Entropy Gear

Well I have just gotten back from an incredible trip to Mexico. We were able to do some expeditions, First Descents, and some classic big waterfalls. Our team consisted of Rafael Ortiz, Joel Kowalski, Ben Marr, Phil Quinn, and myself.

Well, I might as well start from the beginning. I flew into Mexico on Oct. 1st. My good friends, Phil Quinn and Rafael Ortiz were already there waiting for me to arrive at the airport. From there we headed straight the to Road-side Taco stand for some late night snacking. Phil and I hung out in Mexico City for the next two days, while we were waiting for Joel and Ben to arrive.

Once Joel, and Ben arrived we headed straight to the Rio Alsesseca for a nice little warm up on the ‘Road Side’ section. Here we met up with some of Rafa’s friends, including Iker another one of our team members. Once we finished kayaking, we packed up our 8 kayaks and all our gear, and realized that the car’s battery was dead. It then took us 2 hours to get someone to pull over and help boost our car. The only problem was we didn’t have any cables, and neither did the fellow how wanted to help us. This local we found ended up stripping some house lamp cables to rig up a system that would work. In the end it seemed really sketchy, though it worked and we were able to get the car started.

We used Rafa’s sweet ranch, as our home base while we were in Mexico. It is about 30 minutes from the Alsesseca, and even closer to the Rio Jalacingo. The Rio Jalacingo became a focus for our team, which is a tributary to the Alsesseca and was still a first descent. We found several sweet drops on the Jalacingo, including several 20-40 footers, more slides than we could name, some continuous 5 footers, San Rafael Canyon (which is a 60 into a 40) and one of the coolest rapids I have ever seen, which we named ‘Bukaki.’ Bukaki is somewhat similar to Mexico’s famous rapid S-Turn, but ending with a 20 footer that falls off the left side, and an eddy on the right. We all ended up running it, after we spend 4 hours cutting and towing a huge log out of the rapid.

We have also gone to check out a couple other 1st descents that Joel had mapped out. First was the San Martin, though we got skunked looking for that river. Next was the Rio Quichat, and on the way we found a 55 footer (San Pedro) on the side of the road. We all geared up, thinking it was a 30-40 footer, and hucked it. Everyone had pretty good lines, though the lip spouted out a bit making it harder to plug. Rafa ended up clipping his chin with his paddle, and got a pretty good little gash. We had to end up getting him 4 stitches on his chin. From the hospital we went to this waterfall some locals had told us about, in some farmers field. It was a nice little 25 footer, that we sessioned for about 3 hours, getting cool underwater housing shots, and practicing tucks, and boofs etc.

The Next day we went back looking for the Rio Quichat. We found it, though it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting. The river dropped a ton, something like 800 feet a mile. Like always, we had to scout the entire gorge before getting in, the only problem was that almost all of the drops had caves or sieves, and the ones that didn’t led into another drop which were un-runnable. Though at the end of the day after we realized that we couldn’t get into the gorge we decided to run the last slide of the run.

We then went back to Rafa’s Ranch in hopes to finish the Jalacingo into the Alsesseca. The next day we got back into the Jalacingo and with some more sweet whitewater and a portage around another 100 foot waterfall we were able to finish the first descent of the Rio Jalacingo.

Joel had to leave, so we ventured back into Mexico City to drop him off while we decided what we would be up to next.

