BC in Review..

Last summer, Bryan Kirk, Todd Baker, and I took a ride in the Wave Sport van up to British Columbia for some paddling action.

First stop was Skookumchuck, BC where we met up with Kelsey Thompson and the Lussin sisters.

Kelsey Thompson (Photo by: Kim Russell)

Kim Russell (Photo by: Bryan Kirk)

Bryan Kirk cleanin' it up in a rainbow (Photo by: Kim Russell)

Todd Baker with a helix in the Fuse 48 (Photo by: Kim Russell)

After five or six days at Skook with perfect levels, we made our way to Squamish where we hit up the Cheakamus, Callaghan and a few other local rivers.

The crew on the Callaghan (Photo by: Kim Russell)

Bryan Kirk on the put-in falls on the Cheakamus (Photo by: Kim Russell)

Good luck to everyone at Worlds! Kick some arse!

See you on the river!

Kim Russell

Redsides

For years, river levels on the Mckenzie River have stayed medium-high throughout summer and various features haven't come in to their full potential. This year, however, water is dropping fast and some new play features are in.

Dave Porter and Todd Baker (Photo by: Kim Russell)

Home of the notorious "Redsides Rodeo" from years ago, Redsides is back!

It's a medium sized, wave - hole located on the McKenzie River in Oregon. Fast and dynamic, you can do both wave and hole moves.

A couple weeks ago a group of us from Eugene, Oregon made the half hour drive to one of the best summer playspots in Oregon. Check out the photos.

The crew in the eddy (Photo by: Todd Baker)

Kim cartwheeling at Redsides in her Project 45 (Photo by: Todd Baker)

Quinn Connell looping the Fuse 48 (Photo by: Kim Russell)

Todd Baker playin' around (Photo by: Kim Russell)

Althea Sullivan and I chillin in the eddy (Photo by: Todd Baker)

This weekend from August 28-30, 2009 is the Redsides Rodeo. Registration begins at 10:00 am on Saturday, with the competition beginning at 11:00 am. The event is being coordinated by Dave Villalobos of the University of Oregon Outdoor Program in conjunction with Worldkayak and the City of Eugene.

Below is a summary of the event from their site:

"Gone missing for many years, we are bringing back the Redsides Rodeo. Located at the Redsides Hole on the McKenzie River (2 miles east of the town of Blue River) the Redsides Rodeo will be an open and friendly kayaking competition. Camping will be available Friday evening through Sunday afternoon (at Bittersweet Campground) $20/car.

Registration will begin at 10:00 am Saturday (The competition begins by 11:00 am)

Afterward there will be a spaghetti dinner with a prize give away (everyone who participates...judges, timekeepers as well as participants could win!!)

For more information, contact Dave Villalobos (dvillalo@uoregon.edu) "

Website: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=132688688400&ref=mf

Hope to see you out there this weekend! Let's bring back the Redsides Rodeo!

Kim Russell

How To: The Blunt

The Blunt:

It's a simple move, but one that requires some good knowledge of your edges.

Here's how its done:

1. Find yourself a steep wave (the steeper the better), preferably one with a little bit of a pile on it to keep it sticky.

2. Surf out onto the wave and give yourself some time to get comfortable on the wave.

3. Once your comfortable, surf your way to the top of the pile (spinning to the top works well), and you're ready to begin the move.

4. To throw a right blunt you will want to take a nice vertical stroke on your left side while taking one big bounce on your left edge (think about kicking your feet down on the left edge) with your boat facing about 10 o' clock (if 12 is straight upstream).

5. Mid bounce, switch edges and throw in a back stroke on your right side while maintaining head position upstream. The faster you switch your edges, the bigger your blunt will be.

6. Once your stern lifts from the water, and comes around, you will end up facing downstream (with head position maintained upstream).

Put in a backstroke on the left side of your boat to set the boat down and stay on the wave.

It's that simple! The harder you kick your feet and the faster your switch your edges, the bigger you will go!



Hope to see you on the river!

Kim Russell

(All photos Copyright Seth Swallen)

Need a Mental Boost?

Whitewater kayaking is a mind sport. As a paddler you must be confident in your abilities and able to focus your mind, letting everything else fade away but the drop.

Here's a few tips for those who need a little mental boost:

1. When your on the river, know your abilities. No matter how gnarly a rapid looks, if it is in your ability range and the line is good to go, remind yourself that. Remind yourself you CAN run this rapid, it just looks gnarly. Don't let your head get the best of you.

2. Any kind of negative self-talk, anxiety and emotions hurt your focus. If you have low confidence, you can't help but focus on all of the negative things rather than on things that will enable you to paddle well. Taking a 180, Positive talk gets you relaxed and energized before a drop or rapid. Don't say "There is no way I am going to run this rapid today." Say, "I'm going to try my hardest today and paddle the best I know how." If you run the drop, Sweet. If not, you didn't beat yourself up for portaging. Sometimes the better part of valor is taking the dry line (just make sure to keep a positive outlook).

3. When scouting a rapid, once you see the line, visualize yourself in the rapid. Visualize where you are, the strokes you will be taking, and finally, you greasing the line. Visualize both the process as well as the the outcome. Try not to worry about things you have no control over, and stick to those you do. The more different rapids you experience, the more you realize how similar they are. Use past experience to predict what will happen in a rapid.

