Watauga Race, Chattooga, Tallulah, Green and More

So the past few weeks have been eventful, but unfortunately I have no pictures of anything due to my camera dying on me.  Hopefully I will be getting a new one soon but in the meantime here is a little update on whats been going on.

The Watauga Race was great this year with juicy water levels, a great turnout of over 40 racers, and perfect weather.  Hopefully this can become an annual event!  I took 20th overall, but 2nd in short boat. I was pretty happy with my finish, but next year I am going to try to get my hands on a longboat for sure, I just could not keep up with the greenboats in the flat sections.
Here is a nice write up with photos and a video from the race:
http://riverkeeper.appvoices.org/2010/03/

This weekend was a really good one for boating, it almost felt like summer! Going with no drytop for the first time in 6 months felt awesome, along with swimming in the river.  We started the weekend off with a run down Tallulah on saturday with Colin, Mac and my brother. Here is a nice video Colin put together, showcasing the major rapids in the gorge:


Tallulah Gorge with most of the rapids from Colin Hunt on Vimeo.



On monday, I got to paddle with my dad on section 4 of the Chattooga, along with Colin, and two guys we met at the put in, Craig and Fast Fred.  We had a great time on another beautiful day. Two swims in the 5 falls and a beatdown in socemdog made things a little interesting!

Tuesday we headed to the Green, where I got to show my brother down the narrows for his first time! It was a nice 10" and a great first time level. He did great until a skirt implosion at hammer factor, and yes it counts as a swim!  We took some video on Colin's camera that should be up before too much longer.

Back in Boone, Matt, Ty, Jesse and I went to the Watauga for a nice low water run, the first in almost a month.  The level was around 160 cfs, plenty for a fun run.  It channelizes really well and some fun boofs and different moves open up. Not a bad playboat level either, the Watauga is full of good splats and rockspins. Stateline was good to go as well, its just a lot more of a fine line.

The rain is falling, tomorrow we are headed to Cullowhee in hopes of creeking in the smokies, then Tallulah again the rest of the weekend, see you out there!
-Clay