For my first post I thought I would introduce myself and explain why I chose to be on the PeakUk team.
I am double majoring in physical education and Spanish in Wisconsin so I have a short paddling season. At school I am co-captain/coach of the Ultimate Frisbee team and work in a climbing gym. During the summer I teach lessons at the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Center in Salida, CO and can be found at the play holes everyday after work. I compete pro a at a couple events each year and I am working on becoming a solid creekboater.
So, why did I join PeakUk.
I have been paddling for 12 years and have had many brands of dry tops including NRS, Stolhquist, IR, and Kokatat. I have never had a dry top that keeps me dry. My hydroskin is soaked after 15 minutes and I have to empty my boat (All Star=no leaks) every half hour. I play hard and tunnels bother me as well because they bunch up and restrict movement.
Last year a friend bought a PeakUk dry deck. I was blown away to see that his cotton t-shirt and his boat stay dry after an hour play session. I chose PeakUk gear so that I can stay comfortable and dry when I play.
And what would a post be without some eye candy. These videos are from Salida last year.
Last thursday I drove up to Hood River to do some paddling and support my friends Nate and Heather Herbeck....they were premiering their new film, Toxic Waters on Saturday night. On Friday Josh and I hooked up with fellow paddlers, Jared Jackman, Jesse Becker, Jason S., Ryan Scott, and Nate and Heather Herbeck for a paddle on the Truss. It was reading 2.5 on the gauge but this translates to about 3.25 in reality. When asking Nate Herbeck what he thought of running Big Brother at this flow, his response was, "well, it's on the high side of juicy". OK so the truss was fluffy- that's good.
We put on the rio around 2:30 and found the run to be nice as usual. Lots of fun lines to be had. For the first time ever, I looked at Big Bro with the idea of running it. After watching my good friend Josh fire it up, I decided to give er'. After three false starts, I dropped Big Brother for the first time ever and didn't even visit the cave. It just so happens that it was the most fun I've ever had on a waterfall...I'm definitely firing it up again :D
Here's a sequence shot of my run just for kicks :) The sequence was shot by Jesse Becker
Below Big Brother and Double drop is Zig Zag. The Upper portion of the rapid is just fine but as you get to lower zig zag you will notice a big log right where you need to go. In order to run the drop, you must paddle under the log and over a submerged log. I'm not a big fan of wood so I portaged but just fyi, you can run this one.
Everything else went great after Big Brother and we capped off the day with a visit to Sebu- a great place to eat....it doesn't get much better than that!
Saturday: Today we woke up pretty stoked from the day before and decided that we would fire up the L-Dub AKA the Little White Salmon. It was sitting at 3.5 feet the day before so we weren't sure if it would go up or come down- only one way to find out. We all drove to the put in and were surprised to see the level sitting at something close to 3.3 feet. Perfect.
Dave G. flying through S-Turn Photo by: Dan Gavere
keepin it real above Wishbone Photo by: Dan Gavere
Sadly I did not have my camera and this was my first time on the creek. As my sis and I like to call it, it was a "business run". ha ha so next time I will have more pics!
This spring break the list of goodness includes: Little White, Eagle Creek, Mckoy Creek, Hagan Gorge, Copper Creek, and toss in a bit of ocean surfing...woo hoo! :) I will be posting video and pictures from these runs so stay tuned!
Keep your gear wet and moldy...and make sure it's Peak UK gear you are using! -Christina :)
Well, I'm surprised Ken didn't already post this, so I feel it is my duty to the adoring Team Peak fans out there to have the privilege of clicking on the following link. And if you haven't tried the creektop yet, you will want to after reading the review by Chris Joose. Operators are standing by.... git yers now!
13 Foot Swells, Lake Creek, and 6 hours of driving...
Hey peoples! :) I just got back from a fantabulous weekend in Eugene and the coast. I got all of my homework done for the weekend so I boogied on over to meet my friends at the University of Oregon.
Thanks to Craig for getting a group of us out to paddle on January 1st. We tackled the mighty Jordan river and its mildly technical turns. It was a bluebird day, a bit nippy at 24 degrees, other than that a perfect way to start they year.
While everyone to the south is still complaining about drought, the past month has been pretty good for paddling here in Pennsylvania. It's starting raining again, and the temperatures have been pretty mild.
I got the chance to pull out the Creek top a few times this month, both for the Green Race and so Keystone State Creeks. Creeking target was the Delaware Water Gap, home of Hornbecks creek and Raymondskill Creeks, steep and clean.
Hornbecks Creek
Bobby's Falls
Twist and shout
David's Falls, a sweet end to a sweet creek
"Flirting with Disaster" on Raymondskill
The playboating has been pretty good too. Low water brings in the Bainbridge wave on the Susquehanna and the new Scudder's hole on the Delaware. A good shot of rain brought the Susquehanna up to the level where my personal favorite, Storm Hole, comes in.
Looping in Scudders
More Scudders. The water was cold that day, so the game was to loop without getting your head wet.
This is Storm hole at a high level, good for blunts and such in both pockets
This is storm at a lower level. The river right pocket is great for any and all hole moves, like big airwheels.
November has come and gone and I got in a lot of quality paddling, but now the winds are turning colder. Today was the first day I came off the river with ice forming on my gear, one of those days I'm thankful for a good drydeck.
