Green Race 2012

Its the most wonderful time of the year, friends coming in to Western North Carolina solely to huck themselves, as fast as they can, off of some of the biggest rapids in the southeast. This year we got not only one Olympian but two (!!!) to join in on the festivities of the Green Race. Mike Dawson, who made it into semi-finals in London this year and Vavra who won the silver medal, they are both "really good kayakers" :-) and Dawson was coming back to win the Green Race, again. 

Heading to the middle of Go-Left

 This year was different for me because I am working full time as a Paramedic for Greenville County EMS so my training time was pretty limited. I thought for sure that I would be fine for the race.... I got really tired though.....

Another angle of Go-Left

 We also got a surprise 12 inches on the gauge when we had, for the two weeks prior to the race, about 7 inches on the gauge. This added to the anticipation of the race and scared all of us even more! I just wanted to to fast and clean. All the way up to Go- Left I had been super clean and I was really happy with how I was feeling..... I let my guard down. 

Zwicks Backender taught me some humility this year. I came into the top hole slow and super far left... I flipped left and rolled up in the eddy on the left side of the river. I had to go wide at the bottom horseshoe hole so I headed all the way to the wall on the left side. I styled the last drop but I came out so fast that I petoned the massive bottom rock going straight ahead (really fast). I violently flipped to the right and floated under water for a second to try and get my bearings. I rolled and told myself to "clean it up".... using different words. 

Coming into the Notch, trying to get as much air as I could.

After Zwicks.... Gorilla is always there. I knew I had to get some good deep breaths to be sure that I didn't mess it up. I came into the notch and took the biggest breath I could, soared around the corner, and came smoothly off the pad. 

Off the pad, note the people lining the side of the river.

Landing in the veil I knew speed trap was coming up quickly and I tried to keep it as straight as I could. I could hear the crowd yelling at me, I thought "oh the stadium of the Green Race". I would never wish to be anywhere else.

Amazing moments.

 Down into the slides I went and I was plum tuckered out by this time. 

Entering Jason Hales downfall.... Scream Machine.

Just a side note, I am not a betting woman, but every year Jason Hale thinks he is going to beat me in this race. For the last two years he has come close but gotten no cigar. This year, after a couple of glasses of classy wine, Jason caught me in a good mood. The bet was, if I beat him by over 6 seconds he owes me 100$, if I beat him by less than 6 seconds, I owe him 100$. For the record.... I beat Jason by 28 minutes. I will say no more.

 So after my "misfortunes" at Zwicks I was pretty tired and I was bummed that I got my hair wet. But, alas, I flipped one more time at the bottom of Power Slide only to roll up and breath heavily all the way to the bottom of the course. Thank God I made it one more year safely. Only, I had to go do it all again in my short boat. 

Stoked to have another Green Race done!!

My short boat went well.... I broke my record that I set three years ago so I was pretty happy about that. As for the long boat run.... even with flipping three times and taking some "alternative" lines I only missed my best time by one second, leaving me at a 4:58. 

I was victorious again but Katrina (my Canadian sister who is 6 feet tall and blonde) was only 8 seconds behind me. Gotta step it up for next year.... I've finally got some girls out there breathing down my neck for the gold in this awesome race. Stay tuned for some more photos and if I ever figure out how to do it, some video too. Thanks for the support from everyone, especially both of my parents who drive down to support me from Michigan every year. 

Liquid Logic kayaks, Kokatat, Werner Paddles, and Shred Ready, I could never do any of this without your help and support. 

Summer 2012

So this summer has been pretty interesting for me. I have had a lot of life changes as of recent and none of them are really allowing me to push my kayaking to the next level. I got a full time job being a Paramedic for Greenville County EMS and I moved further from the Green. I work 12 hour night shifts four times a week, makes for a sleepy Adriene during the day. 

Getting ready for competition

Any who.... I have been up to a bunch of no good this summer which includes a lot of freestyle kayaking. I won the BV pro rodeo and placed 5th at the Teva Mountain Games. I used the whole month of July to make some money then headed to the World Cup of Freestyle kayaking after winning the Canoe and Kayak Female Paddler of the Year award. 

Elbows up!

 The first part of the World Cup was at Rock Island Tennessee. The same place where Jackson Kayak is made. The water levels were a little off because of the lack of rain around the area but we made it happen no matter what. At one point, during a training session, there were 53 people in the eddy..... that made for some really fun times. 

All play boating jokes aside, the first event went well and I couldn't complain with a strong 3rd place finish. It was definitely my type of feature, flushy but sticky and you could do both wave and hole moves, that was the type of feature that I would like to see more of. 

Poison Ivy vine that I just wrapped around my face....

Doing all that I can do....

Mr and Mrs Andrew Moore

The second spot was great but only yielded hole moves. I ended up 8th overall but I also had a wedding to attend in Michigan over the weekend.

The competition must go on though. Over to my real backyard which is the NOC. I began kayaking at the NOC 13 years ago when I was 11 years old, it is like a second home to me. Being back at the NOC makes me really happy. 

