Speeder Fun

Wayner and I put our Speeders in at Ferebee for a run to the Falls (or at least in the general vicinity ) With all the rain from Thursday night, we opted for the creek run, just below the put in. The mouth of the side channel put us just below Delabar’s Rock. After warming up on the shoals below, I was ready for my first Nantahala rapid in the Speeder! I had a good run at Quarry; I was able to turn the big boat (all 14′7″) and skirted the big waves, paddling on the left. At Root Canal our plan was to start left and go right, but a river wide strainer ended those plans. There was clearance underneath the tree to the left. I had to resort to a couple of hard pry strokes on the left, but I made the tunnel clean! From there we shot down through Whirlpool, through Blue hole and then left of the island through Bunny’s Eddy.

On a unnamed rapid above the Ledges, I reached out to the left for a draw. I was ever so slightly out over the boat; poof!, I was over like that. Wayner helped with the yard sale as I swam into an eddy on river right. Quickly, I was back in the big boat again. Wayner suggested that I try to make my strokes a tad more horizontal, more like 70 degrees than 90. Given my size and the type of boat that the Speeder is, it is like riding on a rail. Forward strokes at 70 degrees made the ride so much more stable! In fact I was starting to go for lines where I was thread through waves. Thanks, Wayner!

Heading down through The Ledges I felt so much more solid, and was able to thread all the rocks that I wanted to miss. We bombed on down past Surfers, Fast Ferry, and Gorgorama (no surfing on the PBR wave). Quickly we were down to the Five Eddies, which reminded me of paddling the Speeder in Charlotte. You have a chance to experience three different currents at the same time in a 14′7″ long boat! Sort of a paddling equivalent of Rock City. I had good lines through Donnie Dutton and the Bump. Down at the concrete beach I decided to walk the Falls; I just wasn’t entirely confident that I would make it to the Falls upright! As I walked down, Wayner was surfing his Speeder in the bottom hole, entertaining the crowds. I joined Wayner below the Falls and we paddled down to the public take-out. My first run of the Nantahala in the Speeder. It was big boomin’ fun!

Round two

This was also the first time that I would paddle the Nantahala twice in one day. After retrieving my car, and an extended lunch, I met up with Darcy, Janet, and Tim at the NOC for a run of the entire river. We put on above Patton’s and paddled down to Pyramid with some dispatch. There Janet and Tim were tearing it up on the spin wave; I had a couple of good spins too! Darcy had some good from surfs. Through the rest of Pyramid rapid, Janet was working eddies; I did catch the mid stream eddy, but opted out on the ferry to river left.

At Delabar’s Rock I bounced down the creek to the right (much lower than in the morning). We all caught eddies in Quarry and in Root Canal below. At Whirlpool I ventured out for a surf; Tim and Janet were tearing it up. We all joined in on the surfing fun Three Hump Rock, check out photos of Darcy shredding: http://chucks.smugmug.com/gallery/490428… She had to take out just above The Ledges, where she was met by Kevin. It was good to paddle with you!

Darcy shredding at Three Hump

Tim, Janet, and I continued downstream. I caught eddies in the first two ledges at The Ledges, and had some epic surfs at the wave at the second ledge. We all surfed at Surfers and then took a short break. Given the late hour, just after 6PM and that the release was off at 5PM, we decided to bomb down to the Falls. We made it down there in less than an hour; although we did take time to walk the dog and Chuck went for skinning the cat!

I caught eddies in the Falls, I almost got Block Rock eddy, just a tad too low! I worked down the right side of the Falls as Tim and Janet worked down left. All had clean runs; a good, but long day on the river.