Why we love the southeast

The southeast is great. We have bologna biscuits. We have coca-cola. We have lots of creeks. Here's some photos of what the instructors have been up to the past two weeks.

This is the Chattooga at .4 feet.
Surprisingly, everything is still runnable. To the left, Herm finds low-water Seven Foot to be more like Six Foot. To the right, Israel shimmies under the log at center crack. It's definitely a skinny man's move.There's nothing better than paddling the lake out in the dark with friends.

Here's a little creek that flows into Jocasse. Heck of a paddle in. Heck of a hike up. But the slides are heck of a lot of fun - especially this one. Thank you Wayne Gentry.

And then it rained -some sort of hurricane or something. Some of us headed over to Joyce Kilmer to stare at the really big trees. We did some kayaking too. There was a big slide. We like big slides. Below, Sean Corbett refuses to stop for red lights in the Hallway.

Speaking of big slides....we found some more on the East Fork of the Tuck the next day.

On the left, Michael Curtis disengages the flux capacitor as he reaches 88 miles per hour. To the right, Jason Aytes stares into the mouth of the beast, while Rob Barham gets creative with a tight line. Below, Joe Ravenna punishes a rapid into submission. Later,
the creek punished the boaters into submission as they portaged around a wood-choked monster sieve. (Top picture) Thanks for checking in. See ya where the water is.

No Water, Low Water, Big Water

The adventure started at the Nanthala Cascades. After a big rain we figured they'd be running. Of course they weren't, which didn't stop us from banging our way down them anyways. We did a few laps and bruised and battered we made our way back to NOC around nine o'clock. One of the instructors suggested we drive to West Virginia. Being that we all had two days off it sounded like a great idea. We met at Arby's at 11 pm, loaded the boats, and started the trip north.

We drove through the night and made it to the West Virginia Visitor's Center around 5am the next morning. We slept in the parking lot for two hours until the rangers showed up and started leaf-blowing right by our heads. Barely awake we pressed on to the put-in for Mann's Creek. It was on the low side of doable, but still very fun.

With bruised tail-bones we then headed over to the Gauley put-in for the 26 mile marathon over-nighter. We put-on at three and by four we were standing at Iron Ring. It felt strange paddling a river with water in it but we adjusted nicely. The Meadow was pumping in a significant amount of water and we estimated the flow between 6 and 7 thousand cfs. It took us an hour to get to that rapid, but we then spent an hour working up the courage to run it.It went pretty well, considering we were paddling boats loaded down with camping equipment and hotdogs. Lost Paddle was also exciting, but not as exiting as Sweet's Falls which had a hole as big as train in it. We snuck that one. We continued to paddle down through the Middle Gauley and a few miles into the Lower. We spent a lot of time surfing holes. Sometimes the holes spent a lot of time surfing us. After a tasty meal of s'mores, hotdogs, and vegetable stirfry we fell asleep in the dirt somewhere below Five-Boat Hole. The next morning we finished the paddle out on the Lower and arrived at the takeout at 11am for the long drive back to Bryson City.

Malibu Whitewater?

Two years ago I decided to go to graduate school in California. Unfortunately I didn’t go to the good part of California where there’s lots of creeks and waterfalls. I went to the very expensive, very dry, very hot section of California known as Malibu. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. If not, it’s regularly featured in such distinguished weekly journals as US Weekly, People, and Star.

In Malibu, shampoo is eight dollars, ranch dressing doesn’t exist, and girls wear furry boots in 85 degree heat because it’s fashionable. I forgot to mention that there’s quite a few celebrities that live out here as well. For instance, two days ago I saw Kirk Cameron and Pamela Anderson, although not at the same time. I saw Kirk in the morning and Pamela in the evening.

Speaking of float bags, it started to rain two days ago. Malibu does not handle rain very well. First, the entire area is paved. Second, there’s a raging forest fire every other month which destroys everything not made of pavement. There are therefore very few trees, comparatively speaking, and when it does rain there’s quite a bit of run-off.

This is great news for kayakers. Unfortunately, the bad news for kayakers is that Malibu is at an elevation of 16. I know, I thought it was a typo too, but it’s right there on the sign as you drive into town. Here’s a picture of that depressing sign.
Due to the lack of gradient, in the past I have had to satisfy my boating joneses by going to the ocean. This wasn’t very fun. The first time I took my Vibe out to the beach a woman walked up to me and told me that my boat was “so cute and little”. She was wearing what looked to be a pair of noseclips as a bathing suit– bathing suits are very tiny out here. I wanted to tell her that her bathing suit was also “so cute and little” but I didn’t. Anyway, the ocean kayaking wasn’t very fun because the surfers have the good waves and I didn’t feel like getting in a knife fight so early in the morning. (I prefer rumbling with surfers after lunch) Secondly, the lifeguard kept coming over and telling me that I had to kayak over by the really big, sharp, barnacle-covered boulders because I might run over some celebrity’s small baby if I stayed where I was.

