Week of Rivers 4/28 - 5/6
Posted by brentaustin
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Re: Week of Rivers 4/28 - 5/6 May 07, 2012 01:48PM |
Truly amazing week of rivers!! Thank you to everyone I got to share this incredible week with!! Loved our camps, drum circles, rockin tunes, bomb diggity meals and copious amounts of safety!
Thank you Brent for putting together an incredible string of 80 degree days and fantastic water levels. I have no clue how you do it but I'm convinced it is directly related to your bada$$ river karma and your overwhelming support of AW. Anyone out there that isn't a member, this is a perk they don't tell you about.
Thank you to Bernie for your hospitality and awesome river beta!
Thank you to West Virginia for being incredible!!
Most importantly, thank you Rebecca for being such a fantastic paddling partner and making this W.o.R. a truly amazing experience. I love you so much!
Personal river highlights were the EPIC day on the Middle and main stem Tygart, following Jay Ditty through Big Splat and the boof at Charlie's Choice in a playboat.
Can't wait to do it again.
Mello
Thank you Brent for putting together an incredible string of 80 degree days and fantastic water levels. I have no clue how you do it but I'm convinced it is directly related to your bada$$ river karma and your overwhelming support of AW. Anyone out there that isn't a member, this is a perk they don't tell you about.
Thank you to Bernie for your hospitality and awesome river beta!
Thank you to West Virginia for being incredible!!
Most importantly, thank you Rebecca for being such a fantastic paddling partner and making this W.o.R. a truly amazing experience. I love you so much!
Personal river highlights were the EPIC day on the Middle and main stem Tygart, following Jay Ditty through Big Splat and the boof at Charlie's Choice in a playboat.
Can't wait to do it again.
Mello
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Re: Week of Rivers 4/28 - 5/6 May 15, 2012 09:50AM |
I'm entering a late entry into the WOR trip report. Started it last week and then got really busy with work since then and finally finished it...
Wow - is a pretty good synopsis of 3 intense days of boating in WV and probably the best Cheat Fest I've attended so far! Unfortunately in order to spend some time with Brit and take care of some issues that popped up at home I wasn't able to spend as much time on WOR as in past years but what I missed in time I more than made up for in intensity! The BWA / WOR encampment at Cheat Canyon Campground was very cool as usual and somehow a group with a wide range of personalities and diverse interests somehow made it work out - like always!
Thur YT, Scott B and Kevin ? and I got 2 laps on Lower Big Sandy at 5.8 and 5.6. The big group got on at 6.2 Wed and I'm sorry I missed that! The mid to upper 5' level was juicy and fun! The LBS is fun at lower water but as Brent likes to say, it "fluffed out" nicely at higher flow without much more push. Fred Wilson / Christine helped us with shuttle and Fred joined us for lap 2. YT took one for the team and shuttled my car out while we ran lap 2 - mighty thanks YT! Brent and crew did a single lap between our runs.
Friday was an epic day on Middle Fork of Tygart at 5.2+ and Tygart at 7.7+. This was a big water day! MF was pushy and solid Class IV+ Brent swam twice and I had lots of roll practice. When we hit the Tygart it was big! Some of the biggest holes I've ever seen. It gave one good beat down / swim to Chris Higdon. John and Rebecca looked pretty awesome doing it in playboats! I witnessed lots of planned / unplanned rodeo moves from these two. I have a short video of Brent / Rebecca / Delaney Albright (I think) runs at S Turn. Brent / Delaney snuck right but Rebecca was pulled into the meat and spit out like a watermelon seed! From below we watched Jess pull an awesome thread the boulders move I wish I had on video. I had some further roll practice on the Tygart as did several others. We had a bit of scare when Chris got a bit unnerved after his beat down / swim and decided to walk out of the Tygart. He told Delaney but Delaney didn't hear / understand and we spent some anxious time at the takeout when he wasn't there yet. It's really easy to lose track of someone in a big group on a big water run. John / Brent ran into him on the tracks when they went looking for him and we were all very happy that he was fine.
Saturday the plan was to catch the Upper Yough before the dam release. Unfortunately it released early at 10am and we put on at just a bit over 2.5. I'd not done the UY above 2.2, and the river is very wide at the gauge so a little bit there goes a long way in the gorge. I had some great lines and runs ... but unfortunately I also had the two worst swims and beat downs of my boating career in the same day! I'm not even sure what happened on the first one, I missed the crew in the right eddy in lower Triple Drop, then screwed up somehow going for the left eddy - my memory is foggy on how I messed up / flipped and for some reason had trouble setting up so I soon found myself upside down surfing the hole above National Falls. I couldn't roll there and body surfed that hole for a bit. I was completely disoriented and thought while I was upside down that I had washed into National Falls hole and was body surfing that hole! Finally getting out of it and out of breath with laryngospasm I was thinking OK I'm in a pool now and was not happy to discover I was now washing into National Falls hole for more body surfing. This was not a fun experience but lucky for me my boat was in there surfing with me and I made a desperate grab for it. Tried to climb up on it and think this pushed it down enough to wash us both out. Totally exhausted, extremely weakened with bad laryngospasm I feebly made my way to the big left eddy and onto shore where I recovered for a bit. Somehow I held on to my paddle through all of this and my boat was saved in the eddy above by YT. After I recovered I looked up in time to see John doing some serious rodeo moves after stalling in the vicious right eddy after the boof move. I do wish I had his run on video! I was shaken up a bit after the long swim but pulled it together enough to make my way down the rest of the run with good lines and form ... until I thought I was home free ...
