# Season is winding down, let's hear some stories!



## CO14 (Nov 12, 2003)

Last day of a four day river trip. I was at the take out breaking down the raft. I reached in the cooler and found a) all the ice was gone and b) the Fat Tire cans were warm. AHHHHHHHH.

I know not nearly as gnarly and scary as your story.


----------



## [email protected] (Apr 26, 2006)

This year was full over very high highs and very scary lows for me, most of the time it was smooth sailing but some of the time my shit talking got the best of me. I have three memorable beatdowns/near misses this year.
1) On Bald rock canyon on the middle feather on the high side I was going to walk a rapid until I saw 2 others run it and make it look good, the move was to drive over a lateral that went over the drop and under a huge boulder. I drove up to far on the lateral stalled out and dropped backward under the rock, me brother told me I was under for 10 seconds, needles to say it scared the shit out of me.
2) Devil's postpile on the middle fork of the san joaquin, there is this double drop early on that is maybe a 20 footer followed by a 10 foot ledge with a mean hole, in pictures it looks very easy but the lip is all messed-up, and I kind of floated in with a I'll just figure it out attitude. I didn't get far enough left and took my boof stroke to early, I ended up plugging it completly virtical right next to the wall, I pitoned and cut a big hole in my skirt.
























3) Upper cherry creek, I flipped going over the wier and somehow got my visor on my sweet helmet over my face, I rolled up in the hole and couldn't really see anything but thought I was facing left I faught and finally made it out of the wier hole after 45 seconds then ran the next little drop and with rolf yelling "come to my voice" then "what the fuck is that thing, rip that fuckin thing off your head" I made it into the eddy.
Me brother styling it moments before I got the hole ride of my life


----------



## CGM (Jun 18, 2004)

So there I was....about to drop into the top of gore rapid, in a raft, when my R2 partner starts yelling "shit, shit, shit." I've never rafted, so when the guy who knows what he's doing starts freaking out just as you make the critical move at the lip of the raft line is not a good sign. We proceed to get surfed into ginger and the raft immediately dumptrucks and my partner is swept out. Somehow I'm still in and trying to dig this raft out of ginger, knowing full well that if I do get it out, I have no idea wtf to do with it through the rest of the rapid. At which point I am ejected and swim gore to almost sissors. Not the worst swim...but a good beatdown. 
Long story short, I was "convinced" to R2 gore canyon Sunday after the race, and as we looked at gore rapid, I figured, what the hell, I've paddled this rapid at least 30 or 40 times without sirious problem, so what's the difference in a raft. Big difference....In retrospect, if you would have asked me what the chances are of two people, one of which has never rafted, let alone R2'ed would make it through gore rapid successfully, I would have told you that it was unlikely....I don't think that I will be rafting gore again anytime soon. That was some scary shit. I need a few laps down the numbers first! (or maybe I'll just stick with the kayak) Oh yeah, and I also surfed toilet bowl, and swam, on the same day, out of the same raft!


----------



## jmack (Jun 3, 2004)

So there I was...kayaking on scenic alpine Daisey Creek. We were having a smooth day so far. An easy Upper East run followed by a great run down most of Daisey. Great lines off of Big Wood Falls and all that. The water was a bit low on account of the early June cold spell, but there was enough. 

We arrive at a little rapid call Rip Your Head Off. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this run, this rapid is so named because the final drop pinches down at head height, so it looks like your head is going to be ripped off...and that is if you run it plastic side down. I decided on this particular day that this rapid would boat easier than it looked. I ran the little entrance slide where I planned but the pillow off the left wall kicked me a few feet further right than I had planned. I saw a small flake on the slide in front of me. No problem- I've got a creek boat. I'll go right over it. Turns out the sharp slate flake was not so easy to go over. It stopped me dead and flipped me right before the final pinch. I quickly rolled in 4 inches of water only to be knocked back over by another small flake. At this point I was backwards and flipping going into the pinch. all I had time to do was straighten (so as not to pin end to end) my boat and tuck.











I took my lumps and came out at the bottom bruised and with a new tear in the GMER. Moral of the story- even little rocks can cause big crashes. Moral #2- get a full face helment- this probably kept my jaw in tact on this particular day.


