This race is like no other in that there were rescue teams at 11 different drops along the course.  If someone got stuck in a hole and couldn’t get out,  a rescuer on a tether would jump in, flip him up, pull him out, and send him on his way.  Safety was taken very seriously, thanks to Aventurec’s super organization.

There was quite a little fanfare at the awards ceremony.  The Tlapacoyan band was there with drums and music.  There was a lady who served as MC, who welcomed everyone in their own language, and interviewed people in the audience.  Eric Deguil sat in a corner and was seen being emotional.  The race was the last in the AWP Whitewater World Series, which clinched it for Eric.  He became World Champion in Extreme Kayak Racing.  Spirits were high and the party afterwards lasted until 2 AM.

The results are available on the Alseseca.com website and there is a video of the Alseseca Race on YouTube.

(Photo: Gene at Ocho Topes)

This coming Saturday, January 14th, is the 4th annual Alseseca River race in Tlapocoyan, Veracruz, MX.  Tom is on-site with a group of LAKS paddlers, training to be part of the race.  Anticipating the race, I asked him for the latest news:

“Isaac Levinson,  Eric Deguil, Pablo McCandless,  and Isidro Sobranes seem to be the favorites to place in the race.  Isaac won the Green Race this year in the long boat class, and Eric won the Green Race in short boat class.  Isidro, the highest ranking Mexican paddler, came in second last year.  They are all practicing on the course everyday.  The water level is a little higher then previous years so the times should be shorter.  In the short boat class,  it’s anyone’s guess who will finish in the top three.  There is a lot of excitement at Aventurec about the coming race.”

I’ll keep you posted with news and times.  Here is a link to the Alseseca Race website.

Led by instructors Tom McEwan and Pablo McCandless, 7 stalwart and stout-worthy LAKS adventurers are headed down to Tlapocoyan, Veracruz to take part in the 4th Annual Alseseca Race.  There is a short and a long course to the race… although it could be called long and longer.  The fastest times last year were 8 min 50 sec in the short race and 13 min 8 sec for the long.  The long race includes a narrow, class V drop called S turn.  The race is held to bring recognition to the need for conservation along the Rio Alseseca, nearby Filo Bobos, and other natural resources in Mexico.  Check out the video link below!

Alseseca Race 2011

Photo: Thomas below the 300 ft Tamul Falls

May 6, 2011 started off like the previous four weekends did. The entire LAKS youth team was on the Cheat River, playing around in their boats, getting warmed up. But this was not another practice day. It was the day of the Cheat Race. After the chaos of the mass start had cleared up, another difference became obvious. Thomas was not in the back of the pack, floating down rapids and grabbing holes when he could. He was paddling hard, following lines he knew were fast.

Thomas Esch started paddling with the Liquid Adventures after school program at age 14. He was a regular at Pool Rolling and, after he got his roll down, helped teach the other kids.   He got hooked on whitewater for “the chance to enjoy nature and good company.  And the constant adrenaline rushes.”  Now an instructor, Thomas can give first hand experience to the kids because he has completed most of our youth programs- Overnight on the Yough, Youth Canada Week, and Cheat Youth.

Thomas graduated from Sidwell Friends in 2011 and is currently taking a gap (er, kayaking) year. He was an assistant instructor for the week-long camps last summer and helped to teach the after school programs in the fall. He went to Mexico in November for the Advanced Waterfalls trip and is planning head south again in January for the extreme race on the Alseseca.

Luminosa drop on the Rio El Salto

Last year, Thomas beat the rest of the Cheat Youth group, self-named LAKS Experience, finishing 50th out of 161 racers. This year he hopes to do even better. Aside from paddling a Remix and a Jackson 4 Fun, he just acquired a plastic racing boat, the Wavehopper. When not paddling and teaching, Thomas is a barista at Starbucks. He plans to attend Harvard in the fall of 2012. We plan to keep him busy until then!

