Green Race 2008: Low Water and Good Lines

This was David's first time entering the Green Race. He placed 12th in short boat with a time of 5:37.

Surfing in Idaho 2008

Kat - helix

Kat - air loop

Kat - working on airwheels

Vertical Mile on Oh-Be-Joyful

David, Chris Townshend and Jeff West got up at daylight, drove a jeep across the Slate River and up the snowy, rough 4WD road to run 21 laps on OBJ (all the way down to the Slate). They had cleared snow the day before and put a tarp over the hood of the Jeep to cross. They broke 3 boats and 1 paddle, and had two flat tires, not to mention some gross looking chapped lips and faces from the ice cold water. Below is David at the 25 footer... And at the 15 footer by the put in...

Now I didn't do the laps, but here is a shot of me at the 25 footer after it warmed up, but that same season!

High Water Oh Be Joyful Race

David's first extreme race was the OBJ Race. The water was high and the weather was warm, typical for a big snowpack year. After a timed start to finish, they had a Giant Slalom course through the 25 footer. Here's David running a fast line at the first waterfall, a 15 footer...

Running Stupid Falls and the Crested Butte Quadruple Crown!!

When Mark Bowman and Chad Pickens got to town, it was time for the Crested Butte Quad Crown...Some more OBJ, Daisy, Slate, and the Upper East. David decided Stupid Falls looked good and went for it!

Top photo: Kat on Daisy (photo by Natalie Kellum)

Next: David entering Stupid Falls (photo by Scott Shoup, who joined in for a couple runs)

More TVF...Henderson, Richland, Cain, and North Chickamauga Creeks all in one day!

When it rains in Chattanooga, there's no better place to be! David and Jonathon hit Henderson first, and then came over to the Chick for a late run. I took some first timers down Cain/Chick on the early run. Below are some shots of me (finally) running Vortex. My first time and super clean!




Thanks to Anne Connely for the photos! It was great to paddle with her. The girls ran Vortex, and coincidently, one of the guys that was portaging changed his mind. Ha!

David gets his vertical mile and then some! He sets huge TVF records on Suck Creek...in the Snow!!

Launching off Pinnacle on David's 12th lap...

This year for TVF, David joined the renowned Stanley Steamers Team, which includes Jeff West, Chris Townsend, Jonathan Shanin, and Mark Bowman. These guys are fired up! Starting before daylight on a snowy cold day, David and Jeff blew away the records on our local manky class V run, Suck Creek. Specifically, David did 16 laps all the way to the bridge, beating the old record by over 8 miles and 1500 vertical feet! Then we realized, not only did he get a vertical mile, he had beaten the East Coast TVF personal record by over 300 feet...He logged 6320!! Also, the team logged over 7,000 feet and Jeff ran Knucklehead (a regularly portaged drop) 10 times in a row!!...You can read a detailed story about this adventure and others at tvfkayaking.blogspot.com. Here are a few shots from the day. Below is Jeff at Pinnacle, around lap 8, boofing the Dagger Nomad like a champ:

David and Jeff getting ready in snowy twilight:

Snow fell in the morning and blanketed the ground. A rare sight in the southern corner of Tennessee.

David at Road Construction on lap 3: Jeff running Knucklehead for the 5th time in a row:David runs the bottom of Road Construction while Jeff enters:

David at Slow-N-Low on lap 10:

Going Big on the Mighty Tellico

I've been seeing guys freewheeling their creekboats, so I decided to try it for myself. It turns out that I can do it too! I love my Burn! After practicing some serious creeking boofs, and a couple good freewheels at Baby Falls, I pulled a log out of Diaper Wiper and we headed down to Bald River Falls for some "plugging practice." I took a shot of David (below) and we finished two complete laps. Woohoo! Next, we headed to a 'secret creek' in the area to clean wood out. David manhandled several logs, and all the best drops on my secret creek are ready to run! :) Kat

Little River Canyon Falls in Alabama: Kat checks it off

Finally, I made it down there at 8 to 9 inches and was able to run this awesome drop. Dave has run it lots of times, but this was my first time :)

Thanks to my friends Matt Wallace and Ben Davis for the moral support and the photos! They also dropped it for their 1st time and had nice lines!