United in Nature

green race recap

2011-11-11T14:27:00.008-05:00

this year was another great year for the green river race in north carolina. the weather was spectacular, sunny and 57 degrees, for a perfect race day. 120(ish) racers lined up above the first rapid, frankenstein, to paddle as hard as they can for the next 4-6 minutes, depending on how fast you go. this is truly one of the hardest, most intense races in the world and it is an amazing experience for both racers and spectators.

(photo: abby whisenant)

all the heavy hitters were back this year for an extremely competitive race. isaac levinson, andrew holcombe, pat keller, chris gragtmans, eric deguil, jason beaks and the list goes on. those were the top finishers this year. isaac had a super fast time of 4:22 to take the top honor followed by andrew @ 4:26 and eric @ 4:34.

chris gragtmans powering through the slides (photo: abby whisenant)

isaac levinson on his way to the finish (photo: abby whisenant)

this year gorilla was hammering out some beatings. its was absolutely incredible the amount of crashes that went on this year. what would normally be a regular crash didn't make it into the carnage reel due to the amount of phenomenal crashes that occurred. i don't know if it was the number of first-timers but something was definitely in the air. most of the action occured at the rapid right before gorilla, which is known as "flying squirrel."

my food friend vaughn first time racing heading through "the notch". (photo: abby whisenant)

me coming off of flying squirrel (not sure how took this photo. hope you don't mind me using it.)

random racer landing flying squirrel (photo: abby whisenant)

i was fortunate enough to go earlier on this year enabling me to watch some of the greatest show in sports. i was also fortunate enough to not be included in the crash reel as my lines were pretty good. i had one spin out after "chief" which pushed me into the eddy and then a flip at "speed trap" but all-in-all it was pretty good. i definitely didn't paddle as hard as i would have liked but at least my lines were smooth. over all i am pretty happy with my first long-boat run down the green. out of the 72 long boaters i placed 45th, 59 out of 139 total racers, with a time of 5:27. not to bad as i could tell i haven't been boating much the last couple months.

enough chatter. here is a highlights and carnage reel brought to you by pilot collective media. they did spectacular job of filming and editing this year.

chris wing of pilot collective crew at the finish (photo: abby whisenant)

first here are the highlights:

now the carnage:

green race predictions

2011-10-30T19:12:00.002-04:00

here is a little video from pilot collective from some early green race laps and some predictions for the top spots in the race. its going to be a good one this year with andrew holcombe and pat keller back at the race. top 5 of my predictions in no particular order...

isaac levinson

andrew holcombe

pat keller

chris gragtmans

dane jackson

and possible daniel stewart in there too. daniel is fast and knows the river really well. i routing for d stew!

it should be a really exciting race and once again i am honored to be involved in such cool event. good luck to all the racers.

enjoy

nature is what unites us

–trent thibodeaux

u.s. national whitewater center starting off with a bang

2011-06-08T20:33:00.002-04:00

...a bang of heat that is. yes the temps are already in the 90's and the water is about that warm too but where else are you going to paddle in the southeast right now? plus the center is a great place to learn, sharpen your skills and do some play-boating and river-running in the same place.

this year we are doing some new things on the instruction side. we are offering kids camps every thursday, saturday and sunday along with the week long kids camps every week starting the week of the 13th.

we are also offering intermediate and advanced instruction every thursday from 5-7 for adults. this is the same night as the river jam so come by, take a lesson and then kick it afterwards with a beer and some live music.

for more information visit:

http://usnwc.org/programs/kayak-instruction/

the first charlotte region hometown throwdown is coming up on saturday the 24th of june too. these are super fun and laid back. thanks to jason and samantha miller for putting these on.

also, if anyone wants private lessons i am available wednesday through sunday from now until the end of the summer. just give the center a call and ask for a private instruction from trent thibodeaux.

hope to see you out there. stop in a say hi

nature is what unites us.

trent thibodeaux

pre summer news

2011-05-24T23:31:00.003-04:00

i am back at the u.s. national whitewater center for another year of kayak instructing. it was great to live in asheville for the last 9 months but it is really nice to be back in the queen city. this is year is going to be packed full of kids kayak camps, which i truly love to do. watching those kids progress from beginner to ripper in a few short months is amazing. makes me wish i would have started when i was a kid.

other news:
we are waiting on the new bliss-stick boat which should be here mid-june. i can't wait for that boat to come out. i think its going to be a sick design with more volume and hopefully they didn't soften the edge too much. it is what makes the mystic the sickest boat ever.

congrats to tino specht and chris gragtmans for placing 10th and 6th at the whitewater grand prix. that is truly an amazing feat for being amongst some of the best kayakers in the world. and congrats to lorenzo for placing first in mens shortboat and kira for placing first in womens short boat at the cheat fest this year.

trip to colorado, tmg and fibark, is canceled for me. its a bummer but planning to shoot some video on the green and head up to canada this summer at some point to do some playboating. look for some of that from pilotcollectivemedia.com coming soon.

i have teamed up with pilot collective media and we are now offering video production/editing, web design and graphic design. we will continue to push that and see where it takes us.

it seems that the rest of the year is going to be a good one. hopefully do some traveling next winter. i will try and get some photos and videos up. until then here is the latest from the chronicles of gnarnia:

bliss stick us new haven open

2011-04-12T20:56:00.002-04:00

greyson, me, tino, sam, dan and jason

with the bliss-stick sprinter van and trailer loaded down with boats and gear, the crew of michael and greyson briere, sam fulbright, tino specht and myself left north carolina around 5 am on thursday morning for the long drive to vermont. 15 hours later we arrived to a cold and snow covered middlebury, vt and just in time to catch some hot tub action before it closed for the night.

friday morning was practice time. the plan was to spend a few hours on the course learning the fast lines and trying to link everything together. the course was about 1/2 mile long and consisted of a few larger rapids with lots of bobbing and weaving through boulder garden boogie. the water level was pretty low causing the river to be a little bonier than normal but it was still a really fun course.

me, testing out some alternative lines

tino boofing on the last rapid of the race

sam airborne

after getting about 6-7 good full runs we decided to call it a day. it was now time to celebrate sam’s 21st birthday. we headed over to this little tavern for some dinner and drinks...and a shot ski of patron.

celebrating sam's 21st with some tequila

rise and shine was about 7 am. we grabbed a quick breakfast and hit the road to the river. before i go any further i want to talk about the previous years race. the new haven race is a local, grassroots race. last year the number of racers was something like 20. there were no sponsors, no prize money, just a hand carved trophy by another boater, which is quite amazing. the format is boater-cross style with 4 people per heat, double elimination. this allows for everyone to race a few time before getting eliminated. now...

racers meeting

prerace wandering.

...back to this years race; the bliss stick u.s. open with a total cash prize of $1750 turns this race into more than just a local boys friendly competition. we had 59 racers total. boaters from all over the northeast and canada came out to try and win the money. the format stayed the same, which turned out to be a mistake...lesson learned, hopefully. double elimination with 59 racers takes more time than there is daylight not to mention can be a bracketing nightmare, which it was.

tino with a huge lead on one of his many laps

jason coming through rooster tail

blue angel style on toaster

daps all around.

dan looking good through the course

me getting ready for the launch

round 1: went off really well. the bliss stick squad dominated winning all their heats by a large margin.
round 2: tino and sam won their heats while me and dan burke came in 2nd and 3rd. no worries because its double elimination. time turn on the power for the next heat.
round 3: nope. round 3 for some folks was canceled. wait?! what?!

so this is when this really amazing day starting spiraling down. apparently the organizers realized that they made a mistake in keeping with the double elimination. the rules said that if more than 64 racers registered it would go to single elimination rounds. that would have sped things up. they chose not to do this and learned this mistake really soon into the race. instead of trying to fix the problem they decided to switch the race to single elimination in the middle of the race which knocked out several racers from the competition with no reason.

not everyone got cut though. just the people who had won round 1 and lost round 2. if you lost the first round then you were safe, which really makes no sense. it caught a lot of racers off guard. we didn’t get disqualified nor did we loose. we just had to stop racing for no justifiable reason other than they (organizers) decided on it. not cool or professional at all. especially when people travel and pay money to attend their event.

it was a bummer for sure and got heated for a bit. its to be expected when someone tells a group of racers they can no longer race...just because. i only got to race twice and wasn’t given a fair shot at the winnings...along with a number of other racers who just got cut.

the remaining racers ended up racing the same people over and over due to a malfunction with bracket system. they also raced the course about 6-7 times which is absurd. it definitely made everyone feel pretty beat-down. the winners were: 1st hugh, 2nd joel, 3rd patrick.

overall the race was lots of fun despite the confusion and errors. it was great to see so many people fired up on racing. bliss stick was well represented and i am proud of the bliss stick team and everyone else who participated. thanks for a great event. hopefully the organizers will get some things worked out for next year. all in all they did their best and apologized at the end for the mixup.

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux

WCU demo day and hometown throwdown

2011-03-23T11:47:00.004-04:00

This past saturday was the western carolina university demo day and the hometown throwdown for the nantahala region. myself and sam fulbright brought the fleet of bliss stick playboats for demoing. justin keleberg did a fantastic job organizing this event and i believe it was the most attended demo day to date. bliss stick, pyrahana, jackson and wavesport were represented well.

the hometown throwdown was set up in teams of 3. each member has 2 rides and the scores are taken from the best ride, then added up with the rest of the team. my team consisted of tommy yon and shannon christy. who won? we did!!

this was an awesome event and everyone had such a good time. it really made me happy to be part or such a great sport.

justin and ? at the registration table

some dirtbag kayakers getting ready to throwdown

me in the middle of the loop

setting up for something...who knows what?!

the winning team: shannon, tommy, me

new river dries...its huge.

2011-03-10T09:05:00.000-05:00

yesterday the crew (me, sam fulbright, chris wing and pablo mccandless and later met up with chris gragtmans)made it to the new river dries. this doesn't run very often–maybe a couple time a year. when we woke up tuesday morning they were running about 70,000cfs.

all i can say is wow. i have never seen or surfed waves this big. the middle wave was a massive hole-wave thingy that could rip your face off (i like my face so i did not surf it). the right wave was good though. its a super hard wave to gain control and time tricks because to the constant surges and boils that would randomly appear. one second you are in a surf, the next you are engulfed by the foam and then bounced 3 feet in the air. needless to say there was a lot of carnage.

the put-in is 20 yards upstream of the wave but the hike back up is about 200-250 yards back. this doesn't seem like a lot but it beats you down for sure. just surfing the waves takes a lot out of you and then you have to book-it back to river right and then hike up. its exhausting but worth every minute.

i think we took more photos of goofing around then of actually kayaking....and here they are.

the wave is so chomp. like this–chomp chomp

wing with his game face.

what wave? i see no wave. ahhhh...that wave. chomp.

hey chris, no other chris, no...chris...no other chris.

aaaiiiirrr.

promo shot. hehe

look at them sick boats...so sick.

i so glad we brought our camera so we could take all these incredible shots of everyone's rides. no, wait...we didn't shoot anyone really. oh well, i guess you will have to go and see it for yourself.

nature is what unites us.
trent thibodeaux

eternity

2011-03-09T16:34:00.006-05:00

before the rains the only thing running was the eternity hole on the tuckasegee. its probably one of the best holes {ever}. the only problem is that it usually runs in the mornings and the colder it is outside the more likely it will run.

myself, wing and sam have been heading out there whenever possible for some quick sessions. you can throw every hole move here; its deep and retentive and about an hour outside of asheville. great little park and play spot when nothing else is running. here are some photos from the sickest playspot in the world..the world.

but really, its a fun spot to play in.

nature is what unites us
trent thibodeaux

Green River Race 2010

2010-10-15T22:45:00.014-04:00

that time of year has come and gone...the green river narrows race! this was an epic year for the green race with 178 start times and 148 racers. lots of newbies, lots of long boats, lots of fun. this was my second year racing and i was just as excited as last year. this year we had 2 foreigners join the race; mike dawson (team bliss-stick) from new zealand, marianne seather from norway. mike dawson went on to take the win with a time of 4:26 in long-boat division followed by isaac levinson and chris gratgmans. it was a cold but intense race for sure. no one got seriously injured and the carnage that was had was all in good fun...for the spectators at least. this was my second race competing in the short class and i was just as excited and nervous as last year.

sitting in the eddy while awaiting my start the first thought in my head was, "why am i doing this to myself? why am i racing the hardest section of whitewater on this river as fast as i can with 100's of people watching?" then, as soon as i take off all that nervousness goes away and i focus on what i have to do. as i round the corner into go-left and i hear friends cheering for me it all makes sense; this is why i put myself through the anxiety, nervousness and fear....because i get to do what i love to do with all my friends watching and cheering for me. its the greatest race on earth. its why i kayak.

i improved my time by 11 secs and came out 24th out of 71 racers in my division with a time of 5:37. i am pretty stoked with all my lines except go-left rapid. i screwed up at the top and got stalled out; had a decent line through the rapid and then almost flipped coming out and then got spun out, which forced me to take the boof line instead of the race line at the next little rapid. i had a few other small mistakes but overall i am happy with my time. i have also been injured for the last 3 weeks with a pulled rib muscle but no excuses. i stilled paddled well and has best as i could. next year is long boat time and its on!

congrats to all the first time racers and especially to chris wing of h20dreams for racing his first race and in a long boat. i think i was more excited for him than me. thanks to everyone who helped from the time keepers to the after party.

here are some photos and video links for the greatest race and the most amazing river in the world.

prerace photos:

isaac, adrianne, tad and fergus after a practice lap

fergus and tad coming in on rapid transit

trent checking out isaacs line through gorilla

here a few photos:

the bottom of gorilla and slides.

trent coming through the notch

looking at the gorilla in the face

get ready to launch

pull hard and hold on

2010 green river carnage reel from pilot collective media:

more videos to come.

special thanks to the green river for giving us such an amazing playground.

nature is what unites us.
–trent thibodeaux

USNWC Pro/Am freestyle competition

2010-09-03T00:23:00.009-04:00

this year the worldkayak & the usnwc put on its first ever pro/am freestyle competition as a fund raiser for First Descents...a non profit organization that uses the outdoors as a means of therapy and healing for kids with cancer. we raised $1100 dollars for them, which is absolutely amazing. thanks to jason and samantha miller, with worldkayak & rapid-straps, for putting on the best event that the whitewater center has ever had. thanks to all the sponsors that helped with the event as well... Immersion Research, Shred Ready, Smith Optics, Mountain Khakis, Rapid Transit, Kayak Session, Kokatat, Wakawai, Little River Roasting, H2O Dreams and New Star Marketing.

i was teamed up with this kid anderson, who i actually taught at the beginning of the summer. we had 3 hours to paddle around and teach and then 3, 45 sec rides in the hole. the total from each ride/rider was added up for a final score. during our 3 hour paddle i worked with anderson on his flatwater double pump and then cartwheeling in a feature. like most people learning to cartwheel he could get is bow initiated but couldn't bring his stern around...until his last ride in the competition where he linked 3 ends before flushing out. he was super stoked, as was i. he did an awesome job throwing down and he gets better and better every time he paddles. watch out for this kid, he is going to be good. i had pretty good rides with my 2nd ride being the best with some loops, cartwheels, splitwheels, and a mcnasty. all-in-all i am pretty happy with my rides and i am really stoked for anderson for getting his first cartwheel.

after the pro/am we had a jam session on m-wave for the biggest trick competition. the course had 7 pumps running which makes mwave a little nuts and you are bouncing off of about 3-4" of water...not to mention being on guard for rafts. i really only got one ride in on it and didn't really throw much but it was still incredibly fun. brian jennings, with team bliss-stick, won with a helix.

here is a video micheal brier of bliss-stick (wakawai) put together.

results:

1^st Place Tommy Yon and Michael

2^nd Place Fergus Coffey and Snowy Robertson

3^rd Place Brian Jennings and Shawn Sheffield

4^th Place Chris Wing, Katie, and Marion

5^th Place Andrew Holcombe (Coach), Will Rusdill, Tim Martin

6^th Place Mike Patterson, Kerry Porshe, Rachel Hallberg

7^th Place Trent Thibodeaux and Anderson

8^th Place Sam Fulbright and Matt Walin

9^th Place Corey Volt, Kristin, and Harrison

10^th Place Daniel Dutton, Aaron, Alexis

11^th Place Chan Jones, Kyle and Tad Denis

12^th Place Casey Jones and Haley Popp

13^th Place Adrienne Levknecht, Jaime B, Leanne Smith

this event was so much fun and i can't wait to do it again next year. thanks to everyone for showed up and competed along with all the spectators who cheered us on.

