I’ve booked my flight and have set down the plan to cram as much kayaking in over a relatively small period of time starting tomorrow.

So here it is…

Starting in Sydney Australia, I’ll be flying for 19 hours to the South East of the USA to do some clinics, demos and get involved in some of the Jackson Kayak Camp Instructional Tour. Then it’s off to Prague for the first part of the World Cup of Freestyle Kayaking. From there I will be shooting footage as part of a new Skippy Films DVD while participating in the World Cup. Hitting the road in the Czech Republic, we will make our way to Germany and Switzerland with the rest of the Jackson Kayak team. My last World Cup Tour was by far amazing fun and I know that this won’t be any different.

Finally I’ll be flying to Nepal to paddle some of the most remote and amazing rivers in the world, just in time for the peak of their wet season.

All up I think I will be flying for 60 hours, maybe more, however I really don’t mind spending such a ridiculous amount of time on a plane considering the adventure I’m about to partake on.

So basically I will be heading off for a round the world kayak tour, gee, I hate my lifestyle. Paddling around the world, following the summer and the water, living the life! I really wish I was stuck in a desk job instead.

jez
www.skippyfilms.com

What an amazing trip it has been. My trip to the USA was all about throwing good Karma out there and let me say mission accomplished. A huge traveling tour to many places, teaching, paddling, getting on rivers and having an awesome time. Clinics clinics everywhere. 6-7 different locations a week, teaching and having fun in the summer. Did I mention that this is my 9th year having an endless summer? Following it between Australia and USA, I got to be happy with that! That’s about 20 summers in a row.

So to end things off this week I headed to a few camps once again just to complete a few relaxed clinics and say my farewells. I also managed to fire up a few things myself including the Green, a few slides on the Toxaway and a possible first decent in Brevard. Thanks to Tom for the awesome pictures.

All in all it was an amazing summer, I managed to instruct to a stack of kids. Show some amazing paddling films to a bunch of people and basically throw out good karma to as many people as possible. Now I am catching a plane via some random stops on my way back home to Sydney. I just looked at my ticket and it’s over 30 hours of travel time. Sure I’ll need a month to get over the jet lag but at least the plane ticket was cheap.

Stay safe
jez

Today is July 22 we went to camp Greystone an all girls camp. It was so cool because I’d never been to camp before and everybody was so nice. All of the girls had alot of fun and loved doing just doing wet exits. We had a race 360 competition and played sharks and minnows. Good luck to all of the girls at camp Greystone. July 23rd we went to camp Highrocks an all boys camp. More than half the kids learned to roll. All of the kids were so determined to learn something new. Alot of the kids were there most of the day. I’ so glad that kids are getting into a sport that is challenging and so much fun.

July 24th we went to Highlander a coed camp. Most kids were learning to roll. A few kids got there roll. One of the kids was learning to cartwheel, and was getting really close.After all of the campers were done, the councilors had a cookout. There is this thing at camps called a blob. And since I’d never been to camp I’d never blobed. So the councilors let me blob. It was it was really cool. Good luck camp Highlander. July 25th we went to camp Arrowhead an all boys camp. It was alot of fun and very crazy. We took a few of the campers down the Pigeon we had a few swims but we did really good they were catching eddys and doing small ferrys. I think everybody had alot of fun. I’m sure they’ll be on the Ocoee soon. SYOTR

July 26th we went to Falling Creek camp an all boys camp. We were working on wet exits with one class, paddle strokes and rolls with a another class. So we had a pretty big variety it was very cool. All of the kids were progressing very fast. It was alot of fun because everybody was wanting to learn something new. I think just about everybody was or did learn something new. Keep kayaking Falling Creek camp. July 27th we went to camp Green Cove an all girls camp. Green Cove was very advanced camp and it was cool because they were all girls. I think all of the girls got there back deck roll. And we were working on cartwheels and getting pretty close. Nice to see girls paddling.Going to all these camps was so much fun. I hope they all keep paddling and progressing. Good luck. SYOTR

So the second to last week on the Camp Instructional tour proved to be very busy once again. The week started off with a hike in to the Narrows with Camp Falling Creek, nothing like a class 5 hike to get the day started. If this was not hard enough, mother nature decided to throw in a curve ball and rain a metric but load of water down on us, no worries.

