Check it out.

Crystal Gorge HD Experiments from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Gnarquist's "Jonesin" Video Favorites

2009-09-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well now that it is officially "Jonesin" season, I go into a strange and mildly satisfying state where I spend the majority of my time watching kayaking videos on the internet. As good as going kayaking? Not at all..... But im hoping by watching these videos, I will get a slight feeling of what it actually feels like. I find myself perousing through videos I have seen before, even some that I have seen 10 times, watching them over and over to try and bring back that feeling we all love of being on the river, and running big rapids. I can't wait to get back in my boat.

As usual, Demshitz's videos are some of the best out there.

YULE CREEK-HIGH WATER from jared seiler on Vimeo.

I think I have probably watched this video atleast 30 times. Great High Water Yule!!!!

This is a Great vid From Demshitz of some good Cali Creekin.

California Creeking May 08 from jared seiler on Vimeo.

Although playboating isnt nearly as cool as creekin, here is a good vid Demshitz made, its kind of like a music video.

The Pyranha REV @ the Eternity Hole from jared seiler on Vimeo.

Another Sick Demshitz video comin from Evan Garcia... he lays dem treats!

EG's South East Update from jared seiler on Vimeo.

And another EG vid comin straight atcha from dem pristine waters of the PNW. I'll be calling this place my home here in a few weeks.

Little White 2009 from jared seiler on Vimeo.

Who doesnt love carnage? I know I do... check out demshitz taking dem hitz

Demshitz The Movie Carnage Teaser from jared seiler on Vimeo.

This is by far one of my Favorite vids from the time I spent in Chile with demshitz
Upper palguin is the goods!

Kayaking the Upper Palguin Helmet Camera from Evan Garcia on Vimeo.

And yet another great vid from EG and our trip to chile. Rio Puesco, easily one of the best rivers in the world.

Rio Puesco Helmet Cam from Evan Garcia on Vimeo.

Here is some good CO classic creekin 2nd gorge of lime

2nd Gorge of Lime Creek from David Fusilli on Vimeo.

Demshitz love BC!

BC 09 from David Fusilli on Vimeo.

Demshitz way of life kills it! check out a typical day in the life...

A day in the life: DEMSHITZ from Aplin Independent on Vimeo.

There couldnt be a favorite video playlist without Rush Sturges and YGp's vids

Rush and Tyler's New Film, Dream Result is gunna be sick!!! Those guys can make some videos!

Some Palouse Falls Action... World records are cool too.

Carnage at Cherry Bomb!!!

This is easily one of my favorite vids, The Demshitz crew down in chile in 07

I dont tend to watch my own video that much because after editing them, i know everything that happens, but hopefully you like them, here is a link http://www.vimeo.com/user741074/videos

M-wave 2009

2009-09-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

As the season in Colorado winds down... well mainly after Crystal Gorge stops running, I result to working, hanging out with friends, working on my car... things a river gypsy would only do if there isn't any kayaking. But every summer there is one wave that calls me out of my "normalcy" and makes me go whitewater boat riding. This wave is called m-wave. It is one of the only times where I am slightly scared playboating. The speed of the wave combined with the shape makes it one of the most fun playspots around. It was Conor's birthday also so needless to say, we had to do some whitewater boat riding.

We arrived in the evening, and proceeded to do the first ever m-wave night sess using alex's truck to provide some light.

Birthday brown.

I'm pretty sure I ate shit here, but makes for a cool photo.
Conor is really good at browning.

And backblunting... very nice!!

Jonny getting a little m-wave practice in before worlds.
Yeah, he is good at kayaking.
I didnt even know I could do that.
Aerial BROWN!

"That Jonny Meyers is just so dreamy"-a girl at FIbark actually said that haha
Alex Hotze throwin down on his home wave like it aint no thang.
Jakub Nemec our good friend from Czec killin it as usual.

I bought a new whip!
Here is a cool edit I made from our little trip. David Yanez on the camera! Make sure to Download the E-V-A mixtape.

