Whitewater Forum: redefining idiotic
Print Page | Close Window

redefining idiotic

Printed From: ProfessorPaddle.com
Category: General
Forum Name: Whitewater Forum
Forum Discription: Open Discussion Forum. Whitewater related subjects only
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12493
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 3:30pm


Topic: redefining idiotic
Posted By: Kiwi
Subject: redefining idiotic
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2012 at 10:35am
http://vimeo.com/23444444 - SUP on South Silver



Replies:
Posted By: JayN
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2012 at 1:05pm
Wow... That was terrible


Posted By: thad2000
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2012 at 1:33pm
darn, I thought I'd nailed that definition down.. Obviously I'm missing a bit of a new story. What happened?
ah, grey stuff is a link.. I out do myself some times.

-------------
why not!


Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2012 at 3:15pm
--awright- I been up in the woods for awhile without internet. First piece of media I see, and, I almost wish I'd have allocated the last ten minutes of my life differently.

Yeah, the line between Bad Ass and Jack Ass is gettin blurrier all the time. Oh wait- no it isn't:
Just as "kayaking" isn't defined by (constantly) swimming alongside one's craft, (sure, it is occassionally inevitable, and eventually unavoidable once in awhile)....

Well, lets just say I didn't see a whole lot of "Standing Up" goin on. But I guess its his body to abuse if he's stupid enough to do so. And here is where the ever present Post Andy Warhol 15 min. Of fame video culture gets corrosive. Here I am holding up my little score card.

On the other hand it is good to see Cody out producing stuff. And here is where it is hard to blame the camera guy because they are attracted to spectacle like dogs are to any tastey scrap of meat.

Yet, I fear, that perhaps: way beyond on the other side of the circle where media portrays itself and re inserts itself back into the feedback loop of culture, something diluted, muddled is clouding up the spirit of what used to be an activity that sprang forth from someting more pure and noble.

Gotta say though that that photo of the guy STRAIGHT UP STOMPING that boof in the IK is bad ass. Pure and noble indeed. Thanks, Brian!


Posted By: cascade
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2012 at 4:12pm
Originally posted by jP

--awright- I been up in the woods for awhile without internet. First piece of media I see, and, I almost wish I'd have allocated the last ten minutes of my life differently.

Yeah, the line between Bad Ass and Jack Ass is gettin blurrier all the time. Oh wait- no it isn't:
Just as "kayaking" isn't defined by (constantly) swimming alongside one's craft, (sure, it is occassionally inevitable, and eventually unavoidable once in awhile)....

Well, lets just say I didn't see a whole lot of "Standing Up" goin on. But I guess its his body to abuse if he's stupid enough to do so. And here is where the ever present Post Andy Warhol 15 min. Of fame video culture gets corrosive. Here I am holding up my little score card.

On the other hand it is good to see Cody out producing stuff. And here is where it is hard to blame the camera guy because they are attracted to spectacle like dogs are to any tastey scrap of meat.

Yet, I fear, that perhaps: way beyond on the other side of the circle where media portrays itself and re inserts itself back into the feedback loop of culture, something diluted, muddled is clouding up the spirit of what used to be an activity that sprang forth from someting more pure and noble.

Gotta say though that that photo of the guy STRAIGHT UP STOMPING that boof in the IK is bad ass. Pure and noble indeed. Thanks, Brian!
 
    I remember years ago when my friend slid down the majority of every run on his azz or back.Everybody thought he was a idiot for trying to ride a skateboard with fins down the mountain in a pair of moon boots.  Well that sport kinda caught on didn't it?
 Fletcher is one of best sup river runners I've seen. As he stated  gear is advancing and skills will  progressYou hate due to your small stones and misunderstanding of this new sport..I have feeling kayking is headed the way of the mono ski. 


Posted By: JayB
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2012 at 5:06pm
Originally posted by cascade
 
    I remember years ago when my friend slid down the majority of every run on his azz or back.Everybody thought he was a idiot for trying to ride a skateboard with fins down the mountain in a pair of moon boots.  Well that sport kinda caught on didn't it?
 Fletcher is one of best sup river runners I've seen. As he stated  gear is advancing and skills will  progressYou hate due to your small stones and misunderstanding of this new sport..I have feeling kayking is headed the way of the mono ski. 
[/QUOTE




I think that SUPping is cool and looks fun, and there's no doubt in my mind that we'll see some truly impressive feats of balance and coordination from folks who are pushing the boundaries of what can be run to their limits (and they'll be running stuff way harder than what I run in a kayak), but at the end of the day there are inherent limitations imposed by the high center of gravity, incapacity to right oneself in turbulent waters, lack of body-protection, etc that are going to result in very few people choosing to run steep/powerful creeks using SUP's.

