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