The inaugural Ottawa XL in Beachburg, Ontario, last weekend brought together the best kayakers from around the world for a chance to qualify for the 2014 Whitewater Grand Prix. The Ottawa River was said to be as high as it’s been in over a decade, so the paddlers had plenty of whitewater, and Canoe & Kayak got plenty of photos, thanks to John Rathwell.

Canoe & Kayak’s Part 1 features action from the freestyle competition with major air on the monster Gladiator Wave.

Part 2 features the boater-X race.

The overall winners of the combined two-day event were Dane Jackson (U.S.) in the men’s division, Nouria Newman (France) in the women’s division. The entire list of finishers can be found here.

Photo courtesy of Converse

I know I’m not alone in admitting that I have an obsession with shoes. What girl doesn’t? So when news about the collaboration between Converse and Comme des Garçons PLAY popped up on my radar, I was immediately smitten. While Converse has been around since our grandparents were kids, you may be left scratching your head on the other half of this design duo. Comme des Garçons PLAY is a casual, streetwear-influenced line from the avant-garde Japanese label founded by Rei Kawakubo. In basic terms, their cool-factor equates to that of gold bullion. On par with the whole black-and-white trend currently happening in fashion, these sneakers feature leather uppers and PLAY’s signature quirky heart-with-eyes logo. Got your attention? We thought they might. Wherever your kicks take you this summer, don’t be surprised if they elicit stares—the good kind.

The Converse and Comme des Garçons PLAY collection. Photo courtesy of Converse

Ready to shop? All styles will be available on Dover Street Market’s website and at the Comme des Garçons New York store May 28, in Paris and London June 1, and at Comme des Garçons stores in Tokyo and throughout Asia June 21. MSRP: $130 to $140

Air Force Major Rob Marshall celebrated reaching the summit of Mount Everest this week by doing something very odd and quite crazy—at least for somebody who had just climbed to the top of the tallest mountain on Earth. He did 30 pushups—30 pushups! An exhausted Marshall finished by saying, “I don’t want to do anymore. I’ll pass out.”

Marshall is captain of the USAF 7 Summits Challenge and has been raising money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and That Others May Live Foundation with every 1,000 feet the team climbs and with every pushup he does on the summits.

So, in honor of Marshall, the charities he supports with these climbs, and Memorial Day, we present the world’s most unusual celebration atop Mount Everest, something never seen before:

On his Facebook page, Marshall wrote that he was a bit hypoxic, “so who knows exactly what I was saying before the pushups started!”

What he said wasn’t too gibberish, actually. “I’m going to do my pushups, see how many we can get in a minute. It won’t be as many as normal, but I’m doing it to show mountains can’t stop you if you have teamwork and good physical fitness, and also [to give a shout-out] to Special Operations Warrior Foundation.”

Once he finished, he said, “I don’t want to do anymore. I’ll pass out. God bless America. Go Air Force.” He then saluted.

It was an incredible moment, to be sure, but a crazy one, considering the thin air at that altitude. And we’re pretty certain the 30 pushups on the summit of Everest is a world record, a very peculiar one at that.

“Everyone else on the summit was giving me a strange look, like ‘What’s this guy on?’” Marshall told The Seattle Times via satellite phone Wednesday night.

Marshall was among a six-member team from the Air Force. Four of the climbing airmen reached the summit of Everest, marking the first time a team of military members from any nation has reached the highest point on all seven continents, according to the U.S. Air Force website.

It is uncertain just how many pushups Rob Marshall did along the way, but we know he did 50 pushups on top of Aconcagua in South America (22,837 feet) and 70 pushups atop Vinson Massif in Antarctica (16,050 feet).

More important, USAF 7 Summits Challenge has raised more than $75,000 for charities. For that—and the pushups—we salute Rob Marshall and his team. Job well done.

Photo of Major Rob Marshall and Captain Drew Ackles displaying the USAF flag atop Mount Everest is from USAF 7 Summits Challenge Facebook page.

Top photos of Rob Marshall doing pushups and saluting are screen grabs from Marshall’s Facebook video. 