Needless to say I gave up trying to paddle in the ocean, and thought that I would just have to wait until I returned to North Carolina in the summer to get some boating in. That was until it started to rain two days ago and my roommate announced that Malibu Creek had water in it. I had driven past Malibu Creek numerous times and even pulled over on the canyon to look down at it once. I had never seen water in it. I had seen lots of tumbleweeds, dirt, and scrawny bushes though. I also knew that there was a 100 foot dam somewhere in there. We decided that we should give it a try.

American Whitewater unfortunately had no beta on Malibu Creek – it’s almost as if it’s not a real creek. So we turned to the great Wikipedia for our pre-kayaking beta needs. This is the best info we gleaned from Wikipedia:

“The endangered arroyo toad lives below the dam. The dam is also home to a huge mountain lion and is frequented by cliffdivers.”

Thanks Wikipedia. I guess we were on our own. Unfortunately, we would have to wait a day because my roommate, who is in law school, had to go do some sort of lawyerly mumbo-jumbo the next day. He was pretty exited about whatever it was he had to do because he went shopping to buy some nice clothes. I forgot to mention that in Malibu, unlike North Carolina, it is unacceptable to wear sweatpants to court. (On a side note, I once saw my roommate run a thirty-footer with a sketchy approach without scouting, and now he’s wearing silver, penguin-shaped cuff-links - how far he’s fallen. That's a picture of him talking about delegable duty and corporate malfeasance with another future magistrate at the put-in) But back to Malibu Creek.

My roommate got out of his lawerly mumbo jumbo early yesterday and we decided that we still had some daylight left to scout the creek. We spent a few hours hiking along the highway and descending into the canyon whenever the opportunity presented itself. There was a lot of water flowing through the canyon and we were both a little relieved that we weren’t paddling that day, and hoped that the water would drop by tomorrow. We both agreed that the creek looked a lot like the Cheoah with the exception of two rapids that had some weird, non-natural holes in them and of course, the hundred foot dam.

Unlike the Cheoah though, Malibu Creek offers mandatory portages of both class 1 and class 6 rapids. When was the last time you had to portage a class 1 rapid? It’s hard to believe Scott Lindgren hasn’t put this little gem in a paddling flick yet. By the way, we saw Martin Sheen at lunch while we were eating sandwiches and drinking over-priced fruit smoothies. He didn’t talk to us though – probably because we were covered in mud from our scouting trip.

Oh, I forgot to mention the picture of the hundred foot dam we found on that great boating website, Wikipedia. Here’s a picture of it.

As you can see, the move is very similar to the move at Oceana, except that it’s not. We decided that this drop was not runnable and that we would take out before it (mountain lion permitting) whenever we happened to stumble upon it…downstream… somewhere…

The next morning we got up early, (about eleven o’clock), and headed to the river on a beautiful sunny day -it sure is nice to go kayaking in January in shorts. We arrived at what could have been a put-in and were careful to not step on any arroyo toads as we unloaded the boats. Needless to say the put-in wasn’t super busy when we got there. There were about 4,700 fewer people at this put-in than at the Ocoee put-in. This is probably because Malibu Creek doesn’t have a put-in and even if it did, Malibu doesn’t have any whitewater kayakers – except me and my sweet roommate. Our friend from back home who is also in law school here, Sarah, came with us to document this historic descent down Mighty Malibu Creek. (From here on out it will be referred to only as MMC)

The first rapid, which we called “No pets, No smoking, No Trespassing” (at least that's what the sign said) was an easy little class two slide which my roommate still managed to mess up. We then proceeded downstream to the fun rapids. It was amazing how many big boulders were in this creek – I guess that’s what happens when you build a road and dynamite a tunnel through a canyon. There was also a strange smell to the water, almost like egg salad. I don’t think the water was very clean. In fact, I’d rate it somewhere between the Chattahoochee and a sewage treatment pond. Nonetheless, the rapids were quite fun and it was nice to get some class 3/4 creeking in again. Here’s some pictures.


