World-class boaters and hundred of spectators flooded to North Carolina this weekend for the 18^th annual Green River Race—the self-proclaimed “greatest show in all of sports.”

This year, Pat Keller took home the coveted glass trophy with his first place time of four minutes and 14 seconds. This is Keller’s third win at the Green Race—he also claimed the prize in 2006 and 2008.

Only 5 seconds behind Keller, Dane Jackson claimed second place for the second year in a row. Jackson turned heads at last year’s race by riding switch in his short boat run.

With water levels a little lower than last year, 2012’s record-breaking times are still the fastest since the race started in 1996, but Katrina Van Wijk set a new women’s record this weekend with a time of four minutes and 43 seconds. The time crushes her 2012 run by 23 seconds and continues to close the ever-narrowing gap between men’s and women’s race times.

The race is held each year on the first Saturday of November. Spectators hike a steep one-mile trail into the river to watch the timed race runs, which happen one at a time and lead paddlers through the iconic Gorilla rapid, a class V drop with a reputation for causing carnage.

Click here to see the full list of race results.

Rapid Media at the 2010 Green River Race. 

New York paddlers could see some new whitewater flowing through town—three-time Olympic paddler Scott Shipley is working on plans for urban whitewater parks in the communities of Potsdam, Canton and Colton. 

The new park will have three sites, says Fred Hass, director of Planning and Development in Potsdam. An expert-level run down the Raquette River’s Stone Valley section, a play park and an area of beginner to intermediate level whitewater.

Shipley’s company, S2O Designs, is behind major parks like The National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC and the Olympic whitewater venue in London, England. He’s drawing on his extensive experience in the worlds of whitewater and engineering to plan a park that will draw as many paddlers as possible to the region.

“What will make a trip from NY or Boston or Montreal, Ottawa or Toronto worth it?” says Shipley. “Design for festivals? Competitions? A great surf wave? These are the questions we’re trying to discover.”

Along with bringing new boaters to town, the parks will fill a gap for paddlers in the area, which has an unfortunate absence of local surf. Colton is already a popular paddling spot—the King of New York series has a race there—but the new parks will make it a whitewater region for those who aren’t ready to run Stone Valley’s class V drops. Clubs like the Carlton University Boathouse currently provide instruction but have no whitewater to run, says Shipley.

It’s too soon to get geared up—the parks are still in early phases of planning, but you can stay up to date on projects from S2O Designs on their Facebook page, Whitewater Parks.

Nunavut Tourism has awarded Black Feather Nunavut Tourism Business of the Year 2013 award. The award recognizes outstanding service, industry leadership, and partnership with local communities in Nunavut.

“I am thrilled and honoured to receive this acknowledgement,” says Wendy Grater, guide, director and owner of Black Feather. “We have really enjoyed working with Northern communities, and introducing our guests to the wonders of Nunavut and the Arctic.”

Black Feather has recently partnered with Polar Sea Adventures, becoming Canada’s largest Arctic adventure travel company. Five new expedition packages are being planned in Nunavut for the spring and summer of 2014, including a ski tour through frozen fjords, hiking through Sirmilik National Park and sea kayaking along the ice floe edge off the north coast of Baffin Island.

Black Feather has also received accolades from a number of tourism destination regions, and has also earned nominations as Tourism Operator of the year in the North West Territories.

“It is a real testament to our amazing guiding team,” adds Grater. “They bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, and ensure everyone gets the most from every Northern adventure”

For more information about Black Feather, visit www.blackfeather.com.

Washington paddlers Steve Weileman and Ken Campbell started the Ikkatsu Project in January 2012 with the simple idea of taking a sea kayak trip along the roadless coast of the Olympic Peninsula, looking for debris from the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011.

Months later, the film Weileman and Campbell shot on the trip almost as an afterthought, blossomed into a full-fledged, award-winning documentary (watch the full film below). Moreover, the pair began working with scientists to research marine debris in general, conducting beach surveys that could be used to coordinate future clean-up efforts. As Cambell explains, “The project progressed from being a one-time vacation idea to a full-time vocation.”

In 2013, the Ikkatsu team began working with Oikonos, a non-profit that researches plastic ingestion by sea birds. They also started doing presentations in schools to help students understand the connections between ocean currents, marine debris and the environment. In July, Weileman and Campbell headed to Alaska to conduct surveys on the remote beaches of Cook Inlet in south-central Alaska. Once again, the pair filmed their journey and are currently putting the finishing touches on a new documentary, slated for release in spring 2014, called Ikkatsu: The Secrets of Augustine.

According to Cambell, the volcanic island of Augustine has never been visited by modern day paddlers. But even on these remote beaches, marine debris was everywhere. “It’s a sobering thought, that every piece of plastic that has ever been made is still in existence,” says Cambell. “It’s even more sobering to see so much of it in such a wild and primal place.”