After a very very very very long wait the… well, long awaited DVD, INTERFERENCE “a kayak surf film” has finally arrived at our doorstep and will be shipping out on Monday, February 8th. As you can see in the photo, filmmaker, Joey Hall, after a hard night of binge video game playing, woke up a happy man. He thought he’d never see his precious DVDs, but alas the dream is a reality. This film is truly one of a kind and kayakers and surfers alike will enjoy the thrill and adventure Joey has brought through his shooting, editing and storytelling. You may order your own copy of the DVD right here, right now.
Thanks to everyone who has supported this project along the way. We’ll be posting more info about the film soon, such as an iTunes playlist for the film’s incredible soundtrack. If you want to read up a little more about INTERFERENCE hop on over to http://interferencesurf.com In the meantime, those of you who already ordered copies will receive those via US Priority Mail this coming week. Please enjoy, and thanks again!
Would you mind helping us spread the word about the film premiere we are holding in a couple weeks? The flyer is attached. This is a kayak, surf, travel film by Joey Hall, shot in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, USA and Ecuador. We’ll show the film at Coffee Underground http://www.coffeeunderground.biz where they have a fantastic theatre, food, drinks and warm hospitality. Showtime is 9:00 PM on Tuesday, February 9th. DVDs will be on sale at the event and profits go to US Surf Kayak Team Members.
Please invite your friends, customers, clients and family. I’d call it PG-13 just in case anyone decides to bring kids. There are a couple bad words but no nudity. We apologize in advance if you were hoping for nudity.
The 10th Annual Saluda River Iceman Championship race was held on Jan 9th 2010. The festivities included a timed “Massacre” race with required eddys, a head to head tube race, and the main event….The Iceman. The Iceman race is a mass start head to head featuring paddlers of all skill levels in a variety of craft. Paddlers race down Millrace rapid, around the Zoo bridge pylon, and back upstream to a trail. At this point, racers get out of their boats and carry them up to the top of Millrace for a second run. Once through the rapid for the second time, racers must exit their boat and swim to shore. This year’s temps were a balmy 26 degrees. Thanks to Andy Grizzell for another great event.
(Watch the video below by clicking the small blue text that says Play Now or Play in Popup)
Music by: Cloak/Dagger
Song: Jesus Had A Twin/Twenty On One
Album: Don’t Need A
Congrats to anyone who makes it down to this incredible event. Great music, great cause.
This year’s line up showcases a diverse roster once again with national and international acts including:
Billy Bragg, Dr. Dog, The Mountain Goats, Rogue Wave, Delta Spirit, Senses Fail, Anti-Flag, Man Man, Dead Prez, 7 Seconds, Kimya Dawson, Torche, Anvil, Japanther, Strike Anywhere,
Cymbals Eat Guitars, Sea Wolf, Dr. Octagon AKA Kool Keith, Dead Confederate, A Wilhelm Scream, Portugal. the Man, Samiam, Leatherface, Crime in Stereo, Matt Pond PA, Dead to Me, Smoke or Fire, Fruit Bats, Bear in Heaven, Freelance Whales, Broadway Calls, Cobra Skulls, Small Brown Bike, Glint, Stars of Track and Field, Danielson, Twin Tigers, Black Sheep, Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band, James Husband (of Montreal), Signals (ex-The Mae Shi), Ortolan, Mercury Program, Off With Their Heads, The Loved Ones, Past Lives, forgetters, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Assholeparade, Defiance Ohio, Chris Wollard & the Ship Thieves, Bomb the Music Industry!, Dear Landlord, Young Livers, David Rovics, The Riot Before, This Bike is a Pipebomb, Des Ark, Ben Davis & The Jett$, Shellshag, Weatherbox, Holopaw, Hawks & Doves, Angelo Spencer, The Blacklist Royals, Lemuria, The Measure [sa], Paul Baribeau, Algernon Cadwallader, Your Heart Breaks, Fin Fang Foom, Yula Beeri, The Future Virgins, Good Luck, The Menzingers, Capsule, Ben & Vesper, Jon Snodgrass, Cheap Girls, Austin Lucas, Mike Hale, Street Eaters, O Pioneers!, Army of Ponch, Virgins, Gatorface, Protagonist, American Cheeseburger, Savage Brewtality, Brainworms, New Bruises, Tubers, Cory Branan, Look Mexico, Yesterday’s Ring, Whiskey & Co., Worn in Red, Ninja Gun, Grabass Charlestons, FIYA, Spanish Gamble, Anchor Arms, How Dare You, Slow Claw, Heads Held High, The Casting Out, Low Red Land, The Itchy Hearts, Yardwork, Panthro UK United 13, Mumpsy, The Beauvilles, The Tim Version, 3rd Stone, Tiltwheel, Dan Padilla, The Future Now, D.P., City of Ships, Sloane Peterson, Too Many Daves, Pretty Boy Thorson, Nut Nut, Ornate Escape,
and The Mike Bernos Band.
