This forum has been slow for a while so I thought I would ask everyone: What is the scariest thing that has happened to you while kayaking? This can be things you've witnessed, safety, drops, carnage. Anything.
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This forum has been slow for a while so I thought I would ask everyone: What is the scariest thing that has happened to you while kayaking? This can be things you've witnessed, safety, drops, carnage. Anything.
8 hour hike out after a broken paddle on a new run for me. I lost my group, they lost me and I new the takeout was where the road crossed the river so I just kept myself between the two in Washington undergrowth.
paddling the Upper Congrejal in Honduras I watched a guy who should not have been there get stuffed in a sieve. He disappeared, traveled 40-60feet downstream, under a house sized granite boulder, came out maybe 45seconds to a minute later, unconscious, head downstream and float over a 15foot drop. The guy ended up OK but it was the closest I have come to seeing someone drown. When the water dropped we looked at the sieve and realized the guy had made it through a four foot high gap in the boulder.
First season boating... first day in my new Big EZ, pretty much at peak flow on the Animas. Hit my first combat roll ever then almost immediately got stuffed under a big log that was pinned against a rock at one of the popular play waves. Didn't get pinned, but had it been lower water I most definately would have. Pretty scary experience for maybe my 10th time every on the river.
some random people (won't mention any names) told me i needed to go boating with them my first season. they took me on the class 4+ run of the shosho, and i wound up flipping exactly where they told me not to, and remembered as i was swimming, they said go left, right? around a huge boulder that divides the river in half. well, i wound up going right, and got stuck in a hole in the rock up to my knees, my buddy tried to get to me, i got the grab ring on the back of his boat, just enough to flop myself over and get out of the sieve. i've never been that scared!
so far out of my first season boating i havent had anything realy bad yet( jinxx) but i did get stuck in this relitively big hole. There was like a little channel the size of a boat river right after the hole, like RIGHT after the hole, so i droped, punched the beefy hole but it put me right into this little pool thing, so i had to back out with my up stream edge up, surf for a second then paddle like a fiend
Patience. It will get scarier.Quote:
Originally Posted by chrismo720
I do remember the first time that happened to me though but I swam. I think I almost pooped myself.
Watching the hole for glimpses of Matias or his boat, it occurred to me that I might be watching somebody drown. Just a glimpse of blue boat here, a speck of yellow there…was he wearing a yellow helmet? I couldn’t remember, only having paddled with him one time before. All I knew is that he had missed his line, and was now getting the beat down of a lifetime in the worst hole I’d ever seen anyone drop into.
***************
A little while later, with Matias reunited with his gear in a small eddy with a rock ledge, he and Mark were trying to signal to me from across the river. I wasn’t sure what to try and yell. I was clinging to a vertical cliff face, struggling to hold onto a small tree root, perched over a bottomless green pool above the biggest rapid we’d seen yet.
What happens next, I wondered. Here we are, in the middle of an enormous national park in Argentina, I just saw one of my partners take a horrible swim, and then we find ourselves faced with every kayaker’s nightmare: the unscoutable, unportageable drop, deep in the wilderness, with no way out.
At maching high water, no less.
******
It was one of those things that every kayaker who travels halfway around the world to boat will have to deal with one day: we are here, we have a chance to do this classic run, and it is way too high.
But this is our only chance. Matias and Mark are headed down to the Futaleufu tomorrow. Today might be the only chance I have to paddle this run. If we wait, we may never get another chance.
So we took the chance.
It started out fine. No one was feeling up for the 45+ footer into the potentially inescapable punchbowl at the put in, but that was ok. I’d never run a drop that big anyways, let alone in a country with a fourth rate health care system, two hours from the nearest hospital, with our shuttle driver already miles away, towards the takeout.
So we made the easy portage on the heavily traveled tourist trail, through the official overlook, with a few disappointed tourists who I am sure were hoping we would huck anyways. The river was mellow below, for awhile. When we arrived at the first rapid, Triple Drop, the first 10 foot ledge was looking like a low head dam. The second drop reminded me of Lochsa Falls, a huge exploding V wave, which led directly into the third drop, which was a 20 footer with a good boof ledge on the left and a nasty, nasty flat hole on the right.
My partners portaged without a second thought, but since I might never have another chance, I thought I’d give it a go, but put in after the first drop. The second drop flipped me but I rolled up in one motion and hit my boof perfectly on the left. Oh yeah, I thought, this is going to be good.
