mnadventure.com

Melissa, Scotti-Squirrel,  Alon, and my self  headed North for the long Memorial weekend to hit the big, deep waves at Sturgeon Falls on the Winnipeg River. The river was high, running about 70,000 cfs. That made for some big waves, big surf, and some of the craziest eddies that I have had to deal with at Sturgeon.

Click read more to hear more about the trip!

The first weekend of May this year in Sandstone, MN was a great one.  If you weren't here let me tell you what you missed.  Great paddling, great people, kayaks, rafts, fireworks, socializing at the Gas Light, demos, downriver races, a rodeo, a chance at great raffle prizes..  basically, you missed a hell of a lot. 

Natalie Griffith won the downriver race with a time of 27 minutes shooting down the river from Banning State Park to Robinson Park in Sandstone.  At the rodeo on Sunday, MNAdventure Team member Mike Manger dominated taking 1st place!  Congrats Mike. 2nd went to Brody Johnson and 3rd to Dave Jergensen in his open canoe. 

The competitions are fun, but the entire event is mostly centered around getting together, paddling, and enjoying the sport together.  C5 Photography submitted photos of the event for the site that you can check out by clicking the above image.  Go see what you missed and make plans to attend next year.  Even if you aren't a whitewater kayaker, there is usually room on one of the rafts for you to experience the beauty of the Kettle River.  See you all at Paddle Fest 2010!

Ever since I met Blake Pelton years ago I've wanted to get out to the desert for the North American Buggy Expo.  It's such a unique event.  Set on the dry lake bed of Ivanpah about 45 minutes from Las Vegas just over the border into California NABX is the holy mecca for land kiters.  The surface offers incredible speeds and wicked power slides.  You can ride for miles after miles on smooth hard playa.  With such a smooth surface you don't need much wind to get moving and when there is wind, hang on.  This year at NABX Arjen van der Tol a dutch rider, went 124 kph or 77.05 mph.  That's an incredible speed to obtain on a 3 meter kite on a buggy 6 inches from the hard ground.  The kite culture is much different then here in MN as well.  The gear is small fixed bridal kites flown on handles.  Around here we call that a trainer kite, on the playa, it's a kite you go to quite often.  If you attend bring the smallest kites you have or plan on buying some.  We flew my 1.5M more then it's ever flown in it's life and I never expected to be pulled behind it yet.  Read more to hear about the whole event!