Last Friday (5-9-08) Scott, Brian, and I all played hooky from work in hopes that we were going to get a ton of rain Thursday night for a final great TVF day.  The weather radar was looking very promising and we had high hopes that we would get in some good Doe River Gorge Laps…  Then we awoke early Friday morning for Dawn Patrol on all the gauges with a sad result.  Brian called me at 5:00 am to report that everything locally in the Tri-Cities was not even close to running.  He did notice that the Smokies got almost 1.5″ of rain in some locations, but the gauges were not going up yet?!?!

We were pretty sure that we could get a Big Creek or a Greenbrier TVF Run, so we called Scott and told him to meet us at Big Creek.  When we arrived at Big Creek (8:00ish am) we quickly learned that it was a complete skunk!  So we decided to go check out the Greenbrier run…  On the way over to Greenbrier I called our SKB Team TVF Central Command Post (Stuart @ work) to get an updated gauge reading on the Little & Tellico.  Stuart indicated that the Little was running only about 2.1′ at the Townsend gauge.  The lowest I have ever run it was 2.5′…  Ugh!

We pulled up to the Greenbrier run and yes… we were skunked again!  It was decision time… Drive another 1.5 hours to the Tellico, which we knew had water or ELF the Little.  I indicated to Scott and Brian that we started TVF by ELFin’ Wilson… we might as well finish it by ELFin’ the Little!  So off to the Sinks we headed.

When we arrived it was about 9:00ish am and the level was low, but still run able with some boat abuse to be had.  We did not care though, because we only needed 4 laps to replace our Tallulah day and break 20,000 TVF for our East Cost Arena of the Creek Boat Competition.  The Sinks looked pretty sketchy, so Brian and I seal launched for our first lap and so did Scott & I on lap #2.  Lap #1 went well and Brian and I decided that the level was not too bad.

Lap #2 was going good too with Scott until I got to the Elbow Rapid.  The Elbow Rapid is usually a lot faster at normal flows, so it was weird having time to put in several strokes going through the rapid.  I got very lazed going through it and hit a cross current which resulted in me flipping over into the elbow rock.  As I was setting up to roll I rubbed my hands across some really abrasive rocks with my knuckles.  I rolled up and my hands were pouring out blood.  It did not hurt too badly, but it looked terrible!

Lap #3 Scott and Brian decided it was time to fire up the Screaming Meanies and the Sinks.  They both had good lines and had another good lap!  Lap #4 was the lap that would attain our total goal of 20,000 TVF for the comp!  Brian and I completed Lap #4 in total sexy style and we decided we could do 3 more laps to get at least 2,000 TVF for the day!

Scott and I set off for Lap #5, but not until Scott got to run the Sinks again…  He came up to the drop to far right and could not get a boof stroke.  He began to pencil into the drop and BAM!!!  He piton hard into the river bottom only below 2′ of water.  Fortunately he fell of the drop sideways and did not get vertically pinned.  He did not even get a good working from the hole.  Scott is just too sexy for carnage!  By the end of lap #5 we were beginning to wear down and the boat abuse was getting worse from the low level!

Laps #6 (Scott & Brian) & #7 (Brain & I) were quite painful on our boats and body.  The level had dropped at least two tenths of a foot on us, because we were finding all these “new” rocks to scrap on…  We finished the day with a total of 7 laps which gave us 2,240 TVF for the day and whole lot of new wear on our boats, but we attained and surpassed our total goal!

Here are the official stats for the day:

Lap 1 – Wesley & Brian
Lap 2 – Wesley & Scott
Lap 3 – Scott & Brian
Lap 4 – Brian & Wesley
Lap 5 - Wesley & Scott
Lap 6 – Scott & Brian
Lap 7 – Brian & Wesley

7 laps @ 320 ft/lap = 2,240 TVF for the day

Here is a link to the photo album of the day:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20778&l=ef4cf&id=552848204

With this final stand by the SKB Team, we have dominated the East Coast TVF Arena!  We have won in our Young Lions classification and have the top overall score of any of the classifications!  Check out the score board with this link:

http://boatertalk.com/TVF

Total = 21,190 TVF for the East Coast Arena!!!

The 3 month window for the TVF East Coast Arena competition closed on Tuesday (5-13-08) @ midnight, so that settles the score…  The SKB Team is truly the sexiest competitors in the East Coast Arena and the winners!

However stay tuned, because the SKB Team will be competing in the Rockies Arena and try our best to get to the West Coast Arena, so we will have touched all three Arenas for a bonus day in the overall competition!

Until next time, keep it sexy!

Wesley R. Bradley – SKB Team Paddler

This past Saturday (5-3-08) the entire SKB Team joined forces once again to fire up some TVF laps @ the USNWC.  Seeing how we only would get 21 TVF per each lap our team strategist, Stuart Everett, came up with the brilliant ideal of combining our sexiness and power into Topo Duos for the laps!  It was a ton of fun!!

