Losing to a twelve year old is pretty rewarding!

Holden Bradford and Chris Baer making their way through the Pine Creek Hydraulic

Smack in the middle of Colorado, surrounded by numerous 14,000 foot peaks, lies the Arkansas River. This year Colorado was gifted with a pile of moisture and sustained high water. As the season continued and water levels returned to reasonable flows, it was time once again for the yearly Race to Prom event. This is a boater cross style event where all of the crafts start simultaneously and race through both the Pine Creek and Numbers sections of the Arkansas River, culminating in a prom themed party with live music.

   

Race to Prom! 2015 from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Horizon line playing for the crowd

This year I was ecstatic when Holden Bradford (12 years old) agreed to paddle with me. We hopped in a two person kayak and charged through the race course!

Embrey Exposures collecting tons of great prom photos

The results of this event are always a bit informal, as rubbing is racing, and there are no official starters or timers. That being said,  Surgio Vidal Bogdanovic took the win for the second time, and Holden Bradford arrived at the finish only milliseconds ahead of me to earn second place.

not always clean lines

Make sure to follow the athlete page as not to miss next year’s event!

Adventure by Chris Baer

How young is too young for kayaking Class 5

For the last few years I have been "organizing" a race on the Pine Creek section of the Arkansas river. My goal with the race is to have as much fun as possible and create an amazing spectator event. Chaos is always fun and the crowd seems to love it... so mass start is the way I try to start the race. Over a dozen kayaks, Seven rafts including the current National Champions, a couple duckies and shredders, toss in a pair of tubers, and a Topo Duo to round out the junk show.

Holden Bradford, is a fired up 10 year old with a ton of charisma. His parents have allowed him to have an amazing ability to look at adventure with truly open eyes. Race day he woke up early and hiked to the top of a peak just outside of Buena Vista to go paragliding. Right now he is probable tearing up Breckenridge ski resort, day dreaming of the spring when he gets to go kayaking again. Holden started rafting when he was only 18 months old, and has been kayaking for 5 years. He can truly read white water.

When I first approached Holden's father about the idea of Holden and I racing together I could see a little apprehension, but what came out of Josh's mouth was YES! The Plan was for Holden and I to race a two person kayak through the class 5 section of the Arkansas river. Race day I chatted with Holden at the put in. I asked him if he had ever paddled Pine Creek before, or been in a two person kayak, or seal launched? Holden responded a little hesitantly with "well no, but I have looked at pine creek a bunch, and I know we can do it!" Holden and I were about to experience a bunch of firsts together.

Holden and I charging through Pine Creek

The pine creek mass start has never started cleanly, and this year would be no different. The field took off in two slightly different waves, and at that point neither Holden or I was in our kayak. It took a couple seconds to hop in the kayak and slap the spray skirts on. We pushed off the embankment and skidded into the water instantly cranking out strokes trying to make up for our delayed start.

Holden paddled like a man on a mission. I couldn't help from smiling as our boat flew over some wave and crushed into others, plowing Holden deep into the water. Pine Creek went supper well and both of us were glowing from the cheers of the crowd. Coming through triple drop the stern hung up in a hydraulic and I looked up to see Holden a solid 4-5 feet out of the water. As I set the boat back down level Holden let out a solid laugh and we started to link strokes and pass one white water vessel after the next. I felt like I had an outboard engine strapped to the front of my kayak. We would come into a  hard corner,  and Holden would start cranking out paddle strokes whipping us around the corner.

Twenty minutes into the race we had passed every one but the two fastest raft teams, and three kayakers. Holden's father was in the raft directly in front of us, we paused for a strategic pass. "GO HOLDEN GO!" I hollered as we came screaming past his fathers raft. The last few minutes of the race were grueling and Holden let out a couple groans as we inched closer and closer to the National raft team.

As we came across the finish line Holden reminded me that he came in 5th and that I was definitely 6th. Post race we were bombarded with questions. " I felt a little proud watching Holden go from tentative to confident while explaining that there would be no reason for us to roll, and to watch out for next year when hopefully Chris can get a proper start to happen. When asked how we did, Holden smiled and let it be known that "We slayed it!"

So how old is old enough to paddle class 5? In the proper craft, with the proper guidance, Holden Bradford, and I would agree, you can definitely fire up Pine Creek when your 10.

Thank you Holden for letting me paddle along with you in such a fun event.