A few days of instruction here and there, then on to a day of instruction at Timerlake and Merri Mac. Once again the campers and staff a like really showed some motivation to learn as much as possible throughout the day. What a packed great day it was, with spectators and all. Well done to the campers there that really get into the day. Another awesome Jackson Kayak movie night was showed, nothing like Hotel Charlie to get the wow factor.

Today Merri Mac got on the Upper Green which is just an amazing river. The girls really took on that river well, hand rolling and having a great time all the way down. Yonton and Spencer just so happened to be at the narrows and I tagged along for a great run. Unfortunately while I was sitting at Sunshine I watched a boater miss the line, put a dent in his boat, get worked, swim, and watched his boat get pinned down stream. Great carnage footage, but not so good for him. Bugger, I guess we all have days like these.

Jez
Jackson Kayak Coordinator of Karma

So Scuba Steve, Liam and the gang are all about having fun on the water and the pics really show this. Blue Star has a bunch of kids that are eager to get out there and boat off some amazing waterfalls. Cheers to the gang for the pictures.

Thought you might want the attached photos for your web
site. Nothing too exciting. The water was up on FB and we had a
great time with peel outs, ferries, and eddy turns. Lots of flips
and all good execution of wet exits and one t rescue. Hope all is well.
Cheers,

Grant Bullard

So after a quick stop at the NOC, I picked up Lauren Burgess, 11 year old team member of Jackson Kayak and headed straight to Camp Greystone, where a small beginner clinic with some younger folk and some good times were had out at the cove.

Monday we headed to Camp High Rocks, an awesome camp in Brevard with a great program. Campers have to complete a basic canoe program before they can move onto kayaks. This is so most of the kids at camp have a good basis to learn yacking. They also have a very cool c-boat program. It seems as if all of the instructors there actually learned how to kayak from camp, which is very cool indeed. All the kids there were extremely motivated to learn as the clinics and JK movies were well received.

The next day we headed off to Camp Highlander the largest Co-ed camp on the east coast with a whole stack of activities. It was quite fun doing these clinics and everyone had an awesome time. Karl, the owner, really gets into camp and it is such a cool place to head to for the summer. We got a few campers rolling and hand rolling. One particular kid, Tim, really showed determination by continually trying to get his roll even when his lips turned blue from the cold.

We drove to Camp Arrowhead where they were just about to leave for a trip to the Pigeon River. We loaded up and fired up the river. I think the trip back was a little more fun and random than the river, as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches took flight.

Another day of instruction at FCC, where there were about 30+ kids at one stage in the class. Way cool.

Finally we stopped at Green Cove, with a basic class and then a very advanced class. These kids loved learning how to back deck and throw ends. Saturday saw another 8 hour day of driving as we headed to the Ocoee while Sunday saw more rolling clinics with FCC. What can I say, another packed week on the Camp Tour. I need some sleep! Lauren seemed like she needed a week of sleep to recover but her help proved extremely valuable as kids were super keen to hear what she had to say.

Everyday has been totally full. On the road in the South East.

Jez
Jackson Kayak Coordinator of Karma

After arriving at the park Dane Jackson, Jason Craig and I realized that this was by no means any ordinary man made whitewater park. There were some really cool looking features. Jessie, an employee of the park, really showed off what the parks features can do. So here is the first official test run by JK on the new park: http://www.adventuresportscenter.comIt has the capacity to run more than 550 CFS. This means you really get the feeling of some good big water. The top drop leads into a tongue with some pushy water followed closely by a rock boof in the middle of the channel. Next they have put a very small slot channel on river left which is a very cool addition. A few lower water looping spots, and then you get to feature ‘A’. They use letters to describe the features, however, I am sure over time the features will get a few cool names. So feature ‘A’ is a sweet wave that is totally hydraulic whereby the bottom can be raised or lowered creating a sweet wave where blunts, helixes and other wave tricks can be thrown. With the ramp pushed all the way up, it creates a hole after it that enables massive loops and also made the feature very deep.

