December 8th, 2004 was virgin Braver Wave at 23,000 cfs- December 12, 2008 is round two at 25,000 cfs!

Photos

A drought does funny thinks to your head. It makes me a pessimist that begins to think that high water is a dream. Well, in good form, Mother Nature delivered us from the pits of despair, and threw over 4” of rain on us in 2.5 days!! The result is 25,000 cfs on the Caney Fork River at Rock Island, Braver Wave, and “Wave Goodbye”. I finally decided it was time to name the wave at the top of Brave Wave Rapid, and since you have to peel out upstream of the wave, and work like crazy to stay upright and get to the wave, and then after you surf the wave you disappear over the horizon line of the rapid, you have to “Wave Goodbye” everytime you leave the eddy. Catching the eddy down below requires punching through a tall strong diagonal that if you try to boof on top of it you get instantly backendered some of the time, and make it some of the time. So, hence the name, “Wave Goodbye”, a play on words, and easy to remember. While none of the photos of from this wave, we spent an afternoon on it yesterday, and hit it again today after the Braver Wave session this morning.

Braver Wave was not ideal today as it was a little too green on the river right side forcing you to go more to the middle of the river to catch it. This is where the debris hits and where the big hole behind it goes from pushing towards the eddy, to pushing away from it. Regardless, we did laps trying to catch it, and Nick and I only caught it once, and never really dropped in. Stephen only really caught it once, where a good surge gave him a good break and he threw this move on his first pass.

Emily was on the dam taking photos and videoing. Clay and Justin Owen hiked down with their boats and were taking video and photos as well.

Back to the drought. Yes, I feel 100% better knowing that I can kayak any time I want, instead of hoping that my luck will change and we’ll get rain. The forcast shows for another week of rain coming up!! We got on Bear Creek in Georgia but got off after dark and had to hike the last few rapids. Water everywhere. So much that most of creeks were flooded out. North Chick for example is listed as too high above 1,200, but was at 6,000!

Tomorrow will be another epic day as we’ll have the falls (maybe), sieve city, the hole at high water, and Brave Wave. Wow, life is great! I remember why I moved to Rock Island again. Besides being a great place to live in general, having this stuff in my front yard is incredible! I can almost throw a stone to the Braver Wave!

Check out the 2004 archive article from Braver Wave– much better video and photos than today, sorry!