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TODOS PHOTOS

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Just got back from surfing in Ecuador a couple days ago. I'm gonna put a big blog post up about the trip as soon as I get all the photos, video and journal processed. Here's a pic for the meantime. That's Drew Hayes doing a huge air dropin at Punta Malo.



While we're waiting for the Ecuador trip report check out the last Riot post I did about the rock slide at Wilson Creek. Video of helixes off the rock is there too...Riot Blog

We have added a Team Blog to the Riot Kayaks page. Our first big posts are already up, including Chris Gragtmans sicko descent of Elk River Falls in NC. Check out the blog. There are photos and video. Is nastilyfiednessvilleburg...SeeRiot Blog

We will be making tons of updates to this page on a regular basis. We already have a couple more ready. We just want to give everyone time to see what's on there currently.

The intellect of many of my good friends is more than often questionable. This is not an insult to those guys but more so insight for you. And maybe I'm just telling myself this to justify the fact that I associate with a bunch of heehaws. At any rate, here are some really retarted, yet entertaining phone messages I received recently. They are small MP3 files. Please download and listen at your own discretion.

Drew Hayes leaves me a surf report way too loud and annoying - Surf Report Download

Mitchell Morton serenades with a beautiful, off-the-hip tune, ASS CLOWN. A real sing along that should hit the top 40 charts before too long - Download Ass Clown. Mitchell really is an incredible musician in real life. His main band at the moment is Flav-o-rich.

Nathan McDade busts out this nasty freestyle rap after inquiring about an H2O Audio housing. Dude is hilarious. Nate Dawg Download

Israel Putnam is the least sarcastic guy I know. And I have a button I can push on my arm that makes me sprout wings and fly while fireworks shoot out of my butt. That was completely unnecessary, and so is Israel's constant badgering of "pro boaters." Not really though. Listen to Israel

4 Newses today

1. H2O Audio is featured in Wired as a Cool iPod accessory. Click to see

2. Shred Ready will release a new Water/Snow helmet, the Phly, in December. Read more...

3. New Design/R&D page here at Effort.tv with the new Charger Surf Kayak video. Check it out.

4. Plus, big surf yesterday...


Holy crap big surf at Wrightsville Beach yesterday. Joey Hall, Philip Aschliman and I surfed at Wrightsville Beach, NC yesterday. I have to say it was the biggest surf I've seen there. I may have seen it this big but not this big combined with this steep and dumpy. Though dumpy there were a lot of makeable waves out there. Getting to them was the hard part.

We were lucky to have gotten to surf this swell even though we got our asses kicked. Joey and I drove down thinking we might get into some waist to chest high surf but we were very suprised at what we woke up to on Monday morning. You'll have to bear with us on the quality of these images. These are all video grabs, but the video footage itself wasn't all that good, and some of it was close to dark.

As usual with ocean surf, you get to the beach and you say, oh, that doesn't look all that big. Then you get out in it and realize the error of your ways. Well, this day we looked at the waves and said, oh, it looks really big out there, but we should be fine. We paddled out at Johhny Mercer's pier and got our clocks cleaned before we could even catch a wave. We actually spent about an hour just trying to get out. We semi-successfully surfed a couple inside waves since we couldn't get to the outside break. The sets were relentless. One time I got washing machined so hard that all I could do was concentrate on holding on to my paddle and my lunch. The chicken dinner from Roberts Grocery didn't taste as good the second time. When we arrived to the beach Joey had gotten out in the water before us. As Philip and I got close to the outer break we see J-ho surfing in on this monster foam pile with his helmet on sideways and one of his ear flaps hanging out the side. He was waving bye to us and laughing. We assumed he had just bought it on that wave. Like I said, we tried to get out for an hour with no luck and ended up surfing some sloppy inside stuff. I ended that session landing on my head in the sand and cracking my boat while Philip laughed and hhheeehhhawwwed!!! at me.

We went back to the car and decided we'd check back later in the evening. At about 3pm we went down and looked at Crystal Pier. The wind had calmed and it actually looked like we could make it out here. The stand-uppers were getting some nice rides but it wasn't too crowded out there. The size seemed to weed out the novices. Joey and I decided to give her another try. We made it out okay this time. You can see that the size was still just as big or bigger. On the photo below it is dark but you can see Joey on his way out, just making it over the top of a huge king steamer.

