For Labor day weekend myself, Rush Sturges, and Ben Stookesberry decided to enjoy a leisurely day on the Upper Klamath. Its located about an hour and a half from Mt. Shasta which was perfect since we all wanted to make it back for a Sweatshop Union concert that night.

The concert was EPIC and we enjoyed a bbq with good friends. We all had a great time and were stoked to be kayaking and the Sweatshop rager was just the icing on the cake. Here is a little video of the run. Look forward to seeing everyone down at the North Feather Race in a couple weeks. Enjoy and make sure to watch in HD.

I would also like to take this time to welcome aboard Watershed Dry Bags as a new sponsor. This company makes the best dry bags on the market and its an honor to become part of their team. Check out more about Watershed at www.drybags.com

Well with the start of school things are a little silent up here in Mt. Shasta but we found some time to go and surf at the School House wave on the Klamath off I-96. Myself, Ben Stookesberry, Chris Korbulic, and Chiseki rallied out for an afternoon surf.

Here are some shots from the session courtesy of Callie Daniel.

Shon Bollock

Chris Korbulic

Ben Stookesberry

More school for another couple weeks and then down to the North Feather for the Tobin Race. Really looking forward to this event and getting my new kayaks that are in the mail.

This year at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City, UT  I had the pleasure to meet with Woody and Shane at Liquid Logic. We had a similar vision for what should be expected from athletes in our industry today and I am proud to say that I’m back at home paddling for Team Liquid Logic. Liquid Logic is an amazing U.S. company and supports some of the top athletes in the industry, so its an honor to be given the opportunity. Bad Ass Outfitting is just another innovation putting LL ahead of the game, I’m really looking forward to my new Jefe Grande and Biscuit 55.

Hope to see everyone down at the Feather Festival and the production for Slippery When Wet has finally begun…….. just breaking in the new set up.

So my summer has consisted of working beyond full time raft guiding, working at Shasta Base Camp, and doing some editing work on the side. It has been hurting my kayaking but will be funding my trips to come.

Mt. Shasta has some of the best outdoor recreation in the state. It is one of the only places that has so many sports so close together. Kayaking, rafting, climbing, skiing, and of corse epic downhill mountain biking.

This next video shows Shasta Boyz filming the 2nd annual SHASTARAMA Downhill Race presented by Shasta Base Camp. Special thanks to Helmet Camera Central for all their donations for the raffle and Mt. Shasta Ski Park for the course and venue.

Here are some photos from the event courtesy of Callie Daniel.

Much more to come from Shasta Boyz Productions and be sure to catch the Wet Dreams and HAYMAKER tour coming through CALIFORNIA next!!!! One more week of work and then off to Salt Lake City, UT for Outdoor Retailer 2010.

California has been having one of the best years for water in decades, and me not being able to stray too far from Shasta, these are just a couple of our local gems. Hopefully be getting some more water this summer but gotta start saving some cash for college and a new computer for Slippery When Wet.

Here is a little video featuring Mears Creek and 2 mins outside town, the Box Canyon of the Sacramento flowing directly out of the Box Canyon Dam. It is nice to be back in the land of kayaking close to home, you never miss it till its gone.

On another note, Thursday was the world premier of HAYMAKER and a quick showing of Shasta Boyz Wet Dreams. There was a great turn out at the Harkins Theater in Tempe, AZ and it was a perfect way to kick off the tour. Photo courtesy of Huckin Huge.

If you havn’t seen the HAYMAKER teaser then here it is:

HAYMAKER Trailer from Huckin Huge on Vimeo.

Hope everyone has been getting their fill of the great water here in CALIFORNIA and there will be more tour photos to follow.

Cheers.
Notorious

So we have been lacking some posts around here but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any kayaking going on. The water has been great up here in nor cal and it does not seem like its going anywhere. After a few days boating I made the drive with my girlfriend from St. Simons Island, GA back to Mt. Shasta, CA. It was an epic drive to say the least and here are some photos from the journey.

On another note, the highly anticipated premier of Huckin Huges HAYMAKER is set for next week on the 24th of June held at the prestigious Harkins Theater in Tempe, AZ. This will be a huge event featuring very impressive white water and top notch cinematography. Cody Howard has put a lot into this project so if your in the area make sure to check it out and if not then this DVD is a must have for everyones white water collection.

Here is a teaser for HAYMAKER!!

HAYMAKER Trailer from Huckin Huge on Vimeo.