The biggest rapid was in the steepest part of the canyon, which Sarah couldn’t reach. It looked a little like Sweet’s Falls and was maybe fifteen feet tall. My roommate managed to pin against a rock and get stuffed under an undercut at the same time in the run-out of this rapid. I pulled him out because I care about people. You can see the horizon line of this drop in the picture below.
The hikeout of MMC was not fun. It took us forty five minutes to scramble up the canyon wall with our kayaks. This was the most harrowing part of the whole day – one slip on the mud and it was going to be a long way down. We were able to rope the boats up the last thirty feet or so - which was nice. Then we had some burritos - those were nice too.

NOC Surf Kayak Camp 2007

On October 19-21, we launched a brand new offering to add to our instruction programs, the first ever Surf Kayak camp at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. There is always apprehension when running a program for the first time, especially when depending on the environment to work in our favor; such as no hurricanes, good weather and of course good surf, which is essential for a successful Surf Camp. I am happy to say that our first Surf Camp was a huge success thanks to great weather, good surf, and most of all a great group of guests.

We started off Friday morning in the sound just paddling around and introducing some new skill sets. After lunch we were ready to head to the surf. We found ourselves standing on the beach staring down some less than ideal surf for learning, unless of course you’re the type learner that likes to learn from negative reinforcement. So we headed a little further up the road to check out another beach where we found some outstanding waves. The next morning we returned to the same beach where we spent the day in surf kayak utopia.

By the end of the second day we were starting to see some serious skill improvement and some happy surfers. We also got to see some excellent surfing compliments of our expert surf instructors Philip and Spencer.

If you have never had the chance to try out a surf kayak, it’s a must. But be careful though, you might just get hooked on these light, fast responsive boats that carve up waves like yesterdays Ginsu knifes. The good news is that once you do get the bug, be sure to check out our man Nigel down in Savana Georgia, he has a full line of Mega surf kayaks waiting for you.

http://www.savannahcanoeandkayak.com/

Next years Surf Camp is already in the planning process so be sure to check our website for updates. Don’t wait too long to sign up, this program is going to be a hit.

Here is a video Spencer put together enjoy!





(All photos are property of J. McClure/NOC, all video is property of Spencer Cooke/Effort TV.)

When it Rained

Rain finally returned to Western North Carolina last week and the excitement in the office was palpable all week long. Everyone was buzzing with speculation on how much rain was coming, which rivers were running and where they were going paddling.The prospect of paddling a river with water in it just felt good. So I put together this short video of some of my favorite creeks and rivers at good water levels. Just some good eye candy that will hopefully get you all fired up to go paddling. Be safe.

When it Rained from Christopher Port on Vimeo.

Nantahala Cascades

From Nantahala Cas...

Rain finally arrived here in the Nantahala Gorge and the Cascades ran with a great water level. Being that I could not join the fun, I figured I would do the next best thing and take pictures of the action instead. Here are some pictures for those who, like me, need to satisfy their paddling blues vicariously at the moment.

Best Days: First trip to the Green Narrows, Aug. 2005

My first river experience was on the Lower Green when I was ten years old. I remember sitting at the put-in with my purple Dancer XS and watching the water release from the section above. I didn’t know anything about the section above except that that’s where the water came from. Fifteen years later I found myself standing at the same spot and staring upstream once again waiting for the water, only this time we called the area where I was standing the takeout, and not the put-in. I remember thinking that my kayaking was coming full-circle.

I was paddling with three of my best friends that day – Mark, Eric, and Israel. It was Israel’s second time on the Green but Mark and Eric were Green regulars, and even comfortable enough on that section to run it in a Topo-duo later that summer. (As an aside, their run through Gorilla was priceless. As they drove through the Notch, Mark, in the front and weighing about 140lbs, tried to catch the eddy. Eric, in the back and weighing 200lbs, wanted to go direct. The bigger boy won out and they went direct. The bigger boy also rolled them up at the bottom.) But I digress…

The first rapid we scouted that day was Frankenstein. Mark explained the line to me as Eric made it look easy. Israel went next, blew the line, and got hull-pinned over the ledge on river left. Mark and I scrambled down to his boat to try and free him. Israel was calm and had his head above water, but after many attempts, Mark and I could not budge his boat. It was at this moment that I looked downstream and saw Eric wading up the rapid like an aquatic Hercules with muscles bulging and a determined look in his eye. He bent over and picked both Israel and the boat up, and threw it over his shoulder using some sort of modified dead lift. (It should be mentioned that Eric lifted weights twice a day, and was built like a brick out-house) Both he and Israel swam the last part of the rapid. It was a pretty exiting start to our trip. We had only made it through two rapids before someone got pinned (usually it takes us about five rapids before that happens).

