Monday, May 29, 2006

Home Chillin' with my family and girl...

Photo by Samantha B.

Today I got to finally just hang out and chill with my family. With so much to do and get done, it's hard to find time to spend with them... Sometimes I just have to put everything aside and try to relax. I thought I'd give you guys some insight into my day at the house though. After a nice, big cup of coffee, I pulled down my dad's new Jackson Rocker that I got for him. It wasn't long before he was fully set up and tryin' it out in our pool.

Photo of my dad, Boyd R. Sr., rollin' his new Rocker by Sammie B.

After Chillin' on a camping chair with Sammie and finishin' up my second cup of coffee... Sam decided she wanted to get her new Jackson Hero in the water again too... So she hopped in and paddled around and let me play with her camra for a while...

Photo of Sam in her new, pink Jackson Hero by me

I couldn't take it anymore... haha I just had to try out her new Hero. At 5'9" and 150 lbs, I'm a bit big for it, not to mention that it's pink... but I hopped in and paddled it around just for kicks.

Photo Sam took of me bein' goofy in her new pink Hero

A shot I took of me and Sam...haha by timin' the camra...

Well that's enough for now... have an awesome M. Day everyone!

Boyd

Memorial Day Trip Report

Sunset photo by Samantha Brunner

Me & Sam pulled out at 1 pm Friday heading east... settin' us up for an interesting ride through M. Day traffic. We stopped at Walmart for some food in Jackson, and ate at Moe's... With our full bellies we hit Nashville at 5:00... just in time for rush hour traffic. We made it out by about 5:30 or 5:45 and were off on 70 to Rock Island, where we picked up Sam's new pink Hero and my dad's new orange Rocker... We decided to use the rest of our time to outfit Sam's boat. We got everything outfitted and loaded up and were off again by 8 pm... with a recent call from Drew about Tellico levels we took off to the Tellico for a nice long sleep in our car and good water for the coming morning... yeah right!

We got to the tellico late and it was crankin' at ~3 ft and Bald River was goin' off...but unfortunately, ALL the camping sites were full! The Baby Falls lot was stuffed with fishermen in big RVs. All the boaters who'd flocked for the rain, were crashin' in there cars at the Takeout and the other pull-offs... it was getting late so we crashed at the Tellico put-in... sort of. About 1 AM (we hadn't even really been alseep yet) a 2 spotlights and a pair of headlights flared into the back of my truck and blue and white lights flickered around us. I got my shoes on and stuff...and climbed out of the back of my truck, completely blinded by the lights. lucky for us, he turned out to be a good friend of ours and he asked about Memphis and we talked for a bit... but we still had to leave. With no other real options, we went back to Tellico Plains and checked out the KOA... but of course it was full... long story & LONG night short... we ended up in a Save-a-Lot parking lot... disturbed through the morning by an 18 wheeler unloading in the back (where we were parked)... needless to say, we got like NO sleep...At ALL! The night before that I maybe slept 4 hours and before that only 2 hours...etc... literally.

So completely wiped out at the start, we headed over to the put-in and to meet up with Lauren Burress and her parents, Nathan and Kathleen. With the Tellico at 2.5 feet at 7 AM, we decided it was our best..immediate option. We ran the ledges to the take out and had a GREAT run down! Sam tried out her new Jackson Hero and apparently LOVED it. At that point, we were running a bit late so I got some gas and took off to the Cheoah, trying to meet up with Drew, MW and everyone... as well as my friend Nate. The traffic on the "Tail of the Dragon" (the road we took) was Terrible and SlOW!!! Usually I can make it from the Tellico to Cheoah in 1 hour... took a bit more this time. We missed everyone at Cheoah and put on with Lauren and her dad a bit later and cruised on down.

Photo of Lauren Burress by Samantha B.

Photo of Nathan B. by Samantha Brunner.

