I recently just got back from what I think is my most spectacular adventure yet! CHINA. China as everyone has heard about it is this factory crazed overpopulated country and this is true. But the China that I got to see was middle of nowhere gorgeous canyons with perfect 15-foot tall surfing waves with eddy service and some pretty incredible culture.
    I was traveling with the New River Academy. This high school for kayakers always seems to pull together these absolutely mind blowing trips. I love it. Anyway, our first river was the Mekong River. This river is on the border of Tibet and China so the drive to it was a few days long, snowy, hilly, and full of mini adventures. The put in to this river is a super steep bank that you scoot down and then use teamwork to get down the rest of it. We paddled the Mekong for about five days with raft support. The first day was the most memorable. We were in a huge canyon with vertical walls and some gigantic rapids. Basically heaven in river form.
    The second river we hit up was the Salween River. This river is all roadside so anything you see you can just pull over and fire it up. The highlight of this river was some huge, HUGE, surf waves. Every surf wave we found was super glassy, consistent and had eddy service. We had Cael Jones there from Vital Films taking video for his upcoming movie Shades Of Green, and he got what he was looking for. Everyone stepped up throwing huge Panams, Airscrews, and just huge everything.
    The third river was the Yangtze River. This is the largest river in China and also is home to the most impressive rapids I’ve ever seen. The Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the most impressive places for a whitewater kayaker to lay their eyes on. It holds within its gorge rapids that dwarf most of the other whitewater on the planet. Below this gorge is an opening and then another gorge which has a little less treacherous than the higher Tiger Leaping Gorge. We had the parents of the students with us so this was a plus. It was a blast to have some new good natures people traveling with us for a little while. After 6 amazing days we took off and headed back on our long way home.
    Now after a relaxed vacation the school is heading off to a great looking trip in Chile. Chile is my favorite place to be in the world and I can’t wait to share it with the kids who haven’t had a chance to experience it yet!
    That is a super fast overview of what is going on with me. Reason I haven’t updated for each river is because its all going to be in the upcoming video Shades of Green by Cael Jones and Vital Films, Staring Me, Alex Mohn, Jake Greenbaum and some of the top up and coming paddlers in the world and their adventures. So check it out!

Paddle Hard,
Tino Specht

Photos by: Sam Fulbright
          Brian Boyle
          Michelle Yates
          Matt West
Here are some Videos from the recent trip produced by the NRA video class as well as some pictures from all over China.
Tiger Leaping Gorge

Hey Everyone,

 

I hope everyones Thanksgiving was great! And filling! We had some duck, some potatoes and some onion soup. Pretty awesome for China. Anyway. We are finally at a good internet connection which allows me to post up our latest video which is a short peak into what we have been doing on the Mekong River. I hope you guys enjoy it.

 

Best,

Tino

 

How To McNasty

1. Start on top of the foamy stuff, front surfin it like a champ
2. As you ride it down into the trough, place one blade in the water, to start spinning in that direction.  Place it deep! Gotta grab that green water.
3. Lean forwards and allow your boat to keep its spinnin' motion, forcing your stern up to back blast in style.
4. Now place the other blade in the friendly blue stuff, again reach deep and grab that green!  This will make your boat keep spinning but unlike a normal spin, now you are going to keep your upstream edge down, like you are going to take the shade! (but don't windowshade)
5. Let your bow sink and get initiated by the green water, stand up and when you are again facin' upstream, loop it!  Yeah Dogg!

One of the Mysterious Members of the Loop Squad

 

Hey Everyone,

     Here is a quick little update for you on our first few days in China. I hope you guys enjoy! There is much more white water kayaking and cultural video to come.

Best,
Tino

 

Hey Everyone,

    I’ve been home on break for the past week. I’ve found it’s nice to have a short break from paddling but I always find myself getting back on the water wherever I am within a few days.
    There is a drop in the center of my town that I have been looking at for a while. Finally Fergus Coffey, Mike Porter, and I found a time to get together and run it. After one bumpy run we had to leave mainly because it was getting dark but also because I’m pretty sure it is Illegal and we didn’t really want a run in with the police. Fergus and Mike took off for the whitewater symposium the next day and I have been back to run it every day since. When I need a break from what I’m doing I’ll throw my boat in the back of my truck and run down there and see how many times I can run it in a half hour. It’s just a super fun drop.
    The other form of paddling I’ve been doing is Pool Sessions at the local state college UMASS. They have a great outing club that has set up public pool sessions two days a week all winter! It’s really cool to see a bunch of young people they’re trying the sport and getting siked on it! I met up with fellow Team Zoar Member Jim Sullivan who is a great boater/friend and we spent some time figuring out some new pool tricks. We figured out a cool way to practice a McNasty off the edge of the pool as well as some other goofy off the side of the pool tricks.
    Anyway I’m off to China in a few days so that’s the end of paddling for me. I have to dry my gear out so it weighs as little as possible for the flight and begin packing my big dry bag. I hope everybody is doing well and getting their last paddling in before winter really hits!

Paddle Hard,

Tino
 

Here is the Video of the pool sessions and the local parka nd huck, hope your guys enjoy it!

 

Ahhhh its good to be home. I’ve been home for a few days now and hanging out with my normal crowd doing normal things. Fergus and Mike and I go to work, jump on the trampoline and find other entertaining things to do. But yesterday we decided that it was the perfect time for us to run a drop we had been looking at for a long time.

Its a large slide on the Deerfield River, I’m not sure if its illegal so I won’t say exactly where but let me just say I was a little worried as to how it would go. I think all of us started to feel a little nervous while standing at the top of the drop, mainly because we didn’t know how it was going to go.

It was sick. Everybody styled the line and I’m sure we’ll be back for more. Mike and Fergus are on their way down to the white water symposium and then over to the Green Race. Can’t wait to see how they do there. As for me, I’m headed to China in a few days so I better go and start getting my stuff together!

Hope everyone is well,

Tino

I hope you guys enjoy the pictures and video! 

Tino Specht on the Lead in to the rest of the drop 

 

Tino Boofing the last part of the Drop

Tino Spining out at the bottom of the drop.

Fergus Boofing the last part of the drop!

Taking a break after the drop.

Potholes Waterfall Video! 

 

Hey Everyone!

 

I hope you all have been getting outside and enjoying the great weather. I do realize that since we are spread out all over the place you may have had some diffrent weather but I'm sure you had a few good days in there somewhere.

Our Video 1 class has been working on an instructional theme direceted by our very own Daniel Stewart! The name is LOOP SQUAD and this groups job is to teach you guys the latest and greatest freestyle kayaking moves.

Our First Video is a naration with a visual on how to Front Loop a whitewater kayak! On the video side of this segment, our goal was to creat a comprehensive instuctional on how to loop. during this our video class learned how to layer clips so that the video of kayaking would play over the video but not the audio of the instuctional clips. We also used a tool by the name of color balance which allows us to tweak the colors of the video so it becomes more vivid. So keep an eye out for these things as you watch. I hope you guys enjoy the video! O and its supposed to be corny.

Paddle Hard,

Tino

 

 

Hey Everyone!

 

We are about a week out of the National Freestyle Championships and everything is going great! Our video class compiled our footage from the weekend and edited this segment to the school video. This includes whitewater kayaking by almost all the New River Academy and some Alumni. Hope you guys enjoy it!

 

Paddle Hard,

Tino