We continued down, running some incredible drops, and making easy portages on the bedrock where the holes were just too big. We knew there was a 60 footer in the canyon somewhere, so we were very cautious. At one point I didn’t notice the two of them eddied out, and proceeded to run a sharp ledge blind, and get stuck in a hole for long enough to see Matias out of his boat and standing there with a rope by the time I fought my way out.
We entered a gorged up area, and decided we should do a major scout because we expected the 60 footer soon. We were right, and we portaged the whole thing on a decent trail through some of the thickest bamboo I have ever seen.
It was soon after the big one that we came to the first unportageable drop. The line down the right involved a sketchy boof and then a hard ferry in front of the nasty, ugly, frightening hole where the story began. There was also a sneak down the left, but neither of the other two liked it, claiming they sensed undercuts.
Mark went first, and absolutely styled it. Matias went next, missed his boof, and ended up getting worked so bad I seriously believed he might not make it. But he did, and Mark was able to corral his gear below in the sheer walled gorge.
I had a serious heart to heart with myself. I could not picture running that line, there was no portage option, and I was second guessing the sneak line. After some deliberation, the sneak went fine, but then the real trouble began.
An ominous horizon line ahead demanded some sort of scout, but the walls were sheer, and there were few options. I found a spot to crawl out, secured my boat, and started scaling the cliff. What I saw did not look good. A house sized boulder split the flow, with nasty looking holes on either side. With a pool beyond, it might just go, but the river turned 90 degrees to the right immediately after the drop, and there was no way to see what was beyond.
Across the river, I could see Matias and Mark gesturing…waiting. I communicated that there was a small eddy directly above the drop, but I couldn’t tell if there was a way to get out of your boat from there. After much yelling back and forth, Mark got in his boat, headed for the eddy, and disappeared behind the rock that created it. I was still clinging to the cliff above. Matias was yelling, trying to figure out what happened to Mark...but neither of us could see anything.
[stay tuned for part II]
Part II NOW!
That's intense.
Nothing really scary in my first season, a few side surfs after ledge drops, and being worked in a hole and then upside down just upstream from a 6 ft vertical drop to really shallow water is about it. I'm sure my time will come.
I would say the scariest thing Ive seen is standing on the shore from 10 ft away.... watching the guy at the Green Narrows race out of his boat, and washing helplessly towards the notch followed by the 25 foot drop. No eddy to swim to. Then a rope came out of the crowd and they pulled him in.
Did you hear of this new-fangled boat by Piranha? It's called the Para-Graph! Try it, who knows, maybe you'll like it...:rolleyes2Quote:
Originally Posted by hubie
Hubie-
I had to google a pic of the Revolution to find out what it was.
http://www.mukwah.com/graphics/kayak02.jpg
Wow, what a collosally bad idea! Wonder how Perception marketed it? "Like a cataraft, only a shit-ton heavier! All the knee-breaking fun of a sit-on-top :rolleyes: , with the manuverability (but none of the forgiveness) of a raft!" Swimming high water New in March, trying to wrassle two of those fuckers into an eddy? Fuck that! :eek:
Swimming out of the pine creek hole on the arkansas at 3k. Shouldn't have used up so much energy trying to paddle out since I barely had enough for the swim. Got flushed for a quarter mile before I somehow made it to an eddy. By far the closest I've come to death. :eek:
waiting for 2 friends to be freed from being pinned on the bottom of a cold and swollen white river (VT) many Springs ago. . Seconds passed like minutes......they were in a canoe though so I suppose I'm disqualified....Both surfaced conscious and somewhat more scared than I was....
I wonder about that. I mean, at what point do you go for the swim because you're wasting all your energy fighting in the boat?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yonder_River
If I remember right it was a rotomolded takeoff on what "the Russians" were using for some pretty serious expedition paddling in those days. Take some rubber or hypalon pontoons, pack 'em in & lash across them with fresh cut trees and you are in business... If memory serves me right they were doing the same sort of stuff with huge inner tube type things. Put a paddler on each pontoon or have one straddle the inside of each inner tube and off you go...Quote:
Originally Posted by MarsB
edit - A little googling failed to turn up any shots of the old "rustic" versions, but I did come up with this...
