At 7pm tonight in the Unity College Performing Arts Center, Unity Maine, there will be a re-screening of the Maine Outdoor Film Festival. The first screening was hosted in the field at Three Rivers Whitewater in the Forks Maine this past summer. If you couldn’t make it come to Unity tonight and check out the films. Mainely Boating will be playing again on the big screen and you can check it out online here! See you tonight!
In 2011 Chuck Mathieu came up with the idea for Huckfest. Taking advantage of scheduled releases, something Maine is privileged to have, Chuck threw himself a birthday party. In true Chuck fassion it involved the river and big sending. The stage was Grand Falls of the Dead River, roughly a 35-40 foot waterfall with spectacular views and ideal layout for the Huckfest.
The original Chuckfest was attended by 9 whitewater kayakers and a small crowd of spectators, mostly raft guides and local bartenders with the day off. As all good whitewater boaters in The Forks do, we gathered at the Marshalls the night before and talked lines over some refreshing beers and amazing food.
We put together a shoddy video of the first gathering and in 2012 tried to spread the word as best we could. The result was huge, with nearly 30 whitewater kayakers running the falls and a raft first descent. Not to mention the insane crowd of spectators that cheered everyone on.
In 2013 the shenanigans continue… This year the Huckfest is the day following the K-BOMB, a whitewater kayak race on the Kennebec River. There will be live music the night before at the K-BOMB after party and many a boater in town. Come join us for all the fun, you’re not going to want to miss this one.
Here’s a short edit of the “Madison Wave,” one of Maine’s many hidden gems. Madison is well known amongst the boating community here in Maine and attracts whitewater kayakers from all parts of the state when its in. Madison generally runs after heavy rains or in spring. Ideal flows are around or just above 17,000 CFS on the Kennebec River at Madison USGS gauge. This video was filmed at slightly higher than ideal flows making the wave a little less retentive than usual.
A little over two years ago “Huckfest” was born, the idea came from one of Maine’s diehard boaters, Chuck Mathieu. At the time, I didn’t know nearly the number of paddlers in Maine that I do now and it was the Huckfest that connected me with fellas like Jeremy Cass. I pulled some strings and scored the day off with the intention of filming these crazy hooligans running Grand Falls. At the first Huckfest 9 paddlers showed up, beverages were enjoyed the night before at Marshalls and the following day all 9 paddlers sent the falls. That day marked the beginning of my desire to expose Maine whitewater through media. This year the game stepped up with something like 23 paddlers running the falls and the first ever R2 raft decent by Ryan Waterhouse and Ryan Thompson. We also stepped it up on the media side, with 3 cameras and multiple GoPro’s covering the event. If you haven’t already seen it, check out the film from the first ever Huckfest:
There were a handful of spectators the first year as well, mostly local raft guides and bar tenders that had the day off. However this past season, the second season of Huckfest, saw a huge increase in spectators and everyone really got the boaters fired up! This short edit below is from this years Huckfest, however we have yet to release some spectacular footage that will be part of a bigger project in the works. Chuck’s idea has grown, and will continue to do so!
My friend Ryan (Spose) has been rapping in Maine for quite some time. You might know him from his hit single “I’m Awesome.” When people mention Spose I think back to the days of the UMF Ski Industries Club and the Spose concerts we hosted in a small room in the back of the student center before anyone outside of Wells, ME knew who the dude was. He’s come a long ways since those days and is looking for some community support to keep his dream alive. Check out his project on KICKSTARTER and this video I threw together to one of his newer tracks!
The last time it rained hard in The Forks I woke up to the creek alongside my camper roaring at about 10am. I headed over to the Inn where P Mac was cooking breakfast, he whipped up a fine concoction of egg, onion and chocolate syrup on some bread with a little spinach. Oddly, it was pretty good. We brainstormed some runs and decided to head for something we hadn’t done yet this season. With almost 4″ of rain falling in Carrabassett Valley, the Carrabassett River was looking like a good option. We met up with Mason and Pat around 2 o’clock when P Mac gout out of work and headed out. We were thinking about exploring the section above the golf course but we soon came to realize we wouldn’t have much light by the time we got there. The S-Turns turned out to be running at a pretty solid level, the river was about 5′ at the Ira bridge. Mason Trumble rocked a GoPro and threw together a sick edit. Check it out, SENDING!