A DC area local, Ashley was introduced to kayaking at age 10 while she attended Valley Mill Camp. She began racing slalom soon after. Ashley has been on the US National Team for three years and the Jr National Team four years.  She was the 2010 National Champion and won the US Team Trials in 2011.   She still lists among her biggest achievements the Penn Cup championship and Valley Mill’s Whitewater Award.

2011 National Championships at Nantahala Outdoor Center

Other than slalom, Ashley  teaches Beginner classes and Pool Rolling. She loves to work with kids. When asked why she responded, “because it’s so fun!”  Well, yeah!

She is currently training for the World Cup circuit in 2012 and the London Olympics. After that, she hopes to have time for more creeking and playboating. You will be able to find her at surfing at Rocky Island when the level is right. According to her “perfect Rocky” is 4.14. And, yes, she will probably still be down at the Feeder!

(Simon wears a mosquito net on the Magpie River, Quebec.)

Like many of you, Simon first discovered kayaking in a recreational boat. He learned to paddle with his father and later, with Tom at Liquid Adventures. Simon was drawn to whitewater because of the “The thrill, the places it takes you, and the people you meet.” More recently he has become passionate about steep creek racing. Last year he placed 9th at the Upper Yough Race and made the finals in the short boat division of the Great Falls Race. When he is home in Maryland, you can most likely find him at Great Falls or surfing Rocky.

For the last few years, Simon has instructed Liquid Adventures’ youth camps.  He often leads Lower Yough trips for Intermediate students and he teaches beginners, too! His goals as an instructor are to “make sure everyone has fun, learns something, and mentally pushes themselves while kayaking.”

Simon is also student at CU Boulder where he can indulge another passion- skiing.

(Simon enters the Back Canyon of the Fish Ladder)Photo: Amaury Laporte

Age when began paddling: 12

Best level on the Potomac: 4.1 (High center lines on the falls and Rocky is almost perfect!)

Favorite Rivers: Blackwater, Malbaie, Alseseca, Red Creek

Boats: Remix, Response

Favorite Tom McEwan story: When we had to start a fire at the put-in to the Lower Big Sandy to thaw our frozen gear!

(photo: Todd and Thomas on the El Salto)

Full Trip Report from the Liquid Adventures Advanced Waterfalls Trip with Tom McEwan, Thomas Esch, Memo Guiloche and Todd Henry

Day 1, Micos Cascadas, Nov. 13
We are having a great time in Mexico! This place is absolutely beautiful. I woke up this morning to see great mountains all around. I crawled out of the hammock to see one of the camp site employees walking a deer… yes, I said a deer. I heard some noise overhead. I looked up to see some parrots flying overhead. I think they were parrots.. the birds were about the size of Macaw and bright green.

Then we went to the Micos Cascadas to go kayaking- the real reason we came to Mexico! This is one of the most pretty rivers I have ever seen. The river was bright, crystal-clear blue with big, inconsequential drops on it. The Micos cascades is a short run and we ran it four times. After the second run, we met up with some of Tom’s Mexican friends, Memo and Carlos. This was the best day of kayaking I have had in a long time. The take out is the campground we are staying at. At the campground, the owner of the campground and his family were having a small fiesta. They invited us over for a cerveza. We could not refuse. What a great day and we only have more to look forward to in the following week.

