We are pleased to bring you Issue #4 of Dreaming of Whitewater. This issue is a bit later than expected, we have had a really busy summer. We hope that you enjoy this issue - we have had a lot of fun shooting pictures and putting it all together.  In this issue you will find. The Crooked River, New Zealand Chelan Gorge, WA, USA Rolling Gear to carry in your rescue vest Rogers Creek, BC, Canada And of course some of our favourite shots in the Gallery section.

Click here to view Issue #4 in High Res Click here to view Issue #4 in Lower Res (Faster Download) We value your thoughts, feedback and support so please get in touch with us. We are always looking for more ideas! Please help us share Dreaming of Whitewater with more people by clicking "Like" on Facebook  And finally, a big thankyou to everyone who has helped us out during this issue... The people we have paddled with, recreated with, taught with and stayed with; those we free-loaded from, travelled with, used internet from and everyone in-between, to help bring Issue #4 to the world!  Happy paddling, Daan Jimmink and Jess Matheson CEO's, Editors, Gophers, Photographers and Stunt People.

New Sweet Bearsuit Elbow Guards

If you haven’t had the chance to check out the new Sweet Protection Mountain Biking line, then you should take a look. I was very excited about the new range of mountain biking gear, but not for the reason you would think. I biked a bunch in the past but always managed to hit trees or break stuff, which was never good for me and meant that I needed to fix my bike a lot. I was excited because Sweet has started making elbow guards that I can use for paddling.

The new Bearsuit Elbow Guards are a simple, pull-over-the-arm model, with a strap that holds it in place. The fabric on forearm is thin, kind of like neoprene, but it has a slightly sticky side that keeps it in place. It fits well over a dry top. The actual protection comes from a foam layer that is soft to touch but super hard when hit. The foam layer is know as EVA, and it is flexible, shock proof and waterproof.

I have used them on a number of occasions and they look awesome and feel great. They have protected my elbows a couple of times already. They require less adjusting than the forearm-elbow guards from SixSixOne, and they are less bulky than the Shred Ready elbow guards. The Sweet design allows for a great range of motion in a pretty low profile fit, while still giving great protection.

Myself on Little Niagara, Hospital Rock on the Kaweah River, CA  

Photo//Josh Neilson 

I would recommend getting a size bigger than your regular fit if you are going to wear them over top of your dry top.

These elbow guards are a great addition to my kayaking kit and to the Sweet line up. Look out for them in stores, on riders and on the water. 

The Good Kind of Devil... Devil's Canyon, Middle Feather

Typically in California, you finish one mission and are immediately planning the next. The South Merced was no different - as soon as the team was off the river and waiting for the shuttle, the wheels began rolling for the next mission. From Yosemite, we did a mad dash north in the night to be at the Middle Feather by morning for a two day trip through Devil's Canyon. The team: Tyler Fox, Jim Bob, Daan and myself.

Devil's Canyon is usually done as a three day trip as the area is amazing and the camping very good. Not for us though... We had two days to paddle, a flow of 2500 cfs and an airport commitment the day after. Fortunately there is a shuttle driver up the Feather so logically we called him to help out.

Not so logical was the conversation that ensued. After first declaring that he was not the "shuttle guy", he proceeded to lecture me about the perils of trying to paddle the river in two days without someone who had done it before. There was a lot of banter before we finally compromised on leaving his place at 8.30am.

We rolled in with five minutes to spare and realised (quite quickly) that we weren't going anywhere fast - welcome to Feather time. A bit of last minute packing and squishing freed up the front passenger seat for our shuttle guy. Taking his seat he then removed his hat and unfurled the longest (and roughest) mullet I have ever seen, about a foot from my face. 

Our shuttle passed by wonderfully. We were in constant fits of laughter and I had tears rolling down my face within the first ten minutes and it didn't stop until we waved this guy goodbye from the river. 

Once on the river we settled in for a decent day on the river. Things started out gently and soon fell into a rhythm of rapids and pools. One of the many great things about Devil's Canyon is that there are no long stretches of flatwater. The gradient keeps things moving consistently and along with our 2500 cfs of water, we were flying. 

Myself on an early rapid... It keeps getting better and better!