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asi...photo78581.htm
http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/4324/ww.jpg
you are not alone on this one. more people have had near flush drowning experiences in this rapid then almost any other spot in the US. cold river, long rapid, sticky hole in the middle= bad combination of features.Quote:
Swimming out of the pine creek hole on the arkansas at 3k. Shouldn't have used up so much energy trying to paddle out since I barely had enough for the swim. Got flushed for a quarter mile before I somehow made it to an eddy. By far the closest I've come to death.
I have hit that hole a couple of times. I give one good try in the boat and swim. Hell, I have pulled the skirt as I am hitting the hole. :)
It's a meaty son of bitch!
Harv, nice BC pic on the buzz!
Definitely has to be my swim on the Chilko (classic BC run) someone else was already swimming, I grabbed his paddle. Got tossed in a hole. I was borrowing someone's cool new play boat (at the time it was cool), that I wasn't used to and couldn't roll with two paddles ( I can usually). So after many attempts to roll it didn't really occur to me, because somehow I made it to my sixth year of paddling without a swim, to pull the deck. I finally did when I realized I was starting to take in water, but when I came up no one was around because they were all trying to get the first swimmer. The Chilko is fairly fast and high volume, so I went a long way. I didn't want to let go of the gear because I had a boat and a paddle that didn't belong to me. Even hanging on to the boat I had a ton of down time, finally it came down to me or the gear. I let everything go and swam out and lost only a bootie in the end. :tongue: Another group of boaters picked up the rest.
Spindrift, I saw some footage of those Russian expeditions. They were pretty sketchy craft, considering the stuff they were running. Give me a good cataraft or shredder (even better) anyday!Quote:
Originally Posted by spindrift
in 1995 we ran Pine Creek when Browns was peaking at 6800cfs (whatever that converts to in Piney. I was in a Hurricane and all I remember about Pine Creek was that the s-bend hole was gone and by the time I had rolled twice I was past the three sisters...fast. Basically that hole gets better the higher the river gets but between about 1400cfs and 1800cfs (in Nathrop) it is horrendous.Quote:
I have hit that hole a couple of times. I give one good try in the boat and swim. Hell, I have pulled the skirt as I am hitting the hole.
It's a meaty son of bitch!
Harv, nice BC pic on the buzz!
thanks... the photo was actually from Elation Ridge which you can hike to from the ski area but might as well be bc for as little as anyone actually goes out there.
Whaa? Your either sticking to class III's or your some kind of stud!Quote:
Originally Posted by gearjunkie1
No shit, or didnt paddle a lot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yonder_River
Ive racked up close to 30 in my first year. But that was paddling 3-4 days a week for a few months. After about 20 it occured to me I should try to learn to roll. :eek:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ridinshockgun
I think I racked up 30 my forst trip.
Maybe he spent 6 years in a ducky.
I still swim at least a couple times a year. Every year it is something, I'm sure I will swim every year.
Last year-
1) I hit my face on a rock and was stunned, when I came to, I had lost my paddle and was upside down. Upper A
2) Broke my paddle in Gore and swam out of the bottom of Tunnel. Finished with a breakdown that was really small, (I'm guessing it was a 140, I think it was made by Fischer Price) it was a little sketchy.
Heh, everyone that paddles in Colorado for any length of time is required to swim out of Tunnel at some point or another. :D When I did, my paddle never resurfaced, none of us had a spare, so I used a raft paddle I had found (walked Kirschbaum's) and C1'ed it. Props to the C1'ers out there.:yourock:
Since moving to the Northwest, I'm definitely enjoying not smacking my head as much. It's made up for, though, by the monster holes and no-portage rapids. :eek:
I guess I've been insufficiently dumb, but some of my friends have scared the crap out of me: Josh getting stuffed in an undercut on Elevenmile in CO, Clea swimming Boulder Drop in WA, getting flushed through all the bad spots and leaving a trail of gear a quarter-mile down the river, Ryan somehow finding a rock on the Wenatchee at 12K and coming up with blood all over his face... actually, that one was just freakin' funny.
There was the time I flipped in Hollywood Gorge on the Toutle in WA, washed into the bottom hole and got dropped on my head. Hard. Although that was pretty funny, too. After the fact.
Harv,
Was that you and that blonde dreaded guy from RMT? That did the high water pine creek run?
If so I was on the bank checking it out when you guys did that run and all I can say is that you guys were going f---in fast.
We were sitting on that big rock at the entrance and the cliff was vibrating from all the boulders running into it.