Big thanks to Forge motion pictures for letting us borrow their camera. check their stuff out here http://forgemotionpictures.com

M-wave 2009 from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Sopris Productions GANGSTA Reel

2009-08-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a Lil edit I made of just a bunch of random stuff that I have filmed, wanted to go full "gangsta" on this edit since I don't do it very often. I think it turned out pretty well. Hope you like it.

Sopris Productions GANGSTA Reel from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

CKS Summer Sale and Swap!

2009-08-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

August 7-9th, CKS is having a great sale and swap, get geared up for next season for cheap! My Jefe Grande is there, if anyone needs a red Grande for $500, stop by cks and pick it up. For more info on the sale/swap Check out this link http://www.coloradokayak.com/newsletter/SummerSwap09.html

A Video Guide to Crystal Gorge

2009-07-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

Crystal Gorge is easily on of the best runs in colorado. I thought it deserved some documentation as to what it looks like down in that gorge. It is most definetly one of the coolest places I have ever been. I put together a helmet cam vid of every significant rapid in both gorges. Big thanks to Jonny Meyers for taking us down there. We had a great run, and it should be running for the next week or so, so come get on it before its too late!!!

A Guide to the Crystal Gorge from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Wicked Wed. 3 Removing Wood From Crystal Gorge

2009-07-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

We had no idea today was going to be so long. Sometimes you gotta put some work in before you can run the shit. Today was one of those days. We hiked up to the bottom of the upper gorge just above zute chute. There was a huge log blocking the entrance to the inner gorge. It looked something like this.
Jake paddled to the far left of the log, climbed onto it and i pulled his boat back on a throwrope.
He then attached webbing to the log, walked back across the log, and I roped him back up the eddy.

We first tried to pull the upstream side towards us using come-alongs.

Jake in a bit of a sketchy spot just above Zute.

We couldnt get enough pull on the log to make it move like that. So Jake went back to the log, and re-attached the webbing to the other end. And got the adrenaline of swimming above a log jam with a body-recirculating hole below it, above a 40 footer and the gnarliest gorge in colorado.

We finally moved the log a bit, but it was still blocking the entrance. Fred went in baited swimmer style with a chainsaw and had the pleasure of sitting in a tiny cave chainsawing a partially submerged log for 45 mins.

Once the log finally was cut through, it dropped several inches in the water, and was almost runnable. After we released tension from the come-alongs, the log dropped into a runnable position that looks like this.

It was an epic day, took about 8 hours in total, and we were glad no one got swept into the gorge w/out a kayak. The gates to the Inner are open, Happy stout runnings.

Jake in the cool old mining tunnel.
The lip of Zute Chute.
Millers falls...Jake thinks it might go....
I kind of think so too.
The last rapid of the inner, a very nice hole at this flow.
Looking up the gorge from the takeout eddy.

Wicked Wednesday 2

2009-07-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well our wicked wednesdays have truly been wicked. This wednesday was super fun. We Left C-dale tuesday night to drive up to the north fork of the crystal. We camped in probably one of the most beautiful valleys in colorado, right next to the north fork. We woke, ate cheese mac and beans(its all we brought), did 5 laps on the upper 4 of the north fork which are really classic rapids. The nf gorge had some wood in it, and it was pretty low water (crystal at 500)so we didnt run it, hopefully sometime ill get in there. We then headed to devil's Punchbowls or the south fork of the crystal. We did 3 laps on it, then headed to glenwood where we met a bunch of friends and rafted shoshone. It was awesome. Here is a little video I put together from our adventures.

Wicked Wednesday 2 from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Wicked Wednesday! A day of fun.

2009-07-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well lately I have been working a bunch teaching kayaking at crms to a mix of inner city kids, and kids from Andover academy. It has been really fun to teach people to do what I love. On my day off (Wednesday) Jake and I have been charging to do as much as we can in one day. This is a video from our first Wicked Wednesday. We skied on independence, cliff jumped on the way down, kayaked slaughterhouse, then took our mini-me down Shoshone at 8,500 cfs to Jazz in the park at 2 rivers park in glenwood. It has become somewhat of a ritual. Anyways, here is a little video from the day, it was one to remember.

