Bliss-Stick US heading to the Deerfield Festival

We are excited to be joining Northeast paddlers for one of their premier paddling festivals, Deerfield Fest. We have a lot of exciting things in store and hope that you will stop by our tent, watch some paddling videos and hang with four of our outstanding Team Members. Also, come join us for some fun activities listed below. Look forward to seeing you this weekend!

Saturday July 31, 2010 10:00 am-12:00 pm

Bliss-Stick Design Demo

Join us at the Gap on the Deerfield River for a chance to demo a Bliss-Stick Kayak Boats available to Demo: Specialist, RAD 175, Super RAD 180, RAD 185, Smoothy, Mystic, Mini-Mystic and SCUD

Saturday July 31, 2010 11:00 am-12:30 pm

Team Bliss-Stick Jim O’Brien Memorial Paddle

Come celebrate the life of Bliss-Stick Agent Jim O’Brien with a paddle down the Dryway with Bliss-Stick US Team Members. He was greatly loved in his community and by the entire Bliss-Stick family, touching even the lives of the Kiwi’s. We will meet at the Dryway put-in, ready to paddle at 11:00 a.m. We look forward to seeing you on the river.

At the Festival…

For Sale: (Cash Only)

Mystics $680.00 with full one year warranty, (first come, first serve!!, till sold out!!)

T-Shirts $20

Sweatshirts $40

 Adam Swett, Checking in from Maine

For most of us in the Southeast, it's been a somewhat dry summer. But, after a few days of rain, those of us in wild, wonderful "Wet" Virginia had a lot of options on the table. For me, when offer with a chance of low water creeking or high water playboating, the choice is obvious...off to play I go!!!

5 Boat hole at the bottom of Koontz' Flume on the Lower Gauley is a world-class playspot. I've often thought of ways to stage an event here...because it's 150% worthy of a World or National championship site, but it's a bit lacking on some of the essential elements for a bit event, so I guess for now I'll just settle for it being a great backyard playspot. It's a very forgiving feature, allowing and endless front surf, folks who want to learn to spin, all the way to the latest wave/hole moves. It was a great day of surf, and got to see some great friends on the water, PLUS I got to wear my new Shred Ready Standard helmet. Here's some shots by my good friend Casey Cunningham.

Brian Jennings

Team Bliss-Stick US

Michael -

Well I ended up breaking my shoulder blade and separating my collarbone snowboarding at the end of the season, but after some physical therapy and a couple of braces, I finally built up some muscle strength and got cleared to go out kayaking again. We packed up the gear and headed to Colorado. I attached some pictures from Clear Creek and the wave at Glenwood. We got to do a ton of mountain biking, hiking, and saw a bunch of Elk and Big Horn Sheep. The shoulder felt pretty strong....can't wait to get back in the water.

Hope all is well.

Garrett

Team Trials update:

This year I had the opportunity to compete in the U.S. team trials for a chance to go to the 2011 Freestyle World Championship in Platting, Germany in the Junior Men’s category. The event was held in Missoula Montana which turned out to be an excellent venue for the competition- brennan’s wave is right downtown amidst a nice park and green space with plenty of room for spectators (which there were lots of). The wave itself is the quintessential wave/hole, with the surfer’s left side being more dynamic and retentive while the right was smaller and easier to plug for air moves. I stuck to right side and it served me well. Before my ride I choreographed the moves I wanted to throw- left blunt, spin, roundhouse to splitwheel, air loop, space godzilla, backloop, and finally mcnasty. I got everything (more or less) save for the backloop resulting in a 405 point ride putting me in 2nd place. But, as it turns out, I’m about two months too old to be a member of the Junior Freestyle Team, so I won’t have the opportunity to compete in Platting. Nonetheless I had and excellent time and some of my best rides yet. As always I was pleased with the performance of my Specialist. Even though I didn’t land it in competition I felt that doing backloops came very naturally. I think the unique stern design on the Specialist- slicey at the ends transitioning to more volume in the middle of the stern- makes backloops easy to initiate and then gives plenty of pop to get the boat and paddler out of the water. Ultimately team trials was a great experience and I’m looking forward to competing with the grown ups in the years to come.

See you on the water,

Will Rudisill

Huge congratulations goes out to Will for helping represent Bliss-Stick.US in the US Team Trials!!!

Hey Every One,

I just got back from a meeting in NYC for Outdoor Nation. 500 youth delegates from all over the United States came together to brainstorm ways to help youth get outdoors more often. Very Cool. You can check it out at www.outdoornation.org. Also I threw together a few clips from Freestyle in Colorado. Enjoy. Paddle Hard!

Video Link To Freestyle in Colorado

Tino