Scott Martin: September 2011

Watching It Rain

>> Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The sky darkened, the grey clouds looked angry and the water started to fall from the sky.

I sat and watched... waiting for the rivers to fill.

Jackson Wright - Gauley First Descent

>> Tuesday, September 27, 2011

I climbed out of my car and stepped onto the muddy ground at Swiss, the take out for the Lower Gauley River. I was assigned by American Whitewater to shoot the Girls on the Lower G with Anna Levesque, one of the bigger fundraisers for AW over the traffic heavy Gauley Festival. I introduced myself to Anna and we went over some of the logistics for the day. I kept peering over her shoulder at a old busted up rig with two huge glass looking kayaks on top.

My curiosity got the better of me and I wondered over to an old fellow sitting in the door way eating a slice of ham. A sticker on the door read; "Have a good day."
I introduced myself and asked to take his photograph, he was delighted and said he should introduce himself. "My name is Jack Wright, that's Jasckson Wright actually!" he said slowly in between chewing on his ham. "I did the first descent of the Gauley in decked boats in 1968" he continued. My heart raced, here in the middle of a field, filled with bright new boats, paddle jackets and pfds was a man who played a huge part in the development of this river and still paddling in his old gear enjoying every moment.

In this day and age, information is at our finger tips but authentic stories told from those who lived them are hard to come by. Sometimes it's worth slowing down, stepping back, having a bigger look at what's going on and you'll be surprised at what and who you are able to see.

Danny Doran - Portrait

>> Saturday, September 24, 2011

All round great guy Danny Doran - Portrait Outtake

I met up with one of the North East's most talented kayakers, Danny Doran for a portrait shoot. It was great working with Danny, he's studying film/photography at Ithaca College and was fired up to try new ideas and brought bundles of creativity to the session. At 18 years old he's not scared of running stout drops of throwing big moves on a wave. His latest project, the Empire movie is close to being released, check out the trailer.

Gauley Festival 2011 - My Visual Journey

>> Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Best enjoyed with good company, a cup of hot coffee, tea or beers.

Use the tool at the top of the page to scroll and enlarge images.

Open publication - Free publishing - More river

When You Can Portage Barefoot

>> Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Rob Wilson from Planet River

Rock Run in Ralston with Dejoez

>> Sunday, September 11, 2011

Hurricane Lee hit Towanda, PA hard. On Thursday morning I woke at 3.30am and scrambled to move our cars from the drive way, up the hill as far as the wheels could spin on the saturated earth. The small creek opposite the road was now flowing over the road and creeping closer to the house. The little town of Ulster and Towanda which lie on the Susquehanna River where under water, homes evacuated, buildings and businesses destroyed! The following day ,Todd Caza, Edward Moorehead and Matt Yannie arrived at my place ready for some boating. They spent the most part of the morning detouring their way through NY to get to PA. Finally arriving 4 hours later than scheduled we loaded the cars and hit the road to try find a route to Rock Run. Our first two attempts where not successful due to entire roads being washed away. I had scouted some detour routes to the river in the morning on the google earth machine, my last attempt worked out , we certainly added an extra 20 min to the trip, I was surprised we made it and the boys where ready to get out the car and on the river.