The Reno Flow – Fueled by Reno Mountain Sports

by Scott Sady

Hi kayak peeps out there. I haven’t checked in for a few weeks because I had to go back to that place called the real world and work my tail off after taking the month of June off to compete in the freestyle kayaking circuit, (see previous few blogs.)

This is just a quick post to catch you up on the happenings in the coming months. First, at our local whitewater park in downtown Reno, flows are hanging out at a consistent 500 cfs. A little shallow in all but hole 5 for doing major tricks, but a great and friendly flow to learn how to surf and playboat. I took my cousin out last week, a first timer who had a 50% roll. We ended up with him rolling about 90% of the time and surfing across the hole by the end of the day. Check out Reno Mountain Sports to demo a boat or get hooked up with lessons. Good times!

First on the list, the American River Festival this September 9-11. A close and perennial favorite with loads of music, rafting, class II-III boating and a freestyle comp.

Later in the month the annual crazy party hosted by Sierra Nevada brewery and the Chico Paddleheads (not necessarily in that order, unless you really like beer!) at the Feather River Festival.  This is a great party and the different sections of the river provide everything from class V to class II. Just make sure you know where you are going if you jump on the Tobin/Lobin sections at release. They can get a little stout.

For you budding waterfall droppers, California’s back-assword Fish and Game department canceled the release for the last few years of the Pit I section of the pit river, which used to release on weekends in June and July based on some dubious science in an already man-altered streambed (powerhouse diversion.) Anyhow, after much battle, we will get only TWO weekends on this river this year, the fist and third weekend of October. This is a sweet, otherwise fairly easy section of river up by Shasta which has a beautiful, clean 35 footer in the middle with alternate slide routes around it if you don’t like the drop. The river ends at the campground we stay out. You couldn’t ask for more. Most folks paddle down, then do a few laps on the waterfall before heading downstream to camp and bar-b-que. Put it on your calendars.

Finally, keep your eyes open for releases on the class V South Fork of the Feather out of Little Grass Valley Reservoir. This usually releases all october, but I haven’t been able to find verifiable info about this year yet. This run starts out with a stout and beautiful canyon (I’d skip the 30 foot waterfall if I were you, it is shallow unless you are perfectly on line.) then eases up and we usually climb out about 1/2 way down where Pole Creek comes in.

And of course, down south, the 14th annual Cherry Creek races are going on this weekend, and the river should release for a while after if memory serves.

Get out and enjoy!

by Scott Sady

I pretty much thought I had seen it all, then I got to Cascade, Idaho and the Kelly’s whitewater park. This place is a testament to what can happen when a whole community comes together. Not that that is overly hard in a town with less than 1000 people, but they really did it right here. A product of private investment and public philanthropy, this whitewater park is probably the fanciest, largest and best landscaped park I have ever seen. The visitors center has free wi-fi and plasma TV’s  showing kayaking movies and the feature here on the North Fork of the Payette river is spectacular at the flows we had it, roughly 3800 cfs.

This upper feature at this park is a spectacular steep wave hole where big wave moves go as well as some hole moves. The lower features are suitable for learning or kids or just swimming through, and there are calm lakes at top and bottom, so no real danger of being swept away in the current. Plus the water is very warm. Short sleeves on the river were the order of the day. This event was the US nationals for freestyle kayaking and the cash purse was huge. Several thousand dollars per category for winning the event, as well as the same thing again for the top placers in the national points standing. Reno’s Jessica Yurtinus showed well, finally figuring out how to utilize the hole section of the feature to get her felix and some spins and roundhouses to come in 5th in the event and 7th in the nation in the women’s point standings. Pete and I were a little farther down the line in the men’s pro division, but the competition was stiff and most of the big moves were going on the wave, so in the 3 days I was here, I figured out how to throw loops, mcnasty’s and back-blunts on the wave and was really excited about that. Too bad we don’t have any big, powerful waves within 200 miles of Reno, they are a ton of fun! All in all I finished ranked 8th in the nation by USACK.

