Shhhhh... oh yeah, I forgot to leak this news. W.E.T. River Trips and the W.E.T. crew came up with a funny idea a few weeks ago... well, actually, Big Poppa thought it up.
It's not usual to be able to do all three forks of the American River at any time of the year. River flows depend on so many variables that usually only two of the forks are running. Every spring, though, there are a few weeks where it is possible for W.E.T. to have a triple crew working on all three American River whitewater trips in one day.
Big Poppa thought, "Hey, why not try and do all three whitewater rivers in one day with one crew?"
Aieeee! Carumba! Yeah... a very good idea, indeed.
Kudos to the Sacramento Bee writer, Gina Kim and river photographer, Randy Pench for their awesome participation on this project. Even more thanks goes to W.E.T. River Trips' own staff member Ryan MacPherson, professional documentary filmmaker for creating the video for the Sacramento Bee. Ryan and his Blood Good Productions company lent us a hand in creating the media for this three rivers in one day project. Thanks bro!
But the crew with the most, W.E.T. River Trips... gawd, you guys rawk so hard I can't even begin to tell you guys what you really accomplished. From the North Fork American start at 7ish in the morning with a take-out at 8am, put-in on the Middle Fork American at 9ish, take-out at 12ish and finally a put-in at the South Fork American around 2ish and take-out at Salmon Falls around 5ish... dudes... you could have done this in waaaaay less time than 12 hours... you guys were moving that fast!
Ok... so definitely, the W.E.T. team is honed and ready to roll for the 2008 whitewater rafting season. Look out peeps... 'cause W.E.T. is on a rampage!
SACRAMENTO BEE: http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/921289.html (story)
GOOD BLOOD PRODUCTIONS: http://goodbloodproductions.com (Ryan MacPherson videos)
TRADING MARKETS: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1520075/ (story)
Thursday, May 08, 2008
W.E.T. Secret's Out! Rafting Triple Crown
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
WET River Trips North Fork American Race
Team W.E.T. River Trips: 1st place commercial raft in the 1st annual Nork Fork American River race held a couple weeks ago.
Yes, the W.E.T. River Trips team got off the couch (not really... we've been out running rivers almost every day for the past five weeks... everyone except Sollie and Harpo.)
Sollie flew up at 8 am on race day from Newport Beach to Sacramento, and we were shuttled to the river by Jason (oh yeah, he was off the couch, too) to make our rendezvous in Auburn where Maggie was waiting (oh ye ... she was off the couch).
The rest of the team had just returned from (6) consecutive days of guide school, commercial trips, and side adventures on the North Fork American, South Fork American, Cal Salmon, the "Ikes" section of the Klamath, and Burnt Ranch Gorge (more on that trip next... it needs serious edification).
Anyway....back to the race: We entered two raft teams. One was comprised of the "old" guides and the second raft was made up of "noobies" (they are all under 30 years old). The old guys dominated all other commerical raft teams and came in behind two "competitive" teams that dedicate themselves to racing. (Note from W.E.T.; the pro teams came with pro racing gear and are sponsored... W.E.T. crew on the other hand, rolled out with pure commercial rafting gear.)
Team W.E.T. River Trips remains dedicated to simply running rivers for fun, for work, for you and just because...
Sollie, Jason, Andrew, Harpo, and Justin (ok he's under 30) showed the pups (Maggie, Wolf, Dax, Country Mike ...he's over 30, Ninja Shanahan) the "way." If you shut your eyes and listen... you can probably still hear the echo of Andrew's boasts and the re-telling of the glory, the thrill, the strategy, the effort, and the pleasure of kickin' down some smack to the rest of the whitewater rafting companies.
Sollie flew to Singapore the next day and was still sore three days later as he searched the city for jaywalkers in hopes of seeing a "caning" or two. Advil did the trick for the rest of the crew.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
MOD MUSIC for RAFTING PARTY
Events, parties and everything California, the sun is shining here! Our rafting trips are going full bore now with daily trips available from now until the end of September. Group rafting trips are being organized everywhere, and they are coming to go rafting with W.E.T. River Trips. Woot people for bachelor/bachelorette parties, birthdays, anniversaries, reunions... you name it. Cap that party or event with a whitewater rafting trip with us... make it truely memorable.
Yet another amazing Sacramento House Show the other night featuring a very special guest percussionist hailing from Pennsylvania. Taysuya Nakatani was creating some of the most amazing sounds I have ever heard. All by himself, he creates music with a drum kit that you could carry in a large backpack aside from the 3' gong.
The nights other performances included Kevin Corcoran who is also a solo improv drummer worth checking out. Kevin and Chad Stockdale have a seven-inch that they recorded together on clear yellow vinyl that is definitely worth the loot. And my buddies from Hexlove winding up the night with an amazing loop pedal, keys and drums... fun fun. It was a good night... woot!
