Exams study break! Take a day off and let’s go kayaking. The Lower James through Richmond is a short, Class III run with some fun play spots. Let’s plan to leave Charlottesville at 9. Plenty of time to do a few laps on the run! You NEED to have a solid roll and good boat control to come on this …
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Lower James Through Richmond
The lower section of the James is a short Class III-IV whitewater run through downtown Richmond. There is actually some water in the river right now, so take advantage! We will only do one run since this is a weekday trip. To attend this trip, you should have good boat control and a solid roll. You should have taken an …
Lower James Through Richmond
The Lower James through Richmond is a short, Class III run with some fun play spots. Let’s plan to leave Charlottesville at 9. Plenty of time to do a few laps on the run! You NEED to have a solid roll and good boat control to come on this trip, as it is a class III run. PLEASE do NOT …
Intermediate Kayaking at Balcony Falls
Its supposed to rain for most of this week, and hopefully that will bring the water level up on the James. So lets go paddle Balcony Falls, its really fun at higher water! This run is a mostly class II with one class II+/III rapid that is easily walkable if you don’t feel comfortable running it. Balcony is about and …
Build a High Water Park and Play Wave on the Rivanna
Tired of driving at least an hour for a good surf when it rains? Then come out this Sunday to help build a surf wave a little closer to town. I have been eyeballing a spot on the South Fork Rivanna River immediately below the dam that already has a wave at high water. The spot is located downhill from …
Build a High Water Park and Play Wave on the Rivanna
Tired of driving at least an hour for a good surf when it rains? Then come out this Sunday to help build a surf wave a little closer to town. I have been eyeballing a spot on the South Fork Rivanna River immediately below the dam that already has a wave at high water. The spot is located downhill from …
Swift Water Rescue Course and Kayaking
Swift Water Rescue is a course designed to teach kayakers and other whitewater sports participants the safety skills needed to avoid dangerous situations and to successfully deal with them should they occur. Quintin Brubaker, a club alum and raft guide on the Gauley River, WV, is an ACA certified SWR instructor and will be teaching a modified version of the …
Kayaking: Lower James Through Richmond
Let’s go to the James River this Saturday! We’ll warm up on the mild upper section and then paddle some exciting class III runs on the lower section through the city of Richmond. We’ll leave Saturday morning and come back in the evening. It will be cold this weekend, so don’t sign up unless you can handle being cold and …
Gauley Fest!
Gauley Fest is the biggest whitewater kayaking festival of the year. Last year pretty much every major kayaking company was there selling and giving stuff away, and about 3000 people, kayakers and groupies alike. Here’s the link to the American Whitewater website about it: http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Wiki/aw:events_gauley I’m planning to head down Friday afternoon, leaving around 2, and coming back late Sunday. …
Beginner/Intermediate Kayaking at Balcony Falls
Let’s go paddle Balcony Falls before the Creekathon! This run is a mostly class II with one class II+/III rapid that is easily walkable if you don’t feel comfortable running it. Balcony is about and hour and a half away and is an awesome, beautiful run; I’m so excited to get back down there! This trip is suitable for anyone …
Intermediate Whitewater Kayaking, James River Through Richmond
The Lower James through Richmond is a short, Class III run with some fun play spots. Let’s plan to leave Charlottesville (meeting at Grand Marc Parking Deck on 15th Street, where we can leave cars hopefully) around 1, which will put us on the water by 3 hopefully. When I went a couple of weeks ago, I found a way …
Intermediate Whitewater Kayaking: Lower James in Richmond
It’s no fun to tailgate in the rain…so let’s blow off the game and go kayaking instead! The Lower James through Richmond is a short, Class III run with some fun play spots. Let’s plan to leave Charlottesville (meeting at Fontain Research Park to leave cars, sort gear, and avoid the football crowds) around 11, which will put us on …
Camping, Biking, Hiking, Fishing- Whitetop Laurel
canceled due to lack of drivers and interest of enough people for this weekend…
Beginner White Water Kayaking – the James Above Richmond
The section of the James River above Richmond offers lots of class 1 and 2 rapids (at current water level) and is a great place to learn and/or practice river skills. This trip is for beginner paddlers: those that have been in a white water kayak on flat water or those that have only been down a river a handful …