At a little rapid called Backender, we came upon a pinned boat scene. Clay / Hugo / others assisted with boat extraction from atop a boulder in the middle of the river while the rest of us waited below. After a very long wait, some of us were getting cold and figured we might was well wait at the takeout. I had forgotten about 2 rapids below, Wright's Hole and Double Pencil Sharpener because they are pretty insignificant at lower flows. As we entered this section I spotted a swimmer in the middle of the river that was no where near another boat so I started chasing him to assist. Focusing on him and not paying close enough attention to where I was, I realized too late I was approaching the center of a wide horizon line. It's one of those moments when you just say ... Oh S*%$! As I crested the horizon I thought I would try a desperate water boof over the very ugly hole below but stopped dead right in the meat of it and surfed it for a while on the right, then tried to ender out on the very high / deep right crease and ended up left surfing - exhausted I finally flipped and was too tired to mount an effective roll in the foam and violence. Dammit! Could not believe this was happening again! What followed was an even worse body surf than National Falls as every time I tried to go deep to get out I hit a shallow rock ledge which pushed me right back in the hole. I was in this hole for what seemed like a long time. I had laryngospasm again and couldn't get a breath. I could find no way out and truly felt this was the most desperate moment of my life. I started to think I very likely would not exit this hole concious. Weird things flash through your mind at such moments. I won't go into details there but if others have been in a similar situation I'm sure you know what I mean. In a last ditch effort to save myself I managed to get my feet under me and for long enough to get a kick backward off the rock that was thwarting my deep exit. I tried this a couple of times without making any progress. I was extremely exhausted, air starved, and not sure how much longer I would be conscious. On what I think was the third attempt I somehow successfully launched myself to the right boil line and entered the downstream flow. I was exhausted, couldn't breathe and had no idea what was below. Lucky for me a guy I didn't know was waiting below the hle for me to wash out and gave me his stern. I managed to hang on through a little Class II action and he towed me successfully to shore where I took some time to recover.
Both of these bad swims were complicated by laryngospasm and actually wouldn't have been that bad without it. It's a problem I've had before. In every event I can recall where I had this condition I was pretty scared just prior to the laryngospasm and have no doubt the fear contributed to the laryngospasm. I'm thinking it has something to do with overstimulation of my sympathetic nervous system. I / and others here have discussed laryngospasm on the forum before and I presumed my cases were like others - related to a little water aspiration. This type of laryngospasm is well documented in the literature. While this may have happened on both of these swims - I also had laryngospasm after some upside down surfing followed by a roll while going over a big rock drop on one of the big rapids on the Middle Fork. I was absolutely sure in this case I aspirated no water. I haven't yet found anything in literature about laryngospasm from fear / panic / stressful event but I'm thinking it may be what's going on in my case. At any rate at this point I'm not sure how to deal with it and don't think I'll be able to until I figure out exactly what is going on. If I could somehow get rid of this problem I think it would significantly raise my comfort level on harder runs.
Wes
Wow - is a pretty good synopsis of 3 intense days of boating in WV and probably the best Cheat Fest I've attended so far! Unfortunately in order to spend some time with Brit and take care of some issues that popped up at home I wasn't able to spend as much time on WOR as in past years but what I missed in time I more than made up for in intensity! The BWA / WOR encampment at Cheat Canyon Campground was very cool as usual and somehow a group with a wide range of personalities and diverse interests somehow made it work out - like always!
Thur YT, Scott B and Kevin ? and I got 2 laps on Lower Big Sandy at 5.8 and 5.6. The big group got on at 6.2 Wed and I'm sorry I missed that! The mid to upper 5' level was juicy and fun! The LBS is fun at lower water but as Brent likes to say, it "fluffed out" nicely at higher flow without much more push. Fred Wilson / Christine helped us with shuttle and Fred joined us for lap 2. YT took one for the team and shuttled my car out while we ran lap 2 - mighty thanks YT! Brent and crew did a single lap between our runs.
Friday was an epic day on Middle Fork of Tygart at 5.2+ and Tygart at 7.7+. This was a big water day! MF was pushy and solid Class IV+ Brent swam twice and I had lots of roll practice. When we hit the Tygart it was big! Some of the biggest holes I've ever seen. It gave one good beat down / swim to Chris Higdon. John and Rebecca looked pretty awesome doing it in playboats! I witnessed lots of planned / unplanned rodeo moves from these two. I have a short video of Brent / Rebecca / Delaney Albright (I think) runs at S Turn. Brent / Delaney snuck right but Rebecca was pulled into the meat and spit out like a watermelon seed! From below we watched Jess pull an awesome thread the boulders move I wish I had on video. I had some further roll practice on the Tygart as did several others. We had a bit of scare when Chris got a bit unnerved after his beat down / swim and decided to walk out of the Tygart. He told Delaney but Delaney didn't hear / understand and we spent some anxious time at the takeout when he wasn't there yet. It's really easy to lose track of someone in a big group on a big water run. John / Brent ran into him on the tracks when they went looking for him and we were all very happy that he was fine.
