# Lost oars on Ark



## hichek

Lost an old rope wrapped wooden oar in the Gorge on the Ark Sun 6/21. Nine footer with a fiber glass repair to paddle. Help=Beer


----------



## pearen

I lost one too. Red tubular webbing tether snapped. Brass ring will still be on 9' cataract with rope wrap, oar right and Dynelite blade.


----------



## Andy H.

Good luck getting the oars back, y'all. By the way, peer reviewed double blind control studies have shown that if you include detailed stories and update the swim board it'll increase your chances of getting your gear back by 97.6%. Yes, really!


----------



## hichek

*Lost wooden oar*



 Here is the story popped an oar at the bottom of sunshine with enough violence to break/untie the tether while trying to get my spare I got flipped at the end of graveyard about a minute before sledgehammer which I ran perched like a rat on the bottom of my cat. Self rescued in time to get stopped short of the narrows (huge). In the narrows I got slammed into the left wall where of course there was a handy piece of iron to rip the bottom out of my left front tube. Ran the rest of the narrows and wall slammer backwards dragging my waterlogged front tube. 
Managed to get stopped before boat eater and folded the damaged chamber over the back one which I then moved foreword to be under the center of gravity. Ran BE and corner pocket like that. Figure river goddess owes me that oar for pulling(lucking out) that off. All captured on gopro


----------



## johnryan

That was a f***ed up run there! Heck of a video to watch.


----------



## PhilipJFry

Lets see that video... that sounds gnarly!


----------



## Andy H.

Here ya go:

https://vimeo.com/131440696

After hearing the story I was sorry I asked about it. The video gets pretty painful after the tube blows out on some of that "historic" scrap metal they've got down in the Gorge. That junk gives me the willies every time I float past it!

...Gotta wonder what it would take to put a cutting torch with a long hose on a rail service car some day in winter when flow's at a minimum. Talk about man-made hazards in the river!


----------



## Floatin mucho

Thanks for posting that, what a ride!


----------



## zbaird

Painful after the blowout? I thought it was pretty painful to watch after the first oar pop. I'd consider the oar a gift to the rivergods after that event.


----------



## bucketboater

Im going to be honest my bro.You're a hot mess.Swap out the oar rights to pins and clips. Get all that rope off your foot bar and hit the curlers head on and dont you ever under any circumstance be the lead boat. hope this helps.


----------



## BruceB

*Dressed to swim too!*

Bad runs happen but doing that kind of run in a bathing suit?


----------



## openboat

I'm exhausted from watching it. Glad you could walk away from it.


----------



## shannon s

That was a total cluster fuck! Looks like the dude had absolutely no business being there. Swimsuits?? WTF? What were the oar tethers made of, shoelaces?


----------



## restrac2000

Wow, that was difficult to watch, especially considering we are heading out to the region in a couple days. Damn it looks big and pushy in there at those levels. Guessing we won't see the Gorge considering the current flows but in general I have no desire to be close to that scrap metal ever. 

I have noticed a general lack of gear in the last few high water videos on the Ark. All the info I am seeing shows water temps around 55-60F. Do most people not wear some sort of cold water protection this time of the year? Difficult to get back into a tall tubed rig when you have no dexterity and not to mention the need to be able to swim agressively and/or defensively. And at those levels where were the helmets? Fuck if I want to be in a river going that fast without head protection. And not to mention the objective risk of righting a flipped oar rig without a helmet. 

Be safe out there. Far too many deaths already in CO.

Phillip


----------



## xena13

Yes, it was exhausting watching it. Yes, many things went wrong. But that was a great video of the event. Thanks for posting it! It gave me an opportunity to see what it is like in there at that level without risking my life and my boat. Watching it I said "Fu*#!" then he said, "Fu*#!" then as he was going into the shore with all the metal I said "Oh Sh$t!" then he said "Oh Sh$t!". It was almost like being there.


----------



## GameOn

Hichek, I love you man!! Ernie

P.S. Did your Mom see that video and will she ever let your Dad boat again? Was that your 5th or 6th lap through there at these levels? You've been boating with that ghetto boater in Grand Junction again...