This weekend, my friend Jesse came down from Hood River for a visit. He had never been to Bend before so I wanted to show him the good stuff. :)
We got up early and headed out to Tumalo Falls . It's a 100 foot waterfall just West of Bend. In the winter you can capture some great shots as the drop freezes up and maybe even see some ice climbers. The road out to the falls had a wee bit of snow on it so we took it slow and enjoyed the scenery...
(Above) yep, that's us, parked in the middle of the road Photo by: Jesse Becker
(Above) Tumalo Falls Photo By: Jesse Becker
(Above) Me checkin out the beautiful waterfall Photo by: Jesse Becker
(Above) Me droppin' Dillon Falls Photo By: Josh Mckeown
(Above) Jesse B on Dillon
Photo by: Christina Russell
Another great weekend in Bend, Oregon and I have to say a welcome change in my schedule. My first relaxing weekend I've had in a while. Hope everyone is getting out on their local rivers and enjoying the brisk weather! :)
How to get your Peak UK CrHow to get your Peak UK Creek Top ready for some Gnar Gnareek Top ready for some Gnar Gnar
1. When you receive your Crick Top, you will receive a drytop, 1 small armour pad (fig A), 2 longer armour pads with a flat end and rounded bottom (fig B) and 2 longer armour pads with pointy ends and flat bottom (fig D). 2. The small single piece of armour (fig A) is for the upper spine, and velcros onto the inside of the drytop. Slide the piece of armour between the latex neck gasket and the neoprene outer gasket. 3. The two pieces of armour with the rounded bottoms (fig B) are your elbow pads. They slide into a pocket on the arm, and are attached with velcro to the inside. These ones might need to be squeezed in and then flattened out as the fit is tight. 4. The last two pieces of armour (fig D) are your shoulder pads, and they slide in between the latex and neoprene neck gaskets as well. The are attached with the provided velcro once inside. 5. Now you're done! Your top is ready to go over the gnarliest drop you can find! (Which I am hoping to do this weekend on the Oxtongue River). 6. One final test before you get on the river is to give the rockin' removable armour a go on the nearest test dummy. In my case, a one Billy Harris was loitering around and I had to see if the armour was good. Yes, the armour works great! * Disclaimer: Billy Harris was not harmed during the making of this How-To Article
Hey hey river buddies! Welcome to the brand spankin' new Peak UK blog! Let us know what you think with comments...even if that means adding glitter banners (although I would personally advise against that). Saturday-
These past two weekends I have made the five hour drive to the Oregon Coast. The weather has been fantastic: sunny and 65 degrees! Swells have been rolling in at a pretty stout ten feet with 13 second periods. Perfect. I convinced a good friend from Corvallis to come surf....in addition to the three passengers I had with me. With the car completely packed with kiteboarding and kayaking gear we headed out....
As soon as we arrived at the jetty we could see that the swells were pretty sweet. A solid eight feet. I agreed to take pictures with josh's camera for a few minutes . After ten minutes or so I couldnt take it anymore...I HAD to get in. FYI the most difficult part of surfing in the jetty is getting in and out of the boat. All the boulders are covered with sharp barnacles. Let me be the first to say that you definitely need to wear shoes....I had a bad experience....more on that later.... (above) the surfmobile! It was loaded down this trip
(Above) checkin' out the sets in the jetty...
The funny thing about ocean surfing is the beatdown to reward ratio. It's about equal in the jetty- for every great ride, ya also get a solid beatdown. Ah now is a good time to bring up our good buddies up in the coast guard tower. There just happens to be a coast guard base right next to the jetty so there are helicopters constantly flying overhead- pretty cool. Anyways, the guys up in the tower found us all very amusing.....after one solid beatdown, I looked over to see them throwing their arms in the air and jumping around. Must have been great entertainment for them...speaking of entertainment....
(Above) Party wave!
(Above) Christina blunting left
I brought my doggy Pepper to the coast with me. This was her first time to run around on the beach and she thought it was pretty friggin awesome. It went like this: chase the seagulls, get wet and freak out, decide that was alright and chase the birds again, see a seal, cant quite get to it, confused, hey look more birds! Yeah she was a happy camper and by the way, she just celebrated her 13th bday. :)
So what happened on SAturday? LOTS of surfing, lots of tricks and of course LOTS of beatdowns. Chris learned how to blunt and josh figured out the whole timing issue.....start paddling for the wave early! We all got pretty pooped out after a few hours and each of us headed in. Now for the tough part- getting out. I didn't do super well on that and managed to get thrown up into the barnacle covered rocks....ouch. Barnacle, OW! Rocks, OW! I haven't repeated the incident since!
Sunday: Everyone had a great time- even Holly and Collin (my kiteboarding buddies) managed to get in a five mile pull- they paralleled the beach and headed south five miles. the winds were hitting about 20-25 knots and the waves were huge outside the jetty...maybe 14 feet? hmmm they looked pretty big.
(Above) Chris throwin a blunt
(Above) Christina bouncing around
Following another good four hours of surfing, we headed back to Bend for more work work work...ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Hopefully next weekend I can get back to the coast with my buddies. The forcast is for 18 foot waves with 14 second periods. Yes! till next time everyone!
Happy Paddling as always, Christina :)
P.S. My Delux drystop from Peak UK kept me dry the whole time...even after a fair share of beatdowns! :) Can't say enough about it!
Thanks to Craig for getting a group of us out to paddle on January 1st. We tackled the mighty Jordan river and its mildly technical turns. It was a bluebird day, a bit nippy at 24 degrees, other than that a perfect way to start they year.
