Pikey from England writes in from the Gauley

By Pikey

October 11, 2006

What a way to spend my last weekend in the states than to be paddling the Upper Gauley on a 3000cfs release with Brad Sutton, Clay and Stephen Wright. After along drive from Rock Island and saying goodbye to my new family, Brad and I pulled-in late to sleep. Our good morning ritual of finding breakfast and setting shuttle took us to midday, so we were only too happy to have a 24hour release.

The Gauley is a famous river for play: from rock splatting to hole playing, never forgetting the cool looking down-river moves like the Macho Move or Kick Flip, and of course the creek lines like boofs and slots. This river gives you the opportunity to do it all.

With the 24hr release and the full moon shinning all night, Clay and I, along with a few others manage to do a midnight paddle in our creek boats, this was my 2nd big boat experience after last weeks trip to the Green Narrows.

As much fun as the Mega Rocker was that night I wouldn’t of wanted to be in any other boat than my new Fun during the day. The Upper Gauley is a long stretch of river to paddle and when you stop to play at every feature on the river the day turns out to be long, we was paddling between 5 to 6hrs a day. I was sure happy to be sitting in the most comfortable boat I’ve ever paddled, only getting out to rest from hard playing or to let my legs cool down as the weather was hot and my boat was dry.

Even my paddling improved–with help from Stephen I pulled my first ever Mcnasty and Macho move along with getting my biggest Kick Flip ever. Every day I got off the water I had improved on something with my freestyle, but also with my river running skills. Because the river offers multiple lines down each rapid, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I love just blasting down the main line punching through every wave I hit or boofing over holes and making tight slots (like the mail slot). Feeling confident with myself and my Fun meant I had no issues. On the last day I even made the hard slot on Shipwreck rapid.

After lots of play at Hungry Mother I got out to have a chat and watch the guys and gals strut their stuff in the hole, watching Stephen launch MY Fun 4ft clean off the water with his loops is something worth seeing, but it was just upsetting that it wasn’t me in my boat. I have never heard the saying “that impossible” yet it’s being shown clearly in front of me time and time again. Clay was working wonders pulling off a few big Mcnasty’s while Brad and I worked hard on our tricky woo’s. Brad landing some excellent ones.

I leant my boat to a guy called Mike who paddled it at Hungry Mother. To see the smile on his face when he pulled his biggest air loop ever, and just how excited he was about the way the boat paddled and felt was awesome. It brought back memories of when I first jumped in the JK Fun. The funniest thing was that Mike couldn’t stop raving about how good the Fun was at Hungry Mother that I had to keep reminding him it isn’t just a playboat. I let him run a few rapids in it only to ask for my boat back quickly. He seemed impressed at how it ran the river but was still in shock from his amazing rides at Hungry Mother.

The weekend was great, seeing old faces and new faces, plus the boating was wicked. Now I’m heading north to Canada for some colder water play. Looking forward to returning to the states for more Fun times on the water.

Pikey