~~RapidPirate~~

The PBR (Payette Boise River Revival) starts Friday (tomorrow)! Lots of kayak and rafting competition throughout the weekend. It all kicks off at the Gutter - 4pm on Friday May 30th with the Juniors freestyle and transitions into the Night Disco Rodeo - paddling under the spotlight Go HERE for more info. Best for everyone if you can use the ONLINE REGESTRATION. Hope to see you there!!

Well, it’s in! I’m waiting on my new SuperStar to arrive, so I took Tyler out for his first run on the Bladder Wave tonight. My friend Link brought his raft and we paddled it out to the dam and he, mike and I caught some nice pics of the action from our cushy front row seat

Regional Jackson paddler Mark Cecchini was seriously stomping the wave - check him out here in these pics in his green AllStar. Enjoy

I just drove by the Gutter here on the Payette and the Bladder Wave is in! The river is sitting at 9,800 and is pouring over the sides of the dam. Now this isn’t the monster wave that it is known for - the water just isn’t high enough. It is a lot like a wide ‘Trimax’ (3rd wave on Climax). No telling how long it will last - so get out there!

The PBR (Payette Boise River Revival) starts one week from today! This is such a great event if you are in the Boise area - even if you are not participating it is a blast to watch. It all kicks off at 4pm on Friday May 30th with the Juniors freestyle and transitions into the Night Disco Rodeo - paddling under the spotlight Go HERE for more info and online regestration. Hope to see you there!!

The manager of the Horseshoe Bend Power Plant said he has the bladder dam all the way up today. He plans to keep it up for the Memorial Day weekend. If it does need to come down they will try to drop it at night and have it up again so the Gutter will be in business. If your timing is right you could catch a ride on the Bladder wave while the dam is transitioning between up/down.

Today the payette topped 14,000cfs and the bladders is still totally deflated to minimize silting of the canal and plant. Look for clearing water when it starts to subside a little and let’s see if the dam comes up

We had our 2nd Hometown Throwdown last night under a hot sun and lots of water. Check HERE for details!

I talked with the manager of the Horseshoe Bend Power plant tonight and he said they are going to deflate the bladder dam Friday morning. This means that the gutter is not surfable and the bladder wave will
NOT be in. He was not sure when they would re inflate the dam on Friday afternoon and said it could be down for several days. Here is a link to their page with info on deflation schedules Go to the bottom of the page! :

http://www.innergex.com/en/energie/02-10-05-horseshoebend-recrea_e.html

As of about midnight this is how it reads :

“Very high flow conditions are predicted for the Payette River for the
next days. In order to prevent the plant structure from being sanded
up the hydroelectric plant operation will be momentarily stopped.

Please note that the Rubber Dam of the HBHC power plant will be
lowered tomorrow May16th, 2008 and could be down for the next couple
days. Most of the river water will flow in the main river channel
over the deflated rubber dam.”

Keep an eye on the Horseshoe Bend Gauge and watch for it to hit about 8.500cfs. At that point they start messing with the dam. Sometime it will be down completely and this floods the gutter and nothing is surfable. Go HERE and check the bottom of the page for scheduled deflations. In the past here is what the power company has done when the level hits around 8,500:

1. They drop the bladder all the way in the early mornings - nothing good for boating
2. At about noon they bring it into ‘Cascade Mode’ which is about 1/2 pressure. If the bubble forms in the middle as it usually does BINGO - Bladder Wave

Right now the forecast for Boise is low to mid 90’s for the weekend and the river will be shooting up. Here is the current river forecast for Horseshoe Bend

Throwdown tomorrow - May 15th is the 2nd Boise Hometown Throwdown sponsored by Mion, RedBull, Jackson Kayak, Kayak Sessions, IR, Smith and AW. Prizes awarded for participation NOT scores It’s all about fun! 5:30pm is when it all kicks off. Hope to see you there!