Hey Michael, I just got back home from Uganda a few days ago and have spent the last few days shredding the snow. It was sad leaving the warm weather and water, the chill people, and the big waves. The Nile was an amazing place to spend the holidays. On Christmas eve, the locals from the village above the Nile Special provided us with food and drinks for our night surf session on the Special. New Years was a wild party at NRE then to be continued at the casino in Jinja where good times were had by all.

This was possibly the last year to paddle the day 1 stretch wich has many channels of big rapids due to the dam in progress. The day 2 stretch will still be able to be run which includes the Nile Special, Hair of the Dog and Club wave. No one really knows thouh what flows will be like, but lets cross our fingers that we dont lose these waves as well.

Now 21 hours of flying later, Im back to the real world. Today I have a meeting with my school where I will be studying surgical technology.

Here are a few photos, and Im in the process of making a short film so more to come soon.

Thanks,

Dustin Stoenner

Team Bliss-Stick

 

 

 

Hi Michael-

We went to Eternity Hole on the Tuck on Sunday. It was his fist time with the boat in whitewater. Here are a couple of pics. He was hitting big loops and was excited about how it handles.

Jere Rudisill

New Star Marketing Support Services

 

 

 

The Stouts in Chile

Hey this is Stephen Forster here come from Chile. The rivers here are amazing. I have been paddling with Jake Greenbaum who is on Team Dagger and we have been running famous Pucon runs such as the Nevados, llancahue, and Palguin. Last week I fired up the 4th descent of Salto Palguin which is a ninety footer with a very difficult entrance. After that I ran the third descent of the ten footer above the seventy footer on the Palguin. I am currently at the Rio Maipo now looking for first descents with Tino Specht and Jake Greenbaum. In the next few days we will be traveling down south to run more big drops. Here are some pictures of demshitz drop and the Salto Palguin.

 

 

 

I’ve been waiting quite sometime to make it over to the Raven Fork, so the long drive over to the river was filled with much anticipation. The weather was perfect for a December run.

The fun begins on the shuttle ride up. The road is a pretty full on; it’s a 4x4 road filled with precarious rocks and deep ruts. It ends deep up in the Raven Fork Gorge blanketed by rhododendron with the river waiting below. The hike in isn’t too grueling but it does end in a short scramble upstream to reach the put in at Lord of the Rings section.

We sat, taking a short break at The Lord of the Rings section. The section offers a nice warm up, and is filled with a few great boofs before you get to the Anaconda.

The gradient picks up at Anaconda to some of the steepest in the Southeast. From here, the action keeps up with great boofs, big slides, and a few portages. The gradient stays consistently high until portaging Mangler and after this, its time to relax as the river just turns to easy boogie down to the take out. We had a great crew composed of Fergus Coffey, Adam Seacrest, Chris Gragtmans, and myself. Unfortunately, Adam cracked his boat shortly after we put on and had to hike out. Besides this, we all had great lines and a whole lot of fun.

The run dishes out some of the biggest and best rapids in the Southeast. It is certain to have you eagerly awaiting your next trip. A big thanks to Chris Gragtmans and Fergus Coffey for showing me down my first time!

Sam Fulbright

Team Bliss-Stick