Catalyst Media blog

Big Water

2010-03-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

So, for some reason recently, I have been thinking about big water. I’ve been working hard to pay off student loans, and I haven’t been paddling as much as in the past. In spite of this, every second of my time on the water has been high in both quality and flow. Over the past two months, I’ve paddled the Horsepasture at high water, Overflow to Lake at 3.5 feet, Tellico at 7 feet, Watauga at 1300, and some juicy Green runs. It’s been awesome!

Baby Falls a little while back.

Credit: Daniel Stewart

After our run on the Watauga this past weekend, some friends and I started bouncing around epic stories of high water on all of our favourite rivers. Here are some of the ones that I think I know… however feel free to correct me if I’m off on these.

Chattooga- 10 feet by Russ Kullmar and crew.
Raven Fork- 27 inches by Matt Sheridan, solo, in an I3.
Green- not sure, but I’ve run it up to 26. Pat and I ran Gorilla at 24.
Watauga- I’m sure it’s been run over 3,000.
Elk- I feel confident in saying that Herzog, Spencer and I hold that one, Watauga was at 9,000.
Linville- 3.3ish? probably by Herzog, Brad Kee, etc… although the gauge has changed.
Ottawa- Billy Harris and crew at 30 feet.
New River Gorge- Was Brian Jennings at 95,000ish, I’ll bet someone broke that recently.

So what have you guys got? I want to hear:

Toxaway Bear, West Prong, Rock Island Falls/Sieve Rapid, Little River Canyon, Nolichucky, Wilson’s Creek, Gauley, New, Gatineau, Rouge, Taureau, Upper Cherry, Middle Kings, Stikine, etc…

Comment here or back on Boatertalk. Photos are even better!

Cheers!
Chris

Green Race Season... here we go again.

2009-09-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are again. As of today, there are 54 days until the annual Green River Narrows Race. I'm super stoked about bombing down that river once again this year, and the word is that we're going to have upwards of 150 competitors out there from all over the world. Just writing about this event raises my heart rate, and I hope everyone is working hard to get themselves ready for it.

I am a bit limited on my training time due to a 17 hour final semester of school at UNCA, but I'm trying to set myself up well as always. I'm working with Crossfit Asheville until the Green Race to try to get my fitness where it needs to be. They're super cool people, and have helped me out tremendously already.

Here are a few pics of my first run down the Green with the big boat this fall:
**Photos by Jakob Kafer**

The ultimate race weapon...

Taylor Fearrington bombing through Frankenstein.

Damn it feels good to be back.

Piaaaahhh!!

Fast and clean. November 7, 2009.

Peace.
Chris

Downhill Racing...

2009-09-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

So I've been getting more and more into DH mtn biking over the past year, and this fall I've been able to get out to a number of sick races. First up was the Dirty Bird race out at Hawks Nest resort. The course was extremely challenging with a bunch of off-camber roots in there, and it poured rain before the race, making it a total cluster@#$k. Paul Stamilio saw me take a ridiculous high speed crash the day before where I got clothes-lined by a tree, but I was able to get my mind straight for the race. I had a good run down through the course, but hit the gap near the bottom with too much speed and slid off the course and down the hill. I pushed my shit all the way back up the hill and got back on my bike, but my run was over. I ended up around 20th in the Amateurs out of 35 or so. Oh well.

The next weekend was the ETSU collegiate race. That weekend went way better. My little brother and I got some good practice in and both of us laid it down on the course and had good times. I got 1st in the Men's B division, and would have ended up around 14th or so in A. Nick won Men's C, and would have gotten 3rd in B. Here are a couple of pics of us:

Nick ripping the last drop off.

Credit: Ashley Woodring

Same drop.

Credit: Ashley Woodring

Me on the gnarly rock section right above the finish line.

Credit: Ashley Woodring

The next weekend was the race out at Beech Mountain in Banner Elk. This is my favourite race course that I've ridden. I was super stoked to get back out there, but unfortunately I had some equipment failure. I was basically having the run of my life on my bike(with a headcam on), and dropped my chain about 2/3 of the way down the track, and couldn't hit the big stepdown at the bottom. I coasted it out and dropped a couple of choice words at the finish line... words like "gosh" and "darn."

Bryan Harris killing it out there.

Myself hitting the bottom stepdown.

And coming up a bit short!! This is why I love having 8 inches of travel.

And that's all I've got for now in the biking front, look forward to seeing everyone at the ASU and Brevard collegiate races, and then the Paris Mtn race in Greenville SC.

Peace.
Chris

Canadian Sessions #3: High Tension

2009-09-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

One trip that has certainly become a tradition for me is the yearly playboating overnighter that I do on the Gatineau River near Maniwaki, Quebec. When High Tension wave is in, it's the ultimate experience to drag camping gear in and stay on the sandy beach right next to the wave. Unbelievable. This year I was able to introduce my buddy Bryan Harris to these sick rivers, and he was freaking out having never been on big water before. It was also cool hanging out with all the British Team lads as they prepared for the Worlds in Thun, Switzerland. I'm stoked to train up and hopefully attend another Freestyle World Championships in the next couple of years.

Overall, the Gatineau is a super special place, and I hope you enjoy these pics of the experience:

**All photos by Bryan Harris**

Bryan stoked to be on the big water.

Camp.

**All photos by Bryan Harris** Thanks buddy!

Life is rough next to my favourite wave on earth...

Chris

Canadian Sessions #2: The Ottawa

2009-09-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

So I was fortunate enough to do some work for Liquid Skills Kayak School this summer on the Ottawa River. The Ottawa has been a staple in my yearly schedule since I learned how to paddle there when I was 11, and it was awesome to work with the Skills this summer. Check them out if you're trying to get world class instruction on the Ottawa River...

Liquid Skills Website

Myself showing one of my clients, Daniella, through McCoy's Rapid.

Credit: Georges

The view down the pipe at Dragon's Tongue on Garvin's Chutes. Quite an excellent rapid.

I actually went to Liquid Skills when I was 15 for a Junior Development Camp, and met some of my best friends of all time that week, including Benny Marr and Max Kniewasser. It was awesome being able to work with the young guys and girls during my time up there this summer, and I was definitely amazed by the talent and quick learning of all of them. I paddled for a couple of days with an Alberta boy by the name of Stirling... Stirling was super stoked about his Dagger RX and certainly started pushing the boat to it's potential by the end of his two week stay.

Here's Stirling reverse wave-wheeling into the Odyssey hole. Survival surf session!

Credit: Andy

And here's a cool scenic pic that Stirling sent in from his home river... the Kananaskis.

The Ottawa definitely is one of the ultimate places to find yourself in the North American summer. Hope to see some new faces out there next year.

Chris

Mont St. Anne World Cup!

2009-09-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

So my younger brother, sister, and I have been obsessing for the past year over a number of videos documenting the World Cup series of downhill mountain bike racing, and we finally got to attend one of the races. More info about the races can be found here:

UCI World Cup Site

Basically, I knew these guys would be fast, but I had no idea how fast. I was scared just standing on the side, and the skill and fitness that they showed was truly inspiring. I would love to see kayaking receive the level of recognition and support that downhill gets. I watched two of my favourite racers take the Downhill and 4 Cross titles, Sam Hill and Jared Graves, respectively. Sam left no room for doubt beating Steve Peat by 4 seconds.

Check out these pics of the action:

Filip Polc.

Steve Smith from Van Island!! Such a sick rider and Canada's top finisher.

Brendan Fairclough

Steve Peat, 2nd.

The podium. Aaron Gwinn in 3rd is the highest US finisher in years. Yeahhh.

Syndicate V10s... so beautiful.

For more coverage of Mont St. Anne World Cup, as well as other goings on this summer, check out the next LVM.

From there it was on to a sick day of riding at Bromont where we didn't take a single picture. Sorry! It was awesome though. Here's a headcam video of my favourite trail, first trail on the vid:
Bromont Trail 7

Peace.
Chris

Cottage Livin and Niagara

2009-09-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

I never get tired of returning to my family's cottage near Picton, Ontario, Canada. I have traveled to a lot of cool places in the world but I'm pretty sure that this is my favourite. Whenever I'm there it's nothing but amazing company, food, drinks, sailing, swimming, riding, etc.

You'd have to be there in person to understand, but here's a couple of pics of the cottage experience.

Myself enjoying the Bay of Quinte on the sickest singlehand sailboat, a Hobie Cat 17.

Credit: Julia Gragtmans

Here's my little brother, Nick, partaking in the Cinnamon challenge after I bet him $10 dollars he couldn't do it. Look it up if you don't know what it is. Nick talked to Uncle Pukie after this one and I payed him the $10 out of pity.

And here's another sibling, Julia, learning how to ride a mountain bike. Julia's one of those people who you get pissed off at because they can do anything involving athletics completely effortlessly.

This image is a testament to the beauty of Prince Edward County.

The crazy thing is that this is not unusual, the sunsets are like this every single night!

Credit: Julia Gragtmans

Ashley and I took a trip to Niagara Falls. The power of that place is super humbling and it was fun to check it out for my first time since I was four years old.

The line is there for sure...

It's really not that big at all.

They made us ride a damn boat to get these $16 ponchos!

Hope everyone else is enjoying their summer as well.

Peace.
Chris

Canadian Sessions #1: Taureau

2009-08-15T23:10:00.000-07:00

So after the return from Colorado, it was time once again to head up to Canada for my yearly trip. I've said it time and again, but Eastern Canada is one of the sickest places in the world to be in a kayak. (or on a mountain bike... or a sailboat)

My car locked and loaded once again in Asheville.

I was able to hit the Taureau section of the Jacques Cartiere River with my buddy Adam Herzog. This region of the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec is nothing short of epic, and I don't seem to grow tired of visiting it.

This was my first time on the Taureau, and I've been wanting to get on "the Linville of the North" for a long time now. This river captivated me when I was maybe 13 and read the AW article "A Perfect Day on Quebec's Perfect River" by Chris Koll. The river just sounded so ultimate, and I've wanted to paddle it ever since. Here's the link to the article:
READ HERE

Looking upstream towards the Taureau from 20 km downstream of the takeout... where the pavement ends.

Adam and I met up and camped at the takeout, so we would have part of the epic shuttle done. Adam was wandering around at 4:15 AM already and I "slept in" til about 6:30. We ate breakfast, got our stuff together and headed up. After a short hike in and a quick snack at the putin, we were floating on a beautiful, tannic coloured river through some meadows... with 15 miles of whitewater in front of us.

Adam paddling the flats.

The aforementioned article describes the river as having a symmetrical gradient scale from start to finish, meaning that it goes from flat, to class 1, then 2, then 3, 4, and then about 7 miles of class 5, after which it makes the same smooth transition back down. It's an unbelievable place. The flatwater lasts for a couple of minutes, and then the river slowly and gently narrows and starts to form riffles and eddylines. It just begs you to go downstream and discover what it has in store.

The class five section is nothing short of sick, and the river asserts a feeling of power that only big water creeks are capable of. Adam had about 25 strips of duct tape on both sides of his deck, with the names of the biggest class 5 rapids, and he read them off and explained them one after another as we drifted into them.

Here's the top of one of the gnarlier rapids on the river, Sieve Drop. Worth a scout and some safety.

Credit: Adam Herzog

All in all the river took us 4.5 hours and we did not stop enough to properly document what was going on. Adam says that this river is possibly the best river he has ever paddled, and I would have to say it's up there for me as well. I would recommend it very very highly... my one suggestion is to bring a shuttle driver!

Cheers, and good lines.
Chris Gragtmans

Colorado Tour: Part II

2009-06-29T23:17:00.002-07:00

Greetings All!

So I just got back to the hot, humid southeast from a sick trip out to Colorado... where I did not take off my drysuit. For a recap of the first half of the trip, surf on over to the Astral Blog.

Here are a couple of still grabs from the aforementioned mission to the Crystal drainages. There was some sick stuff up there if your vehicle survives!

Andrew routing into the first tier of the money drop on the South Crystal.

And styling it.

Pat and myself went for another lap on Upper/Lower Death and Barrel Springs at about 10 grand... Chris Schell was cool enough to shoot some video this time. Those rapids are awesome!

The Nomad kept me nice and safe throughout the trip... cruising down the ramp and into the maw of Upper Death.

And pluggin 'er.

From there it was time to race. This was my first year racing in the Teva Mountain Games at Homestake, and it was a very challenging course. The creek sits around 9,000 feet, and if the altitude doesn't get you, there are a whole lot of gnarly rocks in there that love shaving seconds off. In spite of the challenges, the event was run very well and it was great being able to paddle with a diverse international racing crowd... there were certainly some heavy hitters out there. Team D had a commanding presence in the race with Nikki Kelly winning the women, Tao Berman taking 2nd and Pat Keller 3rd, Andrew Holcombe 7th, and myself 8th. I plan on coming back next year and dark horsing it so train up!

Nikki on her way to the win.

The paparazzi were present.

After Homestake, I was relieved to get out of the Vail circus and get on a creek that I've been wanting to hit forever... Yule! We had heard some scary stories about some epic carnage that had been occurring at the high levels that it was running at, but Yule gave us good lines and did not disappoint at all... it is huge in there! It's kind of like the Toxaway in NC, but with Colorado rocks... scary.

The crew hiking in.

My favourite Kiwi, Sam Sutton, on Oriental Massage. Braaaap!!

Myself dropping in.

Yule was sick, and I cannot wait to get back in there. A couple more days of hanging out with friends in Vail, and I was on the road once again, heading home. I hope to see all of you on the rivers of the Southeast soon, and for those who are interested, I will be instructing for Liquid Skills Kayak School on the Ottawa River from July 15 - August 15. Try and make it up there. It's certainly one of the best rivers in the world to refine your skills in a kayak.

Good lines.
Chris Gragtmans

Colorado Tour: Part 1

2009-06-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

What up whitewater boat riders!

Just wanted to check in from Colorado and share some of the goings on as of late… I’ve always kind of given Colorado a bad rap, and it’s been a fun 2-3 day stop on the way to Cali, but never the final destination for any trip. I decided that it was about time I gave the Teva Mountain Games Homestake Race a shot, and hit a number of runs I’ve missed out on in the past.

Looking very out of place in Texas.

Pat and I made the long journey out in a Dagger Suby a week before the race, and crashed with the myth and legend, Chris Schell, when we got to Denver. The 10 days since have been a ridiculous barrage of steep whitewater and good people.

We started things off well with some laps on Homestake Creek and Gilman Gorge on day 1, and Tommy Hilleke was cool enough to let us make Glenwood Springs our base camp for the next couple of days. That was awesome and I can’t thank the Hilleke family enough.

Pat hiking up for another lap on Homestake.

By far one of my favourite parts of the trip has been paddling the Barrel Springs section of the Colorado… The Colorado is running super high with snow runoff, and I think the Upper/Lower Death combo is one of the burliest big water rapids I have ever run! I was praying that my sprayskirt wouldn’t implode and my paddle wouldn’t get ripped out of my hands as I plugged into that massive hole.

