Viva Mexico

Hey Guys,

So I have just returned from a month in Mexico, it was an amazing trip and I cant wait to get back next season for some un-finished business down there.
All of these shots are from the Alseca River apart from one. Veracruz state is quickly becoming a mecca for young fired up kayakers that want to try there luck on drops ranging from 30 t0 100 feet (and bigger if you want it). I barley scratched the surface of what is possible in the area.

Check out the video, we had a sick crew of rippers this season from Norway, France, Spain, Peru, Mexico, the US and of course Australia.

The Mighty Homathko - Trip Report

This summer an international crew of class 5 kayakers made the amazing journey through the depths of the mighty Homathko's canyons during high flows.
Successfully completing the source to sea expedition in 4 days running some epic whitewater puzzles along the way.

Many thanks to all those who took part in this amazing journey.

Film By
Adrian Kiernan

whiteboxmag.com - ENJOY!

Adrian Kiernan Reviews IR's Double D Drysuit

Hello to all those people reading this post. In the next few paragraphs i will attampt to give some un-biased advice regarding IR's Double D drysuit. I wont go over the features as there is plenty of IR advertising that can tell you all you need.

www.immersionresearch.com

I have been lucky enough to have used this drysuit for almost 5 years. I work rafting and kayaking in it on a day to day basis and do around 2 guiding seasons every year. This includes expedition work on the franklin river in Tasmania AUS (10day expd) and spend the other half of the year in British Columbia. For anybody who has worked or paddled in BC you will no that it is extremely hard on gear - climbing on your knees in soft moss or bush bashing through hectic undergrowth and devils club - Commonly called BC "Hell fuck"

So to give you an idea - my drysuits go through hell.

For me the purchase of a drysuit is something that needs to be carefully researched as those kinds of funds $$ don't just grow on trees. I want it to be comfortable - dry - and most importantly, good value for money. Many of my friends use gore-tex suits and they have also been impressed with that product also. If you have any experience with gore-tex outside drysuits you will know that it is usually the superior product - many companies coming up with their own versions to try and emulate it.

However i strongly believe that for drysuits this is not always the wise decision. For drysuits you really want a fabric that is a good balance between durable and dry and cost effective.

This is the best suit on the market for your money!

Dropping into my favorite Creek in BC - Tatlow

For those of you who are new to drysuits the No 1 thing you need to think about is the socks of the suit. This is where most people complain of leaks. Leaks in areas like the neck and wrists have nothing to do with the drysuit. There is only something like 2 manufacturers of gasketts and pretty much every company uses the same stuff. The socks however in your drysuit take a BEATING! Imagine walking on your nice new raincoat every day of the week, in mud or gravel.

They are simply not made for it. You MUST wear good footwear over your drysuit to protect it and also socks on the inside a very good idea.

Immersion research has recognised this and rather than putting in some expensive fabric than will sooner or later leak. they have simply coated the inside of the drysuit booties with a layer of seal. Making the fabric stronger and more durable.

IR's Drysuit is a fair bit cheaper than Gore-tex drysuits and made with a fabric that is very comparable. On a cost only basis - the obvious choice is still IR. What is the point of buying a drysuit made of gore-tex when it maybe only lasts the same time yet costs so much more!?

The other thing i am really impressed by is the cut of the drysuits. they sit really well especially for kayaking giving you plenty of room around the shoulders so as not to restrict movement. The zip across the back is really easy feels much better to paddle with than over the shoulder- it just takes a little practice.

when buying your drysuit you should really get it a bit bigger than you think you need it. you want to make sure you can fit plenty of layers underneath when its cold.

Also for paddlers when you sit in a kayak and do up the back band you will find that after wriggling in your seat for a bit that some of your suit will bunch up below the back band. When lifting your arms directly to the sky you will feel some pull accross your back. This is less than ideal. It happens with every drysuit, so make sure when your shopping you dont just go for the one that makes your bum look small.

