On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to be invited down to the US National Whitewater Center in Charlotte for a World Kayak Fundraiser for First Descents. It was set up as a Pro-Am freestyle event, which was neat for me because that format was my first freestyle event I ever competed in during the 2001 Extrasport Invitational on the Russell Fork.

It was great to see a lot of my kayaking circuit friends, and also to meet some up and coming young rippers! My teammate Shaun and I were fortunate enough to end up 3rd in the team competition, and I walked away as the pro class Big Trick Contest winner with a Helix on the M-Wave feature. Most importantly, the event raised $1000 for First Descents, which pays for a week of camp for one participant!!! Thanks so much to Jason and Samantha from WK, and all the folks who came out and made it a great event! Here’s some highlight photos below!!

Brian Jennings

Team Bliss-Stick.US

 

 

 

Lachine Rapids, Montreal, Canada

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Michael,

We just got back from the Ottawa and I gotta admit I love the RAD even more now!! Once you get the boat on a huge steep wave like Babyface or Corner wave you really get to feel what the boat can do, got my first aerial blunt, well the boat did all the work I just enjoyed the ride.

Thanks for hooking us up with Tino from the Team; it was great paddling with him. We spent all of Tuesday boating and throwing down with him on the Main channel. Tino was making it look easy and dishing out a ton of helpful hints and he got Samantha through the meat of Phil’s hole hitting the tongue perfect. Getting onto Garberator at -3 can be a bit of a challenge for normal boaters, but Tino did an entry Airscrew during the ferry onto Garb and then proceeded to flow with the wave and hit some great blunts. Tino helped us all out with some pointers to get a surf on Garb including “dropping” Angela off of Moby Dick into Garberator for a little surf action, which took a little persuasion by Tino. Here a few photos from the day and a short video of Tino on Babyface.

Thanks again.

Good Lines,

Jason Miller

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of a great season however would definately have to be the latest trip I just got on the Middle Fork of the Kings.

This trip has been rated by many as one of the Hardest,most commiting but at the same time rewarding trips in the world so from the outset this was a run I was always keen to check out.

The commiting nature of the run starts from the outset where you must load your kayaks with gear for 5 nights (Over 100 pounds) and carry them more than 20kilometers up and over the 12000ft high Bishop pass and then back down to the river. Despite the hard work nature of this run it is made more than worthwhile when you get to spend the next 4-5 days enjoying close to 70km of some of the most spectacular class 5 whitewater and scenery around.

Cheers for the support.

Here's a few pics - Me in the blue boat, Charlie King still rocking his green Mystic.

Feel free to chuck them up on the site.

Barny

 

 

Team Rider Tino Specht Showing Off The New Smoothy Team Boat!!

 

 

 Pearson-Specht organic farm, that we were fortunate to stay on..

 

 

Jim O'Brien Memorial Paddle...

 

 

 

Woke up Sunday morning with a hunch the Russell Fork might be running enough for a low flow run. With it being so dry as of late we felt blessed to find the gauge reading in the upper 200's. Great day for sure. Took a few shots along the way, some turned out better than others. Above 250 cfs you truly can run everything without getting out of your boat. Such a quality run!

Jason Bordwine

VA Bliss-Stick Agent