We started off with going back to the ‘Big Banana Section’ of the Alsesseca. It had been to years since I had run this section, and the last time it took us 5 days. This time we did the whole section in only a couple of hours. Though it may have helped that the flow was probably double the last time I had run it. We put on knowing it was super high, and hoping that we wouldn’t have any problems. Well for the most part it was a breeze, a lot of good class 4-5 with a 30 footer and a 40 footer sprinkled in there. We all ran the 30-foot falls, with a large boof stroke because the hole at the bottom was juicy. Though after 30 minutes of scouting the 40-foot ‘Silence Fall’ we all decided that on that particular day it would be best to walk it. We continued down the section, with what felt like record speed, boofing of drops, dogging rocks, and punching holes. We continued on all the way to the ‘meat locker’ rapid. I ran it first; having what I felt was a good line, though I didn’t get the sweet double boof. Rafa went next getting a pretty good double boof, and then ran it again in Phil’s boat, getting the biggest double boof probably in the history of the rapid. If you don’t understand, Meat Locker is a double stage drop, that is one 8 foot drops landing on the second 8 foot drop. On Rafa’s second run down he almost plugged the second 8 footer with the stern of his boat, because his boof stroke pulled his bow up so high, it was amazing.

The next day we decided that it was probably the perfect level for the famous Tomata Falls. We also thought it would be a cool idea to bring a red couch to the lip of the falls, to just hang out on while we were there. Not only did we want it on the lip, we decided it would look the best of the other side of the river, so we zip-lined a red couch to the other side of the river. Rafa ran it first, having a great tuck, though being just slightly over vertical he got ejected. He was able to get all of his gear and himself to shore pretty easily, which was a sigh of relief for us being that we can’t do any safety from the lip. Phil decided to fire it up next, this was by far the biggest waterfall he had ever run, and it was pretty obvious that he was nervous. Though he must have collected his thoughts, because he had what could be the best line I have ever seen off Tomata falls. Phil took something like 8 mini strokes while falling and tucked up with the last 10 feet for the perfect landing. Ben was third and last to go after I had decided not to run it this time. Ben had a leaky boat, which caused him to fill up with some water and go pretty over vertical from the top. He was also ejected and broke his paddle, though everything was fine and he wasn’t hurt. Raff then started seriously thinking about running Tomata #2, which has only even been run 4 times, and he has already one of those descents. Though after some good scouting he came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the best water level. We than packed up getting ready to end another day when we realized that our couch was still at the lip. We paddled back over, strapped the couch to two Rockers and Phil and Rafa sat on the couch while paddling it back across only feet away from the Lip of Tomata.

Our Next day was pretty miserable and raining, so with slow spirits we headed for the Trucha Section of the Alsesseca. We started the day off with a 90 foot repel. Even though I have done several it is still nerve-racking jumping off from a tree and hoping you have done everything right. I was the first to go, then Ben. Rafa and Iker and Phil then lowered the boats and gear and then repelled down to join us. The only problem was we had to wait at the bottom for two hours while receiving all the gear, in the spray of the falls, and while it was pouring rain and quite cold. I was shivering so much and so cold that I once everything was done and ready I almost decided not to run it. Luckily I snapped out of it and ran the heck out of the falls. There is this pretty stout lead into the falls, which consist of a 10 foot slide into a 15 foot drop, with a hole at the bottom, then a pushy eddy and the lip. It went really smooth though on impact you really feel the power of the falls as the whole weight of the river lands on you. Iker, Rafa and myself ran it with the lead-in slide, and Phil seal launched into the eddy and off the lip, while Ben decided that this one wasn’t for him as he jumped into the base of the falls. Our original plan was to then go down and run the real Trucha slide which I had gotten the 1st descent on two years earlier, though after a long cold day we decided to hike out from there. The hike out is a good one roughly twice as long as the Galley hike out, though not as steep. What we didn’t know was that this hike out would only be a warm up for what was in store for us.

