The 2011 Aquabatics Film Competition

The 2011 Aquabatics film competition went off last week with 9 film entries and a great turnout, this festival showcased the vast amount paddling and videography skill in the region. The festival had two categories: Paddling Porn and Entertainment. In the paddling porn category Blair Trotman snagged first place with his entry Do It For The Love Vol. II. Paddle Junkies picked up first in the Entertainment category and won the peoples choice award, winning a Wavesport Project X and a Kokatat Rogue drytop for their entry: The Kayak Network. Super Sexy Kayak the film Liam Fournier and I entered placed second in the entertainment category.

Thanks to Simon Coward and the boys at aquabatics Calgary and all the event's sponsors these guys put on a great show and I'm super excited for next year. Check out all of the videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/AquabaticsCalgary.    

Peter Thompson       

Solo

Often the friendship and camaraderie that come with the sport of kayaking is over looked. This was hit home during a recent solo paddling trip that I went on to the west coast. Although it was a great trip and I was able to meet up and paddle with friends along the way, the alone time when camping and hanging out made for maybe hard trip but definitely a different paddling trip experience. The biggest thing I found with my solo trip was that I spent way more money and only had only had myself to bounce ideas off of to decide what to do. This was both a nuisance and a blessing in that I could do what I wanted, but I also made some decisions that in hindsight were pretty dumb. I suggest that everybody tries going on a solo trip, but also enjoy the great times and the camaraderie that goes along with the quintessential paddling trip.
Peter Thompson

Work'n Like a Dog

I haven’t had much time for play over the past couple of weeks because of work, but we have been filming for our movie "Super Sexy Kayak" where we snagged the first decent of Canmore Creek and hucked a bridge. I also managed to sneak in a weekend with the boys on the Upper Elk and the Spillmachen. Other than that there hasn’t been time for much else, but beggars can't be choosey and any paddling is good paddling. Hopefully I can get out to the coast and Skook to meet up with World Class Academy soon, but until then here is some media.

Thanks to Chris Yavorsky, Liam Fournier, Pavel Bendl, Mikkel St Jean Duncan, and Timon Salzgeber for the pictures and media.
   

http://www.vimeo.com/29359807

Aquabatics Film Comp Entry

Make sure you check it out in HD and vote for your favorite teaser online at http://aquabaticsfilmcomp.com/, Hint Hint...

Nakusp and Revelstoke Pictures

Just returned from a great trip to Revelstoke and Nakusp with Pavel Bendl and Thad Mazur, we also got some awesome pictures of our trip aswell. A big shout out to Pavel for all of the awesome shots.

Jasper, Whistler and SKOOK!

I just got back from a month long paddling excursion, needless to say I am bored and am writing this in the post trip depression. My trip started with a three week long stay in Jasper where I was instructing kayaking with Sean Allen another Kokatat paddler at his business, Kayak Jasper. This was a great experience and I learnt a bunch of teaching, leadership and group management skills that will definitely help me out in the future.
After jasper it was time to play everybody, met up in Whistler and immediately went for a paddle. Nothing beats the feeling that you get after driving for over ten hours straight than paddling a local classic, the Upper Chek. The ensuing weekend was full of awesome paddling, partying, racing (Check out http://liquidlore.blogspot.com/2011/07/2011-callaghan-race-recap.html), bungee jumping, and watching Crankworks. Although I didn’t end up racing it was still a great weekend where I met many great people and did some quality paddling.

After our stellar weekend at Whistler it was time to get our play on. Gharret Meng and I made our way out to skook a day before everyone else and were blessed to be able to have the wave almost to ourselves. We spent four days at skook which was almost enough to work of the skook burger a 10 oz monster that can be found at the back eddy pub in Egmont.

All in all it was a sick trip and I can’t wait to get back to whistler, race the Callahan, explore all the other classic rivers and surf skook once again.

Elk

Two weekends ago I rallied down to the Elk River in Southern British Columbia with Pavel Bendl, Glen Carpenter and Bryce Shaw to do some pre-season paddling. On Saturday morning Pavel and I drove down to Fernie to meet Bryce. On the way to the put-in we spoke with Glen who was already there taking pictures of the river. Not knowing what this meant, we decided to carry on. A quick look at the river confirmed that it was juicing and that we would be the first people to ever paddle the river at this level. After a quick scout of the three drops we decided to drop in.

The upper Elk drops into a beautiful gorge which requires a close to complete commitment (you can walk around it, but it sucks…). Consisting of 3 classic drops and a 40-ft waterfall, the upper Elk is challenging at lower levels, and at this level the story was no different. Apart from one class IV drop that morphed into a class V hole that no one wanted anything to do with, most of the lines were similar to what they are at lower levels - just a little meaner. Everybody had good lines down the river, and other than one swim, everything went smoothly. It was a pretty intense warm-up for the season, but it was a super, awesome river which I hope to get back to this fall.

Bryce at the lip of triple drop



On the first move of triple drop 



horseshoe falls

Entrance of horseshoe falls- Bryce dropping in



At the lip of leap of faith, the 40 footer



The boys



Leap of Faith- Committed, Glen Carpenter



Pavel- Rocket ship- Bendl

            

 I also got to play with my new Go-Pro, I don't have an editing system so hopefully a cool edit will be coming soon.

Peace,

Peter

Out and About

Just got back from a trip to Victoria and Whistler. In three days I have: skied at whistler, paddled on the Thompson river and gone ski touring at Surprise Pass near Lake Louise. So far it has been a pretty successful spring break and there is still a weekend left. It is time to start breaking out the paddling gear and to get ready for the huge snow pack to melt. I am expecting that some gnarly stuff will go down this year, but at the same time it is important to stay safe. A big shout out to Jason Craig and Tyler Bradt, good luck on the recovery and getting back to shredding soon. The global community is sending positive vibes to you guys, your families and Friends.

Ski weekend

This weekend was radical. Many flips went down as well as many cliffs and a combo of the two. This weekend the limits were pushed and with good friends, sunshine, and warm weather, many good times were had. Here are a couple of photos from Saturday and Sunday at Lake Louise and Sunshine Village.

Restart

So I have totally been neglecting this blog but I figure it would be a good thing to get it back up and running. from now on I promise to keep things going and do at least a few blog posts per month.

Peace out

Peter