The entrance to the monster.

Both runs were incredible out there, and it’s tough to beat the feeling of becoming a part of something that makes you feel so inconsequential. The Barrel Springs rapid was huge too and super fun. Possibly my favourite run in the state…

Another great thing about that section is the fact that we could paddle it straight to the Hilleke’s doorstep.

Pat on the float down out of Glenwood Canyon to the city.

Myself hiking up to the house in a state of satisfaction.

We also did an epic mission into the Crystal drainage and checked out some sick park and hucks. It was the craziest off-roading I have ever done, and fortunately the rack only flew off Tommy’s truck once. Here are a couple of pics from that adventure…

Crystal Mill Falls… such a sweet drop.

Reattaching some roofracks.

The epicocity of Colorado backcountry.

South Fork Crystal!

Please don’t miss the eddy above this.

Hope everyone else is getting on some good water. Video coverage of these drops as well as Yule Creek and Homestake Race coming soon!

Peace.
Chris

Toxicity...

2009-05-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

Whats up everyone,

Just wanted to check in with a quick blog post about one of my favourite rivers of all time… the Toxaway. This river blew my mind when I first paddled it, and things haven’t really changed in there. It is still one of the most high quality runs you can do anywhere, there are very few places on earth I would rather be. Here are a couple of photos of a sick day with a sick crew. Hope you enjoy!

Pablo McCandless repping the slalom guys and logging his first run on the Toxaway.

The goof troop scouting Minigizer.

Working my way through the Energizer chaos. (Credit: Fergus Coffey)

Cooper Lambla doing the same. (Credit: Fergus Coffey)

Fergus Coffey entering Feeding Trough.

Our hero Daniel Stewart careening over the huge curler on Landbridge.

A POV shot of the coolest place ever.

It’s impossible to keep a straight face on this river. I dare you.

Myself entering the last big one… Wintergreen Falls. (Credit: Fergus Coffey)

Pablo styling that huge rapid.

And enjoying the afterglow that follows.

The kicker of the day was that Daniel Stewart and Pablo McCandless got lost on the hike out, and ended up spending the night in the rain… We went back in at 5 am with Powerbars, Gatorade and gummy bears and found the lost soldiers, but I learned the important lesson of sticking with those who aren’t too familiar with the river at all times (even though DStew has been there before!). Apparently there is some shit-talking coming my way on the next LVM regarding this, so I look forward to that.

Good lines everyone,

Chris Gragtmans

Spring Madness...

2009-05-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

Braaaaaappp!!

Whats up fellow outdoors enthusiasts. So this spring has been good. I just finished a 19 hour semester at UNCA, my second to last, and it feels great to be out and playing again. In spite of my courseload, this spring has been pretty awesome, and involved maximizing my time in my kayak and on my mountain bike when I wasn't in class.

I went to a couple of downhill races over the past couple of months, and it's been a blast trying to transfer my skills in a kayak into that medium. A lot of the motion, flow, and commitment are the same, but it hurts a whole lot more when you crash!

Here are a couple of pics from the Clemson DH race...

Myself hitting the last berm before the wall ride.

Photo: Zach Suggs

Me and Pat stoked about an intense day!

Photo: Ashley Woodring

Pat ripping the big sender jump near the end.

Photo: Ashley Woodring

My little bro, Nicholas, killed it at this race. This pic is amazing.

Photo: Zack Suggs

Nick placing 2nd in the Juniors, first race ever!

Photo: Ashley Woodring

I ended up 17th out of 34 in the Men's Pro class with a time of 1:35. I was happy with the time and look forward to working towards getting faster...

Windrock Mountain near Knoxville, TN was the venue for another awesome race recently. A couple of Western Canadian Pros, Robbie Bourdon and Shaums March, came out for this event. That place is gnarly!! I got two pinch flats throughout the day and then had to go back to Asheville to study and rest up for Jerry's Baddle.

Myself on the big gap.

...and entering the rowdiest series of dropoffs I've ever done.

The weekend after Windrock was the 4th annual Jerry's Baddle biathlon. This race is a memorial race for Jerry Beckwith, and a benefit for ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. Jerry's letter that was read at the first race brought tears to my eyes, and I've done my best to attend ever since then. This year's race was awesome, but I was bummed to see Adam Herzog get a flat on the bike ride, and have to give up his crown as the reigning champion of the Greenman division of that race.

As far as my own day went, they let me have the pole position because I have had the fastest kayak time for the past two years. I laid down the power off the starting line and was able to keep it up through the whole course and have fast, smooth lines. I came out with a time of 40:09 and passed off to my partner Nate Wyatt.

Other highlights included driving the bike course and coming up on Corey Volt on the switchbacks right as he was puking his brains out. He drank a tallboy PBR during the kayak/bike transition, and wasn't feeling too good afterwards. We were also able to shuffle water and supplies out to bikers who needed it. Let the record show that Andrew Holcombe should have gone at least 4 or 5 minutes faster... he lent out his tubes, tools, pump, and everything else you can imagine to multiple racers in need.

Myself trying to keep it together through the last part of the race.

Photo: Sarah Brooks

Daniel Stewart killing it.

Photo: Ashley Woodring

After Jerry's Baddle, we were able to get on some good natural flow. Adam Herzog and I checked out a ridiculous drop that needs to be run sometime, but I walked away with my tail between my legs. Hopefully next time... We wrapped up the day with a sweet run on the Nolichucky at 10 grand. It was super fun paddling a creekboat in big water, and it made me daydream about hopefully in the near future getting to run the Stikine River in BC.

Adam trying to get a look at the beast.

The lip. A very scary place.

The top.

This past Saturday was the UNCA graduation, so I got to watch a bunch of my friends walk, and then my roommates Taylor Fearrington and Alex Morrow headed to Triple Falls with me. Alex graduated and ran his first waterfall, Hooker Falls on the same day! Yuh.

The next day Taylor, Ben Blake, and myself headed to the high country. The Elk was wayyyy higher than it should have been, because the Watauga was only at like 700 cfs when we put on, but with 2.5 inches of rain in the headwaters, we put on to an awesome, intense level.

Here's Ben Blake styling the 15 footer below Twisting Falls.

Taylor Fearrington doing the same.

Ben dropping Compression Falls with style.

Today I did an amazing hike with my girlfriend Ashley that I've never done before... Looking Glass Rock. It's a steady 3ish mile hike to the top of that thing, and it gives you one of the most beautiful views I've seen in the Southeast. I love Pisgah.

Ashley chilling with her dog at Looking Glass Falls.

And checking out the view from the top.

Well that's it for now. I'm pretty damn excited about a weekend at Snowshoe bike park this weekend in WV, then heading out to Colorado for the Teva Mountain Games. It will be sad not to make it out to the ultimate whitewater of California this summer, but that's ok, it'll be there...

Good lines.
Chris Gragtmans

Competition Season Part II: GREEN RACE!

2009-03-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

First Saturday in November, like death and taxes.

Credit: Seth Richardson

The Green Race is an event like no other; there is no competition in the sport that can even come close. I have been racing that river for the past six years, and it is an incredible day that I have never gotten used to. It's a pretty unique experience going from the energy and support surrounding the starting line... to silence from below Frankenstein to Boof or Consequence... to a bunch of people yelling at you at Go Left, to a river lined with hundreds of people from Chief down to the finish line. I very rarely take my eyes off of the river when I'm racing, but the roar of that many people screaming at you as you go by is pretty mind boggling. Not to mention the rapids... it goes without saying that it is the toughest rapid-by-rapid race course to link up, period.

And the most ridiculous part about the Green Race is that all that build-up... all the practice, visualization, training, trash-talking with your friends, outside pressure... everything, comes down to just one run per year for each of us. That is your slot, one minute behind the person in front of you, and a minute in front of the person behind you, in which to put everything you know and are capable of on the table. It all comes down to the day.

The Day.

Credit: Rob Hurst

I came into Green Race this year in a great mental place. I had no injuries, no sickness, and no girl issues, and that felt amazing. Holcombe started us off since he won last year, then Pat, then Geoff Calhoun, and before I knew it I was in the starting spot telling Shane to yell at me during the countdown, because I was about to turn my music on. I turned on a song that I am completely addicted to right now, Zion I, "Trippin", started taking some deep breaths and asked my Uncle Derek to guide my paddle and my boat.

5-4-3-2-1-GOOOO!!! I'm sure that my technique looks absolutely aweful every year that I come out of the gate at Green Race, my mind is always going on overload at that point and my blades can’t seem to push me forward fast enough. I made it through Frankenstein smoothly, had a little bobble at the rapid directly below that, but kept hammering downstream nonetheless. I was still so overloaded with energy and nervousness at Pincushion that I hit and high-braced off the Pincushion rock! I have never done that before in my life, and I was screaming at myself in my head to get it together and be fast, smooth and focused.

I couldn’t have asked for better lines all the way down through Go Left, Zwicks and Chief. I came off of the Flying Squirrel boof above Gorilla, and hammered into the Notch as hard as I could instead of catching my breath briefly like I usually do.

On the ragged edge of control coming into Gorilla.

Credit: Seth Richardson

Credit: Seth Richardson

The energy surrounding you during this race is incredible.

Credit: Andrew Wright

My Gorilla line felt great, and just when I thought that this might be my year to take the title, I couldn’t quite link up the last three slides of the race, going deep in Nieses Pieces, swinging wide and almost flipping at Powerslide, and swinging wide in sight of the finish line below Rapid Transit! A rough finish to the race, but that is what makes it such a great race, and what keeps us coming back year after year.

I hung out with my family and some friends for a bit at Gorilla, then began the long, poison ivy lined hike back up to the start for my short boat run. Run #2 was infinitely better and more enjoyable. All the pressure was off, I was loosened up from an intense first run, and I had absolutely nothing to lose. I turned on my song again, poured on the power at the starting line, and did not let up at all down to Gorilla. In spite of the low water, I was able to find deep spots to place good strokes, and I knew that I was linking things up very very well.

Go Left.

Credit: Rob Hurst

Rolling off the lip at Gorilla.

Credit: Clay Lucas

I bombed into Gorilla the same way that I had done on my previous run, but messed up the lip and found myself windowshading into and surfing Speed Trap! I’ve never surfed that hole before, so I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of my situation. I bounced out with a huge boil after a while, and gave a big victory yell to the crowd before refocusing and hammering with everything that I had through the last slides to the finish line.

Stoked to not be swimming!

Credit: Brad Roberts

It was a sick day and we were able to finish it with a great party thanks to Woody Callaway.

Results:

Long Boat
1) Pat Keller 4:31
2) Chris Gragtmans 4:35
3) Eric Deguil 4:38

Short Boat
1) Eric Deguil 5:01
2) Chris Gragtmans 5:04
3) Andrew Holcombe 5:08

Ironman
1) Chris Gragtmans
2) Eric Deguil
3) Andrew Holcombe

It's coming up again soon so train up!

Peace.
Chris

Fall 2008 Competition Season...

2009-03-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

Whats up cyber paddling world!

Well I hope everyone out there has been able to get on some good water in spite of the drought conditions in the Southeastern US. Coming home from Canada at the end of the summer, I knew that I was going to be switching gears from the epic levels that were occuring up there, but I really had no idea...

This is definitely the worst drought that I have experienced in the 12 years that I've been paddling, but fortunately we still have a lot of quality dam-released rivers down here that keep you from going crazy...

The Fall '08 competition season started out well with the LVM Southeastern Giant Slalom Qualifier race on the Green. I dragged myself away from the Buseater and High Tension waves in Canada for a week, and flew into Greenville, SC two days before the competition. I had hoped for practice water on Friday, but no such luck. Oh well, I figured I'd get used to my creekboat again on my first race run of the day. (the race starts at the putin)

For those of you that don't know what the Giant Slalom is, check out the LVM site for more information and video. It's a revolutionary, very challenging style of competition that forces paddlers to not only run class V rapids, but be in control enough to make certain moves and gates in them.

Pat Keller in the downriver portion of the race.

Credit: Hannah Cole

Sealing launching in to gate #1.

Credit: Hannah Cole

John Grace and team put together a great competition, and everyone had a blast. The format of 50 second penalties for a gate miss, and 10 seconds for a touch meant that being smooth and precise is often more rewarding than just powering through with brute strength like some other races. It was inspiring watching some of the Olympic and US team slalom guys do their thing through the gates.

Myself rounding gate #2 and getting back right for the upstream around gate #3.

Credit: Hannah Cole

In the end, the Asheville locals were able to put things together against a very strong field of 60+ paddlers from throughout the Southeast, and I was honored to take the top spot at this competition. CLICK HERE for some video from the day, can't seem to find the full results.

Overall Results:
1) Chris Gragtmans
2) Pat Keller
3) Nathan Silsbee

After the Giant Slalom, and a couple of weeks back in Canada to finish off the summer, I started school back up at UNCA, and headed over to the NOC for the Freestyle Shootout competition. This was my first freestyle competition in about three years, and it was a perfect way to get back into that scene. The wave right in front of the Nantahala Outdoor Center has been constantly tweaked and changed throughout the years, but those guys had it really dialed for this competition. Almost every trick was possible on the feature, including helixes, mcnasties, loops, and phonix monkeys. The 2 minute rides kept things challenging as well, and all in all it was a super fun event that I hope will continue every year. Thanks to Daniel Dutton and all of the NOC guys for putting in the work.

Allan Young killing it.

Credit: american-milspec.com

Spencer Cooke with some wickidy wack tricks.

Credit: Scott Sidener

Myself throwing an entry kickflip.

Credit: Scott Sidener

Results:
1) Bryan Kirk
2) Tommy Yon
3) Chris Gragtmans
4) Spencer Cooke

The elite winners.

Credit: NOC

Back in the beginning of September there was a very cool head to head race at the USNWC over in Charlotte. It was an informal race with roughly 5 person heats, and with the winner of the final heat taking home a purse that everyone added 5$ to when they registered. It ended up being utter chaos as the rounds progressed, because there were raft trips on the course, and paddlers who were knocked out of the early rounds paddled in and decided to be human eight balls as we came through!

In the end Fergus Coffey came out on top, with Eric "Butter" Hurd and myself right behind him.

Check out Robin Betz's blog post for some cool photography and another perspective on the event... LL Ladies Lounge.

**This race will be occurring again this Saturday, March 14th, at 2:30 PM... hope to see all you folks out there with your game faces on!**

Following the USNWC event, I did my best to get my head on straight and turn my focus to my favourite competition of the year, the Green River Narrows Race. This time of year is always pretty intense for me, because I usually swear off drinking alcohol for a month or two, focus on eating well, and try to get my body into the best possible shape that I can for the event.