I went to an amazing party the other night at the Horse Cow Gallery to check out my girlfriend in a fashion show featuring local designer Amy Hemmens among others. There was also live music from Night Nurse, the beautifully noisy brainchild of Sacramento's own Hailey Chase featuring one of my favorite Sacramento saxaphone dogs Chad Stockdale.
Now, everybody must get blown away by Animal Collective's newest release, the Water Curses EP which is being released by Domino Records on vinyl and cd.
If you are living near Sacramento, you should also be very excited about all the awesome shows coming up in the next couple of months. We are soooo lucky that bands such as Mutators, Shearing Pinx, Modern Creatures, Mae Shi, Pre, Uneasy, and Magick Daggers are going to be passing through our city.
Also be expecting a new EP from Prints out soon... I think it's going to have a DFA remix on it.
MORE MUSIC RESOURCES FOR RAFTING TRIPS:
white rainbow
Oh yeh, WhiteLite, our fav music blogger has a cool announcement: Mutators and Modern Creatures are playing with WhiteLite's band at Funcastle on the May 4th! Congrats, dude... I'll be there.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
NORTHFORK is a Go! Go! Go!
The North Fork American has arrived for the Spring of 2008... with W.E.T. River Trips on the first commercial rafting trip of the year on a beautiful 75 degree day without another boat in sight. Our clients and guides had the entire river to themselves! The North Fork American season should be solid until mid to late May (weather willing!).
Heffe, Wolf, Justin, Dax, Greg, and Bird also took a day off to drop in on North Fork American Giant's Gap (the non-commercial Class 5 section above the Chamberlain Falls run). After a night of camping near Baxter, the crew took the 1,500 ft. descent in to the canyon on the single-track foot path while they carried the raft and kayaks on their shoulders. The day was perfect and all came back safe and a little sore. They could have done a North Fork run to cap the day; but, they were just too tired....Wah! Wah! F'n Wah!
We hit the North Fork again today for even a better flow and more big fun! Our clients and guides exited the river with big smiles and bigger stories a bout Chamberlain Falls, Staircase, Bogus Falls and everything in between and beyond.
Those Golden Poppies were blazing up the hillsides in bright orange and the Redbud has made an appearance while marking the canyon with patches of magenta while surrounded by at-least four shades of green and the blue-green clarity of the North Fork's water....except those blasts of foaming whitewater!
The North Fork of the American is a Class 4+ jewel that only appears for a short time each year with rafting flows. This year promises to be one of the most predictable and reliable flows that we have ever seen. Heffe, Justin, Wolf, Greg D., Chris Z., Andrew, Maggie, Country Mike, Saul, Booty, Dax, and Mack are ready!
Big Poppa Post from the North Fork American take-out via wireless aircard! Woot!
Thank you Ryan for the video... ps welcome back from Brasil!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
North Fork American : Poppies, Daffodils and Lupin
Today was sunny and 75 degrees and so was yesterday.
One last cool thing about Daffodils....you have to "Dead-Head" them by rigorously ripping off the stalks of each fading bloom... (Sorry Wolf...the Greatful Dead is still still banned from all W.E.T. River Trip vehicles as well as the Warehouse while I'm in da House!)
Thursday, March 06, 2008
California Rafting and Music
Yo! On my way to rafting trips, I have to listen to my tunes. Especially if you are heading for the Class 4 stuff like the North Fork American... so close to home! If you live in California's great valley around state capitol Sacramento, then I'm sure you know how hard it is to purchase good music around here without having to order from online distros and such.
For me it's really annoying, 'cause I love to buy new music fairly regularly. So to get my fix, it usually requires making a trip to the Bay Area to dig around in the bins at Amoeba Records store in San Francisco and Berkeley. I recently found some great albums for super cheap. Titles such as CARIBOU's new album "Andorra" is out now on Merge Records and DAN DEACON's "Spider Man of the Rings" on Carpark Records. Both albums are totally amazing if you are into electronic music or trance.
Another outstanding release from last year is the MAGIK MARKERS album "Boss" on Ecstatic Peace. This is a band that I can't get enough of and is highly recommended especially to fans of SONIC YOUTH. Some other albums to check out are BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW's "Dandeloin Gum", Japanese band OOIOO's "Taiga", and for the noisier side of life, check out anything and everything on Load Records; especially KITES.
RESOURCES FOR WHITE WATER RAFTING MUSIC from W.E.T. River Trips:
Peace
WhiteLite:::: more rafting music coming from my homies at W.E.T. River Trips!
ps! WhiteLite just introduced us to Zach Nelson from albums Who's Your Favorite Son God, HexLove and Prints! He is sooo ridiculously cute! Yoko Tuttle from Fatal Insomia says of his music "This sounds like right now!" Woot!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
California Salmon in February?
