# Mike Kochnich and beginner friend Austin?



## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

We ran the Filter Plant together at low water. I loaned you my orange shortie splash top because you forgot your shit. You didn't give it back. You don't return my calls. 

Think about returning it before river karma or I make you wish you had. You know you see it in your gear and think "I'm going to get away with this." You're not.

You can drop it off at Wanderlust or give it to any Wanderlust guide. Or send me a PM.

If anyone knows these people (Mike's crew is called the "dirty dozen") please tell them to give my gear back.


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

Randaddy said:


> We ran the Filter Plant together at low water. I loaned you my orange shortie splash top because you forgot your shit. You didn't give it back. You don't return my calls.
> 
> Think about returning it before river karma or I make you wish you had. You know you see it in your gear and think "I'm going to get away with this." You're not.
> 
> ...


That sucks Ran. Hope you get your stuff back without having to resort to a beatdown, river induced or otherwise.


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

Liquidguy87 is Mike.

I'm calling you out dude. If you don't return calls about stolen gear your as guilty as your friend. Just tell me where the jacket is. It's all I ask.


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## Endo50 (Nov 17, 2004)

I am pretty sure mike moved out east in may I sold him a boat right before he left. hate to say it you might be out of luck sorry.


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## GAtoCSU (Apr 18, 2005)

I thought Mike was in Penn right now? I saw Facebook pictures updated from there today. If that's the case, it sounds like someone used his name and made out with your stuff.


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

No, this was a month ago. It was him. I've tried calling, checking with his friends, even emailing his gay little internet crew's blog address. 

I'm so sick of these rich little east coast kids thinking everything is theirs. They come from Nantucket, show up unprepared, borrow your shit, and then keep it. Not worth the effort to make a phone call and mail something, gotta keep up with the stock market and work 20 hours a week. I work for a living and spend what I can afford to stay dry and warm. 

That's it. My rant is over. Just be heads up for thieving east coast trash.


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## Eddyfloweradvocate (May 27, 2010)

Mike is in PA and has limited cell phone service, hence the reason why he hasn't gotten your messages. He had just recently met the friend that he was kayaking with on Filter Plant and doesn't know his number -- Mike doesn't have any of your kayaking gear. 

You should have gotten the story straight first before posting ridiculous comments about Mike online.


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## gh (Oct 13, 2003)

Eddyfloweradvocate said:


> Mike is in PA and has limited cell phone service, hence the reason why he hasn't gotten your messages. He had just recently met the friend that he was kayaking with on Filter Plant and doesn't know his number -- Mike doesn't have any of your kayaking gear.
> 
> You should have gotten the story straight first before posting ridiculous comments about Mike online.


Well, he loaned his gear out, its still missing. Cant say his post is ridiculous at this point.


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## JHimick (May 12, 2006)

Eddyfloweradvocate said:


> Mike is in PA and has limited cell phone service, hence the reason why he hasn't gotten your messages. He had just recently met the friend that he was kayaking with on Filter Plant and doesn't know his number -- Mike doesn't have any of your kayaking gear.
> 
> You should have gotten the story straight first before posting ridiculous comments about Mike online.


That doesn't really explain why he can't give the courtesy of a phone call or return email... PA is not Uganda. Let's just be real about this.

...just sayin'.


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## NolsGuy (Jul 20, 2009)

Eddyfloweradvocate said:


> Mike is in PA and has limited cell phone service, hence the reason why he hasn't gotten your messages. He had just recently met the friend that he was kayaking with on Filter Plant and doesn't know his number -- Mike doesn't have any of your kayaking gear.
> 
> You should have gotten the story straight first before posting ridiculous comments about Mike online.


What exactly is "limited cell phone service" (he somehow can't check his messages?) and what does it have to do with not returning a call???


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## El Flaco (Nov 5, 2003)

JHimick said:


> PA is not Uganda.


That made me laugh out loud. :-D It ain't even Nevada. There are a scant few places on the East Coast where you can't drive 15 minutes and find a cell signal.

I think the public callout is entirely appropriate. Mike at least owes the man a call saying, "I shouldn't have vouched for that guy", an apology, and probably a FedEx'd shortie splashtop. Then he needs to square it with his 'buddy' Austin. Ran loaned gear to fellow boaters, and those boaters are dodging him for a month.


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## bobbuilds (May 12, 2007)

Randaddy said:


> We ran the Filter Plant together at low water. I loaned you my orange shortie splash top because you forgot your shit. You didn't give it back. You don't return my calls.
> 
> Think about returning it before river karma or I make you wish you had. You know you see it in your gear and think "I'm going to get away with this." You're not.
> 
> ...


