For our last kayaking trips we went to Foxton, Waterton, and the Boulder Gardens. Which may have been the only runnable places around but, none the less they were still fun. Of course Matt and Tucker found several places to Seal Launch, which I have awesome pictures of below. There is also several pictures of everyone ripping it up with the skills they learned throughout the year.

Tucker Seal launching about 20 ft at Waterton

The Downstream Edge Kayak League Camp was a great experience for me, and I think everyone should do it. Getting to travel around the Colorado Rockies and run the wide variety of rivers that the mountains offer is one of the most fun things you can do. Its great to get out with the team and find rivers that will challenge you or give you an adrenaline rush, while keeping it safe of course. This camp gave me opportunities to run rivers that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. The kayaking wasn’t the only fun part though, just being in the mountains and hanging out was awesome. All in all, the whole camp is an trip that everyone should experience.

-Matt Larson

This year’s week long summer camp was a great success! We kicked off the week at the glenwood springs whitewater park and surfed all day. The wave was amazing. We worked on our wave surfing techniques and  aerial tricks. After surfing most of the day, we headed up to the roaring fork for a run on Slaughterhouse, which is a great class IV river.

The next day we drove up to Marble colorado and ventured up the steep four-wheel-drive road to Crystal Mill falls. The put-in drop is a beautiful 12 foot waterfall that you may recognize from postcards of colorado. The next few miles is fun class IV boogie water.

After our day at the Crystal River, we headed over Kebler pass to Crested Butte, where several fun creeks awaited. We started on the upper east which is a fun creek with lots of slides.

The Upper East was a good warmup for the other Crested Butte runs. We practiced our slide and waterfall skills until we felt confident enough to step it up to the Slate River. The Slate is a step up from the Upper East, and is similar in style. Lots of fun slides. We walked wicked wanda which is a pretty tight drop at the end.

After the group had run the Upper East and the Slate, on top of a full week of paddling, they felt ready to take their paddling to the next level. They have been begging their coaches to take them to Oh Be Joyful, and now the coaches felt they were ready. The group has been working hard all spring to be able to get to the point of running real waterfalls. So after we finished the Slate, we drove up to scout Oh Be Joyful creek. OBJ is the most popular creek run in Colorado, and it’s slides and waterfalls never fail to plaster a huge smile on those who run it. After scouting the entire run, two of the group felt that they were ready. We geared up and talked about our safety plan.

After Lapping OBJ for a couple of days our bodies were pretty sore. We headed to the Arkansas to meet up with some friends for a high water numbers run.

After a long fun day on the Numbers, we had been paddling for 10 days straight. It was time to go home and sleep in a bed and get ready for Kayak Practice on tuesday.

Taylor mastering flat spins

Taylor Parsons ripping up the BV hole