Update 3: Sept.-Nov. 2010

 (Luke overlooking the surf at Pacific City.  I've been getting to the coast a good bit, but not finding much good surf.  This day was marginal at best.)

(Gerry Lopez on his SUP just shredding the waves apart at Pacific City!)

(The OR coast is a rugged and majestic place.)

(This is a creek that never flows just outside PDX.  They where draining the lake for a pipe replacement project and the creek was running for probably the only time in over 100 yrs.  This one drop was by far the biggest and most fun on the run.)

(The locals didn't know what to think about a bunch of kayakers in their back yards.  Luckily we had every right to be there and the cops where way cool about it.)

(The scene around the judges booth at the Hobuck Hodown surf kayak competition.  Very fun comp at the western most point of the contigious US on an Indian reservation.  My first surf kayak competition.)

(Luke and I got the same heat in the comp.  He managed a win and I ended up in dead last.  Had some great rides, like this one, but also got an interference penalty on the best wave of the day, which Luke happened to be surfing.  Big thanks to Rob Avery for letting Luke and I borrow some high performance Valley surf kayaks.  Photo: Tommy Sly)

 (I made a trip back East for Thanksgiving and went straight from the plane to Great Falls.  It was for climbing on this day, which was odd since I'm always there with a kayk!  On the first rappel I managed to remove a few knuckles.)

(The whole family was around this year for Thanksgiving and it was really good to see everyone.)

 (I did get a day of paddling on Great Falls with my good friend Bobby "The Dogg" Miller and Shawn Devine.  This is a shot of Bobby running the left side of horseshoe on the MD lines of the falls.)

(This is Bobby running the right line at the Spout on the VA lines of the falls.)

(This is me airing out the right line at the Spout.  This was my first time running this line and I styled it!  So much fun!!!  I really miss having the falls around to paddle all the time.)

Update 2: Aug. 2010

August was mostly a recovery month for me from my crash and burn off Big Brother.  It was also CRAZY busy at the kayak shop!  The Outdoor Retailer show, my parent's visit, and Julie moving back to the East coast also made for a busy month.

(This is from the approach to the Salt Lake City airport on my way to the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Trade Show.  This year I went again as a buyer for Next Adventure.)

(Deek, owner of NA, and Landis, owner of Wildwasser, overlooking the on water demo at OR.  I got to paddle a bunch of new watercraft and catch up with a ton of old friends.)

(This is a Lavender farm on the "Fruit Loop" outside of Hood River, with Mt. Hood in the background.  Mom liked this place.)

(Julie enjoying a stroll through the Rose Gardens.)

(It was awesome to have my parents come out for a visit.  They used to live out this way many years ago and it was cool to show them around my new home.)

(Dog Mountain Hike with Julie.  A fun steep climb in the gorge.)

(Julie taking in the views atop Dog Mountain.)

(NA does a beach day every year and this year we had some fun small surf and I taught both long and short boat surf kayak lessons.  Good turnout and good fun.)

(Luke and I with the NA van fully loaded with boats.)

Update 1: July 2010

Over the next week or so I'm going to try to update this blog with some photos and commentary.  I've been slacking on this and want to get things back up to speed.  More photos can be seen on my Facebook page.

(Ross Island Tour on the Willamette River.  We managed to get thousands of new paddlers in kayaks this summer on our basic 2.5 hr tour.)

(Bobby "The Dogg" Miller came for a PNW kayak mission again this summer. We got in a lot of paddling and on this day got out on the North Fork of the Lewis River waterfall section on a beautiful summer day.)

(This is Bobby running 90'+ Koosah Falls.  This shot shows what looks to be a good line at the lip.)

(This shot shows Bobby not having such a good day!  He landed upside down at a bow down 45 degree angle and instantly got ejected from his boat.  He was alright and roped to shore, while his boat didn't fair so well in the log strainer downstream.  After watching Bobby's line and then Ryan Young's flat landing I decided to just enjoy the photos and video and pass on running it myself this day.)

(Lauren and Three's wedding was a highlight of my summer.  It was really beautiful in every regard.  The weather and people in Newport, RI where great.  This shot is Three shedding a few happy tears as his wife to be arrived at the alter.)

(The gang outside the church, excluding the bride, groom, and best man (Justin Miller).  I love the old Ultimate Watersports crew!)

(My 30th birthday was during the wedding weekend and Julie helped me plan some fun events.  The first was a 12 meter America's cup yacht sail around Newport Harbor.  With a fun crew, beautiful weather, and an amazing boat we had a great experience.)

(The second part of the day was a helicopter ride over Newport.  I hadn't been in a copter since I was a little kid when I got an unforgettable ride with my Dad as pilot.  I really enjoyed the perspective and trying to get some good areal photos.)

(Julie, Heather, and I where up on this flight.)

(While in Newport we also took a tour of the Rosecliff Mansion.  Julie creating theater where ever she goes:))

(On the drive back to Boston from Newport on my actual birthday we stopped at F1 Boston, an indoor go kart facility.  Heather and I had some good fun!  I of course won the race with 6 karts on the course.  I managed to lap everyone except the 2nd place guy, but I almost got him too! In Boston that night Julie, Heather and I did some fun bar hoping across downtown.  We even caught up with my cousin Laura and her man Reed for a few beers.  Overall a great way to get older.)

(At the end of July while running Big Brother, a 27' waterfall, on the Truss Section of the White Salmon River I had my good WW luck catch up to me.  I have run this waterfall upwards of 50 times, never with any problems and a perfect record for staying out of the cave.  This shot looks all good, but I'm actually about 8" to the left of where I want to be.  I ended up going vertical and hitting a rock at water level.  The nose of the boat pig nosed about 9", the bulkhead snapped in multiple place, and I ended up flying upside down and backwards into the cave on river right.  I managed to wedge myself back into the boat, roll up,  and paddle out of the cave on my own power.  After assessing the damage I had broken my right big toe, sprained my right ankle, and re-tore the laibrum in my right shoulder.  I managed to paddle down the rest of the river and then took a few weeks off to recover.  In the end I also ended up messing up my neck pretty good which took going to a Chiro until Nov. to sort out.  Thanks Lana Young for the photo.)