If you’re new to Boulder Drop and maybe trying to figure it out for the future, here’s kind of a play by play to go along with the video:

Section 1: The Entry

Right when the title says “Boulder Drop” he’s heading towards the entrance.  That rock he goes to the right of just there is what I call the pillow rock – you can go to the left but it’s way less squirrely on the right.  At higher levels it’s covered and a nasty backed up reversal forms on the back side of it – I plopped right into it at 4200 cfs and had plenty of time to contemplate not just that bad decision but also many others.  It will spit you out eventually though.

Section 2: The Picket Fence

Where he eddies out on the right is what we call the Bubble Pool, and from there you can either do Airplane Turn (a ferry move to the far side), Ned’s Needle or the Needle.  Greg does the Needle, the slot to the left of where he goes is Ned’s, which at under around 1100 cfs gets really narrow and can remove your elbows on the way down.

The nice thing is that the Needle is friendly up to around 1700 and then gets pretty sticky around 2000 cfs, Ned’s is high enough above around 1300 cfs to do without banging your elbows and doesn’t really get sticky until around 2500 cfs (not very sticky, but definitely sticky around 4,000 cfs and up), and above 2500 cfs the Needle is less sticky, it just starts getting bigger.  So there’s always some kind of option that doesn’t have to involve flailing around in a hole forever.  If you’re just starting out the Airplane Turn ferry might be the easiest of the three up to around 3,000 cfs, but if you can it helps to get out at Airplane Turn eddy (river left, at the end of the ferry) and scout if you can – that’s very easy to do in the 1500 cfs range, which I think is a great first-time level for this rapid.

Section 3: The Last Part

Greg doesn’t go through the two big House Rocks on the left in the last section (that’s the typical route), he goes to the right, FLIPS (sorry Greg, I couldn’t resist.   I flipped in Cable Drop yesterday, so I have no room to talk), then cuts back left to do the last drop, which at that level is easiest to do if just as you go over the lip you angle yourself off towards the right instead of straight downriver - you can see me do that just behind him.

Clear as mud, right?

I always tell people to join the Washington Kayak Club too, because even if you don’t see runs at your level on their events calendar you’ll end up getting on some big email lists with people organizing all kinds of runs, often in the II+ and III range.  For some odd reason people often don’t take my advice (a recurring and disturbing theme – but I digress), so now this thread should at least make it somewhat easier on the Professor Paddle side.

Speaking of beginner runs, this is a great season (August to September) to get used to running Boulder Drop on the Skykomish River, it’s much less pushy under 2,000 cfs and we run it all the way down to 500 cfs.  Just a heads up that it’s much less fun to swim at lower levels, especially that last drop after House Rocks.  But it’s always a simple portage too.

Team River Runner is a stellar non-profit organization that helps wounded veterans and their families “find health and healing through whitewater” by teaching them how to kayak.  My kayaking friends from Texas who came out here last summer (on a trip I have yet to blog about, of course) – Ben Kvanli, Jennifer Kerr and Kelly Howard, are all really active in their local TRR chapter and you can help raise money for their efforts by clicking “Vote for this idea” on their Pepsi Challenge page.  (You can log in with a Facebook app, or just create a free account with Pepsi, which is what I did.)

HERE’S THE LINK TO THEIR PAGE where you can vote every day during May 2011, and here’s a short video giving a rundown of what they do.

We had a blast doing a low water Skykomish run when Ben, Jennifer and Kelly came out here last summer, and Ben (U.S. National Team member and former Olympian in whitewater slalom) was nice enough to give me some pointers on the way down, can you beat that?  I had jury duty or something after that, but Mike Harms stepped in and with true Pacific Northwest hospitality showed them down Tumwater over the next couple of days.

Jennifer Kerr, Ben Kvanli and Kelly Howard on the Skykomish River, WA

Anyway, please remember to help them raise funds for Team River Runner by voting for their idea on the Pepsi site, you can vote every day during May 2011 – they need to be in the top ten ideas to win funding.  Also, if you live in western Washington and are looking for a local Team River Runner chapter give me a shout through the Contact section of this blog and I’ll put you in touch with the people doing it here.

Dave Moroles testing out Lunch Hole on the Skykomish

Scott Henderson posted a really poignant account a while ago on Professor Paddle about how he nearly didn’t make it out of a hole on the Middle Middle run on the Snoqualmie – a mostly Class III run with a pretty easy IV section that most of us Seattle area paddlers are used to bombing after work without too much thought beforehand.

It’s really worth reading the thread – linked to here – not only because he shares a story that is not the easiest to share, but also because of the responses and advice that follows from other paddlers.  Here are some take-homes that I got from it:

Staying and Getting Out of Holes:

Based on this and some other stories I’ve heard, some of the closest calls you might run into could be on “easy”, Class III type water, and/or on a run that you’re really familiar with.  So don’t let your guard down.

If you’re stuck in a hole, balling up and letting yourself go deep instead of fighting the water should help you flush out.

From Scott’s post and one of the responses, it appears that if things go badly enough that you go limp you also have a better chance of flushing out.  (Let’s not kid ourselves, this option really sucks.)

Kyle Kovalik posted something that I’ve heard is also helpful:  “If you can get flat… swim accross the eddy line into the downstream current, rolling your body as you do (from a breast stroke to a back stroke or vice versa). This works best in flattish pourover style holes.”