Another adventure brought to you by Holden Bradford, and Chris Baer.

Pine Creek

Pine Creek is truly my back yard run, I walk across the street put my boat at the top of a small embankment slide into the river and a minute latter I am flying through the S turn. This year Casey Tango and I managed to catch it at around 3600 CFS, high flows are so much fun. Check out the Video of us bombing through Pine Creek, Triple Drop and the big waves in Number Four.

Race summery

An early season contest summery.

So rafting season has officially took over my life again..... But I have snuck away from AVA to get some competitions in. First off was Teva games, Homestake creek race starts off the weekend, this is the epitome of a step manky little creek. It starts with a man made plywood slide to auto boof into the creek. Paddle like hell threw the shallow mank that leads to a very manky rapid tons of potential to get pinned, and no direct line. Then it eases right into a series of 6 foot ledges and then the finnish line heck of a fun course with lots of places to make and loose time. I had two good practice laps and my timed run put me smack dab in the middle of the heat, not bad for the level of competition at this event.






There was also a mellow down river race that was held in Gore creek just East of Vail. There was very limited information on what boats where available to race, and my glass boat was turned down. So I jumped in the Habitat and charged hard for 20 minutes or so right back down to the international bridge to check out the freestyle event, and by god the boys where going huge. You really have to give the town and the designer credit the hole is damn good for being on a 400 cfs creek.









I also was able to catch some of the mountain bike trials races, this was pretty cool to see. They set up a difficult course and then rode it head to head incredibly fast, these guys really are talented.


LOL then the mud run, three 1 kilometer laps with a big mud pit in the middle some of these shots where just amazing. The amount of people that came out without shoes and covered from head to toe in mud was just hysterical.


Next up was the 8-ball races, I competed in both the raft and kayak devisions. These events draw a huge crowd, The kayak event starts 6 people head to head down the little class 2 Gore creek, and then there is 6-8 guys down stream in there boats with the sole duty to nocking you off your line by all means necessary. Bumping smashing paddle clacking mayhem. I managed to make the semi finals in the kayak devision and took a huge hit at the bottom hole to get bumped out of the finals. The finals where absolutely amazing, all the competitors where basically on top of each other along with 8 other people dolling-out tremendous hits. It was an amazing Photo finnish.


The raft side of things was equally entertaining, I didn't even have a partner at the beginning of the day. I talked to a couple of the other competitors and asked if there was any odd men out.... 10 minutes latter I get a call, "go over and sign a wavier I got you a partner". With no idea who I was paddling with I signed my wavier. I ran back over to the competition venue met my partner, who ends up being a total bad ass, and is representing Canoe and Kayak magazine. We got a practice lap in, we were working well together in the boat. Our practice lap felt great. The competition started with the rafts three wide launching off the beach, We had a great start getting out in the pole position. We came threw the gates and styled our way threw the first heat. Second heat went exactly the same pole position and supper smooth threw the gates..... On to finals, in the finals was two boats from the mens national team (Behind the 8 ball) and us a rag tag duo put together minutes before the race, the start felt great but the 8-ball guys teamed up on us and after allot of bumping grinding and a little laughing we found ourselves in last place. As we came into the two lower gates we saw the first boat miss a gate and have to come back up the eddy to try to get to the gate again, as they where paddling back up the eddy the second place team slipped in right in front of them blocking them from the gate. This was our chance, we did the exact same thing, slid in between the gate and the second place boat styled the gate zipped to the other gate and started laughing uncontrollable as we passed threw the finnish line in first place. A gold meddle, not what I was expecting when I signed up with a random guy moments before the race.