----------



## tango (Feb 1, 2006)

after a lap on OBJ the posse decided a round on daisy and the slate would make a nice dessert. for some reason i took a big ass lefty boof stroke at the lip of Big Woody, which changed my downstream angle to a righty angle. i smashed my bow directly onto the rock shelf below the drop, flopped into the creek, and rolled up, managing to catch an eddy below. while self-assessing i tried to stand up only to discover that my ankles didn't work. also i had cracked my boat and ripped the knee of my drysuit. i had to paddle through the next rapid, and with much help from the crew i took out before rip your head off. i literally had to crawl up the hill because i couldn't walk. 

i took myself out for a month on one of the easiest vertical drops in the state. lesson learned: spot your landing.


----------



## deepsouthpaddler (Apr 14, 2004)

Its been another solid year on the beatdown/swim team front for me. I've been out of the boat so many times, that I'm thinking about duct taping a yardsale sign on the bottom of my boat to alert people as I swim. 

Worst beat down was on OBJ (aka oh-be-junkshow). Feeling good, hit the last big slide, tried to go left too early, got spun around backwards, couldn't turn it around, went over the final ledge backwards, but not far enough left. Got dumped on my side and upside down, and took the biggest series of shots I've taken going over the ledge. Holy f'ing beatdown. As it was happening I thought I can't take much more of this before I get knocked out. Rolled up in the pool below surfing the mini hole. Stayed in the boat, but was destroyed, dazed and confused. Felt like I got hit by a baseball bat on my head and shoulder (thank you fullface helmet), and my ribs were bruised for over a month. Didn't let the bruised ribs slow me down too much. Hurt like hell every time I braced left or pulled hard left, but daily ibuprofen, and mass amounts of takeout beers helped me limp through the rest of june.

Most puckering swim was out of the dinky bullshit left slot drop on SSV just above the narrows. Got backendered, to upside down. Missed a few rolls, hit red alert air and pulled like chump. Kept my paddle and did a "fear of death" body eddy catch behind a mid stream rock to halt downstream progress into the narrows. I was able to get out of the creek on my own, but my boat miraculously eddied out in a micro eddy on river right in the middle of the first drop of the narrows, below the 2ft entrance drop, but above the bigger slide drop that starts the narrows. Its on river right but we are on the left, its cliffed out on both sides on the right, and the only way to the boat is a major rock climbing expedition on the other side of the creek, or swim through the creek above a monster V+ rocky jagged drop. The boat was brand new, and no way was I letting her get crushed in the narrows. I did a tethered swimmer move in the class II lead in to the narrows and jumped out on the small rock at the brink of the drop that splits the entrace into left or right slots. Jumped from the rock to the bank and went down and got my boat. Was able to rope the boat and myself back to the shore safely. Standing on a mid stream rock at the lip of that beast of a rapid was puckering.

Most comical swim was on SSV as well. Rounding the corner on the zig zagging drop with a ledge hole at the end of it. Come around the corner lined up on the ledge hole, only to see my buddy side surfing it. Thought I could boof it to the left of him, but at the last second, he shifted left, my boat was aiming straight for his head, and I hesitated, not wanting to boof his face. Plugged the drop, went under his boat that was still surfing the hole, got plastered on my back deck after taking his boat to my chest, had the paddle ripped out of my hands as I went underneath him, and was in the hole upside down with him. The only hand roll I have ever had was in a japanese restuarant, so I immediately pulled, got my head to the surface, just as the last boater was boofing on my head. A rediculous 30+ min pinned boat rescue followed, but its was pretty f'ing funny. Wish we had video that day as it was a carnage highlight for sure.


----------



## Ture (Apr 12, 2004)

I finally figured out that I'm not good enough for class V.

I stepped it down a notch this year. It was kind of a relief to say fuck it. No ass kickings for the first time in I don't know how long.


----------



## ACC (Oct 30, 2003)

So there I was . . . deep in the greenroom, plastered to a smooth, overhung granite wall, wondering whether kayaking is worth all this? What would my family think? How would my boys, perched on a cliff on the opposite side of the creek, react when I floated up limp? This was bad. Really bad. How the f*ck did I get here?

It was day four of our four-day epic on Upper Cherry Creek. We were in the final gorge, with only two stout drops left before our beautiful, blue purveyor of bliss dumped us into Cherry Lake. We’d all taken a pass five days earlier when the whole gorge looked like a terminal hydraulic. Now I was committed and on my own, dropping into the Nozzle, while my crew walked high. The drop has two ledges condensing into something like a low-angle Gorilla, which then surges into a pool above a retentive u-shape hole. I cleaned my line through the Nozzle and was ejected from the white chute with a smile on a slight squirt. What I’d underestimated was the amount of water that exited the Nozzle and slammed directly left into a carved out granite pocket-eddy. Turns out, most of the water was going over there, "con fuerte," and I was going with it. 