Anyhow, back to the event. Man, can they throw a party here. Live bands at the venue, Llve bands in town, free beer for the kayakers. Everyone in the community was so appreciative that we were there. We saw the waitresses from the breakfast joint (route 55 cafe) show up to watch the competition. At the athletes party at a tiny bar called Cross the Tracks they had a great local band playing and the lovely bartenders gave us our first beers free, then some of the locals bought us beer, then the band started playing punk versions of Bob Dylan songs and the next thing you knew, the tables had been cleared out and we had a full mosh pit going in the center of the bar. Pete dragged the bartender girls in. A few of the older local couples joined in, and even the owner of the bar got in on the action for a few songs. They said they had never had anyone dancing at the bar before, much less “doing whatever it was you were doing out there.” Sharing experiences like these with the local folks in the towns in which we compete and the camaraderie and friendly competitiveness between all the pro kayakers out here really is a special thing and is the main reason why I do this each summer. Most of the communities in which we compete are small towns that were basically headed towards extinction before they built their whitewater parks and hung their hopes on them to bring in tourist dollars. We do our best to come in, give a good show and try to get people excited about kayaking and river recreation in general. And in turn, they treat us like celebrities. A win-win situation if I ever saw one.

I’ll be back in Reno in the next few days and the levels at the Reno park are just about getting to the perfect levels. Personally I think about 1300 cfs is the optimum level for our playpark and we are very near that now. So come on out. I’m in the blue Jackson Rockstar, so catch me if you want to learn some tricks and I’ll try to help. Or look into picking up or demoing a boat from Reno Mountain Sports and I’ll see you on the water.

We left the glorious hot sun of Reno for some wave boating and the final competition here in Idaho and what do we get? Wind, rain and fog! Hopefully it is just temporary

This park is amazing. The top feature is the best wave for learning tricks I have ever been on. Steep, fast and retentive. And boy did they sink some money into the development of this park.

The visitor center with views of the features, free wi-fi, bathrooms and plasma TV's running kayaking movies.

Eric Jackson watches a surfer take his turn on the wave.

And now EJ shows the surfer how it's done. Actually, for being landlocked these surfers are pretty good.

11 year-old Sage Donnelly from Carson City even took a few turns on the big-boys wave (the cadets competition is on a smaller feature downstream) and gives it the thumbs up. Sage ended up winning the junior women's class of the event and was first in the overall junior women's national point standings.

Ej throwing air screws.

Sage aka reptile girl from Carson City won the juniors nationals and the point series. I don't know if the lizard was on her helmet when she paddled, but otherwise snake and lizard stuck close.

This feature was fast and hard to loop. Here Reno's Jessica Yurtinus goes for the loop and gets pulled underwater in for a mystery move.

One of the local Ospreys returns to feed its chick with a lizard or small fish. We would see the birds fishing upstream from us in the morning, and a den of fox cubs even came by for a visit when I didn't have my camera.

Dane Jackson won the junior men's division by about 1000 points, so he took a victory lap with no paddle and still racked up about triple his next closest competitor's points.

How many juniors can you fit on a wave?

Team Pyranha's moustache man Craig Cleckner with a big pan-am.

If I said the water was running huge in Colorado, that wouldn’t begin to describe it. At FIBARK, one of the nation’s oldest boating festivals, in Salida, Colorado, the feature was nearly completely washed out. Several of the pros had sub-100 point rides in the finals and I couldn’t even match that. I posted a lot of details on FIBARK from last year, so feel free to check that post out because what really excited me was Gunnison, CO.

Gunnison is a tiny horse town below Crested Butte. I think Gunnison may be a Native American word for “land of mosquitoes.” Blood loss aside, the Gunnison river was flowing near 4000 cfs and the whitewater park had just recently added a new feature up top, which they kinda expected to be an improved wave, but ended up being the biggest, thrashiest hole any of us had ever intentionally surfed. When we first rolled in on wednesday and asked the locals about it, they simply said, “stay out of that one.”

With everything else washed out, that seemed like the only game in town. So we timidly started playing in it. Both shoulders were elevated and the boil line sucked you back from nearly 10 feet downstream, so flushing was not really a problem. After we got used to it, getting out wasn’t really much of an issue, and the random and accidental beatdowns and extended face-surfs actually started to get comical and make things fun. By the time competition day rolled around, we mostly had it dialed and that was the exciting thing.