We ended up getting a few rides but passing up way more than we took due to fear. We were psyched to have been able to catch this surf unexpectedly and wish we could have stayed a couple more days. Today's report was 4 ft, glassy and off shore winds. I hope someone got on it. Here are a few more photos of the evening. This is a takeoff I got on a pretty nice one. Though, I came off that wave and immedaitely got pummled on the way back out by this next one.


Despite the ass poundings received we put it down as a good day. Much better than if it had been small surf. It's nice to be humbled sometimes.

Here are a few more shots of some notables.

Joey Hall, Rion Smith and I went down to Folly Beach, SC in September. Hurricane Ophelia was churning off the coast and sending in some nice sets. We didn't get too much footage, but here's a short reel of what we captured. I've had this footage sitting here for a while and haven't had a chance to edit anything.

click to download video - Quicktime format 5.7mb

I've been trying to find an excuse to start this blog and this seemed like a good one. Green race results.

I placed 5th in the short boat category with a 5 min. 15 sec. time in the Riot Magnum.
This was my race line at Go Left.



My friend Chris Gragtmans placed 2nd in long boat with a 4:40 in a Tornado. Gragtmans also placed 7th in Short boat and was the ironman (racers who do long and short boat class. you have to hike back up the river and get your short boat after you race long boat) winner. I think he won the impromptu head-2-head race as well.
Chris' line at go left in the short boat class.

photos of Chris and I are courtesy of

We both used our iPods with H2O Audio housings in the race and loved it. It's an awesome motivator to have music in your ears when you're doing something like this.


My good friend Caleb Coaplen placed 8th in long boat as well with a 4:58.
Caleb is pictured here charging through speed trap below gorilla.

photo by

Here is a link the full Green Race Results '05 at Jackson Kayak's site.

New H2O Audio Video Clinic. See all about how the H2O Audio Housings work. It's in the video gallery.

email 1 - 10.30.05





hayscratchem720 wrote...

Your website is just super. I ran across it while looking for some on-line resources for fort building. We had all of the cushions off of the couch and a blanket to work with but still needed some help. Our search for efort.tv lead us to your site. Although we never got the help we were seeking with chair integration into our new living room fort rollout and bedroom fort migration procedure we thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity and childlike elements of your website.



Thank you for the memories,



Bart, Manuel, Ronny, Jimmy, and Spot



PS: Do you find poo funny too?



Pps that web site is WEAK! Bill (my friend Vegas Bill no likey)

Effort.tv replied

Dear scratchem,

Thanks for your heartfelt comments and critiques. I haven't laughed that hard since like ten minutes ago. You're crazy. Wear a helmet.

email 2 - 10.30.05





yardapultjones wrote...

Wicked cool, now get outa my yard.



Sooo….now that you’re back on team Riot…I’m a 3 pound circus monkey, can I flatwheel a 007?

Effort.tv replied

Dear yardapultjones,

I'll answer your question with another question. How much does a car weigh?

email 3 - 10.30.05





puttyhead wrote...

Well, well, well, what's that old proverb about a dog always returning to it's own vomit? Nah, I'm just joshing you. You suck.

Effort.tv replied

Dear puttyhead,

I don't get it. And what's up with me sucking? What'd I do? You're on junk filter from now on.

News addendum: Chris Gragtmans and Joey Hall join Team Riot. Announcement.

I got some more email feedback about the site.

hayscratchem720 wrote...

yardapultjones wrote...

puttyhead wrote...

New Video up today - featuring Colin Kemp at Valley Mill Boat Shop - Click here to download



This is the coolest thing for anyone who is using a Mac and running the Tiger OS. John Weld from IR sent this to me this morning. It's a widget that you can run in the application, Dashboard, called River Levels and it gives you a constant monitoring of...you guessed it, river levels. Here's where to download it http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19727

Today I got my first email feedback on the new site and it read something, well...exactly like this,

"just want you to know your website sucks and so do you! yippeee! "

This site has been launched. That's news.

In other news this site has not not been launched.



Features of possible entertainment may include:



I have joined the Riot Kayak Team - more on this



Featured Dealer - Colin Kemp at Valley Mill -

more info about Valley MIll



My first short film "the TRAVELERS" - Visit the video gallery to download it.