If spring is the season to clean out the closets, summer is the season to fill them back up. And if you’re anything like me, you wear your summer essentials layered under sweaters well into the fall—if for no other reason than nostalgia. One of our favorite hat makers (don’t underestimate the usefulness of a good hat), Brixton, just released a new video featuring—of course—their new summer product. Some notables are bucket hats Floyd and Tracker, two stylish arrivals whose form-meets-function sensibilities will be sure to please, and Baxter, the new straw fedora and summer necessity that we’ll soon be seeing around town.

If shade isn’t what you’re after, fret not. Brixton has expanded its line of boardshorts to include a new technical trunk of note, the Generator. On the woven front, knits and tanks feature a color and print pallet that’s sure to influence the season ahead. But take our advice: if you spy a must-have style, shop now. As with most things summer-related, expiry dates are short. So hit the refresh button on your shopping cart and get to it!  Brixton.com

When we first meet 13-year-old Eithan Osborne, he’s getting ready to paddle out for a heat where he’ll drop 8.5s and 9.0s like it ain’t no thang. But while the surfing world is eager to label him “the next Dane Reynolds,” Osborne has a different plan.

Armed with nothing but a surfboard, Osborne is mobilizing other groms to donate surfboards, surf supplies, and clothing to the nonprofit Foam for Families.

“Foam for Families is awesome because it’s a group of surfers traveling to parts of the world with the best waves but also often the poorest parts of the world. So, they score perfect waves and help children in need,” Osborne said. “They help the kids be stoked on surfing and give them the means to do it. They bring boards, leashes, wax, ding-repair kits, and teach them everything about surfing.”

As an ambassador for Foam for Families, Osborne is reaching out to the surf community and asking other youth to help. Even the NSSA and Surfing America Prime are on board; Foam for Families will have a booth at both organizations’ nationals events to collect donations from participants.

Although he’s still not old enough to vote or drive, Osborne is already living the mantra “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

This summer, Osborne will travel to an orphanage in Bali to take part in his first trip with Foam for Families.

“I can’t wait,” Osborne said.

Eithan Osborne, 13-year-old Foam for Families ambassador. Photo by Kenneth Keeler

What is Foam for Families?

Surfers Matthew Smith and Chad Compton of Ventura, California, started Foam for Families earlier this year. After traveling to Nicaragua on a surf trip, Smith realized that the local youth had the desire to surf but lacked equipment and supplies.

Inspired by a local grom named Chinto, who kept repairing the same old surfboard, Smith envisioned a future where the local kids had access to surfboards and could develop skills that would eventually create new jobs in the community.

Back in California, Smith and Compton gathered donations of surfboards, pads, leashes, wax, and ding-repair supplies and planned a return trip to the town of Aserradores, Nicaragua. The two surfers spent several weeks in Aserradores, teaching the local youth how to surf and repair surfboards and establishing a local surf center where the boards are kept.

A group of groms in Aserradores gets ready to hit the waves with equipment donated by Foam for Families.

Today, Foam for Families is planning to expand to Indonesia and South America. The nonprofit continues to be involved in its pilot program in Aserradores.

“In many developing countries, a lot of the costal properties are being bought up by foreign investors,” explained Smith, adding, “The locals are being taken advantage of, but surf tourism and surfing offer a solution.”

By empowering communities through shared access to surfboards and surf supplies, Smith said he hopes to create new opportunities for the next generation.

To learn more about Foam for Families or to get involved, visit www.foamforfamilies.org.

Gender benders Michelle Clifford, left, and Katie Kowalski eye Mini Bus on the Ottawa River after stepping up to a huge fall surf session. (Keegan Grady enters the maw.) Photo by John Rathwell and reprinted with permission from Canoe & Kayak magazine

[This story originally appeared on canoekayak.com. It has been reprinted with permission from Canoe & Kayak magazine.]

Today’s paddlers live in a different world. Compact and capable video cameras, inexpensive editing software, and free video-sharing websites have made publicizing one’s exploits easier and more important than ever. Paddlers desperate to stand out from the crowd must constantly promote themselves to sponsors, friends, and fans. This reality has long fueled a film genre labeled simply as “kayak porn”—short clips packed with heart-pounding whitewater action and no meaningful story line. But the latest crop of YouTube-generation paddling filmmakers has blurred the line between kayak porn and the real thing, reigniting a simmering debate about gender roles in the sport.

