Raft Waterfall Hucking 101, 201.

This course will be offered to participants who wish to successfully drop waterfalls in a non-traditional manner as their selected craft was originally designed to rescue sailors at sea after their ship had sunk. Past graduates of this course have gone on to survive dropping waterfalls and/or vertical drops ranging from (15-125) feet.

Life threatening injuries will likely not be sustained, however mental faculties essential to normal life functioning have been noted to be severely compromised.  The onset of this concern may likely have occurred to the onset of Waterfall Fever, an addictive disorder characterized by traits associated with Narcissism such as: a grandiose sense of self importance, preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, belief that he or she is special or unique, the individual requires excessive admiration, interpersonally exploitive or takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends, lacks empathy, is often envious of others, and shows arrogant, haughty behaviors and attitudes.

Given the aforementioned concerns inherent to running waterfalls, course attendees may/will also; swim these drops, rig their boats in preparation for a car crash like impact, brace their bodies in an attempt to limit space which facilitates limb acceleration, adjust angle of boat entry, and re-board their craft should the resulting impact of landing become unmanageable.

201 level participants.

101 level participant.

Drop zone.

MMA cross training (optional), testosterone level dependent.

The final exam for this course will consist of successfully completing the East Fork of the Lewis River Race held annually in April.  Graduates are highly encouraged to continue developing their boating and interpersonal skills by attending the remainder of the events offered under the structure of the Western Whitewater Championship Series as these events will facilitate communication, connections with others, and the healthy development of the whitewater soul.

Mark your calendars for April 17-18th, 2010 in Ashland, OR. Check out the details here!

Too much fun, really, I still feel funny.

Best head to head racing yet. Each class of boaters experienced several lead changes and close finishes after nearly 3 miles of paddling.

Following Saturday’s long boat kayak and (12) boat R2 race Next Adventure and the Northwest Rafting Company hosted an excellent barbeque.

The River Connection provided gift certificates while Next Adventure hooked Sunday’s competitors up with t-shirts. A new kayak champion emerged in both the men’s and women’s kayak classes! Check it out

A special thanks to race officials Vic Legall of the River Connection (who also provided prizes), Bob Mosier of the UCWWF, and Kenny Kiley of Blunt Family Paddles.

Check out some photos by searching around at ORT’s Flickr account

If you end up using these for anything other than a personal memory please credit the Oregon Rafting Team. All photos can be downloaded as originals.

We hope you can join us at the Upper Klamath Festival in April, see our website for updates–this one always rocks! (but not like the Wind at low water).

Upper Wind Results (w/ pics)

1st Place Mens Short Kayak: Trevor Sheehan

1st Place Women’s Short Kayak: Kim Russell

1st Place Long Kayak: Drew Eastman

1st Place Mens R2: ORT (Tim Brink, Bryan Carrington)

1st Place Women’s R2: WOW (Lehua Kay & Teresa Collins)

1st Place R4: Nick Pierce, Hooper Boone, Russel Neyburg, Megan French

1st Place PRO R4: ORT (Tyler McPherson, Bruce Reed, Trey Knollman, Evan du Pont)

1st Place Cataraft: Zach Collier

Thank you everyone who came out and supported our 2010 season kickoff fundraiser!

We packed the place but most importantly everyone had a blast!

ORT is especially thankful for our donors who were so very generous in donating around $2,400 worth of goods and services.  These supporters of our whitewater community included;

http://www.whitewaterdesigns.com/

http://www.riverconnection.com/

http://nextadventure.net/

http://www.thebuffalogap.com/

http://www.usoutdoorstore.com/

http://aquabound.com/

http://www.tqfc.com/gyms/default.aspx?GymID=1

http://www.lvmvideo.com/

http://www.enrgkayaking.com/

http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/Locations/portland-oregon/portland-oregon/sw12thave.aspx

Through the silent auction and raffle, we were able to convert donations into dollars which will cover most of our spring expenses which include; event permits and insurance, GAS, website and gear maintenance, event shuttle, misc. event costs, etc.