Featured Product - H2O Audio

October 20th, 2005



I am pleased to announce that I have joined with Riot Kayaks as a team paddler. From 1997-2000 I was involved with Riot as the Southeastern sales rep, and have always been a fan of their boat designs. I feel the company has come a long way since then, from boat design to customer service. They really seem to have their ducks in a row. The '06 line looks awesome and I'm really looking forward to paddling the boats. I'll be working on several levels with the company: With R&D to help design future Riot kayaks, networking with the dealers and Riot sales reps, providing continual, up to date video, photos and stories for the Riot web site, and much more.



October 30th, 2005


I am equally happy to announce that my two great friends and paddling comrades, Joey Hall and Chris Gragtmans, have joined the team as Riot Pros as well.



Additionally, Joey and Chris are team paddlers for Shred Ready and H2O Audio. We three work together really well and will, as usual, be teaming up for paddling missions, filming, demos and web posts.

The three of us are pictured here hanging out together. You may notice that Chris looks much smaller. It only seems that way because he's so much younger. He just turned 20. Sometimes we let him actually stand up in the back of the truck. But only when he's been a good boy.




Riot is getting us set up with access to their web site so we'll be making posts on their news section as well as here at Effort.tv. Now we're just waiting on a shipment of boats so we can get started. We have some Magnums, Astros and more on the shipment. Drop us an email if you want to borrow a demo boat.

Joey - deadmanprd@earthlink.net

Chris - c_gragtmans@hotmail.com

Spence - hhheeehhhawww@earthlink.net

See you later. Until then, keep fighting Mr. Tooth Decay.



Sincerely,




Spencer Cooke

Summer Excursions

So far summer has given up some excellent time on the water for me around home and elsewhere.

click here to see SUMMER EXCURSION VIDEO (big file)
click here to see SUMMER EXCURSION VIDEO (small file)
Music on the video is by Ester Drang
Courtesy www.JadeTree.com

After returning home from Canada on June 1st I had a couple weeks off the water and in the office to catch up on some things before heading out to Colorado to visit some friends and paddle. I fly out to Denver on June 13th but first I had to make a quick jaunt to DC to do some employee training on IR's products for Hudson Trail Outfitters. This was a whirlwind trip but I did get to paddle the center line at Great Falls on the Potomac a couple times with my friend, Dave Blanding, who was also there for the Hudson Trail clinics.

Scouting the line at Grace Under Pressure.


I took the Crux out, and on our second run got a solid aerial boof at the rapid, Grace Under Pressure. This is a really fun, and not too hard, (about a 12 foot boof) drop at the top of the falls that is runnable in the 3 ft range on the gauge. Anyway, I blazed back home after that and got packed up for Colorado.

Waiting for the connection to Denver with all my camera and computer gear.


On Monday evening, the 13th, I arrived in Denver, greeted by a long time friend, Andre Spino-Smith. If you don't know him, Andre, who is an incredibly talented paddler from Virginia, now lives in Salida where he sells real estate for the South Main River Park development, which is headed up by some other good friends of mine, Jed and Katie Selby. Anyway, it's really exciting for me to see Andre doing this. Since I first met him, when he was fifteen, he has been mature beyond his years, and I think he still is. This is a really cool project too. Located practically next door to the South Main River Park in Buena Vista is Colorado Kayak Supply .

CKS, the premiere kayak shop in Colorado, and in the running for best worldwide, is a Necky dealer and was kind enough to hold an Orbit Fish for me to paddle for my week long stay. Thanks CKS! This trip was all play paddling, encompassing the play park in Salida, an overnight trip on Brown's Canyon with raft support from Buffalo Joe's Rafting Co. , and the wave In Buena Vista.

The view of camp on Browns Canyon from a high cliff.

Browns Canyon View

All these are on different sections of the Arkansas River and all very worthwhile.
A blunt at the wave in Buena Vista. This spot is in walking distance from the CKS store. Practically in town.

On the weekend we competed at the Salida hole in the FIBARK event. I earned my very first ever dead last place. Aside from washing out twice on my first ride I actually did pretty well to have gotten last. I hit one of my first McNasties ever in my second ride and some other standard stuff like loops and an air flip, but blew my Space Godzillas and other variety.
A McNasty in the bottom hole at Salida.

Another McNasty in the top hole of Salida during the competition.

The level of competition in the pro class is so incredibly high it is hard to conceptualize. To be top five or ten you would have to hit a plethora of moves back to back within the first fifteen seconds of the ride. I'm not kidding - front loop, back loop, air flip, mcnasty both ways, space godzilla both ways, orbit both ways or some other rendition was all completed perfectly in a matter of seconds by the top five placers. I felt an urge to do some catching up in the competition department. Doing one or two events per year for the past four years has gotten me a bit behind schedule. It was very fun nonetheless.