Wicked Wednesday from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Upper Death Video

2009-06-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

We ran upper death yesterday, here is a little video from it. Check back for photos

Upper Death from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Teva Mountain Games/US Team Trials

2009-06-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well the past couple weeks have been really fun, there are a lot of boaters in CO so it has been good to meet new people, and paddle with new homies. Team Trials were a good time, being so close to my home, and Teva is a really fun event. I compiled a little video from both of these events. Hope you like it.

Teva Mtn. Games/Freestyle Team Trials 09 from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Yule Creek: Always Some Carnage

2009-06-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

I woke up early, knowing that I was going to run some big stuff. The anticipation of the day is enough to make one not sleep. While still laying in bed, I called Nic to make sure that he and Rush were coming. I then called Anson, who owns motion forge, a production company out of the valley. Check some of their other videos out here-Motion Forge He wanted to come film with his super fancy red camera. I met up with Anson, and scouted. It was a medium-high level, great for ball check and wall check. However, not the ideal level for Oriental Massage. Oriental was it's usual self, although all the water at the bottom was pushing into the ledge just to the left of the last drop. This not only made getting pushed into the ledge an issue, but also formed a very strong eddy on river left just below oriental. Despite this It still goes you just have to be on it. Nic, Rush, Brian, Sam, Bradley, and Jacob rolled in fashionably late in true kayaker style. They Scouted, and decided it looked good to go. We geared up, and hiked to the put-in.

All photos shot by Anders Carlson Check out his website here Anders Carlson Photography.

Some of the Upper rapids before the stout four.

As Sam pointed out on our hike up in true kiwi fashion "fuck mate its crazy we feel so good doing this shit when we could just sit at home and drink beer". Which in my mind translates to the fact that we feel so alive when we are dropping into something that could end our lives. This feeling that we feel when we are about to drop in is one of the best feelings in the world. That feeling when you are uncertain about what will happen. This is what drives me. I search for this feeling. It is certainly one of the reasons I kayak, I have never felt it as strongly in any other sport.

We dropped into the upper drops. At this level, the upper drops have some very sticky holes, so be forewarned, hit your boof.

Gearing up.

Rush checkin out Wall Check.

We decided we needed to space out due to the fact that there are very few eddies in the upper section. Brian and I dropped in quite a bit later than the rest. On one of the first rapids, I did a half-ass boof, and got surfed in a small hole, however was able to get out easily. Little did I Know that just down stream, shit had hit the fan.
New Zealander Sam Sutton out there gettin er done on one of the upper drops.
Rush Sturges on a fun upper slide.

Jacob on one of the upper drops.

Then it went down. Nic missed his boof and got very beatdown in a gnarly hole in a double drop.
It was a serious swim, a lot of body recirculation, and not much time to get air.
Just after he pulled his skirt.
After being body circed for a while... he grabbed the railroad rail in the drop.
Rush utilizing his excellent rope skills, getting nic out before a bouncy slide that would have hurt.
A very telling facial expression of the experience.
When Brian and I rolled through Nic was safe on the bank, and we proceeded to chase his boat down. We were unable to rescue it before it ran the first couple big drops, wall check, but it pinned just above oriental massage, and was only a little bit dented.

We then arrived at the big drops.

Sam Sutton ran first, this guy is not afraid to run anything first.
Rush on ball check.(we all ran the far right line)
Rush entering wall check.
Another crazy kiwi, Bradley entering wall check.
Bradley hitting the wall, creating what made a cool photo, lots of froth.
The far right line is really good, it set me up perfectly for wall check.
Entering wall Check.
I had a really fun line, getting the classic wall ride.
Brian Kirk entering wall check.
We then got to the Big boy. We scouted, and as always it looked out of control, but good.

Here is a perspective of it that shows just how long and tall this beast really is.

Sam gave er first as usual, this guy is crazy.
Immersed in speed and frothy white brine.
Sam on the last drop cleaning it up.
Rush entering Oriental.
Rush got pushed onto the rock shelf at the bottom of oriental, where I would later have some carnage.

Here is Bradley about to run the last drop, if you look closely, you can see rush running it backwards down river left channel.

