Weekend Goodness :)

This weekend I headed on up to Hood River on a solo mission. I was going to visit my good friend Brandon and some new blood- Jesse Becker. I left Friday evening- allowing for a full day of boating on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday:
I was planning to paddle with Brandon and after several attempts, discovered that he was STILL SLEEPING! ARG! it was 9:30...time to paddle! Jesse and the rest of the crew I thought had already gone up to the run so I headed up to the Orletta with a friend I met at the parking lot, crazy Dave. He paddles an inflatable kayak down EVERYTHING- I swear the guy is fearless. Orletta had more water than the rest of the sections did. Good call Dave.

After finishing the run, I went back to the house and discovered that the guys were not yet back from their run down the Truss. I hopped in my car and headed back to the Hood River side of the border for some food and phonecalls. I wasnt sure when they would actually be getting back. I got back to the house around 1:30 and everyone didnt seem like they were in the paddling mood. Oh well....we had all day Sunday.

Sunday:

Around 11:00, the crew of Ryan Scott, Lana Young, Nate Herbeck, Jesse Becker, and myself were ready to run and we headed up to the upper upper Cispus for a sweet class five run. It runs through a deep gorge that is definitely the most beautiful river I have been on in the states. Amazing. We got to the put in around 12:30 and then we decided to check out a drop that we thought would be a first descent. oh boy oh boy. I will wait for Nate to publish photos first as I dont want to mess this one up....you have to wait for the shots. All I can say is that things went great after lots and lots of safety preparations.
Ha ha I did the filming so check out Nate's next movie for the video :)



















After the descent was completed we drove to the put in for the upper upper Cispus....we decided to run just the first drop on the run as we were running out of time and day light-it was around 4:30.....POOP! That was a bummer but next time next time- the river's not going anywhere right? :) I sure hope not! Check back for pics of the drop!

Happy Paddling,
Christina Russell

Bouldering at the Depot

By Christina Russell
Date: August 23, 2007

Last week, I headed out with Kim to the Depot after a bit of kayaking...had to cool down and stretch. The Depot is a sweet spot along the Meadowcamp section of the Deschutes here in Bend- that's why Bend rocks, everything is so close.

Anyways the Depot has crackclimbing, overhangs, and plenty of spots to make your own. I know this isnt kayaking but I thought I would post this for something new :) Sorry about the bad image quality, Kim's cam wasnt set at a high enough shutter speed.

Tuesday/Wednesday at the Lake

By: Christina Russell

Today was a very very warm day....it felt like 100 outside and let me just say that whitey got a sunburn...ouch! I even marinated in several coats of sunscreen...but to no avail. :( All of team Voz was working hard at our boothe and the company was very well recieved WOO HOO! I ventured down to the Liquidlogic boothe around 2 and met Woody for the first time....he's friggin awesome! He said he was going to rap for me but he was stolen by some retailers.... next time Woody.
Above- L to R: Kim, me, Woody

One of the coolest parts of the entire day was getting out on the stand up surfboards...Kim, Nadia, and myself all on one board....twas very very fun :) I have to say the board was a bit unstable but it did pretty well considering.

Above: Nadia workin' the boothe

behold- LOTS of flatwater boats

The event wrapped up around 3 on both days and after loading the vehicles with goodies from the boothe, Kim and I went on a photo shoot with Sam Drevo for Voz. I've never been in a speedboat before and all Sam told us was that we would get wet.....ok sounds good to me.

We headed out on a very glitzy boat with a SWEET soundsystem and Sam told us what we were gonna do- wake surf. Not wakeboard, not waterski, but wake SURF- on a real surfboard. I myself have never done any of the above so this was my first time out.

Nadia and I chillin' before the photo shoot...

The key I found was to relax your legs while you are waiting in the water and then let the boat pull you up. I biffed it a few times before standing and taking a surf. It was so fun and not too hard once you were standing up. :)

Above- Nadia shralpin' the gnar :D

Above- Me learning how to stand up

Above- ....and sort of makin' it

Our lake demo was officially over when we finished the shoot and so, after looking for Todd's lost smell phone on the beach, we headed back to Salt Lake City where we had four days of indoor demos.

Check out pics from the boothe on the next post!

Happy Paddling,
Christina