In the world of kayak porn, there is a cadre of accomplished and talented cinematographers producing stylish, classy, even empowering works of film. Balls Deep Productions is not among them. Last fall, the Hood River, Oregon-based crew released a video entitled “Pleasure Strokes” on Vimeo.

The BDP footage consisted mostly of relative newcomers such as Sam Freihoffer and Davis Gove hucking meat on popular Pacific Northwest stouts (gnarly, big, epic whitewater), shooting guns, and smoking joints. It’s set to a soundtrack of hard reggae and explicit hip-hop. Moonlighted by bigger name paddlers such as Evan Garcia and Ben Marr, the movie prompted heated discussions on several blogs and online forums. Posts on the Colorado-based Mountainbuzz critiqued the film’s mediocre editing and camera angles; some lambasted the crew for their off-water antics and lack of substantial boating footage. Many called out the filmmakers’ educators, role models, and in some cases, sponsors—questioning the integrity of an industry that promotes these individuals as ambassadors of their sport.

[This story originally appeared on canoekayak.com.]

Soon after, Dagger-supported athletes pulled their bio information from the BDP website. In one ‘Buzz post, a representative from Dagger stated the brand’s managers were “uncomfortable” associating the company with “behavior that is offensive, demeaning, or disrespectful.” (This coming from Dagger, whose booth at Gauley Fest a few years ago featured pole dancing and female mud wrestling.) The BDP crew set out to promote themselves by documenting the number of stouts they stomp, the quantity of weed they smoke, and the girls who go shirtless at their parties. What they got was the whitewater community’s panties in a twist with arguments about gender, censorship, misogyny, and sexuality. And a lot more exposure than even they bargained for.

“At the time, we thought we were just making a movie about having fun, but looking back it was more of just us acting childish,” says Gove. “Our intentions were never to portray women in a negative light.”

Not to be outdone by her male contemporaries, Canadian paddler Katrina Van Wijk, who paddled with the BDP crew this winter, released in February the first in a series of videos under the title TiTs Deep. The first installment follows the 22-year-old Van Wijk and three other female chargers, Louise Jull, Louise Urwin, and Erin Clancey, as they road trip around the Southeast preparing for the 2012 Green River Narrows Race. In the film, the girls huck, Jull is seen busting her shoulder above the Notch, and strong female vocals blare in the background. Group yoga, lip-syncing, and hand gestures suggestive of grabbing one’s chest ensue, garnering a whole new set of reactions about sexuality in whitewater media.

[This story originally appeared on canoekayak.com.]

Anna Levesque was one of the impassioned voices in the online kerfuffle. As someone who founded and built a company (Girls at Play) around the idea of empowering female paddlers, Levesque says she respects Van Wijk as a paddler and instructor, but believes she’s “buying into the belief that how you get noticed as a woman is by making your looks and sexuality more important than your paddling talents.” Levesque called for a “long overdue” discussion of female stereotypes in whitewater paddling, railing against Dagger, also her sponsor, for the brand’s aforementioned Gauley Fest booth and history of inequities in athlete pay. The brand has made strides, she admits; its parent company, Confluence Watersports, has the only all-female executive team in the industry. Levesque also praised Dagger’s move to dissociate its athletes from BDP.

Van Wijk contends her female crew isn’t exploiting sexuality. “I’m trying to help girls see that not everyone is like the girls in the [BDP] video,” she says. Meanwhile, other leading ladies in the sport, such as Mariann Saether, Emily Jackson, and Adriene Levknecht, have let their paddles do the talking, proving by example that the fairer sex can huck just as hard, loop just as high, and run rapids just as fast as the boys. The question remains: Do girls need the edge to prove it to themselves and to a largely male audience?