Jacob had a sick line, cleaning it up nicely, i guess that is what they do in czech.

Brian "brine" Kirk entering the huge frothing stout.
Brian had a similar line to rush, drying out on the rocks, then getting pushed down backwards.

I entered in a good place, and had a great line down oriental.

I landed a bit on my edge.. and was rolling up until i was pushed into the same ledge that rush and brian had dried out on. It flipped me, and...

I went off the last drop upside down.

But I pulled a roll out of my ass mid-waterfall.

I hit the big flake upright, and stoked to be upright, because it would have been bad had i not been.
I landed flat off the waterfall, and was stoked to be upright and not injured.

Me, Rush, Brian and Bradley discussing exactly what just went down.

I was thankful to the river gods to let me pass safely on another day of shit running.

We paddled down.

At the takeout.

Here is a little helmet cam footage.
sorry about the bad quality, I exported it wrong.

Yule Creek POV from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Clavey River

2009-06-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

The Clavey brought our California tour to an end. This was also my first real overnighter. We met up with Evan Garcia, Michael Shields, Max Blackburn, and Charlie Center. We were surfed out for a few days while levels were raging, and it didnt look like anything was going to come down, so we headed to the Clavey which had a good level, and is a very fun creek with cool rapids in little mini gorges. The First day, we put on around 3 I believe, and paddled the upper section. We then camped in a very cool place right next to a sweet rapid. Being on an overnighter is really cool, something about the whole fact that you carry everything you need in your boat is really cool when you arrive at camp, take out your things, and cook a delicious meal, and then fall asleep under California stars. This is what kayaking originated as, using kayaks as transportation, so doing this gives you a feeling of the roots of what we do. We had a delicious meal of mac and cheese, and cheddar wursts, which could be one of the most tasty things after a long day of paddling.
Shortly after arriving at our lovely campsite on day one.
A very nice Crew of Jefe's.
River gypsies put gear all over the place.
The Crew after stuffing ourselves with cheese mac, and cheddar wursts.

The next day we woke up, ate plenty of instant oatmeal to keep ourselves running, and then ran the sweet rapid right by our campground.

Charlie Running our campground rapid.

I thought this was a real cool photo.
We portaged some very nasty holes.
EG Filmin on a crazy rapid on the lower section.
Max running the same rapid.

EG throwing up the brown like it aint no thang.

He than ran the brown like it aint no thang.
Charlie, quite excited to run a sweet rapid.
Charlie running said sweet rapid.
Miguel Shields always makes big drops look so easy.

Charlie stoked to almost be at the confluence with the Toulomne.
Evan decided to Give er on this one, which ended up in a hard piton, and a near surf of a bad hole. We then met up with the toulomne river, and paddled I think 10 miles of huge, fun wavetrains.
On day 2, I got stuck in a gnarly eddy/hole and took a nice swim, one I deserved after blowing a couple lines and getting away with it.

Evan cookin up some good old dirt taters. delicious.

Overall, the day was a success, everyone made it down alive, and we made killer time. I have been in colorado for a few weeks now, so check back soon for good posts, such as yule, which we did today and it was awesome

South Branch of the Feather

2009-05-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

Well I would have to say that the South Branch of the Feather is now one of my favorite runs, not because of how gnarly it is, or how hard the drops are, but simply because it is incredibly fun. This style whitewater is so cool because it is fairly relaxed. You drop a very fun, clean waterfall into a pool, and do it again... and again. While there are consequences on this run, and it should not be taken lightly (class5 is still class5). It could be one of the most fun river running runs out there. After paddling Kimshew, we cruised over to the takeout of the South Branch with Demshitz. We packed as many people in the van as we could and went for a good day on the river.

Its always fun paddling with a big crew taking your time.(although i still think jared should route the speeder down some big stuff.

The crystal clear waters of the S.B of the Feather.

The creek starts out with less clean waterfalls, and more slide-type rapids with fun boofs and some cruisey boogey water.

Fusilli in one of the top rapids.

The crew in some of the top rapids, this creek is beautiful!

