Kayak4Ever

In my last post I talked about how one of my
strategies to work through nerves at the put-in is to tell myself I can paddle any section of the river I want, even if it means taking out after the first rapid.

For me, on the Ocoee, this means giving myself permission to paddle from my put in (river right eddy below Grumpies) down to Staging Eddy. And if I want to take out there, that’s perfectly okay. At least I’d get past my anxiety about even putting on the river.

All along I know this is a simple mental trick. I know I can paddle easily to Staging Eddy. And I know that by the time we get to Staging Eddy, I’ll be having fun. At that point I’ve already paddled through some good waves, caught some eddies, navigated a few small holes…and I’m starting to “feel” it.

Our habit at Staging Eddy is to hang out for a while practicing ferries, rolling in current, and I bounce into the bottom wave sideways a few times to try to catch myself off guard. From there, I tell myself I can take out at different points ahead if I feel like it…but with each trip I know it’s less likely that I’ll take off early. I haven’t yet this season!

Yesterday at Staging Eddy I had a little extra fun. I got too close to a shredder, paused in my paddling to open some distance between us, and found myself being side surfed in that little bottom wave until it flipped me. I rolled up and thought, “Hey, good to get some of that action out of the way early…remember to leave more space open around shredders and rafts!”

Highlights of yesterday’s fun on the Ocoee were:

1. Eddy hopping between Broken Nose and Slice and Dice — playing follow the leader with Tim.

2. Running the boof line at Double Suck for the first time (Clean! Thanks for suggesting that line, Jody! And thanks, Tim, for understanding about me not being ready to go that way until yesterday.)

3. Watching Tim help rescue a raft that was stuck in bottom hole at Double Suck. Small self-guided raft started with three people and three paddles….when we arrived, there was one person in the raft with no paddle…she was just bouncing and spinning there in place with no way out of the hole. The two other rafters were in the water also without their paddles in their own stages of rescue. To help the raft stuck in the hole, Tim paddled from the river right eddy to up near the hole, got out of his boat near a rock and threw his rope to the girl in the raft. She grabbed the rope. About that same time a guided raft came down and bumped her out of the hole. She held onto Tim’s rope and he swung her and her raft to the right bank. She had a bloody lip from where one of the other rafters hit her with his paddle’s t-grip. That whole raft crew took off the river there.

4. Leading through Hell’s Half Mile and catching eddies through that stretch. Eddying out above Double Trouble and peeling out to take my own line through the big waves (fun! - and OcoeePhotos.com FINALLY took pictures of me…good thing I waved like a maniac to the photographers before I headed through the rapid!…you’ll find me among private boaters 7.27.08, if you set the screen to one photo per page I’m pages 537-544 online through 8.10.08, I’m in a green Dagger creek boat wearing blue sweet helmet and light blue shorty).

5. catching LOTS of eddies between Double Trouble and Flipper.

6. Boofing at Flipper.

7. Clean run at Table Saw, eddying out on the left, and then ferrying out high to cross the big run out with a smooth, solid move over to river right - yay! I was really proud of that ferry ’cause I kept good speed and angle.

8. Trying a boof move below Gerbil Stuffer. Gerbil Stuffer is a surf place on the left between Diamond Splitter and the lead in to Western Flyer. There’s a big flat rock at Gerbil Stuffer, and just below it is the place where you can either boof over this little ledge (maybe 4 feet) or ferry above the ledge toward river right to head into Western Flyer. Tim and Jody kept good speed going for the boof. I didn’t…turned sideways at the lip and went over backwards…flipped… rolled…and laughed all the way through Western Flyer

9. Working on a ferry-attainment move at the bottom of Cats Pajamas. On the right, there is a final decent wave that you can drop down and carve into an eddy. From the eddy, you ferry out high to surf that same wave toward river left, across the main run out, to head for the river left eddy below the rock where squirt boaters do mystery moves. The left eddy is super boily and pulls you up to beside that mystery move rock. From there, you ferry out strong to attain back to the right, heading for an eddy ABOVE that final wave on river right. Tim and Jody both made the attainment eddy several times. I almost made it once, but didn’t commit and wound up back in the lower right eddy below that final wave. On my next tries, I just focused on good ferry form through the pushy water.

It was an awesome day!

P.S. My comfort zone through Broken Nose has been running the far left creek line (pics below). Next week I’m going for another line!