Anyways, we paddled the remaining rapids without incident until Chief at which point Eric in one of his dyslexic moments described the line completely backwards to me. I couldn’t see his whole line, but I could see enough to realize that he was doing the exact opposite of what he had described to me. I was forced to remember the picture on American Whitewater that showed a boater running the left line at Chief. Whoever that boater in the picture is, I am forever in your debt because I took your line (or what I assumed was your line) and it worked wonderfully.

Of course this brings us to Gorilla. Mark went first and ran it direct, and Eric and I eddied out after the Notch. I’m rather fond of that eddy, and I would have liked to have stayed there a bit longer. In fact, I’m willing to label that my favorite eddy on any river. Eric, who had been in that eddy 100 times before, did not want to chit-chat though and pealed out and over the drop. It was at this point that I realized I should have taken a look at the actual waterfall, and not just the Notch when we were scouting. Nonetheless, I had a great line, although I did get held up in Speedtrap for a bit. After finally making it out I paddled over to Eric in the river-left eddy. After some congratulatory words I turned to look back up at Gorilla when I felt myself getting pulled back into Speedtrap. (As it came out in the car ride home, Eric had actually pushed me back into Speedtrap). I surfed some more and did a few of those weird rolls where you’re pinned on your backdeck on dry rock. After escaping the hole for the second time I was too tired to reach the eddy again. I would be running the next two slides blind, which I felt comfortable doing at that point. The first slide was fun, and I went deep into the hole at the bottom of the second slide. I remember thinking that I was under water for a long time. I rolled up, cleared my eyes, and much to my astonishment found myself staring at a naked women on the rock in front of me. The first thought that popped into my head was, “Am I dead?” I quickly realized that she was not indeed an angel and I needed to catch an eddy to regroup, which I did.

I honestly don’t remember any of the other rapids that day, although I do remember having a great time on all of them. Occasionally I make it back to the Green, although not often. My returning trips have all had memorable moments, although none as memorable as that first time.

For me, kayaking has never been about what I’m paddling, but who I’m paddling with. I can have an equally fun time on the Lower Green, the Upper Green, or the Narrows if I’m with good people. The good people from that first trip down the Narrows have all moved on to other things in life – Israel is going to law school, Mark is in nursing school, and Eric is a helicopter pilot in the Army. I don’t get to see them very often anymore, but I think of them every time I visit the Green - and those memories make me smile.

Instructors on the Green

Following Herms report of his first day on the Green, here is a short video of some Instructors paddling Zwicks Backender, Chief's and Groove Tube. I did not film very much this day so there is only footage of those couple of rapids. The highlights are Wayne's run at Zwicks and Anne's seal launch that never really gets off the ground. This was just a great day of creeking with good friends and fun times, this is what paddling is all about.

A Day on the Green River Narrows from Christopher Port on Vimeo.

Musings on the Charlotte Whitewater Park

I had two days off last week and decided to check out the whitewater park in Charlotte that I’d been hearing so much about. The Charlotte Instruction Manager and my good friend, Sarah Harper, was nice enough to paddle with me, show me the cool moves, and yell words of encouragement such as “Stop sucking!”. Here’s a few thoughts and mediocre advice I formulated on the drive home:

1. It’s not really a river, it’s a quasi river – a “quiver” if you will. The best part about the quiver is that you get the great rapids without worrying about such dangers as foot-entrapments, strainers, or fishermen casting over your bow. The quiver is also 3 feet deep everywhere which is nice for taking a leisurely walk through class 3 whitewater. Lastly, the water temperature of the quiver is about 75 degrees, which is way better than the Nantahala where the water temperature hovers somewhere around “arctic”.

2. Rivers have shuttles, quivers have conveyor belts, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to Sarah for showing me the spin move off the rollers. I could do that all day. (If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, stick your paddle in the metal hand rail when you reach the rollers and do a reverse sweep)

