Scariest Experience

**kayaktheworld** · 01-21-2007, 02:07 PM

This forum has been slow for a while so I thought I would ask everyone: What is the scariest thing that has happened to you while kayaking? This can be things you've witnessed, safety, drops, carnage. Anything.

**Conundrum** · 01-21-2007, 09:42 PM

8 hour hike out after a broken paddle on a new run for me. I lost my group, they lost me and I new the takeout was where the road crossed the river so I just kept myself between the two in Washington undergrowth.

**Harv** · 01-22-2007, 11:20 AM

paddling the Upper Congrejal in Honduras I watched a guy who should not have been there get stuffed in a sieve. He disappeared, traveled 40-60feet downstream, under a house sized granite boulder, came out maybe 45seconds to a minute later, unconscious, head downstream and float over a 15foot drop. The guy ended up OK but it was the closest I have come to seeing someone drown. When the water dropped we looked at the sieve and realized the guy had made it through a four foot high gap in the boulder.

**Storm11** · 01-22-2007, 01:19 PM

First season boating... first day in my new Big EZ, pretty much at peak flow on the Animas. Hit my first combat roll ever then almost immediately got stuffed under a big log that was pinned against a rock at one of the popular play waves. Didn't get pinned, but had it been lower water I most definately would have. Pretty scary experience for maybe my 10th time every on the river.

**skibuminwyo** · 01-22-2007, 03:51 PM

some random people (won't mention any names) told me i needed to go boating with them my first season. they took me on the class 4+ run of the shosho, and i wound up flipping exactly where they told me not to, and remembered as i was swimming, they said go left, right? around a huge boulder that divides the river in half. well, i wound up going right, and got stuck in a hole in the rock up to my knees, my buddy tried to get to me, i got the grab ring on the back of his boat, just enough to flop myself over and get out of the sieve. i've never been that scared!

**chrismo720** · 01-23-2007, 02:26 PM

so far out of my first season boating i havent had anything realy bad yet( jinxx) but i did get stuck in this relitively big hole. There was like a little channel the size of a boat river right after the hole, like RIGHT after the hole, so i droped, punched the beefy hole but it put me right into this little pool thing, so i had to back out with my up stream edge up, surf for a second then paddle like a fiend

**Conundrum** · 01-23-2007, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by chrismo720

so far out of my first season boating i havent had anything realy bad yet( jinxx) but i did get stuck in this relitively big hole. There was like a little channel the size of a boat river right after the hole, like RIGHT after the hole, so i droped, punched the beefy hole but it put me right into this little pool thing, so i had to back out with my up stream edge up, surf for a second then paddle like a fiend

Patience. It will get scarier.

I do remember the first time that happened to me though but I swam. I think I almost pooped myself.

**RootSkier** · 01-23-2007, 05:58 PM

Watching the hole for glimpses of Matias or his boat, it occurred to me that I might be watching somebody drown. Just a glimpse of blue boat here, a speck of yellow there…was he wearing a yellow helmet? I couldn’t remember, only having paddled with him one time before. All I knew is that he had missed his line, and was now getting the beat down of a lifetime in the worst hole I’d ever seen anyone drop into.

***************

A little while later, with Matias reunited with his gear in a small eddy with a rock ledge, he and Mark were trying to signal to me from across the river. I wasn’t sure what to try and yell. I was clinging to a vertical cliff face, struggling to hold onto a small tree root, perched over a bottomless green pool above the biggest rapid we’d seen yet.

What happens next, I wondered. Here we are, in the middle of an enormous national park in Argentina, I just saw one of my partners take a horrible swim, and then we find ourselves faced with every kayaker’s nightmare: the unscoutable, unportageable drop, deep in the wilderness, with no way out.

At maching high water, no less.

******

It was one of those things that every kayaker who travels halfway around the world to boat will have to deal with one day: we are here, we have a chance to do this classic run, and it is way too high.

But this is our only chance. Matias and Mark are headed down to the Futaleufu tomorrow. Today might be the only chance I have to paddle this run. If we wait, we may never get another chance.

So we took the chance.

It started out fine. No one was feeling up for the 45+ footer into the potentially inescapable punchbowl at the put in, but that was ok. I’d never run a drop that big anyways, let alone in a country with a fourth rate health care system, two hours from the nearest hospital, with our shuttle driver already miles away, towards the takeout.

So we made the easy portage on the heavily traveled tourist trail, through the official overlook, with a few disappointed tourists who I am sure were hoping we would huck anyways. The river was mellow below, for awhile. When we arrived at the first rapid, Triple Drop, the first 10 foot ledge was looking like a low head dam. The second drop reminded me of Lochsa Falls, a huge exploding V wave, which led directly into the third drop, which was a 20 footer with a good boof ledge on the left and a nasty, nasty flat hole on the right.

