I have been in Reno for over a week training for the competition.  When I got here the water level on the Truckee River was pretty low which meant hitting the bottom a lot.  The level came up during the week but was still at a low level but was high enough to not hit bottom nearly as much.   

The city was great and every day there were spectators watching you since the play spots are right in downtown Reno.  The festival was so much fun and the event organizers did an amazing job with this event and were super nice.  The competition started on Friday with boaters who were not invited.  There were junior men, men, and only 2 women (Erin Clancy and me).  We competed in the event and knew we would move on the next day to paddle against the likes of Tanya Faux, Ruth Gordon, Emily Jackson, and Devon Barker and only hundreds of people watching.  There was no pressure on Friday and I had great rides and Erin also had great rides.  I came in First in the women’s open and Erin second.  Saturday was a totally different day.  There was over a thousand people watching the event which was the biggest event I have ever competed in which was pretty intimidating.  Emily ripped it up coming in first, Tanya came in second, and Ruth third.  Unfortunately I still haven’t been able to overcome my nerves in a competition and came in sixth place which is disappointing but it is what it is.  Once I overcome my nerves I know I will be able to compete at the highest level for now I just have to get over the mind game.  I am going home tomorrow night and have nine days to prepare mentally and physically for the CO circuit and then we hit the road for like a thirty hour drive to Steamboat Springs. 

Take Care,

Elaine Campbell  

On April 27th I particpated in the Wells River Rumble.  What a great low-key event. First day back in a kayak and I was in a creek race.  I wanted to send a special thanks to Jolyon, and the Dartmouth crew who helped make the super-fun event a success.  To anyone who likes creek races you should do this race next year.  The Wells River is a short pool-drop style run, probably about a mile and a half long.  Scoring was based off finishing position, not time. 

Jolyon showing us how it’s done, he organized the race while also racing himself.

Most people showed up a little bit early and got in a practice run before the race started.  This was great for many of us because it was our first time on this class IV/V run.    The race had two boat classes, long boats over nine feet, and short boats under nine feet.  There were also prizes for the female winner and the best carnage.  After the practice run Jolyon lead the competitors meeting and the race involved running the river twice, game-on time.

 No looking back

The first run down was broken into four segments.  The first segment was a mass start with about 25 boats on the starting line.  We raced into about a five-foot wide line on river left through the first rapid.  I was side-by-side with another competitor as we hit the bottom hole.  The chaos continued behind as people were bounced into the hole.  This segment continued until the bottom of the next class IV rapid.  We were broken into heats based on our finishes.  Each heat had one long boater, who probably should have been in their own heat, and three short boaters.  I was the first short boat to reach the cones in the first section, and was already feeling worn out after the sprint.

This is not how it should be done, but if you like carnage a head-to-head creek race like the Wells will dish it out.

The second section was a winding rapid with fun ledge holes and several route options.  It was pretty fun to be running each section in a small pod of racers.  The real trick was to try and draft the long boats off the start and then watch where they went.  I had developed some good separation from the other short boats when the bottom of a slide pushed me into an eddy and I watched somebody catch up to me.  I got back in the current and was side-by-side with them when all of a sudden they got stuck on a sand bar and I made it to the cones first, lucky.

Out in front

The third heat I had a bad start and was left playing catch up.  Not an easy section to make up any time though, because this section included El Salto Falls.  El Salto is about a thirteen foot waterfall with several line choices from easy to robust.  Mostly because I didn’t want to land on anyone I finished third in this heat, the long boat got spun into a rock outcropping and we passed him; always nice to go past a long boat.

The final section was a close start but I was left slightly behind the others.  I managed to pass one competitor early and was drafting the other short boat in front of me.  I was bumping him a little trying to find a way to get around as we neared the final drop.  At the entrance I was in a slightly faster current and was getting pretty close to him.  He nor I really wanted to run this one tandem, and he decided to let me pass on the way in.  So I thought I was going to be the first short boat again, but as karma would have it I hit slow current just before the finish line and he was able to just sneak by in front of me.

The second run was a full-length race with everyone from top to bottom.  The start was chaotic again as I watched 25 boats coming towards me.  I ran the drop through the hole with another boater again and got spun out at the bottom.  This gave me a sweet glimpse of the carnage behind.  Back to racing.  The long boats were long gone out in front, and there were three short boats a short distance in front of me.  I was watching them push each other and jockey for position, but I was a bit too far away to get in on the action.  The rest of the race we pulled farther away from all the other competitors, and we finished in our positions from the start. 

I was fourth of the short boats and finished fourth of the short boats overall too.  What a great way to kick-start the season.  Here’s some photos from Patrick Rogers.  Check out Patrick Rogers’ website for more of the photos.  There is also information available from this website.  http://wellsriverrumble.blogspot.com 

El Salto Falls         

I Left Montana and went on a backpacking trip to Hells Canyon, Idaho.  I didn’t know it until just before the trip, but Hells Canyon along the Snake River is the deepest river canyon in the U.S.  We choose the Snake River because it was the closest place that droped to an elevation of one thousand feet, so we guessed the weather would be a bit milder.  Although the highest point of our trip was going to be six thousand feet, which is what the snow line reached in Big Sky.  Mike Griffen and I left Big Sky, MT and drove into a snowstorm, it was snowing all the way down to three thousand feet, berrrr.  The highest peaks in the canyon reached up to 9000 ft and had a ten foot snow pack on top, an awesome sight. 