This feature was built over the winter at low water. Nobody, but nobody, had seen people throwing down in it yet. It looked big and ugly and the local guys kept out, so we were able to introduce the town to their own feature as well as throw some of the first big loops and other tricks they had ever seen, since their only previous feature was a small wave.

After the main competition, during which I was knocked off the podium by a lousy 10 points (that is the point equivalent of one flat spin) we had a big air competition. We all had a few beers in us by then, but saddled up and had a great time, sometimes surfing two or three at a time in the hole to the delight of the small crowd. Team Pyranha’s Craig Kleckner and I got big cheers when we threw synchronized McNasties (that is a back surf that rotates 180 degrees into a front loop.) However it was pointed out to us that we shouldn’t carry our coordinated efforts too far, because, just like in synchronized swimming, it just might spell the beginning of the end of the sport.

You can get an idea of how powerful this feature was by looking at some of the raft rodeo pictures. I don’t think any of the rafts made it through without flipping, but that was kind of the point. The area also has a classic creek run, O Be Joyful, that was too high for me to get on before I left, but Pete managed to get on it a couple of days later. Now I can’t wait to get back to Reno and get on our rivers and in our whitewater park again, which I see has been flowing huge the whole time I have been gone. If freestyle kayaking and playboating is starting to seem interesting to you, wait until the park gets down under 1500 cfs and borrow or rent a boat from Reno Mountain Sports and see what you have been missing. If you find me down there, I’ll help you get airborn!

Gunnison has a large BLM area called Hartman Rocks, and it rocks! 50 miles of single track wrapped around our camp and the camping was free just 5 miles from the whitewater park.

Of course, BLM land is multi-use, so we had to share our campsite.

Fortunately they weren't looking for top ramen and beer!

Jackson team boater Billy Malesky approaches camp, to find the road blocked by Bovines.

Reno's Pete DeLosa and Billy and I made it a point to take a mountain bike ride every morning. After all, the kayak competition site was at nearly 7500 feet, but our camp was over 8000, so we figured that gave us an edge.

Some of the bike trails at Harman's Rocks

Since we were doing the kayaking most of the time, I don't have a lot of kayaking pictures from this event, but this is one a local shot of me throwing the last half of a McNasty in my Jackson Rockstar.

This is an overall picture of the feature at Gunnison, and yes, we competed with that tree in there.

Pete decides to check out the lower feature. This is normally a small wave, but at these flows was too flushy to stay on and do many tricks.

The raft rodeo was certainly the highlight of the event, both for the fans and for me. I have never seen so much concentrated carnage.

by Scott Sady

The Reno Flow has hit the road again for the freestyle kayaking tour. My first stop was the legendary Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. This was my first time at the games and what a blast! The kayaking competition venue is on a tiny, ice-cold creek running right through the heart of the village. Spectators surround you 360 degrees and they draw more people than even the Reno River Festival, which is one of the better attended whitewater events around. Of course at Teva, kayaking isn’t the only game in town. There was the world cup finals for bouldering, (and fly fishing for that matter, but that was just plain strange to watch,) as well as championships for the dock-dogs. You know, those dogs that fly off the end of a pier and launch themselves 20+ feet out over the water trying to catch their favorite squeaky toy. That was pretty cool to watch. Lots of good music and good friends as well as a gnarly creek race, stand-up paddle-board race and downriver racing. Oh, and I almost forgot, some wicked slope-style mountain biking including a dude that pulled a double back-flip on his bike. Of course they did have to take him to the hospital with a concussion…..

The freestyle kayaking feature was difficult to say the least. On the tiny creek, the water changed dramatically from heat to heat and even ride to ride. Stephen Wright was leading by a long shot going into the semi-finals, and I was holding down 13 place, just making the cut. My semi-final ride was not so good, but then the same can be said for a lot of paddlers, with the end result that I stayed 13 out of 34 and Stephen surprisingly didn’t make the final 5. On the women’s side, Ruth laid down some great rides, but Emily Jackson was simply on fire and took her 7th straight Teva win, with Ruth coming in second. The competitors included a lot of European national champions over here to train for worlds, which is only a week away, so it was a really solid field of boaters. However, most of the big guns are heading to Germany in the next few days, so I am looking to score a paycheck here in the next few events. Off to Buena Vista to practice on the Arkansas River for a few days, then up to Lyons for the Lyon’s Outdoor games next week. I’ll keep you posted.

