Big Water Bring Your Momma III
| River: | USNWC |
| Skill: | Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 08/25/2016 |
Big Water Bring Your Momma III Trip Report.
Your momma makes the best shake and bake fried chicken in the world. She just gets shaking and baking. I never once felt sorry for that chicken. Getting swirled, thumped up and down, covered in whatever happens to be in that bag and then thrown onto the hot grease. That poor chicken gets devoured, everyone nearby wants a piece and there are always oohs and ahhhs. Shake and bake is tough way to go for a chicken or a cboater with a missed line. Moving right along.
Many stars made the trip to the Ditch August 25th. There were also these guys. Matt Daniels and Kurt McKissick were probably the first two on site. Freaking time restrictions! One had to be home for "Band Practice" and the other must of had a curfew. Stop laughing. I know. This is my "Crew". Moving right along. I guess I should add they both paddled well on all channels. Thanks Matt for reminding me first lap right. Second lap right put a smiley face, cheeto, swoosh skin tag on my left shoulder. Peel out high from the pocket below the cheese grater or your skin will be taxed.
Chris Serenari and Jason Hunt must of laped the place 50 times. These gents were stying and profiling. I was sitting in the woods in a lawn chair stealth eating mini ravioli while these guys kept pounding comp channel laps. Spotted the elusive Eric Stuart around this time.
Shane Brown and his 6 foot Blackfly Canoe showed up 4:30ish and we busted out some laps getting warmed up for Big Water. Shane just loves Biscuits and Gravy and many times it loved him back. Nice spins. Nice rolls.
Greg Murphy and Tyler Moretz showed up and showed out. These boys made everything look easy. Thanks for coming Gents. Looking good there Tyler. Greg looked great on the Comp Channel laps. He does like to sneak that big boat a bit close to my little boat and smile an evil smile.
Big Water started at 6:30. Wilderness channel for 45 minutes then the comp for 45 minutes. They must of emptied the jails in Charlotte because the rush was on. Entering the channels with a few dozen of your best friends is always a rush. Being a shy guy, I hung back and only met up with maybe 14 boaters. Coming around the corner the familar faces surfed on in. The famous Dolian brothers, Matt and Drew. Matt Swaim was styling and profiling. Was that you Danielle Fisher? Gregg Nance was guiding. Think we saw Rebecca Nance. Stan Cronland we need to formally say hello! We missed Doug Stager! We almost missed Lisa and James. We did miss Bret.
The WIlderness channel changes a bit as most everything gets bigger and more fun to surf. Big water is 5 pumps down one channel so most of the cool surf waves were bigger. Cool big wave right above shutdown was rocking. Biscuits and Gravy was just a wave train as we lost the hole. Laps were had. Fun was had. Tick tick tick. 45 minutes later it ended.
Never seen anything like this. Floods of boater headed down the Comp Channel. The rafts were cool and let the first huge wave of boater enter before they came down. Big Jim Moser is moving eddy to eddy among the chaos. Looking and paddling like the Badass he really is. First lap goes pretty smooth. Rounding the corner and boofing that last pourover hole right below the Big drop. Second lap has boaters spread out a bit more. The Dolians splatting everything, but your Momma. Mac Condrey doing the same. Most of the previoulsy mentioned folks doing very well on the second lap.
The main differences at Big Water on the Comp side are all the boaters and the holes.Tons of boaters in a small space and sticky holes especially leading into the Big drop. The Big Drop hole gets a nice wall at the bottom. The pourover below looks super sticky. Seems all you have to do is stay off the walls, dodge rafts, dodge surfers and keep your boat straight coming off the Big Drop. Rumors of Eric Condrey and Quay Hunter sitting high up in the " Hot Corner" locked with camera's ready.
Third lap starts off like all the others. Cool eddy hoping. Murphy still trying to run me over. Eddy out below the bridge drop river left. All the rafts are thru. Should be smooth. Last lap I was a bit too far left at the lip, so I decided to drive right. Peeled out. Driving right. Lost my nose. Sideways. Got to spin before the hole. Unsuccessful. Very unsuccessful. Stuck. Stable. Stuck. Lefty escape by padding forward is blocked by a few feet of concrete. Try backing. Flip. Roll. Still stuck. Back to the concrete wall. Still stable. Back out again. Flip. Backdeck roll. Sometime during this Greg Murphy misse me as he cruises thru in his canoe. I think atleast 2 other boats came thru. I start to think this is not going to end well. The crowd is getting into it. Can't go forward. Hard reverse stroke and trying to jam my nose and ender out is not working. The good news was I could still hear the crowd and I knew the rafts were still a bit away. Stuck in the far righ pocket and then Wham, I am over and feel current. Rolled up free of the hole. Took a slight bow to the roaring crowd. Coughed up some water and got the heck out of there. Boofed the pourover and relaxed. Noticed a yellow boat off to the side with the boater rubbing his ribs. Now I know how I got out. Big Mac Daddy Condrey tried splatting the wall at Big Drop and knocked me out. He and his ribs were the reason I was set free. Thanks Mac!. Not sure how long I was in there but, without you I might still be there.
Fourth lap. Pass. After getting shaked and baked like your Momma does that fried chicken, I was done. Eric Condrey was kind enough to snap some shots of my beatdown. Thanks.
Thanks to all who attended. There was a traffic problem on I 85 that made some boaters late. It ended up keeping Dennis at home. We are not sure why our Cruise Chair was not there. We sure did miss our friend from Harkness Design. Lets do this again soon. Big Water Bring your Momma IV will be coming soon!
JMB
PS Yes another trip report. The White Wizzard has given me a name or two in WV to donate the winnings!
JMB