The last time I felt intimidated on the way to the river was on the three-hour drive to Gore Canyon, the Class V gauntlet on the upper Colorado River. We were packed into an SUV, and the guys spent the entire drive, not surprisingly, talking big about the sick lines they planned. My stomach churned as I silently watched the mountain scenery roll by, nervous about the season’s low water levels and what that might mean for the run’s bony drops and sticky holes. On the river, I followed Heidi, the only other chick in the group, as she fired up the “meat line” at Gore Rapid while the boys watched from the bank, contemplating the portage. At least one of them told me later, in private, the only reason they ran the rapid was because we had done it first.

In a recent post on the NRS Souls + Water blog, Andria Davis encourages female paddlers to “embrace their inner dumbass” when stepping up to hard rapids with the guys. Her point is valid: that men often do not think of the consequences of running a particular line or rapid as seriously as women do, which is why they excel at adrenaline sports such as whitewater kayaking. I’d go one step further and ask those offended by these videos and supposed sexual references to embrace their inner dirtbag. Thicken your skin and remember to laugh at yourself and the (often lowbrow) sense of humor that bonds us as whitewater paddlers. Seriously, who among us has not once enjoyed an off-color joke? I myself have an entire repertoire of R-rated “female raft guide” quips.

Yes, this attitude walks precariously across the slippery slope of female objectification. However, if we remove these sensitivities, it would suck the air out of all of this supposed gender bashing, and the words and gestures would be stripped of their power. Let’s save our fire for the important battles—equality in opportunity, competition, compensation, and respect—and leave the young’uns to their hangovers and stunts. Admonishing them only panders to the cries for attention, and publicity, which videos and blogs represent in the first place.

[This story originally appeared on canoekayak.com.]

OffTheWall.TV Direct Link

OffTheWall.TV is excited to bring you the season premiere of Jeff Grosso’s Loveletters to Skateboarding. As an ode to years past and the lost gems of footage and archives, Jeff takes a look back on the making of Loveletters to bring you his Editor’s Choice of best photos and videos. Watch some of his favorite moments in skateboarding–some you’ve heard about, and others never before seen!

Following three critically acclaimed seasons of skateboarding nostalgia, legendary skateboarder Jeff Grosso graces us with Season Four of the beloved Loveletters to Skateboarding. In the new season, Jeff pays homage to the best memories of skateboarding from its infancy to its evolution today.

About OffTheWall.TV
OffTheWall.TV is a digital online video network chronicling the unique aspects of Vans’ brand of youth culture through original video projects and exclusive content exploring skate, surf, snow, BMX, girls’ lifestyle, art and music. With more than 45 years of rich heritage and far-reaching influence in youth culture, OffTheWall.TV story-telling captures the creative expressions of Vans’ “Off the Wall” identity.

San Clemente, CA – Electric returns as a major sponsor for the 2013 Volcom Fiji Pro, an ASP World Championship Tour event. The 2013 event waiting period runs from June 2nd – June 14th, and will host the world’s best surfers at the world-class breaks of Cloudbreak and Restaurants, Tavarua Island, Fiji.

Returning for the second year as a major sponsor, Electric is excited to announce that surf team rider Dusty Payne will be competing in the event.

Throughout the event Electric will be running several social media contests which will give participants an opportunity to win an official Electric summer prize pack. For official contest details and rules follow Electric on Facebook and Instagram.

Electric big wave watermen Mark Healey and Dave Wassel will be lending their expertise as official commentators for the event. Tune into www.volcomfijipro.com to watch the ‘Electric Heat Recap’ and live HD webcast.

ABOUT ELECTRIC
Electric is a global, premium, sport and lifestyle accessory brand rooted in Southern California’s rich action sports, music, art and customization culture. Electric’s unrelenting approach to the elevation of style, quality and function in its products has earned the brand a renowned position. Today, Electric designs and markets an extensive line of sunglasses, snow goggles, backpacks, luggage and accessories through a primarily action sport and sporting good global retail network including the Americas, Europe, Japan, China and Australia. Since 2011, Electric has been a part of the Kering group*, a world leader in apparel and accessories which develops an ensemble of powerful Luxury and Sport & Lifestyle brands (* PPR will become Kering, subject to approval at the Annual General Meeting on 18 June 2013).

For more information go to: www.electricvisual.com

“A Deeper Shade of Blue” is being praised as “the greatest surf story ever told,” yet award-winning filmmaker and director Jack McCoy says it “is not a surf movie.”