I think you are sounding harsh and might be being unreasonable in your request. Also, Mike is a stand up guy with his own shit. Most of what you own has been begged for or gotten for free anyway. People are always helping you and giving you shit for next to nothing. and you are always asking for more. people see you as a user, and not a contributor. always wanting something or someone to help you, rarely helping others. But I am fine with that. it was when you stated that YOU or the river would dish out a beat down, well, Randy, I am calling you out. I want mikes beat down from you to me, and i'll help you find your teeth when your all done beating me up. APOLOGIZE to mike, you will get your gear back, no one is trying to steal from you.


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## Eddyfloweradvocate (May 27, 2010)

Mike would never steal someones gear or not return it. He is the type of guy that would give an arm and a leg to help somebody out in any situation. I'm sure you will get your gear back in no time and everything will get sorted out. But, seriously there was a better way of going about this issue, and I can't believe the things you've stated about somebody that you barely know.


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## GAtoCSU (Apr 18, 2005)

Eddyfloweradvocate said:


> Mike would never steal someones gear or not return it. He is the type of guy that would give an arm and a leg to help somebody out in any situation. I'm sure you will get your gear back in no time and everything will get sorted out. But, seriously there was a better way of going about this issue, and I can't believe the things you've stated about somebody that you barely know.


In all honesty, I would be offended as well if my gear was missing. Either way, lets try to keep from getting in the middle of this. I sent mike a message, lets see what happens.


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## NolsGuy (Jul 20, 2009)

Eddyfloweradvocate said:


> But, seriously there was a better way of going about this issue...


Good point, he could have just given the dude a call. 

[/oh, wait]


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

bobbuilds said:


> IMost of what you own has been begged for or gotten for free anyway.


What makes you say this? I own a couple of boats and some paddles, etc. I bought everything either new or for a used for a fair price, often from swap sections of websites like Mountain Buzz. I don't own a single piece of gear that was given to me for free. Do we know each other Bob? Give me a call if you do and I'll try to explain why I'm pissed about this. I loan gear out all the time. Boats, clothes, paddles, groover, whatever. Lots of boaters in this town can attest to this. This guy from out of town and his buddy borrowed gear from me and aren't calling me back. It bothers me, so I posted where the message will get to him and everyone else. 

It sounds like a lot of people sympathize with my plight here. None of us would have gotten a start without someone loaning out gear. I always gave back what wasn't mine. So before you come looking to knock my teeth out Bob, put yourself in my shoes. I see no difference between knowingly not returning this jacket and the iPod that was stolen from my car this winter. If someone stole your ipod would you post a "you better give it back" message in a place you knew they would see it? I'm sure you would. I have no beef with you.

I probably shouldn't have said "or I will make you regret it" to anyone, especially on here. I stand by my opinion of river karma and good coming to those who do the right thing. 

I received a message from Mike today, but no have idea how to get ahold of his friend. I'll be in contact with him now and I'm sure we will be able to sort this out.


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## gh (Oct 13, 2003)

Hey guys, stop with the personal threats.


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## bobbuilds (May 12, 2007)

my thing is, mike is a good guy. I know he will do what it takes to make this right. it sounded like you wished harm on him and he is my friend, that does not fly. I also only know of you and not well, most of what i do know comes from here posted by you and that is what i was basing my opinion on. I have no problems with you. I was upset by what i read. i do not mean to be insulting. I apologise for the teeth bit. i was mad.


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## LiquidGuy87 (Aug 22, 2006)

*Are you serious?*

I have better things to be doing right now, so here's the short story.

The (crappy/old) splashtop shorty thing is at Austin's house in Idaho Springs. He's a guide on the Arkansas and goes to Colorado State University. The top was only used ONCE on Filter Plant (when you lent it out). And not by me. It was the first time I had ever paddled with Austin and the second time I had seen him outside of classes at CSU. 

The end of the school year came and I hauled out to Pennsylvania for a job. Try getting in touch with me on my T-Mobile phone out here... it's less than effective. If you were one of my friends, and thank god you're not, you'd know my situation. In addition, my dog and I live out of my car and between friends’ couches. How dare you insult anything about my personal or financial life? You're a douche. 

Don't put me in the hot seat for this one asshole. All of you with no knowledge of the issue jumping into to help this dirtbag should be ashamed. 

Austin will be calling you as soon as possible to work out the safe return of your precious inflatable kayaking river outfit. 

