That is some pretty stout water to be tackling if you are still dependant on a extended paddle roll!

That was rad. Almost as cool as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUhuPn8_d0Q&feature=player_embedded

WTF, John? I'm gonna start refering to you as "the Worst Witch"! Does that guy paddle a longboat?

JayB- Thanks for digging that up. I don't think I've seen it before, but I'm not surprised.

In the summer of 1984 (the year of that film) I finally got my roll after a few years of paddling class III and IV in fits and starts. I had a fiberglass slalom boat. I heard all sorts of tales about local guys (eastcoast) "firing up" (that wasn't the slang used then) all sorts of steep sh*t that people still aspire to run today in creekboats.

In 1986 I got a fiberglass squirtboat. It was actually a chopped , shortened slalom boat, one of a kind, called "The Mousebat". It was derived from the Laserbat mold and built by Jesse Whittemore. His designs were more surface oriented than the scooped out Squirtboats designed by the Snyder Brothers. In 1986 I began running the Upper Yough in it, and I had my hands full. I was pretty white knuckled about it. But then again, back then to find a 16 year old on a class V run was still somewhat of a rare thing. Of course, my big brother and his friends had been tearing it up much more than me in their early teens. But then again, they were bound for Europe on the international racing circuit (slalom). Just about all of those young Slalom guys were the opitomy of hardcore at the time, and so were the Ex-hippy/redneck esoterics who lived in the hills and put squirtboating and creeking on the map.

Me? I was too timid for most of that sh*t. I just wanted to keep my head dry, run class III and IV and maybe do some stern squirts and rock splats. Run Ohiopyle Falls when the Park Rangers weren't lookin, ect.


Edited by jP - 03 Nov 2009 at 10:09am

Keep in mind that those guys who ran stuff like you showed in that video did routinely break their boats. Therefore they knew how to repair them. But back then the paddling community was supported and bolstered by the experts who built and repaired not just their boats and paddles, but sprayskirts, helmets and life jackets as well. There was a robust cottage industry and it was truly a counter culture.

You think today's paddling culture is counter culture? fu*k That! We're all a bunch of consumers and sheep compared to those guys (I'll site the people I know who I personally saw advance the sport lightyears forward throughout the 80's:)

The Snyder Brothers, Jesse, John Sweet, The entire U.S. slalom Team (not just Lugbill and Hearn), Kieth Backlund, Tom Love, Phil Coleman, Dave Demeree, Dan Isbister, Charley Walbridge, Ed Gurtler, Can't forget Boo Boo- hell she lives right here today! There's one woman who has a long history of SHREDDIING the river UP! Kara Ruppel (Immersion Reseach), Kara O'Brian, Rodger Zbel, John Reagan. Lance Martin and his son Eric. Stevie Martin (no relation to Lance and Eric), Needle Daniels, Nolan Whitesell (I didn't really know him)...
I could go on... These are just the people around me when I was a kid who influenced me. But ask anyone who knows their history, and any one of those names helped to shape and define the sport as we know it in ways big or small.

That's just the eastcoast. And due to it's metropolitan density, the presence of the U.S. team (washington D.C.), and lots of awesome whitewater, it was the mecca in the 80's.
But while that fertile genetic soup of whitewater culture and evolution was occuring, out west you had other, quieter, more isolated pockets of developement....

Rob Lesser had been studying under the tutilage of Walt Blackadar, Doug Ammons, ect. I don't kknow as much about the West. Lars Holbeck in Cali... I didn't get out west until the early 90's. But the geology is fresher, harsher, and sharper out here, which slowed down progress and discouraged fiberglass.

Anyway-- things have advanced, but much has been lost.


Edited by jP - 03 Nov 2009 at 10:32am

although JP does like to rant he has some interesting things to say.....

John Reagan is a legend and I look forward to the next time I can paddle with him! If I ever get to boat with a snyder I might just melt to the bottom of the river. Not because they are celebrities worthy of glamor but because they are masters that might unlock the mystery in the moves!!!

This video footage shows just HOW MUCH you can get away without a boof stroke.

ok-- DEFINITELTY agreed. But I think the focus is misplaced. Here's what I mean: The gear has changed, but the river hasn't!  The river is the same river. It's the rating system that needs to adapt to accomodate the advances of skill and gear. This is why I agree with Doug Ammons: Downgrading rapids and runs is the wrong way to go about it!



Blackadar was such a BADASS!! (even if his technique was crude-it proves that the whitewater world takes all kinds)




Keep in mind that those guys "cheated"-- they climbed around most of the gnar. Of couse I'm not serious about the "cheating" allogation, so don't cruxify me. They explored it and made the first D, and that's that. Still my favorite run I've ever done, BTW.

So jP,

Are you going to tell us where to find the description of the first Clark's Fork Box descent?

D

For those who haven't read it before, here's the story of Blackaddar's descent of Turnback Canyon on the Alsek, as told through his journal entries:

http://www.wetdawg.com/pages/whitewater/blackadar_alsek/index_ww.php

If it is only in print you could scan it and upload it but it would be nice to include a link to the author for credit and maybe a link to buy the physical text if available.

It's certainly beautiful. Can't say I ran it in a glass boat though!

Edited by jP - 05 Nov 2009 at 1:47pm

I wouldn't want to trouble you with it, really. But some other time if it was convienient it would be cool to take a gander at it.