Thought peeps might like to see what the East Coast has to offer. Kayaking is a much more involved process here.

 

This is the Great Falls section of the Potomac at around 3.5 feet. We only ran the center lines.

 

Edited by James - 17 Jun 2011 at 9:59am

This may be a stupid question- but what do you mean by "more involved"? Great footage- but- do you mean public or?

Great video Dan!  Now I have boof envy (1:05 :).  I didn't boat on the east coast but I spent a lot of time growing up there, I know what you mean.

Alright, if you live in Virginia beach, it is hard to boat anything quality. The nearest river with any gradient is the upper yough, and that's about 4 hours away. Even when you are in an area with a lot of whitewater, it is still a lot different than WA. I spent the weekend in Ashville boating the green and even with a HUGE rain storm, nothing came in until Monday. And, then Ravens ran:(

Its beautiful here and the whitewater is awesome, I'm just saying it doesn't hold a candle to washingtons boating. There are so many options for all except about two months of the year. August and September are really the only times you need to put serious miles on your car to get good water. It seems like that's the norm here except for the winter. On the same token, if I lived in Spokane, I'm sure I would have the same complaint. Appreciate Seattle people, it's an awesome place to live.

Thanks for sharing your exploits Dan.   Dude, I think the NW paddling community is missing your presence.   At anyrate, keep it up... and let us know when you be getting back here.

Agree  with Jim about the tightness of the scene out there and the number of quality runs in the sweet spot between "Gravel Easy" and "Balls Hard." Same in the NE as in the SE apparently. You can thank the geology for the many runs in the sweet spot, and the hydrology for bringing boaters together to the water.

IMO the PNW pretty much wins any boating based beauty-contest hands down, but there's some good stuff back there.

As someone who lived in DC (yes, in the city) for a long time and boated there.  The Potomac was less than a half hour away from home and work.  Gradient - 4 hours?  Really?  if you really want to.  There are quality runs with gradient waaaay closer especially after a good rain. 

How many urban areas can you go surf before work?  After work?  Damn do I miss surfing with the sun coming up over the Potomac then getting to work with my gear over my car, drying.  I miss surfing by moonlight on warm nights.  I miss having a fleet of boats for all the super fun surfing and playing at different levels...squirt boat, long boat (velcro visor optional), short boat, playboat.  I miss the wildlife on the Po - turtles, pterodactyls (herons), deer, even the vultures.  I even miss attaining (I can't believe I just said that.) 

Ahhh the days of decent play spots and rolling with not getting an ice cream headache.  I wore my drysuit maybe 3 months a year, not 10 like here.  It is friggin June and I wore a drysuit, helmet liner, and pogies yesterday; last week when I was on the Po I wore nothing but a PFD.  Yah, I'm sporting PFD tan lines and they rock.  You all should be jealous.    

Plus there is so much class 4-fun in the Appalachians vs. class 4-mank like WA.   And the quality of play is far superior.  Woah, there are fun holes and waves instead of manky pourovers to play in - imagine that! 

How about boating in the fall with a slight breeze and having all the yellow, orange, and red leave gently fall about you.  Simply glorious.  Or being on a river during a thunderstorm - truly awesome experience. 

Yah, the cascades are beautiful, there are fun rivers here, and it is nice to go home and sleep in your after a couple hours of boating (usually because you have been freezing your ass off all day) but I sincerely miss the whitewater and temperature of the east coast.   Oh and there is quality boating in late uly august/sept/oct thanks to well managed dam releases (thanks AW!) 

Okay-I'll readily admit the skiing is much better in WA but not the boating.

Actually there are some 5+ tribs into the Po (and, duh, others less than 4 hours) that are paddled by the select few - not talking difficult run, fishladder (also shown in the vid) or the falls. they are short but damn stout and are occasionally run.    

"Last week when I was on the Po I wore nothing but a PFD."

