Category Archives: Instruction

Overnighters

by Evan Garcia

Overnight kayaking tripThere are so many rad parts of our sport, it’s hard to say what’s the best.

Surfing big smooth waves? Boofing the perfect 20 footer? Take out beers? Seeing new places? Making good friends?…Yeah all of those things do appeal to me as a long time boater, but there is still one thing that stands high above every other aspect of whitewater kayaking…Overnighters!

This summer I was blessed with the opportunity to return to California for the sixth summer in a row! It seems like just yesterday when I was driving up I-80 to Donner Summit for my first Royal Gorge run. I was terrified! I never would have guess that 6 years later I would have run this river 5 times and was the first person to complete the “Royal Flush”. That’s all history now…The point of the matter is that I fell in love with the whole deal!

Whitewater Clinic with Johns Hopkins University

by Shane Benedict
I just finished an awesome clinic with Johns Hopkins University.  We paddled for four days on a different river each day.  The water levels were great.  The skies were clear.  It really was a perfect long weekend of paddling.  We paddled the Green, Chattooga, French Broad, and Pigeon Rivers.  This is my third year working with this group and each year I am a little hesitant because the rivers are going to be cold and the weather is horrible for people to be learning to paddle.  But each year this group shows me that the passion for learning can over come any thing.   These guys are so fired up to paddle and learn more that by time we start our first paddling session I am ready to go and paddle all day long and teach these guys because they are so excited about the whole thing.