KAVU Busy Livin'

KAVU Elements is Back on Tour!

May 1, 2008 Wilma Theatre in Missoula, Montana

The KAVU Elements co-sponsored an event at the Wilma Theatre for a premier of the KAVU sponsored:  The Last Descent.  It was a benefit for The Max a new river enhancement project in Missoula which means more play waves and access points!  Baby had a nice parking spot as usual!

May 2, 2008:)  We headed down for the 18th annual Lochsa Rendezvous party!  We started by parking her at the Pipeline wave and caught some great whitewater action.

There were folks surfing it in every craft imaginable!

And the party was totally off the hook.  We rented a disco ball for the top of Baby!

The makings of a full KAVU Day when it looks like this late night!~

May 10-14:)  We visited 12 schools in 4 days.  A project record!

May 15:) Arrival of Gravity Free, the Japanese Artists and a big party at La Petit Bakery:)

They did this awesome mural that features Baby.  It will be displayed on the corner of one of the coolest blocks in Missoula!

May 16:)

Garden City Local Fest was one of the ALL TIME best events ever in Missoula history!

The Best in the West kayak rodeo was going on the sidelines!

Micah Wolf did a live recording of his hit single "One by One" for the Nature Propelled film.  Baby was littered with kids to help sing along!

I was the official MC for the event.

And I got to interview all kinds of interesting folks like the Mayor of Missoula and the Director of Sustainability for the University of Montana!

The entire event was "off the grid" and powered by the world's largest portable Biomass Gassifier that takes waste wood chips and converts them into 25 kilowatts of raw energy!

Performance Artists "Gravity Free were back on the scene!  They did a live painting for our new film that started with a surfer and morphed its way to a hanglider, skier......:

And ended up as a kayaker at Brennans Wave (where the event took place)

If you are a fan of Baby you gotta love this!

Joe Pinsoneault, CEO of KAVU and Shawn Carkonen Elements Tour event manager made it out to see the event!

Even local celebrity and KAVU athlete, Tyler Bradt was on the scene doing what he does best!

We will finish the 2009 KAVU Elements Tour on June 24th, 2009.  Until then we will be surfing our way to a school or event near you!

Local Worldwide Surf!

Well, the KAVU Elements Tour has landed in Montana!  All is well, and the snow is melting off the peaks into the rivers.  Board Surfing on the river has been all the mountain hype these days.  Last week I caught up with these two Canadians down on the Lochsa River.  They were ripping the wave on their boards, as were kayakers and rafters.

It is an "Endless Wave" as the water curls over the rock (you can see the rock that forms the wave through the water!

Seeing this inspired KAVU local member Larry Neskey and I to give it a whirl on the local playspot here in Missoula, Montana.

We actually picked it up fairly quick!

Meanwhile, our own Alison Teal has been cutting a new episode of her "Alison's Adventures in Wonderland" down in Peru!

Somebody please cue the Baywatch Music!

She has been keeping busy surfing Chicama, the longest left hand break in the world.

A taxi is needed after each mile long ride!

The show she is working on involves Octopusses, Donkeys, Incan Mummies, Shamans....and true Love.  

and.....she always seems to find the good wildlife to shoot.

A worldly office.

Our Mexican Surfer, Geovanni from Sayulita recently checked in with us here.

Geo is rolling on the Mexican pro Surf tour...

Last we heard he is on his way to Cuba!

See ya next time!

Current Limits of Kayaking.

I watched this video clip the other day, with KAVU PR guru Shawn Carkonen and hang glider Jeff Shapiro. We sat there in silence for at least 5 minutes.  I've been associated with the sport of kayaking for more then half my life and there has never been any image so impactful....EVER.  I was totally and utterly speechless. 

YOU MUST VIEW THIS VIDEO ON SPORTS ILLUSTRATED CLICK.

I've had the chance to hang around Tyler all last week.  His local presence rapidly accelerated to celebrity status after the newspaper ran an article about the crazy descent of World Record Breaking 186 foot Palouse Falls.

Missoulian article.

Here is a snap of the falls:  Interestingly it is actually bigger then it looks.

What I love about Tyler is his great modesty.  We were at the bar the other night and some groupy came over and said "Your Tyler Bradt....I need to buy you a beer because I heard I was in the presence of greatness."  Tyler said sheepishly "I don't know about that but I will take that beer."  

20 minutes later he was on the phone doing a live interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN.

Tyler is no stranger to running big drops.  The above photo is a shot of him running 107 foot Alexandra Falls totally clean.  He didn't even flip at the bottom!  He has also run many of the previous world records like Metalko Falls and this one down in Mexico.

