Archive

Apparel

Drytop Showdown

Get your loose change together – gear prices drop with the falling mercury and it’s starting to get cool out. A new drytop will keep you smiling well into winter, and PL helps you through the choosing process by pitting two tops from the ends of the spectrum against each other: Peak UK’s Deluxe HD and Kokatat’s Rogue Gore-Tex. Set for this year but want to know what next year will bring? Check out the freshest NRS top ever.
Aaron Bible -
Archive

Boaters Mourn the Tragic Loss of Isaac Ludwig

Isaac Ludwig, Marketing Manager of Rafting in the Smokies, lost his life on August 26 while paddling the Lower Section of the Road Prong on the Little Pigeon River. He is remembered as a unique individual with a great heart and wonderful sense of humor, and will be sorely missed.
Staff Post -
Archive

Gauley Fest Turns 25 This Week!

The party’s been going off since 1983, and this year American Whitewater is pulling no punches in the anniversary celebration of the biggest festival in whitewater boating. This year’s Gauley Fest promises to please old timers and new schoolers alike with music, movies, auctions and giveaways feeding the revelry. Be in Summersville, WV between September 19 and 21 to get in on the action.
Staff Post -
Archive

Have Forklift, Will Play

Okay, so maybe the summer/fall season is just a little too long for boaters out in Northwest Colorado. How else can you explain this unorthodox use of a forklift in these shots sent into PL from photographer and kayaker Clay Rogers?
Aaron Bible -
Archive

Composite Kayaks, Slovakia Make Waves at Freestyle World Cup

The three-event World Cup of Freestyle is over, with Slovakia proving its whitewater dominance once again (after a three-gold showing in Beijing), composite freestyle boats coming of age, Canada's Nick Troutman nabbing second, and Buena Vista, Colo.'s Dustin Urban taking America's top placing in fifth. As for the Jackson clan, it was all Emily, taking first for the women...
Staff Post -
Archive

Two New IKs: One for Whitewater, One for Touring

Two new inflatable kayaks are now making waves, one for whitewater and one for touring. Incept's new Sally is the closest thing to a hardshell on the water, while the Airis Sport is a tourer's --and tracker's -- dream...
Staff Post -
Archive

Cruz del Condor Expedition Navigates Peru’s Upper Colca Canyon

The 27th anniversary of the first exploration of Peru's Colca Canyon has just passed, and the southern trench is widely recognized as 'the world deepest canyon'. But its upper reaches have always remained shrouded in mystery...until now. On Aug. 31, with PL leading the kayaking charge, eight adventurers emerged from the region's 12-mile-long Cruz del Condor section tired and beaten after the upper portion's first canyoneering/kayak descent.
Aaron Bible -
Archive

Louisiana Outfitters Get Ready for Gustav

With Katrina raw in the minds of boaters in and around New Orleans business owners are taking no chances in preparing to absorb the coming blow. Residents have never been more prepared to handle a hurricane, and despite having much to lose local outfitters are confident that proactive measures will allow them to weather the storm.
Staff Post -
Archive

Hottest Gear at OR

The Outdoor Retailer Trade Show showcases new adventure products of all types, from the eminently practical to the downright esoteric, and the expo this August was no exception. PL sifted through the maw of hardware and came up with a list of schwag paddlers will be going ga-ga over from the upcoming fall sales through the end of the next season.
Aaron Bible -
Archive

Pl Olympic Wrap-up; Germany Tops in Paddling Medal Count

They’re finally over. The culmination of four years of training for the paddling's biggest stage ended Sat., Aug. 23, at Beijing’s Shunyi Whitewater Park as the Olympics take a hiatus until reappearing in London in 2012. While the U.S. results are a bit disappointing – only one finals appearance out of seven paddlers, for an 8th-place showing – competitive paddling is alive and well the world over...
Staff Post -
Archive

Award Winning College Tour!

National Geographic Maps & Adventure has recognized Sam Drevo, founder of eNRG Kayaking, for his work organizing last year’s Paddling Life College Tour by awarding him The Outdoor Geographic Awareness Award. The next tour will focus on the Northwest, running through the spring of 2009.
Staff Post -
Archive

Group Sets out to Explore Peru’s Upper Colca

Twenty-seven years ago, a group of Poles made the pioneering first descent of Peru's Colca Canyon, now pegged as the world's deepest, emerging tattered and bruised after 33 days of pure survival. Now, one of them is going back to get the final condor feather in his cap by exploring the virgin 20 km canyon upstream known as the Cruz del Condor. And PL will be along for the ride...
Staff Post -
Archive

South Island Circumnavigation Covered in ‘This is the Sea 4’

Earlier this year Justine Curgenven, founder of Cackle TV Productions, became the third woman to paddle around the South island of New Zealand. Teamed up with Barry Shaw she completed the challenging circumnavigation in April after a grueling 67 day journey, which will feature prominently in the newest addition to the This is the Sea video series, soon to be released. PL caught up with the sea kayaking phenom during one of her visits to land.
Aaron Bible -
Archive