Practicing swimming in whitewater is a great idea.  Not fun (I personally suck at it and tend to swim 5 times farther than anyone else, not on purpose) but definitely useful.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive explanation of how to get out of holes, but I’ve also heard (and kind of experienced when my sprayskirt blew on Lunch Hole on the Sky a couple days ago) that if you’re still in your boat, pulling your skirt and letting your boat fill with water is another way to possibly get out of a hydraulic.

Getting Back in the Game

Anyway, the main thing I got out of Scott’s post and the ensuing thread was not so much how to get out of holes (although that is useful), but more about the mentality of how to approach kayaking in general.  It’s such an intense sport, and when we’re into it we tend to fall in love with it and go full bore.  But, it’s also dangerous enough that we need to always be aware of the risks in order to last in it long term.  The flip side is, if we focus on those too much we’d seriously just stay home – it’s kind of like reading statistics about every innocent soul who pulled out of their driveway and got T-boned by some dummy going 110 miles per hour on a residential street, and then deciding to never drive again.

The reality is there – yes, it could happen (and getting caught in a vicious hole or pinned on some rock is probably way more likely than becoming a cautionary tale in suburbia) – but if you’re going to boat you kind of have to just take that as part of the deal.

Reading the Professor Paddle thread and from conversations with other boaters, it seems that nearly everyone has had a close call at some point and either had to deal with what is pretty much post traumatic fear, or even take some time off of boating to get their head back in the game.  Some of it is pure psychological conditioning (abject terror = very bad, do not repeat), so I thought the advice that John (doggievacation on PP) gave was good even though I overlooked it the first time I read it.  He said:

“… boat when you feel ready and stick to nice, familiar runs.  Make sure you have fun EVERY TIME you boat and steer clear of any drop that makes you feel panicky.  If you can do that, I think you’ll find the worm will fade on its own, but go with your gut and take your time.”

It usually takes time to get over traumatic experiences, and just like acquiring muscle memory for the roll, part of that psychological conditioning involves pure repetition – in this case, of something good.

Anyway, it’s really helpful to be reminded of how easy it is for any of us to become complacent on a run, or accustomed to getting out of hairy situations without too much carnage.  The fact is, the wrong hole at the wrong level, at the exact wrong angle that puts us in the wrong spot could happen to anyone, at any time, so I really appreciate Scott sharing his story.  It applies to all kayakers at any level, and it’s especially helpful coming from the viewpoint of someone who has had a lot of experience on whitewater.

That being said, paddling scared isn’t exactly a huge help either and there’s no way we can foresee everything on the river, so the best attitude is probably a good blend of realistic caution and a healthy dose of  ”Oh, what the heck.”  (I know I tend to focus on the latter because it requires less technical skill.)  Speaking of which, I’ve started dropping into Lunch Hole, a la Dave Moroles and Rob McKibbin.  If these blog posts end unexplainedly, that might be why.

Here’s one of Blair’s videos that shows what a workout a big hydraulic like Lunch Hole can provide, about two thirds of the way through it – it is a super sticky hole in the mid-3,000 cfs range.

Last Wednesday when the weather forecasters were calling for a torrential dumping of lowland snow around Seattle I was happy to hear that Dave Moroles was still game for trekking out to the Skykomish for a run – and Rob McKibbin said if we showed up he would have to go, of course.  It turned out to be a great paddle, with not as much snow as forecast but still around a foot at the put-in and around 34 degrees the whole time.

I have to say the gear we have access to these days is just incredible – with six layers stuffed into a Goretex dry suit, a skull cap underneath my helmet and some Glacier Gloves (my absolute favorite), I actually rolled early on just to cool off, and my hands stayed warm the whole time.  I would have a hard time believing that was possible if I didn’t actually experience it.

Anyway, I got a kick out of these pictures of Dave and Rob – pretty classic.  As usual I was reminded of why this is such an incredible area to whitewater kayak in, not just because of the rivers but also because of the amazingly good boaters like these guys who are a blast to paddle with and always encouraging, even if you do completely miss your boof and nosedive directly into Ned’s Needle and then miss your first roll, in a creekboat, for heaven’s sakes, like I did a few days before this.

Speaking of which, Samson Kim, I followed your advice about keeping the blade in the water as you approach the lip of the drop and actually got a decent boof this time around, so thanks!

I don’t know if I’m allowed to say how long this swim really was due to him and Rob both going after his gear and ending up on opposite sides of the river, but let’s just say it’s pretty impressive that by the end of it he was throwing those loops (or almost-loops – whatever, they looked good) on Split Rock wave.

Speaking of high water Skykomish runs, Joe Sauve posted this video on Professor Paddle that he took when Rob, Adrian Wigston and Sam Grafton ran the Skykomish a few weeks ago when it was in the 55,000 to 60,000 cfs range – well above the flood level range of 30-something thousand cfs.  The first is in Quicktime and the second is in MPEG format:

http://professorpaddle.com/media/videoview.asp?File_Id=6142 - Quicktime

http://professorpaddle.com/media/videoview.asp?File_Id=6143 - MPEG

Sam’s in the blue boat, Adrian is in the yellow boat, and Rob goes down between those two but he’s really easy to miss because the waves are HUGE and he’s in his little red Dagger Kingpin – as usual.

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.)