We lucked out with mostly sunny and pretty warm days, but it still was a little chilly on some nights. It turned out to be a great five day backpacking trip with incredible views.  The trail along the river was a gorgeous historical trail with old cabins and old farming tools along with great views from rock outcroppings high above the river.  Our two day side hike trail was often not a trail at all.  Map and compass skills and a relatively large open area kept navigating pretty simple.  Walking along the grassy ridges we were lucky to see many elk and deer.  On the third day progress was at an ants pace as we climbed two thousand vertical feet and then post holed our way through waist deep snow along the ridge.  After the ridge we descended four thousand vertical feet back to a nice stream and a small historical cabin on Bernard Creek where we spent the night.  The final days we cruised along the well defined Snake River trail.

The Snake River would also make a nice multi day float trip for anyone interested. If you are ever in the area be sure to check out the twin falls area too, there are some amazingly huge waterfalls.  Shoshone Falls is 212 feet tall and Twin Falls is 125 feet tall, but they only occasionally have water going over them.  Near Twin Falls is also were Evel Knevil tried to jump the canyon.

Some photos from the trip:

   This is the morning view from our condo  From the picnic table that I slept on, 1st morning An outcropping on the Snake River Trail

  We bought our topo map 5 miles into our hike at a small historical cabin/ museum. 

 Mike in his Kilt

 Enlarge to see the deer on the ridge

 Can you see me in the bottom right corner.  This is just after we got back out of the snow.     

Have you ever wanted to Loop? Here is a step by step instruction of how to do it, with the Loop Squad Of Course.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dhsMUOvjFs4

Hope you guys find it at least a little helpful.

Paddle Hard,

Tino

This is a different edit I did for Dagger Kayaks. Let me know what you guys think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Ydh9OqR5U 

Paddle Hard,

Tino

Man,

Just let the video and pictures speak for themselves.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kLlzzjGPFD4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kLlzzjGPFD4

Paddle Hard,

Tino

 I arrived in Henderson on Monday and the Black was around 17,000 cfs which is high for Inner City.  I went up to Hole Brothers to see what Big Brother looked like and it was a burly looking hole.  I drove down stream and found a sweet hole that you can do every hole move in.  I paddled it for a couple of days and had great success with Phonics Monkeys and Mcnasty’s.  I didn’t paddle today and am ready to hit Big Brother tomorrow.  The level is like 22,000cfs and should be higher tomorrow with all the rain.  Enjoy the video from the hole and I should have another video of Big Brother.

Enjoy!

Elaine Campbell 

http://broadbandsports.com/node/15741

CRAZY VIDEO

This is some footage from the past years thrown together. Hope you guys have some fun watching it. Its me, Fergus, Anthony Yap, Pat Camblin and a few others.

VIDEO

I love kayaking,

Tino

VIDEO

Loop Squad How To Blunt

HOW TO BLUNT VIDEO

Steps for your secret success of mastery for the blunt, and hopefully, aerial blunt.

1. Carve or spin to the tip top of a wave, build that potential energy bro!
2. As you begin to gain speed and come flying down the wave like a little winged bird, begin to drop the edge opposite of the side you desire with all your heart (otherwise it won’t work) to blunt on.
3. Now you are ready to be the blunt-master. Dig that opposite edge in deep, maybe even taking a stroke on that side for a little extra mojo, and as that edge pops back up and releases from the water….
4. Switch them edges like it’s your job dog!
5. Now place the blade on the side you are now blunting on in at your hips and throw that end around.
6. Keep your thinkin’ cap pointed upstream to help you stay in control on the wave, and continue that stroke to your toes to push yourself back on the wave (you are backwards now, afterall).
7. Sometimes another stroke is needed to keep you on the wave, but having to take this stroke makes it hard to combo to other moves.
8. Well, now you’ve blunted, spin around, and get ready to do it again bro! Or actually, seeing as you’ve blunted, it would be lame to do another. Time to Pan-Am it up!

HOW TO BLUNT VIDEO

Another Mysterious Member of the Loop Squad

Tino Specht
Team Zoar Update
2/29/08

The Trip

I’m back in Chile doing the whole kayaking thing again. Nothing new in that way but I just took about a week to go kayaking with two of my very good friends Matt West and Sam Fulbright. We have all been traveling with the New River Academy and training for big waves and big water. This was our chance. We took a bus into Pucon and rented a sweet, red, 4X4 truck then sped back to camp to pack up. At 10 a.m. we began our long… long drive to the Rio Gol Gol on the border of Argentina.

The Drive

The Drive was Incredible. I know this is going to sound dumb but the mountains here are huge. Everywhere you look there is some snow capped Volcano or Andes that takes your breath away. The whole drive we would take turns saying, “ Stop! We gotta take some pictures of that”. We decided to draw the line when Matt started saying that about the girls we passed.