Next thing I knew I was sideways in the pocket, fighting surges that pushed me against the undercut/overhang wall. Not good. No problem, I thought. I’ll just ferry out. Suffice it to say, it went downhill fast from there. I was rejected on the first ferry, flipped in the strong current, and slammed upside down into the pocket. Rolled up and tried again with the same result. Not sure how the roll attempts went from there, but I tried many, partially made one or two, went for the upside-down Jesus brace hoping to catch flow around the dividing line between the pocket and freedom, all to no avail. I punched out. Then the beatdown began in earnest. My boat and paddle eventually flushed from the vicious eddy, but I did not. I tried repeatedly to swim across the eddy fence to extract myself, but each attempt had the same result: I went deep in the vertical eddy seam and was rapidly starfished by the current onto the granite wall of the pocket, way below the surface. I’d be down for five to fifteen seconds at a time, struggling to get back to the surface, only to see I was still in the room. 

All the while, the rescue mission was underway from the opposite bank – a sheer cliff thirty feet off the water and forty to fifty feet from me. The first bag went to the intersection of the pocket and the current, and I had no chance to get the line. The next three or four bags came up short. I started to white out. After swim-circing in that mean place for at least three or four minutes, my freedom came. Captain Keck hit me in the numbers with a bag and pulled me from pocket hell. Thanks for the composure, bros.

Photo of the offending drop (we had more water – and it’s way meaner than it looks):










Better memories from that incredible place:


----------



## doublet (May 21, 2004)

Awesome stories so far! I can't imagine that roped swim to the drop above the Narrows...I probably woulda just let my new boat die before attempting that!

Funny how V- rapids that we all run routinely have serious consequences for forgetting that they're still class V. A lesson I seem to be relearning every season.

ACC's story above was probably the scariest thing I've ever seen on the river. Two main takeaways from being on the shore crew - 1.) make sure the swimmer knows when you're throwing a rope. If my first throw had connected Alex's story wouldn't be that harrowing. 2.) Carry a full size bag in addition to the little waist bags. We had 5 bags on shore and only two could reach the swimmer (he was almost exactly 75' feet away from the closest safety.) It's pretty shitty to watch your 60' throw bag go taut 10' from a desperate swimmer. Captain Mank definitely had a perfect throw and he deserves props for his cool head.


----------



## KSC (Oct 22, 2003)

Hmm, well, I wasn't without my out of boat experiences this year, but they were all just lame and pretty uneventful. Probably my scariest venture was a good old fashion hole ride in Rigo, but I managed to ride it out. 

I have nothing to compare with near death experiences on California granite, but I'll steal one from jmack since he has a good pool to draw from and only used one for himself. Think of this as a "Girl Next Door" kind of story.

Four of us went to run the Embudo early season. None of us had been down it before, and although we're not a bunch of chumps, the Embudo was still a challenging run for us, guide or no guide. As such, we were all a bit nervous, but slightly comforted by 3.35" flow, which is supposed to be a decent but manageable flow. Having seen a plethora of video and pictures of the drops and read numerous guides, we weren't exactly going into the great unknown, but we weren't entirely sure what to expect either. I'm not sure what the others were thinking, but my thought was that the first couple rapids would be a good test of whether or not I was getting in over my head. We knew the first thing coming was Long Rapid, and this was a place that you absolutely should not swim if you intended on getting out of the canyon in your boat.

As the gradient started to pick up, we were carefully eddy hopping our way down the river, keeping track of each other, and being cautious not to drop into anything blind. Ian was in front of me sitting in a one boat eddy. I figured I'd round the next corner and catch an eddy, but things seemed to be getting steeper, eddies getting smaller, and after throwing some big braces trying to catch the next micro eddy, I figured I was better off just pointing it straight down and going with it rather than trying to make some difficult moves into tiny eddies. 

