Yakdaddy’s River Ramblings

April - shoulder rehab.  Not much to say here except that I really enjoyed talking paddling with my Phys. therapist Todd who had been a boater back on the Potomac in the good ole days of 13′ boats.  If you hurt your shoulder, do the rehab and take it easy as you get back into it.

 May 7th - New boats!

 I’d been saving up and paying off debt for more than a year and we had finally succeeded in paying of our household’s consumer debt.  To celebrate, I paid cash for 2 new boats and for a nice Canon SLR camera for Tonya.  I was so eager to get back out on the water that I could barely stand it.  Tonya somehow managed to disguise her excitement over the new whitewater sit-on-top I’d ordered for her, but I could tell that deep down inside she was almost thrilled.

May 7 - New boats and clearance from the Doc to get back on the water!

May 12, 2007 - Lower Nolichucky - 900 cfs

Paddlers: Natalie Pickett, Wesley Bradley, Joshua Dalton, Matt Davis, Randy and JoAnne Pasqua, & Katie Prince

A great return to paddling after 6 weeks off with a busted shoulder!

Met the Pickett’s and Katie at Chestoa with the family and grilled a few hot dogs for dinner. After eating and everyone else showing up, we began gearing up around 7:00pm - putting on probably 20 minutes later.  Tried my offside roll - no problem.  Tried my on-side (extending my right arm - bad shoulder) and blew two attempts before switching over to my off side and rolling up.  The group began picking our way down with everybody hopping onto just about any wave that would hold a boat.and I’m sure my eyes were the size of saucers as I eased that planing hulled 2007 4Fun onto a wave for the first time.  I could not believe how easy it was to surf!  All I’d paddled up to that point were displacement hulled creekboats and/or inflatable kayaks – what a difference!

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At the rock just below the Uncle Johnny’s Bridge you could surf the wave on RL or surf in the hole just the RR of the rock.  I tried both, starting with the wave.  Caught it on my first try and was pearling the bow a bit but staying on and feeling pretty stable.  Before I got off, I managed to spin around 180 degrees and back surf  (in a somewhat controlled fashion) much to the amusement of the rest of the group.  Tried the hole on RR next surfed OK in there but found it to be grabby enough that I thought I might windowshade unexpectedly which might not be good for the shoulder - so I backsurfed that one too and then moved on out. Smooth run of Radio tower but I couldn’t catch the wave at the bottom - kept flushing off.Surfed a few more spots on the way down and took out between the Jackson Love bridge and the interstate bridge just as it was getting dark.  We could see as we took out but needed headlights and such to load up.Tonya and the kids tossed rocks at the put in for a while and the kids swam around for a while longer - then they drove down to meet us at the takeout.  All in all a nice family evening.

May 20, 2007 - Swift Water Rescue Course

Helped Mike Morrow and Scott Fisher with the ‘at/on-the-water’ training portion of their SWR class.  The participants were top notch and I was tired enough by the end of the day that I opted out of trying out my new 4Fun in the hole at Big Rock.