For those that don't know, Lauren Burress is a 10 year old girl sponsored by Fortress, Jackson, Werner, Stohlquist,Keen, Sweet, and others? ...girls got the hook up! Well anyways, it was their first time down Cheoah so I led them down and showed them some fun lines and sweet spots... Lauren completely styled cheoah, being the youngest kid I've seen on it yet (Dane is 12). She walked Bear Creek Falls with the wise descretion of her dad, but she styled the West Prong Line on the lower 3rd of B.C. Rapid like it was nothing. I was a bit impressed. Sam led herself down it (only boat scouting) shortly after... I was super impressed with her too...

I guess the closest thing we got to carnage was at "God's Dam"... where I got to watch (from just below), Nathan, Lauren, and Sam Surf the hole at God's Dam... luckily they all surfed it out to the "pin rock" side and pulled their way through the froth over there. The pin rock was already clogged with a girl's blue boat so it wasn't as much of an issue They all made it out in their boats and without breaking too much of a sweat...and more importantly, with big grins of relief.

After Cheoah Everyone was beat and had way more than enough, but me and Nathan decided to check out the cascades (only 30 min. away). We showed up to "The Horns of God"... "the horns" for short" ... and found a very very low flow... really a no go. A third run looked hopeless, but I decided to check out Whiteoak Falls anyways. Amazingly enough, nearly ALL the volume in the cascades was only coming from Whiteoak Creek. I found out later that because of the new scheduled releases on the Cascades, the don't release the minimum runnable level anymore.... AT ALL... Did we really get the good end of the deal on that one? anyways... Whiteoak was actually at a GREAT level for the falls... not bad at all. I fired it up and then decided to give it another go... Great lines both time and it felt sweet. I never really get tired of that drop if I'm already in the area.

Photo by Samantha B.

Close up of me by Samantha B.

So Day one: Tellico @ ~2.4 ft, Cheoah @ 1200 cfs (felt like less), and for me - Whiteoak Falls twice... not bad for one day.

From there we ate Mexican in Andrews (always say Murphy for some reason...but it's in Andrews)... We hung out there until around 9 pm local... and my Friend nate called and reserved me a site with "Club Sack" at Wesser... So we decided to hang with them. And get a... say it together... "GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP"... YEAH RIGHT!!!! Well.. this time we forked up $15 and we were legal, safe, and in a campground...what could possibly happen!?!?!?!ALL night long... a small dog yelped and barked NON-STOP... ALL NIGHT real close to our site. Someone eventually tried to move the dog and his bark turned into even higher pitched yelps... We got no sleep again... it sucked. seeing a trend here???

We were completely determined to meet up with memphis Whitewater THIS time and convinced Nate, Evan, and Bert to meet up with us for the Upper Ocoee too... We forced our self out of my truck and I peeled my eyes open, trying to ignore the SUPER annoying dog.. and we took off to the Ocoee. Long story short we were ALL together by the time we hit Alien Boof... And had an AWESOME time down the ocoee. At that point, I was completely worthless but it was fun to be on the water and paddling with so many good friends. Me and Sam finally took off for Memphis again (asleep before we even started I think...) but we made it back before 11 pm... and Sam spent the night at my house so she wouldn't have to drive home. SOMEHOW that girl woke me up early this mornin' and now I'm finally about to go to bed... as soon as I eat my 4th meal of the day - cereal... I'll probably finish off a box or two

It's looking Like I'm leaving again in 2 more days...gotta love it!

- Boyd


Photo by Lauren Burress

Friday, May 26, 2006

Team Fortress Making waves at Reno...

From Andy Palmer:

At the Reno River Festival May 12-14th, Fortress team paddlers threw down hard this past weekend on the Truckee River. The water was running hard and the weather was awesome. Blue bird and 87 degrees! 21,000 people attended the Reno whitewater park and were rewarded with an amazing display of talent from the best kayakers in the World. Fortress was proud to be one of the main sponsors of the event.

Jay Kincaid - 3rd Men's Freestyle

Tanya Faux - 1st Women's Freestyle

Nikki Kelley - 2nd Women's Freestyle

Corey Volt - 2nd Men's Open

Christie Glissmeyer - 3rd Women's Open.

Check out more about Fortress watches at www.Fortressworldwide.com.


I've been super impressed with mine...