The next day we decided to go hit up the Rio Xico. This was one of Rafa’s main goals for the whole trip. He had been talking about wanting to run Xico fall (the 95 foot drop on the middle of the run) for weeks, and had pretty much been preparing himself for it with ever drop since we arrived in Mexico. We put in with way more flow then any of us had ever seen on the river, and the last time I ran it, the river was high. Though we had drove 4 hours there so we weren’t turning around and going back home. We put in on the amazing river, which consists of never ending class 4-5 rapids for several hours. Then we come to the un-portagable and un-scoutable 45-foot waterfall. Ben went first, with Rafa fallowing, and then Iker, Phil and myself. I had always thought it was around 40 feet, though once I was at the bottom I would say that I think it is a bit higher. This could be quite possibly the most powerful drop I have ever run. All four of us went super deep on impact. I went so deep that my ears and forehead were hurting, and everyone else said the same. Iker and Phil both swam, and Phil got lost an elbow pad and got his helmet ripped off; literally the straps ripped off his helmet. We spent the next hour or so sowing some webbing onto his helmet so he could finish the run. With his bright Red webbing Phil looked like Pippi Long Stockings. We continued on for another hour or two with some more challenging rapids, one portage and a 30-foot slide. We finally got to the 95-foot waterfall, though it was getting dark, and conditions were certainly not prime, and no one decided to run it. We then spent the next 2 or 3 hours hiking out near vertically for half the time. It was like a double Galley Hike outs, but steeper, and then into 5 Little River Canyon hike outs. It was sucked so much, though we all did it with our cameras, gear, and boats fully loaded. Though unlike the Galley I can’t say I did it without putting down my boat for a couple breaks.

From there our adventures continued on, with what we though would be a simply filming day on the ‘Road Side’ section of the Alsesseca. You have to understand that it had been raining for most of the day and pretty much all night for the past couple days. We showed up at the put in for the Roadside with a couple of Rafa’s friends who had all run this section several times before. This had been the highest any of them had ever seen it, and was most likely the highest the section had ever been run. We sessioned the top 20 footer for an hour while filming and taking pictures, and then we continued on. We started with ten members and slowly each person hiked out one at a time. Rafa Ben and myself were the last ones on the river, making it a quarter of the way down the section before we too decided to hike out. The whole roadside section (on a good day) takes about 20 minutes to run if you are rallying down, we took 45 minutes to make it ¼ of the way. We hiked out at the famous ‘S-turn’ rapid, which at this time was more of a giant capital ‘I’. There were no more bends on the rapid, just a giant flow of water, into the unportagable section.

We then traveled back to the Mexico City, where there was a ‘close by 50 footer’ or so Rafa said. Upon arrival it turned out to be a sketchy 35 footer, which you had to seal launch into, and avoid the logs in the lip, and the rocks in the bottom. Rafa was really fired up about it, so as a team we supported him. I helped him seal launch in, and it turned out to be a great line. Rafa was super fired up, and so was I. It almost felt like a successful line for me as well as Raff, being that I launched him in. It was by far the sketchiest Put-In I had ever witnessed. We then paddled the rest of Rio El Salto down to where it meets up with a beautiful lake, and finished the great day off with some wakeboarding.

The Next day was my 20th Birthday, and Emily (my fiancé) flew in to visit me. We then headed to Acapulco, to the beach for a couple days as a birthday present.

After the beach we headed back to Mexico City to meet back up with Rafa. The rest of the team had left by now, so with just Emily Rafa and myself we headed back to the road side section for a Red Bull photo shoot with a Mauricio Ramos, one of the Red Bull photographers. We shot some amazing photos for the next two days and headed back and flew home the next day.

Now I am back in Tennessee starting my training for the winter in preparation for the World Championships next year (This one is MINE!)

Nick

WOW! What a trip. It was a blast the whole time, between boating some amazing play-spots, hanging with and making new friends, traveling across Europe, and competing in the World Cup.

