Full-screen mode might give a better view since it’s not zoomed in (long story involving a stolen laptop – aargh) but either way you get the drift.  Another great day on the river!

Here’s me and Jason Conlon going through:

Here’s Samson going through the Needle, not Ned’s.  At 2000 cfs it’s really sticky but the more right-to-left line that he takes appears to work well, Charles has said the same thing but a lot of people seem to go left-to-right (I’ve seen good boaters flailing paddles when levels are sticky):

And here’s Adrian going through Ned’s Needle:

Thanks Dave, for taking the videos!  It was an awesome day on the Skykomish, we are so fortunate to have such an interesting Class IV rapid less than an hour from Seattle.

Brian, Blake and Austin from Peak 7 Adventures at the Skykomish put-in in Index.

Yesterday three Peak 7 guys, Brian, Blake, and Austin, who are from Spokane and doing some local rivers this weekend, stopped on Highway 2 to give me and Brett Barton a ride into Index, and seeing as I had just broken 3 ribs and hiked off the river for 30 minutes I REALLY appreciated it – plus they had a truck crammed full of kayaking gear, so it was nice of them to fit us in.  (By the way, the reason I call myself a bonehead in the post title is that the accident was totally my fault – but that’s another blog post… )

Blake gave me some encouraging words in the car about how he had bruised some ribs once and they really hurt but healed quickly, but after seeing me lurching around the car in Index his verdict was, “Umm, you should probably get that checked out.” :)

Anyway, the Peak 7 motto is “Challenging the Body, Engaging the Spirit”, which I think is very cool, and their website is well worth checking out.  They’re also hiring a full-time Seattle area director, so if that’s up your alley click here for info – the application deadline is 12/15/09.

The actual best video would have been of me actually getting up onto Split Rock to take the video, which involved having to stand on the nose of Brett’s boat as he was paddling against the current and then throwing myself onto the side of the rock.  Oh well, you never have a camera rolling for the truly great shots.

Here’s Rob and Brett checking out the video with the super-nice waitress from the Gold Bar cafe (great desserts, by the way – huge pieces of pie.)

Self-taught and unstoppable.

You might recall that a few months ago I posted about Stephen P., who joined us on a Class III Skykomish run after having done just a couple Class I-II runs before that, and who amazed us all by having a self-taught roll that turned out to be a really good hand roll (he would just ignore his paddle or toss it completely.)

Well, about a month ago when the Sky was still pretty low I was getting out at the Split Rock take-out when I thought I saw a familiar face pulling up and there was Stephen, getting ready to do laps of Boulder Drop with a friend.  It totally cracked me up because I asked him what lines he had been taking, Airplane Turn or through the Needle, and he just goes, ‘Umm, I don’t really know the names, I’ve just been going around that one big rock and past that other one…’  With all the analyzing and sweating that most people (myself included) do over that rapid I just love hearing that someone simply shleps down there and runs it.

Anyway, thumbs up to Stephen, he’s apparently progressing at the speed of light.  I think he’s even finally taught himself a paddle roll.

I can’t tell you how excited I was to see the forecast this morning, especially when I checked American Whitewater and saw that the Skykomish River was at a measly 484 cfs.  I and my fellow hard-core peeps have been bumping down the Sky for the last couple of months, but I think 550 cfs is our lowest limit so far, and even that’s pretty bare.

On the plus side, doing Boulder Drop at low levels can be a lot of fun, since it gives you the chance to explore a bunch of new routes.  I’ve done it something like 35 times now,  and of course have covered pretty much every inch of it upside down at some point (but only swam once after the first two times – got caught in the pourover at the bottom a few runs ago and panicked.)

All good practice – I hate swimming, but it usually makes me better down the road.  Anyway, the Sky’s beautiful right now – fall foliage, snow in the mountains, and salmon everywhere.  Pray for lots of rain!

Brett Barton on Eagle Falls, Skykomish River - Photo by Abraham Herrera

I’ve been thinking about what I’d tell someone who was starting out whitewater kayaking and wanted to learn fast.  One of the most useful things that I’ve been fortunate enough to do has been to paddle with people who love kayaking, are really good at it, and who are really generous with their knowledge.

