Cody Payne Demshitz Made Episode 1

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

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

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

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.

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

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