More to come soon about the Mystic being featured in the May edition of Mens Journal.

Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Michael, I just got back home from Uganda a few days ago and have spent the last few days shredding the snow. It was sad leaving the warm weather and water, the chill people, and the big waves. The Nile was an amazing place to spend the holidays. On Christmas eve, the locals from the village above the Nile Special provided us with food and drinks for our night surf session on the Special. New Years was a wild party at NRE then to be continued at the casino in Jinja where good times were had by all.

This was possibly the last year to paddle the day 1 stretch wich has many channels of big rapids due to the dam in progress. The day 2 stretch will still be able to be run which includes the Nile Special, Hair of the Dog and Club wave. No one really knows thouh what flows will be like, but lets cross our fingers that we dont lose these waves as well.

Now 21 hours of flying later, Im back to the real world. Today I have a meeting with my school where I will be studying surgical technology.

Here are a few photos, and Im in the process of making a short film so more to come soon.

Thanks,

Dustin Stoenner

Team Bliss-Stick

 

 

 

Hi Michael-

We went to Eternity Hole on the Tuck on Sunday. It was his fist time with the boat in whitewater. Here are a couple of pics. He was hitting big loops and was excited about how it handles.

Jere Rudisill

New Star Marketing Support Services

 

 

 

The Stouts in Chile

Hey this is Stephen Forster here come from Chile. The rivers here are amazing. I have been paddling with Jake Greenbaum who is on Team Dagger and we have been running famous Pucon runs such as the Nevados, llancahue, and Palguin. Last week I fired up the 4th descent of Salto Palguin which is a ninety footer with a very difficult entrance. After that I ran the third descent of the ten footer above the seventy footer on the Palguin. I am currently at the Rio Maipo now looking for first descents with Tino Specht and Jake Greenbaum. In the next few days we will be traveling down south to run more big drops. Here are some pictures of demshitz drop and the Salto Palguin.

 

 

 

I’ve been waiting quite sometime to make it over to the Raven Fork, so the long drive over to the river was filled with much anticipation. The weather was perfect for a December run.

The fun begins on the shuttle ride up. The road is a pretty full on; it’s a 4x4 road filled with precarious rocks and deep ruts. It ends deep up in the Raven Fork Gorge blanketed by rhododendron with the river waiting below. The hike in isn’t too grueling but it does end in a short scramble upstream to reach the put in at Lord of the Rings section.

We sat, taking a short break at The Lord of the Rings section. The section offers a nice warm up, and is filled with a few great boofs before you get to the Anaconda.

The gradient picks up at Anaconda to some of the steepest in the Southeast. From here, the action keeps up with great boofs, big slides, and a few portages. The gradient stays consistently high until portaging Mangler and after this, its time to relax as the river just turns to easy boogie down to the take out. We had a great crew composed of Fergus Coffey, Adam Seacrest, Chris Gragtmans, and myself. Unfortunately, Adam cracked his boat shortly after we put on and had to hike out. Besides this, we all had great lines and a whole lot of fun.

The run dishes out some of the biggest and best rapids in the Southeast. It is certain to have you eagerly awaiting your next trip. A big thanks to Chris Gragtmans and Fergus Coffey for showing me down my first time!

Sam Fulbright

Team Bliss-Stick

 

 

 

 

I didn't get one...yet. I borrowed Sam's boat b/c I cracked mine and just got the new hull. I have to build it today so I can boat tomorrow.

I will say I was impressed with the Mystic today, though. we did a super fast, high water Wilson run on this great Christmas morning. The level was 2 feet and it handled great. Not quite as fast/zippy as my other boat, but it it responds really well and is quite comfortable. We had a blast out there today.

Anyway, thought you might enjoy that.

Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas and have a great New Years!!

Later man.

--

– Trent Thibodeaux

- United in Nature

 

 

 

After a long hiatus due to lack of water in the Southeast the Tallulah finally ran in the fall! Eager to take advantage of the release, a weekend trip down to the famed river was in store. Most know this classic run for the mega slide, Oceana.

Oceana is a huge slide with a big rock sticking up about ¾ of the way down the slide, creatively named “The Thing.” Sketchy would be the initial reaction of most, but A LOT of people huck themselves fearlessly over the daunting horizon line. A great entertainment to watch, and also quite fun to run. The beast offers two great lines. The most common being the left line, which allows for a crazy amount of speed and just barely avoids a collision with “The Thing” or for those wishing for a little something extra from the rapid they choose the middle line and do the ferry above “The Thing.” Certainly a rapid to remember.

The rest of the run boasts some awesome ledges and slides perfect for a good rail grab or skirt check as well as some amazing scenery. The run is short but sweet and ends in a long lake paddle out, but it’s certainly worth it.

Trent Thibodeaux, Kira Tenney, Casey Sande and myself joined up with Chan Jones and Taylor Fearrington for two runs of Saturday at 500 CFS. Trent, Kira, Casey, and I only had the leg strength to fire up one run on the 700 CFS Sunday because of the 500+ stairs to reach the put in. It was great to finally get in that coveted fall run on the Tallulah.

Sam Fulbright

Team Bliss-Stick

Pilot Collective Media

 

 

 

In order as follows from Nov. 15th at the Madison Wave.

Norton, Giebs, Zack, Chuck, Todd, Then Geibs again charging another random drop from this summer.... and a Blunt in a SCUD.

Happy Holidays and take care,

Adam Swett