US Team Trials

The USACK Team Trials just wrapped up Sunday afternoon. The entire weekend was an impressive display of athleticism and fortitude. The course changed each day offering harder and harder challenges to racers. Sundays race had an ambitious gate on the river right eddie just above the big drop on the competition channel. That's a scary place to be let alone glide with precision between two sticks. The race was enjoyable to watch but most importantly it was great to see some of the USNWC staff and community do so well.


A reminder...Hawfield road is now paved. Please Drive Slow!

Staff Night

One of the best perks of working at the USNWC is the opportunity to take advantage of all the activities the facility provides. Last night, the instruction staff hosted free kayak clinics for staff. Lots of folks from food and beverage, guest services, climbing and rafting showed up to work on skills or experience their first time in a boat. Here's some photos.





We have a great staff of friendly people who like to play hard and work hard! I love that we are living out our motto of 'Take It Outside.'
Interested in working here? We are currently hiring for all positions. Find an application on our website.

Riot Demo Reviews

One of our new instructors, Daniel Stewart, spent the day test driving each of our new Riot Demos. Here's what he had to say:

The demo boats from Riot have just arrived at the USNWC and I took it upon myself to break a few of them in. Specifically, we received an Astro 54, Astro 58, Nitro 58, Thunder 65, and Magnum 72. I tried all of them except the Astro 58.
My Stats
Ht. 5’11”
Wt. 160
17 yrs old, 6 years paddling

Astro 54
This boat is pretty easy to get tricky with. At my weight, I kept my review of this design to the 54 gallon model only. That said, this boat has ups. After getting fitted correctly into its lime-green nastiness, I hit up the wilderness side for some playboating.
The first place I took it was a medium-sized wave on the rodeo channel. This wave surges a lot, but it has a nice green left shoulder to launch righty blunts, backstabs, and other more advanced moves if you are so inclined. The edge transitions were nice, snappy, and controlled. This boat really wants to get out of the water. Unlike many other Riot boats of the past, this boat favors more of a bounce style than a hard carving style; still, it will hold an edge when you need it to, and the bounces go big! Air blunts and backstabs went really well, with an emphasis on the stabs. They were effortless.
Secondly, I took the Astro to a small wave-hole that will give up loops, a few ends, the occasional mcnasty, and… well, not much else. The loops were big. It sometimes was challenging to plug in (due as much to the low angled greenwater as the rocker of the boat), but plug in right and you will fly. Cartwheels were balanced, like a lot of the boats these days a little more effort has to be put in on bow ends. I had trouble linking more than two or three ends in a row, but the feature is really flushy. Later, I took it to a small cartwheel hole and didn’t have much trouble linking five, six, or more ends.
Lastly, I took a few rides on the dubbed, “M-wave,” a feature designed to mimic the original M-Wave in Colorado. This wave has a large retentive foampile with greenwater to bounce off on the bottom and sides. It is also only a couple inches deep, complicating matters further. The boat skipped and hopped like a stone, spinning in circles like a top. Good thing I am immune to the dizzy factor. This made it a little difficult to control coming down the pile, but nevertheless a few blunts were launched. Once again, this boat likes to get up. Air blunts snapped around quickly and easily. Honestly, I didn’t try many other tricks due to a recent injury to my hand and the possibility of re-injuring it on the shallow bottom, a big no-no before prom. Can’t have bad hands.
Overall, I liked the boat a lot. It isn’t too forgiving, but you can’t have it all. Honestly, in my position, there’s not much I would change about it. Gotta sacrifice some downriver for some play. It is a playboat, afterall.

Thunder 65
For my time in the Thunder, I took it over to the class 3-4 Competition Channel. This boat was easy to paddle. It did not take any time to get used to; I immediately felt at home in what it was: a river runner. I didn’t feel it truly excelled in any one area, but it responded really well and easily made all the moves I wanted it to. Unlike a true creekboat, the edges were pretty hard, something I enjoyed in the pushier style of water. The speed was good, it was there, but it was not exceptional.
For a little workout, I went down the last class 4 drop on the channel, a hard left-hand turn into a chute that ends with a hole and turbulent eddies on either side. In this drop are numerous difficult eddies, but the Thunder made them seem easy. I caught every eddy I wanted, and even attained up a few of the sections. The edges really helped here, they are hard. For this, a beginner might not find it so friendly, but in the long run, it would be a great beginner boat. Personally, I want something more creeky. But for pushy water and river running, the Thunder will be hard to beat.

Magnum 72
The Magnum is a boat I’ve long wanted to really check out. Many of my friends absolutely love it. After spending time in it, I agree. This is a great boat. Like many other new-age creekers, it gets up and over stuff. Really well. I mainly used this boat for a race, where two of its main characteristics really came out: the speed (especially for its length) and the up and over quality. This really helped in carrying speed through drops. For a creekboat, though, it definitely has some edges. They are not as pronounced as the Thunder, but they are there. I’m not sure if I like that in a creekboat. However, for pushy water, such as the park, it is awesome. But maybe that small sacrifice on less-pushy creeks is worth it, especially for when those creeks get high, pushy, and still have all that gradient! Try one out, it’s worth your while, and see what you decide

You can demo these boats through the kayak check-in building. The cost is $15 for an hour and a half session trying as many boats as you want within the time frame.