Some people criticize me and others for doing this, but I try not to make excuses about my paddling... I wouldn't be happy with myself if I wasn't training as hard as I could to reach my own athletic potential. "I would have beaten you if I had trained" is not an acceptable excuse. It's difficult to do this while being a full-time, broke college student, but that's part of what makes it fun and rewarding. This year I focused on attainments loops on the French Broad, swimming laps, doing various traditional and cross-fit workouts at the gym(my favourite is the 300 workout), and riding my mountain bike.

The Saturday before the Green Race was very cool for two reasons... it was the day of the Russell Fork Race in Kentucky, and it was also my 23rd birthday. Whooo! I rode up to the event with Chris Gallaway and Andrew Holcombe the day of, and was super stoked to race that challenging section of river for my first time. I love the atmosphere surrounding that race, the organizers are as fired up to race as any of the competitors, and with the fall colors and amazing weather, there was nowhere else that I would rather be.

The race started with the previous top 3 competitors from last year, and then Hipgrave, Pat, Holcombe, and me. I had so much nervous, excited energy at the starting line, and to be quite honest was planning on laying waste to that course... I felt great! I started my run well, but was having trouble getting into a good groove through Tower and Fist, the first big rapids. I bombed down into one of my favourite rapids, Maze, and made a couple little mistakes that kind of frustrated me a bit, but it was still all good because I had hammered through all the flats and class 2 up until that point, and still felt good about my run. I boofed into the top drop of Triple Drop, and tried to focus on scooping my bow up and over the huge exploding second hole of the rapid... rejected! The hole dropped me over to the right into the big meltdown seam of the third drop. As I came in I tried to take a left boof stroke and edge my boat upstream to try and skip over it. I succeeded in doing that, but I miscalculated with too much angle, and my long boat planed at full speed into the swirling eddy on the right. D'OHH!! I think I let out a few choice words at that point, so I apologize to the crowd on shore for that.

In the midst of some Russell Fork pushiness.

Credit: Rob Hurst

After pitoning the far wall of the eddy, spinning my boat around, and getting myself back into the flow of that big river, I had a fairly decent finish to my run. That is one of the most grueling sections of whitewater I have ever raced... lots of big rapids and boils to contend with for sure, and I was nearly ready to puke by the end of it. In spite of my frustration about catching that eddy, I was super pumped about the race, and will certainly be back every year from now on. Plus it was my birthday, how could I be pissed about anything?

Results:
1) Andrew Holcombe
2) Bryan Kirk
3) Chris Gragtmans
4) Pat Keller
5) Toby McDermott

The Linville Triple!!

2008-09-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty unbelievable day. Since I started getting into the creeking scene here in Asheville when I was 14, I've really looked up to Johnson City boater Adam Herzog. I've always thought that he is one of the most core people in our sport, simply because he never seems to care at all about the superficialities and corporate image bulls&#@ that consumes alot of people, and he just crushes it in a kayak, on a road bike or on a trail. He has won the Jerry's Baddle Greenman class two years in a row, run 40-40 on the Toxaway in a Perception Overflow, consistently beat the 5 minute mark in the Green Race, run the Raven's Fork and Cullasaja in a day, taken me down the Elk at richter flood levels (Watauga at 8600), and run the Linville twice in a day SOLO. Dude is an animal.

Adam and I have had conversations over the past two years or so about doing the Linville 3 times in a day, and how that would be the ultimate day of kayaking in the Southeast. I have always thought that my physical conditioning would allow me to complete the three river runs if that was all that was involved, but the hikes in and out of the river are over a mile each, with majour elevation changes. The first time I paddled the Linville I was 100% physically and mentally drained when I reached that takeout, and then even moreso after hiking for an hour back to the cars.

Here's the elevation profile for the Linville Gorge.

Credit: Chris Bell/Boatingbeta

I guess the only way to find out if you are capable of something is to try it... so I woke up at 3:45 in the morning, checked levels, and called Adam at 4. Things were looking good, the Linville was at a high level of 3 feet but appeared to be dropping in. Time to skip four classes!

The plan was to meet Fergus Coffey for the first, slower run in which we would have to look out for new wood, and then knock out the next two runs with just me and Adam. I left my house at 4:25 am loaded down with Gatorades, Powerbars, PBJ, a Mac and Cheese/bean mix that I concocted the night before, and 4 liters of water. After a lonely, dark, rainy, foggy drive up to the Linville that involved a lot of loud music to boost my confidence, I met the boys at the falls at 5:45. Adam said he had driven straight through the headwaters and they were getting slammed with rain, and that the triple plans were pretty much scrapped. However we set shuttle and kept a positive attitude, and Spencer and his son Mason showed up as we suited up at the Babel Tower parking lot to document the ridiculousness of our situation.

Babel Tower trailhead, 6:30 am.

Credit: Spencer Cooke

Heading in.

Credit: Spencer Cooke

RUN #1
...was intense for me as I've never paddled Linville nearly that high. All the rapids were really really awesome, but it just felt like we were flirting with disaster the entire time. As long as you keep your boat skipping through those holes its all good, but if you get stuck in one... I don't really want to think about it. It is a sick class V+ run at that level. Demanding lines with the most dire of consequences if you come out of your boat. We all had smooth lines through everything and I was feeling my groove by Cathedral Gorge. Sick run and we were back at the putin by 10:25, which meant 2 hours on the river and another 1:25 total for the hiking.

RUN #2
I crammed some food and water down at the put-in, but we started down the trail before I could really think about anything. The second hike in started hurting, and by the bottom, my quads and calves were feeling pretty flayed. We hiked in silence due to the fact that it was pouring on us. Pouring! I would be lying if I said that I wasn't very nervous hiking back into that powerful place. I did not want to disrespect the Linville.

Wiseman's Dome on a pretty ominous morning.

Credit: Spencer Cooke

We got to Babel and noticed that the water had risen by a good two inches on Adam's gauge rock. We ran Babel Tower for the second time and cruised downstream at high speed, leapfrogging down the river whenever one of us would get slowed down for any reason. I was feeling great still but was starting to get the brain fuzz from overdose of huge whitewater. It was still f@#*ing raining! We had smooth lines through everything and hit the Conley trail after 1:20 on the river. Adam pronounced at the takeout that he was 100% out for the third one and not to let him go if said he wanted to paddle again at the top. I was pretty exhausted myself but thought I might have the reserves for a third... I hit a carb gu and put my shit back on my head.

We got to the cars 35 minutes later and after feeling the hood on Spencer's car I figured I could catch those boys on the hike in. As we drove to the putin a very crucial thing happened... the sun came out. Adam proclaimed that he was back in for the triple, and we rolled into the putin right as a huge crew was getting ready to hike in. YEEESSSS. I put my kayak on my head and started stumbling down the trail again.

Adam and myself getting fired up for the third run.

Credit: Spencer Cooke

RUN #3
I got to the gorge drop-in overlook and took my kayak off my head for a sec. John, Toby, Al G and Pat were taking a break there, and they seemed pretty worried about my involuntarily shaking legs. I think my response was something like I'm fine, just need to get to the river...

Adam reaching the river on our third hike in.

Credit: Spencer Cooke

I think this is called the 1000 yard stare...

Credit: Spencer Cooke

Adam running Babel Tower for the third time.

Credit: Spencer Cooke

I hit another gu at Babel, and we put on with an 8 person crew chasing us, and the final run was incredible. Adam had a scary experience at Jailhouse rapid, but bulled his way out of it, and then made a good decision to hike Cathedral Gorge via the trail on river right. I knew that I was going to crash hard soon, as we had been exerting ourselves at a very high level for 11 hours, but it did not hit me on the river. I felt absolutely great and had a blast bombing the boys through some huge rapids. We hit the trail after a 1:30 final run, and after a quick celebration we got everything together for one last hike out.

I didn't take any breaks on the hike out, but about 15 minutes from the top my body was starting to crash. I stumbled up the last 5 or so switchbacks and up the final stretch... Pat was there with his camera and said that he has never seen me that tired, ever. Adam rolled in a couple minutes later and Pat came through with the celebration beverages! It was an absolutely incredible day, one that I will never forget.

Adam and myself at the takeout from Adam's blog.

Credit: Adam Herzog, Pat Keller

Also from Adam's blog, here is the Linville gauge. The initial spike resulted from Hurricane Fay and we caught it on the 28th.

Credit: American Whitewater

Here's the math on the Linville Triple:

Conley Cove(takeout) trail: 1.3 miles, 1100 vertical feet
x3= 3.9 miles, 3300 ft.

Babel Tower(putin) trail: 1.2 miles, ? feet
x3= 3.6 miles, ? ft.

River: 5.9 miles, 1009 vertical feet
x3= 17.7 miles, 3027 ft.

There will be a mini-documentary on the Linville Gorge and the paddling history and allure surrounding it on Spencer Cooke's first Rapid Transit DVD, to be premiered with LVM at the pre-Green Race Show at the end of October. More details can be found on the Rapid Transit Video website.

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

Buseater and Quebec epicness...

2008-06-01T23:30:00.000-07:00

Salut mes amis!

Hope everyone's getting on some good water this summer, I can't express how stoked I am to be free for a couple months and getting in my kayak as much as I possibly can. Yeaaaooow!!

I'm wrapping up a two and a half week trip in Eastern Canada, and thought I would share a couple photos of the goings on up here... full coverage will be featured in Lunch Video Magazine's Northeast State Series DVD premiering this fall.

Welcome to Canada.

So I haven't surfed the Buseater waves of the Ottawa river since 2004, and it is so great to be back. These waves, along with the many others that this region of Canada offers, have been and will continue to be one of the primary driving forces behind the evolution of freestyle kayaking. They are super big and dynamic, and allow for upwards of 5 feet of air to throw tricks.

Brooks Baldwin towing out onto Minibus.

I met up with Pat Camblin, Ben Marr, Marlow Long, and the rest of the YGP crew up here, and needless to say the boys are killing it. You'll have to wait for the footage to really understand what I'm talking about, but the consistency and magnitude of the tricks that are being done is impressive. One of my best buds Ben Marr in particular has been absolutely destroying it! Kid is one of the best in the world without a doubt.

Here's Benny on a late-afternoon run of the Main Channel of the Ottawa.

After wrapping up the Ottawa stay it was time to hit some races and creeks in Quebec. I competed in the RIP Cup on the Neilson River, as well as the creek race up in the city of La Tuque, both of which were sick!

Neilson wilderness.

The scene at the RIP Cup.

So the RIP Cup is a team race on the B section of the Neilson River. The course is about 6 or 7 minutes long, and is high volume whiteout style creeking. Super fun and challenging. In addition to this it is a team race, in which two people start together and the clock stops when the second person crosses the finish line. The last rapid is a double drop that is intimidating in itself, and even moreso when your muscles are lactic and you're fighting for air!

Looking back at the final drop from the finish line.

The race attracted a bunch of very talented kayakers from around the world, and the 15 or so teams were stacked to say the least. Dominic Chaput and myself teamed up for this race, and we were stoked to find out that we were tied for 1st after the first run with Ben Marr and Dave Neiuwenhuis. Our second run was fast and clean until the second to last rapid, where Dominic caught a weird flake and ran the slide upside down, and then got caught in the hole, taking a little swim! All good though it was a super fun event and these things happen when you're hammering down big class 5 rapids.

RIP Cup starting line.

RIP Cup final results:
1) Ben Marr/Dave Neiuwenhuis
2) Tyler Fox/Joey Hitchins
3) Rush Sturges/Patrick Camblin(i think)

David Laroche was nice enough to put me up at his place during the event, and afterwards we got on the road and took a little mission out to the Charlevoix region of Quebec, where a tonne of beautiful rivers drop from the California'esque granite mountains down into the St. Lawrance River. We were able to paddle the 2nd descents of the Riviere Noir and Riviere du Gouffre, as well as take a first D of a beautiful 30 footer on the Gouffre.

In general, the rivers of Quebec are powerful, rugged places to be in a kayak. They make you feel small.

Very fired up after a successful first D!

The next creek race was in La Tuque on the Petite Bostonnais River. This is yet another sick class 5 race course! If these races were anywhere close to the Southeast they would probably have 100+ participants, but since they're way up north they really don't get the credit they deserve. If you ever have the chance to attend one of these events, jump on it for sure.

Footage of the race from last year can be found here:
Petite Bostonnais Race

The Petite Bostonnais race starts with a bang about ten feet above a slide into a 15 footer, and then directly afterwards a beautiful 10 foot boof.

Starting line.

Shit is stacked!

Vincent Ratte hammering through the only flatwater on the river, directly below the first rapid.

The first rapid is sick, but the real challenge of the course is sticking the 1/4 kilometre whiteout slide at the bottom of the course. This thing is so awesome! Think Space Mountain section of the Toxaway but more continuous... You come skipping out of the hole at the end and the finish line is right there. Action from start to end.

I took two practice runs of the river to frantically try and figure out the fastest lines, and then got my stuff back to the top and got ready to battle for the $1000 first place prize. I hammered as hard as I could on my first run but caught a couple misplaced scrapey rocks and plugged deep into the hole on the 3rd drop. My second run however was one of the best runs I have ever had in my career, in any race. I find that creek racing is really just finding the highest level that you can push your body and still be able to have smooth lines. That run was the closest I have ever come to achieving that, and I freaked out as I crossed the finish line still on a plane from the last hole. Incredible feeling.

Petite Bostonnais Results:
1) Chris Gragtmans
2) David
3) Vincent Ratte

It's been a great trip for sure, and I can't wait to come back later this summer. Until then, hope to see you on the rivers of the high Sierra in California.

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

Captain CRUNCH spring break!

2008-06-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

What up All!

So this spring we got hit with a couple huge storms that spiked all of the best stuff in the Southeast up to some huge levels. One such storm provided me with a most excellent spring break from school. First up Silver Run Falls.

Silver Run is a sick rapid that consists of a rhododendron tunnel entrance, into a big twisty slide, and then directly off a 30 to 35 foot waterfall. It's one of my favourite rapids in the Southeast for sure, but it's super tough to catch with enough water.

Jesse Wilinsky bombing down the entrance...

Toby McDermott with a less than optimal line! He was ok though.

Beautiful sunset over a richter high Toxaway River. That place is incredible.

So the next day we were torn between a potential West Virginia weekend or staying and paddling the epic flows that were already occurring in our backyard. After talking to Kelsey Thompson and the Bryans I made the decision to head up to WV with Jesse Wilinsky. Our mad dash north was motivated by one very classic Southeastern waterfall...

Captain Crunch Falls.

Photo: Adam Johnson

So Captain Crunch and the Laurel River used to be a staple of West Virginia creekboaters, but a huge flood back around 2001 destroyed the creek, and made the waterfall a fairly sketchy proposition. It's been run since then only a few times, and I've definitely been itching to bomb off the lip of that thing. The level was a bit low for it, but Jesse, myself and Kelsey decided to go for it.

Myself on the lip.

Credit: Bryan Kirk

Impact position.