Photo//Tyler Fox

Although sunny, it wasn't a particularly warm day so we didn't stop too much. By the looks of the camping available in the first part of the run, it was no wonder to us that people choose to do this trip over three days. We were through the first canyon before we really knew it and quickly getting deeper into the run. There were a few quick scouts but mostly super fun read and run grade 4+. 

A rare stop: Daan enjoying his breakfast some six hours later.

You may note the half gallon of milk.

Photo//Tyler Fox

Feather goodness... Drinking from a side creek

Photo//Daan Jimmink

Mr Fox in an unexpectedly-steep rapid

Photo//Daan Jimmink 

We paddled the second canyon which passes under the Pacific Crest Trail. The rapids kept coming which kept big smiles on our faces. As our afternoon wore on we were starting to get cold so were on the hunt for a good spot to pull up for the night. Jim Bob had actually done this run before but for the life of him could not remember much about it. To his credit, he did vaguely remember camping below the second canyon. Soon enough, we found a beach with our names on it (well, not really but you know what I mean). Steak, honey whiskey, gummi bears and M and M's... Yes, please.

What was left of the afternoon sun!

Photo//Daan Jimmink

Daan and Tyler warming up while talking business

Photo//Jess Matheson

For what seemed like a pretty mellow campsite, it turned out to be more eventful than the river was. There was a bald eagle and some salamanders. I also intercepted a rattle snake on the beeline for my sleeping mat, and found shortly after an angry scorpion that I had been sitting on. 

He was just leaving.

Photo//Daan Jimmink

This was only part of our evening entertainment. The wind picked up to epic proportions. Nothing like a sandy beach in the wind for a good sleep.

Big is good. Boat size for windbreaking...

Tyler's invention.

Photo//Tyler Fox

Windier than it looks!

Photo//Daan Jimmink

After a reasonably disrupted sleep, we were up and off again. Not sure where we were, how far we had gone, or how much we had left to paddle - we got on the water early (by Kiwi standards). We paddled about half an hour and came across a pair of paddlers camped up on a sweet beach eating breakfast. They said it was about three or four hours to the take out so we would have heaps of time to get there in time to meet our shuttle driver at 6pm. 


We got into some beautiful granite rapids in some amazing little gorges which was really fun paddling. We had a sweet couple of hours of paddling and had enough time to take a few pictures!

Daan somewhere in yet another rapid

Photo//Tyler Fox

Jim Bob figuring out the line for the second time

Photo//Tyler Fox

Endless, good volume boulder gardens

Photo//Tyler Fox

Tyler living the Cali life.

Photo//Daan Jimmink

This looked kind of meaty... Daan amongst it

Photo//Jim Bob

The Devil was happy this day!

Photo//Tyler Fox

The only must-run of the trip - Helicopter - cause you would need one to get around it.

Photo//Tyler Fox

The two paddlers we saw earlier blitzed past us a little later. We had no chance of keeping their pace (locals who know all the lines) so settled back into our rhythm. Jim Bob did remember where the portage was which was helpful. We hopped out and climbed around, and as we were coming back down to river level met the paddlers again - Cody and Morgan - who showed us down the rest of the run. In river awesomeness, they also took us back up to our vehicle (at the shuttle guy's place) as we were well early after all.


Devil's Canyon is an incredible trip and possibly quite underrated. In terms of consistent gradient, heaps of rapids, wicked camping, not much flatwater, sweet scenery and overall good, multiday grade 4 - 4+ (at 2500 cfs) this trip is well recommended. We all agreed that we would go back for sure.


Cheers to Jim Bob, Tyler, Daan, Morgan, Cody and Steve for a sweet trip.

Upper Cherry Creek

With some time off we made tracks for Cherry Lake to see what the flow was doing. There were a lot of people in the car park who looked like they had been there a while. One of the down sides of kayaking is that the sport involves a lot of speculations: will the weather be good, what are the levels and who has been in there already. These factors sometimes blur judgements. People were saying that the flow was still too high and that it would be at a good flow in three or four days. I wasn't keen to wait and hear from the first crew down as to what the flow was like, so decided to paddle West Cherry Creek (which flows into Upper Cherry Creek) and find out what the flow was for myself. I easily convinced Matt Coles and Shannon Mast to check it out with me. 