Intro to White Water Kayaking – Learning the Basics on a Lake
This class is designed to teach you the very basics of white water kayaking, to prepare you for future river trips. We’ll spend 2 hours on Thursday (4/17) afternoon on the lake at Walnut Creek Park (~10 miles south of town) learning such skills as the wet exit, how to paddle a white water kayak, T-rescues, and the Eskimo roll. …
Intro to White Water Kayaking – Learning the Basics on a Lake
This class is designed to teach you the very basics of white water kayaking, to prepare you for future river trips. We’ll spend 2 hours Saturday (4/19) afternoon on the lake at Walnut Creek Park (~10 miles south of town) learning such skills as the wet exit, how to paddle a white water kayak, T-rescues, and the Eskimo roll. I’ll …
Trip Leader Workshop 2
Want to learn how to lead trips or how to lead better trips? We will be going over all the basics of trip leading in the club, reimbursements, trip descriptions, basic logistics and info, activities, etc. Also, we will go over several common problems and go over how not to lead trips (mostly by examining all of the situations Ive …
Trip-Leader’s Workshop Round 1
Want to lead a trip, but don’t know how? Want help with trip logistics or certain types of trips? Come to our officer-led trip leader workshops next week. The first one will be held in a classroom Monday at 6:00 pm in a classroom TBA. We’ll go over how to set trips up, how reimbursements work, the leader’s manual, expense …
Balcony Falls Saturday Trip
Sorry its so last minute, but let’s get a group together to go play around Balcony Falls! hike, bike, paddle…whatever, its a gorgeous Saturday!
Intermediate Ww Kayaking
FINALLY, we have rain! And lots of it. All of the local rivers were so low, that even all of this rain hasn’t done much yet. Richmond is almost up to a runnable level and Balcony Falls is climbing fast, but the Maurey, Tye, and Piney haven’t jumped much yet. As of now the plan is to hit the “downtown” …
New River Kayaking, Canoeing, Fishing, and Camping Trip!
For reading days, I’m planning a canoeing, kayaking, fishing, and camping trip on a few sections of the river south of the Gorge. This water ranges from flat water to Class III, so you should definitely have some experience on whitewater if you’re going to sign up for this trip. Below is our itinerary: Friday night: camp at Glade Creek …
Gauley Fest!
Gauley Fest is the whitewater kayaking festival of the year on the East Coast. American Whitewater hosts this event every year to celebrate the halting of a hydro-electric plant that would have ruined the boating on the Gauley, it has attracted thousands of canoers and kayakers each year. Check out the website at http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Wiki/aw:events_gauley. The Gauley is a big river, …
Advanced Kayaking: Gauley River
This adventure is appropriate for class IV+ kayakers. We will paddle the middle section of the Gauley River at least once Saturday morning and at least once Sunday morning, perhaps running the lower Gauley as well on Sunday. We will camp Friday and Saturday nights. Please come prepared (clothes and sleeping gear), and feel free to ask me if you …
Gauley Fest: Kayaking and Outdoors Dream Come True
The Gauley Festival (known as “the paddling world’s biggest party”) is the largest river festival in the world, and it’s coming up this weekend. Located only 3.5 hours from Charlottesville, this is really a can’t miss opportunity. The jist of the festival is kayak (or climb) during the day, hangout with other fun outdoors-oriented people during the evening, and camp …
Intermediate Whitewater Kayaking on the James Through Richmond
The lower James is a solid class III run right through downtown Richmond. Hollywood and Pipeline rapids are both Class III, and the rest of the run is class II and below, with one short flat section. The run itself is on the shorter side, but there’s a great play spot in Pipeline. You should have a pretty solid roll …
Beginner/Intermediate Kayaking at Balcony Falls
The Balcony Falls run on the James is a great beginner/easy intermediate run. It is technically mostly class II with one class II/III, but with the low water levels, Balcony Falls (the II/III rapid for which the run is named) should be a solid II. The water is still somewhat low, but is totally still paddle-able and will be as …
Whitewater Kayaking Downtown Richmond Class 3
Let’s get wet! This is the standard trip from Reedy Creek to Mayo Island. For those that don’t know the run it’s mostly class 2-3 ledges with Class IV Hollywood Rapid (easily portageable) to spice things up and get your adrenaline fix. Plan on sessioning the handful of surf waves and the big hole at Pipeline. Rolling is highly recommended, …