I learn much faster when I’m with people who encourage me into into stuff that is a bit over my head, even if it means messing up and swimming.  It just makes you choose your line more carefully next time, or work on a stroke that will steer you away from trouble someday, or learn to roll up in squirrelly water when you’re scared.  Or, on special occasions, all of the above, all at once.  

(I’m not talking about people who put you in unreasonably dangerous situations, obviously, just good paddlers who help you stretch your limits.)

Anyway, I don’t have pictures of many of the kayakers who have helped me out with advice, but here are some cool shots of a few, starting out with Brett Barton, above (actually messing up on the line on Eagle Falls in that photo - but it makes for a great shot.)  Brett is a great playboater who has shown me a ton of lines on Boulder Drop.  I actually was the safety throw bag person on the Eagle Falls run, but seeing as I have an unfortunate habit of getting nervous and throwing the safety throw bag sideways into the tree tops it’s a pretty good thing he nailed the run both times.

Brian Pernick on the Skykomish River

Brian Pernick, above, is my unofficial attainment coach.  (This may be news to him, I realize.)  Up until a few weeks ago I didn’t know what an attainment was, but it’s when you find ways to move your kayak upstream, sometimes finding your way through rapids.  Brian is really good at it, and I end up trying some of the same moves he’s doing.  Practicing attainments is not just good for the physical aspect of kayaking, it also puts you in a more proactive mindset where you’re more likely to think what you can do with the water rather than what it’s going to do with you.

Chipper Maney on the Cheakamus River, BC - Photo by Preston Brown

Chipper Maney, demonstrating a nice boof stroke above, is another really good boater who notably picked a really fun line through Boulder Drop yesterday, finishing up with a fun little auto-boof at the end that I actually got a good boof stroke on the first time down (possibly my first actual boof stroke ever.)  I’m not sure what river he’s on here, but I love this shot.

There are a ton of other good boaters who have helped me learn, including Charles from AquaSports – who is super encouraging, but who was also nice enough to let me know that I need some work in the eddy-catching department (so true!)

Overall, I feel incredibly fortunate to paddle with the people I kayak with – they give great advice without being bossy, test your limits without making you feel like they’re trying to kill you, and no one ever makes you feel bad if you decide to not do something.  And, they love to be on the river – what could be better?

a)  I finally made a clean run on Boulder Drop and arrived at the bottom right side up

b)  One member of our group, Stephen, was a new paddler whose only previous river experience was the Class I/II run from Big Eddy to Monroe.

Fearless Trip Organizer Kiran and Hand-Roll Whiz Kid Stephen

Driving up to the put-in Kiran told Stephen that he was either going to be a natural and astonish us, or a huge source of entertainment.  I said ‘Maybe both’, and to my surprise I was right.

What was really funny was that when Stephen started practicing his self-taught roll at the put-in we all looked at each other with big eyes, because it turns out he had ended up teaching himself a hand roll, and would just leave his paddle slack in the water or let go of it altogether.  It was really a crack-up, because he popped up like a duck pretty much every time – and he’s so new he didn’t even know it was a hand roll!

The first rapid after the Cabledrop put-in is probably one of the more challenging ones, and Stephen ended up missing two rolls and swimming, so he took out a bit further down and rejoined us at Split Rock for the trip down to Big Eddy.

By the end of it, however, he was so used to hand-rolling in moving water that on the last II+ rapid right before the Big Eddy take-out I watched him roll up twice, once in shallow water bouncing off of rocks, and the last time in some significant froth that plenty of beginner paddlers would have found challenging to roll up in even using a paddle.

I brought up the rear and laughed the whole way down.

So nice to arrive at this point still in my boat.

Anyway, big thanks to Kiran for taking the time to get out at the Airplane Turn eddy on Boulder Drop and point out the lines (scouting from Airplane Turn is probably a really good idea for first-timers, by the way.)  I’d always done OK up to that point, but it was the first time that I felt like I had a clear idea of the line from there on down, even though I’ve looked at it from the bottom several times.

Between that and the cfs being about 1000 lower (at around 1500) than the first two times I tried it, it felt WAY easier, although still really fast.  And as always, a ton of fun.  Further on down Dave dug out someone’s Dagger playboat that had gotten caught between some rocks just below Lunch Hole two weeks earlier – apparently there’s a pretty nasty sieve on river left at some levels.

Anyway, good times, good people, and an 85 degree day on the Skykomish River – it’s hard to go wrong!