The next weekend brought me down to Durango for Animus river days, or as I like to call it Animus Fest. As soon as I got into town I drove over to 4 Corners River Sports and met up with Tony and the boys, We shared some stories and it was down to the play hole for a little surfing, the hole wasn't that good and again..... I don't really like to play boat. So the session was quick and we Headed into town for a couple drinks. The next morning we headed up to Valllicito, This run gets described as the best mile of white water in the state, I would totally agree. The water level was a little low but Tony said that it would be a great level for my first run. As I have stated before I love running things blind. Tony knowing this and with a huge grin and a small chuckle said, "you don't get to scout". I intern had a huge smile, Tony also gave me some of the best beta, "start left driving right and hit your boof". That was all I got for beta for entrance, a goofy lead in into a 15-ft boof that lands right next to a cave. I landed with a huge smile and knew the rest of the mile was going to be amazing, we routed threw the run with the regular tid bits of beta "hit your boof", "follow me", " go left". This run really is an amazing piece of white water in a fantastic gorge.
That afternoon I jumped in my long fiberglass boat (a 1970s relic) and did the down river race threw town, 10 minutes in my legs had gone totally numb and I paddled the last 20 minutes wondering if I had legs or for that matter how much water was in the boat. the boat held up great and my time sucked, it was still a ton of fun. We also paddled in the floating parade threw town, the parade is as much dress up hooligan activities as you can handle. On to the freestyle contest and again I sat and watched as some of the paddlers still where able to get some decent tricks, in a water deprived hole. Animus Fest rules.

Back to Granite CO for my home event, FIBARK, and most importantly the Pine Creek race. It is amazing the water level always manages to be at an absolutely terrifying level for this event. The pine creek hole is notorious for handing out some stiff beatings. Wes and I walked straight across for the rafting shop put on and paddled 2 minutes down to the start of the course, we looked at each other for a second and the unanimous "lets just bomb it" came out of our mouths. I turned and paddled into the hardest rapid on the Arkansas at the hardest possible level, the waves and holes leading up to the main move where huge but I held my line got down to the big hole tried to go left and was hung up in the eddy fence, and got spun. The hole was 10 feet behind me and sure as shit I went into it got a quick roll in time to see Wes come right in with me. We tandem surfed for a few seconds and amazingly, both got flushed out of the hole on the same surge.
This wasn't making my confidence grow, but it was time to get my time trial in. I had a great start, got down to one of the first big laterals got turned back wards and had to stay backwards threw the next lateral burning some time, I charged hard into the S move, and had a really smooth line around the hole. Triple drop went smooth and I styled the boof into the eddy at the finnish line. All in all it put me in 10th position for the head to heads. The head to heads are a 4 man mass start, Launching off the eroding bank 4 wide can be really messy, but by the time you are in the heat of the rapid every one usually has a little space. I had a solid first heat and managed to zip passed the hole to put myself in the top 16. From there I had a stacked bracket, I flew past the hole in third place only a few feet away from second and as we came to the final boof, I nailed it and flew into the eddy got one huge stroke and a photo finnish. Actually I was denied the pass into the next round initially but upon further video review I got the word that I had made the pass by an inch or so. Top 8 O.K. this is where I just got blown out, I had a ruff start and came across the line in a distant 3rd.

This is home for the summer, Gold Camp a defunct kids camp that is now our rafting companies operations post.




We've gone plaid, again.
Well I got a first decent last year on a rather funny drop, this thing is the spill way to clear creek reservoir, and only runs on very rear occasions. I don't know if they were doing work on the normal outflow or what but, the reservoir was allowed to crest over the spill way and we got to go huck our self's off it once again. We showed up the first day with three kayaks, a Hyside mini me, two inter-tubes, and a paco pad. I dove into the mini me and fired it right up with a huge boof, landed drug the raft up and being ultra giddy, grabbed one of the inter-tubes and ran back to the top. I sat down in the tube and thought this is a really bad idea, and pushed off.

The speed you pick up in this drop is absurd and having my unprotected butt an inch off the concrete was definitely unnerving right up to the point that I double hand boofed the lip flew threw the air and came up hysterically laughing.

At this point it was game on, the Mini Me made a couple more R1 descents and then another guide climbed on a Paco Pad and very hesitantly pushed off. He looked pretty sketchy on the way to the lip but flew head first off the drop and came up with a huge smile.

Now the rules were definitely off everyone was crying laughing and we decided to go off it in the Mini Me with two of us, this went great and then to up the ante once more. R3 thats right I actually got to guide a boat off this thing,


I don't think I have done anything this foolish sense last gauley season. I was sitting on-top of a double stack of rafts asking for forward strokes so then when we crashed into dildo rock it would be even worse...... Any ways we flew down the in-ramp going exceedingly fast and we all hit our boof strokes, maybe even too good. The boat was nose up flying threw the air, and when it landed the front two guys tried to hold there ground but got tossed towards the rear of the boat. Me sitting in the far back didn't help this, and we performed a very slow totally vertical back flip.

Well that was a little long winded, but check out the next installment from China.
Pictures and write up by Chris Baer