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By Devon Barker

Gold Hole- which is a wave at the end of a dirt road up the Main Salmon Road at mile marker 24 is a great surf spot in Idaho. It is about an hour outside of Riggins, Idaho. You pass many catch on the fly waves before you land your eyes on this green wave with a pile and an eddy. The eddy is challenging at all flows but 12,000 is about the highest that you can catch it. Years ago Rick Fernald told me to come off the wave “under my own power” as you have a better chance getting over the boils, whirlpools, and a better chance to avoid the pin rocks in the bottom of the eddy. If none of this deters you, come on up as not very many people surf here.

Jason and I spent the morning at Gold Hole yesterday. It was very fun but you do have to put markers or flags out to alert the jet boat drivers that you are surfing. They asked us to put a yellow flag up to get there attention as they have to be under power to steer which means they are going fast. We did not have a yellow flag but used our Jackson Kayak happy thruster, float bags, and our team gear bags as markers. They worked great. You need to put them on the rocks above the wave and down stream of the river left eddy. Jason and I would take turns waiting in the eddy until the next person caught either the wave eddy or the down stream eddy and then waited until they could watch to help alert if a jet boat needed to come through. Having a whistle here is another really good idea and at least two people in the water.

Stream flows are at

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/current/?type=flow

under Salmon River at Whitebird. I like this spot the best between 8,000 cfs to 12,000 cfs. You can surf here at 6,000 but it is a very sticky hole. Upside, the eddy is easy to catch.

Jason had an awesome clean blunt and pan am but he is saving the footage for an additional video. Come boat with us in Idaho!

Enjoy the video (QuickTime 1.2 MB).
Jason and Devon