So a few years ago, we had a customer request a skirt with a smaller tunnel put in front of the normal tunnel so he could plop his kid in there and go kayaking- presumably on a lake or class I and II stuff. It seemed harmless enough. But we may have made a mistake when we told Tommy Hilleke about this. He immediately asked us for one, and the implications are, well, lets just say terrifying thought provoking. Some pics of Tommy’s new toy:
If this is something that interests you, let us know.
We recently received a couple of requests for a product we had never made before, and after some consideration, we thought it was actually a pretty cool idea: a drysuit with a skirt sewn right into the outer tunnel. A drydeck meets drysuit. Our own Jon Harmon modeled the suit before we sent it out. If you are interested in a product like this, let us know.
We got about 6-8 inches of snow here this week, which means it’s backcountry skiing time. Here’s Roger, and Kasia (of Wilderness Voyageurs fame) out for a 7:30 am pre-work trek through the vast woods that surround Confluence and Ohiopyle.
I was cleaning out my office desk last week and I came across this:
This is the receipt for the home sewing machine my parents got me for Christmas in 1995. I spent the next two years teaching kayaking and sewing boardshorts and fleece shirts in my basement on that machine until 1997, when Kara and I decided that we might actually be able to make a career out of this hobby. Anyway, a bit of nostalgia I thought I would share with you all…
Ohiopyle State Park is conducting a public meeting on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008, to gather input and feed back on a proposal, under Bureau of State Parks evaluation, which would provide non-commercial private boating access to Ohiopyle Falls. The meeting is an open house public meeting to review the proposal, ask questions of State Park Staff, and to provide comments.
The Park private boater access proposal will not be available until the meeting.
The open house meeting will be conducted between 1pm to 5pm at the Meadow Run House (former park manager’s residence) across form the Meadow Run Natural Water Slides. You don’t have to be there the entire time.
We are requesting that as many boaters as possible show up at the meeting to show support for private boater access. Please contact Barry Adams via email or 412-242-4562 if you can attend the meeting. We can also help arrange car pooling. We need a strong presence to show our support for private boater access. Stop in between 1pm and 5 pm to participate. Pick up the Park Proposal, ask questions and make a statement in support of private boater access. You can also paddle before or after the meeting to make the trip worth while or just take a hike or ride your bike.
Talking Points:
If you have run the Falls try to make it personable. Talk about the first time you ran the falls or another time that you did (legal runs only). Please no runs that you got trashed real bad. You can also talk about your friends and their feelings.
Talk about other water falls in the area or even in the Park.
If you have not run the falls how you are looking forward to the day that you can run the falls like any other rapid without having to wait for one day a year or having to pay someone to run the falls.
If the falls were to be open more you would come to the Park more often which would bring more commerce to area.
Those that can not attend the meeting will have the opportunity to request, review, and provide feedback on the access proposal through the end of the 2008 calendar year. The Park will make the full proposal as well as the pilot commercial use license for running clinics available at the park office or by email request as an attachment. The email request will be handled after the meeting by sending a request to the park email account .
We also hope to have the above documents available at by contacting Barry Adams.
Public comments from this meeting will directly contribute to the Bureau of State Parks’ evaluation of the feasibility of this access proposal and help to frame the access issue on Ohiopyle Falls in general.
After the review process the Bureau of Parks will determine if private boaters can have access and in what form?
In addition to attending the meeting we will request that you submit a letter after the meeting in support of private boater access. More details on this after the meeting. We can assist you and various clubs and organizations with sample letters, etc. Please contact Barry Adams if you intend to write a written response. AW will be making a formal response for the paddling community which we can send you and will also be posted on the AW site and Falls Race Site
It is important to note that even though this is a park proposal that could give us access to the falls they can and will reject their own proposal if they feel the community is not in favor of their proposal. In addition, if they feel there are various other reasons not to let private boater access they will reject their proposal. There will be opposition from various sources to any private boater access so we need to make sure there is overwhelming support for private boater access.
American Whitewater has been working on this issue directly with the Park for over fifteen years and we now need boater participation and comments at this public meeting. If the Bureau of Parks rejects this proposal we may not get another chance for private boater access for a long time.
We want to make this clear. The Bureau of Parks can and will reject the Park proposal for almost any reason.
Please check Falls Race Site for updates regarding this matter. There is no question that now until the end of this year will be the most important time for private boater access over the last fifteen years. Please pass this message on to other paddlers.
We need your help and support more than ever.
Ohiopyle Falls Access Committee
American Whitewater
Mark Singleton
Barry Adams
Kevin Colburn
Charlie Walbridge
Barry Tuscano
John Lichter
Matt Muir
Pat Norton
Ken Gfroerer
We are excited to unveil one of our newest, and most requested, pieces of gear. A full on kid’s drytop! More and more kids are getting after it these days, a lot of them cheered on by their parents who spent their formative years during the plastic kayak revolution of the Mirage and Dancer. These two jackets will be headed down to Chile to Kurt Casey of Rivers of Chile fame. All of these are custom ordered, so please allow a couple of weeks for us to make it.
Makenzie and Kaitlyn Wheatly, two local Confluence soccer phenoms that I coach, were kind enough to stop by the shop and model the jackets for us. This was their first time ever even seeing a drytop, and with a little baby powder and the promise of some sugar worms, they put them on no problem.
For reference, Makenzie (in the blue) is 10, 4’6” tall and weighs 58 pounds. Kaitlyn (purple) is 6, about 4 feet tall and 63 pounds. You can see that they both have some room to grow into them, so your young-uns will be able to use it for a couple seasons.
Some of the features: all of the same great features of our Comp LX Jacket, and the jacket can be made with a latex neck or our competition style neck.
The latex wrist and neck gaskets are specially designed with smaller people in mind as they are actually closed cones that can be trimmed to fit even the smallest wrists and necks.
Please contact us our your local retailer for ordering information.
Here at IR we take Halloween pretty seriously. Being that we have all of the sewing machines, creativity, know how and fabrics, we have come up with some awesome costumes over the years. Here is my 2009 installment, unveiled this past weekend at my girlfriend’s family’s awesome Halloween bash. About 200 people showed up this year throughout the course of the evening, with the last revelers lasting until dawn. You have some time still to make yours.
-Roger
I RECEIVED MY [REPAIRED] DRYTOP IN AN LL BEAN BOX WITH NO EXTRA CRAP, NO CATALOG, NO RECEIPT. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. FINALLY A COMPANY TRULY KEEPING IT GREEN, RECYCLING AND PROBABLY SAVING LUTE IN THE MEANTIME. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, KUDOS TO YOU, I’M VERY IMPRESSED AND AM TELLING ALL MY BOATER FRIENDS.
This years Moose Fest was a bit different than the previous years I have attended…..it did not snow. In fact it was actually pretty damn nice weather. Im talking it was even sunny, both days. If you have not been to the Moose, yea, its a long drive, yea it will probably snow, yea you might get drunk and forget to hang up your gear only to find it in a frozen ball in the back of your car, but the river is a real nice time. Here is a vid from this years Moose Fest. I know some of you will really enjoy………………… DEMSHITZ!