And... Thanks Bob and others for showing support. Those who know me know me better.


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## Riparian (Feb 7, 2009)

I don't have a horse in this fight, or a dog in this race, or whatever the damned cliché is, but I will make two observations:
1) Randy: probably not the best place (or way) to air your frustrations.
2) Mike: if you vouched for Austin the Mystery Man and haven't done anything to ensure the splash top's return, you're a punk. Ridiculing the borrowed-but-not-returned splash top makes you a douchepunk. 

Just sayin'...


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## loot87 (Jun 30, 2008)

Man I have seen this crap way to often.
You get your stuff taken and when you raise hell, you're the bad guy.
I fraking hate that.


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## nmalozzi (Jun 19, 2007)

I think we all feel for the dude who lost his gear. I've been the victim of that too on multiple occasions. I don't think that's what the aggression is all about.

It is more about the fact that he called out, insulted, and threatened a dude (by first and last name I might add) on a public forum who doesn't even have the jacket. Should Mike have gotten back to him sooner? Probably. 

Just think it was a little overkill. It could have been publicly addressed in a more appropriate way. You guys clearly boated together at some point, and I'm sure had a good time doing it. Now though you've severed a bond on the river over a splash jacket. Seems pretty lame to me.


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## LiquidGuy87 (Aug 22, 2006)

I don't vouche for people. Nor do I play babysitter. You paddled with him too. It's your fault that you didn't get it back that day. In addition, I met you through Ben K... why did I not hear from him? Defamation of my character and image in a public forum is disgraceful. I would understand if I was knowingly doing anything questionable... but I have no interest in your shwaggy leftover river shit (Nor have I ever been in possesion of it). You are completely backwards in your thinking. I don't expect an explaination or apology for your extemely high level of immaturity... all I can do now is sit back and relax while I think about all the stupid/petty people we are all forced to deal with on a daily basis. Comical isn't it?


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## El Flaco (Nov 5, 2003)

The question is, did you get any of his messages? If so, here's how this could have been avoided:
_ <Flashback to 3 weeks ago>_

"Hey Randy, It's Mike calling. Sorry it's been a few days; I have crappy cell reception where I am and I just got your message. I'm not super tight with Austin, but his last name is_____, his phone # is ________ and he lives in Idaho Springs. I'll send him an email / call him to coordinate the return of your smelly shortie. Great paddling with you - stay safe." 

I guess my take is: if you can be available enough to respond on the internet with 24 hours of someone publicly calling you out, then you _probably_ got one or more of his messages in the last month. So this public spat could have been unnecessary, right?


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## Rich (Sep 14, 2006)

WOW! Two guys run the Poudre Narrows R2 and the tread gets 3 or 4 replies. But two assholes get in a pissing match about borrowed gear and it gets 23 replies, including a bigger asshole threatening to punch out one of the other assholes. 
Ever notice how brave some are when hiding on the internets?

You guys need to going boating. 
Not sure if you noticed, but the high water of last week has quickly fallen to low levels and boating season will quickly be over.

SYOTR


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## mr. compassionate (Jan 13, 2006)

Thanks for wasting 10 minutes of my life, although I did find this quite gripping-Kudos to all! Any other a-holes who wish to threaten a beatdown on any other a-holes would be a delight.


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## CrossBo (Jun 11, 2007)

Randaddy said:


> We ran the Filter Plant together at low water. I loaned you my orange shortie splash top because you forgot your shit. You didn't give it back. You don't return my calls.
> 
> Think about returning it before river karma or I make you wish you had. You know you see it in your gear and think "I'm going to get away with this." You're not.
> 
> ...


 
I usually don't respond to blogs, but man Randaddy, you are a disharmonious fellow. You have made several, blatant, mistakes here. First of all, you said on your initial blog that you loaned your splash top to Mike, and you didn't. Second, you said Mike forgot his gear at the put in, and he didn't. Third, you are asking him to return your gear when he doesn't have it. Before all of this mess, you forgot to get your shorty at the end of the run, and didn't even get the contact info for the guy you loaned your shorty too, or you didn’t contact him. You refer to the river beat down my friend, but if you want to paddle without getting a beat down, you need to think ahead and prevent stupid mistakes. I feel sorry for you because things aren’t going to get easier until you start thinking ahead and get your loaned gear back from people at the take out... or at least get the contact info of the person who you loaned it to, so you contact/bitch at the person who borrowed the gear. Mike is a solid and safe paddling partner, not worth loosing over an (apparently shitty) shorty. 