Just when I thought the sport of kayaking was plaining out....all this stuff comes to works.  But rest assured, Tyler is doing this intrinsically, and when you see him on the street he is the same old goofy guy we all know and love.

I've done some of the craziest rivers ever with Tyler, including a section of the White Nile in deep dark Africa called "The Murchison"

This is called the Matrix wave and it crashed right on my head.  You can see my little paddle blade sticking out there.

Then of course Tyler came in and pulled a jib move right of the lip.

We owe the success of this descent to South Africa Hendri Coetzee.  He is probably the most seasoned African river explorer of our time having paddle the source to sea of both the White and Blue Nile Rivers.

A photo of Hendri cracking the whip on Tyler.  Very different personalities.

I had a conversation with Hendri the other day and he has some very interesting ideas brewing.

"I now find in the deepset darkest forest in the deepest darkest country in deep dark africa. I am in the congo doing some research  for anti poaching for a couple of American Phd’s.  Its pretty far out. First camp is only 5 days walk from the nearest town but then it gets remote as you go deeper.   The skit is, me and a ex soldier, poacher, type dude walk through the forest looking for traps and signs of animals through areas that have never been mapped or seen by anyone else apart from a few forest hunters."

"It’s a freaking jungle. Have found someone who walks like a real man, even if he is only 5 feet, the little bugger passes through trees to magically appear on the other side, while the white guy has to wrestle for every step forward. Its slightly tiring and the jungle can be unfriendly"

Hendri is learning how to pass through the jungle quietly.  Next month, he will set out on the last biggest first descent known to man as he will starting paddling the Congo River from it's source and attempt to pass through the lost dimension to the sea.

There is a legend of two frenchman that once attempted this never to return.  The Congo is the most un-mapped region in the world.  If he makes it...he will come out with stories that will be the most historical account of adventure in ALL time history.

KAVU Pres Barry Barr is a busy man.........

"Its best to do business face to face" is Barry's quote of the week!  He has been globe trotting to all the far corners of the world.  The last month has taken the man to China, Peru.....and now back to Japan to look eye to eye with all of our wonderful KAVU worldwide locals and make sure they are getting the real story about KAVU.

Barry in Shang Hai, China:

The reports from Japan are VERY good.  The other day Barry asked Shin-Doggie (our all star KAVU distributor from A & F Corp).  Hey man what are they biting?  Shin casually responded...."The End of my line!"

It is this kind of face to face interaction and service here at KAVU that we take great pride in.  Customer Service is our number one!  Styles around the world are very different from place to place.  How else could we possibly come up with these market-specific products for our folks in Japan?

Being away from the office so much puts Barry in the office late nights and a lot of weekends.  Lucky for us, these days our team is so tight that all he has to do is sit in on a couple of meetings to make sure things are running smooth!  THEY ARE!!!

Among all this....Barry has been working on the underground Seattle scene-- and we are proud to say that this summer....we will be moving into a bigger, bader and better store on Ballard Ave, Seattle. We will keep you posted on the grand opening!  

ON THE LOCAL WORLDWIDE SCENE...OUR ALL-STAR KAVU CHARACTERS ARE LOVING LIFE.

Team KAVU Hang Glide...the "Jeffs" have continued to lay skid marks around the world on the flying front.  The claimed 3 covers of 3 different magazines in the last 3 months!!!

The "Scotts" (Scott Ligare and Katy Scott) have been taking advantage of the changing seasons.  They have been using every last bit of moving water from the sky-mountain-river scene.

Not only have they been reporting a ton of late-season snow in the sierras....

The thermals and rivers have been PUMPING in the lower elevations!!

Scott Ligare has been getting the hang of the paragliding thing!

"I had a KAVU DAY and it was this big!!!!!"

Mountain to River~

Just had the greatest 7 days of skiing in my life!  We flew into the Purcell Mountains from Kaslo, BC (a little North of Nelson).  This hut is nestled in the perfect spot.  It is called the Powder Creek Lodge.

It snowed 3 feet the day before we arrived, followed by 3 days of constant snow.

We skiied pretty much everything.....

It was some of the best backcountry skiing imaginable!  We hiked turn for turn the whole week.

I spent a lot of time filming for our new KAVU Elements film, trying to get some good point of view angles.  This is a contraption we designed to film a birds eye view of powder skiing.

It worked pretty damn well!!!  This is a still image I took off the video.

I've been back in Montana, taking a quick break from the tour, and staying caught up on the editing:)

The weather just got really good around here, so we are having an abrupt transition into spring.  The water is melting into the rivers!

Sunday was opening day and the river rats were in full force!

There was tons of surfing to be had!

It's shaping up to be a good season, see you all on the river soon!