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux

summer 2010

2010-08-01T21:01:00.006-04:00

summer is almost over and it has been a great one here in charlotte. the whitewater center has kept me busy with kids camps and lessons. i have been playboating quite a bit more this year learning some new tricks. during the summer in the southeast everything dries up. so the green river is what we turn to. she has been running sporadically this summer but at least during these dry summer months we have a class iv-v creek to run.

the fall is approaching quickly and i am changing with the seasons. i am making a move to asheville. i will hopefully be starting grad school in the spring at unc-asheville. in the mean time i will be boating as much as possible...oh...and i guess working too...somewhere.

the other day a few of us (8) had what we called "dia de la familia en el rio verde". here is a group shot from one of the best days on green i have had in awhile.

sam fulbright, trent thibodeaux, daniel stuart, corey volt, fergus coffey,
kristen alligood, chris wing and kira tenney

hope everyone has had a great summer. hopefully the fall is a rainy one.
see you on the river

nature is what unites us
– trent thibodeaux

usnwc kids camps off to a great start.

2010-07-05T13:05:00.007-04:00

this summer has been a hot one at the u.s. national whitewater center but we are still having a blast. kids camps is off to a great start. we have 3 different kids camps going on now, through the end of the summer. as much as i love teaching private lessons to adults, the kids camps are a blast. teaching kids is a little different from adults in the sense that they have no expectations as to how fast they are supposed learn. there is no better feeling than to have one your kids roll for the first time or boof into an eddy and pick up the correct edge (as silly as that sounds). i think i get happier than they do.

the kids learn basic paddle strokes and boat control, ferries, peel-outs, and the proper technique to roll a kayak. then, we have some fun and paddle some class I-II whitewater down the instruction channel. most like to swim the whitewater more than paddle but they have a good time regardless and thats what is all about... just having fun.

we have a great group of instructors this year and each camp gets better and better.
here are a few pictures from one of our camps.

some of the kids paddling around

pablo teaching rolling

kristen going over the basics

daniel showing the kids how its done

camp in action

spring update.

2010-05-18T22:30:00.008-04:00

the summer is here! no more rain, 90+ temps and humid as hell. we had a fairly busy spring at the u.s. national water center for kayak instruction but has slowed down for the moment. since we were so busy i haven't paddled much other than at the whitewater center. i have been doing a lot of playboating and learning some new tricks. with the new features at the center it is a great place to learn some playboating skills.

as far as creeking goes, the green river has been the only thing running really and i am so happy that we have that river. no matter how much i run the green it never ceases to teach me something new and still gets my heart pumping.

fergus, sam and myself did manage to catch the last flow of the spring on the raven fork about a month ago. we did a double header, green in the morning, raven fork in the afternoon. what a day for sure. that was my first time down the raven fork and all i can say is...wow. that is an amazing run. probably the most amazing run i have ever been on. it was one of those days when you go out to a hard river with 2 friends and just paddle. no photos...no video just you and your friends and the river. it is big, scary, fun and beautiful all at the same time. i can't stop thinking about it and i must get back out there asap.

here are some photos from tuesdays 6/8/2010 trip down the green river.

elk river (twisting falls section)

2010-03-25T22:34:00.007-04:00

back home and the paddling has been pretty slim. not because of lack of water but from lack of funds. so i am back to the grind trying to pay off my debts and get back on my feet. i say that, i have paddled 4 times in the last 9 days so i guess i havn't taken too much of a break.

last monday we got a huge rain storm that brought the elk river up to a good high flow. i missed out on the high water day but caught a good med/low flow the following day. the crew that actually paddled was russ langley, josh parker and myself. it was a balmy 37 degrees with a nice wintry mix to add to the low temp. someone needs to tell the city of boone that it is spring time now.

the put-in below this drop (big falls)

the elk river is a class IV run with a couple of V thrown in for fun. it starts with a little flat water warm up into the first log bridge rapid. nice little double drop that starts the run off. down river from there it picks up with a series of slides, boulder gardens, double drops, triple drops, and lots of fun boogie rapids. after the first two rapids i realized that this river had more gradient than i thought and was super stoked. the team of 3 did great scouting every now and then but mainly just read and run and communicating effectively as to not make this run turn into an unnecessarily long trip.

trent and josh on the portage ledge looking down at twisting falls

trent lowering boats down

at the bottom of the portage (its blind pour-over)

once we got to the portage we took a little breather and then back to the grind of hooking into the rocks, sliding our boats across a 3 foot wide ledge 20 or so feet from the rapid below, which is twisting falls–a gnarly rapid that looks similiar to gorilla on the green with the entire left wall being undercut and all water pushing into it. very very sketchy for sure. the portage was probably the hardest part as you have to move one boat at a time, one person at a time up, around and then down to the rocks below. one other thing is that you can't see whats around the corner when you put back in and the first rapid looks like a big ol' frowny pour-over hole. we charged over one-by-one and caught the eddy on the left right before the 15 footer.

after the 15 foot waterfall is the 35ish footer waterfall called compression falls. i was pretty excited to run this waterfall. i was a little nervous but honestly was pretty calm and ready to fire it up. josh went first, followed by russ and then myself. i rode the lip, spotted my landing and then tucked super hard. i knew the hit was going to be hard and i did not want to get blown out of my tuck. i hit, stayed tucked and popped up with no problem...perfect line to end the day.

trent on one of the many fun drops

russ on the triple drop rapid

josh about to drop into a big, fast drop-slide rapid

trent landing the 15footer

russ dropping the 35 foot compression falls.

trent dropping the 35 foot compression falls.

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux

Final Chile blog post video

2010-03-03T22:23:00.006-05:00

chile is a spectacular place and kayaking is an incredible way to see it. chile is full of life. from the people, to the land and water and even the skies, chile never ceased to amaze me. everyday was better than the last. i miss it already and feel honored to have been able to be a part of its culture for a month.

here is a video from our trip. all video was shot by sam fulbright from pilot collective media. paddlers include myself, kira tenney, sam fulbright and pablo mccandless.

the video is shot in wide screen so it doesn't fit in the column. to watch on you tube:
click here

thanks and with the recent tragedy, please remember and do what you can to help the people of chile and haiti. here are some links to help out.

samaritans purse

salvation army

redcross

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux

Facing East Crowned "Best Environmental" FIlm

2010-02-22T15:08:00.000-05:00

i just wanted to post this b/c my buddy sam fulbright co-produced this film. it just won "best environmental" film at the International Reel Paddling Festival in canada.

facing east

back on the green!!

2010-02-22T14:48:00.005-05:00

you would think that after paddling the most amazing whitewater for a month in chile, i would not miss the green river so much. and even while i was there i can remember saying that i really missed the green. i don't know what it is about that river but i truly missed paddling it.

after a quick stop in asheville to get my new biss-stick mystic, it was off to enjoy a nice sunny 50 degree paddle on the green with adam, isaiah and spencer. i was a little nervous since i hadn't been on the green in 2 months and i was paddling a new boat but after the short warmup section i was good to go. my mystic handled smoothly, stable and is super comfy. it was like i had always paddled it. the level was about 11.5 inches and the water was beautiful.

damn it feels good to be back.

me in my new boat at "sunshine" (photo by: adam secrest)

ojos de cabargua

2010-02-22T14:30:00.000-05:00

this is one of the many park and hucks near pucon, chile. it starts off with a 5-6 foot lead-in into an extremely small pool and then split 2 rocks off a 30 footer. its a fun one for sure and is a great waterfall practice.

kira pluggin' it good

trent droppin' it

pablo pluggin' in

sam droppin' it

sam and pablo from the top.

rio nevado

2010-02-14T15:38:00.005-05:00

i don't have a lot of photos of the this river but i wanted to post something about it. it is my favorite river in chilé...and anyone you talk to about it will say the same. it was described to me like this: take the green river narrows in north carolina, smash it together so the rapids are more stacked, add more vertical feet and completely gorged in and you have the rio nevado. that is a very good description indeed.

the run is a little over a mile with no breaks inbetween and set in a remote extremely tight gorge just outside of pucon. it usually runs in the late spring early summer so we caught the very last bit of it when we arrived and actually caught it again the day before we left...thank you nevado for sending us off with a bang and good water flow.

there are so many more cool drops and rapids on this river so i apologize for the lack of photos. we had a large crew the first time and so it was kind of caotic in there due to lack of eddy service. the 2nd time i didn't feel like shooting.

the wall fall drop

looking up stream from the mandatory 20 crack drop

trent running the crack drop

looking down stream from crack drop. the river ends in
the wall there and turns to the right

isaac with a broken tooth from the put-in slide. he got about 5 feet of air
on a flake landing on rock.

check out this http://vimeo.com/8676076 to see some cool footage of the nevado or check out the movie "mission epicocity" (there is an entire segment on it). it starts at about 50 sec. and then gets spliced in with rio turbio and some other rivers but you can see the slide, the crack drop and the wall boof pretty good. also, check out what the video is for. its a good cause!!

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux

upper palguin

2010-02-14T15:02:00.004-05:00

being based out of pucon we had many options for rivers. the river we ran the most was the upper palguin. it is about 25-30 from kayak pucon hostel. it is super short, super fun run and can be lapped as many times as you can do in a day. we did 4 laps on day and i think the longest lap was about 7-8 minutes.

pablo at the put-in

the put-in to this river is by far the coolest. you cross over a nature land bridge about 6-8 foot long with a 90 foot waterfall in the background. the entire setting is overgrown with bamboo and ferns and the water has a teal blue tint to it. it is absolutely spectacular.

pablo on the last drop of the double drop

the run starts off with a super fun double drop (5 foot sloper to a 8 footer), a little boogie water, into a blind 15 footer, boogie, a double 20 foot waterfall with both sides runnable, boogie, slide drop, boogie an then a 10 foot crack slide trashy thing...and then hike out and do it again.

sam on the 20 footer

a little ways down stream is the "portage drop" which can be run. go to http://egcreekin.blogspot.com/2009/10/palguin-shit-show.html to see the drop from below. we didn't get any photos, just video. both sam and i ran it and it is a stupid drop for sure. i don't think i have ever went into a rapid knowing i was going to crash but that "it goes" so i would be okay. my line up top was less than stellar and i ended up charging into the left wall, flipping and then doing the last minute roll up before plunging 15-20 feet into an exploding pile of water. i think maybe 2 people have actually greased the line...ahhh...good times!...

trent in the midde part of the portage drop trying to
roll up before plunging off the 15 footer

this is such a fun run and so close that you can do it right before dark or early in the morning as a warm up. there are 2 other sections as well. on with a 70 footer. sam was the only one in our crew to run it. it is super clean and i talked mad shit about running until i starting running smaller waterfalls and messing them up. i figured i need more practice running waterfalls before i hurl myself off one that could do some serious damage. next year, its on!!

trent on the double drop (top view)

trent on the double drop (front view)

sam getting set to go into the crack drop.

sam stylin' the 70 footer with a perfect line

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux
(for more info on this river and many other in chilé go to www.riversofchile.com)

rio fuy: upper section

2010-02-14T14:09:00.005-05:00

the crew taking a dip in the crystal clear water

after spending some time paddling in pucon we headed to the town of Choshuenco to paddle the rio fuy. the rio fuy is yet another beautiful, clear river. it has a little of everything. big rapids, waterfalls to plug, waterfalls to boof, holes/waves to play all packed in one run.

we were siked upon arriving to a fairly stomping level. the couple miles are basic river running through some fairly large pushy rapids. there was one rapid with a 8 foot curly wave you could blast through it and ride the top of it...super fun. it was all boat scoutable, slightly pushy river running.

the next section is the leones falls section which starts with a 30 footer into a 10 footer down a slide and over another 8 footer followed by 15ish footer. its all stacked on top with some fairly large holes. the 2nd to last drop is called bird sucker and at this level it was a river wide hole with one line on far river left. after this the river mellows out for about a mile to the take out.

everyone had good lines on each run. kira had one skirt implosion which caused her boat to run the entire leonas section until getting pinned on a rock where the river mellows some. her boat was pretty bashed in but we managed to get most of the dents out and get her seat back in the right spot. other than that it was a great few days on an amazing river.

la posad hosteria

we stayed at a place called "la pasada" in Choshuenco with the most amazing family ever. we paddled the upper few a total of 4 times in 3 days and had a blast everytime. this is truly a chilean classic.

trent on the big drop

teno freestylin'

sam with the super boof

kira rocking leonas first 2 drops

trent on the 2nd drop of leona

kira looking up at the last drop of the falls section

yet another volcano...i swear they are everwhere

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux
(for more info on this river and many other in chilé go to www.riversofchile.com)

rio claro

2010-02-14T13:12:00.006-05:00

the crew: sam, kira, pablo and trent

paddling the rio claro is a magical experience for sure. its hard to describe and even photos don't do it justice. the rock is gray basalt that lifts out of the water straight up and forms a crack where the crystal clear water has carved its way through. in some places the river narrows to slightly bigger than a boat width and because of the high cliff walls sunlight doesn't even come in. its a feeling of isolation, wonderment and for me, peace. i don't think there is any place like that in the world and i feel very fortunate to have been able to experience and see this beautiful river. it made me fully realize why i am a kayaker–to see and experience places that you could not see otherwise while at that same time running the most amazing waterfalls rapids one could ask for.

