The 2015 Xavier Engle Memorial Robe Race

Spring time means you get to find out how bad your wrist and neck gaskets have degraded over the winter.

Spring time also means Robe Race.

There were murmurs that the race might be shifted by a weekend, as there was no rain in the forecast  the week leading up to the race. But level bumped up to just below 5.2 feet and by Friday afternoon we knew how we were going to be spending our Saturday; racing Robe Canyon and praying not to take home the Gnome!

It's an easy template for a race: paddle as hard as you can for roughly 3.5 miles and crush around 40 rapids with as little carnage as you can manage. Then, just for shits giggles, throw a hideous portage in the middle of the course to see just how flexible those ankles really are...



The flow range is 5.0-6.0 feet. Teams of two, as you set your own safety... The race starts in the eddy below T1, above T2 and ends in the pool a quarter mile(ish) downstream from Mrs. Robinson

With water levels low, the stoke was high. We had a large turnout with 14 teams and scores of safety boaters, we also had two Robe Race "firsts".

2015 gave birth to the inclusion of the first female participants as well as the first long boat entries.

Ellie Wheat and Hillary Neevel are not the first women to paddle Robe, and they certainly will not be the last. They are, however, the first to step up and chase the glory that goes hand in hand with swimming in front of your friends. There was no carnage on their part; instead they shut out a couple male teams and came out the gates hot!

Joe Keck and I decided to take our love of long boats and our fear of fatal pins and combine them into one stressful morning.

 I had never taken a boat longer than a Dagger Mamba down Robe prior to the race and despite several spinouts in and below rapids; it went way better than I thought it was going to go. The Dagger Greenboat is quickly becoming the only kayak I want to paddle. I had so much fun in that boat!




David Spiegel & Will Grubb went the fastest and took the most chances this year; taking home the Robes and dominating the field with a 30 second lead over reigning champ Ben Hawthorne and Brian Fletcher. Sam Chesley and Jordy Searle came in third place.





1.) Dave & Will                                29:50
2.) Ben & Brian                                30:20
3.) Sam & Jordy                               30:42
4.) Sam & Benn                               31:00
5.)Henry & Adam                            31:29
6.) Darren, Scott & Christian           31:40
7.) Brad & Evan                               32:15
8.) Trevor & Chase                          33:20
9.) Joe & Dan                                   33:39
10.) Chris & Chris                            33:56
11.) Hillary & Ellie                          37:14
12.) Jon & JD                                   38:45
13.) Chris & Leif                              39:37
14.) Steve & Conor                          53:54

Eric Mickelson is an awesome photographer, great paddler and an all around decent dude who operates out of Bellingham. Eric took some awesome shots at T1, T2 and Last Sunshine.

Enjoy these great photos that Eric sent over:

You can see more of Eric's work right here: http://ericmickelson.com/

Tammy Ritchey set safety at Catcher's Mitt and grabbed some sweet shots of the teams as they dropped into the Mitt.

Good ol Faceplant.

This years event follows the loss of a Seattle transplant boater in Robe Canyon.

 27 year old Xavier Engle tragically passed away on Robe Canyon this past winter. Xavier grew up in Alaska and moved to Seattle and enrolled in the UW school of medicine after attending Dartmouth College.

After the race was over, everyone paddled over to the Lounge and sat around drinking beers and dissecting race lines. Earlier in the year a couple folks took it upon themselves to haul an amazing tribute to Xavier into the canyon for kayakers and rafters to enjoy. It's definitely worth a stop to sit and reflect on why we do this incredibly rewarding and sometimes dangerous sport.

Once we paddled out of the canyon it was back up to Paca Pride at the putin. David had offered to allow us to host the event on their property and we obliged. These guys are amazing. They let us park on their property and they put up with all the shenanigans that go hand in hand with kayaking all the while running a successful business.

 If you're in the area or looking for a great non-paddling weekend adventure, take the time to check out Paca Pride. And if you paddle Robe, go in and say hello; they would love to meet you.

Leif stands by to name the winners and the rest of the losers.

Joe and I assumed that we were going to take home the Gnome this year, but due to a broken paddle, we were saved. This year the Gnome will be traveling with Conor and Steve as they boat in and around the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy it boys!

Leif does the honors.



The crowd waits with baited breath.



Will and David.

That kayaker life.

I have to say that in years past, I've paddled Robe so often that I'm surprised I don't have the combo for the gate at Paca Pride. This year however; the combination of out of country travel for work, school and a shoulder surgery had me dreading that phone call. I practiced my excuses for not racing in the shower, on the drive to work, in class. Every day my ability to say that I wasn't going to race was getting better and better. By the time I could say it with a straight face, without sweating, I got the call from Joe Keck.



"Hey bud, how's the shoulder feeling? Lets just get wild and let it all hang out. Lets race long boats. C'mon man, what's the absolute worse that could happen?"

That's a quick summation of the conversation that went down on, I think, the Wednesday before the race. Joe was motivated to rally the longboats down the Canyon and do it while completely out of breath. I was terrified and thought it was a horrible way to spend a perfectly good day.



 But it was awesome. My biggest fear was screwing up the line at Sunshine and going into that left wall, smashing my shoulder and potentially my face on the lovely undercut that waits to reward those with a poorly timed boof stroke. As level was on the lower side I was very concerned that some of the more vertical drops would present more of a pin potential.