3.Here’s my mediocre advice worth about a nickel for anyone struggling with the eddies there. Forget the “always lean downstream mantra”. Sometimes the eddy water there is going upstream, sometimes its downstream, and sometimes its sidestream, if there is such a thing. Keep your boat flat when you’re in the eddy, and lean forward into that good posture (especially if you’re in a playboat). Peel out at the top of the eddy (most of the time the eddy water is sending you in that direction anyways). When you reach the exit point fight the urge to use a forward sweep on the upstream side to turn yourself downstream. Instead, lean in the direction of your turn and take good forward strokes on the downstream side. Many people flip getting out of eddies because as they place a sweep stroke on the upstream side they also subconsciously drop that upstream edge to get the blade in the water. The good news is that 95% of the time you don’t need a stroke on the upstream side during a peelout. (By the way, the same thing applies to getting into the eddies. You don’t need a sweep stroke on the downstream side to turn yourself into the eddy. The water will turn you – you just need forward strokes on the inside of the turn to drive deep into the eddy, which is also the side you’re edging towards. Your stability and power will increase exponentially if you commit to only paddling on the inside of the turn, and not both sides)

Nantahala Falls: 6 Ways To Skin A Cat

The new instructors have been trickling in over the past month and today seemed like a good day to get the old and new together for a little fun at Nantahala Falls. For being such a short rapid, there’s actually quite a few different lines and moves that can be tried.

The standard line, or A route, as it’s called in the rafting business, is to paddle down the left side of the falls, catch Truckstop Eddy, and then run left to right out the back of the eddy. Undoubtedly you have run this line at some point in your paddling career. Here’s a few more lines for you to try next time. (in order from easiest to hardest)

Creek line: Catch the last eddy above the falls on river right. Paddle right of the triangle rock (which is river right of top hole) and make the right turn into the slot between the big rocks. You can actually boof the right side of the triangle rock for an added degree of difficulty and land in macro eddy (see right picture). The creek line (sans boof) is the easiest line to run at the Falls. If you’ve never run the Falls, have a beginner with you, or are still a little nervous at the Falls, the creek line is a great option. You miss both the holes…which is nice. Be careful about flipping in this line though - it's very shallow. EASIEST

Race line: No eddies, run just right of top hole but left of the triangle rock. It’s a fast line because if done properly you will miss both holes. EASIER

Standard line: Truckstop eddy on the left, then left of top hole, right of bottom hole. MODERATE

Left-ledge line: Catch the last eddy above the falls on river right. Run just to the right of top hole and cut across the current, driving left in the backwash of top hole. (see left picture) Boof chicken ledge on the far left into the eddy on the left. MODERATELY HARD

Micro/Macro: Catch the last eddy above the falls on river right. Ferry above top hole and catch micro eddy on river left above chicken-ledge. From there, ferry across the backwash of top hole and into macro eddy on river right. HARD

Big Boy Move: Catch micro eddy on the left. Ferry across top hole. (see left picture) Make the attainment upstream (river left of triangle rock, right of top hole). Eddy out river right above the creek line. (see right picture) You’re basically ferrying over from micro eddy and attaining up the race line. If you mess this one up you get to practice your side-surfing skills. VERY HARD

Thoughts of a Cheoah Boater

Tips for becoming more comfortable on the Cheoah

“Am I ready for the Cheoah”? This has become a popular question this time of year, variations of it appearing on internet boating boards, paddling club newsletters, or in casual conversation wherever boaters may gather. The answer to this question is often, “Well, what other rivers have you paddled”? There is certainly value in this line of thought, and there are indeed many rivers that can be used as a sort of litmus test for Cheoah readiness, the Chattooga and Upper Ocoee to name just a few. That being said, I prefer to focus on what skills one possesses to determine whether they’re ready for a particular river, and not necessarily what other rivers they’ve done. For instance, I’ve seen people style the Green Narrows (Triple Crown included), that have never been creeking. I’ve also seen people run class 5 comfortably without ever having run a class 4 rapid. These are obviously not typical progressions, and I’m certainly not arguing that there isn’t value in paddling and gaining experience on a variety of rivers before “stepping up” to the next level. I’m simply pointing out that the criteria for deciding on readiness for a new river is not solely limited to what rivers you’ve paddled in the past. That being said, there are a few specific skill sets I think are necessary for success on a river such as the Cheoah: a solid roll, ability to catch small eddies in bigger water, the ability to drive across big eddy lines while paddling solely on the inside of the turn, and good read and run scouting skills, to name just a few. So let’s say you’ve been practicing your skills and feel you’re ready for the Cheoah. The following are hopefully some less obvious pointers to help you paddle this river comfortably.

Most people are aware that a more vertical paddle stroke pulled close to the boat gives the boater more power (think typical forward stroke used for acceleration). But are they also aware that vertical strokes may not always be the most stable strokes? Next time you’re floating in flat water take your paddle while holding on to it with both hands and place it in a vertical position next to your hip, touching the boat (the hip being where most paddlers finish a forward stroke). It will feel a little unstable, especially if you edge a bit towards the paddle. Now let the paddle glide out so that you have a horizontal shaft and the paddle is perpendicular to your boat. It will feel much more stable.

