Jackson Kayak

Sharky, Joel, and I met at Great Falls this morning for a last hurrah. The water was higher than what most of DC boaters consider running the falls, but you can’t be picky when you are coming in from out of town. We ran Grace Under Pressure and the fingers at 4 feet. Not too difficult, except for the lead in to Grace. We all flipped at the bottom due to poor boofing. You got subbed out at the lead in and didn’t have time to correct, get the speed, and clear the bottom hole. Everybody ended up deep and coming up on the right wall upside down. The water down deep is coming hard from the left with the “sliding board” rapid’s outflow going under the outflow from Grace. Kind of a “you didn’t boof, so take this” attitude under there. The rest was fine and was quite fun. Both Sharky and Joel were on their virgin run and they had the smile on their faces that you get after a great first experience on a rapid like that.

That wasn’t enough though. The big crashing wave was in below the Maryland side (horseshoe). You can’t get on the wave from the eddy very well and Joel and Sharky washed downstream leaving me by myself. I opted to walk up above Horseshoe and was looking for a put-in. I put in at Charlie’s hole. My plan was to do the BIG ferry behind Charlie’s Hole and get to the center of Horseshoe. The hole I planned on using to get across a 50 foot boil line was impossible for me to get to after two tries. I decided to put the Fun to the test with a lower line that required a high speed ferry against a ton of huge boils and the current pushing me back to river left. I did the short hyper ventilating to make sure I had enough oxygen (in case I didn’t make it past the pourovers on the left), and did the obligatory splash of water to the face, as if I wasn’t awake already. I noticed that Sharky and Joel had walked up to watch, along with the Fairfax Swiftwater Rescue team. I set my speed, angle, arc, and spin momentum for maximum penetration of the boils and got over the first set enough to get to the far side of them and just above the “make or break wave” that will determine if you get to the meat of Horseshoe (goal) or not make it and get pushed left into a rocky drop with lines you can run, but not what I planned on. I actually had a great surfing wave/hole as a back-up plan on the left that was fully functional for Helix, Air loops, cartwheels, big air blunts,etc. but if I hit that wave, I was missing the big stuff.

I made it just past the make or break wave and still had plenty of speed to get to the far right of Horseshoe and went further than planned and then cut back just in time to duck dive the horseshoe hole, going deep under and with no risk of surfing the hole. This is definitely an example where a river running playboat like the Fun is the ticket. A big boat would have been scary because the volume would have kept you on top in the hole and the surf would not have been pleasant. I popped up on the first big breaking wave and just had time to turn around to catch the big breaking wave. I got on top and dropped in and wasn’t really thinking about doing any tricks. I was just so jazzed to run the rapid and then be sitting there on that wave (more like bouncing there, but it was sweet). A blunt and then I pulled off and went down. I is amazing how therapeutic a run like that is. Nobody watching, nobody to impress, nobody else running, just you and the water, out to get your fix for the day. I have run Great Falls from top to bottom at many different levels and up to 8.3 on the gauge. My favorite runs are the ones where nobody is around. In this case, Sharky and Joel were there but didn’t know what I was up to anyway.

We paddled down to the rodeo hole from yesterday’s competition only to find that it was at the perfect level. Only Sharky, Joel, and I for about the first hour. We did tons of loops, back loops, lunar orbits, cartwheels, and just goofed off for a while. I left Sharky and Joel to take out at Sandy Beach, while they had to go to Virginia to Jana’s car. Paddling back to Sandy by myself, I realized, once again, that I am doing what I love most and that I have never found anything to substitute for a great kayaking outing.

Now I am looking for a plane ticket to Rock Island.

See you on the river!

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