- Boyd

Monday, May 22, 2006

3rd ledge of Whiteoak Falls by Samantha Brunner
check out more in this video:

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Outdoors Inc & Jackson Kayaks Demo


This year at the annual Outdoors Inc Demo Day at Patriot Lake, Outdoors Inc decided to also partner up with Jackson Kayaks for the Demo, to kick off their first year as a Jackson Kayaks retailer!

The Demo was a HUGE success and the Memphis Whitewater guys and girls also did a great job coming out to support the event, representing the whitewater crowd of the Memphis area. I want to send out a HUGE thanks to everyone who helped with the Jackson Kayaks booth at the race and at the demo! Samantha did a GREAT job helping me out with the booth and demo; I couldn't have pulled it off without her! This should be an exciting year for Outdoors Inc with their new stock of Jackson Kayaks. Make sure you go by and check them out!

Boyd

Outdoors Inc becomes Jackson Kayaks newest dealer!

Outdoors Inc. of Memphis, TN has now taken on Jackson Kayaks. With 3 location in Memphis, and one in Jackson, TN, Outdoors Inc. is sure to be an awesome addition to the Jackson Kayaks family of retailers! Find out more about Outdoors Inc. on their website!

2006 Outdoors Inc. Great Mississippi Canoe & Kayak Race

Last Saturday, the Outdoors Inc. Great Mississippi Canoe & Kayak Race went AWESOME. Usually I'm a safety boater for the race (a 5k flatwater sprint has never really appealed to me) even though it is one of the biggest canoe & kayak races in the country. Guys like Greg Barton and Elmore Holmes come out for the race too. This year, for some reason I decided to race in the Men's Under 10' Kayak catagory. Without a SuperHero at hand, I decided to pull out the Rocker and test myself and the Rocker against the 10' and under (mostly touring) kayaks. I had a great start, faster than a lot of the 13' kayaks, but once I pealed out of the Wolf River and into the Mississippi, 2 realizations hit: one, 3 miles is a long way to sprint on flatwater with a whitewater kayak and two, the cross-wind and low water wasn't helping me very much. Long story short and a long paddle later, I crossed the finish line almost tied with the second place guy. I got 3rd in Men's under 10' class with a time just over 28 minutes... not bad for a 5k flatwater race in a Rocker. :-)

Photo by Samantha Brunner

A shot I took of Samantha getting ready to head down as a race safety boater.

Memphis Whitewater swept the race in general in all the different classes and age groups of competitors! Check out this shot Sam took of all the Memphis Whitewater medalists!


After the Race, I got the Jackson Kayaks booth up and running, playing the dealers loop on the promo video. People were at our booth before I even finished the race looking at catalogs and checking out the boats. It only got busier from there. Samantha was a HUGE help and did a really great job fitting all the girls. It was a HUGE success for Jackson Kayaks to say the least!

Spring Splash 2006

Well this year we took off for NOC's Spring Splash on the Nantahala. The strong storms brought up some good boatin' so me and Sam took off to meet up with our Asheville friends Shannon, Mike, Dan, and Dana at Big Creek. Big Creek was at a nice, thumpin' level so we decided to get a highwater run down the Upper...The trip was an absolute blast! Upper Big Creek is one of my new favorites!


Photo of me by: Samantha Brunner

Just downstream of Action Alley Photo by Samantha B.

Photo of Shannon N. by Samantha Brunner

Photo of Mike on Big Creek by Samantha B.

Photo of Dan flyin' through one of many beefy slots on the Upper that day. Photo by Sam.


Mike just after punching a sticky one, shot by Samantha of course.


Sam caught this shot of me approaching another ledge... that water is BEAUTIFUL!

The next day, me and Sam decided to take off for something new. We met up with Mike (Louie) Louis for a run down Tremont.

A beautiful shot Sam took of me getting in to run the last bit of Lynn Camp Prong, before our run down Tremont.

The last drop on Lynn Camp into Tremont, taken by Samantha.... here's me finishing the same drop:


Fun times! more updates on the way so stay tuned...

Boyd :-)

wow...time flies...


I can't believe it's already been more than a month since my last post on here! It's been a super busy month and I haven't even had time to post up. So starting today, I'm going to catch up with my posts... HOPEFULLY...

Boyd