Swimming Sledgehammer

So the other day after work we decided to hit a Gorge run in the kayaks. Aaron and I loaded up our stuff and joined three rafts doing a booze cruise and four other kayaks for the run. We'd been talking about getting into the Gorge and I was quite happy running the Bighorn section of river so it was time to step it up. We put in and floated down to the Gorge. I was feeling ok and then took a combat roll in El Segundo, basically a little class 3 rapid, if that. It wasn't the confidence booster I needed. The roll was good but I wasn't happy going over that easily. It was just a section of boily water that caught me out. Anyway, I carried on and was doing better. One of the big rapids is called Sunshine and I'd managed to scout it before when I was watching the raft race so I was happy with that. There is a nice easy sneak line that I took on river right which made things pretty mellow. So far so good. Next up in the river was a class 3 section called Grateful Dead which went by well, just nice easy read and run. Then we came on Sledgehammer. I'd run the Gorge in a raft twice and knew that Sledgehammer was big. It was probably the place where I wanted to scout the line and check out where all the big holes were. But these guys were trucking on and so we didn't have time to stop and check it out. They said just stay left, left, left. That was the easy line. Okay, thats fine. Then they all droped right of a big domer. I was pretty sure I should go left at this point but I didn't want to be the only one to go that way and get screwed so I followed them right. I got round the domer and all the current bounced off a wall on river right. I certainly didn't want to hit the wall so I paddled away from it. As I turned my head to see where I was going all I saw was a massive hole right in front of me, sledgehammer hole. It's pretty much one of a couple of holes that you really don't want to go into and I was headed straight for it. There wasn't much I could do so I just pointed the boat straight at it and started paddling with the idea of trying to punch it and paddle through it. It almost worked. I hit the hole and just as I was climbing out of it I got spun sideways and flipped. So there I was, upsidedown in sledge hole. It surfed me for a few seconds and then I managed to reach down to the fast current and get flushed. I set up my roll and gave it a try. It was a half roll, I just rushed it a little bit and didn't quite reach all the way to teh surface with my paddle. So I got my head out and got some air, then I was back over, upsidedown. I was setting up my second roll when I went over bird drop and into bird hole. Tom who was kayaking next to me said he saw my head hit bird rock, I didn't feel it but its very possible. At this point my setup for the second roll was ruined as I was surfing Bird drop hole upsidedown. Again I managed to get flushed. Right about this time the paddle got wrenched out of my hand and I decided to pull to deck and swim. I got out of the boat and saw Aaron right next to me. The only thing he had told me was don't let go of the paddle, it was his brothers and I was borrowing it. The first thign I said as he paddled by was "I dropped the paddle" I don't think he was very impressed. Anyway, he paddled into an eddy on river left and I followed, but not before going through another hole, Envelope. So I made it to the eddy. It turned out that Ben managed to chase my boat down and get it into an eddy but the paddle was nowhere to be seen. Aaron and Willie both saw the paddle as they were chasing my carnage but it vanished before they could grab it. It turns out Tom managed to grab it, or more precisely, part of it. When it got wrenched out of my hand what happened was that the paddle snapped. So I didn't feel so bad about letting go after all.

So there I was with boat and half a paddle, not the best position to be in with a bunch more class 4 rapids coming up. The two rafts from Echo where ahead of us and had no idea what happened but the other raft was still around so that was my ticket home. We got them to eddy out and I strapped my kayak to the back of teh raft and continued on down the river. We caught up with the rest of the crew at corner pocket where they were all eddied out having a few beers and a safety meeting. We chilled out there for a while before continuing down the river. The guys I was hitching a ride with were fucked. We were in an oar boat and the guide on the oars has been on the river for years and he was just of his tits. Everyone else was also ruined. They were sitting in the kayak on the back of the boat drinking beer and smoking. It was quite epic. I wasn't drinking because I was running in a kayak for the first time in the Gorge but now that I was in a raft beer sounded really good. The only problem was that they were running out and I was already hitching a ride so I held back and enjoyed watching the show. By the time we were coming through town it was pretty much dark and we had a few thing to contend with that spiced up the ride but we made it safe and sound. We derigged the boat and chilled out until the shuttle came down. Aaron picked me up and we hit Wendys and went over all the war stories. With the other guys.

So the trip was over but I owed Aaron a paddle. It turns out one of the senior guides had found a nice paddle so I saw an opportunity to get a good paddle cheap and pay back Aaron. The price is going to be $100 and a case of beer but I'm going to try and haggle a bit to bring the price down but it could turn into a $100 swim. The final chapter to the story happened last night when I had to shoot the boot. When you swim the penalty is drinking a beer out of your river bootie, all good fun but Aaron did have to remind everyone in the bar, bastard. Oh well. The positive side of the story is that we ran the Bighorn again a few days later and I went striaght into the bottom hole of Kamakazie, which is a pretty good sized hole and quite munchy. It flipped me and held me a bit before I flushed. I hit my roll well so I'm ready again with my confidence back. I'll have to get back in the Gorge soon and get redemption, too bad the water is dropping now so it won't be the same but I still have to get myself through there in good style and fine form.