Archive

Johnson Outdoors Watercraft Inc. announces the hiring of Lucas LaBree as the new Marketing Communications Manager – Johnson Outdoors Watercraft Inc. for Old Town Canoes & Kayaks, Ocean Kayak, Necky Kayaks and Carlisle Paddles. LaBree will join the Johnson Outdoors Watercraft campus in Old Town, Maine...

Shaving 8 seconds off the course record, Kiwi kayaking kingpin Mike Dawson won both the long and short boat division of this year’s 17th annual Green Race on North Carolina’s Green River, earning year-long bragging rights as well as...the coveted stained glass trophy.

While last year’s World Rafting Championships on Costa Rica’s Pacuare River drew the world’s best rafters to the country, they also drew accolades from top environmentalists. EARTH University recently certified the event as the world’s first ever Certified Carbon Neutral world championship sporting event...

The perils of inner-city living hit the tight-knit Colorado boating community on Oct. 17 when BLM river ranger Ross Richter, who worked at the popular Pumphouse and Statebridge sections of the Upper Colorado River, was among the five victims killed at a Denver bar shooting...

For the fifth year the adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championship took place in Austria’s Ötztal valley, luring 150 of the world’s best kayakers from 26 countries to the Tyrol region to compete on the legendary Class V Wellerbrücke rapids. And for the third year in a row, once again it was Kiwi Sam Sutton in the driver’s seat...

The touring world lost one of its most respected members on Wed., Oct. 10, when Derek Hutchinson died in his native England at age 79. Known as “the father of modern sea kayaking,” Hutchinson, who had several notable expeditions under his skirt, was also an accomplished instructor, author, boat designer, DVD producer and more...

After long challenging the world’s best, British Columbia's Stikine River claimed its first life, that of Jeff West, 42, owner of Chattanooga’s Ace Kayaking School, on Tuesday, Sept. 11. Just before attempting his one-day solo descent, West kayaked the stretch with Stikine pioneer Doug Ammons, who was heli'd after a nasty swim. PL caught up with Ammons -- the first person to run it solo – for his take on his run with West, Ben Marr’s subsequent first descent of notorious Site Zed, and one of the biggest badges of courage in whitewater...

Canadian river advocate, paddler and filmmaker Mark Angelo has begun filming his next documentary on the world's rivers, with plenty of paddling required to make it happen. Angelo plans to hire a high profile narrator for the film.

Erik Weihenmayer is taking running rapids blind to new heights. I’m sitting in an eddy with the blind adventurer -- best known as the first and only blind man to reach the summit of Mount Everest and climb the world’s Seven Summits – on the Class III Shoshone section of the Colorado River. An accomplished mountaineer, backcountry skier, parachutist and more, he now has his sights on a new a goal -- kayaking the Grand Canyon in fall 2013.

For the burgeoning stand-up crowd, the annual Gerry Lopez Rainbow Sandals Battle of the Paddle in Dana Point, Calif., has become the de facto World Championships in the sport, with some of its biggest year-long bragging rights on the line. And in one of the tightest racers ever, this year those accolades went to Redondo Beach local Danny Ching, who won his third Battle of the Paddle.

The movie might not be in 3D, but the rivers it talks about sure are. The Conservation Alliance recently released Our Rivers, the second video in the worthWILD series, telling the story of American Whitewater and footwear brand KEEN's efforts to save rivers nationwide...

The Smith River, Skeena watershed, southern Utah ...these are just a few of the nation's paddling areas benefiting from $700,000 in grants recently issued by the Conservation Alliance, marking the largest funding cycle in the group’s 23-year history...

There aren’t too many hard-charging, big-water boaters who get after it as much as Steve Fisher, Tyler Bradt, Benny Marr and Rush Sturges. That’s why Fisher, famed for his exploits on the Zambezi and White Nile, hand-picked Bradt, Marr and Sturges to run the notorious Inga Rapids in the heart of Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The result: Congo, The The Grand Inga Rapids, one of the best paddling flicks to hit the shelves in years.

In another blow to the close-knit paddling community, Alan Panebaker, 29, AW's Northeast Stewardship Director and native of Paddling Life's hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colo., drowned Sept. 19 while paddling with friends on New Hampshire’s Upper Pemigewassett River.

It's a nice day for a...whitewater wedding. In a gathering of some of kayaking's most prestigious whitewater paddlers, soul boater Willie Kern and Tracy Bowerman recently tie the knot in Montana. Read on to ID the veritable Who's Who of Whitewater attendees on hand there to wish them the best...

The paddling world lost one of its greatest members the weekend of Sept. 8-9 when long-time Ocoee River instructor and guide Jeff West was killed on a solo attempt of British Columbia’s Grand Canyon of the Stikine River. PL pieces together what it knows about the tragedy, including comments from Erik Boomer, who had also planned a one-day solo of the run this fall...

You’d be hard pressed to find a prettier campsite. We’re on a cobblestone beach on Jackson Lake in Teton National Park, 12,605-foot Mt. Moran rising 6,000 feet overhead. Like a backstage pass to a concert, our VIP treatment is due to a unique OARS itinerary allowing first-time kayakers, families and more to sea kayak where few people get the chance...

With a brand new playhole now thoroughly vetted and ready for the 2013 Freestyle World Championships, the 2012 Freestyle World Cup came to an end on Sunday afternoon at the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

Effective September 1, the Hobie Cat Company, based out of Oceanside, California, has acquired Hobie Cat’s business in Europe. The agreement will give the sailboat and kayak company worldwide trademark rights and make the operation of Hobie Cat‘s business in Europe directly under the control of Hobie Cat Company.

Want a great excuse to get out and paddle, and win schwag in the process? Footwear company KEEN is sponsoring World Wide Recess Day (WWRD) on September 14, trying to break the record for the most recesses ever taken in one 24-hour period. Knowing PL readers don’t need much incentive to hit the water, clean those cobwebs out of your cockpit and join the cause...

Want to learn from whitewater’s best, while paddling some of the best rivers in the country? Head to The Whitewater Symposium in White Salmon, Wash., Oct. 12-14 for a weekend of seminars, symposiums, on-water instruction and more, all in the heart of prime paddling...

Warm Springs Rapid on the Yampa wasn't the only rapid rearranged by Mother Nature this year. Hance rapid on the Grand will also take a closer scout after a flash flood changed it in late August...

Peter Csonka (SVK) continued his domination of the 2012 Freestyle World Cup Series, finishing first with a final score of 1416. Csonka was first after both the preliminary and the quarter-final rounds, but was seeded in second place behind USA’s Dane Jackson coming out of the semifinal. However, Dane Jackson, a resident of Rock Island, couldn’t quite match Csonka’s score in the final round.

The 2012 ICF Freestyle World Cups are underway, drawing high-flying freestylers from more than 17 countries to the Southeast U.S., which is hosting all three events this season. With this weekend’s event wrapping up in Sparta, Tenn., on the Caney Fork at Rock Island – with Peter Czonka and Emily Jackson on top – the paddlers now pilgrimage to the Pigeon River for event #2 Aug. 28-30 before wrapping up on the NOC’s Nantahala River Sept. 7-9. Read on for full event coverage...