Whatever.   I’ll be the first person to admit I flip over when a there’s not really a need to, but at the same time I’ve realized that at the other extreme, letting people hype you up about how difficult a run is may not always be helpful.

For example, when I was just getting into Classs IIIs I ran the optional lower Class III section of the Headworks on the Green all by myself because I thought it looked like fun.  It went fine, and later on it seemed harder when I followed people who made a big deal about the lines.  I realize that river levels change, etc. – but I guess there is a fine line between where to be reasonably careful and where to say – ‘Oh, what the heck”.   Based on past experience, I appear to be solidly in the Option 2 department.  (With reservations. of course  - I’m not a complete nut. )

Anyway, on the Saturday run we got to Boulder Drop (which is the Class IV rapid on the run) and I watched Dave Fusilli, Nicole Mansfield and Brett Barton throw ends over the entry drops.  I was scouting from land and planning on portaging.  Right when I got back to my boat (feeling crappy about portaging, by the way) I ran into Jared Seiler and David Space, who were just coming down and wanted to scout.

The short version is that we scouted and Jared made Boulder Drop not sound like a big deal, so I decided to do it.  Not that he made it sound like a cake-walk either, but I think he’s the kind of person who’s really good at making things sound reasonable without making you feel like he’s trivializing the Precipice of Doom.  Not a  bad mix.

Anyway, we did Boulder Drop through Airplane Turn and I actually made the drop after Airplane Turn, using a couple of massive high braces.  This is a big deal for me because I historically have sucked at bracing – so I actually felt like some skill (and not just luck) played into me making it that far.

David flipped on the ferry over to Airplane Turn and swam through one of the needle routes – but keep in mind this was his third river ever in his life, so just the fact that he was trying it was amazing.

On the last drop I went a bit to the left of Jared and flipped over in the side of a hole – tried twice to roll, and then swam.  I seriously think I should have gone for a third roll – I was right at the in-between point where I was thinking about it (having decided to swim, then thinking ‘ “But, maybe…”) when my paddle hit me in the face and I thought – “OK, I’m done.”

Fortunately there’s a nice eddy below Boulder Drop, Nicole did the ‘boat-over-boat’ thing that made emptying my kayak look easy (I’m pretty sure it’s not really) and it wasn’t really traumatic.  Overall, I have to say that the whole experience, even with swimming, was so much fun that I could have gone back and done it again right afterwards.

Kayaking down the Skykomish River really makes you think about how fortunate you are to be in a place like that.  Everywhere you look there are big craggy mountains making outlines against the sky, the river is beautiful, and on an 80 degree like Saturday you seriously (especially if you read international news and remember that somewhere, someone just like you is staring through the wire barrier of a refugee camp wishing they were someplace else) have to just thank God that you are fortunate enough to be in that spot, at that time.

After the paddle we met up at AquaSports in Redmond for a viewing of Team Pyranha’s “Demshitz” movie – very fun, and I bought a copy.  I love the movie, and there’s a ton of great footage that makes you think, “Holy smokes, if that were me I’d be dead in two seconds.”  I guess in the interest of being an honest reviewer I have to say that there’s one part in there involving an insect that lost me.  It may seem like a little thing (and no, I’m not a PETA person) but I see those things as kind of symbolic of how we rationalize why it’s OK to treat people, or things, a certain way just because our big ‘why’ is that we hate what that person, or thing, does.  (For reference, see virtually anything related to Dick Cheney.)  I’m sure this seems like an overreaction to most people, but for me, it isn’t – so I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t mention it.

See, now you’ll have to buy the movie to figure out what I’m talking about.

Anyway, it’s an extremely fun movie – amazing waterfall and huge rapid stuff, and Jared told me he and another guy are responsible for the time-lapse footage, which I think is really well done.

Charles at AquaSports hosted the movie event, including $50 worth of gear plus a free T-shirt for attendees – nice!   People walked out with big smiles, and Team Pyranha ended up staying at my house overnight.  They are a really nice group of people, and great house guests – I actually felt like I ignored them this morning because my face was in a computer for 5 hours, and then I pretty much blinked twice and they were gone – with all their dishes washed behind them.  So if they’re in your neck of the woods and you have the means to put them up, they’ve got my two thumbs up.

Umm… did I mention that this was only David Space’s third time on a river?