The Mon-Star meets the Gauley!

By Colin Kemp

The Gauley is known not only for it amazing rapids but also for world class
down river play. I was fortunate enough to get to travel back to WV again
for work and was able to get some quality time on the Gauley in my favorite
play boat of all time the Mon-Star. I have continued to play with and tweak
my outfitting as I continue to learn the boat. This time I pushed the seat
another 1/2" forward. This is not something that I have ever been able to
do in a play boat before! This defiantly increased the speed of the boat on
a wave yet again and allowed for a bit easier initiation of certain
freestyle moves. I continue to snug up the hip pads more and more as well
as a slight addition of foam here and there. I think I may almost be as
snug as I like! I started working out my righty helix’s at one of the sweet
play waves just below Sweet’s falls, and by the end of the session I was
sticking them about 85% of the time! It is good to be getting back some of
my tougher moves. I need to flick my hips a bit more aggressively than I am
used to but the results are well worth it. I was able to get the boat much
higher off of the surface. All of that planning surface does a big boy
good! The pictures are of a few surfs I took after the WK Hometown
Throwdown wrapped up at Lower Mash. Thanks to WK Ambassador James "Vlad"
Sneeringer for taking the photos. After a long day on the water it was
great to see how many big guys there were looking to see the first boat made
100% for them! By the end of the night I was starting to lose my voice, but
I was still excited to talk about the Mon-Star!

Later; Colin