Saturday the plan was to catch the Upper Yough before the dam release. Unfortunately it released early at 10am and we put on at just a bit over 2.5. I'd not done the UY above 2.2, and the river is very wide at the gauge so a little bit there goes a long way in the gorge. I had some great lines and runs ... but unfortunately I also had the two worst swims and beat downs of my boating career in the same day! I'm not even sure what happened on the first one, I missed the crew in the right eddy in lower Triple Drop, then screwed up somehow going for the left eddy - my memory is foggy on how I messed up / flipped and for some reason had trouble setting up so I soon found myself upside down surfing the hole above National Falls. I couldn't roll there and body surfed that hole for a bit. I was completely disoriented and thought while I was upside down that I had washed into National Falls hole and was body surfing that hole! Finally getting out of it and out of breath with laryngospasm I was thinking OK I'm in a pool now and was not happy to discover I was now washing into National Falls hole for more body surfing. This was not a fun experience but lucky for me my boat was in there surfing with me and I made a desperate grab for it. Tried to climb up on it and think this pushed it down enough to wash us both out. Totally exhausted, extremely weakened with bad laryngospasm I feebly made my way to the big left eddy and onto shore where I recovered for a bit. Somehow I held on to my paddle through all of this and my boat was saved in the eddy above by YT. After I recovered I looked up in time to see John doing some serious rodeo moves after stalling in the vicious right eddy after the boof move. I do wish I had his run on video! I was shaken up a bit after the long swim but pulled it together enough to make my way down the rest of the run with good lines and form ... until I thought I was home free ...
At a little rapid called Backender, we came upon a pinned boat scene. Clay / Hugo / others assisted with boat extraction from atop a boulder in the middle of the river while the rest of us waited below. After a very long wait, some of us were getting cold and figured we might was well wait at the takeout. I had forgotten about 2 rapids below, Wright's Hole and Double Pencil Sharpener because they are pretty insignificant at lower flows. As we entered this section I spotted a swimmer in the middle of the river that was no where near another boat so I started chasing him to assist. Focusing on him and not paying close enough attention to where I was, I realized too late I was approaching the center of a wide horizon line. It's one of those moments when you just say ... Oh S*%$! As I crested the horizon I thought I would try a desperate water boof over the very ugly hole below but stopped dead right in the meat of it and surfed it for a while on the right, then tried to ender out on the very high / deep right crease and ended up left surfing - exhausted I finally flipped and was too tired to mount an effective roll in the foam and violence. Dammit! Could not believe this was happening again! What followed was an even worse body surf than National Falls as every time I tried to go deep to get out I hit a shallow rock ledge which pushed me right back in the hole. I was in this hole for what seemed like a long time. I had laryngospasm again and couldn't get a breath. I could find no way out and truly felt this was the most desperate moment of my life. I started to think I very likely would not exit this hole concious. Weird things flash through your mind at such moments. I won't go into details there but if others have been in a similar situation I'm sure you know what I mean. In a last ditch effort to save myself I managed to get my feet under me and for long enough to get a kick backward off the rock that was thwarting my deep exit. I tried this a couple of times without making any progress. I was extremely exhausted, air starved, and not sure how much longer I would be conscious. On what I think was the third attempt I somehow successfully launched myself to the right boil line and entered the downstream flow. I was exhausted, couldn't breathe and had no idea what was below. Lucky for me a guy I didn't know was waiting below the hle for me to wash out and gave me his stern. I managed to hang on through a little Class II action and he towed me successfully to shore where I took some time to recover.
Both of these bad swims were complicated by laryngospasm and actually wouldn't have been that bad without it. It's a problem I've had before. In every event I can recall where I had this condition I was pretty scared just prior to the laryngospasm and have no doubt the fear contributed to the laryngospasm. I'm thinking it has something to do with overstimulation of my sympathetic nervous system. I / and others here have discussed laryngospasm on the forum before and I presumed my cases were like others - related to a little water aspiration. This type of laryngospasm is well documented in the literature. While this may have happened on both of these swims - I also had laryngospasm after some upside down surfing followed by a roll while going over a big rock drop on one of the big rapids on the Middle Fork. I was absolutely sure in this case I aspirated no water. I haven't yet found anything in literature about laryngospasm from fear / panic / stressful event but I'm thinking it may be what's going on in my case. At any rate at this point I'm not sure how to deal with it and don't think I'll be able to until I figure out exactly what is going on. If I could somehow get rid of this problem I think it would significantly raise my comfort level on harder runs.
Wes
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