nmh2o

Monday, July 26, 2010

How low is to low? Embudo in July....

Well, when you live at the takeout of the Embudo and it starts raining hard. The excitement starts to build. It has been bone dry down this way since June and everything has dried up good. I figured that If I could guide a raft down the Rio Grande Racecourse run at 250cfs, full of American sized tourists, then I sure as Keck could bounce a kayak down the Embudo at 50cfs. There were some big flash floods yesterday and the Embudo was raging, and I mean raging. So I woke up this morning and sauntered down my driveway for a look. Looked like a perfect mank flow of about 75cfs and the game was on. I called up my buddy Crow and we met up and fired the mank up. It was so manky that we ended up just doing the first canyon and then hiking out. Good times by all were had. While we were bashing our way down, I really was wishing that the Huckin Ducky mank master himself, Joe keck was around. He would have absolutely loved it. But on second thought, it probably was a wee tad to high for him. He probably would have swam in Long Rapid and I would have had to hike back in some other day and retrieve his kayak. You really need to be on it in these flows. Sorry Keck, gotta give ya a hard time now that you live in Texas. Way to rally down this year tons to run the stout. See ya this Spring, closest stuff to San Antonio :) Hope you enjoy the photos. Maybe with all this rain it will come up a lot more and we can mank it again,,,,Beers, Atom....

The night before our mank fest. Full bank to bank Embudo

Due to the rain, we had to hike in from the highway. Crow testing out the backpack.

The awesome putin tree

I wore a drysuit cause the weather felt like Washington. Too Hot!

Hatching Dragonfly, eating it's own husk..

Crow boogie water

Crow just above Long Rapid...

The start of Long Rapid

New tree in play towards the end of Long Rapid. Gonna suck at high water next year...Heads up...

Myself entering the Cheese...

Where is the normal boof?

Submerged in da Cheese....

Same line as high water

Keck would be proud...

Mank Cheese...

One of the 12 broken paddles we encountered on the run....All this from Spring 2010 carnage...

another storm approaches...

Crow at the bottom of the Cheese....

Beautiful creek....

Wondering how I just made it through the carnival mank...

Nice hike out...

Shit, now have to go back in for keck's kayak....

Crow hiking the small creek back to my house. Felt like Mexico....

Home sweet Home!

Thanks to Crow for coming off the couch and bashing rocks with me. I'm Loving the new Jackson Villain. handles the high water creeks as well as the super mank. Awesome kayak. Till next mank session. Beers, Atom...

New Mexico SUPin

Northern New Mexico is going through the low water blues and I was itching to get on the water. My girlfriend Rachel and I have been wanting to get a couple SUP (Stand Up Paddle) boards for some time now. So now we had the perfect excuse. We live near a couple rivers and a bunch of lakes and were jonsin to try something new. So we bought a couple SurfTech SUP boards from CKS and hit the Lake right away. I bought the SurfTech 11'6 Soft Top Stand Up Paddle Board and Rach bought the 10'6 version. We also got a couple of the price-point KONA 2-Piece paddle SUP paddles. Sweet! Surf trunks and swimsuit and we hit the road. I'm loving the simplicity. We ended up at Heron lake and had a wonderful day. I'm hooked and going to take it on the river (very mellow section) tomorrow.

The SurfTech board is very stable and so easy to learn all the basics on. I did a 4 mile lap around the lake in no time and it was very fast and stable. We are going on a month long surf trip this winter and I am excited to see how it performs in the ocean. We will probably upgrade to a fancier Werner paddle before our trip, but for now the Kona's are fine. SUPin is also a super sick workout. Total core exercise. I'm feeling it as we speak. Bonus-our dogs loved cruising around on the boards :)

Surf trunks are drying on the line for another adventure tomorrow. Enjoy the photos. Beers, Atom...

Dalen getting her groove on

Salto getting used to the board

Rach and Dalen

Still figuring out how to stand up

Lazy

Rach heading out

Heading out for my 4 mile loop

So much fun

Bow stall

Our camp

Perfection

Our baby

Dalen riding the nose. She is going to love the ocean waves

Water dog

Rach on her loop

resting

Done for awhile

learning curve

Another bow stall into a faceplant

beauty

Wild turkey on the way home

Monday, June 07, 2010

Budo fest 2010

The second annual "Budo Fest 2010" was an awesome event. I will go out on a limb and say that the Embudo race is the hardest class 5 race in the country. Northern New Mexico is the shit! The race starts at the normal put in and ends at my house just after the second canyon. 7 miles of full on class 4-5 kayaking. The format is a timed event. Teams of 3 race top to bottom without stopping. It is brutal. Not for the faint of heart. 3 teams competed this year and the winning time was around 43 minutes. I threw a kink into the event this year and 2nd and 3rd place were decided by this new twist. The teams had to take out at my house and run up to the porch (a couple 100 yards away) and then each team member had to slam an ice cold beer after racing the event. Lets just say that there was some serious up chucking and writhing on the ground while trying to finish the ice cold beers :)

1st place honors go to Matt Wilson, Nate Klema and Ben Luck
2nd place honors got to Javier, Chasen and Eddy Honea
3rd place honors got to Cutch, Rolf and Oliver

Huge shout out to Ed Lucero for making the awesome LED wave trophies. Thanks buddy!

We also had a raffle to benefit American Whitewater in our friend Mitchell Smiths name. You will never be forgotten bro!

Thanks so much to everyone that donated to the AW raffle. AW is a wonderful organization and needs all of our help. Massive shout out to everyone that donated gear for the AW raffle. You guys rule! Thanks to Colorado kayak Supply, Keen, Shred Ready, WRSI, River Gypsies, and Whitewater of the Southern Rockies for all the awesome gear donations for the raffle.

This race would not happen without folks willing to race. Thanks to you racers, the event was very worthy and kudos for sacking up for the FUNNEL....
Big props to the safety crew of Chris, Mike, Jules and Adam. Your presence was awesome....
Photos courtesy of Justin Merritt and atomcrawfordphotography, thanks Justin...
See ya all next year. Beers, Atom....

I'll post my video soon. Enjoy the photos and a video by Mike Hagadorn..