Opps, corrections...

This was sent to me from an anonymous person who knows Mikkel better than I do.

Mikkel, I appologize and can't wait to boat with you again next summer. Have fun at school brotha!

McCale is actually Mikkel StJean-Duncan and a 3rd year student at University of British Columbia.

Peace,
trip

Everybody loves twins!

The highlight of the Canada trip for me had to be an unrun split drop thatfellover 70 feet vertically into a perfect pool below. I say split becauseanotherbraid of the creek pours into this drop and the two curtains convergeas theyboth enter the pool below.

After a very thorough scouting process, Scott Feindel decided to run her first. I couldn’t wait for my turn.

Inorderto run this one we had to repel into an overhanging canyon 25 feetto theriver bank, put in, paddle past a small hole, and over the lip.


Scott runs Twins.

Whenrunninga big waterfall, the most important aspects of the drop are the kayak’sangleand the paddlers body position when he or she lands. It is very importanttohave practiced controlling the angle of the boat while freefalling beforerunninga big drop such as this one. Until it becomes second nature to pencilperfectlyvertical into the pool, it’s hard to remember to concentrate onany thingbut how fast the bottom of the drop is racing at you. It’s alsoimportantthat your instincts be perfect when falling. If the drop is 70feet, youhave less than two seconds to make sure you’ve got it right fromthe edgeof the lip to the splashdown in the pool below. Not much marginfor errorhere.

On this particular day in Beautiful British Colombia,I was onmy game and so was Scott. If I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have runthe dropand I’m sure neither would he.

Scott broke the ice and got the first descent of the twins with a flawless run so, I was up.

AsIpaddled off the edge, I could see the river snaking away around the bend7stories below. Slowly I leaned forward tucking my face in the crook ofmyright arm so as not to hit my nose on the cockpit rim or my paddle. Iclosedmy eyes knowing that I was about to enter the pool at exactly 90 degrees,slowlystop falling, and shoot to the surface with adrenalin exploding. The dropwent perfectly, and even though it was two weeks ago, I can’t stopsmiling.


McCale runs Twins.

McCalewatched two clean runs, and decided it looked fun. He was right, and althoughhe’s a very skilled paddler on rapids like theTriplets running big dropsis a bit new to him. As he paddled off the lipof the 70 footer he fell intothe easy trap of getting a bit too excitedand full of adrenaline above thedrop. Adrenaline is really good, but it’simportant to stay calm and controlledease into the drop, not stroke toohard, and tuck at the end. McCale tookan overzealous stroke at the topwhich turned into a giant boof stroke. 30feet down, he was totally flat,and my stomach and jaw dropped in terror. Landing flat at 70 feet is runninga huge risk of a broken back or worse. Luckily an air stroke sealed thedeal of a big gun show carnage entry andflipped him upside down, ejectinghim from the boat on impact, but savinghis back. He stood up, gave the“I’m OK” head pat, and put on the classicdeflated ego face.


Trip runs Twins...

Everyone misses lines, everyone swims sometimes, the key is to learn from our mistakes so we can go boating the next day.


Peace,
Trip

Triplets...BC First Descents

More BC action!

The next two days, Thursday and Friday of last week, were no less exciting than our warm up on Wednesday. With first descents on two different creeks planned, I barely slept on Wednesday night. All I could do was visualize my lines on the big drops that were coming up in the next few days. The two highlights we affectionately named The Triplets and The Twins. The first, was a triple drop, only runnable at super low water levels which we definitely had. It drops 15feet into a cave, out of the cave over another 15+ footer and then directly into the big final drop. The last one is a 15 foot vertical then transition onto a slide dropping 35 feet more vertical at maybe 60 degrees. If you could forget about the scary and difficult cave move, this drop looked like nothing but fun. Add the 15-foot cave drop in and it was down right scary.


Scott runs Triplets.

Scott was feeling fired up after leading this crazy waterfall hunt and finding the sickness, the quality, and the first really big drop of the trip, so he went first. He ramped off the right side of the sharply left sloping drop in hopes of using his downstream angle and speed to avoid getting caught in the deep cave to his left. Maybe 60% of the water was flowing into the cave. Scott hit his planned line perfectly without a fraction of error, however, as we suspected may happen, the wall deflected him and sent him left into the cave. Rolling quickly he was able to lean forward to avoid the cave roof and take a few very strong but horizontal and low strokes to pull himself into the next stage of the drop. He aced the middle and lower drops and came out smiling!


Scott runs Triplets.

Next up I (Trip) decided to run the same line, but not catch the eddy above the first drop in hopes to power past the cave with way more speed than Scott had. This didn’t work. I suffered the exact same fate as Scott. Luckily while filming from the river right cliff I could see that there was an eddy in the back of the cave that looked safe and mellow, so I just rolled up and paddled to the back of the cave, regrouped and ferried into the middle stage. The bottom two drops were ridiculously fun, a perfect 15 footer right into a 45 or 50 foot slide. After the scary first drop was over, we could even enjoy them! No lipshot here, just fun boofing and super fast sliding.


Scott runs Triplets.

UVC student and very talented paddler, McCale (I don’t know his last name!) joined us that day as well and after watching Scott and I run the Triplets, he realized that he had 8 months of sitting in class to think about running the drop. Not wanting to wonder what might have happened if he had run it, he decided to find out. On his final scout I suggested that since Scott and I had both hit our lines, and they didn’t work, maybe he should try a different one. The only real option left was to boof left towards the cave, avoiding the slide on the right that kicked Scott and I into the cave. McCale looked a bit worried about boofing towards a cave, but did, and aced the drop with no problem at all, not even much of a speed check while paddling passed the undercut wall! Very impressive to watch, and he’ll have plenty to think about for the next 8 months.


McCale running Triplets

After the triplets we ran a few more great drops, slightly smaller in size and chose to stick around to run the final drop on the creek, a beautiful 70+ footer we dubbed The Twins, in the morning with perfect sunlight. It was worth it!…


Trip runs Triplets.

Peace,
Trip

The waterfall lipshot...

Well, we had a bit of a dry spell at the beginning of last week, so, we took to the maps and the trails and went scouting. And shit we did find! With three super sick unrun waterfalls scouted and ready to go, we decided to “warm up” a bit with the classic drop Sutherland Falls on Blanket Creek in BC. It did the job.

I went first landing the 62 foot waterfall at 85 degrees or so. Couldn’t have felt better. Honestly, I don’t think there are many feelings in the world that can compare with the adrenalin rush that comes just as you paddle over the lip of a big drop. The key here is what I call the lip shot. It’s generally the last thing I see before putting my head into full tuck position. Once I’m tucked, the image of the pool 60 feet below is burned into my memory and I can always tell if my angle is correct. With blanket, I knew it was good and all I had to do was wait to enter the pool. Probably the second coolest feeling about running a big waterfall is being fully tucked at the right angle and body position and expecting to hit the bottom, but because the drop is so big, just having to wait. Even though it’s only a second, it feels like hours sometimes, then bang, you splash down into the pool.



Trip runs Blanket Falls

Next, Scott Feindel ran the drop and styled it even more smoothly than me.

What a perfect warm up, all I could think about after that was running more drops! Like good crack all I wanted was more. Luckily unlike crack, I did it again the next day with no terrible side effects, plus I can stop whenever I want to, really…

Next up, 70 foot tripple drop.

Peace,
Trip