On our way out we took the loneliest highway. You will be happy to know two things. One, the shoe tree has risen from the ashes. Actually, a tree a few hundred feet away is now covered in shoes. Finally, as this mural on the back of the Ely Bell Telephone building attests, Bell Systems eventually becomes the Empire and invents the Death Star!

Following 50 through Utah to I-15, we came upone a wonderfull hotsprings near the town of Meadows, UT, with free camping nearby. Unfortunately, we had to pick up after the locals.

Once we finally cleaned up after the horrible party kids, we had an early morning bath all to ourselves.

I made the semi -finals in my first visit to the Teva Mountain Games against some of the best in the world. The feature was tough. Lots of great paddlers had really crappy rides. I actually didn't hit many of the tricks that I can, but my big air on the few tricks I did hit kept me in it for one more round.

Reno's Stephen Wright goes huge in his semi-final ride. The venue at Teva is unique in that the spectators surround you 360 degrees, and they really cheer!

A giant Korbel champaigne bottle floated down during Stephen's ride. He tried to loop it and nearly made it.

Reno's Ruth Gorden-Eben's has a great first ride. Unfortunately for her, Emily Jackson was simply on fire. Ruth came in a respectable second place and is on her way to Germany to beat Emily at worlds. Go Ruth!

With the Reno River Festival fast approaching, many of my kayaking friends have asked me what to look for and/or how to do many of the freestyle tricks that will be seen here this Friday and Saturday. So I went digging through YouTube and have compiled short video clips of all the different tricks. So starting with the hardest/highest scoring tricks and working our way down to cartwheels, here is what you want to look for:

The Tricky Woo is worth 160 points as a base value. This video makes it look easy, but with fast moving current, this is one of the toughest tricks to do. Some of the best guys like EJ and Stephen will be linking this move off other moves such as the space godzilla:

The Phonics Monkey (don’t ask me who makes up these names,) is one of the next highest scoring moves, worth a base 130 points, and most people can catch air on the loop portion of the trick, making it a 180 pointer. The Phonics monkey is the only trick initiated with a cross-bow stroke and is basically a bow pirouette into a loop.

The McNasty was rumored to be named by EJ when he threw one shortly after eating, prompting a little second taste…. It is basically a backwards 180 into a loop or space godzilla

You are certainly going to be seeing a lot of looping going on. Loops and McNasties will probably be some of the more common tricks the better competitors will be throwing. A loop is pretty self-explanatory. You basically plug the bow of your boat into the green water, jump up and throw your self forward onto your deck, then immediately open up, throwing your body onto the back deck and forcing your feet down to complete the move. The “Brown Claw” is optional…

Orbits or Lunar orbits are worth 110 points and is a stern pirouette in the hole with the bow elevated above 45 degrees at some point. It can finish a lot of different ways, but is a favorite trick to link into or from. What you will probably see most of in Reno are Orbits, which finish in a front surf. Lunar Orbits finish in a cartwheel or backloop. Many people link loops to orbits. Here is a lunar orbit:

The Space Godzilla is a cousin to the loop. It is an aerial maneuver, which means at some point your entire boat must be out of the water or it does not count. Basically, what it is is a loop with a twist thrown in. This move links easily into splitwheels here in Reno.

Split wheels are cartwheels that change directions. They are great moves that you will see many competitors using to link other moves.

Another popular move here is the Helix. Technically, you have to get air for it to truly be a Helix, and it is a move more often done on big waves, but in Reno, we do a non-aerial version also called a Felix, which is a 360 degree spin, at least half of which has to be done upside down.

Back loops actually score higher than loops. The concept is the same, except in reverse. Here is a great video Jackson freestyle kayaking stud and current Reno resident Stephen Wright put together. The back loop appears at .38 seconds, but watch the way he is linking tricks fluidly one into the other. For every trick you link, you get a linking bonus determined by the difficulty of the trick. So linking two tricks together could easily add 80-100 points in addition to what you would get for the tricks alone and most of the best guys will be doing this, so keep your eyes out.