Regardless of which suit you end up picking. Buy a drysuit and not a drytop - pants combo. There is NO comparison. If you are in slightly warmer climates and worried about what to do on a hot day. Simply suit up in your fav pair of shorts and singlet / wife beater and off you go!

BE CAREFULL!!!

Once you buy a drysuit you will never go back!!!

This year in BC i ripped my drysuit BAD from my pee zip between my legs to my A-hole bashing through some sharp tree branches. Beyond repairable, I wrote to IR hoping to get a buy a new suit asap. To my utter disbeleif, the drysuit turned up in less than a week thanks to the LOVELY people at IR. You saved my summer and i thank you!!

Adrian Kiernan

WWW.WHITBOXMAG.COM

SUMMER 2011 BC WRAP UP

HOMATHKO - CLEARWATER - CALLAGHAN - Big Water Training

NORTH STEIN SICKNESS!

ENJOY!

"BRITISH COLUMBIA, WHITEWATER PARADISE."

"WHITEBOX PADDLESPORTS VIDEO MAGAZINE"

"BRITISH COLUMBIA, WHITEWATER PARADISE."

"A visual taste of BC's best Rivers and Creeks."

Featuring the very best eye candy of stunning lines and landscapes, shot on BC's finest creeks, river and streams.

This whitwater hucker's guide includes everything from classic afterwork runs to multi-day expeditions - filmed in just over 2 months of BC summer.

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN for part 2 coming soon!

Episode 1 Includeds: Tatlow Creek, Rogers Creek, Cheakemus, Callaghan, North Stein, Homathko, Clearwater, Raft River, Skookum Creek, Ashlu and many many more!

Plug in your load speaker and turn it up!

Proudly Supported By: Fluid Kayaks and Kayak4play

Enjoy! - Adrian Kiernan - Whitebox Magazine

210ft of drops after work

checking in with some sweet pics from a week or so back. Changing it up from big volume training we decided to go and hit some of the waterfalls in Squamish BC. Starting around 5.30pm after work i managed to notch up over 210ft of free fall in less than 3 hours!

Pics By Jules Domine

BIG WATER - HOMATHKO - BIG BANG

…One has to ask questions like this when planning for an expedition, if you don’t ask the questions and you don’t spend the time?
Or maybe you don’t really want to know at all…

Preparing for an expedition down the Homathko can be as easy as calling the float plane, arranging a pick up time, Researching water levels, buying food, driving 8hours and putting on the river.
But even after this, one still questions, do I want to feel that exposed for 4 days? I know friends who have paddled the river and I know the rapids are manageable. so really I have no real reason to be scared. Right?
Planning for this trip was as much about guess work, trying to work out the weather and wondering what 300cubic meters of water might very quickly do to the river.

This season BC has experienced a high water year. The large amount of high alpine snowpack that still remains hangs over our heads as a reminder as we paddle the first day down some exceedingly difficult class 2.
We have been so lucky this trip to experience the perfect window, the snowpack allowing us passage down the reaches of its deepest gorge at a near perfect flow.

The Homathko allowed my 7 companions and I a glimpse at some of the most epic of its BC wilderness. Reminding us of its power with what felt like icy cold hands slapping our faces as every wave passed over our head.
It is a source to sea expedition in the truest of senses of the words.



Hear lies only your fear – towering mountains, deep canyons and grizzly bears.
Here lies the Homathko River – The true wilderness trip of a lifetime.

North Stein - Expedition Excellence

The north stein is somewhat of BC epic. With around 14km of bc bushwacking and high alpine portaging in some of the most remote BC backcountry.
However... The North Stein's 1.5km of whitewater is worth every step, delivering you into the upper raches of the normal Stein fly-in run, taking a total of 4 days to complete.