My partners portaged without a second thought, but since I might never have another chance, I thought I’d give it a go, but put in after the first drop. The second drop flipped me but I rolled up in one motion and hit my boof perfectly on the left. Oh yeah, I thought, this is going to be good.

We continued down, running some incredible drops, and making easy portages on the bedrock where the holes were just too big. We knew there was a 60 footer in the canyon somewhere, so we were very cautious. At one point I didn’t notice the two of them eddied out, and proceeded to run a sharp ledge blind, and get stuck in a hole for long enough to see Matias out of his boat and standing there with a rope by the time I fought my way out.

We entered a gorged up area, and decided we should do a major scout because we expected the 60 footer soon. We were right, and we portaged the whole thing on a decent trail through some of the thickest bamboo I have ever seen.

It was soon after the big one that we came to the first unportageable drop. The line down the right involved a sketchy boof and then a hard ferry in front of the nasty, ugly, frightening hole where the story began. There was also a sneak down the left, but neither of the other two liked it, claiming they sensed undercuts.

Mark went first, and absolutely styled it. Matias went next, missed his boof, and ended up getting worked so bad I seriously believed he might not make it. But he did, and Mark was able to corral his gear below in the sheer walled gorge.

I had a serious heart to heart with myself. I could not picture running that line, there was no portage option, and I was second guessing the sneak line. After some deliberation, the sneak went fine, but then the real trouble began.

An ominous horizon line ahead demanded some sort of scout, but the walls were sheer, and there were few options. I found a spot to crawl out, secured my boat, and started scaling the cliff. What I saw did not look good. A house sized boulder split the flow, with nasty looking holes on either side. With a pool beyond, it might just go, but the river turned 90 degrees to the right immediately after the drop, and there was no way to see what was beyond.

Across the river, I could see Matias and Mark gesturing…waiting. I communicated that there was a small eddy directly above the drop, but I couldn’t tell if there was a way to get out of your boat from there. After much yelling back and forth, Mark got in his boat, headed for the eddy, and disappeared behind the rock that created it. I was still clinging to the cliff above. Matias was yelling, trying to figure out what happened to Mark...but neither of us could see anything.

[stay tuned for part II]

**Conundrum** · 01-23-2007, 06:41 PM

Part II NOW!

That's intense.

**ridinshockgun** · 01-24-2007, 08:20 AM

Nothing really scary in my first season, a few side surfs after ledge drops, and being worked in a hole and then upside down just upstream from a 6 ft vertical drop to really shallow water is about it. I'm sure my time will come.

I would say the scariest thing Ive seen is standing on the shore from 10 ft away.... watching the guy at the Green Narrows race out of his boat, and washing helplessly towards the notch followed by the 25 foot drop. No eddy to swim to. Then a rope came out of the crowd and they pulled him in.

**Alek** · 01-24-2007, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by hubie

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Did you hear of this new-fangled boat by Piranha? It's called the Para-Graph! Try it, who knows, maybe you'll like it...

**MarsB** · 01-24-2007, 07:29 PM

Hubie-

I had to google a pic of the Revolution to find out what it was.

Wow, what a collosally bad idea! Wonder how Perception marketed it? "Like a cataraft, only a shit-ton heavier! All the knee-breaking fun of a sit-on-top

, with the manuverability (but none of the forgiveness) of a raft!" Swimming high water New in March, trying to wrassle two of those fuckers into an eddy? Fuck that!

**Yonder_River** · 01-25-2007, 01:28 AM

Swimming out of the pine creek hole on the arkansas at 3k. Shouldn't have used up so much energy trying to paddle out since I barely had enough for the swim. Got flushed for a quarter mile before I somehow made it to an eddy. By far the closest I've come to death.

**stayalert** · 01-25-2007, 07:58 AM

waiting for 2 friends to be freed from being pinned on the bottom of a cold and swollen white river (VT) many Springs ago. . Seconds passed like minutes......they were in a canoe though so I suppose I'm disqualified....Both surfaced conscious and somewhat more scared than I was....

**ridinshockgun** · 01-25-2007, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by Yonder_River

Shouldn't have used up so much energy trying to paddle out since I barely had enough for the swim.

I wonder about that. I mean, at what point do you go for the swim because you're wasting all your energy fighting in the boat?

**spindrift** · 02-01-2007, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by MarsB

Hubie-

I had to google a pic of the Revolution to find out what it was.

Wow, what a collosally bad idea! Wonder how Perception marketed it? "Like a cataraft, only a shit-ton heavier! All the knee-breaking fun of a sit-on-top

, with the manuverability (but none of the forgiveness) of a raft!" Swimming high water New in March, trying to wrassle two of those fuckers into an eddy? Fuck that!