It then drops signifigantly in gradient all of the sudden when you come to a triple tiered drop that you boof far right, run left, then center left. We had a crew of 10 people, so we moved pretty slow which gave us plenty of time to take in the beauty of the run. Then the waterfalls start, perfect 20 footer, another perfect 20 footer... and so on.

I botched the line at the first 20 footer by getting surfed by a tiny hole to the the far left side. It ended up being fine as i just bounced down.

Jake went for the plug, but got kicked a little forward and did a bit of a pitch-pole.
Jared boofing a sweet slide to 20 footer directly below another perfect 20 footer.

Jake on the same drop.
The Crew kicking it.
Jared and I on a fun in-between rapid.

Me on double drop, good stuff.

This is what Kayaking is about for me, going out in the woods, basking in the sun with good friends, and navigating a river successfully. Fun stuff.
Dave on a killer drop.
Shannon Carroll stoked to be on the river.
Jared running another sweet 20 footer.
California is a beautiful place with great whitewater, clean rapids, and plenty of gradient.
This is the first portage of the run, a 100ish footer with a huge boof flake. It goes... not.

South Branch will go down in the books as an amazing creek.

Here is a little video I made.

South Branch of the Feather Creekin from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Go kayaking. Its fun.

South Branch of the Feather Video

2009-05-21T17:44:00.001-07:00

Here is a sweet little video from the south branch of the feather. Check back soon for a trip report and photos.

South Branch of the Feather Creekin from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Boof Dems

Kimshew Creek: California Lovin

2009-05-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well it is no secret that Kimshew creek is one of the best creeks around, with clean drops everywhere and perfect waterfalls it is truly one of the best runs in the country. Jake and I left Carbondale early Sunday morning and drove the whole day, where we met up with Demshitz in Reno. We woke early and headed out to meet up with Shannon Carroll to go route it. We Put on late at around 3. The water was low, but this creek is so quality it really doesnt matter, it is still super fun. It is probably the most quality creek that I have ever paddled, two 40footers, tons of perfect waterfalls and slides, a great run fa sho.

At the put-in in the Demshitz van.

We had a sweet crew, Me, Jake, Shannon Carrol, Jared Seiler, Dave Fusilli, Chris Korbulic, Brian Kirk, and Jeremy Laucks.

Chris dropping in on Kimshew falls, a sweet bouncy 40ish footer.

Jared on Kimshew falls bouncin down the brown.

Fusilli went a bit too far right...

And boofed it huge but he was fine so it was all good.

Fusilli looking at triple drop, the stoutest of the Run.

Jared and Chris decided to Give 'er.
Jared launched a boof landing on a rock shelf, and then proceeded to pan am off the bottom drop.

The bottom hole of the stout.

Korbulic came in hot, caughta flake wrong... and
Pitoned incredibly hard. Luckily he and his boat were ok although his kayak does have a huge dent in it now.

He then had the backwards boof through the bottom hole.

The next best rapid of the run is frenchman's Curve, a sweet sliding 40ish footer.
Jared routing them stouts brrrrroooowwwwnnnn.

Chris givin 'er.

Brian Kirk lining it up very nicely.

Jeremy Laucks runnin it with style

All photos by Jeremy Laucks

Top 5 Reasons to come to Paddle Fest

2009-05-19T17:43:00.001-07:00

Double click it to view it bigger.

Come to Paddle Fest!!!! It will be a good time for sure.

