Mion Footwear is an awesome new shoe company, started by the former owner of Keen, Mr Martin Keen. Though, do not be confused, Mion is not affiliated with Keen at all. Mion (My Own) is a brand new company and Martin Keen has created some incredible new designs. Mion is totally committed to the environment and to prove it they have gone carbon neutral, meaning they do not pollute. Part of the way they achieve this is by buying back green energy, using terrapass for all their rep vehicles, and more. As part of my relationship with Mion I provide kayaking video content online for the paddling community and consequently, for any and all visitors to the Mion site as well. Visit MionFootwear.com and you'll see this image after the homepage loads. I usually update this video once or twice a month with a brand new video. The URL always remains the same but the video changes monthly click HERE to see it


Chris Gragtmans and I headed down to the Ocoee last weekend for a demo day/river with Overflow Outfitters. Officially, this was a stop on the Riot "paddle with some fabulous guys" tour. Kevin Palmer from Overflow met up with us at the putin with a couple of his chaps from Northern Georgia. Anywho, we had a good ol time on the river then retreated to Ducktown or Copperhill for some Mexican cuisine. I believe it was Kevin who said, and I quote, "they should just cut out the middle man and just dump this food directly into the toilet." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Overflow Outfitters is such a successful retail shop.
Here sat our dinner club while Chris told some campfire stories about wild and scenic Africa. Chris is here to learn and to entertain, not to make out with you.


James Trombley works at Diamond Brand in Asheville NC. Recently, James his his first loop, air flip, on a trip we took to the Nolichucky. He was psyched out of his gourd and his excitement is the inspiration for my newest video. Check it out. .
Here is James as happy as a lark...


Good buddy Cooper Lambla met us there and threw some of the nastiest space godzillas I've seen. Kid was absolutely going off the hook in the Astro 58. Tall, lanky, lightweight kid + short, high volume playboat = large air.


My friend Colin Kemp was with us on the Noli that day and I also took him over to Eternity hole for a session one evening. Colin works for Jackson Kayak and used to run a shop in DC called Valley Mill. Colin is 6'5" and 230 lbs. It is so awesome seeing a guy that large absolutely kill it in a play boat.

Our night session at Eternity. The water is coooooold and the kayakers were blurry they were moving so quickly.


Alas, the Green finally turned back on at 100% after almost two weeks of 60% or being shut down. Nathan Silsbee and I got out on the water a couple days and filmed some river running and down river freestyle in the Magnum and Thunder. The Magnum proves itself time and time again as a great creek boat and the Thunder is definitely on its way to doing the same as a playful creeker or beginner/intermediate river runner. The Riot Booster was one of Riot's most popular boats over the past few years until the Magnum and Thunder arrived. The popularity of the Booster's smooth and forgiving, yet surfy and playful hull inspired us to make the Thunder. People loved the way the Booster surfed and handled down river but wanted a larger, more creeky style deck, and the Thunder was born. I've paddled the boat a bit on the Green and at the US National Whitewater Center and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it, especially for the paddler who is beginning and wants something safe that they can grow into and not grow out of immediately. It's also perfect for the intermediate to advance creeker who enjoys class IV, Wilson Creek type of runs.
Here is Silsbee going for the freewheel off of the Groove Tube boof.

Silsbee running a smooth line at Sunshine


Once again, click HERE to see the new video featuring all the above topics. Visit my Youtube channel for all my archived videos youtube.com/kayakvideo

Later,

Spencer Cooke
Effort.tv

In an attempt to keep the feeling of Effort.tv's "news on the turds" alive I will be reporting on a rather appropriate topic today. Yes, here in Charlotte NC it's April twenty-turd... but everywhere else it's just a plain April twenty-third. I'm here at the US National Whitewater Center for a short visit.

As a sales rep I was privileged to use the exclusive employee restroom when I came across one of the funnier things about this place. I nearly peed my pants upon entering the restroom when I saw this sign beside the door. By the way, "peeing your pants is the coolest. Everybody my age pees their pants." So says Mr Madison anyway.

To me this sign says, "Come on in. We accept men, women and unusually small people or monkeys in wheelchairs." Or, "use the bathroom here if you are a giant man or woman or a normal sized person in a wheelchair." Whatever the meaning, those people a the USNWC need to get their heads Z-rayed.

Later Garrett Bryant and I celebrated our newfound, glorious, stupendous bathroom sign by eating an entire birthday cake and a dozen cheeseburgers. To explain Garrett's cast, he had a horrible birthday cake candle blowing out accident and broke his arm.


While I'm on the topic of hilarious, new, unusual and exotic signs, I was up in Boone NC last week when I visited my beloved Boone Baglery restaurant. To my delight they have banned smoking in their facility.


And that, boys and girls, is how to not get your head stuck in the rear end of an adult gorilla. The end.

Back in October Ray Cotton and Drew Hayes did a surf trip to Panama and found some large waves. They took one of my video cameras and got a few shots. Well, the footage wasn't that great but I was able to pull some still grabs from it so you can see the size of the stuff they were surfing... enormous.

Of course the normal tomfoolery was at hand. Driving across rivers way too fast in the rental vehicle.


And they probably yelled at those cows when they got close enough.


This is Ray. Drew was not available for a photo session. The last time he had his glamour shots done he swore he'd never step foot in front of a camera again. That silly puddy accident taught him a lesson.


That little thing at the top of the wave is Ray dropping in.


This was a quite impressive double-up wave that Drew managed to escape. Drew seems to be able to sprout wings out of his butt and fly out of some of the nastiest waves you've ever seen. I don't know how he does it. Scary. Sometimes Drew just sprouts the wings for no reason at all. He doesn't even have to be kayaking. I think he's just showing off his butt wings.





Maybe at some point they'll expand on the trip report but for now that's all I know. They did mention a couple really bad beatings and one swim that scared them pretty bad. Sounds like Panama in October is large and in charge.

Hi there freindzzzzzzzzzzzz. I've been thinking a lot about penguins lately.

"It's too damn hot for a penguin to be just walkin' around. I gotta send you back to the South Pole!"