The guy below proved t


I think that SUPping is cool and looks fun, and there's no doubt in my mind that we'll see some truly impressive feats of balance and coordination from folks who are pushing the boundaries of what can be run to their limits (and they'll be running stuff way harder than what I run in a kayak), but at the end of the day there are inherent limitations imposed by the high center of gravity, incapacity to right oneself in turbulent waters, lack of body-protection, etc that are going to result in very few people choosing to run steep/powerful creeks using SUP's.

The guy below proved that it's possible to transcend what most people thought was possible on a unicycle...but that hardly brought about the death of the mountain bike because relatively few people will ever be inspired to forego the benefits of a technology that allows them to navigate the same terrain much more safely, easily, and enjoyably.






-------------
-Jay


Posted By: Camrun
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2012 at 7:05pm
Comment on the SUP vid, looks like a cool sport but whats the surfboard for?


Posted By: Kiran
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2012 at 9:21pm
Yeah, why is that surfboard floating alongside the dude? What's the for? And what's the long stick thingy he is holding on to?

Inspires me to run Skyscraper as opposed to walk after quaking in fear since it has proven that it can be done on your butt :-)


Posted By: Lynn Wang
Date Posted: 18 Sep 2012 at 4:52pm
That unicyclist was amazing to watch, my eyes were as big as saucers (and I'm Asian) and my heart was pumping! And who can't smile when they see someone riding a unicycle.
 
As for the SUP video, while I watched and grimmaced, I was thinking if he were lying on his back on his board with his feet forward it would be a water luge...next summer Olympics maybe.


Posted By: Scott_H
Date Posted: 18 Sep 2012 at 7:33pm
I tried an iSUP on the Wenatchee around 6000-7000 and thought they were pretty fun - just big waves and such, but had a couple moments where I could see the bottom whizzing by and thinking that would hurt a lot if I fell over board.
 
Definitely harder than they look and I had expected it to be hard.
 
I am looking to try out some chill stuff - say II-II+.  I think it would be fun to hike in somewhere (its inflatable) and take a slow run through a tightly forested river.  Got to get out to the OlyPen.


-------------
“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.”


Posted By: Scott_H
Date Posted: 18 Sep 2012 at 7:34pm
...and yeah, that was a stomping boof for sure!

-------------
“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.”


Posted By: thad2000
Date Posted: 19 Sep 2012 at 6:33am
I know someone who unicycles mountain bike stuff. Seemed silly when I first heard it. Really amazing though.
I also lisened to a thing on in between swims on paddleboarding. One main thing they thought would make it catch on was that it was sexier than kayaking. seems silly to me. Although, does anyone tie a fixed rope to something and try wake-boarding or ski-ing down rapids? I'm searching now. Yes, of-course it's done some place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7EkPhTW6YU&feature=relmfu

-------------
why not!


Posted By: justin
Date Posted: 19 Sep 2012 at 1:59pm
Nick Ennen used a wakeboard and a winch on the skykomish, and was pretty successful.



Posted By: thad2000
Date Posted: 24 Sep 2012 at 5:19am
I saw some redbull sponcered vids on that, looked awesome. The having your feet in boots strapped to the board looked worrysome.

-------------
why not!


Posted By: SOPBOATER
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2012 at 10:15am
Huh? Why? Perhaps I am not dumb enough to be such a brave innovator.


Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2012 at 3:04pm
It was way cooler watching little D inner tube Boulder Drop at 6500 back in the day. Hand paddled off Ned's and everything. He didn't fall off til the house rocks. Now that was cool!

-------------
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Howard Thurman


Posted By: SOPBOATER
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2012 at 5:59pm
Little d is way cooler anyway. Sup guy just seemed lame. Little d also swims the hole below behemoth just cause its there. Now that's over the jp line off bad as s vs dumb as s on the bad side off course. Dude should take a lesson from little d on valor vs dumb.