----------



## pearen

Man, that was hard to watch! I launched at 5pm Sunday so wasn't far behind you.

As for the folks bashing attire, easy, it was hot as balls in RG on Sunday. I was in there when most of the canyon was shaded and was totally comfortable in a dry top and board shorts. And yes, I had my wetsuit and drysuit handy for colder temps. It just wasn't necessary. 

As evidenced by my lost oar earlier in the thread, I also had some carnage in RG. I have taken worse swims, but I really can't remember when. We cleaned up everything pictured in the video, then proceeded to fire it straight into the middle of the hole at Boat Eater at 6k with expected results. The surf was violent enough to snap a 2000# tubular webbing oar tether. I wasn't cold after the swim though and I was in the water quite a bit longer than OP.

I will write it up an honest reckoning with lessons learned so others can know and hopefully learn, even though I know bucketboater will troll the shit out of it.

Hichek, I do have a few pieces of advice if they are wanted...


----------



## spencerhenry

bucketboater said:


> Im going to be honest my bro.You're a hot mess.Swap out the oar rights to pins and clips. Get all that rope off your foot bar and hit the curlers head on and dont you ever under any circumstance be the lead boat. hope this helps.



i hope that was posted with some sarcasm?

pins and clips, really?

he is a good oarsman, and at least he has the balls to run the big stuff. most of the people on this forum, with a few exceptions, would not run that section at half of those flows. nor would they have the state of mind to right their own boat. many would have abandoned their boat and walked out after the flip.
his boat, well that thing is old. and the frame is heavy. but, i have been on the water with him and he is better at it than most.


----------



## tew

That was definitely a full lunch. I was in there on Saturday evening and I agree that the temp was reasonable, but I still dressed to swim. The protracted time to access redundant gear certainly exacerbated the experience. One thing that I learned after loosing an oar in Lava and ending upside down on avocado rock was to compress my oar locks to hold the oars more tightly, especially in big water. All of the spots that pushed you around hit me as well, the Gorge at those levels was certainly the real thing!


----------



## bgoogins

*Lateral wave in the Narrows*



Andy H. said:


> Here ya go:
> 
> 
> 
> After hearing the story I was sorry I asked about it. The video gets pretty painful after the tube blows out on some of that "historic" scrap metal they've got down in the Gorge. That junk gives me the willies every time I float past it!
> 
> ...Gotta wonder what it would take to put a cutting torch with a long hose on a rail service car some day in winter when flow's at a minimum. Talk about man-made hazards in the river!


I've been wondering the same thing about the scrap metal. Some of the old railroad trail that supports the bank through the Narrows would prob need to be replaced if it got removed. Would be a big effort, but how awesome it would be to float the Gorge knowing the most of heavy iron was removed. 

Thanks for posting the video. Pretty epic. Shows how a few altered variables can alter the whole run. 

Not being critical here of the rafter, just offering some thoughts. I am a kayaker, so it was interesting to watch. For me, running the Narrows at that level, I would take the huge lateral much differently. There is so much water getting compressed in that area, and bouncing off the right wall and moving left. In my kayak, I would have hit it far far right, with nose of my boat even pointed right, knowing that when I hit it, I would be moved across the river left and the front of my kayak wanting to turn left (hopefully straightening out, if calculated properly). So when I the raft coming into it more river left, and then the front of the raft pointing left, it didn't seem surprising to see it get side surfed into the river left shoreline. (again, I know, it is easy for me to say now, from the comfort of my chair). Again, in terms of kayaks, the more bulbous the kayak (imagine a creek boat) the more I would expect to get side surfed to the left shoreline, so a light raft I would think the same...

Would be interested in hearing rafters perspectives on this. 

Great video! Thanks for sharing and glad it turned out ok.


----------



## duct tape

bucketboater said:


> Get all that rope off your foot bar ...


Side jack here. 

Where do you put your bow or stern rope, if not on the frame crossbar? On the front left or right tube, and if so how do you keep it in place? I say this in all seriousness as a new cat boater who wants to keep it safe.


----------



## bucketboater

duct tape said:


> Side jack here.
> 
> Where do you put your bow or stern rope, if not on the frame crossbar? On the front left or right tube, and if so how do you keep it in place? I say this in all seriousness as a new cat boater who wants to keep it safe.



