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Out to get me vid

2007-10-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

How to Run a Waterfall

2007-10-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

Watch and learn...

Beaver Weekend

2007-09-10T04:38:00.000-07:00

Since it has been so dry this summer, there hasn't been any creeking to speak of. But thanks to the fine people at AW, the NY creeking season has begun. And nothing lures you back into your creek boat like that pungent smell of beaver.

My Day on the Chateaugay

2007-04-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Another first for Team SP.ED. About ten minutes "North" on Rt 11 from Malone you will come to a river called the Chateaugay. The put in is easily found on the Gazetter, as well as the take out. What a great run. The first two rapids are a nice warm up for what is to follow. The first one you move along the left wall and then punch a diagonal ledge hole to the right, which sets you up for the hit at the bottom. Eddy left or right, and eye up the next horrizon line just down stream. The next is a ledge drop that runs like a slide, or a boof, depending on where you hit it. Small stuff for then next bit, so enjoy the scenery....which is very remote. Think of the walls on the Fish but higher and steeper. Dan Hays compaired it to that of the Ausable Chasim.

The next big one is "No Scout", which is true depending on the water level. At low water it is real tough, and obviously again at high water. The "Scout" would be on the right if it was there. You will be looking for a left hand turn and the river narrowing. You want to be right. The left might be ok but definately not middle. Big hole and huge chunk of concrete/rebar to be had in the middle, so again stay right. Its about a 30 ft slide thing, and move left at the bottom for the other small slide. The hole on the right could be a real bear at larger water. Here are some pictures from that rapid.

From there is is small stuff again to the pool. Take out here, 120ft waterfall that would be bad. We portaged right, and there is a road that brings you back around to the bottom. One smaller drop in between there and the tube. Be careful of the bats in the tube. Oh and the 10ft boof with the big hole at the end. Boof like your life depends on it....it does. Stay right.

Again, small stuff from there to the next pool. Again take out on the right. This is a 60ft dam, which looks runable, but not today. This part is tricky. Carefully get the boats up on the stairs. Where the stairs go right/up or down/left...you go straight. Put the boats next to the building and jump down. You are now tresspassing on power plant property. No worries, it doesnt look like anyone is ever there. You want to get back over on the stairs headind down to the lower station. About half way down, slide the boats off onto the slide. You are now standing in the middle of a 50ftish slide. The trick here is to get back to the seam. The slide is kinda bouncy and really cool. I went deep at the bottom but I guess if you can see (not get whited out like I did) you can make a boof stroke. Make sure to look back up the gorge at the drop. This will be the future site of some Team movies. Boogie water from here to the camps.

When you get back to the camps, get yourself ready for the beast. Dont bother scouting, you will just sike yourself out. In the words of Charlie and Dan, "Hey diddle diddle, right down the middle!" Just under the bridge you want to be looking at where you are as far as between the rock shores. MIDDLE!!! You are now starting down the fastest 200ft of your life. All slide. All kinds of big shots and whiteouts. Dont forget the little drop at the end. Very nice!

Good scenery, great whitewater. Just an hour from Potsdam.
The Flair

The Long Awaited Video Event of the Century!

2006-11-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

There has been talk for a while now about Team SPED making a full lenght video. Now I'm not going to give you a date, or story line, but I will give you a sneek peek!

Enjoy!

Another one....

2006-11-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

One more quick vid to wet your whistle....

Long Awaited....

2006-11-14T15:54:00.000-08:00

I know some of you have been waiting for this for a while.....SO HERE IT IS!!!! Its a little taste of the hours of footage I have already, and almost a trailor of the full length video I want to make.

Enjoy!

LaFlair

Inner City

2006-11-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

Yes it is just a video of me throwing one move, alone at Inner City but you know how much I like showing off for ya!

Lachines

2006-10-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

i could be boring and tell u all about Lachines, but im only going to say 3 words. Lachines is amazing. heres team SPED'S video

~Danny Doran

Come see the Team...

2006-07-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

Anywon who reads this regularly probly nos that Team Sped will be making is yerly appearence at Slammin Salmonfest! You will most likely see some of us Friday nite, with some videos, and extra cuuricular activities for those of age. Saturday the Team should be seen wherever there is water, followed by an appearance at the FLOW Picknic. Surely there will be videos and beverages there as well. Their is even rumor of a tournement of some sort. Guess you will have to stop by to see!

Hope to see everyone there. We should have plenty of footage for your vewing pleasures!

