Whitewater Kayaking

Northern California, specifically Sonoma and Mendocino counties, have been known in the last 50 years primarily as a solid wine making region. What you may not know is that on the weekends many of those wine makers put down the wine glass and pick up a paddle. And they all head to the waterway that gives life to their valley: The (Great) Russian River...

Right now there is an AIRE kayak stored in a garage or a canoe waiting in a barn that come August will be featured in the winning entry for the AIRE Video Contest for 2011...

Huck Finn would love these guys. Last fall, a group of eight twenty-somethings paddled two Mohawk and two Grumman canoes from Minneapolis down the Mississippi, all the way to New Orleans, rasiing more than $10,000 in the process for the Lambui Fund of Haiti, and making it back to Paddling Life’s hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, in time for ski season. Here’s their tale...

Traveling by canoe from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Canada’s Hudson bay is a more than 2,000 mile journey. In 1930 Eric Sevareid and Walter Port made such a trip; later Sevareid would write a book Canoeing with the Cree (1935) chronicling the adventure. In 2005 two young men from St. Cloud followed in Sevareids’ wake to mark the 75th anniversary of the original. Now, two young women plan to leave their own mark on this historic route...

The Canadian canoe community lost one of its most ardent supporters March 18 with the death of Canadian Canoe Museum founder Kirk A.W. Wipper, who died at age 87...

Buy shoes, save rivers. That’s the message from Teva, which is putting its money where our rivers’ mouths are with the launch of its "Pair for a Foot" campaign on World Water Day (March 22), an initiative estimated to help protect over four million linear feet of global waterways this year alone...

For more than a decade The River Network has been holding the National River Rally to bring together activist from across the country (and planet). This year the rally is being held June 3-6 in Charleston South Carolina. Read on to learn about the weekend, the speakers, and of course– preserving our rivers…

Okay, all you Colorado boaters. Since this one’s in Paddling Life’s own backyard, we’re asking any and everyone who’s ever paddled in our neck of the woods to help us out with American Whitewater’s flow study for the Yampa Basin. And, yes, it includes such local faves as Cross Mountain and Fish and Willow creeks....

In a waterborne version of David vs. Goliath, river group Idaho Rivers United has filed a lawsuit charging the U.S. Forest Service with abdicating their responsibility to protect the Wild & Scenic values of the Middle Fork Clearwater and Lochsa Rivers...

Legacy Paddlesports LLC announced today that Andy Zimmerman has decided to leave the company to pursue other interests....

When the Internation Paralympic Committee (IPC) met in Guangzhou, China last December they voted to usher in a new era in paralympic competition. Two more sports will be represented at the 2016 Summer Games: Para-Triathlon and Para-canoeing. 22 total sports are now represented at the Summer Paralympic games, but it could’ve been more…

It looks like we're not finished with Whitewater in the White House. Only this time around, instead of a scandal plaguing the Clinton administration, president Obama is putting it at the forefront of his concerns, listing river recreation as among the top ten priorities of a new federal action plan for reconnecting people with nature...

When Joe Jacobi won the gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with C-2 partner Scott Strausbaugh, it ushered in a new era fro slalom paddling in the U.S. Twice the stop-gap when USACK’s executive directors have stepped down – the first after Terry Kent left in 2000, and again last year after David Yarborough left office – now he’s made the move from interim to full-time executive director of the sport’s governing body and is reaching for gold yet again. PL catches up with him to see how he’s getting the organization stroking in the right direction...

Just a scant few months after the first year in eons without a September TAPS West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium event, three more paddlesports events north of the border are going by the wayside. Scott MacGregor, publisher of Rapid Media, recently announced that the company will no longer produce Palmer Fest, the National Sea Kayak Symposium or the Canadian Canoe Symposium...

No, that's not a typo. You can finally play Taps for Paddler, the long-standing member benefit magazine for the American Canoe Association. At it November board meeting, the ACA announced that it will “officially” suspend publishing Paddler and will have Canada’s Rapid Media, spearheaded by Scott MacGregor, satisfy its member magazine benefits...

The Higgins & Langley Award for Swiftwater Rescue is seeking nominations for 2011 rescues. If you were involved in, witnessed, or even heard tell of a great save on the rivers this past season, consider nominating the rescuers for the premier award in swiftwater rescue.

Want stylish slip-on sandal comfort off the water as well as on? Slide into a pair of Chaco ToeCoops or PedSheds, slip-ons that will see you to your post-paddle PBR and nacho plate in style. Plus, the company honors a kayak instructor from Bainbridge Island, Wash...

Mad River Canoe is partnering with Eddie Bauer to celebrate the Seattle company's longevity with a special edition Mad River Explorer 16 Kevlar canoe...

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. That's how a few river conservation organizations are feeling after the Conservation Alliance awarded grants totaling $500,000 to 17 conservation throughout North America, many of whom are working to protect our waterways. PL checks in...

Ah Slovenia, land of babushkas, borscht, and…boats. That’s right, boats. Lots of ‘em. Most of the western world wouldn’t consider the former Soviet Republic a hotbed of paddling action. However, here in the PL office we know better. The 2010 edition of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships just wrapped up from the Tacen Whitewater Course on the Sava River, keep reading for highlights of all the action and results…

Not doing anything the weekend of Sept. 25? In the region anyways for Gauley season? Head on over to Germantown, Maryland, to support your local river stud-mo’s at the induction ceremony for the International Whitewater Hall of Fame Class of 2010. Read on to find out how to attend and make a donation...

Canoeists and sea kayakers planning flatwater fall trips on Labyrinth/Stillwater Canyons of the Green River in Canyonlands National Park might want to start making a change of plans. On Aug. 20, a huge flash flood caused severe damage to the switchbacks on the road leading to Mineral Bottom, making the road impassable as a put-in or take-out....

Next up, a Geritol sponsorship. Mike Freeburn turned on his own burners to win this year's 26-mile FIBArk race on the Arkansas, a whopping 20 years after first winning it in 1991. Meanwhile, Gary Lacy of Recreation Engineering & Planning took second, with Freeburn awarding him the title of "Legend" for competing in 36 straight events...

Barfing, Bullwinkle and big air. One contestant puked at the end of the extreme race on Fish Creek, two moose joined the spectators on the sidelines, and big air was the name of the game at the freestyle event.