Credit: Bryan Kirk

10 minutes after running Captain Crunch, we were treated to a couple of the best waves on earth. You forget the 4.5 hour drive in about two seconds on these waves, and at this point I was super stoked about our decision to make the drive up.

So the next day we wanted to go for another Fayetteville double header... Mann's Creek in the morning and a Dries surf session in the afternoon. This is definitely one of the best days of kayaking that you can have on the planet. Mann's is a great continuous class 5 creek that just keeps going and going, and both times I've been down it I've just followed Bryan Kirk...

Here's Bryan boofing over some sketchiness in Goliath.

This is a standard scene on Mann's... chaos. This rapid, I think it's called Double Play, is pretty stressful. We ran the left line due to new wood on the right.

Bryan setting safety below Liquid Draino.

After Mann's you get to paddle the moving ocean known as the New River at 60,000 cfs.

Uhh yeah this was F#^$ing huge. A bit higher and you might just have the ultimate wave.

Signing out for now... Good lines!
Chris Gragtmans

New Vid...

2008-03-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Watch Wintertime Creeking Video.

What up all!

So I've been paddling and filming a good bit recently, and finally had the opportunity to sit down and put the footage together. This video includes headcam footage of Big Hungry Creek, the Green at 400%, Raven Fork, as well as other footage of the Horsepasture, Toxaway, and the Valles River in Mexico.

Pat Keller going large south of the border.

Watch the video HERE.

I would like to give a special thank you in this post to the artists that are gracious enough to supply us with such sick music. They are mentioned at the end of the video, but here is the info about each of these artists:

Statistics
"Another Day"
www.jadetree.com

Big Dro & Zinndeadly ft. Mystic
"Choose One"
http://zinndeadly.com

I'm pretty fired up about this video, because it sums up in about 8 minutes some of my all-time favourite places to go kayaking. Of particular note on the video are the 2nd and 3rd descents of the left line of the Micos waterfall in Mexico by Pat Keller and Lawrance Simpson(after first d'ing it 2 days earlier). That drop is a sicko twisting slide into about 55 feet of freefall. Very cool. Also, the footage of the Green at 24 inches or 400% is also the same day that Pat and I ran Gorilla at the highest flow I've ever attempted it. For reference, check out the wave that is usually the whale tail rock...

And it's kind of eerie when you just boof right over the top of the Frankenstein Rock.

Anyways, incredible day out there, and my headcam fell off in Go Left, but allowed for us to go for a soul-boating descent of the monkey without any cameras or outside influences involved. I may be wrong, but to my knowledge it's the highest that rapid has been run. It was a really awesome experience.

Well, hope you enjoy the video, and see you on the river sometime soon!

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

Random Wintertime Musings...

2008-02-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

Whats up everyone!

So with some good water hitting the southeastern US over the past month, I've been getting pretty fired up about kayaking again, and I figured I'd do some rambling on the ole' blog.

To start things off, I'd like to mention a new video that was produced by one of my best buds, Spencer Cooke. The video is called Night of the Living Donkey, and it features a number of whitewater athletes doing their thing on various different rivers around the world. I was psyched to contribute some footage to the project, and then just sit back and watch what Spencer came up with for the final result. Needless to say, it's a really entertaining video, and there is some very sick creeking, playboating, and surf kayaking in it.

Check out the trailer or order NoTLD here...

Something else of note for 2008 is the fact that there will be another mustache growing contest... Immersion Research is the title sponsor for the event, and the winning prize is a drysuit, not too shabby a reward for making a fool of yourself!

Anyways, moving on... I took a trip to Mexico with a couple of friends from both the East and West Coast of the US back around New Years, and upon returning from that trip, things were looking up in the southeast. There is a grassroots head to head race on the Chattooga River every year, and I rode down with Chris Gallaway and Daniel Windham this January to line up with about 10 people and sprint down that ultraclassic stretch of whitewater from Woodall to Soc-em-Dog.

Adam Herzog powering out of the Soc-em-Dog hole to finish the race. Our times were in the 27 minute range this year, and I was pretty close to puking while taking this shot.

Daniel Windham boofing off Soc-em-Dog.

The Chattooga is a dangerous place, be careful out there.

A week or so later we got some good rain, and after getting shut down on the Toxaway, myself, Brad Kee, Rob Tompkins, Chan Jones, and Chris Gallaway ran the Horsepasture at a perfect flow.

Paparazzi on the Horsepasture.

Chris and Brad sticking it.

400 foot Windy Falls dropping off the face of the earth... such a beautiful spot.

Chris Gallaway is currently working on a video short of that day, so I'm not gonna share too many images. Check out Chris's documentary video from 2007, The Green Race Movie. Chris won the Professional Documentary and Best of Show awards at the NPFF this year for that vid, congrats bud!

So I also figured that I'd dig up an old post that I put up on Boatertalk a while back in response to Brian Miller questioning if he was ready to run the Toxaway, Raven Fork, or Linville Rivers, three steep, challenging creeks in North Carolina. I figured it might be worth putting on my blog. Here's the post:

"Hey Brian,

Well, first of all, let me say that I know that you are capable of paddling all of those rivers safely, and I'd be glad to take you down them anytime.

So for anyone else who may be interested, it's none of my business who paddles these rivers. It's your personal decision to put on any river, and everyone has a different perception of what it takes to be "ready." For me personally, I prefer to overprepare for hard whitewater, because let's face it, the consequences of messing up are not losing a game or taking a hit to your ego like other sports... we are all aware that class 5 rivers can kill us. So I know that you can get down these rivers without putting in nearly as much time; the following is just what works for me, because I love the feeling of sticking a hard river, and knowing I've still got reserve energy at the takeout.

I like Clay's comments about "on-siting" rivers. It's totally true that we are not necessarily capable of paddling rapids as big as the biggest ones on our local runs in foreign territory... Familiarity breeds complacency, and I am sure that if Gorilla was on any other natural flow river, it wouldn't get run nearly as much. Both Toxaway and Raven Fork require you to run rapids that are as big or bigger, and you can't spend an hour scouting each one, and watch ten people go first, like on Gorilla.(keep in mind I am talking about RUNNING these rivers... if it's your thing to drop into huge rivers, and walk all of the rapids, that's your choice, I just don't see a point in this) So in preparation for the Toxaway and Raven's, I would advise that you be mentally capable, have the fitness required, and have the paddling skills required. If any of these are missing, it's going to be a long day. Here's how I think of it:

Mental Skills... The simple fact of the matter is, adrenaline wears you out. It gives you short lived bursts of incredible energy and excitement, but during a long day of class 5, the adrenaline spikes will beat you down and cause your mind to slow down. Ever hear Tommy Hilleke talk about the thousand yard stare? That's what he's talking about... So in that respect paddling the Raven Fork, Toxaway, or Linville(or on the extreme edge of the scale, Middle Kings, or Stikine, or Tsangpo) will be mental overload if you're not accustomed to dealing with more than just one or two runs on the Green River. Basically for this I would suggest thinking about how you feel after getting off a class 5 creek. If you get off the Green after a run or two and you're exhausted and spent, think about paddling and portaging for another couple of miles, and then hiking 4 miles up a ridge to get back to your car. Basically, paddling those rivers requires you to be in control of yourself, and on your paddling game for extended periods of time. This takes practice, and all of us eventually get exhausted and hit a mental wall, you just have to know at what point that will happen for you personally, and if the river that you are going to do is realistic considering that.

Paddling Skills... There are hard moves on those rivers, and you need to be able to stick them every time. I like to put myself in hypothetical situations on rivers that I know are not too dangerous, and test myself... ie tell yourself "make that eddy, or you flush into a sieve", or stick that boof with a fader right stroke, and then carve over to river right and stick that other boof into an eddy. If you don't make it, think about why you didn't make it and what you will do differently next time. When you screw up big rapids, don't just laugh it off and think that it's no big deal! Obviously not everything about a river can be in our control, but we should strive for perfection with lines that we know. Big Creek and the Green are my two favourite places to do skills training, they are both incredible for that. I would suggest learning how to run each of these rivers(or any local river for those that don't live in NC) in race mode, straight downstream and fast... as well as know how to catch every eddy in the rapids. On the Green, check out the recent issue of LVM with Tommy's top ten eddies... then go catch them! If you are running Gorilla every time(and in my opinion you should be if you want to run Toxaway or Raven Fork), practice every line. Sit in the eddy above and visualize exactly what strokes you are going to take and where you're going to be looking. Decide if you are going direct or catching the notch eddy. Try and run it with the minimal amount of strokes possible... substitute rudders to keep you on line. If you can start breaking down big rapids like that, you're definitely ready to take a look at the Toxaway and Raven's. Basically the point is just push yourself on your home rivers, at a number of different water levels, to see what you are actually capable of.

Physical fitness... I've been in situations where I'm exhausted from portaging drops, and paddling hard class 5, and even though my arms are limp, I know I need to stick another mile or so of boogie until the takeout. This is when dangerous mistakes are made. On my first run down the Toxaway when I was 17, my only carnage of the day happened in a class 4 boogie rapid after wintergreen... I was exhausted and not paying attention, and fell off the wrong side of a boof rock, directly into a log. This wouldn't have happened if I was in better shape and had the energy to stick every move on the river. These days, I incorporate Ledges attainment training sessions into my creekboating schedule, as well as something else that Pat Keller has always been into... the Green River shoulder shuttle. This is sick training for hiking out of Linville, Horsepasture, Toxaway, or for the even bigger Cali hikes. It also saves gas... and allows you to poach without needing anyone else to give you a ride. Paddle down to Sunshine, take out, hike back up to Groove Tube, and hike up the trail and out of the gorge to the road. It's about 2 miles to the road, and then leave your boat and jog 3.5 to the Gallimore parking lot. It takes almost exactly the same time as paddling out, loading up, and shuttling back. It is painful, but it gets you in shape. That's just a suggestion, other cardiovascular sports are great too, but I enjoy putting on music and grunting that shit out. Either way, the point is... be in shape.

Phew... anyways, sorry I'm getting a bit carried away. Here's what I personally think about the Toxaway and Raven's Fork preparation in a nutshell:
-Run the biggies on the Green(up to a medium to high 100%) or other rapids elsewhere of similar caliber and STICK them. Just because you're flopping down shit and making it doesn't mean you're skilled enough to run it.
-Be in shape.
-Be prepared and relaxed about running some very very big rapids. Go with someone who knows it well, and go with your gut instinct on the rapids.
**Ask your friends who know you well and who have paddled the rivers what their honest opinion is.**

You will be so stoked when you finally run these rivers, especially if you're prepared for them. Anyways, I'm no authority on these matters, this is just how I think of it and what works for me as a bit of a perfectionist, hope it helps any of you folks out there who are interested. Dismount soapbox...

Cheers, and good lines!"

The link to the full thread can be found HERE.

I don't really read Boatertalk too much, but I feel like that site can be either a great resource for us paddlers, or a venue to put others down and create drama over the smallest things. Unfortunately, most of the time that I get on there, it seems as though its the latter. But... I figured I'd dig this post back up because I put some thought into it when I wrote it, and I feel like a lot of people are thinking about making that big step up and want some added perspective into whether its a good idea. To be honest, I'm pretty surprised these days at the number of people that are crowding themselves into the Raven Fork or Toxaway. I haven't been on the scene too long, but even since I started paddling these rivers back when I was 17, things have changed alot. I truly hope running these rivers doesn't become a status symbol or some kind of peer pressure thing for people, because I've seen it happen before and have experienced it myself from time to time.

It's all good though, those places are still some of the most incredible rivers to find yourself in a kayak... and as long as we're all staying safe and maintaining access, noone has the right to judge whether others are allowed to be there.

Hiking in for a beautiful wintertime run on Raven Fork.

Credit: Rob Tompkins

Exiting Headless Horseman.

Credit: Rob Tompkins

Getting dwarfed by the top of Landbridge on the Toxaway.

Credit: Spencer Cooke

So I talked a bit about this in the aforementioned post on Boatertalk, but I've definitely been thinking about the fitness aspect of extreme kayaking recently. With Jerry's Baddle coming up, and a couple of other ambitious marathon day plans that I want to do in preparation for the California and BC summer, I've really been trying to stay motivated, eat well, and train hard.

This is the Ledges Park on the French Broad River.

The Ledges are probably responsible for more than half of my overall fitness as a paddler, and I spend a lot of time out there, especially during Green Race season.

Daniel charging upstream.

Another thing that I've really been getting a kick out of is riding a mountain bike. This is my recently acquired bike, a Trek Remedy 6 after a very muddy Bent Creek ride. I looove her.

Riding is the perfect crossover sport for paddling, because bombing downhill is a very similar sensation to kayaking, and the uphills will get them kayaking chicken legs into shape! Plus for mountain biking it needs to be dry, so it's perfect for when there's no water.

My little bro Nick going for it.

The author riding the Clemson freeride course down in South Carolina.

My roommate, Chris Schell doing his thing.

Goofy self portrait at the top of Kitsuma Ridge... such a sick trail!

I've been using my Shred Ready Phly helmet for riding. It works well as a crossover helmet for a number of sports, and even has a goggle groove thing on the back for snowboarding or skiing. Check out the Shred Ready website HERE or just click on the link in the toolbar on the right side of the blog.

As I conclude this cathartic blog post of rambling, I'm gonna go on record and say that I love Big Creek. Getting back to the whole peer pressure thing, I get made fun of almost every time I say that I'm gonna go run that creek instead of one of the sicker runs of the area, but I just don't care. It's so much fun, and every bit as challenging as any run in the Southeast when its running high. Here's a picture of the takeout at a prime level of 4 feet. Action!!

Alright, well hope everyone gets outside and enjoys some good water. I'm gonna wrap this gong show up... hope you enjoyed my ramblings!

I'll leave you with this picture of Rob Tompkins boofing the crap out of left side Sunshine in his long boat!

Peace,
Chris Gragtmans

DeSoto Falls First Descent...

2008-02-08T23:38:00.001-08:00

Whats up Everyone!

Well, I'm still in a bit of an afterglow from an incredible day of paddling in Alabama yesterday. There have been a number of waterfalls and rapids in my life that I've considered big stepping stones for myself as a whitewater kayaker, and the waterfall that I ran yesterday has kind of been the pinnacle goal for me over the past four years.

This is DeSoto Falls.

This picture has been on the desktop of my computer on and off for two years. Every time I turn on my computer to do schoolwork, edit video, or check levels this is the first thing I see, and I've literally spent hours just daydreaming and staring at this beautiful drop, and wondering about its runnability.

DeSoto at a runnable flow.

I first discovered DeSoto four years ago, while on one of my obsessive Google image searches for waterfalls. I researched it online pretty thoroughly for a while, and Spencer Cooke and I finally went to look at it three years ago after the North Alabama Whitewater Fest down near Birmingham. It wasn't running, but it was sick to just stand at the lip and think about the possibilities. Since then I've been in touch with Adam Goshorn, who is fortunate enough to live 5 minutes from the drop... and I've kept a pretty close eye on the gauge for the West Fork of the Little River, hoping to some day time it at the perfect flow of 300-600 cfs.