Intermediate White Water Kayaking – James Through Richmond
The recent downpour finally brought the James up enough to run the Richmond downtown section. Sorry for the short notice, but the runnable window is so short this time of year. In fact, the river may drop too quickly to be worth the trip tomorrow, so this may cancel if that happens. You do not need to have a bombproof …
Playakin’ in Richmond
Come join me for an after work paddle trip down the James in Richmond (Reedy Creek to Mayo Island). The plan is to leave town at around 4:00, put in around 5:30, stop and play where we can, take out at 7:30-ish, hit up Legends and be home by 10. There are class 3 and 4 rapids so you must …
Downtown Paddling
Downtown James river is a Class III-IV paddling experience. Don’t sign up unless you have solid Class III experience and a very solid roll. Check out details of the run here http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/1952/ This is the same stretch of river as Dave’s trip on Thursday. The club provides whatever gear you don’t have (boat, paddle, pfd, skirt, helmet). You should wear …
New River Gorgathon
TRIP CANCELLED, sorry
Intermediate Ww Kayaking – James River
** The Original Trip Plans Have Been Changed** In the hopes that more people will be able to participate, the planned kayaking trip to the New River has been abbreviated and moved three hours closer. Now the trip will only be Tuesday evening, after classes. We will go to the James River, through Richmond. The James includes an upper section …
Ww Kayaking Richmond
There’s still plenty of water flowing through Richmond, should be some good levels still on Friday. This is a Class IV trip, if you don’t have a combat roll then this trip isn’t for you. If the levels are still above 6 feet, we’ll run the downtown section from Reedy Creek to Mayo Island. If the levels are below 6 …
Beginner-Intermediate Kayaking – Balcony Falls
We can still take advantage of this past weekend’s rain with a trip to a wonderful section of the James River: Balcony Falls. I spent much of my earlier paddling days at Balcony, working on rapid running, ferrying, eddy hopping, river reading, and when I wasn’t swimming; surfing. This section of the James is a great place to learn, or …
Intermediate Kayaking: Maury River
In the expectation that rain will keep coming for another day at least, the Maury near Lexington invites us. It is a very fun, constant class iv with a couple of pretty demanding spots, that include trees in the water. mmm. I think we’ll bring a throw rope this time. C’mon… nothing exciting ever happens Tuesday afternoons in grounds. The …
Intro. Kayaking: the Rivanna River or Walnut
I’d like us to go out on the low, slow Rivanna this Thursday, to give folks an opportunity to be on moving water for the first time. It is class II or so, with a couple of fun spots. I always enjoy to experience a different cross-section of southern Albemarle than from I-64, one that is frequently shared with mallards, …
Downtown Paddlin
Its going to be 80 degrees in Richmond and the river is up. The water level should be around 7 feet on Friday, so you need to be an experienced paddler to join up for this one. Class III-IV- rapids. That means you have to have been on class III+ rapids a number of times and be able to roll …
Trip Leader Workshop
At this workshop, we’ll talk about how to lead different types of trips, what to do about gear, how to handle trip expenses, what types of trips are allowed, and how to set trips up online. As an incentive to lead, we’ll reimburse your dues after leading four adventures. I’ve only reserved the room for an hour, so that’s the …
Intermediate-Advanced Kayaking – Lower James Through Richmond
Even though this is a class 3 run, it leans toward the class 4 side because of the chilly water. As such, you MUST have a solid combat roll (in rapids), and/or extensive river experience to join this adventure. Richmond paddling is awesome most times of the year, but is especially nice in the winter as the river levels usually …
First ‘Yakin’ of ’07: Balcony Falls
With slight rain and warmer temperature on the forecast, I can’t resist the temptation to plan some kayaking for this weekend. The James River near Glasgow is at a nice class II/III level right now, and should be good for anyone with a reliable roll, who wants to begin warming up their paddlin’ arms for lucky ’07. Also: If good …
Intermediate-Advanced White Water Kayaking – Balcony Falls
What better way to start 2007 than with a little paddling? We’ll wish a happy new year to the James with either a run down Balcony Falls or through downtown Richmond (depends on water levels), or perhaps even the Maury if we get enough rain on Friday. I’m leaning toward Balcony since the levels look good no matter the weather, …
Trip Leader Workshop 3!