UPDATE about a recent W.E.T. River Trips Rafting Adventure
Country Mike wrote:
Here's Sollie's first webcam from the helmet... I got dizzy watching it!
DAY 1: Sollie arrives at Sacramento International Airport at 1:00 PM
Meets Heffe at warehouse to load after picking up the W.E.T. rafting truck
Bird goes Frisbee golfing with Wolf (freshly back from Ecuador)
I ride my motorcycle home from Oakland to beat the traffic
I lane-split the entire ride and arrive at Save-Mart at 5:15 PM to meet Sollie for a food buy
Final pack and load
We then meet up with Bird, Wolf, and Heffe at my house
Waited until 7pm for Justin and his Bro stuck in traffic coming from UC Berkeley
Little Alex was stuck in the same traffic so Justin stayed back to wait for Little Alex
(He was carrying Bird and his Bro Brian as well)
We agreed to meet at Petro on I-5
Petro became an opportunity for Heffe to drink a 32 oz Miller High Life
We had ample opportunities to shop the wares at Petro...
Sollie bought a fluorescent orange fleece "Elmer Fudd" hat. Justin showed up at 9 pm and he off-loaded Bird to my truck after Bird power-smoked at least four cigarettes and bought his body weight in candy. We rolled out of Petro with Sollie, Heffe, Wolf, and Bird in the Dodge and Justin, Brian, and Little Alex following in the shiny, Black Toyota (important detail for later). We drove Hwy 299 to Hwy 101 (with an obligatory stop in Willow Creek and the tempting prospect of buying the only piece of Chester-Fried chicken: a cold wing). We arrived at Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park at 3:30 AM... stoked.
Day 2: I roused the camp up with some coffee
(hot water for Heffe & Sollie...Metro-tea boyz)
We head to the Oregon Hole Run
After the boys did the run twice with multiple swimmers and a near flip at the Hole, the consensus dictated a quick run on the South Fork and a chance to run class 4+ "Grandma's Pantry." All went well and smooth except for Big Poppa getting in the grill of a local "Game Warden" who thought it prudent to educate our guides on commercial operations and permits. He left by telling me to "talk to the tire" under his breath. He refused to clarify his comments as he loaded into his navy blue Silverado. (nice, Big Poppa... bite the hand that feeds us...)
That night we had a fat-feast and Little Alex and Wolf played guitars while Justin and Brian drummed along. Heffe was sick; however, he made a run at the Early Times until Bird thought he was at a Rave with Disco Eric and he dropped a glow stick into the bottle. Before shutting down, we all agreed to get up early and make a run to Nordheimer to put down a river run before dark through class 5 Freight Train.Sun: Out of camp by 8:45 AM without a problem
Headed south to Orick
Took a Wolf-inspired Short cut to the Klamath River via Bald Mountain Road (why oh, why does anyone follow Wolf on these short cuts?)
This is an incredible road. Views of everything and everywhere unfolded of huge redwoods, amazing meadows, and the bonus of an un-tracked snowfield on the summit that Sollie made a first D on in Heffe's kayak with a last ditch bail-out 10 yards from the tree line at 30mph. Well done. We continued on a single track dirt road lined by snow fences getting both trucks filthy...that's why I go with White (remember the shiny new black truck). We hit a detour about five miles from the end of the line (we knew it was a possibility) and we took a detour through Hoopa and back out to the Klamath.
The boys put in at Nordheimer at 2:30 and made a run to "Freight Train." At "Whirling Dervish" the newbie-rookies opted out and Sollie, Justin, Little Alex, and Wolf took on new "Freight Train" and nailed it. Camp was awesome with a great fire and a tepid scuffed bottle of Early Times floating a dark-stick.
Monday: Woke up to find everything covered in ice
About 20 degrees Farenheit
Butler run on Cal Salmon with a put-in at 35 degrees
Everyone nailed it and we were on the road by 11:45 AM. We delivered Sollie to the Sacramento International Airport at 5:15 PM in time for his flight back to Newport Beach.
About 950 miles, 3 days, five different river runs, sunny skies, and a quarter full plastic, half-gallon bottle of Early times for the warehouse refrigerator. A great Winter rafting trip that will be hard to match or beat. We'll try.
Trains hittin' Berkeley... next stop Emeryville... see ya. North Fork American in 2 weeks puppies!
I'm fairly sure that Justin washed his truck Monday night.
Posted by Big Poppa w/ whitewater photos, rafting video and side notes by crew of W.E.T. River Trips