This will be touring the west with Shasta Boyz Productions Wet Dreams for the next couple months and we are honored to be collaborating with such talent. SBP and Huckin Huge will be continuing to work together for my next film Slippery When Wet.

So everyone get your copies of the DVD’s and keep posted for more updates from the tour!

Photos courtesy of: Callie Daniel and Shon Bollock

The world is hectic right now, not only in my life, but the situation our planet is in. It is the last month of school and finals are right around the corner, so I continue to miss my kayaking as I am finishing up my AA.

I am taking an Oceanography course and an extra credit assignment was to come out and help clean up one of our local beaches. The beach that they chose was right down from my house here in Capitola, plus you know shasta boyz loves that extra credit.

The event was very well organized with everything provided and a very enthusiastic group of students. There was a total of 108 volunteers that gathered over 2,000 lbs of garbage in just 3 hrs. As I was picking up everything from bags of dog S#*t to broken basketball hoops, I thought to myself how surprised I was that we don’t do this more often. I have participated in a few beach clean ups but this one something kinda clicked.

Here are some photos from the clean up.

Over my left shoulder you can see the couch they pulled out of a creek bed here in town…….. burly. Who dumps a couch in a creek?

The moral of this update: if your walking down the street/beach/river and you see garbage, don’t be that guy that just walks past it……….. only tools do that.

I just finished my Anthropology mid term and now have to force myself into this 14 hr art project. At least all my boyz are getting after it, I am living vicariously through them at this point.

This is the home stretch to summer, maybe kayaking next weekend but we will see how satanic my professors are.

On Thursday (4/15/10) the Shasta Boyz set out from Santa Cruz, Shon Bollock, my brother River Krimmer, and Chiseki McConnaughay aka the tooth fairy named for reasons you will soon see.

After a 7 hr drive, with trash directions from an i-phone, we got to the Brush Creek take out and crashed around 1 am.

The following day Friday the 16th, we got up early to lap it up. This was my brothers first creek and we routed him down everything blind, he killed it. The crew finished out with 3 laps for the day and I pretended like I was finding my race lines. After a day of Brush Creekin we opted for burgers at KRBC a must do if your down in Kernville.

On Saturday (4/17/10) was the race. We woke up early to get in one lap before the competitors meeting. There was a great turn out for the event and it was good to see all the home boyz. The winning time was set by none other than Jason Hale with a time of 2:34. I took 11th with a time of 2:49. You can see the full results here.

Here are some photos of the race provided by Kate Wagner of Femme 45.

The Brush Creek Race was a good event and had a great showing of competition.

On the paddle out from the race course we were routing down as the next rapid went out of sight. The “tooth fairy” aka Chiseki was in in front of me about 10 ft going into the rapid. He got stuck in some some wood at the bottom of the little drop as I came down behind him. As the tooth fairy push off the shore his paddle came back and snatch the teeth right out my mouth. It resulted in my front right tooth and the one next to it getting some big chips taken out. Having pieces of teeth shattered across your face is a feeling I will not soon forget.

They hurt like a biatch and it took 4 days to get them fixed. But I got my pearly whites back and trying to finish out strong with school as I get my AA in June. This is really hard with the melt starting here in Cali as there is sooooo much good stuff going off.

So if your somewhere else in the world and have nothing to do, I would strongly suggest Cali because we live in paradise.

Featured below is some head cam of the event. Huge shout out to all my sponsors that make these events possible.

Hope everyone is on a river somewhere.

So I am currently on Spring Break in Santa Cruz trying to figure out what to paddle for this next week. The Santa Cruz Surf Festival was just held and I went out to film my good friend and world class surf kayaker Galen Licht. He won the event taking 1st in Pro High Performance earning him a Shasta Boyz athlete spotlight. Check this little edit from the event:

Recently Wet Dreams has been doing very well in the film festivals it has entered. It won Runner Up for Best Local Documentary in the Sundial Film Festival in Redding and is scheduled to start touring with Haymaker at the end of next month.

Keep your eyes peeled for the sequel Slippery When Wet scheduled to release in 2011.

It has begun….. the sequel to Wet Dreams. Slippery When Wet will release in 2011 and will feature Big Island Hawaii, plenty of Cali, and much much more. This is the first of many teasers so keep you eyes out for more wet lovin……..

More news….. this past week I nominated our fellow Shasta Boy, Ben Stookesberry, for Rider of the Year 2010. There is really no need to explain why, he is one of the best boaters in my life time and it seemed common sense that he should be in the running for such a title. See my nomination here.

Thanks for everyone keeping up with our adventures and stay tuned for much more.