The past week has been a good one in the Southeast, Saturday was a sick day out on the Raven's Fork of the Oconaluftee, and after a morning run of the Green on Wednesday, and an intense afternoon run of Big Creek at 4 ft., I realized that I was paddling as well as I ever have, and with the West Fork gauge at 1100 cfs, well above floodstage, the stars might just be aligning for that incredible waterfall.

Raven's Fork... such a beautiful place to find yourself in a kayak.

Credit: Clayton Gaar

One of my favourite people to train with, Daniel Windham, and myself in Caveman.

Credit: Rob Tompkins

So early Thursday morning Chris Gallaway and I loaded up my Subie with our sights set on Alabama. After a 4.5 hour drive that seemed to last an eternity we rolled into the DeSoto Falls parking lot, and immediately saw a wall of brown water rolling off the big dam upstream of the first drop of the monster. Adam Goshorn took work off and met us up there, and after about 40 minutes of scouting and discussing with the boys, I decided that I was ready to get into the flow and paddle off it. Adam was very cool to hike all the way around and down to set safety for the drop... cheers man! Can't thank you enough.

So this drop has always appealed to me/scared the shit out of me because of the commitment of running a 15 to 20 foot drop directly above the 70-80 foot main waterfall. I chose to run the top drop down the far river left side, and knowing that the landing was only about a foot or two deep, I had to roll off vertical, and then hit a late boof off the shelf halfway down. This was also made a bit more stressful considering the two gallons of water sloshing around in my boat waiting to take me safely into the vertical plane on the big drop, rather than boofing out.

Top drop without water.

Credit: Chris Gallaway

So when it finally came time to go for it I made eye contact with Chris on the bank to make sure everything was ready, cleared my mind of all other thoughts, and reached a state of focus that I have only felt once or twice before in my life. I rolled off the first one and boofed into a stomp just as I had hoped, and then I set up really close to the left wall to keep from being pulled towards the center of the river, and the abrasive, shallow crack/shelf thing that would send you into a pitchpole or spiral into green water off the big drop.

Working out the first drop. The curler in the foreground is at the lip of the big one...

Credit: Chris Gallaway

Moment of truth.

Credit: Chris Gallaway

I took a right sweep as my left edge connected with the curler coming off the left wall at the lip, and then placed my left stroke in the water as the world opened up, and I rolled off to vertical. I have never fallen that far before and it was surreal slowly pulling my left stroke into a tuck, and staring at my landing for what seemed like an eternity as I accelerated towards it, with all the solid water around me exploding in the air and turning into spray. About fifteen feet above the bottom I finally closed my eyes, clenched every muscle in my body, and prepared for what I thought was going to be a gigantic hit.

Trying to lock in the angle... you can see the lip of the entrance drop in the very top of the frame.

Credit: Adam Goshorn

Tucking up and preparing for impact.

Credit: Adam Goshorn

I was ripped out of my tuck on impact, but DeSoto was merciful with me, it was not nearly as hard of a hit as I had anticipated, and I let out a big victory scream as I resurfaced upright to the left of the boil, staring back up at where I had just come from.

All in all, it was probably the most incredible drop I've ever done, and I feel honoured to be the first person to run it. Adam, Chris, and I finished the day off with a great run of Little River Falls and the Canyon at a great level of just over 12 inches. Thanks again for showing us the lines Adam!

Signing off from cloud nine,
Chris Gragtmans

Mexican New Year...

2008-01-15T23:39:00.000-08:00

Greetings Whitewater World!

I just got back from an incredible trip to the country of Mexico... the place has an unbelievable amount of whitewater and some very very large waterfalls. Mexico is an awesome place to go for paddlers of all levels, but carries a special attraction for class V paddlers looking to step it up and start freefalling long distances.

Scouting in Mexico...

Pat Keller, myself and Jake Greenbaum rode down in Pat's truck, and met up with Austin Rathmann, Ian McClaren, Jon Meyers, and Lawrance Simpson in Valles, Mexico.

Ready.

The reward after 35 hours of driving!

Filming at the lip of the first drop of Day 1, the Micos. 2 ran, the rest did a sick rappel off the side.

Micos waterfall from below... about 75 feet of total drop and 55 feet of freefall... Lawrance knocked out the First D of the left side on this trip, sick!

After Pat and Lawrance ran the Micos, we did the beautiful travertine waterfall run-out below and packed up to go to the second huck of our trip, Cascada El Salto. This waterfall has to be one of the coolest looking drops ever, dropping about 100 feet over three tiers. I've always wanted to run this beast, but my head just didn't feel right to do one of the biggest hucks of my life, so I opted out.

Two bad lines on El Salto...

Unfortunately day 1 took Jon Meyers out for the trip. He flipped on the 70 foot second drop of El Salto and fractured his left elbow. McClaren flipped too and although he didn't break anything, his elbow wasn't quite the same after that... the big drops will get ya!

Getting hassled by the fuzz. They had big guns.

Another 6 hours south and the next day we found ourselves in the final destination for our trip, Tlapacoyan in the state of Veracruz. This is where the Rio Alseseca makes its 30 mile plunge from the mountains onto the coastal plan flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Other than the Middle Kings, I have never seen any other river with sustained sick, (marginally) runnable whitewater for so long. The thing just keeps falling and falling, and unlike the Kings, this river is formed by volcanic basalt, and its jungles hide a tonne of huge waterfalls. Several different sections of the Alseseca were our focus for the remainder of our trip in Mexico, and I can't wait to get back and explore more.

The jungle here just makes you want to run everything. "Looks a little low but the portage is horrible, I'm gonna run it!"

Austin on Rapid 1, roadside Alseseca.

Lawrance styling one of the coolest rapids in existence, S-Turn.

The author enjoying the tropics.

Great drop on the Pezma section.

Pat Keller doing what he does best... plug in first and probe that shit for us!

The trip came to an end somewhat abruptly due to pending school responsibilities and some sickness in the group, but I know that we'll be back. If you are planning your own trip to Mexico in the future, I would advise the following precautions:
1) Wear long pants to avoid poison ivy/bug bites.
2) Don't carry anything illegal in the car... you don't want to go to jail there.
3) Take the toll roads, they are very worth it.
4) Bring tonnes of climbing gear... ascenders, two big climbing ropes and rappel gear
5) Take a vehicle with big clearance, the speed bumps are killers.
6) Bring your A game, you can go as big as you want!!

The boys satisfied after an awesome trip. We're pretty tough in case you can't tell.

Until next time...
Chris Gragtmans

Waterfall Tour of Quebec...

2007-11-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

As creekboaters, there are a couple of destinations that we hear a lot about as being the holy grails of extreme kayaking. Norway, Mexico, California, and Chile come up time and time again as the places to visit when you can gather the funds and the crew. I love traveling to locations such as these that are well-established and documented, but once in a while it's fun to get off the beaten path a bit. That is what Quebec is to me... a fairly undocumented mecca of absolutely everything that you could want as a kayaker. But you've gotta work for it!

I take no credit for this graphic by Spencer Cooke...

A typical Quebec waterfall...

Photo: Kelsey Thompson

This July I took a week long trip with my buddy Kelsey Thompson, and we paddled some incredible rivers in the Laurentian Mountains.

First stop... Les Sept Chutes de Saint Anne, Drop 1.

Photo: Kelsey Thompson

The Sept Chutes of St. Anne are located east of Quebec City, and are 7 absolutely incredible park and huck waterfalls on the St. Anne du Nord River. These drops were first-d'd by Dominic Chaput and Dominic Fournier(Dom and Domer) a couple years back at low water, and to my knowledge have only been run a handful of times by them since then. I've been researching and wanting to run them for the past three years, and I finally got a chance. After the 4.5 hour drive from Montreal, Kelsey and I met up with Steve Arns, Krusty Thompson, and Bob Butler and got to paddle these sick cataracts. Incredible day at a flow somewhere around 200 cfs.

"Big Water" Bob Butler styling it while I film and Krusty shoots photos.

Photo: Steve Arns.

Steve Arns, Drop 5.

Photo: Kelsey Thompson

Bob mid-bounce on Drop 1.

Photo: Steve Arns

After the Sept Chutes, we made the big drive northeast into the middle of nowhere to paddle the Malbaie River. In spite of it's remoteness, it is well worth the drive, and provides a great day of high volume class IV/V creeking and the sweetest 30 footer you'll ever run! The whitewater immediately took my mind off of the long drive and rainy night that we had just spent, as well as the fact that I had 1/4 tank of gas about 120 kilometres from the closest gas station!

Myself enjoying the zen moment.

Photo: Steve Arns

Kelsey rolling off the lip.

Photo: Steve Arns

Kelsey boofing another cool Malbaie drop.

Photo: Steve Arns

Upon completion of the Malbaie, Steve, Bob, and Krusty had to make the 11 hour drive back to the city of Ottawa, and the real world. Kelsey and I decided to rally back to the Sept Chutes and spend another day running those bedrock wonders. Upon arrival, we discovered the river had increased exponentially in volume because of the rain... and the Sept Chutes had now entered the realm of truly world class whitewater.

Kelsey's and my run that day was one of the best days of the summer for sure, and I was fortunate enough to end it with possibly the biggest/sickest/most fun rapid that I have ever run in my life... a burly cascade starting with a boof over a huge hole at the top, then down a whiteout curler-filled slide dropping about 30 feet, immediately off a 40 footer at full speed(trying to get right, because the left half of the boil pushes into a nasty kiwi-in-a-pocket type place), and then down another Toxaway-style slide dropping about 30 more feet.

The forty footer from the overlook.

After finishing our run on the Sept Chutes, Kelsey and I headed back in the direction of Montreal, and scouted the infamous Steve Fisher rapid called the Chutes de la Sainte Ursulles. I've been looking at this one for a couple years too, and the damn South African superstar had to crush my hopes and dreams when he first d'd it last year. Punk ass! Haha... just kidding, didn't want a piece of it in years past, and that didn't change during this trip.

The sickest thing ever run in my opinion...

Photo: Kelsey Thompson

After our grand adventure, Kelsey and I were treated to two days of sessioning the Lachines Waves in Montreal. Couldn't ask for a better place to mellow out after scaring yourself a bit.

Kelsey doing his Canadian National Champion thing...

Well that's all for now folks, hope you enjoy the video, and see you at the Green Race!

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

Cheoah Race!

2007-09-02T05:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a fun one out on the Cheoah River... I made the drive out with my Asheville buds, Daniel Windham and Ashlyn Little, and we got a couple great runs down that beautiful river. It was definitely the most fun I've had in my kayak since getting back to the drought-ridden Southeast.

As 4 PM rolled around, about 20 of us lined up, shortest boat to longest boat, at the Forest Service bridge for a little impromptu head to head race through the falls, and all the way down to the lake.

I was surprised with the showing, and with Shane Benedict and Maria Noakes paddling Pisgah rec boats, Chris Hipgrave in his Wavehopper, the man Adam Zog-dog in his T-Canyon, and numerous other heavy hitters in Dancers, Tornados, and Pirouettes, everyone was super fired up!

I got kind of a mushy start back in the pack a ways, battled with a number of people until the lead in to the falls, and eventually found some open water and was able to wind it out and get into a groove.

Muchos gracias to Ashlyn Little for the pics!! That's whats up.

Myself cruising up to the falls after getting clear of the mess behind me.

Zog-dog doing his thing... probably the most core person I've ever met.

I love this series! 3 boats into the falls at once... Daniel Windham goes for the pass.

And the ensuing mayhem! (L-R Shane Benedict, Chris Hipgrave, Joe Barkley)

**Photos by Ashlyn Little**

Anyways, it was an extremely fun, challenging race on a beautiful river, and I'm definitely in again for next year! Gotta credit my bud Pat Keller here for the use of one of his beautiful Green Boats... that is one incredible design.

The results as I remember them(I have a bad memory):
1) myself
2) Chris Hipgrave
3) Adam Herzog
4) Chan Jones(i think)

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

Middle Kings Expedition...

2007-08-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

After two Upper Cherry runs and a couple chill days, it was time for Pat, Coop, Dylan and I to bite off the crown jewel of the Sierras... the Middle Kings River.

We met up with the Asheville crew that was just taking off the river and got some very encouraging advice, as well as a couple scary peeks into what we were going to be dealing with:

Tommy- "It's the river trip of a lifetime."
John- "Here's a picture of Jules hiking in the snow on Bishop's Pass... ok here's a picture of Jules puking on Bishop's Pass."
Tommy- "There's the rapid where I swam."
Katie- "There's the rapid where I swam and lost my boat."
Jason- "Get ready to punch a thousand holes. It's awwwwwwnnn in there!"
Jules- "There's the rapid where homie compound fractured his arm and swam."

I knew that the Middle Kings represented a milestone that I've been training for since I started creekboating. The specs of this adventure are pretty incredible:

Shuttle- 400 miles down around the southern slope of the Sierras
Hike- 13 miles to putin, over a 12,000 ft. pass, 2 miles up at the takeout
River- 31 miles
Putin Elevation- 8600 ft.
Takeout Elevation- 2200 ft!!

I didn't take any pictures of this trip, so I'm going to refer to Pat Keller's Blog, and Cooper Lambla's Blog to tell the photographic story of the Middle Kings. It was six of the most incredible days of (I think) all of our lives, and I can't wait to go back.

Click below to watch the Middle Kings video.

Peace.
Chris

The Upper Cherry Double

2007-08-16T10:05:00.001-07:00

I've heard a lot about Upper Cherry Creek near Yosemite National Park, but none of the hype could possibly have prepared me for just how incredible this granite playground is.

The 11 mile hike in through a lunarscape...

*All photos by John Warner*

Dylan and I drove straight through the night from Crested Butte, Colorado with beta from my buddies Max Kniewasser and Chris Harjes that Upper Cherry was super high, but would come in to a perfect level with a big cold front rolling into the area. Unfortunately, Max and Chris did not know just how cold it was going to get, and about halfway through the brutal hike it started snowing on us. We then recieved the news from some hikers that the high for the next day was 40 degrees, and lows for the next two nights would be in the teens! Needless to say, after 4 non-stop days of paddling in Colorado, a 27 hour drive straight through a night and a half to get to Upper Creek, and only 4 hours of sleeping in the dust before starting the hike, we were freaking demoralized! I had a 40 degree sleeping bag, a couple of good IR thick skin layers(thank God), and another crucial, lifesaving piece of gear, my tent fly. That night was brutal, nothing short of a blizzard hit us at the put-in, and we all hunkered down and shivered it out next to a dying fire. Harjes got the worst of it with no shelter, and the group was feeling rough in the morning.