Slovakia Takes 3 Golds in WW Slalom; C2, Women’s K1 Wraps

When the dust settled at Beijing’s Shunyi Whitewater Park on Fri., Aug. 15, after the day’s C2 and women’s kayak events were postponed a day for weather, several stories rose to the surface like the competitors’ boats coming out of Stir Fry, the course’s biggest rapid. The first: Slovakia is clearly the world’s slalom powerhouse.
Staff Post -
Archive

Meet the Fraker: C1 Olympian Nabs Sixth

With K1 teammate Scott Parsons watching from the sidelines, Benn Fraker, a 19-year-old, black-fingernailed member of the US Slalom Team, made the cut to the finals and ended with a sixth-place showing in Beijing. Meanwhile, they're having a toga party in Toga, which picked up its first-ever Olympic medal...
Staff Post -
Archive

New additions to the Whitewater Hall of Fame!

The list of legends just got longer as the International Whitewater Hall of Fame announced its newest honorees. Coming from the world over these six heroes defined whitewater paddlesports and have made an indelible impact on its future.
Staff Post -
Archive

Beijing Update: Parsons Out in K1

It was a day of elation and deflation for the U.S. Slalom Team on Monday as after a blistering first run that put him in third place out of the 21 countries competing, American K1 medal hope Scott Parsons incurred a 50-second penalty that knocked him out of the top 15 cut for the finals
Staff Post -
Archive

Calhoun Takes Nat’l Wildwater Champs at Zoar Outdoor Center

Beijing? Who needs it...While slalom and sprint paddlers duke it out at the Beijing Olympics in August, their downriver counterparts did so in the lesser-known sport of wildwater racing—perhaps one of paddling’s truest tests of all-around ability-- August 1-3, 2008 on Charlemont, Mass.’s Deerfield River at the USA Wildwater National Championships hosted by the Zoar Outdoor Center...
Staff Post -
Archive

World Rafting Champs Go to R4/R6 Format

In an attempt to better rafting's Olympic potential, the International Rafting Federation will now be running R4 and R6 world rafting championships in alternate years, with the 2010 R4 Champs to be held in the Netherlands.
Staff Post -
Archive

Gut Check: 25th Anniversary of the Grand Hitting 100K

It was 25 years ago this summer that western river runners witnessed one of the biggest paddling spectacles of the century, one that still adorns rafting posters on barroom walls and stirs memories of those along for the ride: the 1983 peaking of the Grand Canyon at 100,000 cfs. Read the harrowing account (and view footage) here...
Staff Post -
Archive

The Book of Tao

It was bound to happen. He’s graced every other medium under the sun, so why not a book? Going Vertical: The Life of an Extreme Kayaker (Menasha Ridge Press), is now out in all its glory, chronicling the life and times of what’s it like to be Tao Berman. An exclusive Q&A with the airborne author...
Staff Post -
Archive

PoFest Raises Record Funds for AW

While decisions are likely made via paper-scissors-rock nearby in the White House, a throng of paddlers at the 18th Annual Potomac River Festival July 12-13 used it to raise record funds for American Whitewater. Fortunately, no one got beaten by the rocks on the river...
Staff Post -
Archive

Rafts Gone Wild

Girls aren't the only thing that have gone wild. Inflatable manufacturers have also, introducing a slew of new rafts to the market, including the following look at new 14-footers, perhaps the most versatile size on the market. So start pumping...
Aaron Bible -
Archive

The Parsons Project:–Augsburg World Cup Determines Olympic Team

The wait is over. Thirty-six years after whitewater slalom made its Olympic debut in Augsburg, Germany, in 1972, the same course served as the site for five U.S. paddlers to earn their stripes to compete in the Beijing Olympics in August.
Staff Post -
1...262728...36Page 27 of 36

Latest news

Paddling Industry News

Ocoee River Sees Historic Flooding

Historic Flooding Hits Ocoee River Region, Shattering Water-Level Record It's not just the desert Southwest of the Rockies getting record...
- Advertisement -
Accessories

Summer Swagalicious Gear Roundup!

Okay okay, it's still a little early for Christmas. But it's coming, and the goose is getting fat. So,...
Stand Up Paddle Boarding

Isle Paddle Boards: A fun alternative to whitewater kayaking

ISLE Pioneer 3 & Pioneer Pro 2: A New Perspective on Stand-Up Paddling Looking for something to mix things up...

Must read

Archive

Race to Alaska Organizers Shift Gears

The premise of Race to Alaska (R2AK) is quite...
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you

Destinations

Viva the Vic! Famous Salida, CO, Watering Hole to Reopen

River runners will meet rednecks again in Colorado’s most...
Staff Post -
Archive

Lower Yough Threatened by Strip Mine

Paddlers accustomed to the relatively easy Class III waters of the Lower Youghiogheny are now tackling a more forbidding foe threatening their waterway: a strip mine that would strip the river of its wilderness character.
Staff Post -