For me it started with a road trip to New York, a flight to Washington, and a connecting flight to Munich Germany. On arrival we realized that half our paddles were broken, that was a bummer, though it got better once we found everyone and we were focused on heading out to do some kayaking. Jackson Kayak rented out some wicked black FBI vans for the team to travel in. Once we had loaded up all our belongings we were off to Prague, in hopes to get some training in before the crowds showed up. It wasn’t long before the eddy lines were 10 people full. We were camping at first, but with Emily’s deathly cough, we got a hotel room for the competition. The competition at Prague was amazing. It was the first of the three competitions so they had the opening ceremonies for the World Cup, with parties and concerts every night of the competition. The feature was man made, which made it interesting for some of the moves. There were some great European competitors, some that I had met like Peter Csonka, Mathieu Domoulin, Ed Smith, and then there were also some ripper’s that I hadn’t met before, such as, Simon and Seppi Stohmeier, Tuomas Kurnen, Tomasz Czaplicki.

My Favorite part of the Prague competition was the semi finals. The Men’s Semi Finals were held at 9:30 at night, in the dark! It was the coolest feeling ever, there was music blaring, flashing colored lights on the banks of the river, there were multiple spot lights lighting up the hole, and the most spectators of the whole competition, it was packed! It literally felt like there was a river, flowing threw a nightclub. As a competitor, we were in the eddy up stream, in the dark, and as you paddle into the feature, BAM, you’re in the spot light and you are the entertainment. I had a ton of fun, and after it was over, EJ and myself stayed out doing hand-paddling rides. The next day was finals, were Peter Csonka took 1st, I placed 2nd, and Mathieu Domoulin was 3rd.

From Prague the Jackson Team and myself packed up our tents, and were off to Augsburg Germany, to the Eiskanal. This was a really fun venue, it the where the 1972 Olympic games were held for slalom. The course was really fun, and it was amazing how well designed it was for being over 35 years old. The hole was called the Washing Machine, because it has a tendency to work some people. It was really good for pretty much any move, though the loop moves went the biggest. Some people like Jason Craig, Stephen Wright, and Jonathan Shales, were practically landing on the Moon.

We were camping in Augsburg as well, and Emily illness was continuously getting worse. We had gone to the hospital twice, and once was the night before finals. She had some x-rays, a couple IV’s, and had given blood, and they diagnosed her with bad Bronchitis. Though by finals she was obviously feeling better enough to win, and throwing both a Mc Nasty and a Phonix Monkey in her rides. Ruth Gordon did amazing as well placing second, and having a 400-point ride in competition. I was judging the Jr. Men’s who all had some great rides and Huge Loops, though in the end it was the local German boy who took it home. In the Men’s class, Dustin Urban took the top seat on the Podium, with some greats rides, following him where Peter Csonka, and EJ. I ended up in seventh place, though I felt like I had an amazing ride, the only problem was the judges still didn’t think so.

From Germany we headed to Thun Switzerland, the land of Chocolate. Thun was just a beautiful little town. All of the buildings are old looking, and very European looking ski town. The continuous joke was that “Thun looks a lot like Vail Colorado.” This was the first competition of the World Cup were the feature was a wave. The Wave was right in town, there were hotels and stores on either side of the river, and there was this nice little wooden covered bridge just upstream of the wave. I was lucky enough to stay in the hotel over looking the river, though it cost an arm and a leg being that everything else was full. The wave would always surge, so it was hard to tell who would be the man to beat. There were a lot of Europeans who did very well. Peter placed third, while Stephen Wright and myself battled it out for First place. It was down to the wire, but I beat him by a mere 24 points. Though I think we were both just excited at how well we paddled, with breaking the 900-point barrier.

They also had the Over-All Results for the World Cup, as well as for the Thun Competition. Peter Csonka took the well-deserved Gold, while I was excited with Silver, and the Father to be, Dustin Urban took Bronze.

In the end it was a great excuse to go paddle some great rivers in Europe, and hang out with some good friends.

Nick Troutman

Well we are back after a great deal of time, effort and a little bit of pain…we have our blog page back and going.

