This past week, New River Academy took a two-day drive from Lijiang to the Salween River. This may be my favorite river ever and it had some of the best big wave surfing I have ever experienced. Growing up in West Virginia, I have seen my far share of good waves but the Salween blew away my expectations giving up huge play that rivals anything I have ever surfed.
The Salween ran deep through a lush, green mountainous area of China- very different from the high altitude Mekong. Running about 20,000 cfs, the Salween was a deep and steep run with very few rocks scattered through the riverbed that made for huge clean waves that gave up huge clean air.

New River Academy students at the Mekong Base

Our base was on the river in Gong Shan. We were able to catch the Kung Pow wave, the wave Andrew Holcomb and Steve Fisher surfed in Burning Time 2. This was an amazing wave. At first glance it looked small in comparison to the rest of the river but once we paddled out to the wave ,it was everything but. Every move was possible and to top it all off, the wave had eddy service.
We hit Blunts, Pan Ams, Helixes, and a number of other tricks. Daniel Stewart, Cael Jones, and Brain Boyle were anxious to get some great video and shot their butts off getting some great footage. Everyone was going big. Brian Boyle and Cael Jones got two of the biggest bounces I have ever seen. The 10+ foot tall wave broke and they fell like 6 feet to the trough. Sam Fulbright and Eli Spiegel were also going big, hitting their first airscrews and pan ams.
The whitewater section on the river is very long. We actually drove for 7 or more hours up the Salween to get to our base and for the entire 7 hours we passed numerous big class 5+ rapids, fun class 4 wave trains and more play than we could keep track of.
The section we ran was typical of the whole river with big waves of all kinds and big holes to maneuver away from as well as good wave surfing. The biggest rapid we ran was Glass Pack. Named for its large glassy waves leading into a steep choppy rapid ending in a giant diagonal hole. I was excited to see the whole group take on the rapid and everyone made it through safely. Michelle Yates was nervous scouting the rapid but ran it and had a great line. I was on line but tried to punch the corner of the wave and got window shaded.

The down river play was awesome and reminded me of the New River Dries. We all were hitting some good kickflips off the fast clean waves. Some kickflips that stuck out were from Brian Boyle and Matt West. Matt said he got the biggest kickflip of his life. I used a large curler to attempt an offside kickflip and ended up clearing my head as the curler picked me up, rolled me, and slammed me flat back on the water. Very cool feeling. Tino Specht got one of the biggest kickflips the group had ever seen off the top wave in Glass Pack. That was a brave move above such a demanding rapid.
The Kung Pow wave started to drop out and our muscles and backs needed a break so we packed and up and left to get ready for our trip on the Yangtze. But, we got 2 and a half hours down the road and found another giant world class wave every bit as good as Kung Pow. It was 9 in the morning and we put on our cold wet gear for one last session. The wave was perfect. All the water funneled down in a huge wave train with a huge breaking wave with a giant eddy. I got the biggest tricks ever.
The group had mixed feelings about what to name the wave but Dave Hughes and I agreed on Fortune Cookie.
We are back in Lijiang having classes and preparing for our trip on the Yangtze. Due to a dam being built we may be the last trip ever to paddle the Great Bend section of the Yangtze. It is a little high running close to 60,000 cuffs but with the raft support of Jed Weingarten and Willie Kern we feel confident that we can make it down the infamous Yangtze River. I should have another post in a week or so. Stay tuned and wish us luck!

We just got off a 5-day river trip on the Mekong River in China.  It was a spectacular run tucked away in foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.  It is a high volume run with big water play and big rapids.  With the support of four rafts, our team covered close to 50 miles of river that has only been run about 7 times as it wound through the jagged mountains of the Himalayas.

   Our first day on the water was our most epic day of kayaking this year.  This was also our first day of kayaking in China so it made for a memorable experience.  The river was running about 12,000 cfs or more.  The whole team was nervous as we dropped into the first rapid consisting of giant pourovers in the center and a giant wave train with sticky wave holes against the right hand cliff.  We made it through and continued to boogie down the fast moving river.  Most of this 12 mile section consisted of huge waves that were easily as big as the rapids on the Ottawa or Dries of the New.  