Hope everyone is getting fired up for The Race That Never was coming up THIS WEEKEND! Get registered today and don’t miss out on a great time. Remember, you don’t have to have participated in the K-BOMB to race in The Race That Never Was! We will be crowning an overall champion, “The Biggest Sender,” however we have tons of prizes to give out to people who didn’t race in both races too! We’ll be giving away some awesome prizes like an Astral Green Jacket and a Jackson Rockstar just to name a few! To feed the stoke here’s a little video edit from the first race of the season, the K-BOMB!
We’re happy to announce that we will be giving away a JACKSON ROCKSTAR at the Race That Never Was! Big thanks to Colin Kemp over at Jackson Kayaks for pulling some strings and making it all possible! Get your pre-registrations in today by simply clicking the “RACE REGISTRATION” link at the top of this page! Can’t wait to see everyone there! Don’t forget we will be ending the night at Penobscot Outdoor Center. Call New England Outdoor Center today to book a campsite at 800.634.7238
Rockstar!
First and foremost thank you to everyone that came out and supported the first annual K-BOMB! Big thanks to Rafting Randys, Maine Kayak, The Marshalls, New England Outdoor Center, The Venus Project, all the volunteers and everyone else that helped make this a success. Also a big thanks to Florida Power and Light (the operators of Harris Station dam) for allowing this event and giving us some bigger water! The Venus Project tore it up at the after party and we all had one heck of a time at The Marshalls. Hope to see you all at the next stop, “The Race That Never Was,” on the West Branch of the Penobscot River.
Pre-race meeting with all the K-BOMB whitewater kayakers!
They settled who would take which half of the prizes over a good ol’ beer chug!
Zack and Chris duke it out over a beer chug at the first annual K-BOMB whitewater kayak race
Speaking of prizes, we can’t thank Rafting Randys and Maine Kayak enough for donating such awesome swag!
Rafting Randys and Maine Kayak hooked the K-BOMB up!
We still have an Astral Green Jacket up for grabs at “The Race That Never Was” thanks to RAFTING RANDYS!
The Green Jacket donated by Rafting Randys
The official results have been posted on the Facebook event page “Send It, Whitewater Racing Series” and here it is again:
Name Finish RANK
Zack Disilvestro 18:58 1 (tie)
Chris Hull 18:58 1 (tie)
Ben Schott 19:05 2
Mason Trumble 19:17 3 (tie)
William Mook 19:17 3 (tie)
Chuck Mathieu 19:25 4 (tie)
Bryce Hanlee 19:25 4 (tie)
Ryan Davis 19:29 5
Adam Swett 19:33 6
Jeffrey Tillinghast 19:42 7
Scott Ewen 19:46 8
Taylor Walker 19:50 9
Jesse Cullivan 19:51 10 (tie)
Brian Cataldo 19:51 10 (tie)
Jeremy Miller 19:59 11
David Nesmith 20:05 12
jcass 20:10 13
Jake Risch 20:11 14
Steve Dickey 20:12 15
Andrew Wahl 20:14 16
Mike Mainer 20:24 17
Noah Hale 20:28 18
Greg Smith 20:35 19
Rig Wakelin 20:57 20
WOMENS’ COMP
Jane Koopman 19:55 1
Kelsy Moody 20:47 2
OPEN
Kevin Ross 18:51 1
Zack D. Adam SweTt
(Dynamic Duo) 19:30 2
Ryan Gerry 19:38 3
YEAH SENDING!
With the K-BOMB behind us its time to start focusing on The Race That Never Was! There was a lot of smack talk after the K-BOMB about who’s going to take it. With only seconds dividing the top of the pack the “Biggest Sender,” best time between both races, is still anyones game!
Visit the Race Registration page to sign up for The Race That Never Was today and don’t miss out on another epic event right here in good old MAINE!
All 28 of the first annual K-BOMB racers!