TheFlair

Southern River Trip

2006-06-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

First off, if you have never been on a river trip that takes you out of NY, you must go. It is such a change to go south and see completely different rivers. You have a chance to work on just about every aspect of kayaking when you go south and do Slippery Rock, The Youghiogheny, and The Tygart.

If you have only paddled Letchworth and The Salmon rivers, you have missed out on a ton. When you paddle all day on the Salmon you have the right to say, "I ran the Salmon and got thrown around in Titanic."

When you run the Tygart, for example, you can say "I PLAYED ON A SIX FOOT WAVE, GOT SWALLOWED IN A MONSTER HOLE, AND RAN A 15 FOOT WATERFALL (MOAT'S) ALL ON THE TYGART!!!!!" Now I would rather say that then be boring.

Short Round in the wave

The monster hole at double undercut

Moat's Falls was my first waterfall. I thought it would be fun, but I didn't think it would be as fun as it was. I just had to run it twice. The Southern Trip provided such a chage in scenery and rivers. There were spots to play, practice, and they all made me a better kayaker. The Tygart is a great river that offers so much and it will remain one of my favorite rivers.

Moats Falls

Sped crew scouting

Danny running Moats

~Danny "Short Round" Doran

Bottom Moose

2006-05-31T21:56:00.000-07:00

We have our own comic book know

Spring in New York State this year was not very epic; with little snow we had a very short spring season. A lot of the big runs that we were hoping to hit barely hit the gauges, and when they did, they were up for a very short time.

Kurt Fisk taking the hit at Fathersville

I hate to say this "but thank God for the dam on the Bottom Moose". For almost two months the power company was doing releases every weekend threw the months of April and may. These releases allowed us to have some good class 4 and5 rapids to run for a while.
It seemed like someone from the crew made it to all the releases this spring, which allowed us to make a short video of our trips on the bottom. It's kind of weird that there isn’t many people paddling this river, we probably only ran into a small handful of boaters on the river. If you haven’t paddled this stretch there is plenty for all. On the Bottom there is waterfalls, slides, and multiple lines on most rapids, so things never seem to get boring. The Team Special Ed crew seems to always spend five to eight hours on this stretch running all the different lines and rapids more than once. If you want to get more info on the Bottom Moose, check out American White Water for release dates, water levels, and for rapid descriptions.

Team Sped at the bottom of Fathersville

So here is our short video of the Bottom Moose hope you enjoy it, and that it gives you the itch to go and explore this section.

See you on the water Riot Sally PP Twist

Be Aware......

2006-05-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know.....although I have paddled many times with the members of Team Special Ed, I did not realize what kind of effect it would have on my life. I have only been a member of the team for a very short time, but already my I.Q. is down 12 points! This comes at a bad time in my life. For example, as I write this blog, I am sitting at my new desk, at a new job. I have only been here two weeks and with the recent drop in I.Q. and now being able to write about whatever I want while you are forced to read it, I will probably be looking for another new job shortly. Another example of the recent stupidity would be my weekend plans. Myself and my little bro, Matt, plan on heading to the South Grasse. What makes it a "special" move is that it is only running at around 400 cfs, much below the "suggested minimum flow". My plans are to scout large marge, get revenge on that damn slide and huck twin about 327.4 times.

Another example is in photographic evidence. Take a look at this intellegent move.

Brilliant!

This is just a general warning. If you are invited to be a member of Team Special-Ed, make sure you are ready for a real life changing experience. Not as much for you, but for those around you. And if you see us on the river, your best bet may be to just paddle away. You also could be subjected to the stupidity.

Mike TheFlair

Another Day on the Bottom Moose

2006-05-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

The sun was up the sky was clear and the release was on. We had a couple of quick runs down fowllersville to get ourselves awake and the cobb webs cleared out from the night before. Then we set in with everyone having a good day and hitting thier lines. All was going well, maybe to well.
We got to Crystal and the first two though made it look easy the third, i was told used up all the luck, but came out clean down the slidy chute at the bottom. Now i'm up to bat this being my first time i decided to put in at the middle pool and run the bottom section. Off i go charging the left line when i get spun out athe lip of the drop "great know i'm backwards well i geuss i'll run it this way" and the way i went. That is tell I pitoned into the shelf at the bottom and was ejected outta my boat. No need to go to the denist cause i got my teeth cleaned, but no worries with my buddy Jim on the shore and a trusty throw bag he had me on land and went recing after my gear i made it out ok. And man can the magnum take a hit just a little dent and that was it. With some laughs and some food what an awesome day on this gem of a river
Kurt

Team Definition

2006-05-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

Team Definition

Special education
n.

Classroom or private instruction involving techniques, exercises, and subject matter designed for students whose learning needs cannot be met by a standard school curriculum.