there are 3 sections on the rio claro–veinte dos (22 waterfalls), entré saltos, and the famous siete tazas ( 7 teacups). we were lucky to catch the last of the seasons flow on the upper two sections and of course run the teacups. we were going to do all the rio claro but we found out later that you cannot run the section between entré saltos and the siete tazas section. due to some bad beta we took out about 30 meters too early and ended up hiking for 2 hours through the chilean woods. so look for the stairs on river right...that is the take out. it is not a cliff.

the run is basically waterfall after waterfall after wallfall, all good-to-go. there are a couple of mandatory and unscoutable drops but it all goes and just adds to the excitement. the entré saltos section has the coolest rapid i have ever paddled, the "garganta" aka swirly bird drop. after this is more tight slots, waterfalls and at one point we entered a dark hallway and when we rounded the corner a huge 70-80 foot waterfall was pouring in on the side. incredible!

this was a great way to really kick off our trip to chilé. i can't wait to run these sections again.

trent on the entrance to the "swirly bird". it drops about 30 foot after the
turn...incredible rapid!

sam on one of the many perfect boofable waterfalls.

we so small in comparison

sam on the first drop of the teacups

once you are in there you are really in there

the mandatory unscoutable 30 foot waterfall.

pablo on the super ski boof... the best boof ever

trent catching mad air on the ski boof

trent on one of the many clean waterfalls

kira floating into the unknow

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux
(for more info on this river and many other in chilé go to www.riversofchile.com)

chile update 1

2010-01-23T16:11:00.005-05:00

we have been in chilé now for about 20 days and i must say that this is the most amazing place i have ever been. the scenery is beautiful, the people are friendly and the whitewater is spectacular. our team ( sam, kira, pablo, tino and myself) are doing well and trying to paddle as much as possible. we have been able to get on lots of runs so far since the water level is still holding fairly well. the rio palguin, rio claro, rio nevado and rio fuy to name a few. my favorite run thus far is the rio nevado. it is fairly short, maybe 1.5-2 miles but is stacked with good clean vertical drops, big boofs and 1 must run 25 footer all inside a beautiful tight gorge. it is similiar to the green river but with more verticality...oh and its in chilé. today was the first day in 10 days that i decided to take off from paddling. my body needs a brake for sure. here are few shots from our trip.

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux

sam stomping big on the fuy

pablo pluggin' the "ojos de carburgua"

me dropping into the rio nevado crack waterfall

me in the middle of the first drop on the upper palguin

kira on the 30 footer on the upper fuy

me dropping the 30 footer on the ojos de carburgua

what santa brought us...

2009-12-25T17:55:00.005-05:00

...lots and lots of rain. so much rain in the southeast that everything was blown out. the 148 house decided to do a quick high water lap on good ol' wilson creek. fergus, kira and i woke up bright and early on a wonderful christmas morning. we had great breakfast, loaded boats and headed out in the pouring down rain.

the mountains were still blanketed with snow and the gorge was as beautiful as ever. we checked the gauge to find a level of 1 foot. kind of disappointing but we were determined to make a run anyway.

fergus and i checking the gauge

once we arrived at the put-in i noticed the 1 foot rock gauge was covered and the 2 foot rock gauge was half covered. the water was on the rise and we caught it just in time. i drove to the take out, hopped on my bike and shuttled back up. thanks to fergus' idea of setting shuttle before when i was not cold and wet.

i am not in bike shape, especially when it is raining and 36º

when i got back to the top the 2 foot rock was covered. oh yay!! 2 feet+...its going to be juicy. as we are putting on a local woman drove by and asked, " you guys aren't going to put on in this are you? the river, she's mean today. i guess i am going to read about yall in the paper tomorrow."

over 2 feet

she was big but not mean. at 2 feet there are lots of ledge holes, big waves and is a bit pushy, but all is good to go. the section from boatbuster into thunder hole was by far the most fun. lots of hole dodging, a few must make ferries, and some big water makes for one hell-of-a-christmas morning. thank you santa!

fergus and i at the take out

me, kira and fergus on christmas morning; wilson creek take-out

sorry, but we didn't have time to take photos on the river...next time

nature is what unites us
–trent thibodeaux

Green race 09

2009-11-10T10:03:00.010-05:00

lying in the grass with my hand over my eyes, i try to sleep to diminish the anxiety of waiting my turn to race the green river. this year is my first year so i am one of the last racers to take on the the hardest mile of the green river. with a start time of 2:34 i began the half mile or so hike down to the put in an hour early. i could wait no longer. the butterflies in my stomach felt like bats and my body raced with nervous energy. it's almost time.

i line up. 5...4....3....2...deep breath in...1...deep breath out...go! i sprint out into the current and it is on. i try to stay focused, one rapid at a time. don't get ahead of myself, keep paddling and do what i know how to do, is what i keep telling myself. a couple bad lines, i regroup trying to stay centered and in the flow.

there are brief periods where i realize there are no people around. no other boaters, no spectators, just me and the river. this moment of surrealism is torn away as i round the corner and approach the rapid go left and die where i hear people cheering for the first time. i never look up as i know that will throw off my focus but i sense and hear them as i paddle into the steepest and most intense section of the race.

breathe...almost there...breathe. i know what lies ahead and all i can do to stay calm is focus. almost to the end. i know once i get through the gorilla its home sweet home, but with 500 people lining the banks of the river wanting, wishing for you to crash i was a far from finished.

i land flying squirrel line at pencil sharpener and the noise of the crowd overwhelms the roar of the infamous gorilla. i stay focused going through the notch, land with a big left draw and hold it. a little off line but i correct, big right boof stroke off the launch pad and stick it. phew! speed trap does its job and i flip. luckily it spits me out. i roll up and paddle as hard as i can down the next slides. as the last slide rapid transit quickly approaches a sense of relief pours over me. i set my angle, hit the top hole with a small back sweep and bounce...bounce, paddle paddle paddle into the rock to stop my time. one last deep breath signals the end and i can relax. a fist bump with sam and i am done.

edging through the notch

correcting as i get ready to launch

launching and sticking the line off gorilla.

wow! what a race. i knew it was going to be intense but nothing, absolutely nothing can compare to what i just did. 5 minutes and 48 seconds of intensely terrifying awesomeness. to run a river of that caliber with 500+ people cheering you on is by far the most exhilarating experience. truly awesome in every way and i can't wait to do it all again next year.

myra, brandon, grant, me and matthew. the tennessee crew

i came out 31st out of 68 racers with a time of 5:48. i could not have asked for a better day. after the race i was able to visit with my kayaking family. all 500 of them. congrats to all the racers and hopefully if you didn't race this year you will fire it up next year.

nature is what unites us...and this race, for sure, proves that.
–trent thibodeaux

6 days, 6 rivers & a brand new boat {part 1}

2009-10-12T18:00:00.001-04:00

i was so hoping my new liquid logic remix 69...in brick red, was going to be ready before gauley fest and the day before we were supposed to leave i get an email from the factory that it is ready. i am super stoked about this boat. it is the best of both creek and river running boats slammed together to make a fast, stable, carvable and all around fun boat. what better way to try it out then 6 days of paddling on all types of rivers from higher volume rivers, like the gauley, to low volume steep creeks, like overflow.

a crew of us left thursday night before gauley fest to get a good camping spot and be up early for another 2 hours of driving to the upper yough in maryland. once on the river i was expecting something a little bigger and harder out of the upper yough but it was still a blast with some non-stop boogie boulder gardens and some fun little drops. not to mention the take out ends a a liquor store so you have beer waiting for you. this was the first river in the remix 69 and it handled like a dream. i was able to move where i wanted to, when i wanted to, keep it on line and drive fast. eddy hopping is so much more fun in a boat with edges, especially with the style of river that the upper yough is with so many slots and eddies; it is a eddy hopping paradise. the only memorable rapid was the falls, which is very similiar to hydro rapid on the watauga.

day 1 river 1: upper yough – maryland
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/753/
we headed out of maryland and made a quick stop at the tygart to run the falls but the ranger kicked us out because it was getting too dark and robbie told him off which didn't help the situation. thanks robbie. ha. i wouldn't make the drive to just run the falls there but if you are in the area it looks like a sweet little park and huck.

day 2 river 2: upper gauley – west virgina
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/2378/
saturday we loaded up and headed to the upper gauley. i was excited to see how the boat would handle in bigger water. well...it handles great. it took a little getting used to not having the extra volume in the stern but once i learned how to control it, i was zipping everywhere. i have only run the gauley twice before and both times we bombed down it. this time i really worked the river, catching as many eddies as possible, hitting attainments, and actually taking full use of what the gauley river has to offer. this made for a longer but so much more fun day.

day 3 river 2: upper gauley – west virgina
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/2378/
after a long night of watching music, paddling videos and naked people make pizza, we decided to run the upper gauley again since we were in the area and meeting up with more people. the took our time, mainly due to lack of energy. half way through the rapid insignificant i actually had to tell myself to wake up and paddle if i want to make it out of the rapid without getting stuck in the the huge holes. i also managed to go over the the boof pour over at sweets backwards, sub-out, and then surf over to energizer hole where i immediately carved my way out of it and headed down stream. sweets is not the place to look like an idiot since there are usually about 200 or so paddlers, rafters and spectators watching. oh well, i was tired.

day 4 river 3: red roof creek – north carolina
after thinking we were not going to have any rain, a massive system came through flooding out some of the larger rivers and creeks allowing some of the smaller ones to become runnable. we decided on the boone area since i would be driving through. after making some phone calls to check levels we decided to check out red roof creek to see if it was runnable. it is a short class III-IV micro creek. so we put on and paddled down without knowing anything about this creek except that we would have to scout for wood. a few sieves, log jams and undercuts to avoid but nothing too manky. i don't know any names of rapids but there was some really fun ones. s-turns to slides to boofing over and around holes—it had it all. with a little more water it would have been more non-stop but it was still fairly continuous and fun. nothing like some manky southeast creeks to get your heart going.

to be continued...

gorilla: such a fun rapid...

2009-08-18T21:14:00.008-04:00

nothing new...i just wanted to post a video. i finally got some footage of gorilla. it is one quick run we did today with pablo mccandless, kira tenney and myself. props to kira for running go left for the first time today (no video, i forget to get my camera out) and much props to pablo for some pretty good gorilla carnage. all in all, it was a great day on the river.

gorilla from trent thibodeaux on Vimeo.

nature is what unites us –trent thibodeaux

summer time in the south east

2009-07-06T23:22:00.003-04:00

after a great spring this year, the summer has finally made its way to the south east. i was able to get on some good new rivers and some old ones at high flow while the water was still falling from the skies. now that summer is here the rains are sparse and unannounced and paddling relies on dam releases.

the good thing about living in charlotte, nc is that the green is only 1.45 hours away and has been on a consistent schedule. i have been able to paddle the green this summer at least once a week, sometimes more.

i am also teaching kayaking at the u.s. national white water center. i really love teaching there and i have met and paddled with some great people. i really enjoy watching a beginner boater "get" the concept of boating, whether its learning to edge through the turn or simply learning to ferry across current. i am very fortunate to be able to do two things that i love to do at the same time, and get paid for it.

being able to paddle more often and teaching has really stepped up my paddling technique and confidence. so much so that i finally worked up the courage to run gorilla and sunshine on the green. a group of 5 including myself made a quick run on the green a couple of weeks ago. we kept a good pace linking most of the rapids together leaving the smaller eddy's to be left vacant.

once we got down below chiefs, fergus asked if i was "in" (meaning, am i going to run gorilla)...my response..."yes, but lets go now." i followed right behind him as we launched off of flying squirrel into the pool below. i caught the river right eddy, ferried over to the left and slowly peeled out down river towards the notch. i set my angle, waited...pulled on my left to get me through...followed with my right to finish it off and made into the eddy. with heart racing and adrenaline pumping i peeled out...took one or two strokes and off the launch pad i went. as i began to free fall, i prepared myself for impact and the hole that was waiting. i landed, leaned forward and punched through the hole. i made it! fist pump, followed by a yell and hi-five from fergus. gorilla is one hella-fun, rapid.

we made our way down to the river right eddy about sunshine. one at a time we ferried over to the set-up eddy on river left. finally...my turn. i think was more nervous running sunshine than gorilla. maybe it was the massive amount of adrenaline that was still pumping through my veins. so, i took a deep breath, backed up out of the eddy, paddled out in the current and let my bow fall down current. holding my draw in, i hit the rock, took a boof stroke and landed in the eddy below. i washed out backwards down the rest of the drop but i knew the hard part was over.

finally...a run down the green river and i did not have to get out of my boat once. it is a great feeling. since then i have been back several times and i feel really confident in running everything. sunshine is still giving me issues but i think i have figured it out and next time...it is mine.

even thought the rains have ceased i am still able to get some paddling in, whether at the white water center or green river. no matter physically and mentally demanding it might be, time in my boat gives me peace of mind when i need it most. it is my meditation, my calmness, my om.

nature is what unites us.
–trent thibodeaux

2009-05-21T12:58:00.007-04:00

This past Tuesday a group of 12, yes 12 people on a Tuesday, got together to do a little double header on the Doe River and the Watauga River. There was: Me, Sanders, Will White, Clinton, Cooper, Ben, Russ, Trevon, Chris(not sure if that is his name), Josh Parker, Ashley Watts and Chris Boone. Man, that's a lot of people. It is usually pretty hard to coordinate that many people but surprisingly everything went very smoothly.

We arrived at the Doe River around 11:00 am. I think only a few people in the group had run this before so everyone was excited to be on a new river. American Whitewater said it was at a medium flow of 550 CFS but we all agreed it was low. The Doe is a class III run with maybe 2 class IV rapids but at the level it was at it was all class III boat scoutable rapids. Still fun but nothing to get my heart bumping.

We all made it down safely, loaded up the cards and headed to Watauga. The Watauga was running at at a perfect 300CFS. Last week a few of us ran it at 170CFS and had a blast so I was really excited about having almost double the flow.

We put on about 4 o'clock with a bright sun and cool breeze. As I laid back on my kayak I looked up to a cloudless blue sky contrasted with bright green leaves shuffling in the wind. We boofed our way through the gardens of boulders, working our way down river to the first significant rapid, Hydro. Hydro has a tricky entrance with a sticky hole at the end that has a boil line extending 10 yards out. It starts with a slide into an eddy then fairing out through a few holes and picking either right or left to boof around the hole. Sitting in the top eddy waiting my turn to bomb down it is quite a heart thumper. Unfortunately the carnage was minimal so we proceeded to boof our way down river. The Watauga is like the boof capital of all rivers. It is a great place to practice your boof stroke, stomping and anything else boof related.

