The photo Annual

Every Day is a

good day for Tacos

Scott Martin Photo

Editor-in-ChiefEric Adsit

Cover PhotoEric Adsit

WordsBrett BartonJeremy CassDave Gardner

PhotosBrett BartonJeremy CassScott Martin

Regina Nicolardi

On the Cover: Emrick Blanchette drops in on the long “Eagles Talons” Slide on NY’s Otter Creek at high

water, fall 2014.

Contributors

Contents

From The Source

Gallery

It’s Not Okay to be a Beater

Green Race

ELWHA

GreyWater

Surf Kayak Days

Scott Martin Photo

Whitewater paddling is tough to explain. It’s a complicated, immersive experience. There are hazards both obvious and obscure. Rewards that can only be felt. It places us within a greater context, one that is expo-nentially more powerful than any human force. For these reasons (and many more), a simple explanation rarely does any justice to the joy of carving down a wave or the thrill of dropping over a horizon.

But like most outdoor sports, whitewater paddling lends itself to aesthet-ics. The same context that shrinks the human element has shaped the landscape. It has chewed through the roots of ancient mountains to cre-

From The Source

ate narrow canyons and wide valleys. It brings life to the barren soil and rock. It wears the ever changing mask of supreme beauty: calm and serene, cold and murderous, explosive and raging, and so many more. It reflects, refracts, and refines. It is the river, without which the world would lose one of its purest forms of magic.

This is The Dirtbag’s Guide to Whitewater.This is a tribute to the beauty of rivers.

Eric Adsit, Dirtbag-in-Chief

Scott Martin Photo

Holt McWhirt flies off the Big Kahuna.Nantahala Cascades, NC.Eric Adsit Photo

Gallery

Gallery

50/50 Ashlu River, BCEric Adsit Photo

Willie Dinsdale styles Spirit Falls while Chaos lurks below. Little White Salmon, WA.Eric Adsit Photo

Clockwise from top: an Unknown paddler digs in at Moshier Falls, Beaver River, NY. Scott Martin Photo.Pat Keller drops into Gorilla during the 2014 Green Race in NC.Scott Martin PhotoHarrison Rea starts off a run of the Nantahala Cascades with a bang. Eric Adsit Photo

Gallery

The Beginning.Moose River, NY.Scott Martin Photo

Gallery

Dave Fusilli on Gorilla.Green River, NC

Scott Martin Photo

It’s Not Okay To Be A

BeaterA Rant by Dirtbag Dave

Scott Martin Photo

What the Fuck? Since when has it become socially acceptable to be a beater? Did I miss something? Was I so far in the dark in Upstate New York that I just haven’t seen it until now? Has it always been like this? I don’t think so. This is a problem. It needs to stop.

Before we go any further, let’s start with defining the term “Beater”. I really don’t like this term, but it seems fitting. Beat-er -noun/adjective/verb. A beater is a pad-dler that continually overestimates their skills and underestimates/under-appreci-ates the power of the river. They are usual-ly over confident and occasionally cocky. They have a few basic skills required to run Class II and III whitewater, but consistent-ly find themselves at the top of rapids well beyond their skill level with the intent to run them. They tend to use a lot of phrases like, ‘we’re gonna run the gnar, brah’ ‘I run the shit’ ‘let’s go boof brown stouts’ while using one hand to throw a brown claw, while their other hand announces to the Facebook world their latest crash or swim.

Used in a sentence: I don’t want to paddle with those damn beaters, some one’s gonna get hurt. That guy just beaters down shit. I had a rough day, I beatered the first drop.

Please, do not confuse beater with “the new kayaker” or “a beginner paddler” or the “Class II or Class III kayaker”. There is nothing wrong with being any of those. Inf act, it’s great, every great paddler was there once, and if you never progress be-yond that, it’s fine. Don’t get me wrong, we all are “in between swims”. We all have rough days. Shit can and occasionally does hit the fan. It happens. But with the beater, its not “when this season am I gonna crash” it’s “when TODAY am I gonna crash”. This happens when you’re learning. So it should happen

on Class II/III whitewater. That is where the basic skills that are required to run hard-er whitewater are learned.

Most beaters are stoked on kayaking. Which is great. It’s great your stoked on kaya-king. I’m stoked on kayaking too, that’s why we all do this great sport. So, why is it not okay to be a beater? It’s not okay to be a beater because it’s NOT GOOD FOR KAYAKING. It’s not good for the beater. Its not good for anyone on the river with the beater, and it’s most definitely not good for the sport.

Beaters don’t last more than a few seasons. They start off stoked and enthusiastic. But their over confidence gets them in trouble. They have a few too many bad swims, few too many injuries, or an extremely close call and suddenly “woah, kayaking is like dangerous. I could like die.” And when next spring rolls around, you don’t see them at the put-ins and the over excited Facebook posts have stopped.

By being a beater, you are putting anyone on the river with you at risk. As paddlers we don’t like to see another boater in trouble. And when we do, we do what ever we can to help them. That is one of the amazing things about this com-munity. But, by being reckless, and beatering down rapids

you shouldn’t be running you are asking anyone on the river with you to risk their neck be-cause you can’t make good deci-sions.

Now why is this bad for kaya-king? The general public al-ready has a poor perspective on whitewater and perceive it to be much more dangerous than it is. But anytime a beater talks about their crashes or tells a non paddler about their latest injury that perspective grows, making kayakers look reckless and turning other potential paddlers away from the sport. We don’t need this right now.

