First Descents for First Descents

www.firstdescentsforfirstdescents.com

The goal of this program is to raise money and awareness for the non-profit organization, First Descents, by going out and exploring the rivers and creeks you have always wanted to run, whether they are in the guide book or not doesn’t matter, it’s about going and doing something new. The fundraiser is very similar to when you were in junior high school and walked laps around the track and got pledges that paid based on how many laps you made. The more personal first descents you do this spring and the more pledges you get from your friends, family, and people in the community, the more money you raise for First Descents. Skill level does not matter, class of river does not matter, having fun and doing something you love on a new section of river does. I encourage everyone to take the little bit of time it takes to get a couple pledges and go out and paddle just like every year. Getting in the few new runs you always are trying for, but for a cause.This fundraiser kicks off April 11th 2009 and ends June 28th 2009. Not only will you have yet another excuse to go out and explore the runs you haven't ever gone out and done yet. But you also are helping out a wonderful cause. One more thing, while you do this, please send in trip reports of your adventures to mike@stoneandwaterproductions.com and I will post them on here. Photos would be great too. It doesn’t matter if you are going out on your first river with moving current, or if its some unexplored multi day run in some remote region that take 9 days to finish. All trips signify the same thing, our love and desire to explore the unknown.
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spring has sprung

Mid Winter Play

First off, I'd like to give a big shout to fellow Peak UK paddler Cody Howard for the amazing video he's put together. If you haven't seen it, you've got to. I got the chance to watch it earlier this week and it's one of the best paddling films I've ever seen. His website is http://www.huckinhuge.com/. Go check it out.

A couple of weeks ago, Jeff Banks and I headed up to a local play spot to beat the winter blues and get a little paddling in. We headed up to a shallow, man made feature affectionately referred to as the gutter. The water was nice and cold giving you a brain freeze every time you flipped but we still had a good time and it sure beat sitting at home or making runs on the icy ski hill.

I used my PeakUK Creek dry top and it was super dry. I have an old dry suit I use occasionally and this dry top is far drier than the dry suit and doesn't seem to have moisture build up from sweat like the old dry suit does. It's great!

Salween River, China

Salween River from Sam Fulbright on Vimeo.


Back in December Tino Specht and myself decided to hop on a plane to China with our kayaks in tow. The game plan: make it to the Salween River outside of Gongshan, China in search of big waves, and bigger rapids. Few obstacles seemed to stand in our way once we made it to the New York City airport, all we had to do was catch the plane to Beijing, then a 38 hour train ride to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan Province, and then figure out the chinese bus system to get north to Gongshan. Luck seemed to be on our side, and shortly after we got off the train in Kunming we picked up our boats and were on a 17 hour overnight bus by the afternoon. We rolled into the town Fugong by late morning the next day, and again we managed to get on the bus to Gongshan within 10 minutes of arrival to Fugong. Happy to be on our way to the base town for the trip spirits were high as we followed the Salween north towards Tibet. Catching glances of possible waves worth surfing kept us entertained for the short 4 hours from Fugong to Gongshan, with our faces glued to the windows we motored on. We settled in for the night in our small hotel room excited to paddle the next day.
We managed to grab a ride in a truck to go and scout out a few waves we saw the day before, and decided to camp at a wave discovered last year and deemed the “flying dragon.” It looked great from the road so we ferried our gear across the river and got ready to surf. As I dropped down onto the wave I began to realize that the foam pile was a bit larger than it appeared from up on the road. After surfing the giant hole a few more times to confirm in my head that it truly was a hole to get beat down in rather than a wave to catch air on we got out of our boats and set up camp for the night. The next morning we waited for the sun to reach the bottom of the gorge than began to get gear back across the river to head upstream in search of more waves and some big rapids. We opted to stay in the town for the night and head north the following days to explore the canyon upstream of Gongshan. With the convenient shuttle option of catching a ride north and paddling back to town it made life easy and allowed us some great days on the river enjoying the waves we found and the big water between. With the locals constantly cheering as we paddled past and good white water we felt very fortunate to be able to experience the canyons for another year. With many many good waves to surf and great big water the Salween is non stop fun, however, like most rivers in China it is threatened. The government has plans to build 13 dams on the river to help control the water, and generate power for the growing Chinese cities. Sadly we risk losing these gorgeous lands rich with culture as the land supports many different ethnic minorities, and supports one of the most bio-diverse regions in the world. As we left the river on our last day we bid farewell to the small town of Gongshan, as many people watched as we tied our boats on top of the public bus, reminding us of how fortunate we are to be able to experience these places from our kayaks before the are possibly lost in the effort to harness energy for our growing planet.