The only probably I had was at Knuckes, which I ran backwards. Its the one rapid that you don't want to mess up due to a bad pin rock to the right of the drop. I got spun around in the top hole and managed to catch a micro eddy on river left above the drop. I was facing up-stream and turning around would have set my boat angling right, going towards the pin spot. Realizing that was not an option I decided since I was already where I needed to be just backwards I would just go off backwards. It ended up being the best way to go over. Lesson: don't question yourself in situations like that. Go with instincts.

The rest of the run was great. Stateline falls is spectacular. It is so much bigger in person and really fun. Watching everyone fly through the chute and down the falls is really cool. The glow of the trees, rocks and river signaled the "golden" hour, transforming the paddlers in front of me into silhouettes. It was a picturesque moment.

me dropping into Stateline Falls

This one probably one of the greatest paddling days I have had in a long time. We had a great crew of paddlers, great weather and good quality rapids. To top it off we ended the day with a burrito from Black Cats in Boone that was delicious. I can't wait to do it again.

nature is what unites us
_trent thibodeaux

Tallulah Gorge 2009: Oceana wins

2009-04-06T21:44:00.012-04:00

We started our descent down the 500 steps to the put-in before noon ready to take the plunge into one of my favorite gorges – Tallulah. She has 20 or so rapids within 2 miles of river. When we arrived at the put-in there was no line to wait in and no one behind us. As we put on the river its immediately go-time with the first rapid "Last Step" 10 yards in front. Today there was a log in the main line but it was not in play. Me, Matthew, Ian, Rideout and Jeff began putting in one-by-one into the first eddy. Rideout goes first, I follow through the rocks, over the next one and plunge into the diagonal hole. I brace, ride it out and catch the next eddy. All is good as the rest come through. We all head down Tanners boof and then eddy out before Oceana. On the drive to the river I had already decided to run Oceana. I was not going to scout it but Matthew motioned to me to get out and look was we arrived. Thankfully I heeded his warning because I had forgotten how big this rapid really is.

Oceana is a 50 foot slide with a 4 ft rock shelf 3/4 of the way down that pushes water 10-15 ft into the air. This geyser is called "The Thing". After "The Thing" you drop another 5-6 ft into a monster hole where the majority of the water is being funneled. There are 2 lines, one to left that is usually run at higher flows (700cfs) and a middle line run at lower flows (500cfs). I had it planned out that I was running the middle long before I even scouted it, so that is what I was sticking to has I leered at this monstrous rapid.

Normally there are other people scouting and running it so you get a chance to watch other people take the plunge. Today, when we got to Oceana there was no one there. I am more likely to run a rapid in question if I see someone else do it first but not today. I was going to have to run it solo. As I wait for Rideout and Matthew to get to the eddy below I take a few long deep breaths and stare at the horizon line. I get the OK and slowly float forward. I take 2 or 3 strokes to gather speed and to set my angle and prepare for impact.

As I go over I realize I am little too far right but as I lean into the pillow and hit I realize it is alright. As I sit in front of rock shelf I shake the water from my eyes and prepare to surf around "The Thing". As I get to the edge of the "The Thing" I noticed that my right edge is dropped so I am leaning down stream. My brain is telling me I should be leaning upstream so I can put the bottom of my boat on the shelf and slide down but my body does not listen. As I take a stroke I get half way through "The Thing" and flip. At this point I can't hear anything but water, and everything is white so I just hold on for the ride hoping that the hole at the bottom does not suck me in. I feel my body slide down the last 5 ft or so and slam into the hole. I work my paddle around trying to grab some water but it is too aerated. I setup and attempt to roll up but I fail. By this point I am running out of air and I am still in the hole so I pull my skirt and swim. As I eject the hole sucks me down. I push off of the bottom and I head for what I hope is the top. My lungs are about to explode and as it gets lighter I swim up and out of the hole gasping for a breath. I start to swim to the side and look back to see my boat bobbing up and down in the hole. I grab on to Matthews boat and swim to shore.

My first run down Oceana...Swim from trent thibodeaux on Vimeo.

DAMN IT! I say as I finally catch my breath. I take a few minutes to empty my boat, gather my gear and my head and somewhat replay what I did wrong. As I stare back up at Oceana, I am humbled by the power of the river. I haven't had a swim since the Gauley river in 07 so this was definitely a reality check. Not that it was a bad beat-down or crazy carnage but in the sense that my ego was bruised a bit. I forgot how much it sucks to swim and how both mentally and physically draining it is. Not to mention that this is only the 3rd rapid so I have to shake it off if I want the remaining of the run to go smoothly.

A little shaken up I run "Gauntlet" with some nervous adrenaline and finally start to relax again after Bridal Veil. The rest of the run was amazing. Lots of fun boogie water with larger rapids interspersed throughout. We didn't really take a break and bombed down the rest of the run fairly quickly which linked all the rapids even closer together. This swim, and I don't mind saying I swam Oceana, was definitely a humbling experience. It is easy to forget that the river is always in charge, always allowing you to float down. It is the river that has the power and we are just along for the ride. Jjust when you think you have it under control the river slaps you in the face, literally, and tells you otherwise. nature is what unites us -trent thibodeaux

Worser Wesser and Opening Day on the Ocoee

2009-03-23T17:27:00.002-04:00

If you learned to paddle on the Nantahala river then you know the story behind Worser Wesser. You were told NOT to run that rapid b/c it was blasted and there are gnarly rocks that will shred your face off and rip you limbs from you body. Okay, that might be exaggerating some. When I was learning how to paddle this rapid looked big and scary and because of its infamy I thought I would never try to run it. As I paddled bigger rapids and became more comfortable it has become one of those rapids that I wanted to run just for the simple fact of breaking the myth behind it. I looked at it this past Saturday and figured why not. Me, Matthew and Ian all ran it on Saturday and is actually a nice finish when paddling the entire Nantahala and it is cold and you are wet.

The next day, Sunday, we hopped on the Ocoee for a seaon opener. It was a beautiful day to paddle with about 100 other boaters. Hey, at least there were not any rafts. I did manage to pull off a big fat air loop at Chopping Brockly which was my goal for the day. It is one of the best loop spots on the Ocoee and for some reason I have never been able to do it...until yesterday.

nature is what unites us
trent thibodeaux

Wilson Creek and the WhiteWater Center

2009-03-05T22:27:00.011-05:00

The last 2 days have been great. Wednesday Sanders and I headed to Wilson Creek to do a couple laps. It was my first time on Wilson so I was extra excited even with the gauge reading -6 inches. The gorge is beautiful with clear water and huge rock slabs. There were only 2 or 3 other people out so we had the river to ourselves all day.

I had a blast on both runs. 10 foot Falls is a fun rapid especially running it from the entrance down without catching eddies. There are lots of fun boofs and ledges and I can definitely see it being more fun with more water. Boater Buster and Thunderhole are fun rapids but I think my favorites were Triple Drop and Razor Back. Razor Back because it reminded me of a small Rapid Transit on Green only with a boof at the end and Triple Drop b/c of its continuity.

After the first lap I biked back up to the car and we were off again. I was much more relaxed and loose for the 2nd lap which made for a more interesting run. We had not trouble and ran everything with clean lines. I can't wait to go back with higher water and really tear it up.

Today, I went to the White Water Center for the first time. Sanders and I ran lap after lap on the main channel and one lap on the comp channel. Here are my thoughts about the park.

It is definitely a cool place and I had a lot of fun, but I wish there were better play waves/holes, not that I'm a good playboater anyway. Some of the holes are nice but too shallow to really throw ends or plug in for loops. M-wave was fast and good for right sided blunts but apparently it wasn't has good as it normally is. I thrrw one half-ass blunt and then got washed out. The rest of that channel is pretty fun with a S curve shape to it with a few hole but nothing major. The last play spot "Biscuits and Gravy" was not retentive at all but I tried anyway. If it wouldn't be so shallow it would be pretty sweet.

Sanders playing on wave From U.S. WhiteWater Center

From U.S. WhiteWater Center

me paddling to stay on From U.S. WhiteWater Center

me surfing From U.S. WhiteWater Center

The eddies are another big thing that takes some getting used to. They are very squirley and boily. There is really no time to rest because you are always back paddling or bracing to stay in the eddy away from the main flow. The good thing is that you can just ride the circulating water back to the hole or wave instead of paddling back to it. I think it is just the price you pay for a man-made river. I got used to it.

The comp channel has larger features and is a bit more challenging. We pretty much bombed down it just so that I could get the feel for it. The last rapid is "big drop" composed of a large tongue /slid into a pretty meaty hole. The water behind the hole along with eddies are boily and rough. I made it through cleaned but got stuck in the river left eddy for a bit. I can't wait to go back and really play on the features of this channel.

It had been a while since I was in my playboat so it took me some time to get readjusted to being a short boat again. I did manage to demo the new Liquid Logic Biscuit though. Coming from my very first boat, which was a Liquid Logic Vision 56 I was excited to try their new playboat. As much as I love my Wavesport 52 I miss the extra few gallons that allow a better fit for a 185lb, 6 foot body. So, sitting in the Biscuit 55 with the new "Bad Ass" outfiitting was a treat. The boat is super loose and edges like crazy. I surfed M-Wave with it and was sliding around like mad, so it takes a little more to control but I think once you dial it in, it would be a great boat. Will I switch back to Liquid Logic? Well, I need to spend more time with it but who knows. I really like the extra 3 gallons, and even though it seems like such a small amount it seems to make a huge difference.

The last 2 days has been a really good beginning to Spring time paddling. Hopefully this is only a precursor to what the rest of the year will hold for me. I am looking forward to paddling some Cheoah, Tallulah (cross your fingers it will still run this year), and many more first descents with old friends and new ones.

as you can tell from the video I am really rusty in my playboat

nature is what unites us.
–trent thibodeaux

Patience grasshopper, patience

2009-02-12T15:41:00.004-05:00

It's the middle of February and I have paddled twice this month. I wish to paddle more but the weather and the lack of releases prevent me from this so, I will talk about what I learned on my last trip to the Green.

My last run was lots of fun. Mainly because I got to paddle with my boys from Tennessee. I haven't seen them or paddled with them since I moved so it was really nice to paddle with them. Matthew, Nick and Ian came down to run the Narrows but Ian opted out due to feeling sick. The group was me, Matthew, Nick and Clinton who is from Charlotte. It was a beautiful sunny day with the high in the upper 60's. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

We decided not to bomb down it and go at an easy but steady pace. Once we got to Bride we took off and regrouped in the eddy above Boof or Consequence. I was feeling pretty good and was determined to have great lines. The previous run down the Green I had not one single good line. My timing was off by about 1 second, which is all it takes to screw up a line. I had no swims but I felt like crap. Not because I was having a bad day but because I knew I could do better. So I was determined on this trip to relax, and stick every line.

Which is exactly what I did. All my lines were spot on and my run through Go Left was the best I have had so far. My line through Zwicks and Chief was perfect and my slide runs were fun a usual. I did go down backwards at powerslide but I was far enough right that I missed the hole. It was turning out to be a great run.

Sunshine is next on my list and I really scouted it today. I have looked at and watched people run it but I have never really scouted it. The rapid changed once I looked at as if I was going to run it. I started to notice all the waves and currents above the drop and I watch what other people did with their paddle and how they angled there boat. I could hear it calling my name, or maybe that was Nick yelling at me run it. Whichever it was, I got a good hard look at what is to come.

The rest of the run went smoothly. I have learned the lines on the bottom section which is great peace of mind. By this point it was down to Matthew and me so we just strolled on down soaking up the sun and enjoying the fun rapids that is the last section of the Narrows.

As I reflect back on what made this run so much better than my last, I have concluded that patience is the key. On the entry to each rapid I focused on what I had to do and then let the water do the work. I held my draw stroke a little longer, or I waited an extra second to put my boof stroke in. That 1 second of waiting allowed me to slow things down and actually see and feel what I was doing. It allowed me the time I needed to think about what it was I was needing to do and actually kept me on my line longer so that I could end the rapid with success. I think all too many times I get anxious and I end up just getting down the rapid instead of actually running the rapid.

"nature is what unites us"
trent thibodeaux

Like Riding a Bike

2009-01-07T20:51:00.000-05:00

Five days in to the new year and i got to go paddling. November 3rd was the last time I paddled and it was the Ocoee, which I know like the back of my hand. I still have lots of fun but it doesn't push me the way I want to push myself and my ability. So, after a really long hiatus due to working, and getting ready to move and finally moving to Charlotte, NC, I got to paddle one of my favorite places–The Narrows of the Green River.

I have run the Narrows about a half dozen times this summer and each time I wanted more and more. It is an amazing place. The last time I ran it was around the end of Aug. so I was a bit nervous when I finally put on the river. Not because I doubted my ability or was scared of the rapids, but mostly from not having paddled in 62 days and then jumping onto a class IV-V creek.

I road up with new paddling friends Brently, which this was his first time down and his birthday, Clinton, Jeff and a guy named Andy, who Clinton knows. We had a good small group and a beautiful day to paddle. The level was a tad over 7 inches which is still low but more than I have run it, so I was excited that the river was not going to be as boney. I went through the nice warm up paddle and went straight through Bride with no problems. I waited for Clinton to tell Brently the line. Brently came through backwards and flipped but was bow rescued quickly and all was good. Welcome to the Green!

The next rapids came quickly and I immediately began to remember the lines making sure to stick everything. When I got to Go Left I got turned around and it took sometime to get back around. I almost didn't run it because I couldn't get my boat around in the right direction but I finally managed and fired it up. I boofed the log and didn't ride the draw stroke long enough and when I turned to drop into the rapid I petoned on the rock but managed to keep up-right and through the slot. One of these days I will run it cleanly.

When we arrived in the eddy below Zwicks Andy asked him I was running Gorilla today. I told him I was thinking about it. I was feeling good. I had clean lines all day and everything was flowing smoothly. The plan was to meet in the Notch eddy and fire it up. I ran Chief and then parked my boat in the eddy right above Pencil Sharpener. From there I could see the line all the way down into the Notch eddy. For a split second my brain said go, but I didn't. I sat there and pondered and then it got in my head. So, I pulled out of my boat and made the walk to the seal launch. I was so pissed about it. But, if I have to think that long about whether I am going to run a rapid then I shouldn't run it. We shall see what happens next time.

The rest of the run was great. Brently ran everything cleanly and had a great first run down the Narrows. You can read his trip report at http://www.creekfreak.blogspot.com/

The bottom section was great and I am finally learning the lines through all the boulder gardens. I could not have asked for a better first paddle in 2009. And even after not paddling for such a long time it all came back to me as soon as I hit the water.
Until next time.

"nature is what unites us all"

-trent thibodeaux

Ocoee and Cheoah River

2008-08-18T13:13:00.000-04:00

I started off the weekend with a trip down the Ol' Ocoee River to celebrate a friends bachelor party. Tim is getting married in October! Congrats. Matt, Ian and myself made a run down the Upper and the Middle Ocoee in the morning and then met up with Tim and eventually Grant for another run down the middle. I ran the entire Upper section from Alien Boof Rapid down to the Middle put-in for the first time. I usually get out at the Forest Service Bridge, so it was my time running Roach Motel Rapid, which is crazy considering how many times I have run the Ocoee. It was pretty cool.

