Project Dominican Republic

With the relentless drought pounding the once mighty southeast into a dry, arid, dismal, desert of despair in September my good friend Jon Clark and I got to escape for a while back to the Dominican to teach a first aid and swift water rescue course and to do a little kayaking as well. September is a great time to be on the Island due to the abundance of water thanks to the Hurricane season. Although the primary focus of the trip was to teach courses we managed to sneak away either early in the morning or late in the afternoon to get our fix on the river.













It can't be all work though, we built in a few extra days to explore some new runs to continue to work on Project DR. Although the runs we did were not first descents one of the sections of river we paddled may not have seen kayakers since Tao and Sam Drevo were there filming Twitch 2000. Thanks to the daily deluge of rain we had plenty of water for the run. The only down side to all this rain was some of the gorges were pretty remote and the constant threat of rain made for some uneasy moments on the river. Also running challenging water with just a team of two means you either get a picture or a rope, it's a tough decision.

The DR continues to deliver quality whitewater and great adventures. It's always a great time when paddling class V whitewater is the mellow part of your day, the shuttles and act of getting to the river are the things that keep you on the edge of your seat. We will be returning to the DR soon, I can't wait to see what we turn up next.

Paddling in the Republic

Kara wondering whats down there

From the window of an airplane I was looking down on the island of Hispaniola wondering what was hidden in the valleys of the ten thousand foot peaks of the Dominican Republic. Every kayaker is always looking for that next great adventure and I thought this might be mine. Kara and I planned a trip six months later to see what we could find. What we found were some really unique rivers and a virtually untouched paddling destination. I took the idea to the NOC, that this could be a new Adventure Travel destination, and now two years later we just completed our first ever commercial trip in the Dominican Republic.

Rob taking in some scenery

My friend Rob Barham,and I arrived in the D.R. one week before our guest so we could have some time to explore before our guest arrived, we also built in some extra time and the end of the trip so we could return to some of our favorite runs. Of course every great trip has to have its fair share of difficulties and ours' was no exception it took us a few days to liberate our kayaks and after it was all said and done we were short two boats, not a big deal except one of those was my beloved Pyranha Burn! But It was not going to keep me from getting on the river.

Boat liberation day!

Our first few day's were action packed lots of miles really remote rivers and awesome boating. Because only a handful of people have paddled in the D.R. logistics can be next to impossible, lucky for us we have established a partnership with Rancho Baiguate, these guy's have been running all sorts of adventures in the D.R. for the past ten years and have things pretty well dialed in. Not to mention they run one of the most exciting rafting trips I have seen, among all of their other adventures from trekking to canyoning.

A typical river scene

Most of the rivers we ran could be characterised by crystal clear water, with smooth granite boulders and at some point the walls would close up into a mini-gorge. Some rivers could contain several mini-gorges which made for some great exploration.

Scouting one of the many mini-gorges

Rob trying the look around the corner

For me, this is what kayaking is all about once again my boat and the river have taken me to another amazing place that few people have seen.

A rapid named poco ma fuerte

Trying that boof thing

The entrance of poco ma fuerte