C-Forum

Went to the West Fest on Saturday. There I crossed paths and paddled with several C-boaters. It was a great day of paddling with two runs down this fine continuous stretch of WW. I made every roll even in 4' waves and spinninng sucking whirlpools. I tried boof rock and hit Sqr. the first time. Boof rock is a narrow pourover with a 4' drop. Its a real surprize the first time, at least for me as it hadn't been pointed out to me on my past runs. My second run was more entertaining. As I was getting lined up in the current with the rock I tripped over my paddle ( I can't think of any other cause, there's nothing else there) , flipped, and rolled in time to make the sneak move left of the rock. I think I'm ready for the Hudson in two weeks. So Adam I'm still planning to be there Here's a short list of C-boaters there yesterday there were more:
Myself
Mark Z. who looked after me and I he
Alden B.
John Kaz.
Verne
Mike D.

til next
Jim

hey jim
good to see you out there. there were a ton of c-boaters, you're right. much higher percentage than you usually see. i also saw mike campbell and, i believe . . . Tommy, was that you? well, good to see so many of you. it was good to talk outfitting in the eddies!

i must say, i wasnt expecting much out of the west, but it was a hades of a lot better than i imagined. no wonder so many people run it. there's tons of surf waves, the great boof rock (wasnt boofing it in glass, but i did get some nice enders paddling back up into it!) and lots of great eddies for smoking into.

the dumplings is truly and awesome rapid. there is so much surfing in there, it's not even funny. plus i had a blast getting enders down below, i even got my kayaker friend to get her first glass boat enders! that place is rad.

West vs Dryway? What do yall think?

I say West. Dryway has bigger drops, but the West has killer surfing (especially for glass boats). I'd take surfing over steep class III drops any day!

later folks
Alden

Alden,
I saw you on your third run down, I wasn't sure then, but the ABB on your boat was a good hint. So when you came by on my second run I made a point of saying hello. I see a lot of young guys paddling C-1 all over the East. They are much more aggressive at exploring what can be done in a C-boat than I. Its inspiring. I wish I started out younger, but I'll do all I can now.
I reconned the Dryway a couple years ago in my open boat. I see it more as a training ground for more difficult water. The West is fun, I wish the Viper was ready to go, its in John Kaz's hands now though. It's hard getting to some of the waves in the Atom.
Brettal's Viper is in good condition except the cockpit rim needs to be reglassed in on one side. Kaz said he can do it. It is a 3/4 cut, so will squirt more readily than mine. I'm 170 Lb and I think you want to be closer to 200 in the full cut.

Well enough ramblin
til next
Jim

I had the opportunity to step in to a Tomahawk C2, it fit me nicely. I think one like it will be my next boat purchase.

til next
Jim

Wow! I should have come over. Of course, I was stuck in the lab all evening so escaping would've been hard.

The West is a really fun river...it was my first class III in a kayak (before I even learnt to roll) and I've been back to it many times since - including a run in a Topo Duo with one of my best friends: that was a hoot! Good training for learning to paddle OC2. It was also my first harder run in an OC1 and right after it I bought my first OC1 at West Fest. That was a couple of years back, but that's the last timeI was there.

West vs Dryway? Hard to say. They're both good runs and great stepping stones to moving your paddling up to the next level. The Dryway is definitely the harder run, but the West is a lot of fun, and one of the few class III rivers we seem to have around here (NY area - atleast that's my feeling: tons of class II and tons of class IV but very few class III runs). The west is also fairly clean when it comes to swimming (my own experience, plus it was my friend's local river when he was learning, so between the two of us we've swum most of it).

The dumplings is a great rock, although the rafters can be a pain there (a Crab Apple spotter saw me get on the wave in the middle and then proceeded to give the go ahead for the raft!). If you want to try some other cool lines, try some of the creeky stuff on river right at Dumplings instead of taking the left-move-right line. There's a bunch of different things you can do in that boulder garden.

One of these days I would really like to get back there.

Matt

Yeah Alden I wuz there. First time for me.
Ran the upper in the Outrage, then the lower in the Foreplay.
Saw Jim standing in line. Saw some wild man in a yellow Riot cartwheeling down the river. Filled me with envy. I got cartwheel envy!
Think I'd like to bring the Slasher up there in the spring.
What say Jim, make it a real Armada?

Tommy

Hey Tommy,
I'd rather paddle Knightsville than the West in the Spring. It's similar to the West, is a longer run and has better or more play waves. Plus, it is at least an hour closer to Boston. The paddling season isn't over yet, so its too early to think about next year for me except preserving my vaca time. I'm looking forward to paddling New Boston and a couple trips up to the Pemi play hole as well. Be happy to hook up on any of those endeavours.

til next
Jim

Hey Jim,
I like knightsville. Someday I hope to be out there when the Pork runs too
Dunno bout the first weekend @ New Boston. I kinda want to pole with the ACA on Saturday and run the III on Sunday but my kids having a birthday and I might not get there at all
Second weekend I'm running a Boston AMC II trip.
Let me know if you're headed to the Pemi or Fife or T'ville. The Foreplay is just dying to give me another lesson

Tommy

Here are some C-boaters at work maintaining their smiles. Alden I think you are in blue. I gleened these from kayakingphoto.com where the are 134 others. Go to NPMB for a quick link.


[img]http://www.kayakingphotos.com/albums/we ... g_9058.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.kayakingphotos.com/albums/we ... g_9059.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.kayakingphotos.com/albums/we ... g_8546.jpg[/img]

Sorry the image links didn't show up.

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Fixed-CBoat Moderators.

yeah, great pics. that is me in blue (with yellow patches!) doing enders, and Mike Campbell opening that eddy up for business in his white Super Glide.
Alden