Pushing the Boundaries:)

There has been some recent news on the world extreme scene.  One of the saddest events in the world of action sports occurred this week as Ski BASE jumping pioneer Shane Mckonkey sadly passed on an attempt to pull a multi-faceted stunt in the Dolomites, Italy.  

This guy is one of the greatest  personalities in the face of skiing.  Not only was he out there doing some of the craziest stunts known to man but he managed to keep his humor and humility throughout his sponsor littered rock star image in the ski industry.  He is among the only names I know in skiing, and watching his movies make even me want to huck a 400 footer on my skis.  With the news of this accident, I don't think that is going to be happening, and it will no doubt make a compression in the sport of Ski BASE jumping.  Big Bummer.

In my eyes, this no doubt casts a shadow on folks that have made it their lives mission to push the boundaries of action sports.  

I was just watching an episode of the Today Show (check the link for the episode) where a mixed group of Brazillian/American kayakers aided in support of the world record breaking descent of a 127 foot waterfall in Brazil.

Not even half way down the falls he went over vertical and landed upside down on his head.  Watching the footage reminded me of a leaf falling from a tree and fluttering down.  In my opinion these kinds of things over-pass the essence of sport, and is a fabricated vision into what these folks dream it can be.  

Lets not forget about the lifestyle.  The most important thing is FUN!  I just want to encourage people to not be discouraged or encouraged by the successes/failures of people pushing the boundaries.  Just like for them the experience is yours and what you make of it.  Do what makes you happy and keep the world on your terms.

Creation is the key to evolution.  Don't take yourself too seriously.  Look at Jeff Obrien one of our KAVU athletes for example.  He was sick of having a sun-burned nose so he invented this awesome nose-guard for Hang Gliding..  I doesn't really look that cool, but hey, who is there to impress when it's just man and sky?  Buy one and join the movement at at superdopenoseguards.com . 

Or Tyler Bradt.  Most people would think by the look of this picture that he was some kind circus show freak.  But in all reality he is a professional kayak with a lifestyle focus.

Or take Caroline.  She has totally abandoned the idea of having a boyfriend.  She sleeps with her skis and takes them everywhere she goes....just like they were her boytoys.  The do pretty much everything she says.  She doesn't care what other people think.

Stay Safe, Keep it Real and live every day as if it was your last.  Keep brewing the KAVU Days and stay with the ear to ear smiling theme.  

KAVU Elements Mountain Tour.....CHECK!

The KAVU Elements Tour has been making its mark.  In the last 7 short months, Baby and I have hosted over 70 events in 37 cities!  We have now put the Mountain Tour under wraps after a great week in Bozeman and Bigsky, MT.  We are now waiting for the snow to melt so we can conduct the forth and final phase of the Tour:  RIVER!!

So.....For a quick Re-Cap:  We started on the coast of Baja and Mainland Mexico for some surf!

Then we moved from the Ocean to the Air as the moisture was pulled from the Water to the Clouds:)

Then we moved from the Clouds to the mountains through Gravity.

The Snow Accumulated..........(pretty damn well this winter).

....AND we skied our brains out!!

All along the way, we used our journey of the Life Cycle of water to teach about renewable energy at schools.....

Chat with some good KAVU style Peeps:)

And learn some great things ourselves!

Recently, we have been taking some time to meet with a bunch of our KAVU retailers in the different towns we visit!

Jack Dennis in downtown Jackson is a big KAVU supporter~

Peaked Sports in Driggs, ID has been on board with us forever!!

Some of their employees even use vegetable oil to power their vehicles!

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE DAY TO DAY  OF THE ENTIRE TRIP ON OUR KAVU ELEMENTS BLOG

KAVUers Keepin it Real

Recently The Scotts and Charlie Center (all KAVU sponsored ambassadors) premiered their new film, The Last Descent at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City, CA.  They were voted and honored with the People's Choice award from 180 films.  The same award that Oil and Water received last year.

This is HUGE!  Check out their video trailer The Last Descent

Are crazy world traveling surfer girl, Alison Teal just checked back in from Morocco.  

KAVU adventurers always find fun ways to get the waves...

She is currently back home in Hawaii working on a film of her latest surfing adventure over there.  She was there long enough to scope some sweet waves.

She is always getting hands on with the wildlife.

And mingling with the locals.

As well the Jeffs have been KILLING IT!

Shapiro is designing his own high performance hang gliding harness and the boys have been making some trips down to the Wills Wing factory in Los Angeles and helping them test out new products.

The are continuing their streak of media success.  They recently published and article about their encounters with the Elements tour.  check it:

The Jeffs have a bunch of stuff planned in the up and coming year, so standby on that one.