As recently as this past Fall I had the opportunity to try Standup Paddleboarding with some friends of mine in Wilmington NC. The unique thing about this trip was that we were not only paddling the boards but fishing off of them as well, something I had not considered or even known about. Chris and Ryan own a paddling shop called Hook Line & Paddle near Wrightsville Beach NC. They have sold kayaks for years but the recent popularity explosion of SUPs is something they are partly responsible for on the NC coast. Not only are they getting the exercise benefits of paddling the SUP, but they are fishing from them as well. And the same for their kayaks, as you see in the video Chris is standup paddling one of Native’s Ultimate fishing kayaks.
(View video at the bottom of this post where it says “play now” or “play in popup,” or go to the Library link and visit my Album.)
The song in this video is by Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves. Chris Wollard is a member of the well known punk rock band, Hot Water Music, hailing from Gainesville, FL. This album is a very highly recommended listen and is, I’m sure, climbing its way to the top of any Indie Rock lover’s album list. I know it’s at the top of mine. Also, listen for some of the band’s songs in INTERFERENCE, Joey Hall’s new kayak surf film, out on DVD in the next week.
(Left: Chris, Right: Ryan)
(Chris plays tug-o-war with a summer Flounder at Wrightsville Beach)
By now everyone has probably guessed that we’d never post any of this footage. But, you can thank Pete Blenkinsop and friends for asking to see Gary Adcock’s monster air on video and keeping this on my mind. Allegedly their friends back home didn’t believe he pulled an air like that. Well, here’s the proof! Check out how the wave just drops out from under him when he goes aerial. Pretty sweet I thought!
(View video at the bottom of this post where it says “play now” or “play in popup,” or go to the Library link and visit my Album.)
Anyway, I kept that email in my inbox all this time and finally got around to posting that shot plus some other highlight shots from the worlds. Keep in mind this is a very small fraction of all the footage I got from the event and it really doesn’t include much any footage from the finals. Nor does is show anywhere near all the people we have footage of or any of the killer rides folks were putting together. This is only a highlight reel. It’s a very quick edit and I just laid down a bunch of short clips to a fast, loud song by Cloak/Dagger, a punk bank from Richmond VA.
Also Joey Hall shot just as much footage as I did from all different angles. He and I actually shot the entire finals from two angles and hope to make a DVD of that available at some point this Spring. (By the way, INTERFERENCE is about ten days from being done and available, finally!).
This was my vantage point of Gary’s aerial from the cliff above. In my opinion, best move of the contest.
Someone claiming to be Heehaw Jones sent this picture of himself in a Rapid Transit t-shirt. Personally we think it’s a fake. Or is Jones just jealous that he’s not the best paddler out there anymore and he’s just seeking attention? Oh well, guess he got it.
A wonderful holiday gift for all of our friends, patrons and the like. To view the video click below on the blue text reading “play-now” or “play-in-popup”.
