New River Dries Global Posts

New River Dries

nicktroutman wrote 842 days ago:

I have never been to the Dries of the New, though they have been high on my list pretty much since I started kayaking. Though being that they only run when the river is at flood, and the fact that the river seldom gets to the good surfing levels, and the fact that I am usually several hours away, all adds up to the fact that I haven’t been able to surf these amazing waves.

Well I guess it all started on wednesday, when Stephen and Clay left for the ‘Dries’ waves in West Virginia. I wasn’t able to leave with them, being that I had to finish up some work. After all my work was done, I had to make the decision to keep working or drop everything and drive 7.5 hours to West Virginia. To most the decision would be easy, for some would say work, and others would say go kayak. What it really came down to for me was if I stayed I would be happy to get some work done, and if I went I would be happy because I got to kayak, but if I stayed I would regret it and if I left I wouldn’t regret anything.

Putting it in that perspective made it easy for me. I then packed up my car, dropped my dogs off at the Jackson Ranch (thanks Kristine for taking care of Rio and Rupert), loaded up my boat and drove through the night. I arrived at 2:45 AM, and went straight to sleep. The next morning Clay Stephen and I went out had breakfast and made some boating plans. They had decided to go run a creek, but for me I had made my mind up before I left, I was going to surf the Dries Waves.

So I drove to the bridge, got geared up, and walked down to the rivers edge. I put on and peeled-out to the Wave. I surfed for 5 hours. I continued this for the last 5 days. Wake up, eat breakfast and surf all day. I am now exhausted, sore, tired, and soon running out of money, yet with the river on the rise it is hard for me to want to leave.

Here is a video from the first couple days on the New River Dries