The highlight of first day was Teen Chowder.  This may be the largest rapid I have ever run.  The whole river funneled together at the top, forming large diagonal holes on both sides of the river that collided together and dropped strait into a 15 foot tall crashing wave hole.  Then, the rapid ended in a tight canyon with some funky, swirly, water. If you got trashed in the rapid, rolling up at the end was really tough.  Walking the rapid definitely crossed our mind, but the high volume water would flush us through at some point, so most of the group decided to take it on.  I got munched in the bottom hole, missed a couple of roles, and finally came up with a huge smile of relief.  Everyone got trashed except for Daniel Stewart, Brian Boyle, and Kyle Dinnel who managed to smooth the rapid.  
 
The following days consisted of some epic play.  We found one wave the second day that had a giant steep green corner.  Everyone was going for the biggest moves they could get.  Eli attempted some big air screws and Sam was working on airing out his Pan Ams.  
 
On the third day, we went through The Moon Gorge, which is the most amazing canyon I have ever been in. With 800-foot limestone cliffs on both sides, all 12,000 cfs were crammed into a 30-40 foot gap creating giant whirlpools and boils.  We got thrown all over the place as we stern squirted and mystery moved through the Gorge.  
 
Camping and having class on the river is also amazing. Jed Weingarten and Levin Brown set up a great trip.  They got a local Tibetan chef, Tashi, to cook and row for us.  He actually cooked for the Dali Lama.  The camping was awesome.  We were surrounded by giant rocks of all kinds below snow covered mountains 10,000 feet above us. It was like nothing I had ever seen.
 
We are packing up and heading to the Salween tomorrow.  This is supposed to be the best play in all of China.  Can’t wait. Wish us luck.  

Shane Groves
Coach and math teacher
New River Academy

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

We were meant to spend 5 days paddling the Mekong River stopping in the afternoon to make camp and get some camps in, however on our 4th day of camp some local chinese police came and told us we couldn’t paddle any more. They wanted us to take out at camp. We layed over a day and did classes the next day while we worked out a deal with the police. For photo class we hiked up into the hills to a hotsprings and small monastery.

Working the Fields: ISO:200 F-stop:6.3 Shutter Speed:1/160

We walked through a lot of very unfertile, dry fields that the locals were laboring away in.

Hiking: ISO:200 F-stop:9.0 Shutter Speed:1/320

Sam Fulbright hiking up the mountainside.

Prayer Statue and Monastery: ISO:200 F-stop:5.0 Shutter Speed:1/100

We came across this really cool prayer statue with the monastery in the background.

It was a really fun hike, and found out that we would be able to paddle down to an easier spot to take out the next day, which meant we missed a few miles of the Mekong, but wouldn’t have to take out in such a bad spot.

We drove about 12 hours out of Lijiang over a 14500 foot mountain
pass. Everything was covered in snow and we had snowball fights. We put
in right above a huge rapid. We spent a little while scouting and those
who were running it did and the rest portaged. We continued down
through more big water until we reached the biggest and last rapid of
the day. It consisted of a lot of water in a very narrow steep space.
It created the biggest crashing wave I have ever seen, a wave that you
would not want to surf voluntarily. After those who wanted to ran it,
we continued down to camp.

The next morning we awoke, packed all
our gear into rafts and headed a quarter mile downstream to a rapid
that had a super sick wave in it. We spent a few hours surfing and
going big.

Mekong Blunt: ISO:200 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/1000

David Hughes throwing a big blunt early in the session.

Mekong McNasty: ISO:400 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/800

Tino Specht looking over his shoulder to finish a snappy McNasty.

Mekong Blunt2: ISO:200 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/1250

Sam Fulbright throws a huge ariel blunt.

We continued downstream after a few hours and spent two more days on the mekong running big water and playing, however none of it compared to the first day’s big water and the second day’s wave. 