I really enjoyed reading Rush Sturges’s recent account of his autumnal trip down the Middle Kings (check it here, http://theadrenalinerush.blogspot.com/2009/10/first-fall-middle-kings-descent.html), and I was inspired to do a photo blog about a trip we took down the Linville gorge this past Sunday. California may boast grueling, multi-day expeditions and 11,000-foot snowy passes, but down here in the South we’ve got deciduous trees!
On Saturday, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself for having to miss this year’s Russell Fork Race (due to a sprained wrist); so when Ben Blake messaged me that he’d be going to Linville Gorge on Sunday, I checked my sore hand and gave myself Dr.’s approval to get out and have some fun. We met up with a good group of guys (Jonathan Absher, Mike Patterson, and Dewey Gibson) and found the Babel Tower parking lot packed with the cars of people out to see foliage colors. The gorge was brilliant with fall beauty as we hiked down to the river. It seemed that the leaves were peaking a bit early this year and that we chanced to get out on one of the prettiest days of this fall.
When we got down to Babel Tower rapid, Ben and Mike guessed that the level was just over 2 feet: a nice, controlled volume with enough flow to make the rapids fun and not too scary. Everyone did some comparison of their Linville River experience level: today would be Jonathan’s first run, it was run number 3 for Dewey and I, Ben had been down about 10 times, and Mike had logged some fifty plus runs on this river (so he says!). Regardless of how familiar one is with the Linville, I always sense a strong undercurrent of nerves as everyone suits up at that put-in. But maybe that’s just me.
On this day I was pretty intent on building a mental map of the river, memorizing as many lines and rapids as I could in order to return without a guide in the future. This went pretty well for the first six to eight rapids, and then my visual memory maxed out and I was no longer able to log away any of our directions. That’s the way it is with the Linville: it’s a long, consistently good river with one horizonline after another, making it a tall order to remember anything beyond the major rapids. Ben was usually at point in our group, and whenever he couldn’t recall which way to go on a rapid he would consult Mike, who generally responded, “I’ll probably know once I’m halfway down.”
What a day it was to be out in the gorge. Fall is the season of beautiful colors, comfort food, and also of creek races and competition. I often find myself getting wrapped up in the drive to perform at my best and to get down any given river as fast as I can; so it’s really good to get out for days like this–to remind oneself of the core of kayaking. You’re out in the heart of nature, flowing down the river with good friends, and every few minutes you drop into another exhilarating rapid and give a whoop and a holler for sheer joy of being in this awesome place.
Ever notice how the Linville bares a colorful variety of rapid names? You’ve got your standard, foreboding/correctional-facility imagery (Jailhouse, Drunktank, Fight Club), a bit of childhood nostalgia (Dr. Seuss), a nerdy, gamer reference (Donkey Kong), and the reverent language of the church (Cathedral Gorge). I think this pretty well covers the range of emotions one experiences while descending this river. Here’s a glimpse of my favorite spot on the Linville: Dr. Seuss Gorge. This stretch is also known as the Bob Ross Gorge . . . “we’ll just add a happy tree over here with its leaves burning red, and some nice, gentle cliff walls, and a pretty, little class five rapid as you leave. There we go.”
What can you say about the Linville? It’s truly a southeastern gem, and on days like this, there are few places I’d rather be. A few more pics from the end of our day:
That’s all, folks. Thanks for taking a look and sharing the experience. To see larger versions of these photographs, you can visit my flickr stream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12168432@N00/. Enjoy what remains of the fall paddling–it’s about to get cold up in here!
While supplies last: Nantahala Outdoor Center is offering a free copy of the now-classic BUCK FEVER when you purchase the one and only kayak/horror film, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DONKEY. You’ll learn where the fondness of Bucks, Donkeys, Penguins and other mammals began over ten years ago with Buck Fever and get acquainted with Heehaw Jones, the most professional kayaker on the face of the planet when you dive into NIGHT OF THE LIVING DONKEY.
Make this Halloween very special for you and your loved ones by picking up these videos at NOC’s Outfitter store in Bryson City NC or at http://store.NOC.com/store/5593
*Parental discretion advised for viewing these films.
Podcast Video: 