Day 2, El Salto, Nov. 14
Today we woke up early to get the El Salto. Xhraley (pronounced Charley) and Pee Wee, two of the campsite employees, joined us for the day.
We drove to the El Salto where the first thing we did was go check out the area where there should have been a waterfall but the hydro station dammed the river so it was not flowing. Xharley and Pee Wee showed us a 30-35 foot cliff that we were able to jump off of. After a good cliff-jump wake-up we headed to the diversion channel, the outflow of the hydro plant. We put in in the small channel. The diversion channel had a few class III wave trains until it met up with the main part of the river. This is where the fun began!
We started off with El Nemo, a class IV+ drop, where only Thomas had a clean run. Tom went really deep at the drop and he and his boat shot straight up all the way out of the water. This was one of the hardest rapids of the run. The next rapid was called Luminos. This was a pretty clean 20-footer. For the next few miles there were plenty of clean drops between 3-10 feet. We the got to the huge horizon line marking Salsa Rapid; the guide book calls it El Tramplin (diving board). Normally there is a clean 18 foot waterfall in the center of the river that is really easy. The water was little low so most people did an otter slide on the small amount of water flowing over the falls. There was plenty of water on river left to run the class V drop, however. Only Tom and I ran this drop. The move was a 6-foot boof into ugly boiling water that pushed us right, then we had to drive hard left to make a channel where some of the water was running. Once in the channel, it was a fast slide until we had to make a boof on river left. Salsa was a fun rapid with a lot going on. There 2 more 12-footer-ish boofs before the take out. We recognized the take out by the horizon line of Salto de Meco Falls. This was a 100+ foot waterfall. We went up and ran the river for a second time. This time we bombed the run without scouting anything.
The scenery on the Salto was like no other. It seemed like we were paddling through swamps in Florida with huge cypress trees and hundreds of tropical birds that I had never before seen.

Day 3, Upper Rio Verde, Nov. 15
Today was not just great kayaking but a true adventure! The Verde starts off with a bang with a blind 15-footer. We caught an eddy and then had to peel out around a rock where we could not see the drop. The next rapid was a double drop. We had to boof a 6-foot ledge then take a few paddle strokes to turn 90 degrees and boof a 12-footer. I must say that it was one of the coolest rapids I have ever run. Next we came up to a 45 foot waterfall that was unrunnable. We had to pull out the rope and other rappelling gear. I went rappelled down first and then the boats were lowered down to me. Everyone else then came down. We got back in the boats and paddled a couple small rapids and then came to the unrunnable, 120 foot Lloviznosa (Misty) Falls. We had met an eco-tourism trip at the put in that was hiking down the river and then rappelling down these falls. We got to the falls and they had all gone down except for one guy. He invited us to use their rappelling gear so that we did not have to pull everything out and set our gear. That made life a whole lot easier for us. Rappelling down these falls was a little sketchier to me than the earlier rappel. As soon as I was over the lip of the cliff, I was dangling 100 feet from the rocky floor below. I have never done a rappel like this where I did not have my feet on the wall. We had several more hours on the river with great class IV rapids that were similar in difficulty to the Upper Yough.
Take-out was a small Mexican village. Tom found a senorita to take us into her house and make us dinner. We watched her make us fresh tortillas on a wood stove while we sat at her dining room table. She kept cooking until we could not eat anymore. At the end, she charged us 40 Pesos, about $3.75. There is nothing like an all you can eat, authentic Mexican dinner after a long day on the river! She invited us to come back the next morning for breakfast and we did.

Day 4, Lower Rio Verde, Nov. 16
After breakfast, we had a short drive to the river with beautiful mountain views. Today was the easiest and shortest of our days except for one rapid, the Puerta del Salto (Door of the Jump). The direct translation of “Salto” to English is “jump” but the Mexicans refer to waterfalls as saltos. We put in and headed down the river about 200 hundred yards before we have to get out and scout the Puerta del Salto. The Puerta is a 40 foot falls that is pretty clean. There is a small guard hole right before the main drop and then a small slide before a huge free fall. I watched Tom run it first and his line was not the cleanest. I decided to run it. I was really nervous. I was running a drop almost double the highest I had ever run and I just watched the first guy mess it up! I got endered in the guard hole but I still had a good line. After coming down from the ender, I was set up perfectly for the drop. I took one or two more strokes to get myself to the slide and then I tucked. It was a hard hit at the bottom where I flipped. I felt myself pushed to calmer waters where I rolled up. WHAT A RUSH!!!!
The rest of the river was class III with maybe a class IV or two mixed in. There was nothing else too hard that day after the Puerta del Salto.