This has to be on of the best multi day trips ever and is definatly worth the work to get in. Although with the 14km of pain behind you, fully loaded boats make some of the bigger drops pretty scary.

so very sick

BC's Finest Creeks - Raft River

Raft River is situated very close to clearwater in the Interior of British Columbia.
This creeking jem has only a small window of around a week, but if you are lucky enough to time it right, you will come to appreciate all 16km of this run.

It begins a shallow braids for around 2-3km as it begins to enter the canyon. from here very continious class 3 rapids soon lead to boat-scoutable class 4. the last 2km of this run is fairly steep and walled in, however it becomes drop pool in character before falling around 25 ft off raft falls - The last drop and take out from the pool below

Lost River Gorge Overnighter - Washington

Lost River Gorge Lies in the Hear of washingtons Okanogan, just south of the BC Boarder.

This run is one of the only true wilderness multi day runs in washington. It requires a 10km hike, but the reward of kilometers and kilometers of class 4 read and run is %100 worth the effort.

Not to mention some of the most amazing scenery in the bottom of a 5000ft Deep Gorge!

Adrian Kiernan

Lost River Gorge WA - Trip report from Adrian Kiernan on Vimeo.

Full Flood - Murtle River BC

The Murtle river spills over Helmcken falls, before racing to the confluence of the Clearwater river just below Gattling gorge in the wells grey park wilderness of British Columbia

I have paddled this section regularly and during times of low water, it can include running a 30ish Ft waterfall at the base. This run however was around 3 times the water, so did not include the falls, however it turned the 3-4 boogie run into a freight train of huge standing waves!
Awsome!

Water level was between 8-9 on the clearwater bridge.

The Murtle Minute - Flood run from Adrian Kiernan on Vimeo.

Untitled

See the full gallery on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous ...

Clearwater River, BC

Want to go rafting on British Columbia's finest big water?

Learn How to Kayak?

Come see me this summer at Liquid Lifestyles

Want to go rafting on British Columbia's finest big water? Learn How to Kayak? Come see me this summer at Liquid Lifestyles ...

China Photo Update

In November 2010 I headed out to interior China with Anthony Yap, Ben Brown, Pat Camblin, Rush Sturges, Casper Van Kalmthout and Ben Marr. We spent 3 weeks paddling the amazing Salween River which boarders Tibet and Myanmar.

The full story can be found in the latest addition of Kayak Session, Footage from the trip can be found on River Roots latest film titled Frontier as well as in a Short film from myself which will be available for viewing in a few weeks. Titled “The Calling”

As usual, I will let the photo’s do the talking

The Salween is in the process of having 13 dams constructed on the section of whitewater we were paddling, more information can be found at www.salweenwatch.org

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

In November 2010 I headed out to interior China with Anthony Yap, Ben Brown, Pat Camblin, Rush Sturges, Casper Van Kalmthout and Ben Marr. We spent 3 weeks paddling the amazing Salween River which boarders Tibet and Myanmar. The full story can be found in the latest addition of Kayak Session, Footag ...

10,000 serendipitous kilometres in a big blue bus

Five Australians, one Canadian and a twelve-year-old yellow Labrador touring around in a '79 short school bus certainly attracts attention from all sorts. Notably the hippies and the homeless, yet also randoms from all walks of life, some on their way to work, some at work; peace signs out windows, pointing, smiling, laughing; we imagine they are stoked and living vicariously...

It begins with the hasty acquisition of an anonymous rafting bus. Five hundred kilometres home to Chilliwack and half that into the gas tank leaves much to ponder. Passengers are confirmed, interior decoration rushed, U-bolt roofracks installed, kayaks loaded, BC departed. It would be 9,000 kilometres before Gus got his name, and we still can't decide if he's a she or vice versa. Without original equipment, possibly some of both.

