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My kayaking friend Gemma recorded some footage at the Three River Rendezvous last May. She’s finished editing and tossed it up on YouTube:

[Three Rivers Whitewater Rendezvous 09 | YouTube]

I make a couple of appearances in the video — I’m the guy with the bright yellow helmet, blue PFD, and red dry top.

Over the long weekend I participated in the Pinch’O'Crow paddling club’s annual River Rendezvous. Here are a few memories from my excellent weekend:

May 15-18, 2009

Club info for the Pinch’o'Crow Rendezvous 2009.

This Victoria Day long weekend I’ll be headed to Pincher Creek for some kayaking adventures at the annual Pinch’o'Crow Rendezvous. Organizer, Chuck Lee, and his crew of volunteers put on a great event each year with all sorts of river runs and clinics available for paddlers of all levels.

The Pinch-o-Crow Creekers are hosting the 11th annual WW Rendezvous on May 15-16-17-18, 2009 again this year down in the “Centre of Adventure”. We will be organizing and leading trips on the Castle, Crowsnest and Oldman Rivers. There will also be chances to go paddle Cameron Creek and the Carbondale, Elk, Wigwam, Highwood, Waterton or Belly Rivers while you are down here. Only three days and too many rivers to paddle.

The range of rivers is from class I-II to III-V (but it’s not too difficult to portage around class 5 waterfalls). Speaking of water falls, every year there are a few kayakers that put on quite a show running Lundbreck Falls.

Here’s a photo of me running it last June:

JUNE 14, 2008 — LUNDBRECK, AB Jeff Milner takes the plunge over the 36 foot drop of Lundbreck Falls. Taken with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi by Tom Buchanan. Used with permission.

After running Lundbreck Falls in my kayak last month, the sport of running big waterfalls has been on my mind. I’m not too interested in doing anything bigger or scarier just yet, but the photos in this news story are even more awesome after having experienced my own little 30 foot drop over some falls.

Just to be clear, that’s not me in the photo, nor anyone I know. See more here.

Here’s photo and video footage of my last kayaking trip by my friend Janson. Watch for the drop off Lundbreck Falls at about the 3:15 mark.

Also, check out Janson’s enthusiastic report on the trip.

Yesterday I went kayaking down the Crowsnest River with a bunch of friends. It was a stretch of the river that none of us had gone down before, and frankly it was a bit boring with very little white water. At the halfway point we came upon Lundbreck Falls. The plan was to portage around it, but after taking some time to study it, I decided to go for it!

The adrenaline rush totally made my day.

Jeff Milner going over Lundbreck Falls.

Photo by Tom Buchanan (used on the web with permission). Here’s my Lundbreck Falls Run set on Flickr.

Here is another kayaking video from the Kananaskis. In this one, I’m surfing the feature known as The Green Tongue.

[Green Tongue - YouTube]

A couple weeks ago I hit up the Kananaskis River for some kayaking with my friend Andy. Just for fun I decided to launch myself from the edge of a steep bank. Andy recorded the event for posterity and I uploaded it as the first video I’ve ever put on YouTube.

[Kayaking Drop - YouTube]

It’s been a dangerous summer for boaters in Alberta. There have been 6 drownings in the last six weeks, and one that hits somewhat close to home. Linda Englehart, a Calgary kayaker who paddled Southern Alberta rivers and with the ORCKA club died Monday following a mishap on the Kicking Horse on Saturday.

I have never paddled with Linda, but she did communicate with the ORCKA club on their website and had planned at one point to join us on the trip we took down Box Canyon last month.

More details about the tragic loss from the ORCKA website.

Anna-Maria went to Banff again this weekend. I went to Devin Wallace’s bachelor party and played 16 player network Halo until 3 in the morning. Since none of them drink they weren’t getting any worse as the night progressed, but I can’t complain because I did pretty good anyway.

Yesterday I went kayaking down the Milk River. I also discovered that I can drive my Jeep for about at least 100km on the highway after the fuel light is on. I thought for sure I would run out of gas; I didn’t though.

So this brings me to Sunday. So far today I’ve watched a couple episodes of the Sopranos (season five is very good by the way) and I also did a couple of photoshop tutorials. Now I’m thinking about mowing the lawn. Yes, when Anna goes away, I live the crazy life.