Royal Gorge, California

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!

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

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.