Whitewater Rafting

Nantahala Outdoor Center wins bid to host the International Paddling Competition.

Navy veteran Lonnie Bedwell becomes the first blind kayaker to complete the 226-mile length of the Grand Canyon in a solo kayak.

Senator Mark Udall introduces legislation that would safeguard one of the country's most treasured paddling venues.

Indiana native Bryan Brown paddles the first-ever solo, 100-day journey through the Colorado and Green rivers as a tribute to his brother who passed away from Muscular Dystrophy.

Okay, we’ve all heard enough about the shut-down in the Grand Canyon. Now let’s hear it for a little opening up…of the flood gates. While not quite at Kenton Grua’s 70,000 cfs level when he set the record speed descent run as documented in Kevin Fedarko’s acclaimed The Emerald Mile, river runners reveled in a nearly 37,000-cfs experimental release in mid-November, bringing monstrosities like Lava, Crystal Hermit and more roaring to life…

The Havens award recognizes practices that best serve the success of USA Canoe/Kayak by improving performance, creating efficiencies and enhancing quality within the sport.

Keen to get outdoors and help the environment? KEEN Footwear makes it easier by unveiling The KEEN Effect a, fan-activated grants program designed to support non-profits fueling people’s passion for protecting the environment and promoting responsible outdoor participation...

Pat Keller put in his time this go-around to help make sure he’d win his third, coveted stained glass trophy for the 17th annual Green River Narrows Race. Keller bested the field with a time of 4:14, four seconds ahead of runner-up Dane Jackson. PL checks in with Keller to see what got him the glass…

Book ‘em for the Big Ditch, Dan-o. That was the sentiment of NPS rangers when they charged Brian Kehoe and John Boone with federal trespassing charges for running the Grand Canyon during the closure and government shut-down – Kehoe for hiking in to meet his trip at Phantom Ranch and Boone for allowing him to as trip leader...

What was OARS founder and president George Wendt doing on the 38th floor of Denver’s Grand Hyatt the day after the government shutdown ended, and his company was scrambling to resume raft trips on the Grand Canyon and other closed waterways? He was doing his part to ensure something even more important than river access … water.

Okay, all you high-tech, modern-day waterfall huckers…did you know that on this day 112 years ago – on Oct. 24, 1901 -- Annie Edson Taylor ran Niagara Falls in a barrel? It was her 63rd birthday…

At this year’s Outdoor Retailer Summer Market tradeshow, Confluence and AT Paddles unveiled what the company bills as a “gamechanger” in the whitewater paddle market: Duraweave™, a blend of polypropylene-based Innegra fiber that forms the lightest, strongest paddles on the market. Intrigued, we caught up with brainchild and product manager Hastings Blumer for the skinny. Here’s what we found:

As if its cadre of kayakers wasn’t strong enough already, Team Jackson Kayak just got even more invincible with the company signing on New Zealand whitewater sensation Mike Dawson and France’s Nouria Newman to their team…

Creek boating is no time for compromise; you’ve got enough to worry about besides your boat. That confidence is instilled in spades in the Wave Sport Recon, a creek boat available in three sizes (70, 83 and 93 gal.) that helps give you military-like paddling precision behind enemy lines...

Showing that it’s a beehive of boating activity, no sooner than freestyle kayakers packed up their paddling gear after the World Kayak Freestyle Championships, Bryson City, N.C.'s Nantahala Outdoor Center hosted the National Slalom Championships on the Nantahala River, marking the last major competition of the 2013 slalom season. And just like at the freestyle champs, friendly rivalries were out in full force, with one of the best tit-for-tat showings coming between two-time Olympian Casey Eichfeld and 2008 Olympian Benn Fraker in men's C-1 and C-2…

Paddlers putting in on the Grand Canyon on Tues., Oct. 1, might well have its hallowed canyon walls all to themselves for the duration of their trip. Thanks to the government shut-down, other permit holders, meanwhile, are facing a trip leader’s nightmare by not being allowed to start their trips...

Competitors duke it out in the last major competition of the 2013 slalom season.

The Adventure Sports Center International, a mountaintop whitewater course in Maryland, will be the first U.S. host of the ICF World Championships in 25 years.

Katrina Van Wijk heads up a two week paddling journey for water warrior teens.

Okay...after a summer of playboating, it's time to come clean on the new Jitsu playboat from Dagger, which will have you yelling “Wasaaaaaw!” like a crazed martial artist...

If you’re going to get flooded out of your house, it helps if you’re as familiar with water as three-time World Cup Slalom Champion Scott Shipley is...

For the host Czech Republic, it was solid results all around at the ICF World Slalom Championships in Prague, as Vavrinec Hradilek and Jiri Prskavec (CZE) clinched Gold and Silver, respectively, in the Men's K1 finals on the freshly flood-recovered Vltava River.

Practice up your Roshambo. Yep, it's Gauley Fest season, American Whitewater’s biggest fundraiser, held every third weekend in September. This year's even will be held Sept. 17-19 on West Virginia’s Gauley River, where, if you're lucky, you can beat the grandmaster Woody Callaway of Liquidlogic Kayaks at his own game of Rock, Paper. Scissors...

Whitewater Hall of Fame award presentation will also take place at PADDLEexpo, now the world's leading paddlesports-only tradeshow, in its 11th year.