Me taking the center line at Bear Creek Falls, Cheoah River; photo by GG

After a long day of paddling on Saturday we drove to North Carolina to camp in order to be closer to the Cheoah River. This is the first release since May so there were quite a number of people. All of us took down playboats to paddle Cheoah so I expected some carnage. Unfortunately everyone did great! HAHA! We had a good group with us. Grant, Matt, Ian, Trey, Jim and myself. I met up with Christian and Brandon but we went on ahead of them.

I was nervous at first, mainly because I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to get the speed needed to punch through holes. But, it was all good. No one had any problems, just good times. There are so many wave-trains to throw down-river moves (not that I did any due to my back hurting the entire time). Once we got down to Entrance to Bear Creek Falls Rapid it was all fun. Matt and I didn't scout and bombed our way down. The West Prong Line was amazing. It did not catch me by surprise this time. Once at the bottom I was so stoked. It is probably the best part of the river. Grant almost got caught by the paddle snake once again, but was able to hold on and make it through. Way to show that snake whose boss! Once we got down to Yard Sale, I was completed exhausted. Thank God I didn't get worked in any of the holes b/c my arms felt like noodles. 2 full days of paddling wore me out.

Matt stylin' the boof rock at Bear Creek Falls, , Cheoah River; photo by GG

Ian at the bottom of Bear Creek Falls, , Cheoah River; photo by GG

It was a great day...weekend of paddling. It was great to see everyone out there and I wish I could have paddled with you guys. Maybe next time! Gauley Fest is coming up soon and I can't wait for that.

"nature is what unites us"
trent thibodeaux

1 down 2 more to go

2008-08-14T18:09:00.000-04:00

Its the middle of August already! As I sit here typing this, the temperature outside is about 80 degrees. It will be in the low 70's tonight. IN AUGUST!? Last year at this time it had been 100+ degrees for like 2 weeks straight. I love this summer weather, well, except for the lack of rain and the unacceptable gas prices which has slowed my paddling significantly.

After paddling the Green River Narrows in June I made it to the Ocoee a few times and I also took a Swift Water Rescue course. The course was through TSRA (Tennessee Scenic River Association) and it was a pretty good course. I thought I knew more than I did so this makes me feel safer when I am on the water. The fact that my entire paddling crew took the course makes me feel even better.

Last weekend Nick Murphy and I drove back to NC for some Green Narrows action. This was my 3rd trip down the Narrows, so I was still nervous. I know the lines to the major rapids but its the rapids in between and the ones after Sunshine Falls that I don't know real well. But all is good. It is part of the fun... not knowing.

Get there late Friday night and wake up to 59 degree weather–WOW! The water level was around 5.5 which pretty low. We ran back June at 6.5 which is still lower than normal. So, this makes for an interesting run. Everything was all good and when we reached Go Left and Die I decided to run it. This is the first of the Big 3 rapids.

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_1080_#rapid758

Its a tight slot, boofing over a log and then a maybe 6-8 foot drop over a ledge into a slot that is split by a huge rock. You can go either way but the normal line is through the left slot. I set up above the rapid took a deep breathe and paddled. One left stroke to get me going, then a right stroke, a left stroke and then a right boof stroke over the log. There wasn't much push at this level so I didn't go as far out as I wanted to. I turned my head to the right and looked down as I was heading straight for the rock. Oh #$&! went through my head and might have come out of my mouth not sure. I landed and slid through the left side. SWEET! I made it through without flipping and without getting stuck in the hole. Its a pretty amazing feeling to run that thing. The rest of the run was a blast. And I get to do it all over the next day.

Sunday comes and Matt meets for a run. We put on and the water level is about the same. I feel much better today. Looser, confident, smooth. I take the race line at Frankenstein for the first time and love it. It sets you up so much better for the boof than the far right line does. Everything is goes smoothly and I decide to run Go Left again. This time I take a hard right boof and get far up on top the rapid. I keep a hard right draw stroke in and whip around perfectly. I actually whipped around too much and almost petoned on the rock but got pushed through the slot, flipped and rolled up with a yell! And, even though I flipped my line was much better than the day before. I ran the rapid today, yesterday the rapid just let me pass through.

So, heres a quick carnage story. This guy Derek, 19, just met, 2nd run down the Narrows paddles with us on Sunday. He decides to run Go Left. I go first, then Nick and then him. Nick sets safety on river left and Matt and I stay in the water to catch gear, person, etc. He comes through with no boof stroke and probably a right angle, because he comes off the log and goes straight down. He hits the hole, flips and continues to get worked really hard. All Matt and I can see are glimpses of color from his boat and paddle. He stays in for about 30 seconds and swims out, losing his paddle and confidence in the process. He makes it over to river right and we all get his gear back to him. He was pretty shaken up by it. He was stuck in that hole getting pounded and I don't think he has ever gotten a good beating by a river before. He did fine the rest of the river except for missing like 5 rolls right in front of the eddy before Sunshine Falls. That would have been bad if he would have swam there! Later own when asked if he would run it again, he replied "no way".

Anyway, sorry about having no photos or video. This was a quick trip. It was so much fun and I am falling in love with that river. I have 2 more of the Big 3 rapids to run, Gorilla and Sunshine Falls. We will see how it goes.

I am headed to the Ocoee this weekend for my friend Tim's bachelor party paddle trip and then to run Cheoah in my playboat. Should be interesting. I might have a carnage story of my own when I get back. Until next time,

Oh, almost forgot...I need to give photo credits for my last post. I think his name is Grent Griin. He's a German guy, I think.

"nature is what unites us"
trent thibodeaux

Green River Narrows Day 1

2008-06-19T03:00:00.000-04:00

After countless hours spent in front of my computer watching videos, reading trip reports, and studying lines, nothing compares to what awaits when you reach the Green River Narrows. Our goal was to find some folks to lead us down while taking the time to scout each rapid and really learn the lines. Bombing down a run can be really exciting but I don't really learn anything from it. So after contacting Sanders from Charlotte to lead us down, he gathered a crew to bring us down. There was 7 total in the group, Me, Matt and Grant from TN and Sanders Guignard, Will Berkley, Clinton Koonts, and Dave Degendorf. We lost Will on Sunday but picked up Ashley Watts. It was a great group of paddlers to lead us down. I can't thank them enough.

Gearing up for first descent on the Green River NarrowsFrom Green River N...

After a nice littel warm up we eddied out on river right to take a look at our first rapid, Bride of Frankenstein. By this point my stomach is in knots and while I sit in the eddy above the first rapid of the day, Bride of Frankenstein, the anticipations grows stonger. I say a few words to the Green River Goddess (I think the Green River is a female) asking for safe passage and I peel out, taking the right line between the rooster tail and a rock, paddling through the center of the rapid and catching the eddy below. My first thought, "one down and how many more to go?"

Matt running right line at Frankenstein

Getting through the first rapid of the day was a relief and allowed me to relax just a bit and breath. We made our way to Frankenstein where we eddied out to take a look at the lines. The rapid itself is not that difficult but it is really easy to screw up as I discovered on both days. I decided to run through the slot and then make a hard right turn paddling up the side of the rock on river right and boofing into the eddy below. (The longer I am in an eddy the more time I have to get intimated by the rapid, so I try to go as quickly as I can.) I peel out and paddle through the small slot, take a hard left stroke, then draw my bow around to line up for the right boof. I didn't go far enough right causing me to go off the center and not boofing at all. I penciled in and when I emerged from the water I slammed into the undercut rock wall. With all the water pushing against me it caused me to flip and I actually rolled up in the eddy. "Phew." Not the greatest line but I made it out okay. Relieved to have made it through, I faired over to meet the rest of the crew to continue on through Pin Cushion and Whale Tail and pulled off to take a look at Boof or Consequence.

Grant at new line on Boof or Consequence

There are several "smaller" rapids, slides and boofs interspersed through the major rapids that if they were on another river they would have names or be a section, but I think 20 named rapids on a 2.5 mile stretch of river is plenty. Also, on day 1 I could not seem to time my strokes right. I felt one stroke behind the entire day which is never good when every rapid consists of setting up for a boof on one side or another side. This frustrated me all day.

Will stylin' Boof or Consequence

Here is an example. We ran the new line at Boof or Consequence which is still pretty manky. Well my stroke was completely off and actually I don't think I had a stroke coming off of the rock. Luckily I hit the boof with a good enough angle which was enough to push me right just missing the rocks below. It did not look pretty at all but, I made it through.

My mind set going into the run was I am going to run every rapid. I wanted this mindset strictly for confidence, focus and determination. Well, I don't care how many time you see Go Left and Die on videos, it does not compare to seeing it up close. It is huge. When we got out to scout it I stared at if for about a minute, looked at Matt and said, "Nope, not today." And this wasn't like, not running Oceana on Tallulah and then getting off the river and wishing I had. I am totally fine with my choice of running the class IV sneak aka "the squeeze" here. I find it funny that a 3 foot boof into a 4 foot slot and then down a 8-10 rock ledge/slide is considered the sneak to Go Left. It was a really fun sneak. One day I will run Go Left but it is a very intimidating rapid. I did not want to be the first carnage of the day so I proudly walked took the sneak.

Jeff's first run on Go Left

After Go Left is Reverse 7 Foot, Zwicks and Chief. Zwicks was another example of my strokes being off. I made it through Reverse 7 fine and when I got to the top hole I had a right stroke and probably no angle at all. This forced me left, missing the launch pad completely and going off just right of the meat of the rapid and penciling in. Again, thankfully at this level the hole was not sticky and I managed to paddle away. Everyone else hit the line perfect. I ran Chief and eddied out here to walk around Gorilla and stare at is magnificent features. It is truly an amazing rapid to see.

In order to put back in the water a 6-8 foot seal launch into 6 inches of water. It is a very fun seal launch because as soon as you hit the water you are off to run Scream Machine which is the start of a series of huge slides. We ran the right side of Scream Machine over a 10' ledge catching the center eddy and then running Niece's Piece's on the right to hit another 10 foot boof ledge. I did not go far enough right here and the cross current pushed me over and into the hole where I subbed out for a second and popped back up. Looking back up the river at this point, is a beautiful site. Its hard to describe what it looks and feels like, with words. My thought was "Damn, I just ran this!" Its an incredible feeling.

Matt coming in nicely at Rapid Transit

I hit the lines for Powerslide and Rapid Transit perfectly. They are by far one of the most fun rapids on the river. We eddied out here to scout Groove Tube.

Me running Powerslide (photo by Dave Deggendorf) From Green River N...

I decided to run the main line on Groove tube instead of the center line boof. I had good left angle going into the slot but not a good stroke and my stern hit the flake on the edge. I twisted to the left and landed on my left edge which tweaked my back some. I still hurts today, probably a pulled muscle but it was worth it. As you can tell by the photo I was twisted to the left. I stayed up right though.

Me coming off of Groove Tube, From Green River N..

Sanders launching Groove Tube

Dave hitting the boof on the center line of Groove Tube

We eddied out here to portage Sunshine Falls. We took a much needed breather here. The rest of the run is class III boogie water consisting of hole dodging, boofing and tight maneuvering through long rapids. These almost seem to be harder than the top section of rapids because at this point the scary stuff is over so I was more relaxed. Here is a list of the "smaller" rapids before Toilet Bowl and Hammer Factor.

me dropping in at Hammer Factor

On Any Other River This Rapid Would Have A Name
Triple Cracks
Col. Dick's (aka West Prong Rapid)
All American Boof
Naked Lady Boof
Blackwater Falls
Baby Sunshine / Baby Hammer Factor

Col Dicks and Baby Sunshine are really fun long rapids that involve reading and running through boulders and holes. Lots of fun. I made it through unscathed. I really like running continuous whitewater that keeps me on my toes.

Toilet Bowl was next and I didn't really understand what it was before I ran. Not until after when I looked back up did I realize where I was supposed to go. That is why I am glad we had guides.

We paddled further to Hammer Factor. I had a clean line far left, got some down time in the pillow and eddied out. I got out here to jump into the rapid. I am usually not one for jumping into rapids. I don't know why. At Pillow Rock on the Gauley I did not jump off of it. Well, that changed today. It was almost like I had to. It was a great ending of a perfect day.

It is an awesome feeling knowing that you just ran the Green. From Hammer Factor on to the take-out was surreal to me. Its all over in a couple of hours but it was the most intense 2 hours of my entire life. It is both mentally and physically draining and just when I thought it was over a 5' boof called Bitch Slap appears out of nowhere. Really!? More boofs!?

This was the first day. We still have one more day to do it all over again. We made back to the camp site that afternoon relaxed with some hotdogs and beers. Beer never tasted so good after a run like this. Needless to say I did not stay of too late. Normally I would not be able to sleep good the night before, but I was exhausted and excited to do it all over the next day

Day 2 trip report will soon follow.

"nature is what unites us"
– trent thibodeaux

Green River Narrows Day 2

2008-06-13T18:26:00.000-04:00

Back for more on day 2! We lost Will today but Ashley joined us along with Jeff and Beth (I think Beth is her name). The hike in was worse because I was already feeling the soreness from the day before and my back was really tight and achy. Putting on the river felt way better though. I was ready to stick my lines and have another great day on the river. I ran the same line on Bride and stuck it better than on day 1.

morning of day 2. Lets fire it up Sanders!!! Come on!!! From Green River N...

I arrive at Frankenstein and we did not scout it. This time I decide to go through the slot and catch the eddy (not really andeddy but just calmer water) turn around to set up for the right boof. I went in too low and did not have time to turn around. I ended going over the ledge on river left (huge pin potential here) backwards. Thankfully I did not get pinned and paddled away. There is nothing more infuriating than running a bad line on a rapid that you know you can run clean.

So, out of the 4 ways to run Frankenstein I ran the 2 bad lines. Its only good lines from now on, right? So I am a little rattled now, but nothing I can't fix. I tell myself I need to focus. I decide to bomb down Boof or Consequence and I tell myself "left stroke off the boof". I was worried about hitting the left stroke so much that I had my paddle too wide and when I went through the slot my paddle wedged in. It jerked me back some, so I let go, boofed and landed without a paddle. I caught the eddy with my hands and looked up at my paddle pretending to be a log wedged between the rocks. The next guy who came down knocked it out and I caught it as it floated down stream. Line #2...botched. That one was actually pretty funny and didn't rattle me. I still needed to focus more.

I thought this was on of us but it is not. Its a good shot of Frankenstein though. From Green River N...

