Tellico River 12/29/07

[teledave]

With weather in the 50-60's, an inch of rain, and holiday crowds last weekend, skiing down this way would have sucked. So it was time to hit the river.

I made it up to the Tellico with Gresh (Atomic Twin Stix), Kendall (Mr Stinky), & Rusty, now I have a new favorite run. Met up with a couple of guys from UT and we all discussed the run a bit, decided since none of us had ever run it before to run a little bit of the Lower section as a warm up and then head up to the Upper section. After the Lower, Kendall & Rusty decided to bail and play photographer from the road.

Somebody made me the leader.


I have an uncanny ability to find the worst possible lines.
First Ledge, not where you want to run it. I hope that hornet's nest doesn't fall on my head.


My boy G


Much better line on Dirty S (?)






Gresh gets beatdown at Dirty S




Middle Ledge





Gresh




Up next the big one for the day, Baby Falls


Gresh


Gresh milliseconds away from a beatdown


I gotta say, I have wanted to do this run for a while. It was a big step up for me, I'm not the super gnar paddler that some people here are just a middling Class III'er. Before the Baby the biggest thing I had dropped was Middle Ledge about 20 minutes earlier, all 3 of the ledges on this river were bigger than any drops I had ever run before. I was jacked about the way I paddled it, not saying there isn't a lot of room for improvement but overall it was a stellar day. My photographers were worth only slightly more than they were getting paid, next time I gotta get some better ones.

Video(s) , I had to cut it into two parts to load onto YouTube.

Part 1


Part 2


If you know Kendall you gotta love the commentary. Damn, that was a good time. Except Kendall drank ALL the beers while he was videoing. Great way to close out the year.

[pechelman]

and i thought that river was only good for fly fishing

i miss that part of the country for those types of rivers

ive always thought people like you who'd go out boating in that cold weather were mental
nice tr!

[kayaktheworld]

Sweet! Gotta give props to you SE boaters given us some stoke for the winter.

[RootSkier]

haha, that video killed it.

boofs are overrated anyways.

[teledave]

Why boof when you can just pencil straight in? And rolling is way overrated, too.

[ridinshockgun]

Gresh thinks boofs are overrated, he's free wheeling that shit.

[Tye 1on]

Gresh


Except Kendall drank ALL the beers while he was videoing.

I was stoked, this time it looked like Gresh was chargin, hands in front, everything. Well, almost everything!

And c'mon, you didn't know that videoboaters ALWAYS drink all your beer? Paging Swami/Nate/downtown Brown....
great TR!!!

[AtomicTwinStix]

Boofs are for pussies.....

[markb]

boofs are overrated anyways.

Boofs are for pussies.....

You can tell where someone learned to boat based on how they boof. Plenty of solid runs don't exactly require boofing in the trad sense, but you're not going to style anything class 4 and up without some ability to time a stroke, make a rapid weight shift (hip thrust), and then get your upper body forward. Besides ledge drops you need this technique to get over a pile, cut across a beefy eddy line, get out of a hole, and then all the angled/delayed variations of a ledge or water boof. It's the fastest way to make a quick adjustment/relocation.

My first 6 years boating were in the southeast, and there is a distinct and effective boof style you see there. Last 8 have been in CA with some time in WA/OR/BC. People everywhere know how to boof, but you see little differences in timing and landing styles. Kind of like the different waterfall techniques across CA/OR/WA. I think I do more boof strokes out here in higher volume than back east just to keep my face above water so I don't have that two seconds in the meat where you can't see.

If you not gonna boof, you better be a damn good playboater, because you're gonna have to work your way out of all kinds of holes. And when was the last time a picture looked good where someone had their weight back or even paddle overhead?

Tellico's a great place to practice. The right side of baby kind of sucks but angled left off the edge of that kick in the middle can launch you into something proper. Or go lap 7-foot on chattooga; easy paddle down and can hike back to woodall if you don't want 5-falls.

[markb]

bump cause my post isn't showing up on the main list.

[ridinshockgun]

You can tell where someone learned to boat based on how they boof. Plenty of solid runs don't exactly require boofing in the trad sense, but you're not going to style anything class 4 and up without some ability to time a stroke, make a rapid weight shift (hip thrust), and then get your upper body forward. Besides ledge drops you need this technique to get over a pile, cut across a beefy eddy line, get out of a hole, and then all the angled/delayed variations of a ledge or water boof. It's the fastest way to make a quick adjustment/relocation.

My first 6 years boating were in the southeast, and there is a distinct and effective boof style you see there. Last 8 have been in CA with some time in WA/OR/BC. People everywhere know how to boof, but you see little differences in timing and landing styles. Kind of like the different waterfall techniques across CA/OR/WA. I think I do more boof strokes out here in higher volume than back east just to keep my face above water so I don't have that two seconds in the meat where you can't see.

If you not gonna boof, you better be a damn good playboater, because you're gonna have to work your way out of all kinds of holes. And when was the last time a picture looked good where someone had their weight back or even paddle overhead?

Tellico's a great place to practice. The right side of baby kind of sucks but angled left off the edge of that kick in the middle can launch you into something proper. Or go lap 7-foot on chattooga; easy paddle down and can hike back to woodall if you don't want 5-falls.

Might want to turn the sarcasm meter up a bit. I need to get those boys out on Wilson Creek and fix them up. With the drought we've had the last year I managed to learn to boof at the artificial WW park here, it was tough but do-able.

One of the best boofs in the SE - Zwick's @ 60%

[teledave]

Might want to turn the sarcasm meter up a bit. I need to get those boys out on Wilson Creek and fix them up.

Yes, on both counts.

[markb]

Might want to turn the sarcasm meter up a bit.

Yeah I know but it's crazy how many people out west paddle hard water and really don't know how to boof. You guys are in the SE still so you know it matters, but back there you learn how to boof like you learn how to catch eddies, hitting every little one you can to get body position and timing dialed.

Plenty of people out here paddle 4, even 5, and never get that, just paddle fast off the drop and then fight it out at the bottom.

It took me a little while to get used to dealing with big holes all over the place and long continuous chaotic sections in the west, but a solid boof definitely helps.

And I miss me some after class runs on wilson creek (went to Davidson). Used to hit that up a couple days a week after class in season. Solid boof in razorback and a couple other little spots.

pic: old pre-digital F-111 on golden gate as a CA newby

[RootSkier]

boofing is for losers