Here were our official lap stats for the day:

Laps 1-5: Steve & Scott in Topo Duo

Laps 6-10: Stuart & Wesley in Topo Duo

Laps 11-16: Matt & Brian in Topo Duo

Laps 17-21: Steve & Scott in creek boats

Laps 22-26: Stuart & Wesley in Topo Duo

Laps 27-31: Matt & Brian in creek boats

Laps 32-35: Steve & Scott in creek boats

Laps 36-41: Stuart & Wesley in Topo Duo

Laps 42-46: Matt & Brian in creek boats

Laps 47-51: Steve & Scott in Topo Duo

Lap 52: Brian & Scott in creek boats

52 laps x 21′ per lap = 1,092 TVF for the day!

Notable highlights:

• Scott & Steve, on there first set of laps (1-5), had a minor incident that required them to exit their boat in an upside down underwater matter.  Do not mistake this for a swim!  The great Leland Davis says, “Swims out of a topo don’t count…”  Since we know Hollywood is always keeping it sexy, Scott must have missed a brace and caused them to flip over above ‘M’ wave in the Big Water Channel.  As always, Hollywood was trying to keep it sexy and do an off-side roll to get Scott back upright.  Well Chief was just trying to keep it pro and roll on his on-side.  Needless to say both of their efforts working against each other!  Scott decides to bail and Hollywood not knowing the fate of Scott attempts to roll again.  He discovers that his boat is quickly filling with water and he is not going anywhere, but ejecting from his cockpit.  They did manage to rescue themselves and their gear in a timely manner and get moving again.
• Stuart and Wesley were the first and only SKB Team members to fire up the Competition Channel.  They completed 4 laps with a combined total of 4 successful combat rolls in the Comp. Channel (2 @ Kodak Wave & 2 @ Big Drop).
• Stuart and Wesley also did a really cool typewriter move (thanks to some fancy paddling from Stuart) across the left side of Shutdown Hole to keep from running over another kayaker who was getting worked in the hole from an unintentional surf.
• Matt & Brian were the only two SKB’s to have a dry hair day in the Topo Duos.
• Brian fired up his PFD of the Comp. Channel with success!

  

  

Overall it was a great day for the SKB Team!  We have 8 official days logged for TVF now and all we can do is replace days now.

SKB Team TVF Competition Stats. to date:

Day 1 -Wilson Creek:  3,850 feet

Day 2 – Watauga:  1,012 feet

Day 3 – Little:  3,200 feet

Day 4 – Wilson:  5,500 feet

Day 5 – Tellico:  3,380 feet

Day 6 – LBC & Greenbrier:  874 feet

Day 7 – Tallulah:  429 feet

Day 8 – USNWC:  1,092 feet

Total = 19,337 TVF for the East Coast Arena

We only need to replace our Tallulah day with a 1,092 TVF day on anything, but Wilson Creek to break the 20,000 TVF Goal for our team.  This coming weekend is the final weekend of the comp, so we have to do what we can to reach the goal.  Wish us luck and pray for rain!

Keep it sexy & pro in all you do!

That’s right boys and girls…  The Sexy Kayaking Beasts came out this weekend in full force to dominate the competition!!!  We completed 14 Laps on Wilson Creek to put us in 1st place with a total one day total of 3,388 TVF.

Check out the official standings on Boater talk with this link: http://boatertalk.com/TVF

Check out our lap Stats. with this link: http://www.boatertalk.com/forum/TVF/1442024

For photos and and a full trip report check out Wesley’s Trip Report with this link: http://worldkayakblogs.com/wildwildwes/2008/02/26/skb-elfn-on-wilson-creek/

Stay tuned for more SKB domination of TVF!!!

Well this past weekend was a total bust for Team SKB at racking up any TVF.  The rain did not work out like we had hoped and not one stream was at a good runnable level that we had planned on lapping.  Stuart and I did meet up for some scouting of a local stream that we thought might be a promising secret weapon for our TVF Plans… Evil laugh – “Woo-HA-HA-HA”!  Stuart and I were accompanied by our Land Manger (Juli Blue) and the Everett Support crew (Tonya, Josh, Abby, & Caleb).

Due to team strategy,  the name and location of the stream will not be given to protect our secret weapon… Evil laugh again - “Woo-HA-HA-HA”!!  We originally thought we had found a run that would get us approx. 350′ of total TVF in less than a two mile run that was all roadside.  It turned out that the upper mile was on a logging road that was gated and no unauthorized vehicles could use the road.  But the day was not a total loss… I turns out that the bottom mile of the run is all road side and will get us somewhere around 230-240′ of TVF per lap.  If we were to get 24 laps on it in one day, that would give us a vertical mile (Which Stuart and I thought was completely with-in our capabilities)!

The run overall is tight with a few strainers and features that will need to be scouted if we decide to lap it.  The stream would also need about 12″ more of flow to be runnable.  Overall, it looked like it would be a really fun continuous run!  I just wish we could somehow work out the logistics for the upper mile.

The afternoon was a fun scout and hike with each other.  Below are a few photos I took during our Scouting Mission.  Enjoy:

    

Wesley R. Bradley – SKB Team Paddler