Shannon Mast on West Cherry Creek

The flow in West Cherry was low but as soon as we joined Upper Cherry it had a lot more flow. It was quite a bit higher than when I did Upper Cherry last year. We made good time through the lower gorges, I remembered most of the rapids. I thought that we needed to be going into Upper Cherry Creek the next day or the day after. When we got off the river we tried to rally a few other people.

Cherry Lake in the back ground

The next day was spent with Shannon, Jess and Matt shopping in Groveland, picking up some shirts and doing a bit of emailing. We went back to the lake to do a bit of swimming, packing and carbo loading while we waited for more people to arrive. At 9.30pm Lou Urwin, Tyler Fox and Josh Neilson turned up. We drove up to the put in to wait for Tera Muir and Dave Maurier who were turning up late. 

Early the next morning, six people started walking while three of us did the shuttle. The plan was to start walking at 5.30am but we managed to lose one of the vehicles during the shuttle which cost us an hour. The walk took around five hours this time, which I was happy with. This time the differences were walking fast, eating lots of energy gels and only taking my boat off my back when I needed more water. 

When we arrived at the put-in most people were shattered so we spent a good couple of hours in the sun. At the put we found Taylor Cavin and Tom. The first day was going well, lots of fun whitewater and great boogie water. We camped a bit earlier than we thought, but fading light and a few cold people meant that it was the best thing to do. We camped just above Cherry Bomb Gorge.

Jess on Breakfast slide

Tera on the same rapid with a different line

Matt draining the "Pitonicon"

Looking at our camp site

Boats and gear everywhere

Tyler Fox on Cherry Bomb

Me on Cherry Bomb

After paddling Cherry Bomb Gorge, we decided to stay at the camp just below. Flintstones camp is one of my favorite places in the world, quiet, scenic and it has rapids right there. There happened to be a group of Italian nudists who were camping there as well. When they noticed us heading their way, they did manage to put some clothes on quickly. Lou, Tyler, Josh and David had to get back to work so they kept on going so they could finish that afternoon. We spent the rest of the day doing laps on the Jedi Slides. 

On the morning of the third day Shan and I went back up to run Cherry Bomb Gorge again. We managed to team up for a world class rescue below Cherry Bomb Falls. Someone managed to drop into the weir sideways and have their sprayskirt ripped off. We did a live bait rescue of the swimmer, got him to the side then jumped back in and grabbed his kayak.

Me on the Tea Cups, bottom of the Jedi Slides.

Back at Flintstones, we grabbed the rest of the team and our overnight gear and set off to do the rest of the trip. There is still a lot of white water below Flintstones. 

Matt Coles styling Double Pot Hole

Me on Waterfall Alley (Photo: Kristof Stursa)

Almost at the end of Waterfall Alley (Photo: Kristof Stursa)

Already looking forward to getting back in there next year. Thanks to everyone who I paddled with down there. We were pleased to get out safely.

New Sweet Gear

This week I had a parcel arrive from Sweet and have had the opportunity to test out most of the gear. First of all, their gear is stylish and functional. With most of their products I was able to drop down a size from other products because of the length. Their t-shirts are long, their pants are long, their drytops are long and their hoodies are awesome. I hadn’t tried any of their gear on before, but their sizing chart made it very easy to get the right fit. The Prophecy dry-top and Prophecy dry-pants make an excellent dry combination. After accidentally knocking my throwbag into the Clavey and swimming after it, I emerged bone-dry. I was skeptical about the big straps cinching the dry-pants and dry-top tight around the waist but they proved to be very supportive for my lower back. Kind of like wearing a kidney belt. 

Prophecy Dry Top 

 Prophecy Dry Pants

Both Jess and I, being tall people, found the hoodies to be a very fantastic fit. Being able to put your hands above your head without showing midriff has allowed us to do common tasks in public without showing too much flesh (for example, putting a boat on the roof of the truck). Lots of people have been commenting on how good all the gear looks. Thanks Sweet and please continue to make awesome kayak apparel.  

This is the link to check out their gear and clothing… Sweet Protection