The very next night we rallied down to Team Quest off of Stark.  Pro fighters put us through a comprehensive FIT class designed to synthesize every muscle group in the body.  Early the next morning we engaged in our own unique workout at the Upper Wind which consisted of cardio, flexibility, river survival, paddle technique, and of course some head to head racin!

We hope to see you all at the 3^rd Annual Upper Wind Festival March 20-21^st!

http://oregonraftingteam.com/events/upper-wind-festival/

Finish line for the Wind Race.

Eddy at the finish line.

Early Saturday morning the Eugene/Corvallis crew was on I5N heading to the Gorge. Picking up the rest of ORT along the way, the team headed over the Columbia and up into White Salmon. 

Scouting Husum on the way up, we arrived at the Farmlands barn, suited up, and hucked the boats into the gorge below barely 2 boats wide.

Blasting down through the canyon, we wheelied the boats over one log portage and skirted the other. After some great class 3 water, a portage at Lava, and some good (and not so good) lines at Off Ramp we arrived at the Truss bridge.

While Dr. Frankenstein and No Karl were rigging the boats at the bottom with some cams, Professor hooked up a winch cable to the bow and throwbag to the stern, to assist in pulling the boats up the 40ft vertical wall. After the boats were on the trailer the crew headed down to the BZ put-in for some R6 training in the Super D. Clean lines and ever-improving paddling technique got us to Husum in good time. We lined up and dug in above the drop and entered just left of the boof line, not missing a stroke.

Circuit training followed at the takeout, with Nick (kayak support) looking on in confused admiration.

Check out the details on the “Events” drop down tab or at:

http://oregonraftingteam.com/events/2010-season-kickoff-fundraiser/

“Intestinal Fortitude”

That’s what the mission hardened Navy SEAL used to say back in my Navy days.  I was a BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition School/SEAL) training dropout yet I learned a lot of valuable lessons that continue to pay off.  While ORT training is about 1/80^th as difficult as what SEALs do, the basic message of performing under adverse circumstances is one which is communicated during our races and missions.

Last Saturday we decided to crank it up a notch and will continue to do so.  Following our warm up jog which consisted of jogging and plyometrics, we implemented a race survival conditioning circuit.  The 1^st phase consisted of running down the bank, swimming across stream into an eddy, swimming back across and climbing into a boat, running back up the bank, and then performing push ups, flutter kicks, split squats, crunches, and then doing this two more times without a break.

After a quick water break the 2nd phase of training focused on crew communication. An R5 and R4 crew had to either seal launch or swim out to their boat while another member bagged the paddle-less crew in from the shore.  Bagger duties were switched as the rest of the crew carried the boat back to the top of the course for another lap without a break.

The boys had a few minutes to catch their breath as we split up into R2 crews.  We then did a 5 boat mass start head to head race from the put in on the Upper Wind to about 1 mile below Climax.  After some, well maybe a lot of bumping, yelling, pushing, tree boofing, and drafting my boat finally settled into second place behind Dr. Frankenstein and Professor.  They maintained their lead by styling nice lines right up to Rams Horn where for some reason they went right and got rodeoed out in the meat allowing us to pass on the left.  Now that’s whitewater  racin!

Ox and No Karl graciously bumped them out of the hole (we weren’t going to stop!).  These two crews battled for the next mile and a half with Ox’s boat edging them by literally one second at the finish!

For the R4 stage of training we rolled up the Aire Pumas and used them as dead weight in the middle of our Aire D Series boats which were then each loaded with two R4 crews.  This “race” consisted of trying to move one’s arms and shoulders as lactic acid wreaked havoc on their ability to stay focused.

After rolling the boats we ran up the take out hill to the to the parking area and peeled off our gear.  Drysuits?  Not.  Cant wait until next time!  What kind of course can we come up with next…wonder if we can find someone with a helicopter?