While in Buena Vista I was paddling with my friend Dave Fusilli, who is sponsored by a new company called H2O Audio . I saw Fusilli paddling with this thing and I asked about it. It's a waterproof housing and headphones for an iPod. You play boat as hard as you want all day with this thing and never worry about getting your iPod wet. It's even waterproof down to 10 feet. Ironically, I get home from my trip and find out that H2O Audio needs a sales rep and team paddler to represent them in the southeast, and I got the job. I've used this thing a few times now and can't say enough good things about it. If you have an iPod and you paddle, or do any other water sport for that matter, you have to have one.

Here I am looking up a new play list before I drop into the hole on the Nolichucky.

The housing fits nicely into a secure pfd pocket.

Air flip to music. The headphones stay in place perfectly and you never notice the extra bluk of the player.


I was home by noon on the 22nd, just in time for it to rain all weekend in Western NC, compliments of a couple early season hurricanes coming out of the gulf. Within the next week we received several inches of rain making it nearly impossible to sit in my office every day and catch up on all the work I've been neglecting. Water is here and it's the middle of summer, so I couldn't resist paddling a few times, and I work nights a lot anyway. Might as well paddle part of the day. That excuse got old eventually being it's August now and there has been good water all summer. During the end of June and Beginning of July the water was best and I was able to get on a few things - Horsepasture, Toxaway, Overflow and the Upper Rocky Broad.

My view hiking out of the Horsepasture with boat on head.


Horsepasture rest stop.


Upper Rocky Broad was a first for me and it's twenty minutes from my house. Three fun class IV+ drops start the run off then it's boogie class III-IV for about three miles, all close to the road. This run is fun and not terribly hard. I'm gonna go back for sure. The hikes out of both the Horsepasture and Toxaway make for a rewarding day on the river.

Toxaway Photos:
Putting in below the falls. Notice the OREO truck going across the bridge at the top.

Portage above Energizer.

Ben Marr from Ontario drove 18 hours straight to do the Toxaway this day. Here he is getting his money's worth in a Crux on Energizer Bunny with his buddy Chris Gragtmans filming.

Ben follows Chris down the best rapid of his life, Wintergreen.


I hadn't been to Overflow in a couple years and had forgotten how great of a run it is.

Here is Ray Cotton running Singley's Falls.

Between creeking days the Nolichucky made for some fun playing.

An air flip at Quarter Mile hole.

July 16th was the Potomac River Festival in DC, so with my compadre Raymond, I headed back to the capital for another weekend and a little competing. I think the level was around 3.6 on game day so the race ended up happening on the center line of the falls and the freestyle event was at the S-turn wave. For racing I broke out my old blunt and placed about middle of the pack, lucky #13. Though I'm not a big racer this one was super fun to do, and I came out 2nd in the freestyle event paddling the Vibe. It made me feel a little better about my last place in Colorado.

A blunt in one of my rides at S-Turn.

This makes my third year in a row competing in this event. Oddly, I placed 3rd last year and 4th the previous year. At any rate I was excited to take 2nd behind Luke Hopkins. I think the running order of the placings was:
1st Luke Hopkins
2nd Oneself
3rd Todd Baker
4th Keith Liles
5th Bryan Kirk, and I forget after that. Joe Stumpfel and Seth Chapel, who are both ripping C1ers and Potomac locals, were also in the mix and placed high overall, but they divided out the scores for separate K1 and C1 results. I thank Colin Kemp and Rob Terry from Valley Mill Kayak Shop in Gaithersburg for organizing a great event.

In closing, at the end of July, along with Joey Hall and Ray Cotton, I was able to take our good friend Drew Hayes down the Nolichucky for his first time. He got his first air flips at quarter mile hole. Although it was nearly unbearable, due to his unwavering and steadfast annoyances, to be around him for a whole day, we were all proud of his accomplishments.

This wraps it up for now. Most likely we won't post again in August since we have trade shows coming up and will be busy traveling and working. Probably not much paddling this month either. Hopefully everyone will have some water to enjoy.

Signing off for now,

Spencer Cooke, Team Necky

click here to see SUMMER EXCURSION VIDEO (big file)
click here to see SUMMER EXCURSION VIDEO (small file)
Music on the video is by Ester Drang
Courtesy www.JadeTree.com

posted by Effort.tv