Even though I fought really hard to get into the finals I was beat out by a girl who did two felixes to get into finals and I ended up 6th place. Overall for the whole World Cup I ended up 5th place. Pretty impressive for a girl who spends like 15 days in a freestyle boat a year. Its training time for the Green race now. 

Sooner rather than later!!

Adriene

What is a Hodag you say?

A Hodag is just the fiercest, strangest, most frightening monster to ever set razor sharp claws on this earth, that's all.

It's wicked looking tusks hung from it't vice like jaws.

The claws on it's short, muscular fore and hind legs were long and needle-sharp.

So, at this point, the internet world is wondering where I thought up this ferocious creature. But I didn't think it up. Rhinelander Wisconsin, nestled in the "Worlds most concentrated lake region" in the northern area of the great cheese head state of Wisconsin thought of it. Actually a brave man in 1896 thought of it.

Now people are wondering why I went Hodag hunting with my dad three days before Christmas. My dad grew up in this bustling city of three stop lights and my grandmother still resides in the same house my dad was brought home to 60 years ago. Now you know what a hodag is, life will never be the same.

While in Rhinelander we also go to see the Green Bay Packers house. They are the most loyalist of loyal people to their team.

I also got to feed chic-a-dees from my hand on my grandmothers back porch.

And in true northern Wisconsin tradition my dad shot red squirrels because they were nocking over the bird feeders.

So after Christmas, I came home to find an ice covered Green River. Some spots are slightly scary now, maybe just because ice is almost an unknown for this region of the beautiful southeast. This is looking back upstream from hiking around Gorilla, yes, I walked around Gorilla, due to the tightening Notch.....

As you see here the walls of the Notch have grown and made this already tight spot on the river even tighter, just for your enjoyment.

So, hope all is well on everyones end. For you southerners I hope the ice starts thawing and the birds begin singing again. Maybe flowers will bloom again soon.

Until next time.

Happy Kayaking!

2009..... A Good Year pt. 1

So the year of 2009 started off slowly. With the southeast slowly coming out of a three year drought the last thing the clouds needed was a little motivation. Evan Garcia must have been that motivation, he came to the southeast and got to run every bad a$$ run in the southeast. He is stoked little boy about to put in on the first massive slide of the day on the Toxaway river in North Carolina.

These boys; Pat Keller, Drew Duvall, and Evan Garcia have been so good to me in the last few years of my kayaking life, without them I would not be in the place I am right now with whitewater kayaking. Looking back up at one of the oversized rapids of the Toxaway.

This is what happens when you get cocky and opt not to wear your sick Shred Ready Full Face helmet. I learned my lesson and even got to go to work with a black eye.

Every year on the Green River in April we have a race in remembrance of Jerry Beckwith who lost his fight with Leugherics disease a few years back. We race all the way down the Green River from where Big Hungry flows in to the first bridge on the lower run of the river. This is where some people continue the race on and ride their bike up the 17 switchbacks and back around to the campground. I, instead, took the easy way out and had a biking partner.

But the good partner I am, I was waiting for a cold beer at the end of his run. This is why we love North Carolina, sunny and 75 in April!

So after the race I went back to my normal, launching off of the left side of Sunshine on the Green River, working at night, and kayaking during the day. We had an amazing spring if I could say so myself. A few runs on Raven Fork, a few runs on the Toxaway, and the Green ran nearly every day.

I drove out to Glenwood Springs in the middle of May to train for the 2009 Worlds Team Trials. I was there for about two weeks and was honored enough to stay at the Palmers house, who is the most amazing family that I have been in contact with for a long time. So pictured above is the victory lap for the whole 2009 US Freestyle Kayak Team. We all decided to pile up on the wave and have a King of the Wave competition.

Photo by: My mom

Emily and I were first and second, respectably. We chatted a bit after the competition as I was still not positive I wanted to turn my mind to Freestyle over creek boating. After a few good talks and a few whiskey cokes, I decided that I would be going back to Thun Switzerland to compete in the 2009 Worlds Competition.

Photo by: Anna Bruno

The victory lap did not last long, I drove to Vail Colorado just a few short days later where I trained with Tanya Faux (scary, hardcore, amazing woman) on Homestake Creek for the first competition of the Teva Mountain Games. We did so many runs my head was spinning. I had been here the year prior to race also but there was much more water, this year there were a few more rocks. Between myself, Tanya Faux, and Nikki Kelly after the first run we were all less than 1.5 seconds apart. After the second run Nikki had bumped Tanya and I ended up third.

Photo by: My mom

I was so happy with third, losing to the women that I look up to the most in this industry, Im ok with that. I was also happy to share my side of the podium with my good buddy, and fellow Ashevillian, Pat Keller who got third in the Mens race. A kiwi named Mike Dawson came out of nowhere to beat out long time racer Tao Berman who ended up second. That is a strong crew of kayakers standing on that podium.