Barrel Springs Binge

2009-05-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Well the past two days Barrel has been at the hardest level you can run it at in my opinion. From 5,500 to at least 6,000 cfs, it is not only huge waves, but huge breaking waves that have no problem pushing you around. Yesterday Jake and I ran putting in at the bottom of upper death, paddling life-after death, barrel and shoshone. Life-after death was pretty technical at 5,500, but we were able to scout and everything went well. Because we had run barrel the previous day, we opted not to scout barrel, even though we had the suspicion that it was much higher because when we heard the dam release sirens as we hiked by. We dropped in. Immediately after the first couple waves I knew it was a different beast. I was pushed left savagely hard and had to brace very hard to avoid flipping. It was survival boating time. I turned on CHARGE mode, and from there on only had slight troubles such as getting turned around. Jake had also a very interesting run down with it being so pushy. We were stoked to make it down. We then went to the 5 point filmfest where our film "Life of a Non-collegiate: Living the dream" premiered. We met Tyler Bradt and Brad Ludden there. We set the plan to rally in the morning and get another run down barrel. It was around 6,000 cfs today and VERY pushy. Everyone got a little pushed around including Brad and Tyler, but we made it to the bottom safely. We were stoked. Another great day on the river and certainly not to be forgotten. It was a great couple days and it was great to paddle with Tyler and Brad, they are super cool dudes. Props to Rush's and Tyler's new film Africa Revolutions Tour, its really good and I suggest you check it out. Well anyway here are some photos from our first day of barrel running.

If you double click the photos, you can see just how much brine is around.Jake and I dropping into the Brine that is Life After Death.
Thats my head amidst some quite large holes in life after death.
The entrance to barrel, I was already pushed left.
Me pulling some very entertaining bracing techniques.

Running Barrel Backwards usually isn't ideal, but when in rome....
I turned around so that is good.
Jake about to crest another huge wave.
And jake cresting.
Sick photo of me running into the crux where avoiding the hole on river left is the main concern.
Jake and I running down, my that is some briney water!!!

And again, good stuff, I love that rapid, so much fun!
Jake running past a quite large hole at the bottom of barrel.
Yes we like BROWN.
Jake is killer at wavewheeling the jefe.
The brine from the drive.

The last few days have been a blast, I think we ran barrel 4 times in 5 days. It was good times for sure. Here is a lil helmet cam video I made of it at 4,000cfs (much easier level)

Barrel Springs/Shoshone 4000cfs from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

2009 CKS Paddlefest and BV Pro Rodeo... The Place To Be

2009-05-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Well its coming up, one of the sweetest kayaking festivals ever. Where? Buena Vista, Colorado When? May 22nd-25th CKS will be hosting this great event and will have great deals on some of my favorite kayaking equipment to kick off the whitewater boat riding season.
"Join a pro kayaker for a freestyle clinic, take a guided tour on the river, participate in a ‘how to’ clinic, show off your skills in a fun kayak competition in the new river park or relax and watch live music and videos. The entire weekend will also promote awareness and raise funds for American Whitewater, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to conserving and restoring America’s whitewater resources."-http://ckspaddlefest.com/

It will be a really good time. See you there!!

2009 CKS Paddlefest and BV Pro Rodeo from on Vimeo.

Barrel Springs/Shoshone POV Cam

2009-05-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a little helmet cam video of Barrel Springs and Shoshone at 4000cfs. Shot with GoPro helmet cam. Its a good level, ill let the video speak for itself. Check it out.

Barrel Springs/Shoshone 4000cfs from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Good times

The Crystal River Gnarrows... The most extreme thing ever done

2009-05-05T22:57:00.001-07:00

Well here is a little video I put together after a chill run down the Narrows with the CRMS crew. It is shot with a GoPro helmet cam. It kind of goes without saying but I was being 100% sarcastic in the video. Its not super gnarly but still fun indeed. Check back soon, I will have a barrel springs POV.

One of my favourite new pieces of gear is my at2 superlight, its light, powerfull and feels great. Available online at CKS AT2 Superlight

Crystal River Gnarrows from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

He then married Jessica Alba and was pronounced the most extreme man ever to live....ever. It was a breakthrough for man kind.