Tyson


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

Not saying Ran is totally in the clear here with the call out, but sounds like Mike should have at least returned a phone call and averted the whole situation. 

Will you guys kiss and make up and then go boating for God's sake.


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## Riparian (Feb 7, 2009)

This is better than television.


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## rwhyman (May 23, 2005)

This thread is an example of why so many people watch Jerry Springer. Me not included.


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## LiquidGuy87 (Aug 22, 2006)

*In Conclusion*

*KISS* 

Do you accept? 

As I said, Austin will be in touch. I'm sorry for your troubles. My hope is that we'll sit down for a beer when I get back to laugh about this.

And to make it clear, I DID NOT receive any messages about this until the 20th, and even at that point was not aware how "dire" the situation was (plus I didn't have Austin's number on hand). To make matters worse I don't visit the cyber world nearly as much as I would like to check for people flaming me on internet forums, but thankfully I've made a few friends over the years who keep up with the jibberjabber a bit more. 

Shoot me your address and I may be able to expedite the process. Consider me your emissary.

Love,
Mike


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## GAtoCSU (Apr 18, 2005)

CrossBo said:


> I usually don't respond to blogs, but man Randaddy, you are a disharmonious fellow. You have made several, blatant, mistakes here. First of all, you said on your initial blog that you loaned your splash top to Mike, and you didn't. Second, you said Mike forgot his gear at the put in, and he didn't. Third, you are asking him to return your gear when he doesn't have it. Before all of this mess, you forgot to get your shorty at the end of the run, and didn't even get the contact info for the guy you loaned your shorty too, or you didn’t contact him. You refer to the river beat down my friend, but if you want to paddle without getting a beat down, you need to think ahead and prevent stupid mistakes. I feel sorry for you because things aren’t going to get easier until you start thinking ahead and get your loaned gear back from people at the take out... or at least get the contact info of the person who you loaned it to, so you contact/bitch at the person who borrowed the gear. Mike is a solid and safe paddling partner, not worth loosing over an (apparently shitty) shorty.
> 
> Tyson


Ditto


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

In my days instead of the internet there was the school parking lot to square off with disagreements, you had with someone. One of my very best friends to this day, I met this way. We beat the shit - out of each other in the parking lot, a week later we became friends for life. Just like a rapid that kicks your ass, you just have to love it.</p>


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## CoBoater (Jan 27, 2007)

this is amazing. so we got a snippy keen rep acting like if the gear's "shwaggy leftover river shit" its ok to be slack on returning it and calling people names and getting his panties in a wad because he couldnt be bothered to return a call from randdaddy for weeks? and he says he didnt get any messages so how does keen get in touch with him, do they have to use smoke signals?

then we got people saying its the randaddys fault because he didnt work hard enough to get the gear back from the guy at the end of the run? wtf? sounds like randaddy made a good faith effort using a couple of ways to deal with it offline for weeks before callin him out in public. flacos got it right that a simple returned call woulda done it for ran. yeah ran coulda handled it better in his post but i would be pissed too after a month of trying to get in touch with mike and not hearing back from him.


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## chellebelle (Dec 3, 2007)

I rarely post, and you probably could care less what I think, but for this to escalate to name calling and threatening a "beat down" - is totally childish! I bet if all these "dudes" met in a parking lot - there would be little chest puffing and name calling. Funny how people hide behind the internet - and think it's ok to bully other people on these types of forums.
Grow up! If you have his stuff return it promptly. 

Just sayin'


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

......and the road goes on forever and the party never ends. 

Both sides have had their say. Seems like Mike is willing to try to contact FOY (flake of the year) Austin. Or has. 

There will be no beat downs. The pot has boiled over. 

Anything else is just dogpiling at this point. I am stuck in my store today, but all you other underemployed cyber jockeys should get to the river. It's gorgeous here in Idaho and we still have 'high' er flows, with some perfect surfing levels on some of the local runs. Damn I wish I was there. 

I don't hide on the internet. If anyone wants to come beat my ass I am on Sun Valley Road in Ketchum, Id. A block and a half from the light. Look for the hand made wooden canoes, then look inside for the grumpy, fat bastard within.


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## rwhyman (May 23, 2005)

carvedog said:


> I don't hide on the internet. If anyone wants to come beat my ass I am on Sun Valley Road in Ketchum, Id. A block and a half from the light. Look for the hand made wooden canoes, then look inside for the grumpy, fat bastard within.



How about if we just come visit and share a barley pop?


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## Theophilus (Mar 11, 2008)

:mrgreen: +1


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