We were meant to spend 5 days paddling the Mekong River stopping in the afternoon to make camp and get some camps in, however on our 4th day of camp some local chinese police came and told us we couldn’t paddle any more. They wanted us to take out at camp. We layed over a day and did classes the next day while we worked out a deal with the police. For photo class we hiked up into the hills to a hotsprings and small monastery.

Working the Fields: ISO:200 F-stop:6.3 Shutter Speed:1/160

We walked through a lot of very unfertile, dry fields that the locals were laboring away in.

Hiking: ISO:200 F-stop:9.0 Shutter Speed:1/320

Sam Fulbright hiking up the mountainside.

Prayer Statue and Monastery: ISO:200 F-stop:5.0 Shutter Speed:1/100

We came across this really cool prayer statue with the monastery in the background.

It was a really fun hike, and found out that we would be able to paddle down to an easier spot to take out the next day, which meant we missed a few miles of the Mekong, but wouldn’t have to take out in such a bad spot.

We drove about 12 hours out of Lijiang over a 14500 foot mountain
pass. Everything was covered in snow and we had snowball fights. We put
in right above a huge rapid. We spent a little while scouting and those
who were running it did and the rest portaged. We continued down
through more big water until we reached the biggest and last rapid of
the day. It consisted of a lot of water in a very narrow steep space.
It created the biggest crashing wave I have ever seen, a wave that you
would not want to surf voluntarily. After those who wanted to ran it,
we continued down to camp.

The next morning we awoke, packed all
our gear into rafts and headed a quarter mile downstream to a rapid
that had a super sick wave in it. We spent a few hours surfing and
going big.

Mekong Blunt: ISO:200 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/1000

David Hughes throwing a big blunt early in the session.

Mekong McNasty: ISO:400 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/800

Tino Specht looking over his shoulder to finish a snappy McNasty.

Mekong Blunt2: ISO:200 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/1250

Sam Fulbright throws a huge ariel blunt.

We continued downstream after a few hours and spent two more days on the mekong running big water and playing, however none of it compared to the first day’s big water and the second day’s wave. 

After our two days in Kunming we gathered our gear and borded an overnight sleeper bus. The bus has two levels of beds all about a foot to short. We arrived in Lijiang the next morning after a not so refreshing sleep on the bus and walked through old town to our hostile. Lijiang is set up into a new and an old city, the new city is just like any other city, but the old city is all small cobblestone roads and small traditional shops. We spent a few days in Lijiang preparing for our Mekong trip.

Stone Arch Bridge with Reflexion: ISO:200 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/1

The old city of Lijiang is set up as a series of cobblestone walkways among river channels. This is an old stone arch bridge that crosses one of the small river channels. At night the channels are lit up by lights and you can purchase lotus flowers made of paper with candels in them that you can float down the rivers.

Morgan on a Horse: ISO:200 F-stop:5.6 Shutter Speed:1/125

Old style people dressed in fur carrying guns and swords walk around with horses that you can ride for a small fee.

Young Monks: ISO:400 F-stop:4.5 Shutter Speed:1/60

We rented bikes and rode them about 7 miles out of Lijiang and then hiked about a mile into the mountains to a Buddhist Monastery. We each burned incense, left a donation, and received a small prayer bead. We were not allowed to use cameras or wear glasses, shoes, or hats inside the inner building.

Morgan, Tino, and Dave: ISO:400 F-stop:4.8 Shutter Speed:1/80

Morgan, Tino, and Dace are watching a guy pull ginger candy. It is similar to salt water taffy except it dries up and tastes like ginger. 

Traveling to the Mekong river was an incredible trip within itself. With a 2 day, 12 hour drive we were drove through some pretty amazing passes as we traveled into a deeply tibetan cultured area. We drove through some passes up to about 14,500 feet. Incredible views of the areas culture and the himilayan mountains. Here are some images from the trip.

Tibetan prayer flags in a high pass of the Himilayas. Photo (c) Sam Fulbright 2007.

Black and White shot of the mountains. Photo (c) Sam Fulbright 2007.

Buddhist Prayer implements. Photo (C) Sam Fulbright.