Thursday, May 05, 2011

Apres Robe Race Festivites

Batch Two. Beer Drinkin' and Award Announcin'

Whatcha all doin' this weekend?



Hey, who shrunk Rado?


The Robe Gnome looking for his next home.


A previous Robe winner and a previous Robe loser.


When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When you find a deck under a bridge, throw a deck party.


The party goers.


The pooches - Rado.


Jackson


Luna


Canadians


Bellinghamsters


Time for the awards


The envelope, please.


The handing over of the robes.


Tao's stand in for the podium.


Gnome headed north.


Um .... the ... yeah. Be sure you don't miss the zany antics next year.

Until then ....

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Robe Race Imagery

Thanks Todd for another great race day on The Robe. Thanks everyone for showing up, twas good to see and meet many of you (some of whom I haven't seen since last Robe Race). Hope to see you again before Robe Race '12.

I don't have much else to add, but here's batch one of my photos. Hope you enjoy.


Calling all boaters. A good turnout for Robe Race '11.


The three B's: Beer, Blondes, and Brock.


Racer's Meeting.


The coveted Robe.


The possibly more coveted Leif ... er, Gnome.


Time for some racing. Brian Fletcher - Hole in the Wall.


The Robe Race: Lost in the Rapids, Won in the flats. AJ and BF.


Repeat after me: Lost in the Rapids, Won in the flats. Rob and Ben cranking.


Rob and Ben trying to reclaim the robes.


Louis Geltman & Andrew McEwan coming into Hotel California.


Textbook drafting.


Little D, leading his team through Hotel California.


Fred Mercury Norquist & Jure Poberaj


Lane Jacobs. Despite lower water than last year, times were fast and competitive.


Jamie Wright @ Glory Boof #3.


Barton and Totten.



Jonathan Ehlinger & Scott Waidelich


Jon Dufay


JP and Jon


Team Canadia. Steve and Matt.


Chris Tretwold.


Leif.


The Safety Boaters. Thanks Team!


The Fans.



Stay Tuned for the after party pics. Coming soon ...

Sunday, May 01, 2011

2011 Robe Race Results



Very thankful for all the participation in the Robe Race this year, grateful for all the volunteer support, & happy to report that the whole thing went off without a hitch! A chilly wet start to the day gave way to a mostly sunny finish & thankfully the localized precip helped stabilize the flow early in the week .. I never stressed a bit about water levels, as our pre-race weather was keeping things in the sweet spot. Would have been nice to see it at 5.5, but 5.3 is a great race level. Not a single swim was reported all day (not even in the safety crew!) Pretty sure that everyone who raced or volunteered got at least one sandwich .. I made like 20 lbs of sandwiches for the afterparty. And i know everyone got their share of beer .. we went through an astounding number of cases when it was all said & done. And how 'bout that afterparty patio scene??? Best one yet, by far. Seemed like everyone had a good time & felt reasonably safe while on the course.

The top end was very competitive this year .. fast times given the flow. Here are the results:

1. ROBES: Darren Albright & Tao Berman (28:34)
2. Louis Geltman & Andrew McEwan (29:02)
3. Brian Fletcher & Aaron Johnson (30:15)
4. Ben Hawthorne & Rob McKibbon (30:48)
5. Lane Jacobs & Jamie Wright (31:05)
6. Fred Norquist & Jure Poberaj (32:13)
7. Jonathan Ehlinger & Scott Waidelich (32:32)
8. Leif Embertson & Chris Tretwold (34:05)
9. Brett Barton & Chris Totten (34:31)
10. Mike & Joe Howard (35:28)
11. Jon Dufay & Jon Prentice (37:06)
12. GNOME: Steve Arns & Matt Kompass (38:30)


I got a handful of good photos from the start line that i haven't uploaded yet, & I know Shane probably has a bunch more. We'll try to get some of those posted by the end of the year ...

Thanks again, everyone, for coming out & celebrating Robe Canyon , for making race day 2011 an awesome time, & for reigniting my stoke for paddling!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

2011 Robe Race Announcement



Calling all racers & volunteers & shit-tawkers. Race date tentatively scheduled for the weekend of 4/30 - 5/1. Comments are open: please respond with your team (of 2), or your willingness to participate as a volunteer (specify how), or your predictions of who will dominate vs who will be dominated upon (please don't be douchey).

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Kamchatka Project :: Field Report

In the weeks preceding departure to the Kamchatka Peninsula for a project Bryan and I had been working on for almost two years, many of my close paddling friends kept asking about what kind of whitewater we expected to find. And the truth was, with so much of our planning and prep time focused on the salmon, the conservation aspects of our trip, and the general logistics, that we had no idea what to expect in terms of whitewater.


I don’t mean to say that we hadn’t looked into it. At it’s heart this project was born out of kayakers wanting to go explore rivers in an unknown corner of the world. But this region has seen so little interest in whitewater that there was virtually no whitewater beta. We spoke to flyfishing guides who pointed us in some directions and other tourism guides that had insights into other drainages; although, when we looked at these rivers on maps, they just didn’t give us – as kayakers – the confidence we wanted that they would pan out into good whitewater. So a week before our departure, we called an audible.


The Semilayach River had the best Google Earth imagery on the peninsula and there was definitely a pool drop character to the river. Whether it would have the right amount of flow at the time we would be there or whether the drops would be clean and runnable or a junk pile of boulders was anyone’s guess. But we decided it was our best option, and as Daniel DeLaVergne once said, ‘sometime’s you gotta just drop in and figure it out.’ We did, and we found some good whitewater and some excellent rapids. And on the heli flight into the Semilayach, we flew over the Karimsky river, which looked even better from the air, and it too proved to be excellent on the river.


The Range Life hasn’t really been our outlet for this project, but we wanted to share some pics with our loyal readers and point you to our facebook page for more updates and sources of media that are starting to filter out now. Also, check out Outdoor Research’s Verticulture site for some sat phone podcasts. We have more than 2 weeks left over here, so stay tuned for more updates and enjoy the images …


international expeditions always mean a load of gear and airports. This one included two transfers and an unexpected layover in Moscow. photo by bryan smith


Bryan, Ethan, Jay, Jeff, Rob & Shane. photo by ethan smith


our soviet era shuttle. photo by shane robinson


thar's whitewater down thar. photo by ethan


ethan hitting one of the first boof's on the trip. photo by shane


rob cruising through a nice series on the semilchik. photo by ethan


bryan stoked to find some quality russian whitewater. photo by shane


source to sea means flatwater - bryan getting back to his roots. photo by shane


hard to beat smoked salmon, hot springs and an erupting volcano to start a river trip. photo by ethan


before there was the brown, there was the shit, and ethan fired up the shit! photo by bryan


where are we? In the middle of nowhere. photo by ethan


jeff collecting some data. photo by ethan


a rudimentary but effective flow measurement. photo by ethan


lots of fun mini gorges on the Karymskaya. photo by ethan


ethan running one of the team's favorite drops. photo by shane


our camp at the beach. photo by bryan


maybe the most dangerous part of our trip - the petropavolovsk yacht club. photo by shane


and a sign off by our friend smokey. photo by shane