But it actually went pretty well. I still buried my nose in the pile at Sunshine, but it didn't kick me as hard as I thought it would. Hole in the Wall got a bit sportier than I usually prefer and I am still kicking myself for not wearing the GoBro to catch the amazing gaze of terror that Joe and I shared when our eyes locked, mid carnage. But if it's not on camera; it didn't happen.



Good times.

Thank you to everyone that raced. Thank you to all the safety boaters. Thank you Leif Embertson for taking charge and herding these cats. Thank you David Capocci and Paca Pride for hosting us and just being awesome in a general way. The Washington kayak community appreciates your generosity and help in gaining access to this incredible streambed.

Until next year. Go fast and take chances!

Video - Robe Race 2013

Here is a quick and DIRTY video of the beaterfest that was Robe Race.

Level is around 5.9 and the stoke was high.




Stay safe!

Dagger Mamba 8.6 long term review - 1 year with the Green Snake

Don't mess with this Mamba:

Mess with this Mamba:

I got my hands on the Mamba 8.6 in April of 2012, and it has been a great boat for the past season. I bought the Mamba 8.6 thinking that this would primarily be a big water Idaho or extended overnight boat. I didn’t really see myself pushing a 90 gallon creeker on a regular basis, then I took it down Robe Canyon on the South Fork Stillaguamish river; I’ve been sold ever since.

Mamba 8.6 stats son!!
Length: 259cm
Width: 70cm
Boat Weight: 22kg
Volume: 337L or 89 gallons
Paddler Weight: 79-118kg

This is probably the largest boat I’ve ever paddled. At 90 gallons of displacement, this thing (for my body size) is the whitewater equivalent to a Chevy Tahoe. This thing is a beast, and destroys waves and holes accordingly. That being said; it’s a very easy-to-roll boat and has crisp, clean edges. The rise of the cockpit gives you a sunken feeling if you’re under 6 feet tall, but I think this can be easily remedied with either foam shims under the seat, or a foam pad over the seat. That sunken feeling only lasted for about a week while I was getting used to the boat.

The Mamba 8.6 doesn’t have the rocker that you are used to seeing on some of the newer creek boats these days, but that doesn’t stop the nose from coming back to the surface when pushing through a hole or hitting a nice delayed boof.  The hull has a very pointed, slightly upturned nose with sharp, crisp edges that run back to about where the seat meets the thigh hooks, then they smooth out into more of a displacement hull shape.  The stern is large volume and flat, but not slicey.

There are always pros and cons to any hull design, so while this boat is much wider than the Nomad, it’s definitely not as nimble. The planing hull helps you turn pretty quickly in big water, but on lower volume rivers and creeks it’s not as fast to change direction as the Nomad or Shiva (IMOP). The upside to this is stability. This thing is very stable, to the point that I really can’t say much about it’s secondary stability at all. I’m always upright and the few unplanned rolls that I’ve had in this boat were generally initiated by either a plugged boof or an Oprah sized hydraulic. Neither of which care one bit for the width of your craft.

The outfitting for the 2012 was awesome and while I haven’t gotten my hands on the 2013 outfitting yet, I hear it’s even better. The boat boasts a movable bulkhead with a generous helping of predrilled holes for your leg accommodation. The “out of the box” boat comes with a pretty solid foam kit that is pretty easy to install and has proven durable in the long haul. Neither of the foot foam blocks has even come loose after a year of use and the hip pads are still tight and have held their shape.

The boat has 5 metal hand holds that are pretty evenly spaced for rescue scenarios as well as normal boat strapping escapades. One of the things that I like about this metal hand hold design is the width and placement of the band holds. Too many times, in a rescue scenario or sketchy portage session, the cloth grab loops on other boats can be a pain. Another boat I’ve paddled has small, almost finger hole type, grab loops at the base of the rear cockpit. You can generally only get a finger or two in there and a well-aimed carabineer. The Mamba solves this problem by giving you a full handhold. Very easy to rig webbing or rope to. Very easy to hold onto while stabilizing a buddy or recovering a boat.

Scott Waidelich grabbed a couple great shots in Robe Canyon. Robe Canyon on the SF Sillaguamish river is a great place for a large volumed boat.

  Last weekend I was able to finally put the Mamba's big water specs to the test and got out on the Tumwater section of the Wentachee at about 6500 cfs. The Mamba made it a breeze. Enjoy the photos by Scott Waidelich and Jeremy Bisson.

Adrian Wigston sacraficed a lap for us on Sunday and shot some video of teh "Dam Rapid":

The Mamba is kind of like the Oklahoma version of the RPM. Corn-fed and burley, but no buck teeth as far as I can tell… You can take her home to mom and be proud of your choice. My overall opinion of the 2012 Dagger Mamba 8.6 is that this is a great all-around kayak. While this isn’t a single purpose creek boat, it covers all bases from river running to creek boating with a little bit of green wave surfing to boot. I think that this would be a great beginner boat as it is very predictable and stable and for the same reasons I think this would serve well as an instructional craft. The Dagger Mamba 8.6 would be a solid addition to anyone’s whitewater quiver.

A huge thanks to the guys who sacraficed time in the saddle to get these photos:

Photographer : Dave Costello
Badass : Adrian Wigston
Jah Himself : Jeremy Bisson
The Living Legend : Scott Waidelich