So on to Zwicks. Sanders and Grant caught the top eddy before Reverse 7 Foot and I bombed down determined to hit a fricken line. I hit Reverse 7 perfect, punched the next hole with perfect angle and stroke which set me up high on the rock. I though I was too high but the flow pushed me back left, perfectly inline with the launch pad. As soon as I hit I threw a left stroke in and was air born. I landed softly in the foam pillow below and belted out a yell with a fist pump in the air. There is no better feeling than hitting a line perfectly that you messed up the day before. After hitting my line at Zwicks dead on, I knew it was going to be good day. My strokes felt good, I felt confident and I was on a huge high.

Clinton getting down time at Zwicks,From Green River N...

Scream Machine, Nieces Pieces, Powerslide and Rapid Transit all went super smooth and were a blast. It is a very fun series of slides. Its a like roller coaster but without with water and rocks. What? You know what I mean. At Groove Tube I decide to run the center line. I peeled out and ran just left of center over the rock shelf and BOOF. Nothing to it and very fun. I caught the river right eddy to watch Grant get redemption on the main line. The day before he went way right and flipped over the ledge landing upside down. We all thought he hit his face on the side wall but thankfully he didn't. His redeemed himself today launching farther left and landing upright.

Grants redemption at Groove Tube

Matt on center line Boof at Groove Tube From Green River N...

Me boofing center line at Groove Tube, From Green River N...

We took another breather at Sunshine, where we explored the cave and swam behind the falls. I did not swim behind the falls because I don't do underwater caves. There is just no reason for me to do go there. Thats all I will say about that. The rest of the run went great. I flipped once at a rapid I don't know the name off. It was so shallow I was able to push up on a rock and roll up. Its those little rapids that get you every time!

Grant taking photo of Sanders in the cave at Sunshine Falls

looking up at any point on the river, this is what you see. It's beautiful.

So as we approach Blackwater Falls I turn to Sanders to ask him where is the best place to go over. His response was "Ohhh, it doesn't matter, anywhere is fine." Anywhere is not fine. I boofed of a flake on the left hand side of the pour over. Grant went right in the middle and we got to watch a little beat down show for a minute or two. Everyone was laughing so hard because Grant would work his way out and then get sucked back in. Forwards, backwards, sideways, no matter which way he tried to get out it would suck him back in. Finally he worked his way out and we all cheered. We did not get it on camera though which is too bad, it was that funny. I ran the right line at Toilet bowl and stuck my line at Hammer Factor again.

Another Great day. I am still in awe at the fact that I just ran the Green River Narrows. That place is surreal and hard to imagine that it exists, tucked away in Saluda, NC. I see why so many people move to the surrounding areas to run this everyday. There is so much to learn from this river, so many different lines and eddies to catch. Clinton said to not forget to look at the scenery because it is spectacular. It really is one of the most beautiful places I have every been to. I had an amazing 2 days with some amazing people! We made it through with no swims, no bad beat downs and all smiles. I will forever remember my first descent down the Green. Running rivers is like getting tattooed. I always remember who I was with, where I was, and how much the pain felt so good! Thanks to everyone who I paddled with. I can't wait to do it again.

Our crew somewhere on the river.

For some reason Grant took shots of people peeing through the day. Here is Matt and Sanders relieving themselves. I don't know why, but this is funny to me. HAHAHAHA

"Nature is what Unites us."
–trent thibodeaux

Rock Harvesting on the Plateau

2008-06-01T22:18:00.000-04:00

So there are couple of article, threads, and posts going around about Rock Harvesting on Waldens Ridge and else where on the Cumberland Plateau. If you don't know what rock harvesting is let me tell you. Basically companies go in a extract the bedrock from sides of mountains, creek beds, trails, etc and then haul them off for sale. Not only does removing the rock destroy the eco-systems but also they construct roads and bridges and leave behind waste. For paddlers in Tennessee, I don't have to tell you how important these creeks and rivers on the plateau are to our community. Also, you don't have to be a paddler to get involved. This affects all people who care about nature and use her for sport or leisure.

A bill is being brought up called the Limited Resource Water Bill (HB4185)- it will destroy riparian water rights on 30,000 miles of streams in Tennessee. Any stream with no flow at any time of the year can be piped, cut off, filled in or otherwise destroyed with no legal repercussions or penalties. This would also mean that prosecution because of pollution would not be possible. Any stream-bed that quit flowing under any condition including drought could be filled in!

A email to the following representative OPPOSING this bill would help protect the natural water systems in our state- Please take a moment to do this!

Doug Overby (click below to email him)rep.doug.overby@legislature.state.tn.us

Joe McCord(click below to email him)
rep.joe.mccord@legislature.state.tn.us

Ray Finney (click below to email him)
sen.raymond.finney@legislature.state.tn.us

Go to this website for a form letter that you can copy and paste. It also has more people to email

http://www.waldensridgewhitewater.com/formletter.htm for a form letter you can copy and paste.

Or write a personal letter, or call.

Here are a few links with more information and about what you can do to help and to see photos of the what going on:
http://www.waldensridgewhitewater.com/
http://americanhiking.chattablogs.com/archives/064527.html
http://www.steepcreeks.com/news
http://capwiz.com/tnwf/issues/alert/?alertid=11156226

YOU!

Need to write your legislator to help get this bill passed!

The bill is SB4198 Kyle/HB4198 McDonald, the “Tennessee Non-Coal Surface Mining Law.”

By this law passing Rock Harvesting will come to and end.

This information comes from Waldens Ridge Whitewater home page so thanks guys for sharing the info.

The Cheoah River aka the "Otter"

2008-05-19T19:52:00.000-04:00

We arrived late friday night at a friends cabin up in the hills of the Nantahala National Forest. It was a very cold night for late May and we were ill prepared, totally unaware of what the temperature would fall to. I still don't know what it was, but it was really fricken cold.

As we awoke and began to head to the Cheoah river, the sun began to heat the air and clear skies gave us a perfect day for paddling. We drove through some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen making this trip even more spectacular. We arrived at the put-in around 11 to find a half littered parking lot of rafters and kayakers ready to take on the day.

After unloading, gearing up, setting shuttle and stretching, Matthew and I slide down the launch and began our trip. The Cheoah is a class III-IV run that is pretty continuous, with lots of over grown trees (20 foot trees in the middle of the river) strewn about. This being my first time down, I was surprised at how tight the river was and how continuous the flow was. The first section is a great warm up to what lies past the Forest Service Bridge. Lots of read and run class III boogie water and tree dodging. Once we reached the bridge the action picked up with entrance to Bear Creek, Bear Creek Falls, The West Prong Line or Bear Creek Rapid, Tapoco Lodge Rapid and Yard Sale. Once we reached the Entrance rapid we got out to scout the falls. Both Matthew and I decided to run the center line which entails paddling up a rock face onto the top ledge and then boofing off the ledge into the hole below. The line is fairly straight forward and lots of fun. There is two other lines one being on river left which is a 10 feet or so and another line on river right.

From Cheoah May 17...

Matthew coming in on the center line

From Cheoah May 17...

Me coming in on the center line

Here is a short video of the two of us running the center line at Bear Creek Falls on low release day.

Hitting the boof on river left in Entrance Rapid

Matthew on second drop of center line Bear Creek Falls

Before heading down we did a quick rescue for this guy who went off the center line upside down and backwards. I was only able to rescue his paddle while his friends grabbed him and his boat headed down stream. Matthew was in an eddy before the West Prong Line waiting for me, so once I returned the guys paddle I caught back up with him.

AHH, The West Prong line! Unaware of what this actually was, Matthew tells me to keep my boat straight and paddle. So I am thinking, "Okay, no big deal I can do that." Well...I did not realize how tight and steep this little section was. I guess I should have realized it by the name. So, I can't really describe it due to me being completely taken off guard and trying quickly to adjust to what was happening. Its non-stop boofing and boulder bouncing, and very quick reactionary timing. I almost flipped a couple times but thanks to my WS Habitats great secondary stability I was able to brace and snap back up. Swimming here would not be fun. Matthew was only about 10 feet in front of me but I don't remember seeing him at all until we arrived at the eddy below. As soon as I turned into the eddy I started laughing and turned to Matthew with a look on my face that was like "What the Hell was that". I was not expecting to run that at all and as Matt put so delicately " I think you talked to Jesus in there". I am still laughing about it today because it was so fun even though I was not ready for it and had to quickly turn on the "focus". It was great practice for the "unexpected". I know now why it is called the "West Prong" line.

We paddled on to the Tapoco Lodge rapid which is read and run rapid nothing major and then down to the final rapid named Yard Sale. There are several large holes that tend to make boaters come out of there boats leaving their gear to litter the river, hence the name Yard Sale. We started middle, right of the river working our way river right and then back to middle and made through unscathed. It is a beautiful, very fun run. I wish it ran more often.

We ran it again on Sunday from the the Forest Service Bridge to the take-out at very low water. I think the gauge was at 550 cfs which is low compared to the day before at 1000cfs. The run is very boney with lots of sketchy lines. On the Entrance Rapid Matthew went over a drop and got pinned between the curtain and a rock. This forced him to let go of his paddle in order to keep from getting pushed down and pinned further. He was able to push on the rock and free himself with his hands but lost his paddle while doing so. This guy Jason who we met at the put-in let him borrow a paddle so he could continue down river. Thanks Jason!!

Ohh, also, we scouted Yellow Creek while we were there and it looks like a great little run with a very clean 20 footer. The hike to the falls sucked really bad. Matthew slipped on a rock and busted his knee and I twisted my ankle. Thanks God we were not carrying boats.

From Yellow Creek

click on the Yellow Creek title to see more Yellow creek photos

All in all it was great weekend of paddling. I really had lots of fun on this run and I thank the Cheoah River for letting us have such a great day. I think this is my new favorite run! Too bad it doesn't run more often. Also, I added 2 songs for the theme of this trip. They both make me happy just like the Cheoah.

nature is what unites us
– trent thibodeaux

Tallulah Gorge 2008

2008-04-18T02:45:00.000-04:00

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading and watching and dreaming about running Tallulah Gorge. My stomach was already in knots a week before the trip. I had to stop watching videos and reading blogs and info about the river because it was becoming an obsession. This is the biggest water I have been on not counting the Upper Gauley and we all know what happened there. So, I was really nervous but very excited to be running this beautiful creek. I left Friday morning to meet Grant and Mary Jo on the Pigeon for a quick warm up. Its like a mini Ocoee with less rapids but I did get to take a look at Big Creek which looks pretty cool.

We set camp Friday night and enjoyed some pre-paddle talk around the...well... the ice chests. It rained that night and a little that morning, but turned into a great day by the time we left for the put-in. It wasn't until we started gearing up that I started getting those pesky butterflies in my stomach. While the shuttle was being set I stretched really well, more than I normally would and downed a Red Bull for that extra energy boost. Not that I needed it due to the mass amount of adrenaline that was pumping through my body, I knew the hike to the put-in is 600 stairs and then once you do put-on the water its GO time.

By the time I got in the water my heart was racing and I knew it was time to focus. For the first time I really felt the need to focus. Focus on where I was going, what line I had to take and be able to react to what the river handed me. I never had to be that focused before. I literally told myself before every rapid, "okay Trent, Focus." The run is like 1.5 miles long with 20 or so rapids, needless to say it was intense.

Here is a link to check them out rapids: http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_506_

Making it through the first rapid Last Step up-right was very reassuring. Sorry Grant but I have to burn you here. Grant swam on this rapid. Sure, I believe you when you says you were just trying to cool off from the 600 stair climb. Haha. You still rocked it! Tanners Boof was next and is probably the most fun auto-boof I have been on. Point your boat on the launch pad and the river sends you flying off a 6-7 rock into the pool below.

MRP running Oceana and Bridal Veil

From the eddy after Tanner Boof you can see the horizon line for Oceana, which is pretty intimidating. Oceana is a 60-70' monster. It is a slide with a rock shelf 3/4 of the way down that creates "The Thing." There are 2 lines, one down the left side, which is easier but has more consequence (broken legs, shoulders, teeth, boat) or the center line. The center line consists of hitting the massive foam pile and then riding the the shelf around The Thing on the left side and then punching the hole at the bottom. By this point in the trip I am still some what nervous and this being the 3rd rapid I decided to walk it. Next time, its on!

me running Bridal Veil

The rest of the run is pretty non-stop. Bridal Veil is 30' slide that was really fun and super easy.
Zoom Flume is a fun narrow slide, then there are several more rapids until Toms Brain Buster. This was one of the rapids that I was nervous about before just because it looks nasty. It is really manky with a very large rock right in the middle of it. A few of us ran the left line which consisted of a 3-4 boof into a small little pool. You then round the corner and cut back to river right boofing off the side of a large rock into to pool below. There are more rapids that were intense and fun but honestly I don't remember them all. Everything happened really fast and being so focused on where I was going I didn't have time to think about what was happening. I do know this– Tallulah is the longest 1.5 of whitewater I have ever been on. Not to mention when we finally got to the end we had to paddle 2 miles of flat water to the take-out.

But in the end it was well worth it. I definitely pushed my abilities on this run and learn a tremendous amount about running rivers, and also about pushing myself mentally and physically. It is such a huge feeling of accomplishment when I look back on the day and realize what I just did. To be able to be in a place that beautiful and experience nature up close like I did is truly and honor. This is by far the most amazing paddling experience I have had so far. I think this high will linger with me for awhile.

The next day a few us decided to run the Chattooga Section 3.5 and 4. This run is amazing. The rapids are really fun, even though most have a pretty good consequence if you mess them up. I think my favorite rapids on this run would have to be Corkscrew, Jawbone into Hydro and then SockemDog. SockemDog is what the photos at the end of the slide-show are. Its a great boof as long as you aim right. I ran it twice. The first time I aimed for the center of the rock, but right as I approached, a cross-current pushed me to the left and I penciled in, flipped, and rolled up. The 2nd time I aimed far right so when the current pushed, it did so to the middle and I boofed the hell out of it. Another beautiful day, in a beautiful gorge, with another 2 mile flat water paddle at the end. Except this 2 mile paddle had a head wind. Ohh, and also this section is where Deliverance was shot, so that is pretty cool. Anyway, I had a wonderful 3 days of paddling, met some great people and loved every minute of it. I think my calves are still a little sore from the 600 steps but its all good. Wish all you Murfreesboro boys could have been there.

"nature is what unites us"
–trent thibodeaux

To truly overcome your fear is to be alive.

2008-03-20T15:43:00.000-04:00

put to sleep by a foggy eeriness

awakened by a beautiful morning

Opening day on the Ocoee had to be the most surreal day of paddling I have ever experienced. The rain continued to fall from the night before and created a haze over the entire river. We ran Broken Nose rapid and pulled over in an eddy due to lack of visibility. The mist that was created by the wind and rain allowed for about 3 meters ( I am trying to learn the metric system) of visibility. After the rains retired some, we continued down the river for a wonderful day of paddling. Once at the Doldrums the sky's decided drop more rain, turning the Doldrums into millions of bouncing rain drops splattering all around. It was as if the river was laughing and we riding on the chuckles. The night that followed was classic; with a fire, beer, great friends, and lots of stories making a great welcoming to this years Spring paddling season.

