Way down upon the Coosa River

Oh my sore, sunburnt arms. I spent all yesterday on the river at the Coosa River Whitewater Festival, and today I suffer. Well, not really. I woke up early and met with the festival organizers and volunteered to do some rescue boating for the canoe race, which was fun. I set up on below the Corn Creek rapid and watched as two of the five canoes tumped over, me scrambling after their boats and paddles, the boy scouts manning the boats laughing as their gear rapidly floated away. I thought there were more than just five boats in the race, so I ended up sitting on a small rock in the rapid for about an hour, meditating and watching fish dart in the eddies. The roar and crash of the water was oddly soothing. Eventually I left my perch and headed upstream to Mocassin Gap to watch the whitewater rodeo, where most of these photos were taken. All of the big-name pros were out in Colorado this year, but there were some kickass boaters around, "doing mad loops" as our colorful announcer informed us. The way they run these rodeos is pretty simple--the judges sit in a scaffolding booth above the rapid and watch as each competitor enters the wave and plays for around 30 seconds, trying to do as many point-gaining tricks as possible. Everybody was doing cartwheels, spins, blunts and backstabs, but a few pulled off some pretty "gnarly" loops (again, the announcer thought everything was "rad", "gnarly" or "bodacious". ) I haven’t mastered the loop yet, (which, as I’m positive all of you know, involves nosing your kayak into the water and leaning forward so the wave launches you into the air in a front flip.) but I’m getting there. In between the competition rounds they let us play on the wave, and I quickly managed to demonstrate what happens when you live in Ohio and don’t touch your boat for nine months.. But it was fun and the weather was nice, and the $2 hamburgers absolutely hit the spot. I even met a couple of guys who hiked the AT this year, and we chatted for a while about good times on the trail. I don’t know how many people the organizers were expecting, but it seemed like a good crowd. I was just glad to get a chance to get out on the water, even if my arms do look like candy canes now.