Rather, he says, “it is a film about surfing’s deepest roots in the subconscious, in ancient lore, in the craft of surfboard building, in man’s perpetual quest for a joyful relationship with the natural world.”

Call it what you want, but the critics are calling it epic. The Maui News praised its “jaw-dropping action,” and Variety commended its “never-before-seen angles,” no doubt referring to the stunning underwater imagery.

The Girl Gone Surfing blog wrote, “His breathtaking underwater cinematography of crashing waves from all angles transports the audience from reality to magical, the enigmatic pull of the waves strumming man’s inherent curiosity into the sea.”

Just the trailer alone is impressive:

Over the last 45 years, McCoy has made 25 films on surfing. “A Deeper Shade of Blue,” his latest production, was five years in the making and is an accumulation of his life’s work. The film explores the nature of the sport, its roots, the history of surfing culture, the important role women played in the sport, and the technology of the surfboard.

The film will become available as video on demand May 28 via Chill for $12. DVDs are also available.

“You’ll rarely see another film where the filmmaker’s passion is so evident,” said Sam George, former Surfer magazine editor. “McCoy’s incredible underwater photography borders on the sensual.”

The Amur River is the third-largest free-flowing river in the world. No dams. No diversions. It originates in Mongolia and stretches 2,500 miles along the China-Russia border to the Sea of Okhotsk.

Four women sharing a passion for adventure, kayaking, and keeping rivers wild will attempt to take a 70-day journey down this relatively unknown waterway, collecting scientific data, documenting what they find, and bringing awareness to the challenges facing global rivers.

As reported by Canoe & Kayak, the expedition entitled Nobody’s River is part of a National Geographic Young Explorers Grant-sponsored initiative. The project name originates from the political tension between China and Russia that has kept the Amur River free flowing.

Americans Becca Dennis, Sabra Purdy, and Amber Valenti, along with Australian photographer Krystle Wright, will begin their journey June 1.

From Canoe & Kayak:

The river itself is primarily flat water, so the four women—all whitewater kayakers—will be exchanging the adrenaline of big drops for the thrill of the unknown. “I feel really lucky to travel on a river like this,” says Dennis. “There’s no guidebook. It’s just going to be us exploring it. Not really knowing what sort of experience we’re going to have is exhilarating and a little bit overwhelming at the same time.”

[Related: A call to save wild Temagami]

According to the Nobody’s River website, a fully interactive web-based atlas will be produced from the images, stories, and data collected, and will be used as a tool for environmental education and conservation. A mouse click along the length of the watershed will take the user to that area.

Though the four kayakers hope to paddle as much of the river as possible, bypassing tense border regions by train and bus, their original plan might be altered as a result of a tragedy befalling Dennis’ longtime partner, Zach Orman.

Orman died in a paragliding accident in early April, so the upcoming journey will be taken with heavy hearts. From the Nobody’s River blog entry of April 24:

We have also spent long hours asking ourselves and each other how to move forward. There are no simple answers. There is no obvious path ahead. And though some things have become more clear, others remain faint forms on a distant horizon.

 

What we do know is that we are moving forward, slowly, and with shaky legs and beat-up hearts, but forward. It will not be the same journey we had planned. It cannot be, because life has changed and in the process so have we.

 

Our team of four will now leave June 1 and travel through Mongolia by kayak. Then we will let our hearts lead us from there. We may take the train and ferry to the ocean in Russia or we may still paddle the last 900 kilometers to the ocean. We trust that the path will appear as we move forward if we just keep listening.

 

We will be paddling much less of the total river length and will be abroad for a shorter period of time now, but we still plan to travel from the headwaters to the ocean, to capture the place in images, film, and scientific data, and to bring those stories home to all of you. We will still write blogs, and our sponsors will still get gorgeous photos and all of the things they were promised. But the story will certainly be more raw, more real, and more deeply human.

Through it all, we suspect the expedition will be well worth following. Check out Nobody’s River on Facebook or follow its blog. A video describing the expedition is right this way….

[Related: Paddling from Powell to Powell]

Photos and map courtesy of Nobody’s River