Boof and Destroy crew on their home run, Gauley River in Southern WV.
Month: October 2015 (Page 2 of 5)
Stu Ridley gives us his perspective on selling up and moving with your paddling gear to another country. Enjoy.
The reason I chose to immigrate in to a new country was not only to change my lifestyle to experience quality boating on the doorstep, I knew immigration was something on the horizon and within easy grasp. It was always a gonna be a life changing decision to make, leaving friends, family, jobs, morgages and my past behind. Stripping down my life paying of debts and getting rid of any assets to the point where I was sleeping on my parents floor with the only posessions left being my kayaking gear, laptop and a bag of clothes, stoked!
Now exactly a year on and I’m getting stuck in lifes picking up pace in a new country, new freinds, relationships, jobs, visas, speeding tickets, moving house, going to court, fixing vehicles, saving money. The whole experience is reshaping my perspective on life even so much more than anticipated.
New Zealand was an easy choice, they’ve got plenty of graft over here, and the country is breathtaking, the Maori and Kiwis are rad people, very hospitable, there’s not many people on the South Island only about 4.5 million compared to the UK’s 75 million, and everyone seems to know each other, or someone you’ve already met.
Solo On Hooker River NZ from stuart ridley on Vimeo.
Many people are oblivious as to when their Personal Flotation Device (PFD) has reached the end of its functional life. An easy indication of when you ought to get a new Personal Flotation Device (PFD) is when you can’t read the label on the inside. When the label starts to deteriorate to the point you can’t read it, the flotation has probably started to deteriorate as well.
To say I’m picky about my PFD, how it fits, and what I carry in it, would be a massive understatement. If you spend the number of years having fun on the water that I have, you will encounter your share of rescue situations. What you have on your chest will be the tools at your disposal to fix those situations.
A few carefully chosen whitewater edits for Movie Monday 19 October 2015 selected by Team Unsponsored.
Clearwater is a small little town in British Columbia that has a lot to offer for whitewater. It offers a range of sections that can accommodate anyone in the paddling community, whether you’re looking for some big class V or some easy class II.
As Nepal came to terms with the after effects of the Quakes in the spring of 2015 one woman shone like a beacon of hope for the emerging nation. Assisted across the border to India by returning aid convoys and a network of friends. Goma Sunuwar made her way to the Malabar River Festival, paddling the Ganga and Coorg along the way.
Prejudice is always high and female kayakers in India and Nepal are a rare sight. ‘Should you be married now?’, can you imagine.
We caught up with Goma in India and followed her progress later as she trained for Slalom competition in Indonesia.
One Day In CB is a short edit from Patrick Smith shot using GoPro gear. Oh Be Joyful creek is one of the top runs in Colorado. The whitewater in this spot looks awesome.
It’s great to see some old school kayaks being used.
Corran has released details of the new Booty Call kayak.
It looks like a nice clean design. I spoke to Corran for some time at Paddle Expo about how he creates his designs. I’m saving the detail for its own post, however it seems to be working.
In the far north of Scotland there is a place where races and tides flow fast enough to wreck even the hardiest of vessels, once patrolled by marine going tribesmen with a prowess to rival even the invading Norse, who named the area “Petlandfjord” meaning the Fjord of the Picts. Also known in Gaelic as “An Caol Arcach” meaning the sea of Orcs the names have have been anglicised and this stretch of challenging and treacherous water has become known as the Pentland Firth. The area plays host to an incredible amount of wildlife, both year round natives, and visitors from further a field. Puffin, Gannet, Guillemot and Tern all come to nest, whilst the waters are patrolled by Seal, Dolphin, Basking shark and even Orca!
Yak are part of the Survitec Group, who provide high quality rescue and safety gear for the marine, offshore, defence and aviation sectors. As a result they have a huge wealth of knowledge on how to design and create highly effective gear.
I spent a fair bit of time with the guys from Yak at Paddle Expo this year. The number of well executed designs blew me away. If you still associate Yak with the lower end of the market or canoe clubs then you need to take another look.
Gerd is the older half of the famous paddling Serrasolses brothers. Hitting big whitewater, competing in world class competitions (and winning) and crafting superb GoPro edits is where Gerd spends most of his time. If a country has quality whitewater the chances are that Gerd has already been there or is planning an expedition to seek out first descents.
I’ve been following Gerd’s travels and adventures for some time and am super stoked that Gerd agreed to take part in the Unsponsored Q&A series, especially as he was in training for the Sickline event (which he won).
How did you first get into kayaking? Who introduced you to the sport?
One day I was biking along our local river, the Ter and saw some people paddling around. I got curious and with some persuasion from my mum I decided to join the local kayak club, the Salt-Ter. It all started really slow with only a couple hours a week on Saturday morning, but as soon as I could go to the river by myself riding my bike and pulling my playboat on a little trailer I started to get obsessed about kayaking until it became my life.
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