Adventure ensues... Santa Barbarian galactic shaman offers wisdom, befriending roadside salesmen, Albuquerque Republican Highlands contraband smuggling pilot shares the goodness, power tripping security guards dim the vibe, courtesy speeches from off-duty cops, Big Sur hitchhikers who're panhandling for every meal, random encounters with paddlers from local heroes to international superstars, breakdowns and a thirsty Gus...

We even managed to go paddling in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Colorado, resulting in backwards waterfalls and inadvertent 360s on slides above meaty holes. We met first hand the issues of private property as they affect waterways in Colorado, ducking under barbed wire fences as we paddled down a low river with signs on the banks forbidding scouting as trespass.
Read more at http://oneinity.wordpress.com/

Core Paddles: First Impressions

OK guys,
Leigh asked me to write a piece on my first impressions of the new core paddles.
After paddling at clifton beach in tasmania with both the straight and bent shaft paddles in moderate surf i was able to get a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Core paddles are designed by Steve Horvath - the man behind the h2o paddles, and it shows. The blades are going to be very similar to the h20 blades being a re-enforced plastic. I'm personally a big fan of the blades on the h20. Now i know that h20 had some big problems with their durability, but i never really saw many (if any?!) blades break. They did wear down for sure but not at the same rate as a glass or carbon blade. Personally i am a big fan of the blades, good flex for playboating but definatly enough strength to creek with.
The shaft of the core paddles is the big news for core. They have managed to get Easton alloys on board. Never heard of Easton alloys? I had not untill I spent 5 years in canadia. Easton is the same company that makes many things... namely sporting equipment such as baseball bats and ice hockey sticks. So they have a pretty damn solid reputation for producing quality products.
The shafts on the core paddles feel pretty thin (similar to the old 7/2 paddles - but a bit thicker) and have the same grips as the h20 (yay). The shaft feels bomber, both on the strait and bent shaft (1peice forged) but still has a surprising amount of flex, i expected them to be very stiff.

Dont care about that stuff...how do they paddle you ask?
Well... as a play paddles they are sick. Flexible enough to rip some big moves and be forgiving on your shoulders when you stuff something up, yet very very responsive. Although I think the blades i used were too small for creeking. I think core is coming out with some bigger blades after the first round of production paddles are out there, so we will have to wait and see.

The one thing that concerned me about the metal shafts was the potential to kink the shaft, then have it bend at a later date. I had a look at my mates ice hockey stick made by Easton, and it is covered in small kinks and dents, i put it between 2 benches and threw my weight against it pretty damn hard and nothing happened.... so im pretty sold untill i get one and manage to break it.
All I need to do now is convince kayak4play to give me one for free.... ha ha ha

But really they look pretty sick.
Thats my 2 cents
Adrian

White water kayaking on National Television! TODAY Show

Hey Guys,

Check out this link to the interview I did last week with the Today show, they showed a bunch of footage from the Fitzroy and from Laos, Canada and Tasmania/

The more people that get to check out white water the bigger the sport can get in Australia.

Particularly now there are rivers running regularly for people to paddle.


http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/aussie-adventurer/x13l6z2

Tribe White Water Grand Prix

The Tribe White Water Grand Prix is a new style of white water event.
It is comparable to a surfing big wave invitation and it incorporates a range of different disciplines into a 14 day event in May 2011 - Quebec, Eastern Canada.

The first of its kind will have a big wave competition, extreme races, down river competition, and best drop run over the space of 2 weeks.

This is the kind of event that white water kayaking has been crying in the past few years of incredible progression.
Freestyle worlds which are being held on a small hole in Germany is defiantly not the progressive side of the sport that we should be showing main stream media and progressive competition is the name of the game at the Tribe White Water Grand Prix.

25 competitors, 12 have been invited, the 12 that have been invited are asked to choose the following 13 competitors from video applications, so here is my video application for you to check out.

Random footage from the last couple of years, BC, Tassy, The Kimberley, Laos, China and Indonesia

Wish me luck

Tribe White Water Grand Prix Entry from Lachie Carracher on Vimeo.