Snap that would chafe my nipples. Pretty dangerous with no helmet but it is a deep river. Nipples safety would be my bigger concern of course

+1 for Leland.
Moved out here a year ago and I'm beginning to love the boating, but it's taken a while to find people to boat with.
SE: Easy to find people to boat with
PNW: Not so much
SE: Warm temps, year round boating (nov. - dec. sometimes dry)
PNW: Year round boating
SE: Green Narrows, Ocoee, Cheoah, (all dam controlledand release regularly)
Chattanooga, TN/Western, NC/ Northeast, AL/Northwest, GA are what I really consider the East Coast, yeah....it's the SE but still.......
In Chattanooga, I would drive 10 min. after work for 1.5 miles of class 5 do two laps and be at a bar all before dark.....miss that.
And Dan.....why Virginia Beach?

Here's a wrinkle that reflects a noobs perspective- where is it easier to learn? I'd love to go out and practice thirty rolls in a row on a regular basis, my bracing, etc. like right now, tonight, but...its that ice cream headache thing if I do it on the river. Plus folks here in the PNW don't generally have private pools (at least in my income bracket) to share. When I go to Lake Washington to practice, my gear stinks like a ducks ass, and I come up covered in milfoil. It was quite a revelation for me on my first Rogue trip just a few months after I started boating, when I flipped in that balmy water and went, "Wait a min, it ain't so bad down here- I'll take a moment to really get my set-up right." Etc., etc. It crossed my mind- what if I could learn to boat, initially anyway, in warmer water? How might that speed my progress in the basics?

I learned to climb in Calif. with an infinity of great moderate rock, easy to protect in great weather. When I came up here in the late '80's noobs were going to INDEX to learn climbing for chrissakes. It was like being punished....I'm sure there is a parallel here to surfing- must be some reason it was invented in a tropical climate

I know you alde farts are thinking- that it makes ya tough, and that having a steep learning curve weeds out the weak. But if progress, at least initially, is about muscle memory and doing reps and laps, it just makes me wonder is all.

I lived 'out east' for a few years but long before I was trying to learn to paddle. It was in Baltimore. I hated it. Nuff' said on that point.

There are a lot of opinions here! Let me start off by saying that I am in no way bashing the SE. I was just reiterating a comment I had made earlier that this trip has taught me to appreciate WA. I lived in WA for almost six years before I got into a kayak there and really fell in love with the state. Then, even when I started boating again, I would regularly pass up trips because I didn't feel that driving for an hour and a half was worth the effort. I live in the middle of nowhere in Port Orchard and the sky is still only two hours away and it's always in. I'm 1.5 hours from both Ernie's Canyon and Jefferson Creek. I'm 3 hours from icicle creek. Icicle!!

Like I said, it's gorgeous here. I've fallen in love with Ashville. I haven't been in a boating community like that since I lived in Coloma (CA). The water here is different, it's warm! And everything is smooth (and undercut...). I had forgotten what it was like to paddle in board-shorts and a life jacket. It is a different mindset. The warm weather and warm water definitely lend to a much more laid back attitude. I feel like in Washington as soon as you're off the river people scatter instead of hanging out and drinking beer. It seems like that is the M.O. of the south east boater; get off the river and get a beer in your buddies hand. I like that. Reminds me of the NorCal scene and I miss it. 

Spent the last weekend back on the Green and I can't say I've gotten the grin off my face. There were so many boaters and so many breweries. It's just a fun place to be. It even started raining on Sunday but I was still comfortable with nothing but a life jacket on.

I think the weather does play a huge role in the number of boaters. A swim in bath water isn't as scary. A swim in icicle is very scary. You can't feel your hands after a couple of minutes. When I go home to California I notice a lot more boaters as well, and while the water isnt as warm as the Green, it's still miles warmer than anything in WA. 

Both places have there merit, in fact, I think any place that has moving water is awesome. I highly recommend the trip out here, it will show you a different side of boating if you've only paddled in the PNW. 

Cheers

You ain't kidding around ... Is there even enough people willing to go on a river around here to make some thing like this happen in the NW?
 

That is an epic raft race right there!


Edited by James - 28 Jun 2011 at 8:18pm