Instructors: Sharon Myers, a mountain of paddling sized up as a women’s medium;Spencer Muse, a beautiful paddler, a gentle soul, and a triumph of dedication and perseverance over aptitude.
Students: Russ Scheve, Kurt McKissick, Michele Pagnotta, and me, Sandi Metz.
PRELUDE
I awoke to the Weather Channel showing a large green blob over the entire eastern Tennessee area. This alone was enough to get my adrenaline up, but I also saw that the Little River in the Smokies was at 350 cfs and rising fast!
I immediately started calling people who knew that when the creeks rise you go paddling, not to work. By 8:00 AM. I had a group: Dave Fox In his Micro 230, Chip Turpin in his still somewhat new Esquif Zoom and me in my Esquif Nitro.
The second installment of the 2004 East Coast surf kayak tour was held at Myrtle Beach.
I arrived on Friday mid-afternoon, and after getting directions to the competition site, met up with about 5 kayakers. We had a good three hour session in about 4 foot swells. No current drift, conditions were excellent.
In order to maximize my time in the water this weekend, I decided to enter three classes – HP (high performance), Open (waveski), and K1 (aka rodeo boating).
WOW! We had a huge turn out for Week of Rivers 2004. I don't have the exact count from the campground yet, but we are all in agreement that considerably more folks attended this year. The staked off areas of the field filled quickly and spilled over into other areas of the open field.
I was fortunate to be able to take the River Safety Class while at Week Of Rivers. I started paddling back when, as Joe Berry puts it, “Safety was having three boaters.” After my 20 year absence from whitewater, I was impressed with how much emphasis is put on river safety.
Atlantic Beach, NC. Monday afternoon July 19 2004.
The short of it: I was able to give four swimmers a kayak ride after they got caught in a very large and powerful Rip Tide. I made several mistakes during the rescue but got away with it. I was lucky.
The long of it:
Paddlers: Knut Radloff and Craig McKinnon
37 ft/mile gradient, steep slopes, rocky cliffs, mature hardwood growth, rhododendron. Sounds like a Nantahalaesque mountain stream? This Raleigh whitewater jewel feels like it with lots of class II ledges, pretty scenery and few signs of urban development.
Standing on the shores of the huge McCoy rapid and looking at the thundering swells of this gigantic Ottawa River from my little Kingpin Icon, I felt so ready. Ready to conquer, ready to continue where I left off last year.
The rivers of southern Chile have now replaced those of Costa Rica and a few closer to home, like the Chattooga and New River Gorge, in my affections. I splurged and spent a major portion of my carefully saved dollars on an NOC trip to Patagonia in February, and had the best paddling vacation yet. I'll try not to gush too much, but here are some of the details and highlights.