Vallecito Creek: 1 Mile of BROWN

2009-05-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well I ran Vallecito the other day right after Pandora's box. Vallecito is truly the best mile of kayaking in CO that I have paddled, the quality of the rapids and the steepness of this creek make it one for the record books. Big thanks to Ben for showing us down. It was a good time. It starts out with entrance falls which is a tricky late boof. Directly after this is trash can which is like it sounds, a jumble of rocks with a couple holes afterwards. It then continues with some of the best rapids in CO. The hardest, in my opinion is "paddle,bitch" It is a tricky s-turn move with weird angle, diagonal holes at the bottom. The first day we lapped it twice at about 300cfs. This was a good chill level geting used to the lines and such. The next day we rallied early and hiked in to find it at a much higher flow. We ran entrance falls, and it was easy to see that it had come up. The boil was huge, and pushy. Jake and I looked at each other, it was clear that it was game-time. We had to be on our shit. I dropped into trash can, and was submerged through most of the rapid till the bottom where I boofed that last couple holes at the last minute. There were no eddies. We stopped only above paddle,bitch to gather ourselves for a tricky move. Everything went fine and we made it out alive, but it was clear we didnt want to go for another lap after a very intimadating run. The level was 450cfs. I love this creek and will be getting on it as much as possible. We werent able to shoot footage because we were too scared, and I left the camera on the first day so it died. But here is a little video of the creek from some of the durango crew killin it.

I just got a helmet camera and will be gettin in there with it soon. Happy brown running.

Pandora's Box: THE REAL DEAL

2009-04-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

Jake and I have been talking about this run for quite a while. It always inspires a bit of fear in me everytime I hear the name. This was nothing compared to the amount of fear I had getting in my boat at the put-in, about to drop into one of the deepest gorges and probably the gnarliest run in CO. It isn't really a recommended run unless you really know what you are getting into. You CANNOT swim. There is no getting out. This is the real deal, committing class 5. It didnt help that there are signs hiking in that say "NO Trespassing, Violators will be shot, and Survivors will be shot again". We had awesome guides, big thanks to Ben and Nate for leading us down. They were awesome. From what I hear, most people stop running the box at 600cfs. Our level was 750cfs. Quite a juicy level for our first time, and the second day in our creek boats for the season. We were scared. Luckily everything went as planned, no swims, each of us flipped once. My favorite rapid was swollen member, a slide with a huge hole/boily eddy at the bottom. If you are up to this run, do it, some of the best whitewater in CO, and the coolest gorge I have ever been in. I love this run and it was an epic day.

Looking into the gorge, holy shit.

We made it past the sketchy part of the hike past the no-bullshit property owners.
Jake looking into the ominous gorge.
Us at the put-in, a very scary moment.
The put-in rapid has only been run 3 times, very stout.
Nate chillin in the gorge.

I didnt really get many photos because you cant really get out, but not only is this the hardest and most committing run in CO, but also one of the best. It was so much fun. Some of the best whitewater in CO.

Jake very stoked to be done and alive.

That is my hardcore face. I was stoked to be at the bottom and safe.

We then went and lapped vallecito at about 300cfs. Probably one of the best days of paddling of my life. SOOO good.

My toenail fell off, too much hiking!!(after pandoras, and 2 laps of vallecito)

Escalante

2009-04-27T23:02:00.001-07:00

Its that time of year... the time of year when good kayaking is about to come and i'm so excited, I cant wait. I drive the 2.5 hours from Carbondale to run Escalante, the only show close out of town that isn't doing loops over and over again in some playhole. Its that time of year where people are getting stoked for good times to be had over the next couple months of summer boating. Jake and I left late-ish from c-dale around 10. We arrived at Esca to find it low/medium (I would say more low than medium).It felt soooo good to get back in the Grande, I love how that boat performs. To get back in the groove of things, we decided to run everything blind, only going by our memory of the rapids from last year. We took much more extensive media last year... Check it out here. Escalante Creek '08. We started with a top to bottom charge, no scouting, no bullshit. Just gettin in the groove again. Everything went well although both Jake and I werent pleased with our lines at 57' Chevy. We ran the falls blind, Jake having a great line, and me a decent. We then went for another run of just the gorge. It seemed a bit lower but still fun. This creek is much more worth it with more water. I strongly recommend going in there when it is nice and padded out, It is just more fun (less kayak abuse too).

This was the first run with the Green Jacket. Love how comfortable it is. Check it out here Green Jacket

Thanks to Kent Perillo for the photos.

Jake gettin nice and deep in 57' Chevy with me looking on.

Jake and I afterwards.

Jake Sakson himself with another monster boof off this thing.

My line was ok, not the best line I have had here, but also not the worst.