The Spout is 2nd falls from left, Mill Side is far right behind small trees

The rains came again later in the week dropping up to 10 cm of water in some places. When this much water falls the Great Falls at Rock Island spills over creating numerous 6 m clean waterfalls. I have wanted to huck these falls for awhile now and my chance finally arrived.This is the largest vertical drop that I have been over so I was fairly nervous about it. I was following Nick, with Airen taking the rear. The Mill Side falls has a small 1.2 m slide into a small moving pool with eddy access on river right. I went for the eddy, and after noticing Nick did not get the eddy I immediately turned around trying to see the point of exit. By doing this I was sideways and the push of the water shove me farther than I wanted to be forcing me to go over sideways. This was the first time I really experienced the free fall feel. I have been over some smaller falls (3m-4.5m) but this was unrivaled.

Being an ex-pole vaulter I know what falling through the air is like but this was amazing. I rolled up and paddled to the next falls, The Spout. I climbed up the wall feeling more nervous than before. While getting in my boat there were many many thoughts running through my head. "You don't have to do this," "This is too much" "I should sell my creek boat." "aaaahhhhh," "This is too big, I can't handle this." were just a few of the thoughts that ran through my head, along with some internal fighting of the opposite postion. Now, if you would have been there you would think I had done this a million times (I am great at hiding my fear, which can be good and bad, so if you do see my fear, tell me, because that means I am beyond scared and should not paddle.) Needless to say I got in my boat, screamed out one yell and huck the hell out of it. I didn't have the greatest form but overcoming my fear was the greatest reward.

FEAR is amazing emotion. It does different things to different people and appears in different forms. For me, fear showed up as this little voice that tried to trick me into thinking I could not do something that I knew I had the capabilities in doing. I over came this fear by getting in my boat, & paddling to the point of no return. This forced me to turn that voice off and concentrate on my ability and what I was about to do. Honestly, when I started paddling towards the falls the only thing that was going through my mind was, hit the seam, paddle, lean forward and enjoy the ride. Once over the falls all that fear turned into confidence. Funny how fear gets converted into confidence once you overcome it. Its like it wasn't even there.

Lesson for the day: Don't let fear make you question your ability.
"To truly overcome your fear is to be alive."

nature is whats unites us
– trent thibodeaux

Warming Up in the Cold

2008-03-08T17:25:00.000-05:00

Snow has finally fallen this winter and with the Spring paddling season just around the corner, I felt the need to do a little winter warm up. I'm not talking about biking, or working out at the gym. What I am talking about is some snow kayaking – sort of. Abby, our friend Wendy and our friend Quinn drove down to Shelby park in East Nashville for some kayak sledding. It was the only medium for sledding that we had and it worked really well. Who would have thought that we would be sledding in East Nashville with a kayak at the beginning of March? Not I, but on this beautiful snowy day it was great to get outside and act like a kid again. Although coming from Louisiana I didn't see much snow as a kid, but you know what I mean. Here are some photos of us having a great time on a golf course hill on the "East Side".

Me assessing the situation

Abby taking it head on. WEEEEEEE!

Quinn laughing all the way down.

My turn to ride.

If you can't spit before you put on, then don't.

2008-02-28T23:11:00.001-05:00

My friend Christian told me that last year when I was learning how to paddle and I will always remember that.

I decided to post this blog because the NOC paddling blog just posted something on knowing when to run a rapid, river, etc and then Chris Gragtman posted something as well. So, I feel then need to spread the love and let the very few people that read my blog be informed of this information. NOC blog link: http://nocpaddlingschool.blogspot.com/

Here is Chris' post:
Chris Gragtman posted this awhile back and reposted it resently about how to know when you are unsure if you are ready to run a river. I hope Chris G doesn't mind me posting this but I think it is very insightful. He is talking about running Toxaway, Horsepasture, & Linville Gorge but it applies to any river that you are unsure if you are ready for it. Its a bit long but I think its worth the read.

So for anyone else who may be interested, it's none of my business who paddles these rivers. It's your personal decision to put on any river, and everyone has a different perception of what it takes to be "ready." For me personally, I prefer to overprepare for hard whitewater, because let's face it, the consequences of messing up are not losing a game or taking a hit to your ego like other sports... we are all aware that class 5 rivers can kill us. So I know that you can get down these rivers without putting in nearly as much time; the following is just what works for me, because I love the feeling of sticking a hard river, and knowing I've still got reserve energy at the takeout.

I like Clay's comments about "on-siting" rivers. It's totally true that we are not necessarily capable of paddling rapids as big as the biggest ones on our local runs in foreign territory... Familiarity breeds complacency, and I am sure that if Gorilla was on any other natural flow river, it wouldn't get run nearly as much. Both Toxaway and Raven Fork require you to run rapids that are as big or bigger, and you can't spend an hour scouting each one, and watch ten people go first, like on Gorilla.(keep in mind I am talking about RUNNING these rivers... if it's your thing to drop into huge rivers, and walk all of the rapids, that's your choice, I just don't see a point in this) So in preparation for the Toxaway and Raven's, I would advise that you be mentally capable, have the fitness required, and have the paddling skills required. If any of these are missing, it's going to be a long day. Here's how I think of it:

Mental Skills... The simple fact of the matter is, adrenaline wears you out. It gives you short lived bursts of incredible energy and excitement, but during a long day of class 5, the adrenaline spikes will beat you down and cause your mind to slow down. Ever hear Tommy Hilleke talk about the thousand yard stare? That's what he's talking about... So in that respect paddling the Raven Fork, Toxaway, or Linville(or on the extreme edge of the scale, Middle Kings, or Stikine, or Tsangpo) will be mental overload if you're not accustomed to dealing with more than just one or two runs on the Green River. Basically for this I would suggest thinking about how you feel after getting off a class 5 creek. If you get off the Green after a run or two and you're exhausted and spent, think about paddling and portaging for another couple of miles, and then hiking 4 miles up a ridge to get back to your car. Basically, paddling those rivers requires you to be in control of yourself, and on your paddling game for extended periods of time. This takes practice, and all of us eventually get exhausted and hit a mental wall, you just have to know at what point that will happen for you personally, and if the river that you are going to do is realistic considering that.

Paddling Skills... There are hard moves on those rivers, and you need to be able to stick them every time. I like to put myself in hypothetical situations on rivers that I know are not too dangerous, and test myself... ie tell yourself "make that eddy, or you flush into a sieve", or stick that boof with a fader right stroke, and then carve over to river right and stick that other boof into an eddy. If you don't make it, think about why you didn't make it and what you will do differently next time. When you screw up big rapids, don't just laugh it off and think that it's no big deal! Obviously not everything about a river can be in our control, but we should strive for perfection with lines that we know. Big Creek and the Green are my two favourite places to do skills training, they are both incredible for that. I would suggest learning how to run each of these rivers(or any local river for those that don't live in NC) in race mode, straight downstream and fast... as well as know how to catch every eddy in the rapids. On the Green, check out the recent issue of LVM with Tommy's top ten eddies... then go catch them! If you are running Gorilla every time(and in my opinion you should be if you want to run Toxaway or Raven Fork), practice every line. Sit in the eddy above and visualize exactly what strokes you are going to take and where you're going to be looking. Decide if you are going direct or catching the notch eddy. Try and run it with the minimal amount of strokes possible... substitute rudders to keep you on line. If you can start breaking down big rapids like that, you're definitely ready to take a look at the Toxaway and Raven's. Basically the point is just push yourself on your home rivers, at a number of different water levels, to see what you are actually capable of.

Physical fitness... I've been in situations where I'm exhausted from portaging drops, and paddling hard class 5, and even though my arms are limp, I know I need to stick another mile or so of boogie until the takeout. This is when dangerous mistakes are made. On my first run down the Toxaway when I was 17, my only carnage of the day happened in a class 4 boogie rapid after wintergreen... I was exhausted and not paying attention, and fell off the wrong side of a boof rock, directly into a log. This wouldn't have happened if I was in better shape and had the energy to stick every move on the river. These days, I incorporate Ledges attainment training sessions into my creekboating schedule, as well as something else that Pat Keller has always been into... the Green River shoulder shuttle. This is sick training for hiking out of Linville, Horsepasture, Toxaway, or for the even bigger Cali hikes. It also saves gas... and allows you to poach without needing anyone else to give you a ride. Paddle down to Sunshine, take out, hike back up to Groove Tube, and hike up the trail and out of the gorge to the road. It's about 2 miles to the road, and then leave your boat and jog 3.5 to the Gallimore parking lot. It takes almost exactly the same time as paddling out, loading up, and shuttling back. It is painful, but it gets you in shape. That's just a suggestion, other cardiovascular sports are great too, but I enjoy putting on music and grunting that shit out. Either way, the point is... be in shape.

Phew... anyways, sorry I'm getting a bit carried away. Here's what I personally think about the Toxaway and Raven's Fork preparation in a nutshell:
-Run the biggies on the Green(up to a medium to high 100%) or other rapids elsewhere of similar caliber and STICK them. Just because you're flopping down shit and making it doesn't mean you're skilled enough to run it.
-Be in shape.
-Be prepared and relaxed about running some very very big rapids. Go with someone who knows it well, and go with your gut instinct on the rapids.
**Ask your friends who know you well and who have paddled the rivers what their honest opinion is.**

"nature is what unites us all"
–trent

Beautiful Rock Island Day

2008-02-17T13:01:00.000-05:00

Something serious must be going on over there??

When the the temperature is 58 degrees in the middle of February there is only one thing to do. Paddle. Paddle. Paddle. Okay, so maybe 3 things to do. This past Saturday a few of us went down to Rock Island for a little play session. I haven't been to the Rock since November so I was pretty anxious to go. Ian and I got down there around 10:00, which left us about 2 hours of solid play time. Nick and Grant showed up around 11:00 which was a pleasant surprise, and Owen and John were already there. The hole was pumping at 3500 the entire time which is a great level. I have only played in it at around 3000, so when Owen said it was 3500 I was really excited. The difference between 500 cfs is huge. The hole is definitely more munchy and way more steeper and faster with a much larger foam pile. Its a little intimidating but with the temp. being so high the beat downs didn't seem as frigid.

Go Big, Go Big!...I didn't go big.

Today I threw the biggest blunt I have ever thrown and I realized that because I was already faces the wave thinking I was in a back surf but I had not even hit the water yet. As excited as I was, it surprised me and I immediately flipped and got munched long enough to take a breather when I finally worked my way out. Its funny how you get so excited to get in the hole and play but when you get a good thrashing you want ever so badly to get hell out. I guess thats just part of playboating. All in all it was great day. Ian and Grant also had a great day at Rock Island; how could you not, the weather was amazing. Nick also threw down in the hole as usual. He even puked a few times. Right on Nick! Next time I am brining my camera so I can get pics of everyone.

In transition.

I am looking forward to Spring when it warms up a bit and the waters start to move. Hopefully I can get Abby out on the water with me more than last year. She is in her final semester of school and I know she is ready to take on some white water. It always makes for a better day when she with me on the water.

"nature is what unites us all."
–trent

Guest Appreciation Festival: Nantahala, NC

2008-02-10T18:15:00.001-05:00

A few words and then mostly photos. I know its a little late for a 2007 GAF blog but I found these photos so what the hell. GAF was pretty fun this year. We camp at Brian's camp which is awesome by the way, much thanks to Brian for his hospitality and wonderful cooking not to mention a place to crash. Some boated the Nanty some did not I being one who did not. That sunday following, we all took creek boats down the Ocoee, which is fun but really fast. It took maybe an hour to get down. Anyway it was alot of fun hanging out with everyone there, Thanks so much. I met some new people which is always great.
Here are a few photos from that trip

Inner Peace on the Big South Fork

2008-02-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

Finally, after 32 days into the new year I get to go boating. A fairly large system moved into the Cumberland Plateau bringing the water levels up enough for some great paddling. I really wanted to run Island Creek but it takes so much to get it going that running Island was a definite no. So our crew decided to go to Big South Fork.

We had a fairly large group of paddlers. I believe 8 of us headed down there. Me, Matthew, Brandon, Tim, Grant, Airen, Ian, and Robert. We also had 3 shuttle bunnies Megan, Brooke and Myra. They are the greatest shuttle bunnies of all times. Only about half of had made this run before but we were still very excited. Its not a technical run, just fun rapids and wave trains inside this amazing gorge in the middle of nowhere. My favorite kind of paddling.

We arrived at the put-in around 12:30 and met up with some other boaters that had quite a few paddlers with them. The weather was a cool 50 something degrees, the water felt like 35-40 degrees and at around 2200cfs. Needless to say it was a great day to paddle. The first couple or rapids are great warm ups. Easy read and run Class II & III boogie stuff. We all pulled off when we got to Double Drop and watched a few other boaters run and swim this rapid. Matthew got out, scouted and shouted the line to us. I know its always a good idea to scout yourself even if there is only one line to take, but thats the great thing about paddling with the group of paddlers that I paddle with. I trust them completely and I always feel confident and safe. I went first and didn't go far enough left to hit the auto boof so when I landed in the hole below the first drop it caught my stern and shot me up in the air and flipped me. I rolled up, turned around and paddled forward through the second drop. The great thing about going first is that you get to watch everyone else run the rapid and hopefully the do or don't do what you just did. Everyone made it through perfectly fine until Robert, he is the only open boater, went. He was actually completely through the rapid but he hit a rock at the bottom of the 2nd Drop, flipped and swam. This rapid is not the best place to swim because there is a log pile up on river right and then Washing Machine comes immediately after that. Grant and I chases is boat but by the time we flipped it over the current had pushed us down too far and we were headed right into Washing Machine. So Grant let his boat go down first has we followed. Grant was finally able to get to the side and pull the boat ashore. No one was hurt and it gave Grant and I a great opportunity to scout the next rapid, The Ell. I will thank Robert for allowing us to do that. HA

The Ell is a really cool feature on this river. Its like Tablesaw on the Ocoee but with a curler at the end that changes your direction 90 degrees. Since I had found the line, I went first. Basically, left of center into the curler with a slight left angle. The Curler does the rest. Its like a very very small Pillow Rock rapid on the Lower Gauley River. Actually this entire river feels like a smaller Lower Gauley run. Huge boulders lie in the middle of a wide river. Its a very remote gorge run that is just similar in style to the Gauley River. Anyway, I hit the eddy on river left and watched the rest of the crew fly down. Well, when Robert takes his turn he hits the curler at the bottom, but instead of forcing him right he keeps straight and nails the rock, which stops him completely and flips him. None of us had ever seen a boat hit a rock that hard before. When he slammed into the rock we all immediatly looked and then started to paddle his way. Besides the swim, it was probably my favorite on the river not counting the last mile to half mile or so that is just fun Class III read and run non-stop rapid/wave train. There is a wave right at the end of this rapid that at higher levels would probably be surfable but it was not retentive at all.

