Coming up this weekend is the first stop of the Send It, Whitewater Racing Series! Don’t miss out on a good time. Saturday is race day, followed by live music with SONIC PARADIGM, awards, beer specials and good times at The Marshalls in The Forks, Maine. Race day is followed by the infamous HUCKFEST on Sunday. Be there. Click the photo below for more info
Snapped this photo during a custom whitewater kayaking clinic at Canada Falls. Canada Falls is a great class IV run here in Maine and offers up a couple different styles of rapid all in one short easy to lap run. This rapid is called “Cabin Rapid”
We spent the morning whitewater kayaking at “Mitochondria,” one of the biggest waves in the state of Maine and the evening winding down at “Rumor Has It.” Mitochondria wave requires really high flows and comes in river left down stream of the infamous “Madison” wave. This video was shot at about 35k CFS dropping to about 33k. We think the wave might be more ideal at levels closer to 40k. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to find out over the next couple seasons. The end of the video was a fun evening session after we were all to tired to continue the big wave surfing and is the “Rumor Has It” wave on the Sandy River. Whitewater kayaking, especially playboating, is a blast in Maine.
Paddlers:
Chuck Mathieu
Mitch Noddin
Zack DiSilvestro
Alex Nelson
Chris Hull
Taylor Walker
Music by Archnemisis
Paul Friedman, local video boater for CrabApple Whitewater in The Forks, Maine has been creating a series of videos dubbed “The Forks.” This is the 4th installment in his series of small edits and provides an entertaining look into the life of a video boater. Paul spends his days shooting rafts on the Kennebec and Dead river, and his nights pouring drinks for the poor souls that spent the day swimming. When he’s lucky enough to have some time off he get’s to go boating. If you run into Paul on the river chances are you might end up in one of his films or be asked to hold a camera. Paul has some great new edits coming out, look him up on youtube: pfried89
It’s been raining for a couple days now and there doesn’t seem to be an end in the forecast. Send It, Whitewater is running an advanced whitewater kayaking clinic this weekend and with the weather like this you’ll get to enjoy whitewater kayak instruction on some of Maine’s finest creeks.
This course is for the advanced whitewater kayaker who wants to improve their overall creeking abilities. Practice the most up to date dynamic techniques while running slides, boofing, and catching all the eddies! We will also focus on river reading, scouting in and out of the boat, and risk management considerations. Participants must have class IV experience prior to taking this course. This is a 2 day course.
Visit www.senditwhitewater.com for more info and booking. There’s only one more advanced course in August and still a few spots available for this weekend. If you’re in the New England area don’t miss out.
“Let’s all make it known that Maine boaters not only have the skills to send, but also the skills to save”
Whitewater kayaking is a lot of fun, sometimes too much fun, and sometimes we all get lost in the moment and forget the basics, the basics that keep us alive. We’re all guilty of it, we’ve all been there. You put on your favorite creek, your whole crew has run it multiple times and you get casual about setting safety. While this might work for your crew, and you might all have the swiftwater rescue knowledge to make quick life saving decisions, this is not a good example to be setting for younger generations. There are a lot of younger paddlers entering the sport and a lot of the videos on the web show only the good side of paddling. Often times to get that one shot of someone running a clean drop there were many shots of carnage that you don’t see. I’ve personally seen a lot of videos on the web lately the lack severely in proper safety setting and while often times things play out ok, there’s always a chance that your number might be up. And when it is, you need to be ready. Through Send It, Whitewater, we’re bringing professional swiftwater rescue clinics to Maine taught by paddlers that know and use swiftwater rescue knowledge on a regular basis. I would like to personally call on Maine guides and paddlers of all sorts to strive towards being safe and knowledgable whitewater enthusiasts. We live in one of the most whitewater rich areas in the world, let’s all make it known that Maine boaters not only have the skills to send, but also the skills to save.
The live bait rescue at the end of the video was performed by Send It, Whitewater Instructor Jeremy Cass just above the lip of Toaster Falls on the New Haven River during the New Haven Race.
Paddling the West Branch of the Pleasant (Gulf Hagas) has been at the top of my list for some time now. Due to work on the river or other circumstances a trip over has never lined up for me. I finally had the opportunity when Miles Pulio called me up the other day and pretty much demanded that I join the crew. The weather was superb, the flow was right about 2″ (a good first timers flow) and we had a solid crew of 4 that made for a great day. Hagas truly is an amazing experience, almost indescribably so. We didn’t shoot any photos once we entered the gorge, with the exception of Buttermilk, as we were too focused on what was at hand. We did however get some awesome shots of Faceplant and Billings. I can’t wait to go back, and I will now be making sure as to never go another season without at least a few Hagas runs. It truly was one of the most amazing places I have ever been whitewater kayaking.
These photos are actually about a week old now. Right before it really got warm last weekend and the creeks started to rise Mitch Noddin and myself were desperate for some whitewater kayaking. The only thing running in the area was the Carrabassett River. We headed to North Anson because the S-Turns section up by Sugarloaf was still too low. To our surprise North Anson actually had some pretty good whitewater in it. We were a little hesitant at first even though we had run it in the past, this section of river is all sharp blasted rock and nasty unnatural pour-overs created during the log drives. The water was also extremely cold. We decided to give’er after much route planning and discussion. When running something with just two people you are taking some pretty big risks and safety is limited. We had several game plans for any situation that could have come to be on the water but in reality we really needed to be on our A game and stay on our lines. We stopped strategically several times throughout the run in eddies to re-group and plan the next stretch. The pictures without a kayak in them don’t really do justice to how big and intimidating the water was. Definitely a fun run, also a bit terrifying. After running the North Anson Gorge we headed up to where the Katies Crotch Road crosses the river and ran the section under the bridge there too. That section is much tamer and less stressful, next time we’ll warm up there first. Whitewater kayaking is just too much fun…
For perspective, here’s a shot of Paul from several seasons ago just below the 3rd big island up from the bottom of photo 4 above
North Anson Gorge
Well, it’s safe to say it’s boating season. We paddled the last two days in a row, and I’d be out there again today if not for my schedule. It’s starting to get warmer and with good snowpack still in the mountains everything is about to pop. The Carrabassett River is at about 1′ for the S-Turns section, on the very low end of runnable, but it’s sure to come up this weekend with warm temps and rain. Sandy Stream is in, Smalls Falls is in, Madison is close and I’m sure there’s tons of other runs currently in around the state. Above are a few shots from Smalls Falls yesterday. We also hit the North Anson Gorge section of the Carrabassett two days ago and it was at a pretty full on level. It’ll get a little bit cleaner as water continues to rise. Get out there and SEND IT!
We’re getting a Maine crew together to head to the New Haven Race this weekend. This is a little late notice for most but we’ll be heading down tomorrow (Thursday) evening and spending the weekend. It’s looking like it’ll be around 70 degrees and sunny for some practice laps on Friday, race day is Saturday. If anyone is planning on heading that way and wants to car-pool give us a shout. We’re excited to check out another New England whitewater kayak race and for myself it will be my first time on the New Haven. More details in the “Maine Flows” group, just click the link at the top of this page. Send It.