Whitewater can be extreme-ly forgiving. We have all seen some heinous crashes, where people come out miraculously unscathed. While that’s good to see, thats not always the case. The problem is when it’s not forgiving.

So, please don’t be a beater. Take your time to learn the basics. Enjoy the progression, don’t rush it. For most of us, this is more than a sport, it’s a lifestyle, and it should be enjoyed over a lifetime, not a couple seasons. Be safe, have fun, and make good decision.

DBD OUT!

Brett Barton Photo

The Greatest Show In All Of Sport

The Greatest Show In All Of Sport A Photo Essay by Regina Nicolardi

The Green Race brings out professionals and local heroes alike, like Nick Troutman

at left, and Ben Fraker below. Not every-one has clean lines, as shown at bottom.

Go Left and Die is among the most technical and consequential rapids on the Narrows. As proven above, lines and success vary.

Adriene Levkncht and Isaac Levinson, the respective women’s and men’s champs of 2014 near the home stretch above, while one of Adriene’s competitors navigates Go Left and Die.

Gorilla is legendary, and with good reason, but racers aren’t finished un-til they’ve successfully descended a stacked series of slides just below. It happens fast, and it’s not always pretty...

For many years I never knew there was another Grand Canyon beyond the Colorado’s. It seemed impossi-ble to me that there could be more than one. How could any canyon be more grand than that? To an-swer simply, each river is its own and each have special places waiting to be discovered. Elwha’s ancient, illus-trious walls certainly don’t tarnish the reputation few dare to boast. Gran-deur exists..

Grand Canyon . . . 3 syllables at-tempting to sum up miles of twist-ing, mysterious caverns, at times as fearful as they are beautiful. The first descent happened decades ago and took Sprague Ackley and Jor-dan Van Voast most of the summer just to scout before finally putting on. Nightmare, a drop deep in the heart of the canyon, was one spot too difficult, to get a look at from the rim, even for Sprague. Jordan said one of the scariest moments of his life was sitting in the last micro-eddy above Nightmare. Shrouded in 300 foot overhung walls and straining to see downstream, considering his options... Jordan came to the con-clusion fairly soon that there was re-ally only one way out. The Elwha is Grand.

ElwhaBy Brett Barton

Many great trips begin at Whiskey Bend, ours was no exception.

The thing about WA is.. there is so much whitewater to get on, it is dif-ficult to persuade people you trust your life with... away from the clas-sics. Berger was in, but we strug-gled to find anyone else. It didn’t really matter, we were going. In the end it was just the two of us... some sunshine and 8.5 miles of choosing our own adventure.... good times.

Many great trips begin at Whiskey Bend, ours was no exception. Sun-ny skies, plenty of great food and a flat trail ahead had us both pretty

stoked! Laboring so intensely to get into these places offers good rea-son to explore without a timeline.

It took an hour or so to rig our packs, hitting the trail around noon. The trail remains high above the river until the put in, but about 5 miles in the trail crosses a bridge over the Lillian River.

From the bridge over the Lillian, the next two milesfollow a gradual in-cline, but it is relentless.

5 hours later we got to camp, de-ciding not to go all the way to Mary’s Falls, but instead chose a secluded small island with a spot for a small fire. Rainier tall boys with dinner... so choice.

Eskimo Pie is the first must run class V, and we ran a number of very fun drops on the ‘warm up’ section, heading in. Paddlers can get out on the left to scout the entirety of

the drop, but it’s impossible to set any kind of realistic safety.

Eskimo Pie is the most challenging must-run in the Grand. Nightmare is a must-run as well, but the move is less challenging... depending on the wood situation. There are lots of rapids before, after, and between Eskimo Pie and Nightmare. The El-wha gets up to 40,000 sometimes. Wood is different every year in here.

Several quality class IVish drops lead into Nightmare. You’ll wind up scouting quite a bit throughout the trip, as you get closer to Night-mare distant views are possible... I could only see enough to get my blood pumping. The beauty of this place cannot be understated. This year Nightmare had several piec-es of wood in the typical left line. Nightmare is typically run left due to a large rock sieve on river right,

where the majority of flow is going. Through this entire sequence, the canyon walls are closer together at the rim than down at river level. The top of the canyon is so narrow that fallen trees have collected, spanning the rim with a few hang-ing skewers needing a bit of wind to send them freefalling into the chasm below.

From Nightmare there are many more unique drops and the beauty never wains. Elwha is a special place. The amount of sustained quality white-water is impressive. Don’t wait.

Talking to someone who’s run it may be the best way to paddle this stretch of river. The Elwha River will call to you long after you’ve driven away. It is a most impressive set of canyons. The wildness and beauty are magnified. Skilled paddlers will be rewarded handsomely with both scenic views and challenging moves in a place witnessed by very few.

Grey Water

Nantahala Cascades, NC

Grey Water By EricAdsit

Tom Whipple pleases the crowd at Bridal Veil Falls, OR

Harrison Rea goes left at Go Left And Die, Green River, NC

Surf Kayak Days

Life has found me here again in the ocean. My hands now a paddle, and the paddle now my stance. A kayak of modern surfboard design, cockpit and fins. Only waves remain.

-Jeremy Cass

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