Notorious

Photos by: Justin Patt

So the swell here in Santa Cruz is going off, the Mavericks surf competition was held last weekend and boasted some of the largest waves to date. School is in full swing, including 13 hrs of class on tuesdays, so really just looking forward to the Spring and the Wet Dreams/ Haymaker tour coming up in the next couple months. Here is the first sneak peek into our story…..

The trip was a total transit time of 24 hrs of driving and plane transfers, but it felt great to be with a boat heading to a destination we had all be dreaming of. The trip started in Mt. Shasta where I was joined by Justin Patt. We drove to Portland and stayed the night with fellow Shasta Boy Ryan Knight. Ryan was kind enough to wake up at 6am to drive us to the airport and there the adventure began…

Oahu International Airport

Once in Hilo, after a bumpy 7hr flight, we met up with the Huckin Huge crew consisting of Cody Howard, Jake Sanders, and producer Harrison Tobin.

Hilo International Airport

We loaded up the boats and headed out for the berry farm, where we would stay the next week. As we arrived to the house it started to pour down rain, all of the crew got excited in hopes that we would have good flow for the trip, but little did we know it was the most rain we would get all trip.

Shon and Cody…… I think the faces say it all….

For the first week we were on set film schedules, not only shoot for our own films, but for a TV series that is being kept underwraps at the moment. The first morning we awoke to a continued downpour that had lasted most the night. All of us had one thing in mind and that was Rainbow Falls on the Wailuku River in Hilo. But to our dismay when we arrived at the vantage point we saw only maybe 8cfs going over it. Everyone was very bumbed to see the Wailuku this low, but we found out some water was being diverted by a hydroelectric plant.

We continued to scout out the higher sections of the Wailuku but still we didnt see enough water to make  a day mission out of it. So we opted to head down and session the hydro-electric plant drop that is right before the river goes into the ocean in downtown Hilo.

Shon on the way out to the ocean.

After having our fun we went and got some chow before heading home to settle into our quarters aka “media management”. That night we got in a good Google Earth sesh to line up where we wanted to go in the morning, we picked out a waterfall on the Hanalei Stream and what seemed to be a lava tube that went through the hillside on a creek 1.5 miles from our house.

The next morning we got some quick grub and headed out to chase the tail end of the water we got on the first day of the trip. After a short drive we pulled over a bridge and saw the dark hole in the wall. It was low but there was enough water in it for the motivated group. The water was brown which made it was clear that this was the last of the runoff from the rain.

Cody Howard with Shon Bollock filming in the foreground.

Shon Bollock getting in some tube time.

Justin Patt with Notorious filming. (Photo: Harrison Tobin)

Myself and Jpatt hiked down the creek a quarter mile or so and came to a pinched  60ish footer that looked runnable but definitely not with the water we had. The tube was a great experience and the first tunnel I have ever gone through that wasn’t made of concrete.

After getting in some tube time we were off to Hanalei stream to see what was in store. Once we arrive we saw a 40ish footer that landed on a shelf with a small amount of water going over it. From the road it looked horrible and from the lip it wasn’t a whole lot better, but for some reason i kinda liked er’ (plus without any guarantee of water on the trip, I wanted to take whatever we could get).

What a beautiful landing……..(Photo: Harrison Tobin)

The goal, in order to not hit the rocks, was to come at it with speed and boost a left stroke to pull myself out away from the shelf below. I really didn’t want to go first but nobody wanted to roche, so we pulled my boat down and I decided to give er’ a swing.

Shon Bollock with the first and only known decent of one in a hundred, Hilo HI

The rock I tried to push off of at the lip kicked me harder than I anticipated and I wasn’t able to pull a stroke since there wasn’t much water. I landed a little over vert but right in the no rock zone, barley touching my bow with the shelf. It wasn’t the line that I envisioned but un-injured it seemed like a decent route given what could have been.

So with a few goodies in the bag our hopes were lifted, thinking that maybe we would get enough rain to light fire. Stay tuned for more Island lovin’, but this is where our first peek ends.

Just another morning in Hilo. (Photo: Harrison Tobin)

Keep your eyes out, more sneak peeks into our trip soon, including a Hawaii teaser from my next video “Slippery When Wet” releasing in 2011.

Something for yall to get excited about…… this beast compressed Justin Patts back on the 1st descent, broke a few of Codys ribs on the 2nd descent, and bruised my hip on the 3rd descent….. thats what we get…..hahaha.

Andacondom Falls, Wailuku (Photo: Harrison Tobin)