A member of our party had a rough run on the Cooper this afternoon.  He's not yet registered for this site but wanted me to post his account of the pin:

There is a large, red Pyranha Burn pinned underwater in Shark's Tooth rapid on the Cooper. It's pinned horizontally in the center left side of the river, below the upper left eddy. I gooned the move to catch this eddy and washed sideways against an upstream facing rock.  The boat pinned solidly and I immediately had water over my head and pushing me back to the rear deck. I felt the boat flexing which motivated me to get out as fast as possible, which required a big ab crunch to get at the grab loop. Swimming shark's tooth - yuck - but I had a good line and didn't get too beat.  After a few minutes, part of my throw rope washed out of the boat and was visible at the bottom of the run. This rope is not clipped in, so it could be loose if you encounter it.  We tried for several hours to get this gear out, but had no luck.

I know that there are plans afoot to head back in to take another shot at retrieving the gear.  The pin spot is just upstream of where the rapid pinches down in the middle, and the pinned boat is tough to see from above, because it's fully underwater.  It's pretty close to the main line as you run the drop.  We think the cockpit is facing upstream.  The end of the rope was briefly visible in the runout just below the shark's tooth rock, but disappeared from view after several attempts to grab it. 

Saw the boat and a few folks slide over the top of it. Good luck that thing looked like it was well wedged in there. Gonna need some low sept . flow to get that out of there if at all this year. 

On our third lap today Scott was able to attach a rope to it. We tried 2 different angles with a 3 to 1 system and had it moving. Thought we were going to get it until the grab loop broke. Didn't see the suspect rope today.

No sh*t- I thought I glimpsed another post several days back about another pin in Shark's tooth prior to this one...

Definitely the junkiest rapid on the run, worthy of caution. The paddler's exit from the situation sounded grim. Glad he's ok.

Good job on getting the boat out.  Any word on the rope yet?

Courtney 

JP likes to brag on the far right hugging the log that is down to the rock boof, then move back right for the slide at norms. I have to agree the little rock boof is quite nice, can't say its the best thing on the run, but it is a nice addition.

Nice job on the extraction, guys. Kudos.

Ya think? Seems about consistant if you ask me. What can I say? Apparently I made a rookie raft guide cry today, too. And apparently it doesn't take much with some of these folks. I call it tough love.

Peeps are always bringing those dumb little bottled waters along. I try to convince people to at least drink half of the bottle before getting in the raft. I mean, I can gulp one down pretty quick and it won't even do sh*t to keep me hydrated. But half the time people won't even crack the seal on the damn things. Then after the trip I gotta be their person garbage man, soggy paper pulp in the bottom of the boat if it didn't find its way into the river. Wish I had liscense to be straight up nazi about it and refuse to take the sh*t. So they are being wasteful twice. They're wasting water and plastic. I guess they are wasting money too unless they stole it (doubtful). They don't want to drink any because they are afraid they'll have to pee. So then why bring the sh*t in my raft when it can't be clipped in like a nalgene or a clean kanteen or Wtf? Piss in the river for christ's sake.

I know this thread is about the Cooper n all, so here's my token Cooper comment: the "Boost-A-Boof" is the sh*t, yo!! And yes, setting safety at Norm's is a great idea. For Sharky's, follow the water over the 'lil plop-didly drop on R. Right at the top. Boogie left there is a fine eddy there. Some peeps eddy out on R. Right, but I consider it out of the way. I pick my way down to the big boulder on the left, almost graze it w/ my bow, then charge left. Eddy out on the left if ya want before the final drop if ya want, or jus bomb on thru.

Ok back to my limited edition soapbox about running livestock and dumb wasteful bottled water... some'a yall heard of the Pacific Gyre, right? Its that huge ass eddy out in the middle of the ocean where converging currents corral tons n tons of garbage. It is my job to draw links between this and that. Not just run a raft down the river. Nah, there is a big picture.

So, let me bring this sh*t back full circle: dragging your boat unecessarily, seal launching unnecessarily, leaving plastic in these pristine canyons... not cool.

So if you can't extract your mess, or can't avoid a mess, maybe you should consider the possibility that you do not belong in these magical places. Maybe you aren't ready to be there. Yeah sh*t happens, but people use that saying like a crutch, too. Just food for thought.

Ask me sometime bout the gold dredger I rescued this season on the Wenatchee- fu*ker spilt all sorts of gasoline in the river. Never kicked down any beer afterward either. Got all cut up, poison oak too. (right at Phils Eddy, btw)

And BTW I drink Arrogant Bastard Ale. CHEERS MUDDIPHUKAS!!!!

Hey, JP, nice to hear from you again. Where are you guiding these days? (BTW, it's Lisa, but I don't know how to change my screen name here!)

I try and do what I can and call them like I see them. That is all for now.

Leif aka force aka force_leif@ but not to be confused with the other Leif. 

Also might be worth noting that at least one other group tried to get the boat out, which resulted in a broken grab loop and the boat still in the river. So, waiting for the water to come down a bit looked like one of the only real options for getting the plastic gone, and it worked.

JP.  I love your unprovoked rants about nothing.