Posted By: irenen
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2012 at 6:05am
So this guy is trying something really difficult, obviously having a decent time even while pretty much maiming himself, not complaining about it, and unlike the people from Canoe Movie he doesn't spend half the video explaining why he's not kayaking.  Why is this so lame?

-------------
It's all fun and games until someone loses a paddle.


Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2012 at 11:31pm
Well if the dude wants to go all jack ass and bust his ass jack ass style, that in itself isn't lame. I don't f**king give a rats ass for his well being and he isn' t jeapardizing my own safety in anyway, so I guess if he likes getting hurt, well, rock on bro.

But its a stunt. Straight up. What I find most amusing is how many peeps who cheer these guys on seem to be unable to differentiate between someone pushing boundries in a reasonable way and someone getting their jackass on to this extent. I strongly believe that without the presence of cameras and the internet there to instantly hand this guy his 15min of fame, his incentives to abuse his body would be greatly reduced.

Sure, kayaks in the 70's were inadequate for the hardcore sh*t that Hopkins and others of his breed were paddling then. It was a gradual process of about 20 years before a mature whitewater kayak evolved enough to downgrade the difficulties of the whitewater environment enough to allow the average paddler to go "creeking" in the casual manor that we all now enjoy.
   And, yeah- I'm surprised that SUPS are as crudely designed as they are (talking strictly about SUPs AS APPLIED TO RUNNING WHITEWATER. ) no doubt because a SUP designed speciffically for that type of terrain can not yet be justified since you can count on one hand the number of people who desire to take the sup in that painfully stupid direction.

Now, make the board soft to fall on, provide a way to lock your feet in (you're basicly gonna need to go the Snowboard route, w/ bindings that can be quickly released since essentially you are snow boarding down a cascading creek). So the fu*kin board is way too long, maybe. If this guy is dumb enough to do this at this early stage in the game, I wonder if he is smart enough to realize that he needs to build his own custom boards, since only he and the three to ten other people or so doing this sh*t are gonna know what they need in the design of a viable "Creek Sup"...

On the other hand, I don't want to be a naysayer too much since I have personally been told by litterally hundereds of people over the years that my activity of choice (whitewater kayakin. Nothin fancy, just plain old apparently too boring garden variety class III-V) was crazy/stupid. Even though others before me long since paved the way and proved to me it was a safe and enjoyable activity. In the 70's and 80's the average joe thought whitewater kayaking was crazy and stupid, and look where we're at now. So I get the whole progress thing and I started snowboarding at a time when most ski areas did not allow them on the mountain.

Still, good luck sticking 50/50, Big Brother, or Spirit Falls on that thing, kid. Or running Tumwater at 10K... It seems to me like this guy is skipping several intermediary steps in one small step for man, one giant assinine step for jack asses. Like, until I actually see a sup on a whitewater run (no, Happy Wave ain't enough to get you on the granite steeps of Cali.), it will remain evident that this guy is trying to run before he can walk. Like many whitewater kayakers, actually.

And no, I'm not "hating" on this or that, just putting my opinion on this thread, and pointing out some obvious gaps between where the Sup thing is, and where he is prematurely trying to take it.

Now, Cascade: I gotta ask you to clarify what you meant by "kayaking going the way of the monoski". Please don't try to tell me it is on the path to obsolesce. I don' t want to get too hooked on this thread.

First off, "Kayaking" is a much much broader activity than merely creekboating and playboating. Ok I am ready to concede it is possible to paddle from Seattle to Alaska on a Sup. In fact, someday it may happen and some Supper Dude with big ambitions is probably fantasizing about that right now, after uploading his recent batch of "look at me and how cool I appear to be" photos up on his "look at me do rad sh*t" blog. Maybe its its possible, but who would want to? I can also rip an 8' sheet of plywood down its length with a japanese pull saw too, bitches. Don't mean that's intelligent in any way shape or form just because it can be done. I'll rip my sheets of plywood with a table saw, thanks, because it is simply more efficient. And I'll paddle a sea kayak to Alaska. And I'll relish the steep creeks in a creekboat. Because efficiency is more elegant and more enjoyable than inefficiency. Breaking your tailbone in the process of learning how a river works doesn't seem very efficient at all, and if you think whitewater kayaking has few adherents, well...

