iI know everyone is concentrated on the clinic right now but if any you kentucky heathens driving up for the festivities. if so, we should ralley up a corner this year like we did for gauley. last year we we're spread around with the occaissional drunken high fives. this year we should muster up our own campfire, etc. the music is going to be stellar again this year (http://cheat.org/festival/music). Upper Yough releases saturday for the experienced and the cheat narrows and lower yough or loop will be there for the newer paddlers, then there is the cheat canyon for intermediate and up (also ASCI probably). and if we get rain then there are hundreds of opportunities for all levels. I can lead some trips if any paddlers need some leadin. Also, if its dry I'll probably do some sick singletrack/XC riding saturday morning before the releases at big bear lake (exit before friendsville) if anybody wants to ride. The cheat canyon race is friday at 5pm if anyone wants to do it we can sign up the bwa as a team (they have four divisions playboat, creek boat, long boat, and wildwater glass boat). I'll be in the long boat division again this year defending my title. Clay, Sarah, Brian M this is great way to warm up, get in shape, and get the feel for the Real Race (lord of the fork race). anyway, have fun at the clinic everyone wanted to come but will be doing (www.jerrysbaddle.org) that saturday to support ALS and to work on my chicken legs grindin up that takeout hill.

matt walker

oops, May 3rd-4th is the dates (two weeks after clinic wknd).

We (me, Clay and John) had an awesome time last year! The Upper Yo is super fun for those of you who love class IV and the Cheat is pretty much always epic surf...not to mention the rocking festival. Maybe I'll have to skip my derby party and head north again. The Cheat race sounds exhausting, guess I should probably give that some thought, I know I'll need the conditioning come October.

Matt, where are the start/finish lines for the race? Anybody got a race boat to lend me?

~Sarah

Sarah,

I'm not sure if you'd want to try it, but I have an older Prijon Hurricane. I bought it from a guy in E-Town about 2 yrs. ago....at that time he said it was about 11 yrs. old and that in its day, it was the fastest boat around. He told me he was actually hoping someone would buy it and enter it in a race. In my experience with it, I think it's a pretty fast little boat. I'll be in Pensacola and New Orleans doing some diving that weekend, or I might look into this race thing a little more myself. If you're interesting in checking it out, I'll be more than happy to let you borrow it. It would be kinda cool to see the Prijon recapture some of its glory!

Beth
859-489-1940

Matt:
I will be there for sure. Heading that way on the 29th. Be there for fest on Sat. See ya on Yough, Cheat on Friday and Sat ? May head toward Gauley on Sunday then home. All water level dependent of course. Hopefully we will have more water this year.

Brent

Beth,
I'd love to try it out. Would you be willing to bring it down to the Clinic, or could I?
~Sarah

Sarah,

I won't be at the clinic this year, but if you want to take it with you to the clinic, we could arrange for you to pick it up before you go. I'm pretty booked this week, but Tuesday after my dentist appmnt. is open (as long as you don't mind me being numb, mumbling, and possibly drooling...). If you wanted, we could even get together near a body of water somewhere so you could take a look at it and try it out before you commit to lugging it all the way to the clinic. Just let me know what you have in mind.

Beth

Crap...Sarah, it dawned on me as I was laying down for bed last night that I'm taking both of my boats, including the Prijon, with me on my trip to Pensacola and New Orleans the weekend of the race. Don't ask me WHY I didn't make the connection previously...guess I got overly excited about the race and had a brain fart. Anyway, I'm going to have to rescind my offer. I feel really bad about this...I'm soooo sorry! You're still more than welcome to use it at the clinic if you want...I'm 99.9% sure that I'm not using it for anything that weekend!

Sorry again,

Beth

No worries, have fun at the beach
~Sarah

Sarah,

I don't know how fast the boat is, but it's long -- I have a Perception Pirouette S you're more than welcome to borrow from now until the race.

Zina