Photo by: Anna Bruno

After the Homestake Race we went right to the middle of downtown Vail where we began the Freestyle rodeo. I know it doesn't look like it from the pictures, but the water is soooo cold. Face immediately numb, ice cream headache the whole nine yards. I was no too stoked on it and I ended up around 7th place I think. I was happy to be out of the water though. I'm not one to dwell on the past that I cannot change especially when it comes to a rodeo. I was ready to have fun.... we were in downtown Vail!!!!!!

Shortly after the Games ended Pat Keller, Jake Greenbaum, and myself headed over the pass in the hopes that we would find some big rapids to run, or at least some really big slides. It was snowing in the second week in June up here and there was a solid amount of snow still on the ground. I guess at 12000 feet there isn't much of a summer.

We hiked up a mountainside since we had been in the car for.....3 hours. This was the view... well worth the hike up to somewhere around 13500 feet.

Pat trying to find some fresh tracks and dreaming of carving powder on some teli skis. I know what he is thinking.

We found a sweet little nook in the mountain that someone had probably built to sleep in. This is a pretty amazing place to sleep, just don't roll over the mountain, it's a long way down.

The three of us finally made our way to the town called Marble. This town houses the Crystal drainage including Crystal Mill falls and Yule Creek. Both were running pretty good by the time we made it there. So we drove "left" first.

We went "right" here. In Pats Subaru Outback. YAHOO FOR MY SUBARU!!!

We made it to the beautiful Crystal Mill falls in a bit of bouncing and some tactical driving by Pat. We ran this waterfall loads of times. I ran it sideways, almost backwards, and finally (third times a charm) ran the waterfall the correct way.

With water levels a tad low we had to wait until dusk to try to run Yule Creek. But we had driven all the way out there and we weren't walking away without it. We sat and used my trusty Jet Boil to make some macaroni and cheese and some beef stew.... or something of that sort. But it was enough food to tide us over during the hike and the massive slides that we were about to run.

Running Wall check. The second rapid in the four big ones. It all starts at Ball Check a 25 foot just off vert waterfall, goes straight into Wall Check. There is a small eddy to regroup in for the biggest rapid on the run, Oriental Massage, this goes straight into Happy Ending after a ten food arial skip. Then it is all over. The adrenaline rush that we get after doing things like that is something that is inexplainable. An amazing feeling.

Photo by: Robin Betz

To end it all on a good note the team got their lifejackets a few weeks later in Salida Colorado during the Fibark Festival. Thank you Astral for making such amazing lifejackets.

A huge thank you to all of my sponsors Werner Paddles, Immersion Research, Liquid Logic, Shred Ready, and Astral!!! I couldn't do what I do so well without you all there.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Check out where I will be going in two weeks!

www.kayakthekimberley.com

Snow in the Southeast!!!

Howdy people of the internet world. Tater and Biscuit say hello too. A few weeks back Flat Rock North Carolina and much of the western North Carolina area was blasted by a massive snow storm. So Shane and I thought.... it snowed... so.... lets go kayaking!!!!

The happy family sitting in front of the house, slightly christmas card esq eh? Shane and the dogs had a great time in the snow.

All of the boats got buried....

Even thought Yonton doesn't boat much he is still much remembered, boofing into those sweet chains that Shane put on the Sprinter van. I couldn't give him any crap for that because I couldn't even get my Subaru up the hill....

On the way to the river. Glad it was all downhill... literally. So since the road to the takeout was not about to get plowed very quick we decided to try to run the Green anyways. We couldn't get to the put-in off of Upward road because there was a jackknifed tractor trailer blocking the whole road. So luckily Shane and I live a few miles away from the upper run, right by Bayless Boof. So we ended up hooking up with some other folks at the gas station who needed to figure out a way to get to the river too. We could help them and they helped us. We left cars at Green River Adventures and rolled back to the house.

Shane waiting at the top of a very snowy Frankenstein.

After watching Shane battle with the snow while portaging around Gorilla I opted to run it.. I am a lot more smooth on the water than I am on land.

Thanks for the photos Dave. They turned out really well!!!!

If you want to see the rest of my Gorilla run feel free to get onto the Liquid Logic site and watch a good beat down in the Scream Machine hole.

I think there is some snow on the ground

Shane styling Sunshine as he always does.

We left the boats at the bottom in respectable areas and hiked up the 17 switchbacks to the top of the mountain. Thanks to the Smokin Hot Shuttle Bunny, Holly, the hike went very well because she had hiked down the hill with Vodka and cranberry juice. Note the broken paddle in the front....

I am no pro, but Im pretty sure that paddles are not supposed to look like that.

Holly had bought these boots at the beginning of the day and hiked down the mountain just to hike back up with all of us in toe. She is the best and if you ever see her feel free to say hi and maybe you will get lucky and she will make you a drink from her ever ready bar in the back of her shuttle-mobile.

So happy holidays to all and I hope that everyone has a great 2010. Remember every year life can only get better, with more wisdom comes more shenanegans!!!!

Hope everyone is staying warm in their respectable areas and paddling in the snow!!!

A