Shaneslogic

Archive for the ‘playboat’ Category

Old Man River Workin’ on the Clean

Back on the blog again. Still trying to fill you all the way in on the trip to Canada where we were testing the Biscuit. Like I said before the water was not ideal for the big stuff on the Ottawa but the smaller playspots were on. So it was a great testing for that. But we were getting a little concerned that we wouldn’t find a nice big wave for us to really check out its big wave potential. And then we got the call from Guillaume. High Tension Wave was coming in on the Gatineau River. Marlow’s eyes were lighting up and non of the rest of us had ever paddled this wave but I had seen tons of photos and videos from the spot so we knew it would be good but we didn’t realize how good it would be.

Yep its that good

But first lets get some good old fashioned Canadian culture under our belts. We were traveling in the middle of no where and this kayak drew us in. We didn’t really know what it said but we did see the sign for Poutine. If you don’t know what it is then you need to go to Canada just for a paddling trip and check it out because just like the paddling it is decadent, rich, basic, carnal, and heavenly all in one fell swoop. First you take french fries which we all know so well, then you throw on top some cheese curds (the white stuff in the photos), and then, why not, toss some gravey over the whole thing. In fact I am embarrassed that someone in the south didn’t come up with this one first. Poutine, yes, is grits, biscuits, sausage, fries, moonpies, rc cola, and humidity all rolled into one. Its the bomb.

Parle Francais?

See if you understand the menu

Mmmmmm so much goodness in one place

Yonton in a state of lovin’ it

It looks like heaven to me

Oh yeah back to the High Tension Wave on the Gatineau River. Lets just say 6 feet high, smooth and glassy, eddie service if you are on it, and it you aren’t there is an eddie with a 60 second portage back to the wave just behind the next rock. Theres a pile to land all your tricks in if you can’t land them clean. The good folks can stay on this wave to seemingly forever, the front surfers can stay on this wave to eternity and yep the Remix XP can surf it as well.

Marlow cleaning it up

Mar trying out another color

backwards, fakie, switch, whatever… clean

ollie off the rib

So obviously this was an amazing place to test the big wave ability of the Biscuit. We are maybe half way through the process of testing this boat out and things are looking really good. The first proto showed that the boat needed a trim in volume to balance the boats out. While I was in Colorado I was able to paddle in several awesome spots during the high water season but most notably was the Glenwood wave all the way from about 12 grand up to nearly 21 thousand. We also paddled it on big water on the Arkansas River. The Salida hole was working, and the Numbers were high but there were tons of different spots to play. These later protos were more balanced volume wise and I tried to increase the loosness. At the High Tension wave the looseness showed and all types of moves were working well. On the next round I am going to work on the edges a little. They are a little too dominant right now, especially near the ends of the boat. So the next transition will be perfecting the edges so that they are positive on a wave and easy to use otherwise as well as increasing the bounce and speed from the point where we are now. Hopefully I will have the next round of protos at the Gauley. In the mean time check out lots of photos from the trip up to the Gatineau River. There are also a bunch of other photos from the trip to Canada.

Enjoy it
Shane

Classic Ottawa Scenery

There is a slideshow to all the photos at the bottom of the post.

It was sooo dry here in the south that I decided to drive up north to paddle in Canada. They had been getting lots of rain and even as recently as a couple weeks ago Buseater was in so we knew we would find something good to paddle. Even at the in between levels that we were looking at on the Ottawa there were plenty of smaller play spots to test on. So it was a good start for checking out the Biscuit protos.

Setting up the new boats

The crew was:
Me: (43) Once I knew how to playboat, a little, but now I am an off the couch playboater.
Yonton: (young punk) He is a fantastic playboater who has made the finals in several world championships, but also a little off the couch.
Justin: (older than Yonton) Justin is more of a river runner but also a good playboater.
Beaz: (old as dirt):) Beaz is my old paddling buddy from travels in the past. His claim to playboating fame is ’97 Worlds in an Open Canoe and poster boy for Perception in a Super Sport.
Marlow: (young punk) Marlow, well you all know Marlow. He is one of the top wave paddlers in the world.

CJs House Along the River

We were lucky enough to be able to stay at Camp CJ (Cindy Jamison’s) place along the Ottawa river. Its easy paddling distance to the main two runs and super close to Garburator and McCoys. It was perfect. Thanks CJ.

Ed wheeling

Afer driving all day we did stop off at the Black River to paddle at Hole Brothers at a horrible level. Not sure why we did that but hey a day on the water is better than a… We had the whole crew from Hudson River Rafting out in the boats. The wave was slow and not very dynamic but folks were able to do some stuff and it did turn out to be a good testing of how the boat did on smaller, slower features. It showed me that I need to work on the speed a touch more and probably make the ends a bit more slicey but that was about as much info as I could get out of this spot at this level.

Yonton working the blunt

Once we got to the Ottawa the levels weren’t perfect but there were several smaller spots that were really fun and our first day on the river was a really fun evening paddle as a storm rolled in over the plains. There was a slow wave hole that was perfect for mellow surfing, spins, and blunts. And a very good little play hole that were getting most hole moves to work. It was here that we really figured out that this thing is very good in a hole. Its super well balanced and likes to be vertical. It was a little shallow for big loops but there were lots of good loops and McNasty type things going on.

Under cool stormy skies

Then we noticed just on the other side of the island from the smaller play hole there was a bigger faster spot that was giving up some blunts and good fast cartwheels.

The sun came out the next day

Justin Wheeling

After the first couple of days testing on the Ottawa we all felt pretty solidly that this thing was great in the hole. We were able to test it in several different types of holes and actually found a couple waves that were a little bigger as well. And our thoughts at the Black were confirmed on the slower waves. “I would like it to be a little faster on smaller slower stuff.” What was surprising though was how well it took off on the bigger stuff. On the two bigger waves that we were able to paddle on the Ottawa the Biscuit started to speed up, and it got loose as hell.

Speeding up on the bigger waves

Yonton clean bluntin’

Here is the slideshow to all the photos. There are somewhere around 40 shots of our time on the Ottawa testing the Biscuits. If you have anything you would like to see let me know. Or if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Later
Shane