This is my second year coming to the River Rock Festival and it was a good decision again!    While much of Team JK is out at the Green River Freestyle Event, Courtney, Kristine, KC, and I are in Richmond, Virginia for a big outdoor festival called the “Dominion River Rock Festival”.     This [...]

Jon Lugbill, the most decorated C1 Slalom paddler of all time (5 time world champion) resides in Richmond, Virginia where he is organizing this year’s River Rock Festival.    Paddlers, or want to be paddlers should come out to try out Jackson Kayak boats of all types!    We’ll have our fishing kayaks, our recreational [...]

I found out on Wednesday about the Spring Moose Festival here in Lyons, New York, just shy of the Canadian Border.     We packed the RV and headed north as it has been so long since I have been here that I can’t remember when my last time was! We arrived to a  very [...]

I had the pleasure of meeting a ton of new, super fired up people this week in Illinois, just outside of Chicago.  Geneva Kayak’s owner Ryan Rushton picked me up in Chicago on Wednesday night and I learned all about the new Yorkville Whitewater Park, his facility there for whitewater and sea kayaking instruction and [...]

This is the Fourth Annual New England Triple Crown. The brainchild of Olympic Bronze medalist Jamie McEwan and the hard work of Andy Kuhlberg and a large group of local volunteers. it is a one of a kind event. A competition that combines three different kayak disciplines into one overall competition. Wildwater (downriver racing), Slalom, [...]

Training for two weeks in Charlotte for Olympic Trials with my new slalom boat, my kids, and the slalom racers was an awesome experience.   The racing was also incredible, as I got 6 tries to lay down some good runs, and while I never had a “good” run, not even for myself, I did have [...]

The competition is over…  I didn’t get to take any photos myself, but Dane and Nick did (but not of Mens’ kayak as you can imagine… they were competing!)  Look for photos in an article by them soon…. I still can’t express just how fired up I am about having the 2013 World Freestyle Kayak [...]

It was a fun three days of racing.  The quality of racing done by the USA and Canadian Athletes there was very fun to watch!   I had not been reporting on the Canadian Team Trials, mostly because I haven’t had time to write about that as well.   However, I am a citizen of [...]

Today is the final day of USA Olympic Slalom Trials.     Dane and I are racing for our best results again today- and top 10 is looking good for me but not top three.   That is OK, as I am having a lot of fun, and really learning a lot competing against the [...]

Today was everything I would expect from an Olympic Trials Day..  there were lots of excited, and nervous athletes, there were smiles after first runs, and there were upset paddlers after first runs.   There were also smiles after second runs, but quite a few upset paddlers after second runs as well.   Parents running [...]

Yes, they are all the same person… Ever since I was 8 years old I wanted to go to the Olympics.   In 1972 I watched Mark Spitz win 7 Gold Medals in Swimming that year and joined the swim team myself.   I did what the coaches told me to do and tried really [...]

Don’t miss your opportunity to win a round trip ticket to Rock Island, a Jackson Kayak of your choice, and a GoPro Hero 2 camera!   Enter our Facebook sweepstakes today before it is too late!   We have a special way we are doing this contest, where referring your friends gets you entered more [...]

One Summer Nick and I dropped into Phil’s Hole on the Ottawa with our All- Stars and our fishing poles in hand. We surfed the big hole and then surfed out and were able to fish the top eddies from our play boats.   While the Coosa is a good boat for doing smaller rapids, the really [...]

      Each winter most kayakers don’t have as much access to paddling, if any, and the season always sneaks up on us in the Spring.   Gear gets stored for the winter, we spend more time indoors to stay out of the cold, and we are at risk of being unprepared physically, mentally, [...]

I filmed from loading the boats in my driveway to the shuttle, walking in, paddling over the falls, running sieve city and then surfing the top waves in the Zen.      It was 4,800 cfs.   Dane and I did a more extreme version yesterday that I’ll have to put up, too, at 10,000 [...]