Skookumchuck Summer '07

Last weekend I made the 7 hour trip from Seattle to the Skookumchuck Narrows in Egmont, British Columbia. It was a good tide and the wave was great. Because the tide was fairly fast, there was very little of an eddy line, despite the good weather on a summer weekend.

So yeah after a great weekend of good surfing, good people, and good weather, I put together this seggy so enjoy.

SKOOK VIDEO

David

Summer Paddling on the Ottawa River

Zoar Recently had a staff trip up to the Ottawa River, which I was lucky enough to go on. The Ottawa River is by far my favorite river to playboat mainly because of the variety of features that you have. You can pick and choose between big waves, holes, and downriver play. While we were there a wave by the name of corner wave was in and we spent a bit of time there. It was nice to get back on a wave after a few months on the small play of the Deerfield River. We stayed at Wilderness Tours, which has awesome facilities and great food, it reminds me of a bigger Zoar Outdoor. Anyway here is a little video from the trip. If you have never been to a Tim Hortons go to one as soon as possible, they rock.

Ottawa River Action

Paddle Hard,

Tino

Cumulative Footy

Well, I took a year's worth of footy, sorted through it, put it together, and made a little segment. Its been a great year, traveling with Huge Experiences, going to Colorado, and boating around home so enjoy the seggy:

My Segment

Have fun out there,
David

A year with Alex and Tino

Tino here checking in from the Northeast. This is just a compilation of some of the shots were taken during the final semester of mine and Alex’s senior year. We got to go to some pretty incredible places and see some pretty incredible things. And now its back to work for me with some trips to competitions and the Ottawa spliced in there. For Alex, after a successful CO trip he has gone to work on the Yaugh for the rest of the summer.

Check out the Video

Paddle Hard,
Tino

A Short Trip To Lachine

The other day Fergus and I headed up to Lachine for a few hours to enjoy some big wave action. We ferried our way over to the wave and I set up camera while Ferg paddled into the wave. Right off the bat Fergus threw one of the biggest blunts I’ve ever seen thrown there. But then discovered that he had cracked his boat. He took a few more rides and then it was my turn. I forgot how much fun this wave is. You can get air so easily and sometimes when you don’t even want to. Anyway me and Fergus switched on and off with the camera every couple rides and then a huge thunder storm rolled in and caught us out in the middle of the river so Fergus started to head back. I was on the wave at the time and a really big Oar Raft came through and the oar hit me in the head pretty hard and a few minutes later I got a pretty bad headache so I decided to head back as well. So that was it, an 8 hour drive for 9 rides on Lachine. Oh well. We’ll be going back soon and will have some really good video comin at you!

Check out the VIDEO that we took

Paddle Hard,

Tino

FIBArk Festival: Salida, Colorado

Check out the video of Anomaly Paddlers at FIBArk.

This last weekend was an absolute blast. I traveled to Colorado to compete at the 2007 FIBArk festival and met up with several fellow Anomaly Paddlers, old friends from school, and other good friends.

After arriving on Tuesday and paddling for a few days, the festival kicked off on Thursday night. With prelims on Friday, we all focused on our routines, nailing the tricks we knew and getting used to the hole. In prelims, myself, Zack Mitchell, and Michael “LP” Palmer advanced to the Junior Men’s semi-finals, Morgan Tidd qualified to compete in finals for Women’s Expert/Pro and Alex Mohn blew us all away with a 120 point ride to qualify for top ten in the Men’s Pro class (quite an accomplishment considering it is his first year of pro competition and he was the youngest pro competitor).

Saturday started off with great weather and everyone looked forward to the events of the main day of the festival, including the Finals Pro Freestyle Competition. The major attraction of the day of course, was the exciting hooligan race that included pirates, presidents, and even a floating forest. The Pro Finals were scheduled to go off immediately after this but unfortunately a sudden thunderstorm taught everyone just how fickle mountain weather could be. The Pro Finals were postponed until Sunday.

Sunday morning opened with a blast. First off after the Cadets (kids paddling under 14 years old), the Junior Expert Finals kicked off. I advanced past semi-finals in 3rd place (top 4 advanced) and LP was 5th, edged out by just one point…if only he had done a spin! Zack Mitchell followed in 6th.

In the finals, I ended up in fourth with a 93-point ride, my best score of the weekend.

After that came the Women’s finals. Morgan Tidd got two air loops in a great ride and placed 6th in Women’s Pro and Won Women’s Expert!

In the pro men’s category Alex came in 7th, going up against the top kayakers in the world and holding his own very well.

All in all, FIBArk was awesome. I had a great time paddling as well as hanging out with all the other boaters at the festival. I can’t wait for next year. For now, what's next? Skook trip.

Once again, check out the Anomaly Paddlers at FIBArk video.

For a couple of our best individual rides check out these videos:

David Spiegel's Ride

Alex Mohn's Ride

LP's Ride

See you on the river,

David Spiegel

Also, check out these photos:

LP throwing an Airwheel in his ride.
David Spiegel finishing a Wingover.
Entry Kickflip.
Launching into a loop.