Big waves on the ocean? Now that seems like the realm (and THE ONLY realm, IMO) where the SUP sounds remotely fun. But, I don't really have the foundation of surfing and I'm not interested in investing the time and money into that skillset when a Kayak will instantly grant me access.
...but with my stroke work after years of driving rafts would make surfing big waves fun. Other than that I can't really see the appeal. Unless you want to tool around Lake Union and be seen in your Bikini. But, I don't have any breasts. So, that too spunds pretty darn silly.

I don't hate Sups or the people who fall off of them, I just have no use for such a novelty.


Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2012 at 11:36pm
And, those of you who've been around here on PP for awhile undoubtedly have noticed the decline in my once frequent opining.

So, I figured I'd make the above hefty tome esspecially hefty, since I know yall been missin' me ;)


Posted By: Scott_H
Date Posted: 01 Oct 2012 at 1:03pm
All for more work-avoiding conversation on the forum! 
 
There seem to be enough innovators out there (Corran Addison, Dan Gavere) that I bet there will be some improvement in the SUP's.  Some kind of binding system seems like a definite.
 
My take is that the sport is a different way to enjoy the river - or maybe different stretches of river.  Semi-poor analogy, but maybe like cross-country skiing has advanced into skate-skiing and rugged touring.  They may not taking over straight-up downhill, but I have enjoyed the detour from the downhill mindset I usually bring to the mountains and am able to catch different terrain - I might get a little downhill speed here and there too.  Or maybe like the noboards (?) - basically snowboarding without bindings.  Not going to replace the main tool for downhill, but it spices things up a bit. 
 
I might not want to ever run anything steep, bony, and/or fast on a SUP, but there are stretches of river out there that might make it appealing.  I might not skip a shot at FITW or the Cooper to instead pull out the SUP, but on a day like today when not much locally is running, I wouldn't mind floating down a moderate section of a river checking out the fall colors.  Sure I can do that on flat water too - but I am a tad lazy and having a little current aiding my forward progress is nice.  And a little spash here and there so I can claim it was "whitewater" and wear my helmet and look 'core and all.


-------------
“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.”


Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 01 Oct 2012 at 9:04pm
Originally posted by jP


Still, good luck sticking 50/50, Big Brother, or Spirit Falls on that thing, kid. Or running Tumwater at 10K...


Dude, I'd love to see him take on Tum at 1k!
We've already seen example A (lame) which kicked this post off. Let us consider example B:     (not lame) = http://vimeo.com/49735469 - http://vimeo.com/49735469

... or at least, entertaining. the giddy screams only enhance the awesomeness

                                        Yah JP, I been missin' ya, bud. Are you tucked under House Rock or behind BZ Falls?


-------------
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Howard Thurman


Posted By: Scott_H
Date Posted: 02 Oct 2012 at 8:33am

Curiosity piqued...but broken link!



-------------
“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.”


Posted By: AaronS
Date Posted: 02 Oct 2012 at 10:10am
I followed a guy down the middle white salmon on two different occasions. He was pretty good at it, but he was working pretty hard and fell off three times from Maytag to Top Drop. All the way to Husum he was like a kid on a skateboard using the terrain. He would ride the nose of the board up on a rock and then run up to the tip, then launch back toward the stern and back into the current. He'd also go over ledges into/over holes by jumping up off the board and landing on it as it cleared the hole. All in all it was pretty cool to watch. He could also get out of the river fairly easily and then kind of dropped back in from the shore. I dont know anything about the kind of board, but he did have it tethered to his ankle. Anyway, I've been on a SUP in the Columbia and it got boring pretty quickly. This guy made SUPing look fun.

-------------
If you're not prepared to be wrong you'll never come up with anything new.


Posted By: Scott_H
Date Posted: 02 Oct 2012 at 11:16am
No way!  Wow - that takes a lot of chutzpa from that SUP'er....with a healthy dose of ignorance.  That has to be one of those times where you wish you had a snappy one-liner to throw out. 
Reminds me of my brother and I going snowboarding up at Baker years ago and he was just learning.  We stop maybe 20 feet from a lip with a steep drop-off when a couple "cool" boarder types stopped behind us and complained intentionally within earshot about there being too many beginners clogging the mountain that day.  My brother got hacked off at the insult and rather than saying anything he quickly stood up and launched off the lip and did a front flip (and landed it), which was crazy because he could barely snowboard let alone jump - just felt the inspiration.  I hucked it right after him and then we waited at the bottom to watch the "cool" boarders each biff the jump.
 
Wait, what were we talking about?


-------------
“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.”



Print Page | Close Window