I can't remember the last time I've tied up my cat. My frame, oars and tubes Are sub 100lbs. I've dragged it a mile to the put in so pulling it up on shore is no big deal. In The rare instance I have to tie up I run 6 foot cams on bow and stern. I'll just pull one off and quickly tie up with that. Cats like to backflip, I would never have any rope around the foot bar. I ve had my share of lost oars and blown strokes until i went to clips. That mess would of never happened with pins. Fact.


----------



## Dave Frank

duct tape said:


> Side jack here.
> 
> Where do you put your bow or stern rope, if not on the frame crossbar? On the front left or right tube, and if so how do you keep it in place? I say this in all seriousness as a new cat boater who wants to keep it safe.


You keep it in a bag, like a throw rope. Bow, stern, next to your seat as well as around your waist, if you want to cover all your bases.

That was pretty painful.


----------



## spencerhenry

a cat under 100 pounds? 
i have one too, but it will never see water like the RG at 6000 plus. I am sure bucket boater's 100 pound cat never has and never will!


----------



## bucketboater

spencerhenry said:


> a cat under 100 pounds?
> i have one too, but it will never see water like the RG at 6000 plus. I am sure bucket boater's 100 pound cat never has and never will!


Sotar legend 12' -50lbs
Aluminum day frame 30lbs
Cataracts 30lbs
That's my class 5 set up. A bit over hundo but very close. whatever I'd run that in a maxxon. That's a very basic run, no need to give me a hard time. I'm here to help.


----------



## teletoes

bucketboater said:


> That mess would of never happened with pins. Fact.


Pins and Clips on wooden oars? Blasphemy! 

Maybe could have been prevented if the oarlocks were tuned tighter?


----------



## kicurtis

*Awesome !!!*

Outstanding recovery on both sets of snake eyes!!
Huge in there 5800.
Not too many videos out there at this level 
kudos for having the balls to charge it 
Thanks for posting


----------



## pearen

Here is what I picked up on and would put out there as possible lessons learned from Hichek’s run on Royal Gorge at almost 6k. I have never boated with the guy so my commentary is totally limited to what is visible in the video.


 I do agree with bucketboater that he needs to square up to the waves. Not doing so is what popped his oar (1:27) and what surfed him into the left wall.
 Oarlocks are brass so they can be tuned. An oar should not come out of the lock that easily, nor should it break the tether so easily. It is always way easier to grab an oar hanging by a tether than to pull out a spare.
Retrieving the spare oar took quite a lot longer than necessary (45 seconds before low siding resulted in the flip). It was hard to get to that stern cam-strap and he had to lowside into that wave/hole that flipped him to get to it. I run my spare oar strapped to the top of the frame inboard of the oar tower. Both straps easy to reach from the seat. I figure 10 to 15 seconds max to have spare oar in lock even if I have to hang onto my other oar or frame for most of the time.
The thing that took the longest in the reflip was attaching the flip line to the boat (over 2 minutes) . It is for this reason that I run my flip-lines pre-rigged. I really like the bungee style ones that run inside the tube, but there are many good options. Once the flip line was attached it took 30 sec to reflip mid current and another 10 sec to climb back on the boat.
Bucket boater also started asking about rope/webbing on the frame. The buzz took this to be the bow line, but in my mind the orange webbing floor is the objectionable rigging decision. One of the key safety advantages of a cat is the ability to come up through the floor regardless of whether the boat is upside down or right side up. I would cut this out pronto.
The fact that the boat is under-inflated is visible when he stands on it to reflip. I believe that if the boat were hard enough to stand on without creasing, then the reflip would have been even quicker than the 30 sec after line was attached.
One other thought, where is the other (round) boat when things went wrong? They need to run tighter. Not sure it would have made a difference in this particular situation, but still a good general principle.


----------



## BruceB

*Good ideas*

Those are good ideas. I am going to move my spare oar inboard of the oar tower right away.