After what seemed like endless boofs over big holes (it's called Long Rapid for a reason), the last drop launched into a small pool and I eddied out behind a rock. Two more boaters came through with smiles on their faces. We waited a few seconds waiting for jmack to appear. Then I hear that unnaturally hollow sound of plastic bouncing off rock. I turned to Ian, "That doesn't sound right". A second later in no particular order, but definitely not attached as they should be come: orange Jefe, orange Werner paddle, and an unhappy looking jmack. The paddle goes floating on by into the unknown. jmack and his boat wash into the bony right shore with jmack somewhat secured behind a rock, holding onto his boat for dear life trying to keep it from washing into the main current. I ferry across the river and as I'm trying to jump out of my boat I hear something like "Hurry the f-ck up!" I jump out, run down and together we heave that baby onto the shore. 

Moments later jmack's buddy John comes running back upstream carrying a orange paddle and a big smile. He had pulled the hero, and slightly reckless move of going through a blind drop and retrieving the paddle. 

Whew, what good fortune. Jmack was saved a multi hour hike out through cactus and rattlesnake country. A storm was closing in, we were in a committing canyon, through only one rapid and already had a swim. We gathered ourselves and continued on with only a vague sense of what was ahead. Ya gotta love creeking.


----------



## possumturd (Jul 13, 2006)

ACC said:


> I was rejected on the first ferry, flipped in the strong current, and slammed upside down into the pocket. Rolled up and tried again with the same result. Not sure how the roll attempts went from there, but I tried many, partially made one or two, went for the upside-down Jesus brace hoping to catch flow around the dividing line between the pocket and freedom, all to no avail. I punched out. Then the beatdown began in earnest. My boat and paddle eventually flushed from the vicious eddy, but I did not.


I had this exact same experience on different river and wrote about it here last year. I was swirling in the room and thought this could be the one. I hung on to my boat. I think I had a hand on the edge of the cockpit rim. As we were washed out to the fence for the nth time the boat deck rotated toward the fence and filled with water and was pulled into the main current taking me along. Scared the living doo out me.


----------



## doublet (May 21, 2004)

KSC said:


> Four of us went to run the Embudo early season. None of us had been down it before, and although we're not a bunch of chumps, the Embudo was still a challenging run for us, guide or no guide. As such, we were all a bit nervous, but slightly comforted by 3.35" flow, which is supposed to be a decent but manageable flow.


Kevin - I've only run the Embudo at high(ish) flows and mank-crew low-flows but I've heard a few people say 3.3 can be one of the harder levels. Apparently a lot of the problematic holes start washing out above 3.4 (although above 3.4 the swims are longer.) Maybe some Embudo vets can clarify.


----------



## jmack (Jun 3, 2004)

I'm no Embudo vet, but I can shed some light on how a fella could get in trouble in Long Rapid. I thought 3.3-3.4 was a great level overall. The more constricted rapids were channelized nicely. But Long Rapid was tricky because it was fast and eddyless through the steep section, but still had a bunch of FU rocks barely exposed. It wasn't the holes that got me. I saw the guys in front of me scrambling as they rode high on a pillow going around a corner, so I thought I would cut the inside of the turn. Problem was there were a whole bunch of little pointy rocks just out of water on the inside of the turn. I got flipped there and then banged against a whole bunch more rocks upside down. I got partially pulled out of my thigh braces and pulled like a sissy. So anyway, there you have it from the other perspective. I can't wait to get back and figure out what the actual line is.

-the Girl Next Door


----------



## mania (Oct 21, 2003)

These stories are scary. It goes to show you when you hear of an accident there were lots more close calls that you did not hear about. Makes one think. Be safe all.


----------



## xkayaker13 (Sep 30, 2006)

My big beatdown came on the middle kings somewhere in a nine mile long called the bottom 9. I don't know which hole I got stuck in, but I would guess it was somewhere around "huge fucking hole" # 75. 

William was right in front of me and after seeing him throw an end or two, I knew it was big. I gave it my biggest boof, but "huge fucking hole" #75 got the best of me. While in the hole, I would occasionally get a break from the "underwater aerial maneuvers" and get a look downstream. Swimming was NOT an option. I don't know how long I was in the hole, but when I finally flushed and made it into the walled in eddy with Will and Rolf. I remember grunting a lot and they informed me that they had enough time to wonder when I was going to swim. lol


----------



## fiddleheadpa (Aug 28, 2009)

Ok, i just joined although i've been whitewater boating since '79.
So, i want to contribute in some way and here's a story i wrote up about $5 Frank from Fayetteville WV.
If anyone knew or had flown with Frank, i'm sure you can relate and possibly realize that this story is 100% true (to the best of my memory, which is not always 100%)
So, here's a link to my $5 Frank story


----------



## yourrealdad (May 25, 2004)

I had four swims and they were all lame. The lamest part is that I had four of them. It gave me a head case for a little bit, cause I was thinking " If I can't get out of these four situations, what about the bigger stuff" This year I just felt like an eager 16yr old and was just dying to get that skirt off. 