There has been some great things going on over the past few weeks. Our sponsored film “Downunder the Horizonline” has been released and from all accounts from the feedback we have, everyone seems to enjoy it. Sweet. There are a few premiers to come including the tri-city area USA (Click here for further info) and another in the works at Diamond Brand NC. Our athletes are off on different trips all around the world including Adrian in Canada, Colin in Norway, Jon Best/Nick Troutman/Jez will all be at the World Cup in Europe, Darin Mcquoid is throwing himself off some huge waterfalls in California, plus a whole lot more.
Entropy Gear is also moving forward and is now looking for a distributor in the USA. For interested parties, feel free to contact us for further details.

Now get outside and have fun.

Entropy Gear

Bloody Good Gear

Jon Best going big in Africa

Well after many late nights and a whole lot of work from all involved, our first video Downunder the Horizonline is now being released via the Heliconia Press.

“Downunder the Horizonline follows three Aussie kayakers and their mates on their travels around the globe, cameras in hand, proving that you can live your dream without having a dream bank account! Skippy Films presents this entertaining DVD about grabbing a boat and getting out there. The rivers of the world are waiting to be paddled!” Downunder the Horizonline includes footage from Canada, USA, Norway, and has more Australian whitewater footage than has ever been seen before.

Now to win free gear you just have to answer this question…..What musical instrument does Colin play in the movie Downunder the Horizonline by Skippy Films The first 4 people email me here www.skippyfilms.com/crew.htm with the right answer will win a free set of pants courtesy of Mountain Khakis, COOL!! www.skippyfilms.com

jez

A bunch of Jackson Kayaks have hit the shores of Australia and you can pick them up now. But there is only one of each size so if you want one then you need to act quick and contact us. We also have the first and only New Rocker.

Current Jackson Kayaks in stock:
Star Orange - one left
Fun Red - two left
2Fun Green - one left
4Fun Red - one left
All Star Green - one left
Super Star Yellow - one left
Rocker Yellow - one left

$1795 for the Star and Fun Series
$1850 for the Rocker and Hero Series

Hey Jez

Well as you know I just got back from Newfoundland.

It was a blast! The water was a bit lower than we expected, but we made the best of it, and continued the hunt for amazing whitewater. It seemed that someone was trying to stop us from boating at first, we would find river, then check them out, and they would be dry, so we would look for bigger drainages, and they would be dammed. So with some luck, rental car rallying, and a float plane, we found our �goods.� In the 2 weeks that we were there, we ran the, Black Brook, Doctors, Brook, Humber falls, Casters Brook, the Cloud River, Torrent river falls, and Steady Brook. Though the Cloud river was the money. It was a float plane put-in, and an over-nighter with the first frost of the year, and a sweet canyon. Overall it was an amazing trip. Throughout the trip, I was filming for our new video �Here & Now.� You should check out our website. Anyway I�ll keep you informed about the upcoming green race, Boo Ya!

Nick Troutman

We will be having our premier at O’donoghue’s Irish Pub on this Saturday Night after the nationals. Come one, come all, spread the word. Free entry to see the film in the downstairs function room. Have a meal, grab a drink, bring your friends for the NSW Premier of Downunder the Horizonline by Skippy Films. We will be looking to start the films at around 6.30 (totally dependent on what time we finish the nationals) Other yacking films may also make an appearance including an Australian Premier…….stay tunned!!
O’donoghue’s Irish Pub
99 Great Western Hwy
Emu Plains, NSW 2750
If your in Sydney and your not there, then your not a true kayaker!

The World Premier Tour of ‘Downunder the Horizonline’ is announced. We are hitting the road and showcasing our film around the world. Starting off with the Australian Tour.

• Tasmania, @ 7pm on the 2nd of April at UTAS, centenary building. Hobart, Tasmania entry is $10 ($8 concession). There will also be a screening of the last quality kayaking film X-tas to open the showing.
• Sydney 19th April-Australian Freestyle Nationals @ Penrith Whitewater Stadium-Free Entry.
• Canberra Wetspot Watersports in April. Contact Wetspot Watersports for details.

Check out www.skippyfilms.com for info on the Extreme, high adventure film.