The KAVU Elements Tour is still on the road!  Baby is making it...as always just barely.  For the past 10 days we have been terrorizing the Idaho Backcountry in the Sawtooths and Smokey Mountains.  We have been just brewing the KAVU experiences.

We have been hiking from hut to yurt to hut with all the gear we need for a total of 9 days in the wilderness!

The Nature Propelled film is coming along dandy.

The skiing has been out of this world.

And the lifestyle that little kids dream of.

Not to mention the non-stop breathtaking views.

It is the GOOODS.  

See you next time!

It has been a good Winter!

Hey Peeps, sorry for the lack of communication lately.  If you haven't caught wind, Baby and I are back on the road....living out our mountain journey, and the last three weeks have been super high pace without much time to slow down and get on the internet to share the adventures.  Fortunately, things are slowing down a tad as we have just arrived in Salt Lake City to meet up with the whole KAVU crew for the outdoor retailer.  I have a quick moment of tranquility and it is time to inform you as to what the KAVU worldwiders are up to out there!~ 

Caroline Gleich is stepping it up this year.  She will be one of the starring characters in our new KAVU production "Nature Propelled" and she is currently traveling the world busy livin' the dream.

We caught up with Caroline here in Salt Lake at here favorite Ski are....ALTA!

We got some good days in.  One Chalky day....

And one Blue Bird Pow Day.

Carloline and her Roxy Sidekick Iris are going to be doing some Back Country in the Sawtooths with us in the coming weeks....

But first she recently jetted off to Japan to enjoy some of the freshies that are puking over there.  She is sharing a house with like 10 dudes!

I think she is handling it well....knowing her.  I guess the snow has been neck deep in pow.

But shredding it to pieces

The boys plan on making her famous (and themselves).

Follow more of Caroline's Adventures

Meanwhile the KAVU Elements Tour just slayed Colorado.

For 15 Days....We would get up and visit a school in the morning.

Set up slopeside 

Go Skiing All day

Then host public events at night!

Please FaceBook Elements Tour, or check out the project blog for more

SOUTH AMERICAN UPDATE:)

As we are enjoying winter many of our following is playing in summer....take our South American Paddler Rodrigo for example!

The take out for the Nevados River (close to his home in Pucon, Chile) is usually right above this drop...but not any more!  He claimed the first descent recently.

Also, Scott Doherty, Principal has a cool job.....scouting new locations for the World Class Kayak Academy.  He recently got things dialed in Peru and checked in with this KAVU image:)

AND WE HAVE SOME MAJOR ACTION ON THE ASIA SUMMER FRONT AS WELL!

INKA recently checked in with a report from Nepal:)  Some words from Inka:)

"The results of this project blows my own mind away. Less than a year after we came up with the idea of starting Himalayan River Girls we have fourteen Nepali ladies active in the club.  

 Four of the girls that started learning kayaking in the spring are now employed with a rafting company and are supporting themselves as trainee river guides.

One of them has reached her dream to be the first woman to win the Himalayan Whitewater Challenge.

Altogether ten girls took part in the five week long Nepali women´s river guide training that we organised this fall season and 21 female kayakers from all over our planet came to do a river trip with us. And the best news: Five of Nepal´s most prominent rafting companies have come forward to let us know they would like to employ these ladies. 
 

BABY RIDES!!

Well, it has been a long month!  We recently completed a short promo film for our new KAVU Elements Project.  Check it out on YouTube:

Nature Propelled Promo Video

I'm excited to announce that Baby and I have officially kicked off our Mountain Tour.  We started with a frigid trip from the Elements Office in Missoula, MT to Salt Lake City to catch up with KAVU athlete Caroline Gleich.

The Traveling Team is headed to Colorado and we have an amazing crew for the action.  Larry Nesky and KAVU athlete Andy Feuling are on board.

We have been skiing Snowbird and Alta with Caroline.

Check out this video of Caroline from the other day skiing: Caroline Ski Action

We haven't had the most epic conditions in the world as yet, but it has been super fun.......

We are headed out to Colorado for a sleu of events starting early next week.  Follow along at Nature Propel

In some other Athlete news:)

One of our paddlers Inka Trondheim recently help organize the Himalayan Whitewater Challenge in Nepal.

After getting denied on bringing his Kayak to Malaysia and falling asleep at the gate, he missed his flight and was unable to re-book it.  So he is now in route to go paddling in Columbia.

Alison Teal has been MIA in Morocco for a long time, we are expecting to hear from her soon:)

All is well in KAVU land.  We are experienceing some serious winter seasons throughout the West.  

Hope everyone had a happy holidays!