Scariest expereince,
Was on the Rouge in Quebec. My first year raft guiding we went on this fun trip up there and not really getting any true training from working the lehigh river they talked me into duckiing the rouge.
First drop is called steep throat, well it is about a 10-12 ft constricted drop that I had zero speed going over, got surfed left into this crazy swirling boil right next to the cliff, did the classic upstream brace and well you guessed it I was swimming.
I tried to swim to the cliff but it was too steep and couldn't get out. After getting swirled around that for about a minute it finally sucked me down. I was under water for about 100 yards which was like 47 seconds (I have it on vid so we timed it) when I finally popped up I got a small breath and then went down again for another 5 seconds thankfully that was it because I started to black out.
i never kajaked dangerously as no river is around like that
but once it was football festival tribune at main river so i started at 5 shipping my diesel 75 over the river normally we go at 6 but i decided to go to the tribune rowed till 10 continously totalling 10 km - danger of heart attack !
bf
Make that studdette! Actually I can just hold my breathe for a hell of a long time, and when I first learned to paddle, it was at a park and play wave so there were always a ton of guys in the eddy waiting to give the lil blonde a t-rescue. Someone was always looking out for me....Quote:
Originally Posted by Yonder_River
Bullshit, the fact that you stick with your story is proof you don't fire anything up. The best paddlers in the world still swim. :rolleyes:
I wasn't trying to be cocky or anything. I was just trying to emphasize how scary it was because my first swim was in huge water, so it seemed extra traumatising since I hadn't worked my way up with smaller swims. I have had lots of swims since then, but that was just the scariest because I didn't know what I was in for when it happened.Quote:
Originally Posted by 420Powderpimp
Easy on the ladies, eh?:)
Maybe powedr*PIMP* isn't the best description?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yonder_River
I did not realize she was woman. Besides, I "pimp" the powder not the hoes. I guess it has been covered enough but come on people, who learns to kayak and does not swim for 6 years!! I swim more in a canoe on a lake.
Sorry for the post, I will let this die. :)
While not a scariest experience example, I took a stupid swim this weekend that illustrates the inevitability of swimming.
This was on a moderate rapid (Boulder Drop on the Sky) at a moderate flow (~3k). Took the Ned's Needle chute and got stuffed! I was throwing all kinds of ends trying to get out, but it just kept sucking me back in. Used up most of my energy, pulled, then proceded to get pulled back into the pourover until I began to actively swim hard, then got hammered thru the rest of the drops, probably underwater for most of it.
Nothing more humbling than to get spanked on a rapid your very familiar with and consider benign.
ya gearjunkie, i could see how the first swim being a biggie would be a bit harsh. Like many, i had a bunch of swims, including on my first duckie trip on the Gallatin. Those swims convinced me that even the worst roll is better than the best swim...
Worse one tho, hmmm, i guess the worst feeling of panic was [engage severe dumb-ass alert now] on the Main Salmon, surfing solo before dinner, flipping, missing roll[s], reaching for grab loop to discover i had put the skirt on over the loop, it wasn't sticking out. Minor panic. All worked out. Oh, yeah, I was hammered at the time also.:eek:
What about scary paddling incidents that don't involve water? One time after a extended swim I decided to hike out because I lost my brain space. I was on my own, headed for the road and a 40m tall tree crashed down within feet of me. I don't remember if it was windy, but there is a ton of beaver activity around that river, the Cottonwood. I am moving to CO on Friday, guess I won't have to worry as much about the wood hazards on or off the river there. :frown: BC has a ton of wood choked runs. I bet with the pine beetle epidemic, the log problems are going to increase with all that dead wood falling down in the next couple of years.
yeah, Andy and I and Kevco I think. that is funny. long time ago. I wish we could have a season like that today with today's boat technology. There would be some epic surfing in today's playboats. I am off subject...sorry...proceed...Quote:
Harv,
Was that you and that blonde dreaded guy from RMT? That did the high water pine creek run?
If so I was on the bank checking it out when you guys did that run and all I can say is that you guys were going f---in fast.
I kayaked the green river in Utah once for 5 days. It was fun, pretty mellow and all, but being in water that I can't wade in and/or more than 30-50 feet from the shore scares the crap out of me. Anymore I've resigned myself to water in it's frozen form. I can't even remember the last time I was in anything bigger than a hot tub... years. Consequences of being a CO native that spent all summers in the high country growing up I guess.
I SUCK at swimming!:(