C-Forum

anybody paddle for years and years and years without a swim and maybe a few combat rolls thrown in then all of a sudden, back to back river trips with a swim? 1st was a class 3 i dint really scout but was straight forward, and today i caught an eddy, hit a rock, flipped offside in 18" of water! all within a week. and in febuary? is what it is......and it happens

I think I went two years without swimming Last year in an OC I hit a rock, flipped & the bent-shaft race paddle kept diving on me. I grew weary of beating rocks into submission with my head & swam. Later in the year I managed to break the blades off of TWO paddles without hitting anything Total of three swims last year. Last week I was doing laps in the new-to-me-old-race-boat when I was about a boat-width off my line at the bottom of a straight-foreward class II that I've been running a couple of times a week for two months. Flipped , swam , lost the darn seat

Not Swimming = Not Trying Hard Enough

<singing>
"Oh, I love to go swimming with bow-legged women,
and swim between their legs,"

All boaters are between swims.
Mine are just very, very close together.

When I don't swim after a few river trips, speically in class III IV I know it will happen I just hope its in a friendly eddy. Someone once said you are either swimming or in-between swims. We're single blades and open boats we can swim and still paddle butt-boaters swim and cry like little babies.
Kevin Greybear

That sound exactly like my past 2 flips. You can't actually call them swims because its too shallow to get your legs off the bottom. On the Lackawaxan in Pennsylvania, and the Deerfield in Mass, both times were the same type of flip, eddying out fast in deep enough water, totally unexpecting a rock, then blam! before I can think of bracing I'm over.

I don't know about paddling years and years without a swim, and I haven't even attempted a roll, but I do know exactly the type of surprise eddy.

I'm right there with ya. Swam twice yesterday on the French Broad, once at Pillow, once at Kayakers. 45 degree day so after the second swim I opted out of Frank Bells. Second time on that river, but the first went without incident. Of course, it had only been a week since the last swim (first Noli run last week, On the Rocks smacked me up). I'm trying to tell myself it builds character and experience. It is a watersport, after all.

is it really a swim when you go flying into an eddy which is 3 inches deep, flip and find yourself lying on your back, boat up in the air and your face isn't even under water?

I refer to such a move as the unplanned, inverted dismount.

DUDE lol lol lol did you call? where did the event happen. Not in my favorite swim spot I hope. We have started the year right with swims. Lets swim the plateau in march, South Carolina in may and june and Colorado in july. Swimfest 2008.


LOL still enjoying it


Trey

I pulled into and eddy and fell over on my offside a while back .....and "no I dont have an offside roll" but can usually get under the boat or back deck my way upright.
Only thing was.....I had not bled the air out of my dry suit so there I was like idiot laying in the water unable to get enough air out to get myself under the boat ....and to far over to get it back up back up......
The efforts went on few several minutes with pals just sat around laughing at my futile efforts & waiting for the swim......
I didnt dissappoint them...

Mr.DeadLegs wrote:DUDE lol lol lol did you call? where did the event happen. Not in my favorite swim spot I hope. We have started the year right with swims. Lets swim the plateau in march, South Carolina in may and june and Colorado in july. Swimfest 2008.


LOL still enjoying it


Trey

Where and when are you planning to swim in SC? May 10 would be an excellent day to paddle the Saluda, but maybe not swim it - that's the one day a year we can count on a big release because of a "Canoeing For Kids" fundraiser (http://www.canoeingforkids.org). They'll release about 10,000 CFS which makes the Saluda a nice big water run.

I comfortably swim classIII/IV water. Never been on the saluda. How does it compare to other SE swimmable water, ie Tellico, Section III, Ocoee?

As far as other SC water Section III is always fun, I want to get back on the upper Green. I need to find a way to get Harrison, or one of the Trammell boys to carry my stuff out. lol I wish. I have also been thinking about the Chauga.

Saluda has a nice ring to it though. 10,000 cfs would like to try a new river with good water.

May should be nice and warm. Is the 10,000 nanty warm or Ocoee cold.


Trey

What section of the Saluda will the run be on?

Mr.DeadLegs wrote:What section of the Saluda will the run be on?

AWA calls it "section 4" :

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/conte ... il_id_1700_

That description leaves out a lot, especially wrt high water and they left out a couple of rapids. It will be cool because it comes off the bottom of the lake, but not Nanty cool. At 10KCFS, it will be "big" - bigger than the Onoee, but not as technical (I'd say "New"ish but I haven't actually been...). 20KCFS is even bigger, but we won't get that much that day.

At lower levels, there are good play spots and some challenging lines. Ordinarily not something you'd drive a long ways for unless you were confident of a level (4.5K is great for play, 10K up is big fun).

After I had to swim through a pretty bad set of rapids along side a kayaker I asked my buddies why they all went for the kayaker. They responded : '' We knew an openboater would survive a swim through those rapids.'' I guess there is glory in swimming !!