Dynamic Earth / Ozark Mountain Paddlers hit the Little St. Francis

By Clay Wright

All photos courtesy of Eli Reichman of Eliphoto.com

Did you know there is a smoothly polished, pink granite gorge in Missouri? I sure didn’t! But I headed up to the Dynamic Earth / Ozark Mountain Paddlers weekend clinic anyway expecting low-water flatwater lessons and lots of mud. So glad to be mistaken!

Since I’m officially ‘drydocked’ with ear infection, I paddled a Punk Rocker (with swim cap) and brought JK Team and Staff member Brad Sutton, a 5 time Canadian Freestyle Team member, to demonstrate the vertical tricks as well as help instruct. And we got lucky, our ‘Advanced Play Clinic’ was filled with athletic, enthusiastic paddlers all totally game to ‘roll 100 times a day’ as well as potentially swim a few drops. We started out with stern-squirts on eddy-lines and some ‘double pump’ drills, but it became clear that the Little St. Francis is best for down-river freestyle: eddy’s, ferries, rock 360’s and splats. The pink granite is so smooth you slide and spin with just a flick of the wrist without leaving so much as a scratch in your hull – or your helmet – as most everyone found out sooner or later. My Punk Rocker was well suited to this sort of thing, and I was able to get my free-ride groove on: driving into tiny slots, spinning the low rocks and splatting the higher ones while Brad taught the splat-stalls and splat-wheels. We were really working the ‘down-river freeride’ thing hard before we even got to the bigger rapids and surf spots.

Scouting: while we weren’t expecting it, the Little St. Francis’s tight, technical class 2-3 rapids offered hard-to-see from upstream lines, multiple options, and easy ‘re-run’ access. So our Advanced Play Clinic took on a river-running aspect as well. While Brad searched for play between and off every drop, I tried to find alternate lines and encouraged the whole class to run each drop several times without taking the same line twice. Our enthusiastic class was super-game with this idea, getting really aggressive with the lines they attempted and the play between drops. Not surprisingly, we had multiple swims throughout the day but no whining, gear loss, or teasing. Just a great atmosphere for learning and a whole class not scared to fail.

Double-drop was the play highlight; a spot I was sure you could loop in though the tight pocket was hard to tap into. We taught technique and watched face-plant after face-plant the first day, but by the 2nd day loops were popping up all over. It was great to see the ‘old-school’ playboaters in Pirouettes and Sleeks demonstrating how those huge ‘enders’ are actually the first step towards learning the loop. Enders in All-stars look funny (FGM?) but once we got that dialed in is when the next steps suddenly worked out and the stern started coming around. Brad put on quite the demo, throwing 8 pt. cartwheels, loops, and splits in the nasty top hole despite the sharp rock just downstream, showing the class technique while providing some quality entertainment for all of us gathered to enjoy the show. On Sunday, the sun came out and this was quite the spot to relax, spectate, and just enjoy being on a whitewater river in Spring.

Thanks to Ozark Mountain Paddlers for putting this weekend on, to James at Dynamic Earth for getting us involved, and to all those brave enough to to try all those silly spins, splats, and lines Brad and I had so much fun suggesting. Good Show guys!

Sincerely,
Clay Wright

All photos courtesy of Eli Reichman of Eliphoto.com