4. Remember: You shouldn't focus on the past because its out of your control and you can't do anything to change it. Sometimes a bad experience is one that is hard to come back from. Just remember the past is the past and anything and everything can change.

5. Finally, while kayaking is a mental sport there are some days where you may just say "Screw it" and give it a try. Follow the above steps, make sure you have safety set and give er'!


If anyone has any other tips or hints to break through the mental block that sometimes occurs in kayaking, feel free to post back! It's always great to hear new ideas!

See you on the river!

Kim Russell

Lava Island Falls 2160cfs Headcam

So Christina and I did a good old Lava Island Falls the other day and got some headcam footage at 2160cfs. Check out the Video below to see some good fun Class 5 big water in the Bend Oregon Area! Enjoy!

Rogue River Trip- Day 2 and 3

Day 2 and 3 of our Rogue River Trip

Leinman/Grandma's and our first day on the Rogue---------------------------------


The next morning we woke up early and headed into Medford for a bit of a search. We needed some sponges and duct tape. A quick visit to Lowes solved that issue and we headed back to Leinman for a few hours of playtime.

Pretty awesome spot

The always graceful...getting in

Josh playing around...

Me establishing that my body is out of shape...darn that sick month I had.

After thoroughly wearing ourselves out on the water, we drove to Eagle Point where Josh's grandmother lives. She is such a sweet person and we wasted no time in getting caught up. She has a nice chunk of property with a GREAT pool...he he he this meant lots of cannonballing off the diving board later on. While Josh explained how the kayaking has been for us, I set out our gear to dry and smelled all the roses. Talk about bringing back memories of Texas! We used to have about 30 rose bushes next to our old house too. Anyways between the paddling, the diving board, the visiting, and pizza; we had an awesome afternoon in Eagle Point.

The rest of the family arrived at 9 ish in the evening after a full day's work in Bend. They were pooped from the long drive. Some discussion later, we headed off to bed and tried to catch some zzz's. This wasn't tough and I settled in to my bed snug as a bug in a rug.

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Our trip leader, Josh, requested that everyone be up around 7:30 to get the day going early. A few coffee pots later, we were on the road with a 1.5 hour drive to get to the put-in. We arrived around ten at the Galice Ranger station where we picked up permits and organized our shuttle service.

We unloaded all of our gear from our truck and Tyler's and proceeded to pack our paraphanalia. Steve used an inflatable kayak while Josh and I paddled in our spud boats. Our gear boat was captained by Josh's mom, Debbie. She was actually one of the first women to row rafts on the grand canyon. She's a pretty impressive river rat! :) Tyler and Kellie captained what I would like to call the "Green Bean Machine". As Tyler would say, "It's cute in a masculine sort of way". Ha ha ha!!!

(Below) Our multiday crew... L to R: Tyler, Kellie, Steve, Josh, Debbie

Our trusty gear boat captain- Debbie Mckeown

Josh and I in awe of Josh's personal "table"... AKA Overthruster

The famous Rainee Falls-twas a fine line at this flow...no thank you

Behold! Our first campsite!

We all arrived at our first available campsite around 3 ish and we took it! There are a few primo sites on day 1 and we got one. It had a nice open beach area with flat camping available. This site just happened to be just across the river from Whiskey Creek cabin so that night Josh and I took a quick hike up to see it. Pretty cool! Those first settlers of the area were nuts. Talk about in the middle of no-where. wow.

Back on track, Josh and I were on cook duty for the night and boy did we cook up one mean meal! Spaghetti with marinara sauce and basil....WITH garlic bread! It pretty much kicked butt. Our only mistake was that we cooked TOO MUCH. Can you believe that? I think I ate the most out of everyone. How wrong is that?! Sun set around nine but I didnt go to sleep until I had spent a sufficient amount of time enjoying the stars. Beautiful! If only I had my telescope...

Check back soon for more pictures of the camp and our second day on the river....

This is Christina, over and out....

Rogue River Trip- Day 1

Rogue River Trip- Day 1

Leinman Playspot---------------------------------------------------------------------


This year, instead of our annual Wenatchee trip, we decided to take a multiday raft trip down the wild and scenic Rogue River. Everything just came together perfectly: good group, good weather, and available permits! wow. Josh was declared trip leader and he promptly organized everything. Having finished the trip, I can say that he impressively didn't forget anything!

Here are pics from the first day of our mini vacation :D. We drove to Leinman playspot near Gold Hill- Where Josh went whitewater kayaking for the first time as a kid. Pretty cool to go back there with him. It's about an hour from Galice where we would put on the river for our multi-day. Anyways, enjoy the pics and stay tuned for pics from our grand adventure on the Rogue River!

Below- Me likey the Biscuit :D


Below- Trying to stay in the hole...twas very flushy


Below- Holy poo!


Below- out humble abode...it's a bit cozy but it's home


I think Josh is happy!


Josh enjoying Leinman and not being a gaper like me


Did I mention that Annies Mac n' Cheese tastes amazing while camping? U should try it!


Hope everyone is getting on the rivers and remembering why they paddle- because it's FUN!!! :) Don't let that fact get away! Stay humble and paddle for yourself!

Hasta Pasta,

Christina Russell
Bend,OR