If I remember right it was a rotomolded takeoff on what "the Russians" were using for some pretty serious expedition paddling in those days. Take some rubber or hypalon pontoons, pack 'em in & lash across them with fresh cut trees and you are in business... If memory serves me right they were doing the same sort of stuff with huge inner tube type things. Put a paddler on each pontoon or have one straddle the inside of each inner tube and off you go...

edit - A little googling failed to turn up any shots of the old "rustic" versions, but I did come up with this...

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asi...photo78581.htm

**Harv** · 02-02-2007, 11:04 AM

Swimming out of the pine creek hole on the arkansas at 3k. Shouldn't have used up so much energy trying to paddle out since I barely had enough for the swim. Got flushed for a quarter mile before I somehow made it to an eddy. By far the closest I've come to death.

you are not alone on this one. more people have had near flush drowning experiences in this rapid then almost any other spot in the US. cold river, long rapid, sticky hole in the middle= bad combination of features.

**420Powderpimp** · 02-02-2007, 11:15 AM

I have hit that hole a couple of times. I give one good try in the boat and swim. Hell, I have pulled the skirt as I am hitting the hole.

It's a meaty son of bitch!

Harv, nice BC pic on the buzz!

**gearjunkie1** · 02-02-2007, 11:33 AM

Definitely has to be my swim on the Chilko (classic BC run) someone else was already swimming, I grabbed his paddle. Got tossed in a hole. I was borrowing someone's cool new play boat (at the time it was cool), that I wasn't used to and couldn't roll with two paddles ( I can usually). So after many attempts to roll it didn't really occur to me, because somehow I made it to my sixth year of paddling without a swim, to pull the deck. I finally did when I realized I was starting to take in water, but when I came up no one was around because they were all trying to get the first swimmer. The Chilko is fairly fast and high volume, so I went a long way. I didn't want to let go of the gear because I had a boat and a paddle that didn't belong to me. Even hanging on to the boat I had a ton of down time, finally it came down to me or the gear. I let everything go and swam out and lost only a bootie in the end.

Another group of boaters picked up the rest.

**MarsB** · 02-02-2007, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by spindrift

If I remember right it was a rotomolded takeoff on what "the Russians" were using for some pretty serious expedition paddling in those days. Take some rubber or hypalon pontoons, pack 'em in & lash across them with fresh cut trees and you are in business... If memory serves me right they were doing the same sort of stuff with huge inner tube type things. Put a paddler on each pontoon or have one straddle the inside of each inner tube and off you go...

Spindrift, I saw some footage of those Russian expeditions. They were pretty sketchy craft, considering the stuff they were running. Give me a good cataraft or shredder (even better) anyday!

**Harv** · 02-02-2007, 12:03 PM

I have hit that hole a couple of times. I give one good try in the boat and swim. Hell, I have pulled the skirt as I am hitting the hole.
It's a meaty son of bitch!

Harv, nice BC pic on the buzz!

in 1995 we ran Pine Creek when Browns was peaking at 6800cfs (whatever that converts to in Piney. I was in a Hurricane and all I remember about Pine Creek was that the s-bend hole was gone and by the time I had rolled twice I was past the three sisters...fast. Basically that hole gets better the higher the river gets but between about 1400cfs and 1800cfs (in Nathrop) it is horrendous.

thanks... the photo was actually from Elation Ridge which you can hike to from the ski area but might as well be bc for as little as anyone actually goes out there.

**Yonder_River** · 02-02-2007, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by gearjunkie1

because somehow I made it to my sixth year of paddling without a swim

Whaa? Your either sticking to class III's or your some kind of stud!

**ridinshockgun** · 02-02-2007, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by Yonder_River

Whaa? Your either sticking to class III's or your some kind of stud!

No shit, or didnt paddle a lot.

Ive racked up close to 30 in my first year. But that was paddling 3-4 days a week for a few months. After about 20 it occured to me I should try to learn to roll.

**SKISC** · 02-02-2007, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by ridinshockgun

No shit, or didnt paddle a lot.

Ive racked up close to 30 in my first year. But that was paddling 3-4 days a week for a few months. After about 20 it occured to me I should try to learn to roll.

I think I racked up 30 my forst trip.

Maybe he spent 6 years in a ducky.

**420Powderpimp** · 02-02-2007, 03:43 PM

I still swim at least a couple times a year. Every year it is something, I'm sure I will swim every year.

Last year-
1) I hit my face on a rock and was stunned, when I came to, I had lost my paddle and was upside down. Upper A
2) Broke my paddle in Gore and swam out of the bottom of Tunnel. Finished with a breakdown that was really small, (I'm guessing it was a 140, I think it was made by Fischer Price) it was a little sketchy.