It got sunny just long enough to coax us into not hiking out, and putting on to paddle down to Cherry Bomb...

Rapid #1, right below camp.

Filming Sam...

As soon as we put on and ran the first couple of the rapids, the snow started falling again, and the temperature plummeted. There was a lot of blowing into hands that day, and praying that we wouldn't swim as we worked our way through the Class IV Gorge, and the Gorilla Gorge.

Upon reaching the top of Cherry Bomb Gorge, the last place to exit before you drop into the 8 or so entrance drops, Cherry Bomb Falls and the next 5 walled in holes, I was feeling super pumped to drop in without the standard walk around and scout the gorge from the top, and Nick Wimsett, an incredible Kiwi paddler who had run Cherry Bomb the previous year, was also in. After a couple of minutes of deliberation, Sam and Dylan decided they were feeling fired up as well, and the four of us left Harjes, John, and Peacher and started paddling into that chasm.

Leaving the point of no return...

Amazing what glaciers can do.

Climbing up to the rock at the lip of Cherry Bomb was pretty incredible, just because that rapid is so legendary and I've always been so impressed with the way it looks in video and photos... and there I was, finally!

Our lines went well through Cherry Bomb and the next series of walled-in holes, and needless to say I was repeating the 7 Rivers Expedition famous line... "left, left, middle, right, right, middle, left". My dorky kayaking video obsession finally paid off!

Dylan givin' er.

Paddling the beautiful teacups coming out of Cherry Bomb Gorge.

Needless to say, in spite of the two nights of blizzards and a couple of big swims, Upper Cherry is one of the most incredible places a kayaker can find him or herself in. We got two runs with a total of 7 days out there on the granite, and I can't wait to go back. I'll let the video do the rest of the talking...

**Thanks to John Warner for use of his images**

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

Quebec Waterfalls...

2007-08-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, as I still have to do the Upper Cherry and Middle Kings updates, but I just returned from a 6-day trip to the province of Quebec with Kelsey Thompson, where we were able to explore a bunch of waterfalls that I've been researching and gathering beta on for a while. Check out the quick teaser below of one of the sickest/biggest/most fun drops I've ever run in my life. The province is packed with as many huge waterfalls as your body can take!!

More coming soon...

Good lines.
Chris Gragtmans

Environmental Responsibility in the Whitewater Industry

2007-07-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

Over the past years I’ve had the opportunity to work as an athlete representative for a number of very cool companies in the outdoors industry. I’m particularly excited about this year, because I’ve recently started working with Astral Buoyancy, Immersion Research, and Mion Footwear.

These three companies make top-of-the line products, and all of them share the very cool distinction of being environmentally progressive with their production methods and materials. The following is a brief look at how these three companies are making a positive impact on the world of whitewater business.

We’re fortunate to have Astral Buoyancy based right in Asheville, NC. As most of you probably know, this company is owned by Philip Curry, who also started Lotus Designs while he was in college(at Warren Wilson by the way), and eventually sold it to Patagonia. Astral is responsible for exposing the toxic externalities of using PVC foam(the industry standard at the time) in both the production and disposal of pfds. Since then, they’ve fazed in an organic, buoyant fibre by the name of KAPOK, as well as PE(polyethylene) foam, both of which are much lower impact, and PE can be recycled in the same way as plastic bottles... meaning that all the excess PE foam from the dyes can be recycled, rather than dumped in a landfill or burned like PVC. Very cool.

Enjoying the Aquavest 300 on the Green.

Photo by Spencer Cooke.

I’ve been wearing the Aquavest 300 this spring and summer, and it’s an extremely versatile piece of equipment. A couple of things that appeal to me about the vest are the tow tether with quick release, impact protection for the rib cage, and the fact that the extraction loop on the front of the jacket, as well as the shoulder straps have 1200 lb. tensile strength! Basically, you can rappel with confidence with this vest, as well as get yanked out of the worst of situations by your shoulder strap, because the webbing in the vest tightens around you as the shoulder strap is pulled up. It’s an awesome, very safe pfd, and I’m fired up to be wearing it in my creekboat and playboat.

Mion Footwear is another young company making waves in the kayaking world these days… started by Martin Keen previously of Keen footwear. Mion stands out with regards to its progressive energy practices… They are a carbon-neutral company, meaning that each of their sales reps’ vehicles features a Terrapass, which offsets the climate impact by supporting projects in clean, renewable energy. In addition to this, Mion purchases wind power from South Dakota to offset 100% of the energy used in manufacturing the shoes, and the European distribution center is 100% powered by on-site wind turbines and solar panels. The US distribution center in California is close behind with 60% of its power coming from on-site solar panels. It’s very cool to promote and be associated with companies who care enough to put these kinds of ideas into practice.

About to hike over the 12,000 ft. Bishop Pass during the 12 mile hike in to the Middle Kings River... with 85 pounds on my back! Very spiritual moment, and I'm glad I had some good hiking shoes...

Photo by Pat Keller.

My Flood Tide shoes lasted me all spring, through a Skookumchuck trip, Colorado, 2 Upper Cherry hikes(11 miles each), and 1 Middle Kings hike… and they still look barely used!

These shoes are pretty unique because they combine the play booty with the full on creeking shoe… meaning that’s all you need for any river trip. The play booty slides easily in and out, and both are made out of super tough, sticky, non-marking rubber. I couldn’t believe the play booty stood up to the razor sharp barnacles of the Skookumchuck Narrows in BC for 7 days in a row, but they still look great.

This fall, I plan on using the Fast Canyon shoe for creeking. It looks awesome with much higher ankle support and some burly treads for hiking through anything… Fast Canyon Link

Immersion Research is another company that I am super stoked to be working with. I’m coming from 5 years of representing Level Six clothing, and although I can’t say enough about the people and products over there, I feel as though IR will be a better fit.

With regards to environmental stewardship, IR is another company that just has it together… they have some very innovative new products coming down the line for 2008, but you’ll have to wait until OR show this year to hear more about those! In general, John, Kara, Roger, and everyone else at IR care about how their actions will affect the well-being of our planet.

Click here to view IR biodiesel video.

Aside from the biodiesel production, all paper, plastic, and can waste that is produced at the factory is recycled, boxes are reused, and light use is kept to a minimum. Most of the members of the IR community are also able to ride bikes to work rather than driving, and Roger Loughney rides to work a couple times a week in spite of the fact that it takes him 2 hours one way!

So, one piece of equipment that I absolutely couldn’t live without in the sport of kayaking is the Union Suit. For those unfamiliar with this product, it’s a super comfy thick-skin fleece one piece that you enter through the neck… and it is sooo warm. It comes in particularly handy on multi-days, because you can comfortably paddle snow-melt high elevation whitewater all day, and when you get to camp, strip off the rest of your gear, dry your Union Suit around the fire, and you’ll sleep a lot warmer in your sleeping bag. I probably would have been hypothermic during the Upper Cherry blizzards this year if it weren’t for this piece of gear!

Thankful for the Union Suit during a cold session in the Eternity Hole, NC.

Photo by Jeb Hall.

Anyways, I’m going to conclude my rambling, just wanted to share my excitement about working with a couple of very cool companies that care about the larger impact of their actions. Feels like a breath of fresh air in the profit-driven, image-oriented society that we live in.

Immersion Research
Astral Buoyancy
Mion Footwear

Signing out from Picton, Ontario.
Chris Gragtmans

The Colorado Goods

2007-07-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Sports Fans,

I'm currently in Eastern Canada after an incredible trip out west... My buddy Dylan Bruce and I hopped into his Suby and made a 7,000 mile tour to some of the country's best whitewater. Gotta love summer!

Watch the Colorado Tour Vid.

Stop #1 for us was the state of Colorado, and we spent four whirlwind days paddling some of the classics of the area. After taking a frustrating wrong turn outside of Salida, we finally made it to the Pine Creek/Numbers section of the Arkansas. This section of the river turned out to be a perfect warm-up for the adventure, and it was great to paddle with our buddies Ben Blake, Josh Werts, Daniel Windham and Clayton Gaar. Dylan wasn't entirely stoked about the day, with a slight mishap in the Pine Creek Rapid about 30 seconds after putting in, but that's another story...

Colorado!!

Day 2 was a slightly stressful day. I've heard alot about a rapid by the name of Paralyzer on Lake Creek just north of Buena Vista, and just the name has always freaked me out. I was fired up about running Lake Creek though, and after a quick scout to find the location of Tombstone Rapid(highly recommended by the way, it's easy to roll into), Ben, Josh, Dylan, Daniel, Clayton and I put in upstream. It was evident once we got on the run that the water was high, and eddies were in short order out there. Other than one incident involving a channel-wide log that was invisible from upstream, we made it safely through NIMBY, Toaster, and miles and miles of super fun boat-scout boogie.

Ben Blake styling some Colorado Class V in an SR Sherlock.

Photo by Josh Werts.

By the time we got to Paralyzer Rapid, I was feeling pretty fired up, but that thing turned out to be waaaay bigger than I expected. We scouted for about a half hour, and I finally decided to give her a go. Rolling into that mini-gorge of Brains Rapid, into Paralyzer, and then immediately into Z-Turn Rapid was a pretty intense experience, and I definitely felt alone in there, but everything went well, and I was fired up to be given that opportunity. After Lake Creek we rolled into Crested Butte and rendezvoused with Jim Toman, who I can't thank enough for putting us up for two nights. You're my boy blue!

Dropping in. The entrance drop before it fires around the corner into Paralyzer.

Photo by Josh Werts.

Moving left in the thick of Paralyzer, below the double boof, above the huge pillow rapid run-out.

Photo by Josh Werts.

We woke up on Day 3 to a sick couple of runs on the ultra-classic Oh-Be-Joyful Creek near Crested Butte. This creek is the shit and it's definitely my favourite run in Colorado. It's just good clean fun, and it boasts two waterfalls that are awesome for working on all kinds of creeking techniques.

The put-in for Oh-Be-Joyful Creek, 10,500 ft elevation.

Photo by Dylan Bruce

After some quick grub at the campground, we went to check out the North Fork of the Slate mini-gorge. I'll let the video explain this one, but needless to say I'm gonna need to get some redemption next year. It was a very scary rapid, and I allowed myself to lose focus in there. I got humbled for sure, but learned a valuable lesson about not letting your past mistakes affect your mentality, and your performance in the present. I've gotta also give a shout out here to Keith Sprinkle, Jim Toman, and Bill Clipper for the sick safety, moral support, and camera work. Can't thank you guys enough.

The next morning was awesome, because I got to watch/film Dylan running Stupid Falls on the Upper East River. This drop is a burly 60-foot multi-tier drop, and is a very intimidating horizon line to paddle up to. In addition to this, the bedrock is just plain scary(last year I picked little pieces of slate out of my boat after my run). Anyways, long story short... I opted out and Dylan showed us how it's done. Dude's killing it!

Dylan post-styling that shit.

Photo by Jim Toman.

After a couple more afternoon runs on O-B-J, and a delicious dinner at the Toman residence, we were again on the road, and following positive beta, we were in a bee-line for Upper Cherry Creek in California. More about that later...

Watch the Colorado Tour Vid.

Peace, and good lines out there!
Chris Gragtmans

Skookumchuck Narrows, BC

2007-06-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

The Skookumchuck Narrows is a place that I’ve wanted to visit ever since I first started kayaking. I’ve heard a million stories and seen hours of footage from the epic wave, but in spite of the large expectations I had built up, Skook lived up to and surpassed all of them. Spencer and I spent a total of 7 days at the wave, and experienced tides from 14 to 17.2 knots.

Click here to watch the Skook Video from Effort.tv

Ferry out to the Sechelt Peninsula.

The scene at Skook… Trip Jennings shoots while Karl Moser paddles.

One of the things that sets Skook apart from other big wave playspots is how dynamic and alive it is. The plankton-rich water that the flood tide brings in feeds starfish, anemones, kelp beds, and all sorts of other wildlife at the wave, and it’s pretty incredible to be surfing a big green wave and see the kelp waving on the rock shelf below you.

Oohhh. Preeeettty.

The wave itself is obviously very dynamic as well, and is at its best right before or right after it greens out on both sides of max flood. At these levels there is a small foam pile at the top, and it’s probably one of the best spots in the world for working out new tricks.

Spence works on his clean blunt.

Me enjoying the Flair 57.

I would love to have this as my home wave, and it was super fun to hang out with some of the locals who are fortunate enough to paddle here every time it comes in, especially Dru Lyall and Emily Lussin.

Dru and Emily cold-kickin it.

These guys are fellow members of Team Riot, former Canadian Team Members, and are two super cool people and very good kayakers. It was awesome hanging out with them.

Dru can throw some nasty clean blunts.

During max flood the wave greens out and playboats can’t catch it, but Dru was nice enough to let me use his Riot Boogie surf boat for a while during a big tide. After a number of vain attempts to catch the wave, I dropped in, paddled my ass off, and finally skipped down the face of that monster! “Walking on the Moon” by The Police came on my H2o Audio, and I had a ten minute, zen soul-surf out there. I really can’t describe how much fun it was, but I couldn’t stop laughing at what I was doing and yelling at the top of my lungs! It was a total spiritual moment and that single surf probably validated my whole trip out there, as well as reminding me how much I love what we kayakers are fortunate enough to be able to do.

So in conclusion, Skook is a truly special place to visit, and I’m sure I will be back. Unfortunately it looks as though the whole Skookumchuck area is under a serious threat from a local logging company. During our time there, we spoke to a number of locals who were working on petitions to protect their drinking water, and the natural aesthetic beauty of this part of the Sechelt Peninsula. Please help save this incredible paddling resource by writing an email before the proposed deadline, detailed below:

An Open Letter to all White Water Kayakers

The village of Egmont, BC, is asking for the help of all kayakers who have ridden (or aspire to ride) the waves of the Skookumchuck Rapids. We have learned that a logging company has acquired the logging license in this area. The logging plans involve three huge clear cuts on the local watershed with one that extends right to the Skookumchuck Trail within the Provincial Park. Also, there is a planned cutblock that would mow down the trees along Egmont Road from Highway 101 to North Lake; a huge cutblock off of Maple Road; and another cutblock on the watershed at the north end of Ruby Lake. As well, the company plans to log Sechelt Nation Reserve lands just inside the Sechelt Inlet just past the rapids.

The residents of Egmont asked if the logging company would take a sustainable logging approach but they said no and so the area's residents have said no to the logging company. We now ask for your support to keep the logging out of this area. We ask that you email the forestry rep before a June 6th deadline at
cam_forrester@dccnet.com
and copy that email to us at skookumnarrows@yahoo.ca

Please address your email to:

Cam Forrester, R.P.F., Consulting Forester
6231 Sunshine Coast Highway, Sechelt, BC V0N 3A7
Tel: 604-885-7142, Fax: 604-885-7112
Email: cam_forrester@dccnet.com

We will be posting all information about this proposed logging and our efforts to stop it on our blog at
www.saveourwatershed.com. We look forward to your support.