----------



## Schutzie

By now all the super duper never made a bad run bad assed boaters have gotten their ego pump with their criticisms of your run, your rig and your skills.
Yeah, you need to do something about how you carry your spare oars, and yeah you needed to square up to the waves.
But all the same, you ran the Gorge at better than 5,000 CFS and didn't do more than tear up some equipment. I mean, you didn't have to be rescued by the SWR forces, right? No Doctor visits after? Clean undies available after?
In my book, a worthy effort, and one you can recall fondly next January sitting in front of the fire.

I can tell you, I ran probably the first Cat run through the Gorge in 1975 with Doc Baker (he who probably invented the Cat), my wife, and a couple of buddies.
We flipped
We crashed
We bounced off stuff we should have missed
We ate Brownies with bits of wood in them. (long story for another time)
Combined experience on the boat that day, probably over 30 years.

Water as goofy as in the Gorge will always provide an exciting day. Water as goofy as in the Gorge adds an element of chance (and pucker factor) to the day. Those who run it successfully think they are Gods. Those who survive the run wonder what their mommas would say if they saw that. But all who run it need to remember; we are not Gods but the river God's playthings. On good days we have a lot of fun. On bad days the river God gets the last laugh.


----------



## zbaird

I often agree with ol schutzie but in this case i think he's a little off. Honestly, considering the buzz in general I dont think anyone has gotten that much of an ego pump, just offered some good advice. I certainly expected more after watching.


pearen has some great advice to give and didn't attack or degrade hitchek at all. pearen was actually real sweet to inform hitchek and the buzz in general about some avoidable blunders that certainly helped lead to a FUBAR run. I was thinking all the things pearen mentioned when I was watching the video. 

I have run the gorge high. Didnt run it at 6k this year, but have at 5k and a for a successful (not survived but successful) run, a good crew, solid rigging, constant attention, big and pushy rowing and self rescue skills are required. I consider the gorge, especially at 6k a very serious FAST run and should be treated as such with all the aforementioned things in mind which did not seem apparent in the video. Things could have easily gone much worse in that situation. 


Again, as pearen said, only judging from what I saw in the video, for hitchek to get out of there unscathed and with just a lost oar, a popped tube and presumably stained but rinsed out undies is something he'll hopefully be thanking the river gods for, not just looking back on. I know I would be.

Hitchek, thanks for letting that video out so the buzz can learn from it. Let me know if you need a hand fixing that rip. Good work pulling it together, adjusting that tube and rowing out of there. Lots of people would have walked down the tracks where the video ends.


----------



## bgoogins

Schutzie said:


> By now all the super duper never made a bad run bad assed boaters have gotten their ego pump with their criticisms of your run, your rig and your skills.
> Yeah, you need to do something about how you carry your spare oars, and yeah you needed to square up to the waves.
> But all the same, you ran the Gorge at better than 5,000 CFS and didn't do more than tear up some equipment. I mean, you didn't have to be rescued by the SWR forces, right? No Doctor visits after? Clean undies available after?
> In my book, a worthy effort, and one you can recall fondly next January sitting in front of the fire.
> 
> I can tell you, I ran probably the first Cat run through the Gorge in 1975 with Doc Baker (he who probably invented the Cat), my wife, and a couple of buddies.
> We flipped
> We crashed
> We bounced off stuff we should have missed
> We ate Brownies with bits of wood in them. (long story for another time)
> Combined experience on the boat that day, probably over 30 years.
> 
> Water as goofy as in the Gorge will always provide an exciting day. Water as goofy as in the Gorge adds an element of chance (and pucker factor) to the day. Those who run it successfully think they are Gods. Those who survive the run wonder what their mommas would say if they saw that. But all who run it need to remember; we are not Gods but the river God's playthings. On good days we have a lot of fun. On bad days the river God gets the last laugh.


Very enjoyable to read and so much truth. Thank you. 

I am thankful the video was posted and personally do not mean any negaitve criticism, but think it is a really healthy exercise to look at it and see what went right, what went wrong and try to learn something from it. 

Having video is an awesome part of boating now.


----------



## Battlepig

That was fu*cked. During the scout the only thing I could think of was the steal birds nest... Glad you're alright. It's probably hard to row a cat with such big Balls. :shock:


----------

