The lost Idaho paddling days

By Jason Craig

My old computer’s hard drive crashed and I had no
backup so I lost all my old footage, programs, and
everything else including my Idaho update so I will do
my best to try to retell the saga…

I flew into Idaho April 6th and headed to a outdoor
show. As soon as I got there I hopped in my boat and
did a pool demo. This pool was kinda scary. It was 10
feet wide and three feet above the ground. Being how I
did not want to tricky woo out of the pool I took it
easy. When we finished up at the outdoor show we
headed to The Gutter. This hole was a bit boring at
first but then I stated getting it dialed in. It was
way fun. Also I met a thirteen year old kayaker name
Seth. He was paddling his orange shooting star with
his dad! He had his cartwheels dialed and I remember
him going for some loops. AWESOME. Later I tried
boogie boarding these waves. It was fun. I haven’t
swam in cold rivers in a long time and was wearing
just my Stohlquist drypants under my drytop without
any polypro pants underneath. I was warm and could
have stayed in the river all day long.

The next day on our way up to Climax Wave, I asked
Devon if we could could stop because I thought I saw a
good wave. CAUTION GRAPHIC IMAGERY PROBABLY NOT FOR
KIDS. I was trying to find a way down when I saw a
dead deer with its guts hanging out of its stomach and
its neck riped out. Getting a little creeped out I
turned around to get back out of there and saw two
more deer with various limbs lying around in worse
shape than the first. Being how those deer were
blocking my path out I kinda froze up. After about
five seconds I "Forest Gumped" it out of there. I am
sure that was the fastest I have ever run in my life.
Welcome to Idaho!

That set the tone for the rest of the boating day.
Climax was fast and very steep. It was hard to set up
a trick and when you try you would usually freefall
from the top of the wave to the bottom landing on
anything but your boat. Whenever you did a trick you
would go big. I got one where I fell down the wave but
it caught my bow and I got lanched into the air doing
a huge loop. Very fun.

The next day we were on the Salmon River. We played
in a great spot called Rodeo Hole. Loops, blunts, pan
ams, cleanblunts, and just about everything else is
possible in this hole. Another cool/ tricky thing
about this hole is that it will build up to be a big
hole then green out completely to where there is no
wave at all. The next two nights Devon and I stayed at
Salmon Rapids Lodge. It was so nice here that it was
hard to want to get up and leave to go boating in the
morning.

My last update picks up where this one left off. I
hope you enjoyed it. Also I am coming up with a new
combo move. Look out for the eclipse combos coming
soon.

Live from Reno NV,
Jason Craig

Watch the video (QuickTime 3.2 MB)