Sincerely,

Friends of Egmont

Click here to watch the Skook Video from Effort.tv including information regarding the logging.

I’d like to thank Aquabound Paddles and Craig Langford for hooking it up on this trip! See you on the rivers of Colorado, California or Oregon in the near future.

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans

New Riot Prototypes...

2007-03-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

It is my esteemed pleasure to introduce you big folks to a pair of kayaks that are going to make you very very happy.

We've been testing prototypes for the big Magnum and big Thunder here in the Southeast, and although I have only limited experience in the Thunder, the big Magnum is quite honestly my dream boat... the best creekboat I have ever paddled. I've been able to get it out on the Green for a number of 100% and 200% runs, and a recent high-water Raven's Fork run, and the 6 extra inches and 5+ extra gallons make this thing more confidence-inspiring than I could have imagined!

More info coming soon, but here's a couple pics from a recent 250% run on the Green to get you started...

Spence styling the burly Go Left and Die line in the big Thunder.

Me dropping into the Gorilla.

Rolling off the pad and preparing to get crushed by the veil!

Spence dropping into the river right slot below Sunshine.

This thing is going to swallow overnighter gear for breakfast!

Check back to the Riot Blog next week for the full scoop...

Good lines.
Chris Gragtmans

Creeking Technique: the STOMP

2006-12-28T15:10:00.000-08:00

Watch Stomp Video

Hey Folks,

Just checking in from the mountains of North Carolina, where I've just had a month of incredible creekboating on the Green River, the Raven's Fork, the Toxaway, and the Horsepasture. I'm super pumped about being in my Magnum right now, so I thought I'd share with you an important technique that all creekboaters should have in their repertoire, the stomp.

This technique is very useful for drops under 25 feet that you don't want to pencil, but may be painful to boof. It also provides a way to correct from a big auto-boof off the lip, or to get a bit of angle so that your boat scoops forward out of a big hole, rather than backendering. It also looks way cool!

A little bit big to boof, too shallow to plug... a prime candidate for el stompo.

So without further ado here's how you do the stomp:

1) Approach the lip with a reasonable amount of speed, and confidence that you're going to be able to finish your boof stroke and be in control.

2) Take your boof stroke, but remain in a neutral position, don't thrust your hips forward, moving your body back, or pull your knees to your chest, moving your body forward. Just stay relaxed and neutral.

3) Once completely disconnected from the lip and in control, jump forward and punch out with one or both hands on your paddle.

4) Without losing a beat, focus on kicking your heels away from your body, and returning to that neutral position you started with.

5) Land with the paddle blade forward that you want to take your next stroke with.

Pat stomping Frenchy's 40 on Big Kimshew...

This is an awesome technique for when you want to save your back, and I've used it in emergency situations on drops up to 50 feet. On drops that big however, it's way better to roll the boat over with the water, and tuck from a neutral to a forward position more slowly.

Anyways, good lines out there everyone.

Stomp Video(19 mb)

-Chris Gragtmans

**All shots by Max Kniewasser, thanks bud, you da man!**

Team Riot in the Green Race!

2006-12-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

Watch Green Training Headcam.

Well here we are again, in Green Race season... This is a pretty incredible time of year as almost a hundred people hit the Green hard, training for the perfect run on race day. I'm always amazed by how many new faces and young boaters are coming out every year to race for their first time. It's very cool to see people stepping up and racing what many(myself included) consider to be the most challenging extreme race in kayaking, and this event is only getting bigger and more competitive!

Here's a couple of pics of myself and some fellow Riot paddlers charging on the Green in preparation for this event:

Nathan Silsbee is a member of the Riot team, and has been paddling with Spencer and I quite a bit this year. He looks scrawny but can kind of keep up once in a while...

Here's Nate-dog charging at the Gorilla.

Just kidding, Nathan's actually an awesome all-around paddler and it's been a pleasure paddling with him and especially introducing him to the Raven's Fork this year(more about that later).

Cooper Lambla is a recent member to the Riot team, and I'm sure he'll rip it up in the race this year. Last year he killed it getting somewhere in the 5:30 range in his time trials and winning the short boat head to head. Here's Coop sticking Sunshine rapid.

Dave Finney is another Riot paddler who will be in the line-up at the Green Race... word is those boys have been training hard up there in Blacksburg, so Dave should definitely be a contender in the short boat class... not sure if he's going to race long boat or not. Check out this link to a picture of Dave doing everything in his power to finish the Russell Fork Race... that is dedication!

I have the luxury of the Green as my home river, so I've been working hard to have fast times this year. I plan on competing in both long boat and short boat classes this year, and hope to defend my title as Green Race Ironman.

Here's me coming out of Sunshine in my Magnum.

And asking for some help in the Gorilla in last year's race...

Spencer Cooke is kind of the Riot team captain here in the Southeast, and has done a tonne of cool stuff this year with Riot boats. He is also an extremely powerful athlete, and often comes off of the couch to beat my ass in competitions! I would include Spencer as a top contender in any extreme race, and this is no exception... He is also a new father so it is still to be seen if he will make it this year, but regardless Spence is the man and I hope we will have him out there on the starting line on Saturday!

On another note, the Riot Magnum should prove to be a real contender in this event... In spite of it's comparatively short length of 7'11", it's surprisingly fast through the flatwater, and the edges in the stern and large-volume bow make the boat skip out of the rapids and carve while on a plane.

Watch Green Training Headcam.

Alright, well that's all I've got folks, hope to see you on the banks of that beautiful river this weekend, send us some good vibes from shore because we are all going to be very scared coming through those rapids.

Good Lines!
Chris Gragtmans

Canada's got the goods...

2006-12-28T14:50:00.000-08:00

Greetings fellow whitewater enthusiasts!

I'm back in Asheville after what has so far been the best year of paddling of my whole life. Just thought I'd share a couple of pics from my favourite wave, High Tension on the Upper Gatineau. Click on the picture for a larger version.

I don't know how it could be more perfect...

I got to spend a total of six days at High Tension this year... which is kind of unheard of in the summer, and was brought about by some very large storms in the watershed. My friends and I decided to do a playboating overnighter in order to avoid the crowds, so we each hauled in like 50 pounds of crap through some pretty big water to make it to the wave. It was all worth it after our first session; I can't really imagine a cooler place to fall asleep.

Paradise Island.

Kelsey Thompson can make a very good fire!

And on to the paddling... This wave is unique because of its glassy face and uniform shoulder that helps you launch pretty much anything you want! It was awesome getting back in my Astro; it's the best boat that I've ever paddled at just sticking past vert, tweaked out tricks every time. I kept on thinking that I was just going to slam into the green water and flush under the pile while landing big tricks, but the boat would just land flat on the green water and plane sideways without even touching the pile. Very cool feeling...

Panam in the Astro.

The thing just launches...

Helix out in the green.

Here's a cool pic of my friend Ed Smith from Scotland going huge on Garb. Ed is one of the best wave paddlers I've ever boated with, and along with Ben Marr, I think there are going to be some serious dark horses in this World Cup. Good luck boys!

**All pics by Jon Best.**

Anyways, school's started again so I guess it's back to the real world... I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some Toxaway/Raven's/200% Green sometime soon!

Good lines.
-Chris Gragtmans

Californ-I-A

2006-12-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

Download California/Colorado video HERE (12 MB).
Download South Silver headcam HERE (22 MB).

Hey Everyone,

Just checking in from the banks of the Black River near Watertown, New York. Last week wrapped up a sick one month trip to the great state of California, and it being my first time out there, I certainly wasn't dissapointed...

Check out some previous posts from this trip on the
Level Six Blog.

Anyways, during the last week of our trip, Max Kniewasser, Pat Keller and I were super stoked to get on the Royal Gorge of the North Fork of the American. Justin Patt and family were gracious enough to let us crash at their house near the putin, and we woke up excited and feeling good. Unfortunately it was not meant to be, and the Royal Gorge had dropped over 150 cfs overnight to a super bony level. It was a bummer for sure, but the river will always be there, and I don’t plan on making that my last trip to Cali…

So the plans quickly shifted to a South Silver session for a couple days and then some backpacking in Yosemite. South Silver is an ultra-classic one mile run between Placerville and Lake Tahoe, and it is incredible. It’s definitely one of the steepest creeks I’ve ever run at over 700 fpm, but surprisingly doable for that amount of gradient and not especially scary or dangerous… just good clean fun!

Max hiking up for more action on South Silver.

Because of the ridiculous amount of snowpack this year in California, and the recent boiling temperatures in the Sacramento area, South Silver was at a pretty pushy level, which I was told was really high, but seemed awesome for that run. As you can imagine from a gradient like that, the run is nothing but action from the beginning and the sickest section of river comes about halfway through the run, where the river drops 100+ feet over a series of beautiful teacup boofs, and then a stomping big rapid called Skyscraper.

Max charging on Teacup #2.

Dropping into the first tier of Skyscraper.

Lane Jacobs launching out of the first tier of Skyscraper.

Max dropping into the second tier of Skyscraper above the portage.

Pat stomping that shit.

So one of the more tense moments on the South Silver at this level is the hole above a rapid called Plastic Surgery. It’s a symmetrical hole at the bottom of a slide, and backed up by a wall on both sides, 2 drops above a pretty manky 30 foot or so drop. A surf there would be horrible, and for me it was probably the most stressful drop on the run.

Dropping into Plastic Surgery after clearing the two entrance holes.

Fun boogie down to the take-out.

Anyways, South Silver treated us well for the couple of days that we were there, and I was able to shoot a headcam run of Max's and my second run down. Our trip ended with a visit to Yosemite National Park, one of the most ridiculously beautiful places ever, in spite of the crowds of people there. We were able to get off of the beaten path in the north end of the park and go on a cool little backpacking adventure, so it was a fitting end to an incredible trip.

Max on top of a 10,000 foot dome enjoying the experience.

Download California/Colorado video HERE (12 MB). (Features Big Kimshew, Dry Meadow, Upper East, Middle Thule, and others)

Download South Silver headcam HERE (22 MB).

Good lines everyone.
-Chris Gragtmans

Quebec Creeking: part deux.

2006-12-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

Hey sports fans, just checking in from the great white north, or the province of Quebec more specifically. I love coming back to Canada every summer, and the past three weeks have not disappointed, its been sick around here.

Max enjoying the hospitality!

Unfortunately I was not able to get up in time for the infamous BusEater wave on the Ottawa River, High Tension on the Gatineau, and other classic big water play, Spencer and I were neck deep in editing for our new video, Enter the Donkey… however, my friends Benny Marr and Max Kniewasser showed me some of their footage from these waves, and trust me they’re destroying it, check out LVM #19 for a look into the future of aireal playboating!

Anyways… Many people don’t know this, but Quebec is actually a completely untapped creeking mecca. The Laurentian Mountains offer plenty of gradient, and with the nonstop rain and the recent snow melt everything was going off. In addition to Max, Ben and myself, we were joined by a fellow Riot Team member, Adam Johnson. Adam’s never been anywhere in Canada but Lachines and the Ottawa, so it was cool to show him around to some really incredible creekboating.

So this week started off rather inauspiciously. We all woke up at Max’s house on Monday and Max and I did a “stealth” mission on a large waterfall in downtown Ottawa called Rideau Falls. It’s an awesome drop, somewhere around 30-40 ft. of freefall or so, really tough to judge. It’s got an 8 foot lead in drop into a slide and then off the big drop, and the horizon line is pretty scary at the top! Anyways, long story short, it would be a fun 45-60 degree landing, but I’ve been jonesing to practice my big waterfall technique whenever I can, so I tried to land completely vertical.

Max rolling off Rideau.

When I landed, my left blade caught the pool and pulled out of my tuck and slammed the shaft squarely into my face. I popped up at the bottom and realized I had a sizeable cut in my nose, and after Max came off and stuck the landing at like 60 degrees we agreed I needed some stitches. Dammit! I tend to overanalyze my paddling and it bugs me for a long time when I make mistakes, so going to the hospital was just adding insult to injury. Anyways, I got stitched up and took a couple days off while Adam and Max did some cool runs that I’m sure he’ll update on soon.

This weekend we headed out to Quebec City to beta that everything was at a perfect level. After a fun but bony run on the Talayarde on Friday, we showed up at the Basse Cachee Race on Saturday. This creek is absolutely incredible and Dominic Chaput and Dominic Lavallee were cool enough to put their time into organizing an event here. For those of you from the Southeast, think Big Creek meets Horsepasture, and roadside! Anyways, the river was at a high flow, and we immediately heard a bunch of practice run horror stories from Steve Fischer, Tyler Curtis and Shannon Carroll about their first run… Fischer pitoned and front flipped, Tyler surfed and almost swam, and Shannon fell on her head on a rock! When those three paddlers are getting worked, I gotta say anyone should be nervous! So since the race is a team event, Max and I decided to race together in our Magnums, and put on for a couple practice runs. The level was incredible! We all had smooth lines through the 2 km or so of class IV-V whitewater and rarely had time to duck into an eddy… it was definitely seat of the pants pray that you’re going to skip over that ledge hole style creeking.

So things got underway quickly and 6 teams got ready to race at five minute intervals. Fischer and Tyler lined up and went first, followed by David Laroche and friend, Dom and Dom, and Shannon and Vincent. Max and I were last to take off, and we had a sweet run until the big double drop rapid, where I plugged a big hole and took a sharp hit on the eyebrow with my paddle. Not super painful and I resurfaced thinking that better not have broken the skin. Well as it turned out, it did, and after finishing the race with a decent time, I had yet another cut on my face, from a rapid that I generally wouldn’t be too concerned about. Pretty humbling for sure… more stitches and this time without the advantage of the English language! Through my hand gestures and Max’s goofy German accented French I was able to tell the people at the hospital what had happened and how to charge it to my Ontario health card, even though I live in the United States.

So, to recap the Quebec experience, we collectively paddled a half dozen or so incredible new runs, put around 2500 kilometres on our cars, paddled and placed 3rd in one of the best extreme races I’ve ever done, got seven stitches, and almost got a whole lot more when Max and I nearly got into a huge bar fight with the locals in St. Raymond! Not a bad pseudo-international experience if I do say so myself…

Catch you clowns next time, hope you enjoy the video, California here I come!

Download Quebec Creeking video HERE (17 MB)
*Some foul language from Max, the crazy German.*

Peace.
Chris Gragtmans (aka FRANKENSTEIN)

Tallulah River and the phantom water drop...

2006-12-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks,

This past weekend I got the chance to paddle with my buddy Coop and a bunch of other cool people riding around in Sanders' newly acquired "Huckabego" RV... We had sweet runs on the Cheoah on Saturday and then on Tallulah Sunday; thanks for all the food and shuttles boys!

