Airblunt Rockers the spout . . .

by Clay Wright

January 26, 2005

I went down to the hole to see if I could find anyone to go run the falls
with and ran into young James and Alex Tansey just getting out from surfing
Brave Wave at 5 grand. James was telling me all about
his first airblunt when I suggested we top that off upstream. I had
the ‘Rocker’ creek boat proto already loaded and we agreed the falls
would be the perfect place to try it out.

While Alex cranked the heat in the van, James and I headed up to the
overlook to scout, and ran into a bachelor party from Chattanooga
doing some scouting of their own. It was nice to have the company,
and after carefully picking out the line from above we were soon in
the eddy at the lip. James didn’t seem very nervous, but I suggested
we scout again from water level since it looks so different from 50
feet up. This view seemed to get his motor running.

At the edge, we talked about getting to the lip with
momentum,
paddling off it, and keeping your paddle out of the way on the
landing. The bachelor party came on through, so we got to watch Kip,
Adam, Zitsow, and Lane show us good examples and bad. As shown here, James
nailed it. He entering just right of the curler, paddled off
the lip and dropped free – plunging through the pillow with the
perfect 65 degree angle. He popped up upright and paddling, right over

to the cliff to head back up for another round. Our second helping
was a sweet as the first.

Clay Wright

It looks bigger from here. James Tansey is ready for his first
falls.

…and MUCH bigger from here! James Tansey rolls the Rocker off the Spout.

Can we do that again? James aced the spout twice.