Day 5, Santa Maria, Nov. 17
Today was another true adventure (funny how these seem to happed with Tom McEwan). Again, as always in Mexico, the river was absolutely beautiful. We put in on the clear green water. We were in a narrow canyon with limestone cliffs shooting straight out of the river. We had several class III wave trains far a couple of miles. We then had a flat water stretch to paddle before the rapids started to get big again. This river reminded me of Section 4 of the Chattooga River. There was nothing TOO hard but there were several sieves and under cuts. We ran all but one of the rapids and had no problems.
The most amazing part of this river was the take out. When we came around a bend in the river, there was a 300 foot water fall dumping into the river, Tamul Falls. This is one of the most amazing natural wonders I have seen in my life. We took out right before the falls. This is where the day got real interesting. We had to climb up the 300 feet to get to the top of the falls.! We did this by using a combination of ladders and steep muddy slopes.

Day 6, Micos Cascadas, Nov. 18
We went back to the Micos today. This was out last day of boating in Mexico. Today we did 5 laps and we were very comfortable on the river. We started trying to do some different lines and moves on the drops. On one of the drops we tried to do some 360s on the slides, pretty unsuccessfully, before the main freefall. We also ran some of the slides backwards. There was one drop that we scouted that looked like we could run a 30-foot straight drop instead of the slide ending in a free fall. We scouted it out and the landing zone was narrow. It looked good and we ran it several times.

My six days of paddling in Mexico could have been one of the best paddling weeks of my life. I don’t think that I ran anything harder than what I have done previously but I ran a whole bunch of big, CLEAN drops. I am already counting down the days until I get to go next year!

Todd Henry

(Photo: a slalom course in Winchester, UK)

What is slalom kayaking? Officially called Canoe Slalom by the  International Olympic Committee, slalom is a sport where paddlers try to complete a whitewater course through gates strung over the water with the fastest time possible.  An official course is 18- 25 gates, 6 of which must be upstream.  A course often takes elite paddlers fewer than 100 seconds to complete.

How does LAKS use slalom? In plastic boats, Liquid Adventures paddlers go out to the Feeder Canal to practice on the same course that many Olympic athletes train on.  We follow basic slalom rules to develop efficiency and power in our strokes.  Ultimately, this technical knowledge and physical conditioning will give us precision and speed on the river.  In the winter the Feeder provides a sheltered area from the cold blasts, and makes it possible to exercise outside.

A few rules of slalom: Downstream gates are indicated by green poles.  Upstream gates are red.

Kieron Thorpe completes a downstream gate.

Shane Benedict navigates a really hard upstream gate

Sometimes there is only a single pole.  Hypothetically there is a second pole on the riverbank indicating which side to pass through the gate.  At the Feeder, this is not always the case.  You can look up at the crossbar and see where the second pole should be hung.  Unlike slalom skiing, paddlers may not touch the gate with any part of their body, boat or paddle.  Touching a gate results in a 2 second penalty. If a paddler misses a gate altogether he/she is given a 50 second penalty.

What else should I know? There are lots of fun slalom terms and moves that you can learn.  Slalom for River Runners will introduce you to some of these.  Reverse/ Spinning a gate looks like a cool, 360 degree turn through a gate.  As the paddler, you drop through the gate backwards.  This way, your boat is lined up so you are facing upstream as you come out of the gate.  This gives you more time to ferry across the current or paddle upstream to make the next gate.  Your body and boat can be facing in any direction when you pass through the gate.  Dive gates are downstream gates located in an eddy.  These can be very tricky!  A pivot turn is done by dropping one edge of the boat while doing a back sweep on the other side.  This allows the boat to pivot quickly on its stern.  We probably won’t be able to do pivot turns in plastic boats but they are really beautiful to watch!

You can get more information on Slalom Kayaking by checking out the International Canoe Federation, USA Canoe/Kayak.  The Slalom Technique Library has great videos on strokes, drills and technique.  Some people think that Slalom Kayaking needs to change if it wants to stay relevant and remain an Olympic sport.  Join this conversation on the Time To Talk- ICF Facebook page.

All of these pictures were borrowed from other blogs.  Thanks!

Happy Paddling!