I’ve heard from several of you that you can’t come to the Thursday workshop, so here’s another chance! We’ll learn about trip-leading from 5-6ish, and we’ll finish in plenty of time to attend the Monday Night Gathering at Newcomb. At this workshop, we’ll talk about how to lead different types of trips, what to do about gear, how to handle …
Trip Leader Workshop!
Everyone is encouraged to lead trips, and it’s easier than you think! At this workshop, we’ll talk about how to lead different types of trips, what to do about gear, how to handle trip expenses, what types of trips are allowed, and how to set trips up online. As an incentive to lead, we’ll reimburse your dues after leading four …
Workshop – Leave No Trace
If you go on day hikes, backpacking trips, outdoor climbing trips or any other trips in the wilderness then you should familiarize yourself with Leave No Trace (LNT) techniques. If you lead trips this is especially important so that you can pass on the proper etiquette for backcountry living. I will cover why LNT is important, the basic principles behind …
Intermediate White Water Kayaking – Balcony Falls
For any intermediate paddlers who aren’t away on fall break, lets paddle the James. The Balcony falls run is a juicy class 2/3 stretch from Glasgow to Snowden, VA (~1.5 hour drive SW from C’ville). It is running at a real fun level right now. If enough people can join at such short notice, and we leave town by 1, …
Fall Break Paddling Weekend (Dates Are Flexible)
For those of you brave enough to take a long car ride with me, I will offer you the best padding weekend of your life. I’m going home for fall break and want to take some good paddlers with me to hit up some rivers local to my home – Asheville, NC. I want to take some sweet movie footage, …
Trip Leader Workshop!
Everyone is encouraged to lead trips, and it’s easier than you think! At this workshop, we’ll talk about how to lead different types of trips, what to do about gear, how to handle trip expenses, what types of trips are allowed, and how to set trips up online. As an incentive to lead, we’ll reimburse your dues after leading four …
Advanced Whitewater: Gauley Fest!
Gauley Fest, the biggest whitewater celebration in the world, is about to happen. Last year the festival only won the title of “biggest celebration” by a slim margin of three partiers, and this spring Gauley archrival Amazonastravaganza increased their attendance and stepped up their efforts to steal the title. Gauleyfest needs your help! Don’t let our beloved West Virginia river …
Paddling Through Downtown Richmond
The James is a little on the low side right now, but there is a chance for rain later this week, so Im crossing my fingers and planning a trip. This section of the James is very unique in that it goes through the middle of a city. Not to mention it has some fun play spots and a great …
“Over the Falls Festival” at Ohiopyle Falls on the Yough
We’re going to head up to SW Pennsylvania for the “Over the Falls Festival”. You can read about it at www.fallsrace.com. If you want to run the falls you need to be a solid class III/IV paddler. The falls themselves are an 18 foot drop (Quintin and I did it about two weeks ago and it was awesome). Normally, this …