Anyways, a bunch of my other friends were out at Tallulah, so we shot some cool video of Oceana and some POV headcam footage through the rest of the river. I am constantly amazed at how many people are running Oceana... it's a super dangerous rapid(especially the left line), and deserves some serious respect.

The headcam footage includes most significant rapids of the Tallulah, but unfortunately my lense is not shedding water as effectively, so there's a big fat drop right in the middle of the frame for alot of the rapids below oceana... Sorry about that, I'm gonna hit it with some rain-x today.

Hope you enjoy.

Download Tallulah Video HERE (22 mb)

Cheers,
Chris Gragtmans

Nile Report # 5 Million

2006-12-28T14:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings sports fans,

Well, I'm getting my life back together after a one and a half month trip to deepest darkest Africa. I tagged along with a couple of good friends from Canada and was able to experience the White Nile for the first time!

I'll keep this brief since there have already been hundreds of other posts about the White Nile... All's I have to say is that this trip has truly been a perspective shifting one for me in learning to appreciate just how fortunate I am. In spite of the miniscule amount of money that the people of Uganda live on, their attitudes are some of the best that I have ever seen. They walk for miles in the blazing sun for only marginally clean water, and in many cases are malnourished and not properly sheltered from malaria and other diseases. Yet they're extremely happy and welcoming. I think we all can learn a lesson from them, and I know I will think twice before complaining about any of my petty first world problems. (Dismount soapbox)

On to the boating... The water was a bit low, but we were still able to access Nile Special via a ski rope that Billy, Dave and some others built, and which we all pitched in for. It's still an awesome wave that gives up bow clearing aireals if you're patient.

Another highlight of the trip was certainly running the big rapids of the Nile. It's a much different beast than trying to stick
hard lines on a low volume creek, and it's certainly great practice for keeping your cool in big boils and holes. I'd have to say that Itanda scared the crap out of me when I ran it for the first time, especially since Ben Marr, Ed Smith and I didn't have a guide to show us down. The rapid is about a half a kilometre of sprinting back and forth to avoid some gigantic holes.

Cool, well I hope you enjoy the vid, there will be a full Uganda section on the new video, Enter the Donkey, by Effort Inc. Should be pretty good in spite of the name! ;)

Dave says: you stay classy San Diego!

Download White Nile vid Shaklacky! (22 MB)

See you on a river in the Southeast...
Chris

Toxaway and Big Creek update...

2006-12-28T14:24:00.001-08:00

Download Toxaway Headcam Here(44 mb)
Download Big Creek Headcam Here(25 mb)

Well, this has been one of the more fun/eventful weeks for me. I missed out on a great deal of paddling last semester because my full days of class always seemed to correspond with the heavy days of rain. Everything always ran on Wednesday! I don't understand exactly how this works, but I have read that the smog in our atmosphere from the workweek actually does have an effect on the "schedule" of precipitation. For some reason, the weekend is the least likely time for rain to occur, because there is not nearly the same amount of hydrocarbons entering the atmosphere from industry. I also think that this is exacerbated by the fact that Asheville is in a thermal inversion area, in which the mountains trap polluted air from the nearby industrial centers of Knoxville, Oak Hill, and other Tennessee cities. Quite unfortunate considering the fact that many residents of Asheville really care about the environment. Anyways this is just my interpretation, I'm not sure if it's accurate, but I digress...

I am now free from school for a semester, so I have the luxury of a fairly flexible paddling schedule. This past week was a great one to have no commitments! I didn't realize until Tuesday night that we had a gigantic front coming in from the east, and there were going to be plenty of options for where to go paddling. At the very top of my list was the Toxaway River near Brevard. Spencer and Josh Bruckner took me down this river for my first time, and after running it I was convinced that it was the best day of my entire life! I've run it five times since then, and each time could be described in a very similar way. It is my favourite place to be in a creekboat.

Pat Keller was nice enough to allow me to crash at his house Tuesday night, and we started narrowing down our options for paddling the next day. After waking up to snow flurries outside, Pat headed off to an early class, and Toby McDermott and I started our rigorous waterfall preparation, sitting in Pat's new hot tub! After some breakfast and rechecking of gauges, we decided to head in the direction of Toxaway, and if it was too high, to run the Whitewater. Upon arriving at the put in around noon, the day had warmed up considerably, the sun was out, and the river was at an absolutely perfect level. We were all amped. John Grace and Jason Hale joined us at this point, and everyone was super pumped to get back on this bedrock playground.

I've kind of been getting back into the groove of things since a very scary experience on the Chattooga on Christmas Eve. I was pumped to get on Toxaway, but admittedly pretty nervous because it's a very demanding river with some huge consequential drops on it. I made a dumb mistake on the third rapid of the run, a 15 footer, and took a pretty hard glancing piton at the bottom. Lesson learned on that one, and I tried to get super aggressive after that and get rid of the uneasiness and timidity that a bad experience like my Chattooga pin will give you. The rest of the day was filled with nothing but good lines, a couple backwards ones on Energizer and Landbridge(!), and a tonne of fun being out there with the boys. I have nothing but respect for each of these guys, and it was really cool to have the opportunity to paddle with them on such a great creek. They are a very safe and solid crew.

The 3.5 mile hike out at the end is always painful, but only adds to the expedition style experience of that river. I always end up daydreaming about the rapids that I have just run anyways, and it seems to go by fast. Another incredible day on my favourite creek!

Toxaway Headcam(44 mb)

The next day I was kind of looking for a non-stressful natural flow day of paddling. My friend Chris Schell called me that morning and said that Big Creek was running at a perfect level. I was super pumped about that, because I've only run this creek 3 times, and it really is an awesome place to practice boat control skills without being in a great deal of danger.

We arrived at the put-in and started the hike up the creek(pretty painful after my previous day's hike out of the Toxaway), and before long Mr. Chris Harjes came running up the trail after us. This guy is a ball of energy if I've ever seen one! We hiked the rest of the way up to Superman with Chris, about a half mile above the bridge, and put on.

The day was going super great until Action Alley. I ran the first four drops direct, and caught the eddy below the rapid to wait for Chris and Chris. I saw a red boat come out of the foam in the third, horseshoe shaped drop, and fall over the last one full of water, and soon thereafter Harjes swam off of it too. I was bummed to see my buddy swimming, but I wasn't too concerned and started ferrying into the flow to drag him back into the eddy. When I saw the look on his face though, I realized things were more serious than a little swim. His right shoulder was out of socket, and Schell and I got set up to try and help him get it back in.

I couldn't believe how tough he was about it. I had an idea before this of how to relocate a shoulder, but Harjes is a nurse in Asheville, and knows exactly whats up when it comes to this type of thing. In between winces of pain, he was giving us directions on which way to rotate the shoulder and how hard to pull on his arm to try and get it back in! I couldn't believe he could keep his composure. Anyways, Chris and I rotated off between keeping Harjes static and trying to pop his shoulder back in for about 20 minutes. That thing was not cooperating!

We finally decided it was time to seek outside help, and after roping Harjes across the river, we started blazing downstream to try and get back to the car before he could hike the trail back. Thanks to Glen Theiling for helping with getting him out of there too! Long story short... his shoulder was out for probably 4 hours total, and they finally popped that thing back in at Asheville Mission hospital with him on strong sedative drugs, and with three people holding him down and one huge doctor pulling on his arm! It's a majour bummer that Chris won't be out paddling with us soon, but he's got an awesome, super positive attitude, and I'm sure he'll kill it with Physio and be back out there soon. Good luck Harjes!

Big Creek Headcam(25 mb)

Anyways, I used my headcam both days and got some pretty cool footage. Some of the Toxaway audio is choppy because my CD was scratched, but that song was too good not to use!

Hope you all enjoy, I'm off to Africa on Wednesday for a month and a half!

Cheers,
Chris Gragtmans

Also, thank you so much to all of my sponsors for allowing me to live the lifestyle that I do; it would not be possible without you! Please visit their sites and check out their products:

Riot Kayaks
Level Six
Fortress Watches
Shred Ready
H2O Audio
AceEngine.com
Keen Footwear
Plug-It Noseplugs

Green Headcam...

2006-12-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

Well, I've recently acquired something that I've wanted for the past couple of years... my own headcam! Since I started editting videos recreationally, I've always thought it would be incredible to have shots from the paddler's point of view, and be able to show the viewer that ominous horizon line that is always in our subconscious, and the view that we recieve when we paddle off of it!

I went out for an after-class paddle on the Green Narrows recently with my friend Scott Harcke. Scott is a young local boy(19 i think), that has been ripping it up on all the Southeastern creeks for the past couple of years. Scott was a competitor in the Green Narrows 275% extreme race last year (1 of only 8 people), the most extreme kayaking event that I think both of us have ever done, and arguably the most core whitewater race that has ever been held.

Anyways, this footage was taken at a base 100% level on the Green, and the video includes all of the majour rapids, top to bottom. I tried to edit as little as possible, so that those who have never paddled the Green can see how the rapids link up. Sorry about the subsequent large file sizes. The Magnum is sick out there! It stays on the surface really well, and basically just takes care of me at all times. It is significantly shorter than Scott's Nomad 8.5 (by six inches) but seems just as fast.

I'm pumped about having this new camera, and I'll get some other footage up as soon as I can get out there and paddle the rivers... Toxaway, Triple Falls, Horsepasture, and high water Green are on the list for sure.

See you out there!

-Chris Gragtmans

Monster Mile headcam (28 mb)

Lower Narrows headcam (18mb)

November Rain...

2006-12-28T02:23:00.000-08:00

Download Elk Falls Video (6 mb)

Well, the Southeast finally got some rain! 3-5 inches in the Western North Carolina area put every single creek that you could possibly want to run at a high or blown out level. Toxaway was too high, Ravens Fork was running, and the West Prong was juicin! Our sights today were set on a different creek however, in the Boone area. I have done the Elk River once before, and I remember it being a super quality run, with good class 4-5 and two absolutely incredible waterfalls, one 35 feet tall, and the big one somewhere around 50 feet tall.

In spite of the fact that everyone that I called said that this river was too high, Adam Herzog, local guru, was pumped on doing the run, and willing to see what happens. Oh yeah, did I mention that last time I ran the Elk the indicator gauge(Watauga) was at 1200? Today it is at 6500! Anyways, Zog took me down this run last time as well, and is a very safe, very solid paddler to follow down the river. Also joining us on this adventure is Spencer Cooke, who in spite of being a gnome, is the man in a kayak, and behind a camera(thats the only reason I hang out with him anyways!).

The crew during the shuttle.

The highlight for me over anything else on the last run was the 50 footer at the put in. You literally put in, paddle through a bit of class 2, and if you want to, run a very large waterfall! I broke my paddle with the huge impact last time, but otherwise it was a clean run. I had heard that the two pockets on each side of the curtain get really horrible at high water, so I was not expecting to get to run the drop today, but theres always a chance...

Upon arriving at the put-in, the river was a nerve wracking site. Standing waves and deep boily water mached past where there was a small shallow slide last time. The Elk appeared to be running somewhere in the vicinity of 1000-2000 cfs. Very hard to gauge though. Paddling up to the drop to scout, I could not believe how much more of the lip was underwater than last time. That is a horrifying horizon line if Ive ever seen one! We hopped out to look at the drop, and although it was super intimidating, it certainly looked doable. A quick scout from the bottom revealed the hazards of the drop. The two pockets on each side of the waterfall had big boils backing them up, and were recirculating very powerfully back into the waterfall. The left pocket went behind the curtain, a very scary thing to look at. Spence and Zog opted out, but I was feeling pretty good about it, and walked back for another look from up top.

My heart was in my throat looking at the falls from the top, but I felt confident in my ability to stick the line, and privileged to be given this opportunity at such a high flow. We had decided that because of the massive amount of aeration at the bottom, and the fact that ending up in either of the pockets would be absolutely horrible, I should land the drop at a 45 degree angle rather than the preferable 80 degrees for a drop of that size. I got in my boat, did my warm-up, and everything was great cruising up to the lip until a big log popped out of a boil right next to me! I did not at all want to be falling with that thing beside me, so I turned around and took about 8 or 10 hard strokes upstream to separate myself from it. I was still moving downstream towards the drop however, and turned around just in time to line up with my curler and watch the world open up in front of me...

Big waterfalls are an entirely different experience than any other aspect of kayaking because of the self control that is needed to successfully run them. Every single instinct that you have as a kayaker is telling you to paddle like hell and charge the lip. The key, however, is slowing down to the speed of the water, and not disconnecting from it, but sticking to the angle of water with your boat as you go off. The last stroke is the most important part, and should be held fairly vertically and given only slight pressure until about halfway down the drop, to stabilize the angle. My last stroke on Elk Falls was a righty, and I got just a little bit too gung-ho with it, pulling myself a bit too flat before tucking up on the way down. I felt myself engulfed in the vail after a long, long fall, and landed at about 40 degrees. This angle made my boat arc up very quickly, and my head took a pretty big hit on my cockpit rim through the sprayskirt. I planted my left blade coming out of the tuck to charge for my life if I saw myself being sucked into one of the pockets, but I was safely in the main flow and at the bottom of an incredible waterfall!

The drop was an awesome experience, but did take a ding out of my eyebrow. An important thing to remember about hard whitewater is that it is not by any means an individual activity. Spencer and Adam were there for me to offer the safety and support that they could if something were to go wrong. It is important for everyone to take into account that when you run a big drop, your mistake is not only your own problem, but could lead to friends putting themselves in danger coming after you. Short of this, noone wants to ruin their day to hike another paddler out of a gorge and take them to the hospital because of a dumb decision. Be safe out there.

Anyways, in spite of the cut in my eyebrow, we decided to continue on with our adventure. After running the first drop of the gorge and subbing out through a monster hole, Adam matter-of-factly told us that this was way higher than he, or most likely anyone else has every paddled the river. The whitewater was a combination of class 5 steep creeking and Zambezi style drops. Pretty nerve racking! The drops linked up like crazy, and we needed to scout a number of them to make sure they were still good to go. After getting out of the main flow and catching an eddy just above the inescapable lead-in drops to Twisting Falls, we were faced with a couple of options to proceed. We went ahead without boats, and quickly decided that the normally-run mini gorge after Twisting Falls was not an option. Some of the ugliest keeper hydraulics ever, and the fact that the running 35 footer would probably mean getting sucked behind the curtain, made us decide to go high and portage the set. The 45 minute portage was brutal and very scary for a person as afraid of heights as I am, but we made it, and paddled the class 3 boogie to the car with an extreme sense of relief that she let us pass unscathed.

The aftermath: two stitches on the forehead. Things happen off of big drops, even with a good line.

Anyways, I hope that everyone else got on some good whitewater with the rain. See you on the river!

-Chris Gragtmans

Download Elk Falls video HERE.

All photos and video taken by Spencer Cooke, Effort Inc. Thanks for being there man!

**Check out the money shot of this sequence in the Spring issue of Paddler/Kayak Magazine.**