Ok, fine, but how does that apply to the Cheoah? The Cheoah has many rapids consisting of big wave trains. We’ve all heard that motto, “If all else fails just paddle hard”. While my feelings on that should be saved for another blog all together, I have seen many boaters simply “paddling hard” through rapids on the Cheoah. The result of this hard paddling is a predominance of vertical forward strokes, which often leads to flips in the rolling waves and swirling currents. Next time you’re in a wave train somewhere, see if you’re using mostly vertical strokes. If you are, try mixing in some more stable, horizontal strokes.

Not only is the selection of your strokes important, but also when and where you’re placing those strokes. Everyone is aware of the advantage of a well-timed forward stroke as you hit a hole. But what about the rest of the time? While an entire book could be written about this one subject alone, for brevity’s sake I’ll only concentrate on stroke placement in wave trains, such as one finds on the Cheoah.

Last summer I found myself paddling down the Nantahala with local Olympian Chris Ennis. We are almost identical in strength and build and were both paddling identical boats. I was paddling behind him and matching his stroke length, cadence, and verticality, and taking his same lines - yet he was still pulling away from me. He was doing one small thing that I wasn’t doing though. For every wave we encountered, whether three feet or three inches, he was taking one stroke on the backside of the wave. Most paddlers, myself included, have always been taught to take a stroke as you’re traveling up the face of a wave. The problem with this is that one, once you reach the top of the wave your speed has declined (as you’re basically traveling “uphill”), and two, that next stroke usually doesn’t land until you’ve traveled completely down the backside of the wave. The water traveling “downhill” on the backside of a wave is faster water. If you take a stroke in this water you’ll find that you have to take fewer strokes to maintain your speed. The fewer strokes you can take, the more energy you conserve. This is particularly important on the Cheoah where the hardest section of whitewater is in the last mile of this seven mile run. It definitely takes a conscientious effort to paddle this way, and will probably feel awkward the first few times you do it. The benefit though is a more efficient paddling style.


While we’re on the topic of speed, I’ve found I paddle better the slower I go. Our instinct is to paddle fast in unfamiliar whitewater, our adrenaline fueling a belief that the more strokes we get in, the better we’ll be. The Cheoah is one of the worst rivers to paddle fast through rapids though for a variety of reasons. First, you don’t want to wear yourself out before the last mile. Second, stroke timing is more important than stroke quantity. If you’re paddling constantly through a rapid, your cadence/timing may be off when it comes time to hit the one well-timed stroke before you hit a hole or boof. Force yourself to slow down through the rapids, scanning downstream for the one or two moves that will require a well-placed stroke. Take slow, deep strokes the rest of the time. It’s not the White Nile – you don’t need to be paddling constantly through every rapid.

Once you slow everything down you make it easier to catch eddies. When you’re going fast you build up a lot of speed which makes it difficult to turn. (Don’t believe me? – paddle as fast as you can on some flat-water and count how many sweep strokes it takes to make a turn compared to the one it takes when you’re going slow) Remember, you only need to be traveling a fraction faster than the current to be in control of your boat. Because it’s easier to turn when you’re going slower, it’s also easier to identify more eddies, and thus catch more eddies. Which leads to my next suggestion involving boat scouting.

The rapids on the Cheoah seldom have one true line. Many rapids have a variety of lines. Don’t assume the fifteen boaters who just went ahead of you are going the “best” way. Catch an eddy(s) and choose your line yourself. Somebody in front of you may boof a rock to avoid a large wave train. You may not feel comfortable executing boofs, but feel comfortable in wave trains. Identify your best skills, those that are in your wheelhouse, and stick to them. Don’t try moves that make you feel nervous or uncomfortable. If you’re sitting in an eddy looking at such a move, remember that there’s probably another line, even if nobody else is taking it.

In summary, be conscientious about what strokes you’re using and where you’re placing them. Force yourself to go slow. Pick the lines you feel comfortable with and have the courage to go for it, even if others aren’t. Of course, sometimes the line is to walk. If you don’t see a line, or a move you like, then don’t leave the eddy. The Cheoah is no place for guessing. Lastly, eat a fried bologna biscuit for breakfast – it’s guaranteed to improve your paddling skill, add ten pounds to your bench press, and prevent cavities. See you out there,
Herm