Special Ed is that moment in your life when you step out of your comfort zone. It is that moment when you get up of the couch and push your own personal limits and create moment that will forever be remembered as nothing but epic. It is the journey you create and the people you meet along the way. It is forever a class room, and you are learning about your self and the ones that are sitting right next to you. It is taking in the bigger picture and not following the norm, it is stepping of the beaten path, or riding the short bus, it doesn’t matter how you get their just as long as you keep moving, never getting stagnant. But when you get their, it will always be in your mind never forgotten but will be remembered as the first step into the education off self, and to us that is special Ed.

On the site my friends and I are going to class and our paper and pencils, have been turned into kayaks, and paddles. We want to share with you this never ending education of our lives in search for the perfect moments which we create on and of the water. We hope to create an epidemic which will make you push yourself, to higher education. Please do not get me wrong, I am not asking you to jump of a huge waterfall, if a flat spin seems out of reach but that is your goal, then take the right steps of progression to reach your goal, and when you hit that first spin, that felling of accomplishment and euphoria, of getting that A with a gold star next to it, is what we at Special Ed call a Sped moment.

So get on the short bus and head to class, but remember this class is one of a kind, hold on because who knows where your teacher is going to take you, but remember to take notes, so you will never forget the lessons learned

See you on the water

Paul.Twist (a.k.a Riot Sally PPTist)

The Show Will Never Die

2006-03-19T12:06:00.000-08:00

3/6/06 was a day I Paul Twist will never forget, a good friend passed away, one of the original Team Special Ed members has moved on to the land of new rivers and adventure, on mission to find the perfect wave. Adam Craig Horton was the definition of the pure soul of Kayaking. He was always ready to boat with or without water. He was the creator and brain child of the urban kayaking rail slide, which we all have seen Corey volt put to work in the Revolution kayaking videos.

Adam had a charisma about him a willingness to try new things and go of the beaten path to find him self, immersed in a new pure, one of a kind moment. He was not afraid to fail and did not care if others thought it was dumb, he was an original, one of a kind 100% swell guy. He will always be with us on the river helping us stick the sickest lines we come across.

I feel I speak for the whole team that Adam was Special and he touched so many lives on and of the river and the Shows story will never die as long as all of us remember the great times and the lessons learned from this man, our felling cant be summed up into word, cause they are to powerful and hard to explain. I leave you with a video of a drop that Adam a.k.a Freakshow found in western NY, this drop was his first, first decent. And when you look at his smile it will say everything that I am trying to explain.

Enjoy Adams First
Riot Paul Twist signing of for Team special Ed.

Blue light

I don’t know what to say, so I will sit and type, thinking about you on this cold winter night.

I sit in my room and wonder what could have been or might, why is this so hard to type.

I ask why you felt so alone the other day you could asked and I would have came right away.

I sit here alone not knowing what to say trying to expression my emotion in some sort way, but my hands hurt and shake and don’t know what to do.

They just want to reach up and wipe away my tears, but I can’t because I am afraid, that I will miss a feeling and lose what I want to write.

I don’t know what to say, so I will sit and type, thinking about you on this cold winter night.

I am still here trying to hear your voice travel through the whispering blue light.

I sit here not asking why.

But I want you to know, I will see you on they other side.

It’s just a matter of time before our boats cross the same line.

I know not where you are, but I know you are close, and that makes me feel a little safer on this bitter night.

I don’t know what to say, so I will sit and type, thinking about you on this cold winter night.
I am starting to sweat and my tears are wiped away, I can hear my heart pounding as I am typing away. I feel as if that is your voice traveling through the whispering blue light, then in to my blood, coursing through my veins, and ending up at my heart. There is room for you to stay the night, maybe tomorrow you can help guide and protect me through my day.
I don’t know what to say, so I will sit and type, thinking about you on this cold winter night
The tears have gone away and bricks have been lifted of my chest, I think I have found the way and am getting more comfortable not asking what happened on that sad sad day, I live to remember the great memories that we had, we where a team that looked for the perfect wave the perfect river and the perfect waterfall in the journey we shared. All the rocks we lifted and wrong turns we made, we never realized that paradise we made. This perfect place existed in our minds; it was the moments in time that we did find. We will remember them forever and, no one can take them away, and those memories will be forever ours and I will cherish them until my heart passes away.

I don’t know what to say, so I will sit and type, thinking about you on this cold winter night
I pull up my blanket and turn off the light and I will sleep allot better knowing ALL of US will be alright.
Riot Paul Twist

2006-02-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

first post