Two swims were on the big South below Cool World proper, one was right around the corner as I got flipped off the undercut wall and went into the hole. It was high water. The other was out of the ledge right after that also at higher water. Plus it was a safe place to swim.

I am the reason Ian swam on SSV, although I also had a contributing factor to my swim.

Swam out of park and hucking Crystal Mill Falls.

No real bad pins or anything, I think the scariest thing was seeing Tom Janney's race time come in at 40/40


----------



## ski_kayak365 (Dec 7, 2003)

I must say my season was far less scary and breakable than last season(3 class V swims, 1 vertical piton in a waterfall, 3 broken boats, swimming tripple drop at 3200, one breakdown scattered on Daisy). 

I walked away with a swim out of magnetic wall on Escalante, best IV+/V- drop to ever swim out of! 

Though I got to follow behind jmack on his unpleasant descent of rip your head off with a clean line, and watch from the cliffs above of deepsouth doing his barrell roll over the rock on obj. On the same trip, find a blade of my breakdown from last season in a log job on the Slate!

Oh and I walked tunnel both days of gorefest, lame.

-jmack....what is it with your thigh braces? Embudo....Lake Creek....I think you still owe a booty for the Cauldron.


----------



## Ricky NM (Jun 28, 2008)

Well I don't have any beatdown stories or any real scary moments, but I am stoked that I finally stepped up from class IV this season and ran Tunnel. Although, I missed my line and went to far left into the rock. I missed the hole, but after one failed roll attempt I freaked out and pulled thinking I was in the hole. My first class V drop = my first class V swim... oh well. Next time.


----------



## Badazws6 (Mar 4, 2007)

ski_kayak365, I found another paddle blade of yours up on Alto-Alto last year. What's up with you and paddle blades?

As for me, no swims this year but I didn't sack up like I should have...


----------



## JCKeck1 (Oct 28, 2003)

So there I was.... Boulder Creek at a burly solid low-medium flow. The Mank Crew was firing on all cylinders as we were hot in the middle of the Total Vertical Feet competition. Christian was leading down lap 4 of 5 of the Pabst Blue Ribbon six-pack challenge. We fired through the elephant buttresses section and into the ever-so dangerous boulder play park. Big boobs and inner-tubes abounded. As we approached huge hole #4 (also know as the infamous Widow-Maker), Christian gave it his all and boofed clean over it. As I approached, I noticed that some fine vixen (or possibly stoned college dude) had lost her tube into the infamous hole, where it was stuck being chundered for all eternity. Unless a hero such as the Huckin Duckie could come to the rescue! As I boofed to land on the tube, it shifted left. So to make good contact, I let my angle get a little left (i.e. sideways). I still didn't manage to land on the tube as planned. Instead, my nose landed on one side of the tube, which instantly flipped it up onto my boat. I had speared right through the hole in the tube and it slid right up to my waist. This immediately slammed on the emergency brake and through me right into the maw of the beast! I decided to pull right away because I was afraid I'd have to puncture the tube across my waist to get out. So long story short, I swam in the Boulder play park.

Joe

P.S. Carry a long throw rope regardless of how big a creek you're in. I've needed a full size one on creeks I could wade across.


----------



## caspermike (Mar 9, 2007)

don't have to say anything else​


----------



## CGM (Jun 18, 2004)

JCKeck1 said:


> So there I was.... Boulder Creek


Joe, that's not a beatdown, that's just embarrasing. :roll:


----------



## ACC (Oct 30, 2003)

CGM said:


> Joe, that's not a beatdown, that's just embarrasing. :roll:


Well said. This thread is a prime venue for the "...there I was, upside down in balls to the wall" yarn, Joe.