The rest of the run was great. There are a few spots of flat water but nothing to agonizing. We took out at the O & W bridge, which at higher levels would have a great surfing wave. It was a perfect day of boating with all my friends. There was a moment floating down in one of the flat water spots where I looked up and stared at a clear blue sky, trees poking their tops in soaking up the sun, the next rapid growing louder in the distance, and I thought to my self, "this is the ultimate zen." This is why I do this. Sure its the adrenaline, the unknown, being with friends, the adventure, but most importantly, its the inner peace that it gives me. Its a moment of clarity where I feel connected with nature and myself more than any other time and it forces me to realize what is most important in my life. This is why I paddle now, and why I will continue to paddle for the rest of my life. I just wish I could have that feeling everyday.

we are truly united in nature
– trent thibodeaux

2008

2008-01-15T21:24:00.000-05:00

Not much paddling has been going on since 2008 started some 25 days ago. Actually no paddling has happened. Its been pretty cold here in middle Tennessee and being from southern Louisiana anything below 40 degrees is really freaking cold to me. Even with the proper gear its still too cold for me. One day I am sure I will get used to it but the cold plays such a vital roll in whether or not I want to paddle, that right now I am temporarily on kayak break until it warms up. Thank god for the pool sessions.

I do have one bit of bad news that I want to talk about. A good friend of mine, Yvette Bodin, was in a tragic car accident last Thursday and was killed. I don't really understand the story about what happened but I will give you the short version.

Yvette and her boyfriend Justin were driving and somehow stalled out on some train tracks. They got out of the car and tried to push it off. Well, Justin got back in the car, I guess to try and start it again. Yvette noticed a train was coming so she ran up to the car to warn Justin. The train hit the car with Justin in it and then forced the car to hit Yvette killing her at the scene. I don't understand why she was unable to get back far enough to before the train hit or as to why Justin got back in the car but we will probably never know.

Yvette was a good friend. I met her in 1996 i believe and remained friends the entire time. Through her I met many other great people that I know consider friends. She was a great person, really fun to be around and just an amazing woman. She will be missed.

Didn't mean to bring the mood down but I thought it was worth talking about. Anyway, hopefully the weather will warm up soon. This staying indoors thing is killing me. I also just put on a new crank set for my bike and its too cold to ride that. What the hell. Sometimes Winter just sucks.

Last River of 2007

2008-01-05T19:38:00.000-05:00

I managed to get one more new river in before my first paddling year came to an end. After many months without anything flowing in Tennessee, we finally got enough rain to make some rivers flow and stay flowing. Enough rain that we actually had choices as to which river we wanted to paddle.

We decided to on the Tellico which made me really happy. I have been wanting to run the Tellico for a while and I finally got the chance to do so. After a few phone calls and some really quick planning I met some friends in Murfreesboro and we took off. We had a pretty good group on such short notice. I guess everyone was ready to paddle. Me, Matthew, Brandon, and Megan in one car and Robert, Grant, Airen and MJ in another. We also met 2 more people when we got there that paddled with us. We arrived pretty late so we only did one run but it was so worth it.

The Tellico is a really fun run. Not real technical not real pushy, just fun drops and boofs. I was a little nervous putting on but I get that way everytime no matter how often I run the same river. We warmed up a bit and then it was on. We dropped in on the ledges with ease. Just some good old fashion boof after boof. I love it. When we got to Baby Falls I didn't realize we were there. I thought we were at Diaper Wiper. Well, I went right down the center of the falls through the meat. Luckily I had enough speed to put me away from the curtain. Right when I got to the lip and planted my stroke is when I realized it was baby falls, so what runs through my head is, Oh, shit, here is the falls. It was pretty funny taking a 12 plunge without knowing it until you are headed down. Luckily it was only 12 feet. It was still lots of fun.

Diaper Wiper was pretty cool. I was to far left and ran right into the rock. No big, just kept paddling on. Everyone made it through with no problems. So far is was a great day on river. Next up was the most significant rapid on the Tellico; Jared's Knee. Its a fun rapid with a nice boof at the end. I don't remember if I went before Grant or after but I wish I could have seen him get worked in the hole right above the actual jared's knee rock. He then went over the knee upside down on river right ontop of a piece of wood and then rolled up down river. Grant said he got worked pretty bad and the on lookers were watching intensely. He came out with a few scrapes and bruises on his arm, nothing too bad. I so wish I could have seen it though.

We met up with the rest of the crew to run the lower and had a great time. The weather, along with the gorge was absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to go back and maybe run some laps next time. It was a great first trip down with no problems.

I have learned a tremedous amount my first year of paddling. Through busting my eardrum and gashing my face on the gauley to throwing my first blunt in Hell Hole on the Ocoee, I have learned to stay calm, stay focused and aware, and to have fun. Thanks to everyone who I have paddled with this year. I can't wait for what is to come for 2008.

United in Nature T-shirts

2008-01-05T15:06:00.001-05:00

U.N. kayak t-shirts are available now for $20.00. Style: long sleeve American Apparel
Color: Navy
Sizes Available: M and L
There are 2 options.
1. the logo on front center and large artwork on back
2. the logo on top back of shirt and large artwork on center front. Shipping is included. You can email me @ trentthib@gmail.com for a paypal invoice. Free Shipping

Random Paddling Photos

2008-01-04T20:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, this post is mainly photos that I have found that I want to post up. They are all random from different places.
This is from early last year on the Locust Fork in Alabama
Ocoee Double Trouble Rapid
The lower Gauley River right before 5 boater hole

This was a trip Abby and I took to the Nantahala River

My new blog

2008-01-04T19:16:00.000-05:00

I started this blog so that I came keep track of my adventures and also so that I can share these adventures with my friends and family. I will try and post something as often as possible even if it has nothing to do with paddling. So, I hope you enjoy.

thanks so much and wish me safe paddling

trent thibodeaux

Its all in my head

2007-12-05T19:37:00.000-05:00

Okay, so Nick and I along with our friend Brent went back to Rock Island this morning. The weather was warmer and I did not sprain my ankle today. Goodie! We had about 1.5 hours to paddle today by the time we got there and we seal launched the 20footer. Dropping 20ft into cold ass water is an excellent way to wake up and fun too.

We paddled around some to get warmed up and then off to the hole. After some helpful suggestions from Eric Jackson I was finally able to get in the hole and figure some things out.

The playhole at Rock Island can be pretty intimidating and being able to think about staying in the hole rather than thinking about whether or not I can get out of the hole makes a huge difference. That switch in mentality allowed me to be more confident while surfing. All I did to flip this mentality was to make myself roll in the hole.
I rolled in it instead of it rolling me which may have given me a false sense of control but whatever works right? It was wonderful. Blunts were thrown, cartwheels were...wheeled(?) and I was actually able to stay in the hole and move about freely. I was in control rather than the hole in control of me. What a concept. Anyway, I feel really good about today and I feel like I have redeemed myself. Thank you Mr. EJ for the words, they helped out tremendously. Can't wait to get back out there and do it all over.

see ya.

trent

Redemption will be Sweet

2007-12-04T19:35:00.000-05:00

So, last Friday my friend Nick and I went up to Rock Island for some early morning, cold as crap paddling. I was pretty stoked that Rock Island was finally releasing. I have only paddled it once before and the rodeo hole was actually the first hole that I ever surfed. For some reason I tend to throw myself into situations that are above my ability. Not that it is dangerous for me just that these situations tend to be a little more advanced for me since I have only been paddling for about a year now. For example: I paddled Island Creek up near the Emory River having only paddled the Hiwassee and the Nantahala. It was one of those situations where you either learn quickly or you are in serious trouble.

Well, I arrived at Nicks house and started to load up the car. I placed my boat first and then Nicks next. As I put his boat on top of my car I bent down to grab the straps and Nicks boat comes crashing down breaking my side view mirror off my car. Well, not completely off. It was hanging on by some wires. It is not the way I like to start off my mornings. So, we loaded up and then drove the hour to Rock Island with my side mirror dangling off the side of my car.

When we arrive, the site of Rock Island is an amazing site. It feels like you are in Costa Rica or something with this large waterfall coming off the side and this wonderful section of the river flowing right beside it. Its beautiful. We gear up and start to hike down the rocks to the riverside. I am feeling pretty good, and very excited to get in the water since its been like a month since I have paddled last. I take my last step at the bottom of the hill with my left foot and my ankle twists sending me and my boat crashing down. I didn't hear a pop, so I know I didn't sprain it but it was hurting pretty bad. I told Nick to go ahead while I sit out for a few minutes. I tried to get in my boat about 10 minutes later and could not bend my ankle to fit in my boat. Everytime I twisted my foot to get situated it sent a hellacious pain up my ankle. So, I sat out for about 30 minutes wondering if I was going to be able to paddle.

Waking up at 5 am and driving to Rock Island on this beautiful day, I decided that hurt ankle or not I was going to paddle. So, I squeezed in my boat and situated my ankle in a position that was managable. The only thing that sucked was that I could not push down with my left foot which left me pretty much handicap all day.

My first trip in the hole was awful. Along with my second, third and well pretty much all the rest of my runs. It was as though I never surfed in a hole before. The worst part about it was that 3 of the best paddlers in the world were also there EJ, Clay Wright and Stephen Wright. So, my 2nd trip to Rock Island, I managed to knock my sideview mirror off, twist my ankle and have the most awful playboating ever in front of the worlds best paddlers. It was a wonderful day.

With all that said, the I will be back to Rock Island sometime this week when it runs and redeme myself. Not for anyone else but me. I know I can playboat better than that and its a personal thing for me to do the best I can everytime I paddle, even if I am hurt. All weekend long its all I could think about. Redemption will be sweet. The only thing I can do now is put that trip aside and focus on what I know how to do.

A little break can be nice

2007-10-21T19:43:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally am able to go paddling again after I put a hole in my eardrum at Gauley. I received the clearance from the doctor so I drove down to the Ocoee on Saturday for a little park and play action at hell hole.

What a great day. The most people that were there at one time was about 6-7 which is perfect. Not too many that you are waiting in line the entire time, but not to few where you wear yourself out. Perfect. The weather was absolutely beautiful and hell hole was excellent.

Since I haven't paddle since Gauley Fest I wasn't sure how that would affect my paddling. Would I be stiff and sluggish or would I be loose and snappy? I say, loose....and....snappy. It was great. I think the 2.5 week break was really helpful. I was able to really concentrate on what I was doing and because I was fresh, I was able to look at things from a new perspective. Now, I can't do many tricks yet, but I'm pretty happy with my paddling on saturday. I had way more control going up and down the face of the wave which led me to do some pretty nice biggy blunts. I had a few nice backstabs and a loop that I almost landed clean but didn't. All in all I was pretty stoked about it.

On Sunday my friend Grant and I drove back down to the Ocoee to run the middle section. I don't know if it is because I have ran the Gauley or if it because I took a little break but I felt really smooth running the river on sunday. I took it easy at the top paddling aggressively but calm. I caught 2 eddies at broken nose. I always catch the micro above but never the one right below. Well on sunday I did. Also, I caught 3 eddies on river left at tablesaw, which I had not done before. I always go for the boof on river right. Everything felt controlled and smooth. I guess it might be a combination of having run larger water and having to push myself (which in turn makes me learn faster), and taking a little break. Whatever it was, I like it. Sunday was probably the best I have paddled this year as far as control, and technique.

The only problem with taking some time off is that I am so sore right now. My entire body from neck to my calves are sore. I guess I need to be more active when not paddling. I will have some photos up soon.

That new river feeling

2007-10-05T19:40:00.000-04:00

First Gauley Fest and I was not disappointed. Thousands of people all with one thing in common, water. Rafters, kayakers, open boaters, and random party people all in one place having a great time and paddling an amazing river. What an experience, especially for someone who is new to the paddling scene like myself. Having only been paddling for about a year now, I was completely overwhelmed by the friendliness, and hospitality of everyone who attended and everyone involved. Nice job AW.

Being that this was my first time down I was pretty stoked. I haven't paddled a new river in a while and I forgot what that new river feelings is like. You get warmed up to get in your boat with butterflies in your stomach from the excitement and the nervousness of running something new. Every bend you go around, you stretch your neck out to see whats next; every horizon line you do the same. Its a magical feeling. Once you finish a rapid and look back up to see what you have just accomplished is one of the most exhilarating moments you can experience. Its like a child exploring in the woods. Everything is so grandiose, and fantastic. Its something you have to experience for yourself.

The Lower Gauley was so much fun. I have never been in holes that large, or waves that deep. When you are able to play on features that large an entire new level opens up and you are able to do things that you only dream of. Throwing end after end in hole and looking up, only to realize that your are sandwiched between to towering walls of rock. WOW. Its very surreal. I had a blast on the lower and was very excited for what the next would bring to me on the Upper Gauley.

The Upper Gauley for me was my next level. I new the lower would be lots of fun and would push me my abilities. But, running the Upper was definitely an experience that made me respect rivers that much more. For me, and this being the largest river of my career thus far, this river really pushed my ability to run and rapid and read it at the same time. I was able to make corrections quickly to avoid trouble spots and I learned to use the rivers features to help me get through spots. Once you can learn to work with the river instead of against it, paddling becomes way more fun.

After paddling insignificant I turned around and had that moment of serenity. That moment of awe, and feeling of accomplishment that I haven't felt in a while. It was truly amazing. Pillow Rock was another awesome rapid. After several minutes of watching the carnage and other paddlers go down, it was my turn to tackle the beast. I was determined to get into the Room of Doom my first time down. I paddled straight for down the river left side and stuck it. As soon as I hit the eddy, a wave pushes me over and I do a bow stall and then over and ride the rapid upside down. Well, at least I hit the eddy, right. Also, if you didn't happen to be at Pillow and witness my friends throwing Nick Murphy off of pillow rock in the rapid, and Nich landing perfectly to ride down and surf the bottom you missed out. It was SICK. Here is the link to YOUTUBE. Its about 2:33 minutes into the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIj2gNG-UeU

Lastley was lost paddle where I made it through the 1st drop fine and on the 2nd drop flipped over in the beginning rapid slamming my face and ear against a rock. I rolled up completely dazed, not being able to hear, seeing double, and having no balance. It was a very scary feeling. I had no control of my boat and was still moving down river through the last drop. I made it over a pour over to then side surf a hole which flipped me and by that point I was so discombobulated that I pulled my skirt and swam. I rested for about 20-30 minutes and talked it over with my friends. Which I want to add here, that it is really important that the people you paddle with are cool. My paddling buddies are awesome. I decided to paddle the smaller stuff and walk the larger rapids due to when I tried to roll again the same thing happened with my balance. Come to find I, I put a small hole in my eardrum. It sucked but all in all itwas worth it.

Needless to say that new river feeling was gone, but the memory is there. One of the best experiences of my life.

Trent Thibodeaux