Feature ‘B’ is more of a hole feature, where loops cartwheels and hole tricks are good to go.

Feature ‘A’ has some good eddies and is easy to get onto the wave by hugging the wave gates. I found that by using your hands on the gates made things easier.

The course continues down to a hole where rafts can be surfed and then the river slows a bunch. The channel ends with a drop which can also be moved to create a sweet ramp with a great surging hole after it, although this is usually a ramp with a small hole.

The rocks used in the course were all excavated from the site, making it really look and feel more like a real river. Here’s the cool thing, it’s on top of a mountain, right on the very top! In fact, if you walk to one side of the course you will come across the top of their ski field. Makes for some sweet views up there…

Throughout the day the course is run with only two pumps for the younger rafters and around 2.30pm they add another pump which makes the features really sweet. So if you are looking for play, give them a call and find out the time they are going to 3 pumps. You will not be disappointed. We put on at around 2pm and they actually had to pull us off due to lightning at around 6, probably because we were having so much fun, the time just flew by.

So, I am going to say something which is a big call I know, but I will say it anyway. The course at Wisp has the best play features on any man made course I have seen. The folks there deserve a congratulations on a job well done.

Adventure Sports Center International

Jez

So this week saw it all. An amazingly bad day followed very closely by an amazingly good day. The week started off well as I drove up to DC to meet up with the Jacksons, I had a solo run on the Great falls Virginia side which was my first and really loved the run. Anyway I picked up Dane and Jason then headed off to the New River to meet up with the advanced campers from Falling Creek Camp. These guys rock, some awesome boaters who really love kayaking. The Staff are the same, great guys who love to get out amongst it. A couple of runs on the stairs, a sweet run on the New with good friends and life was great. The campers really loved the river, although it was a little low it still did the job.

The next day was not so good, after running shuttle and digging out some dirt at the bottom of the stairs, we slid down the stairs with a spectacularly not so good result. Jason Craig came down the stairs, hit the dirt on his edge and flipped straight on his head. His head continued to scrape on the rock for a while. I raced over to see if he was still alive and saw his tooth hanging from his lip and some major carnage all over. Not cool. A trip to the hospital and a dentist stop later and he was fixed the next day. Jason really took a beating that day but bounced back extremely well. Awesome carnage footage. He looks like he went ten rounds of Ultimate Fighting with Jay Kincaid, only kidding, but quite a day!

The following morning we headed back to DC and randomly came across the new whitewater park in Wisp Maryland. I will do a more detailed report on the park very soon as it requires a more in depth blog. Needless to say it was an amazing day and a great birthday for Dane.

Some more driving to DC for a ‘great’ run with Danny on the ‘Great Falls’. Danny is an awesome guy who lives right next to the falls and was the first to run and name the drop of man’s desire line. I’m now back in the South East to continue the Camp Instructional Tour.

A total of around 30 hours of driving, one smashed tooth, a few battle scars, and some awesome stories. What an epic week.
jez
Jackson Kayak Coordinator of Karma

So after a day in DC, I’m in WV on the New with the Kids from CFF, Dane Jackson and Jason Craig. Unfortunately I can not give you a full update as things have been a little hectic including 13 hours of driving, a few rivers and a trip to the hospital. Yep, you get that if your out there a bunch, part of pushing your limits I guess. Jason Craig will fill you in more about how things went down a little later. Stay tuned for this, it’s quite a story.

On the Road in WV.

Jez