----------



## Schizzle (Mar 26, 2004)

caspermike said:


> don't have to say anything else​


what's up with that guy's paddle blade on the far right? is that lower poudre narrows


----------



## caspermike (Mar 9, 2007)

thats not a guy, thats natalie, todd g in the orange and kyle smoking us
this would be the caspermike got ran over by a chick incident


----------



## ski_kayak365 (Dec 7, 2003)

- the real question is why Mike's boat is running the narrows race without him? I don't see him swimming to the finish line.

Badazws6 --> Oh right, forgot about that one. And a broken paddle on Alto last season and swam there. I was randomly paddling at 1500 or something, took a stroke, paddle stopped flipped me over, ripped it from my hands and I swam after slamming into a old rusty culvert on the side. Went back for my paddle, found it broken and wrapped around a 1/2in metal cable that was wrapped in the rocks and had a good 10ft out in the current. Lucky it took my paddle and not my neck!


----------



## Gary E (Oct 27, 2003)

I had a big year with four swims. First time clearing 2 in a really long time.

First one was on Fantasy Falls day 2. A huge slide into a monster hole followed by a 6ft pour over. After Eric and I have the basic chat while scouting " I'll jump in and get your boat if you jump for mine" we smile, as we look up at our boats Erics boat decided it has waited long enough and proceeds to fire up the drop while Eric watches the line. The unmaned craft would style the line and eddy out at Bens feet. With a smile Eric says "i'll still jump for yours". Thanks Eric.

Swim 2 was Fantasy Falls day 2 late. The rifleman gorge, I am aggressively boat scouting while leading. I drop off a 8ft pour over that is backed up by a boulder just 2ft downstream. I pin instantly and my elbow pads and paddle are gone. The down pour of water then stuffs me around the rock underwater. I grab the rock and change my angle and now i'm looking into the sky with my body against the rock. Back to under water and so on. I made a decision early on that I couldn't swim in the pocket because I didn't think I would wash out so I kept grabbing whatever I could to upright myself all the time trying to get my boat and myself to a 30inch crack on the right where I knew I could get out. After a minute or so, I got against the right slot upright and washed out flipping as I didn't fit sitting flat, after two missed hand rolls I pull for number 2 of the day and get out quickly as my boat drops into another huge rapid below. Ben and Eric are now throughthe spot I got beat by sliding wet rock far left and I give them directions on the next two big drops from shore. That swim sucked! Rushed a decision and payed the price.

Swim 3 was Fantasy Falls, LMAO! SHOW ME YOUR TITS! Last drop and a legendary rapid at that. We pull into the eddy with Eric yelling "show me your tits, show me"! Bendals looks at me and says, "this one is a mandy" I look at him and say no kidding, I never thought I wasn't gonna run it. I knew before I put on I would be running that drop, as all my friends have swam out of it. Darin says it best, "you run up the middle and deal until you swim, that's how it goes" 

The videos I've seen do not even come close to doing this rapid justice, it is huge and burly! I run right up the middle and right into the left side of the hole where I proceeded to pull without a roll attempt, lol. No need getting hurt in that beast. 3 swims on Fantasy and my first swims in Cali ever. 10 yrs of paddling I have not gotten bite off til this year, not sure how I managed that. 2 planned swims and 1 shitty one.

Swim 4 first falls- Bailey. The no scout, hadn't paddled Baily in 4 yrs pocket beat down. Ran the drop how I had a million times before, got a great boof at a two o clock angle off the right landing flat only to get my nose pushed left from the water gushing out of the sieve and into the pocket. Hung on for a while before ejecting out of Forrest's new nomad. I have swam Forrests boats everytime I borrow them, lol. I think he likes it.

That's my year
Gary


----------



## craven_morhead (Feb 20, 2007)

I had maybe the least-consequential swim during my first run of SSV. Running with a good crew, I came through a little slotty side-channel a few hundred yards above the narrows, and as I took another paddle stroke my paddle bridged the slot and was yanked backwards over my head. I scrambled and grabbed a tree branch that was sticking off of the island and pulled myself into a leaky micro eddy. I saw my paddle start to float past me as my hands began to strip the leaves off of the little tree branch. I was pulled out of the eddy and frantically hand-paddled towards my wayward paddle, since I could see the 4' ledge drop below me, with a decent hole behind it. I tried to hand-boof when I realized I wasn't going to make it to the paddle in time, but didn't clear the hole. After a couple of window-shadings I pulled, and swam directly into an eddy. My boat pinned 5 yards downstream. I jumped out of the water and ran downstream, picking my paddle out of the next eddy. No muss, no fuss.


----------