Tino Specht at the T-Ville Hole

The other day I headed down to CT for a surf session at a shallow little hole called T-Ville. I have always had a hard time landing tricks here but I came back armed with my agent and WOW. Loops, Backloops, Backloopmcnastie combos and all sorts of tricks are possible. The volume in the knee area of the Agent gave me enough pop to get my loops around and not flush and the slicey ends made for cartwheel heaven. Hope you guys enjoy the video!

Check out the sweet video: T-Ville Video

Best,
Tino

Graduation

Just checkin in here from the far east. Here is a short vid of the kayaking I have been up to. It includes some video from T-ville, Shelburne Falls potholes, and the local fish ladder. Hope you guys enjoy. By the way I am graduating from high school tomorrow and beginning a summer of kayaking. Hope you enjoy the vid.


Massachusetts Video


Tino

Trinity Wave

Today was a good day. It was 90 degrees outside, clear skies, and a good wave.

The Trinity Wave comes in at high water (usually caused by snow melt) on the Wenatchee River in Eastern Washington.

At this level, the wave was a little flushy and very difficult to manage but still awesome. It gave up some fairly big air as well as some sweet clean spins.

After a very long play session, I could barely make the eddy anymore and regretfully headed down stream. Fortunately, I will be returning to the Wenatchee this weekend when the Trinity, along with several other features, should be at an even better level.

Here is the video:Trinity Video

Sorry, no stills this time.

Later,
David

Running the Dams in Massachusetts

A few days ago I graduated from the New River Academy with a three other senior classmates. This means I’M OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL! I am beginning a summer with a lot more responsibility and work but a lot more fun at the same time. And I’m leaving behind the carefree years of knowing exactly where I will be in the near future. During my last few days attending the New River Academy I hit up some incredible spots. The most exciting being Great Falls of the Potomac River. There are two drops that we ran. The first was in the middle of the falls and was called grace under pressure and the other was on far river left but I don’t know the name of the rapid. Both lines were super fun and get your blood pumping.

After graduation I took a 14 hour ride back to Massachusetts where I slept for a large amount of time and woke up ready to go kayaking. I checked the gauges and nothing was running so I headed over to our local fish ladder which I know always has some water going down it. Once I ran that I headed back to my house which is five minutes away and spent the rest of the day on my trampoline which I sorely missed. Hope everyone is doing well.


Check out the Dam Video


Paddle Hard,
Tino

Tino Specht Clean Blunting off the lip.

Anomaly at Z-Dam

Last Sunday, Anomaly paddlers arrived in Richmond, Virginia. After an hour or so of driving around, lost, we found what we came for: the epic hole known as Z-dam.

The Z-dam is just what the name implies, a low head dam in the shape of a Z across the James River. The hole itself is formed by a fish ladder in the middle that makes a break in the low head dam.

This hole was sweet. It was especially good for Loops and McNasties. Unfortunately, we paddled it at a slightly higher than ideal level, making it a little flushy for Tricky Woo’s and Fonix Monkies. Despite this flushy characteristic, however, Alex Mohn still happened to hit a couple of Back Loop to McNasty combos (none of which we caught on tape, much to our disappointment).

So anyway, enjoy the pics and footy and watch for the next update.

Z-Dam Update

-David Spiegel

Thanks to Matt West for taking pictures and Tino Specht and Shane Groves for taking footy.

Alex Mohn landing a huge loop.
Alex midway through a McNasty
Jake Greenbaum playing around above the hole.
David Spiegel looping it up.
Brian Boyle preparing for some air time.
Jake Greenbaum nailing his backloop.
David Spiegel getting ready to McNasty.
Sam Fulbright going big on a Space Godzilla.

Eternity Hole is awesome!

This past week, Anomaly paddlers journeyed to the Eternity Hole on the Tuckaseegee River in North Carolina. When we rolled up with a huge trailer full of boats, we could see the locals rolling their eyes. Too bad that we bring the crowds with us...

Moving on, the hole was a little shallow but still amazing. Every trick could be done there but the hole was especially good for McNasties and Loops. We threw together this video segment for you so I hope you enjoy:

Eternity Video

Also, here are a few pictures that we took during out time at the hole:

Your's truly looping.
Sarah Hunter going big!
Matt West got out from behind his camera long enough to throw some air.
Just to show us all how shallow the hole was, Jake Greenbaum nocked his head on the rock when he landed this.
Brian Boyle: Better run, it's Godzilla!
Notice the sword...Tino's Alter ego is the Pirate of the Tuckaseegee.
David Spiegel with some air.

Thanks to Matt West for sitting on shore with his camera the whole time, all pictures are thanks to him.

Stay tuned, more updates are on the way,

-David Spiegel

What is Anomaly?

My name is David Spiegel. This spring Tino Specht and myself are taveling around the southeast US with The New River Academy. During our travels, we realized that we wanted to gather together a few sick junior paddlers and put together a team of some with the best young boaters around.

Anomaly is just a few 18 and under hucksters who love the sport of kayaking above all else.

On this blog, we will update you on our travels, giving you footage, pictures, and write-ups about our experiences.

Mission:

As the next generation of paddlers, the ultimate goal of Anomaly is to bring innovation to the sport and provide awesome media. Through both of these goals our hope is to get people excited about the sport of whitewater kayaking.