The River

We arrived at the Gol Gol in about 5/6 hours and went looking for whitewater. We immediately found a sweet little ten footer but decided to check out farther up the road and see if there were more whitewater falls to be run. What ended up happening is we drove for ten minutes and hit the border of Argentina! I went and talked to the border police for a few minutes and got permission to enter Argentina for nine hours. Once we saw the size of the line trying to enter we decided against it and went back the way we cam to find a place to camp for the night. We went to the national park and learned how bad our Spanish really is while trying to negotiate a place to camp. I think all of us were pretty sure that she said there wasn’t anywhere to stay but then she asked us how much we wanted to pay. So we gave her some money and she let us sleep on the lawn next to the horses. I had a hammock and let me say that they are lifesavers. While Matt and Sam layed out their sleeping bags on the damp ground I was high and dry in my sleeping bag hangin from the trees. That night we ate some hot dogs had a fire and went to sleep.

In the morning we hiked into two waterfalls. The first one was a 40-foot waterfall that was to say the least, a little sketch. The name was Salto Del Indio and it started with a demanding lead in and then went straight into a forty-foot vertical drop. The tricky part of this drop was that half way down you had to duck in between two overhanging rocks with the correct timing so that you don’t get your head knocked off. We decided that we would down to the Petrohue and check out the scene down there and once we had been in creek boats for a day come back and run Salto Del Indio.

The Petrohue

So we took off. Sam decided it would be fun to take a back road there so we spend an hour or so looking for a discrete dirt road but when we found it we were delighted to find no other cars on it and we were after all in a 4X4 truck so we got to the pavement about two hours under the estimated time to get there. The whole way there we were looking around for this giant volcano that is supposed to be the landmark for the area and we couldn’t find so we just rolled on our merry way, pulling into Ensanada at around 12 mid day. We took a walk into the waterfall park and discovered that actually running the section was illegal. Since there were hundreds of people hanging out, sight seeing the falls, we headed upstream.
(A little side note, for some reason this part of Chile is covered in yellow jackets, we had a hole in the roof of our car and we think that there may have been a nest in it but still. Watch out for those suckers if you’re ever down there)
Upstream, haha, we ran into a lake and decided to put in on it. Something else about Chile is that every single spot is so beautiful that putting in on a lake is still pretty exciting because you get a little time to look at the Andes and snowcapped mountains. We quickly entered the river and began moving downstream. Even though we were in creek boats there were tons of little play spots to mess around in and even more great river running moves and challenging rapids. After about a mile the river splits into about 7 small channels with all different skill levels of drops on them. We scouted each one and Matt and Sam Chose a sweet slide with a must make lefty move. I chose a drop with one with a demanding lead in and a crack that is a must make boof because you land in a recirculating eddy and you have to carry your momentum out of the eddy or else you could get stuck and into a serious situation. Right after that we hopped out and I ran and did shuttle while Sam and Matt were left with nothing else to do other than talk to some chicks that were gracing the river banks.
When I returned we loaded up and realized that I had left the lights on and drained the battery. We asked a local for a jump and he pulled his big old truck up next to us and pilled out the rattiest old jumper cables in the existence of mankind. I mean there things were just falling apart in multiple places and didn’t have much plastic left on them. On the broken parts he proceeded to twist the wire back together, then he told me to hold the wires to the battery (because there were no clamps) I quickly handed that responsibility to Matt and jumped in the car to start it. Big Red groaned to life and we made the decision to, instead of return to the Gol Gol we would head north to Choshuenco and the home of the Fuy River.

The Fuy

After about seven hours in the car we rolled into the town of Choshuenco and the home of the Fuy River. We have been there two years in a row and have a hostel by the name of La Posada that we love to stay at. It is affordable and the family that owns it are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Well anyway we rolled into La Posada at around 11:30 and when they owners saw us they just said “Hola” Then when they realized it was us they were like “!!!!!!!HOLA!!!!!!!” haha. They wipped us up a room and had breakfast waiting for us the next morning. I really do love that family.
The Fuy River was much different from two weeks ago. A lot lower and therefore every rapid was basically a new rapid but you had to be a bit more careful because of how shallow and rocky it had become. New Places had opened up like a cave next to a waterfall that went back about 50 feet “little sketchy” and then there was a drop that we realized our previous line ran right over a sieve. It was just different. Anyway we stayed there for 2 ½ days and then had to return to Pucon.

Pucon

Once we got back to Pucon we discovered that we were told that we were a day early and that we could leave. So we did. Sam Matt and I took our last day and sped on over to a local playspot, set up camp and cooked up some more hotdogs and soda. I slept in my hammock once again which is my new favorite spot to be on the planet. In the morning we geared up and ran down to the hole. Threw a bunch of tricks, pretty much all the latest playboating moves are possible at this spot. Wave and hole moves a like. Then we left for town and dropped off the truck, pair our dues and took a bus back to our home base at David Hughes’s and NRA’s new house.

Sam Makin Sure He Lands Flat!

I hope everyone is well out there and getting ready for another season of boating coming up super fast. Paddle Hard!

Best,

Tino