We rallied back to C=dale while Jake passed out in the passenger seat from skiing sopris, then going to Zion I at the belly up in Aspen the previous day. Today we chilled, tomorrow we CHARGE there is brown to be run!!!!! Either headin to durango for a few days vallecito, pandoras box, or hitting up barrel springs. Make sure to check out the DEMSHITZ movie when they roll through CO. I hear it is a masterpiece. See you on the river.

Props to T-Bradt

2009-04-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

YOYO im sure most of you have heard by now that Tyler Bradt destroyed the World Record by running 186ft. Palouse falls in Washington. I would just like to thank Tyler for pushing the sport. I have seen quite a few posts on the buzz and boatertalk hating on this. I would just like to say that if you are sitting in a kayak, its kayaking, whether its a park and huck, a super gnarly expedition, or play boating. We all love kayaking. So lets support what everyone is doing to push the sport whether its Tyler running insanely big waterfalls, or EJ coming up with some ridiculous new trick. Nice work Tyler. A few picks of the drop.

Runnin the Brine ain't no crime.

Demshitz Movie Teaser/Pleaser 2

2009-04-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

Well Folks, here is yet another teaser for the DEMSHITZ Movie. The Hilarity and kayaking continues.

Demshitz teaser/pleaser #2 from jared seiler on Vimeo.

Demshitz!!

Demshitz Movie Teaser Pleaser #1

2009-04-08T15:32:00.001-07:00

Well while I have been hitting up the wave in glenwood a lot, DEMSHITZ have been in Ashville NC hard at work on making the most hilarious and extreme kayak video of all time.... The DEMSHITZ movie. It will include a collaboration of footage from all over the world from some of the industries best athletes. With locations like Chile/Argentina, Colorado, California, Oregon/Washington, and many more it will truly be one of the best kayak videos ever. But enough ranting. Check out teaser number one.

Demshitz teaser #1 from jared seiler on Vimeo.

And make sure to stay tuned for teaser/pleaser number 2.

DEMSHITZ!

Lazy Tuesday with Fred Norquist

2009-04-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

Well today I went down to the playpark in glenwood, and it was a fun session. Here is a little video I made from the day. The biscuit is a sick playboat, im stoked on it for sure.

Lazy Tuesday With Fred Norquist from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Glenwood Whitewater Park in April

2009-04-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

Well recently I have pretty much just been working with little time to paddle. Today was the first sunny/nice day we have had in a while so I figured I would go for a short paddle down at the whitewater park. Although it was still cold, it proved to turn into a fun session, and I officially cannot wait for it to get warmer and the rivers to start going. Here are some photos from the day by Ryan Leto, who killed it. Cant wait for some creekin. Stay tuned for some good stuff.

Bowstall to warm things up a little bit.

The little side in G-wood is the best right now, with spins and roundhouses/blunts being possible.
Cartwheeling the Biscuit, such a fun boat.
A sick photo from ryan of me roundhousing.

Crazy photo

Gettin a lil play in the main feature

Demshitz is happy to on the rio.

Im stoked to be part of the CKS squad this year!! Check out CKS www.coloradokayak.com
Also I must say my new smith sunglasses are quite sexy.

G-Wood Paddling With the Biscuit

2009-03-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well after my Westwater trip, I was pretty fired up to get out there and paddle so me and sage went for a good day on Lower Death/Barrel Springs/Shoshone. It was fun even though the water is very low this time of year. I just got my biscuit 55, and have been paddling it a little, its a great boat. Here are some photos from recent kayaking endeavors.

Me and Sage in lower death at low water.

Me gettin a little vertical action in barrel springs.
Bowstalls.

Me boofin a little hole.

Sage

SHOUT out to Demshitz, BROWN!
Wavewheel

Me and Sage gettin some double surf in Shoshone.
Yes Might be able to model.

I took the Biscuit to the g wood wave at about 1700cfs on a freezing cold day. Spins, roundhouses and loops were possible in the small feature, the large one is a ledge hole right now.

Roundhouse

Loop.
The Sky illuminated.

My buddy Austin chillin at Zapata Falls in southern CO.