Sturgeon Video

Here's some video from the weekend. Most of it's from the helmet cam, but some's off of my point-n-shoot as well. If I get a chance I'll try to put up some other clips as well, but for now...

Sturgeon Falls, eh?

There was a great group of us that headed North for the long weekend to hit the big, deep waves at Sturgeon Falls on the Winnipeg River. The river was higher than I'd seen it, running somewhere in the neighborhood of 70,000 cfs. That made for some big waves, crazy eddies, and lots of pictures.



Dennis volunteered to ride up with me to pick up the motorboat at my family's cabin. Little did we know that the huge flow rate would make the boat nearly useless as a shuttle and rescue vehicle. But, now we know for next year...



We had beautiful weather, with warm, sunny days and cool, clear nights. Nora, Dennis, and I learned from our cold and wet past experiences there and reserved a Yurt to sleep in. Even though the weather was better this year, I've gotta say the Yurt was worth it.



The paddling was great - Mike M and Scotty were throwing rapid-fire blunts on Surfer's, Alon was gettin' dizzy on Triple S, everybody was getting some quality spins and bounces on the waves. The big eddy behind the island had the twin whirlpools fading in and out, so if you timed it right you got the moving-sidewalk ride back up. Then again, if you timed it wrong, you had a ridiculous and frustrating time trying to paddle up hill through the boils.



The coolest part of the weekend was Sunday evening when the wind died out completely and the water was just like a mirror. You could actually see your reflection while you were on Surfer's. From the island, it looked like people were surfing on folds of mercury. Absolutely awesome.



I also have to give Katie huge props for being able to literally self-rescue after a swim. She can wet exit, grab her gear, drain her boat, and get in and paddle her way back to shore - all completely by herself while floating downstream. It was amazing.


The only problem with going to Sturgeon is that you're never there long enough. For me, it takes about 1 full day to get my brain comfortable in the big water. Unfortunately, by then the body's usually pretty worn out and the two never really get in sync. Next year I think I'll take Friday off to get an extra day, and hopefully do some conditioning as well. Shockingly, it turns out that sitting at a desk 6 days a week doesn't qualify as a training regimen.

All in all, it was a great weekend with some awesome paddlers. We paddled, chilled on the rock, surfed ourselves silly, hung out around bonfires, and told endless paddling stories. Tough to beat that. I'm already looking forward to next time.

Here are some pics from the weekend:
1) The Bomber Gear twins
2) Melissa cruising Triple S
3) Scotty working on blunts
4) Scott bouncing Surfer's
5) Me getting eaten by the foam

6) Alon discovering the silk-surf on Surfer's
7) Mike M setting up for a blunt
8) Mike L in front of Big Mouth
9) Me in a low-altitude blunt
10)Mike L riding the glass
11)Melissa basking in the warm sun


I've got videos as well - hope to get those up tonight, so check back!

Sturgeon Pics 2

OK, here's the rest of the blog-bound Sturgeon Pics. I'll put more up on the "my web Albums" link on the right if people want to download them. Otherwise, if you want a CD with all 600 on there, email me and I'll make sure you get one.

Pics:
1) Bill K dropping in
2) Graeme in Chameleon
3) Evan running the waves
4) Brian J sending up a wave of his own
5) Evan catching Triple S full force
6) Tommy, Craig, myself, and Graeme on the Couch
7) Graeme and I chillin' on the couch
8) Craig throwing down a huge air blunt on Scary Wave
9) Tommy with the best seat in the house
10)Craig on Surfer's
11)Natalie catching Triple S

Sturgeon Pics 1

Here's the first batch of Sturgeon pics. I'll have the rest posted this weekend. I also got one more video up on YouTube.

Pics are:

1) Tommy working on blunts
2) Me, about as happy as I can be
3) Me getting a back bounce off Surfer's
4) Craig showing how deep the Trough on Surfer's is
5) Mike J picking his line
6) Tandem surf - notice how much lower I am
7) Graeme in the foam pile
8) Craig looping Chameleon
9) Nora and Mike chasing waves
10)Craig back-bouncing
11)Nora staring into the jaws of Big Mouth
12)The headless cartwheeler rides again

STURGEON!!!

Graeme, Nora, and I headed North to Sturgeon Falls in Eastern Manitoba. Once there, we met up with Craig E. and Tommy. We ran into Natalie and Mike J the next day, then Bill, Brian J, and Marie came up that night. Sturgeon (and nearby Whitemud) is known for huge waves, deep water, and safe wash outs. These factors make it one of the best playboating spots in the world. The water was relatively low this weekend (about 40,000 cfs), so the features were not as big as they could be, but were still really fun.

At Sturgeon, Chameleon was 4-5' tall and playing more like a wave than a hole. Craige was able to hit some loops, Graeme nailed an entry loop, I managed a few cartwheel ends, and just about everybody got some spins and bounces on it. Surfers was bigger (approx 7'), with an extremely steep foam pile. Despite it's thrashy and intimidating appearance, I found it to be a very smooth and controlled surf. It instantly became my favorite feature there. Huge bounces, fast water, and you had the added bonus of surfing in a trough that was about 4' below the surrounding water. It was quite a trip to be surfing the wave and watch someone drop into Chameleon above you. It did give Graeme a slight trashing on one ride, but otherwise proved to be pretty harmless. There were two other good surf spots (Triple S and Learners) that provided some great surfs and spins. All in all it was a very fun level.

Whitemud was slightly bigger and much faster. The water flowing into the rapids was as fast as any I've seen and made for some challenging ferries. The couch was great - just over head high, fairly retentive, and very bouncy. I nailed my first true blunt there, but then got a bit to excited about it and got flipped immediately after. At one point we had Craige, Tommy, Graeme, and myself on it at the same time with room for more. Craige and Tommy also spent lots of time on Scary Wave hitting huge air blunts and bounces. Scary was somewhere in the 8-10' tall range and when it glassed up the boys were going huge. Fun to watch.

The weather was warm and Sunny on Friday and Saturday, then we got an inch of rain Sat night and things turned cool and cloudy. Thunderstorms Sunday afternoon/evening and cold temps convinced us to forgoe the leaky tents and rent Yurts that night. The Yurts were amazing - electricity, heat, 2 beds, a futon, and a table and chairs inside sitting on nice hardwood floors. Beat the heck out of standing around in the rain.

We also got some cool Wildlife encounters. We saw fox pups playing, lots of eagles, watched an otter fishing, drove right past a black bear, and lots of others. Good times.

I'll need a couple days to get the pics up. I loaded them onto my computer last night but haven't even started sorting them. I did manage to get a couple of videos up on YouTube, so hit the link on the right side of this page. I'll get more vids up in the next couple of days too.

Sturgeon Falls

Awesome weekend in Canadia. John and I drove up and met up with Zinger and Greg, who not only showed us around the waves, but proved to be great cooks and hosts. Instead of roughing it, we were eating gourmet meals and watching DVD's. Definitely not a bad deal. The river was a bit lower than I expected, so the waves were only 3-6 feet tall, but still absolutely rockin. Greg was perfecting his "floops" and backstabs, Eric was showing off on the waves, and John and I were surfing, spinning, hopping, and throwing ends when we could. Big, warm, DEEP, friendly features and luxury camping. What more can I say?