Jackson Kayak and Hotel Charley

Another fun filled Friday. Colin Kemp represented Jackson Kayak as a host for the second installment of our race series. He put on a great event. The relay consisted of three person teams. Each leg of the race had a floating JK carabiner which he or she had to pass off to their teams boat until all three were connected to the finish line. After the race, we had the grill out for burgers and brats and filled a raft with tasty beverages. It was a great atmosphere. JK provided the awards for the top three teams including patagonia base layers and beanies and raffled off a creek float bag. Thanks to all who came out and made it a fun night.


Colin Kemp, Jackson Kayak team member and ambassador, discribing the race to participants and handing out bibs.





Coming down fast in the first leg.







Playing a little rough in the transition eddie.








Speeding through M-Wave.







At times it was a jumble of chaos. Even though it looks like he is about to swim, Ashley did hit his roll.







The finish line with the River Center in the background.







Colin and James from Diamond Brand introducing the east coast premier of Hotel Charley vol. 2: River of Doubt. Great footage, enjoyable music, amazing drops. So glad folks came out to enjoy the evening at the Center.

Ya Gotta Have Friends

We were fortunate and excited to have our friends from NOC Instruction come for a visit. It's always a blast to share the Center with friends who have never been here before. That, and anytime paddling with friends always ends up with memorable moments. And not just Herms huge kick flip off the wave at "biscuits and gravy" or Wayner blunting right and left on the Rodeo channel or the sillyness we had on the water but also eating together on the porch, walking around the site and sharing being outside are all part of the experience that make being here with good friends worth it and memorable.











Don't forget to share this special place with your friends. They might give you weird looks about it but that's okay.

Instruction Equipment

We've been busy this week with new equipment arriving daily. With so many new people getting into the sport of whitewater kayaking, putting them in gear that is not only comfortable but utilitarian is definately going to enhance their experience on the water. There's lots of thoughts about what gear and boats to use when you are first getting into the sport. There is also plenty to choose from. As we unwrap our new instruction products, I thought I'd share which products we use in USNWC Instruction programs and why we chose these items.

Let's start with helmets. Shred Ready's Super Scrappy helmet has some sweet details that make it easy to use in instruction programs. The size inserts are easy to put in and take out while the HOG (Hands Of God) Retention system rocks! One helmet can fit a huge range of different size heads with very little effort.

This year we have chosen to go with Astral Tempo 200 PFD's and IR Zephyr splash jackets. Astral is "what's hot" in personal floatation. They are stylish, comfortable and with the front zip, easy to fit different body types. Immersion Research is another company that is hip, stylish and functional all at the same time. Although the Zephyr jacket is somewhat simple in design, the 2 layer waterproof material and antimicrobrial mesh liner make it great to use day after day with back to back clinics.

Snap Dragon skirts are great for instructional programs for a number of reasons. They are easy to put on a lot of different sized cockpits so we can put our guests in Dagger boats, Pyranha boats, Liquid Logic and so on all with the same skirt that is easy for the guest to put on themselves. Also, you can order them with an additional implosion bar which gives beginners an extra ejection bar to wet exit from the boat. The biggest plus is that their grab loops are color coded to size. Makes it a no brainer when you're teaching a bunch of people each day.


Personally, I've never paddled anything other than Werner paddles. The diversity of their line makes me question if I will ever need to paddle anything different. Bent shaft, small shaft, different lengths, different blades, different feathers, so many options to play with and try. Later, we'll post some thoughts about differences in paddles. The zero degree topic is one that we play with a lot. Our fleet of paddles this year consist of 194 and 197 Werner Desperados with both 45 degree and 0 degree offset.

Within our five year plan, we hope to be one of the largest kid's whitewater instructional programs in the nation. To kick start this notion we've started to aquire kid specific gear. We've purchased a full line of smaller Jackson Fun series. This enables us to accomodate younger paddlers with a fun and comfortable experience.









Then there is the whole issue of boats. I'm not even going to venture into the discussion of what boats are better for instruction (if all comes down to what fits, what's comfortable, what works for the individual) but I will say that a long stack of pretty, new, shiny boats sure does make me giddy. New toys!








Speaking of new toys, the camera I've been using for all of these blog posts was purchased because of its waterproof quality. The Pentax Optio WP 7 megapixel set up has been fantastic for underwater stills and video. Last week I went to the Botanical Garden and found out just how great this new toy is for everyday, above water shots as well. Here's a few examples.

Paddle Like A Girl!!!

Hurray for our first women's weekend. What a great turn out with twenty four women attending our whitewater kayaking clinics with Anna Levesque and myself. It was such a priviledge to have Anna here sharing her passion for the sport and her approach to women's learning styles. Anna's business, Girls At Play, is an entrepreneurial inspiration because by creating emotionally safe environments in clinics they then become avenues for more female participation in the sport as a whole, thereby ensuring new users in the industry and making the sport broader and more assesible to a larger population. Girls At Play is brilliant in its simplicity as well as within the big picture. Anna has started a new forum as a resource for women paddlers. This forum is an opportunity to post reviews of gear, trips, and instruction. Also, you can post your ideas and comments in the general forum or ask an expert female boater how to improve your technique. Check it out at http://www.watergirlsatplay.com/forums/
Here are some photos from the intro, playboating and rolling clinics.













It is finally spring! Don't forget to go outside.