Drifting around rocks, nosing an eddy, pulling you just enough, no strokes. Dropping off a ledge, catching a proportionate amount of an eddy to spin the boat effortlessly around, avoiding the rocks the current eagerly charges.
Reading water and knowing how it effects your boat is a wild, raw skill. To truly understand reading currents and eddies, I think is a lifetime endeavor. After about five years, I think I get the gist and I keep learning.
Eddies are beautiful calm pools that are created by rocks in the middle of the river or along the sides. These eddies have minimal current or even upstream current which are critical to driving a raft downstream. I use eddies to stop, move the boat around rocks, spin the boat or just kill speed. As much as they are useful, sometimes they can totally pull you offline and cause a myriad of issues. I’ve learned through experience how grabbing just a little too much eddy in the wrong place, can cause a violent upstream flip.
The beauty of guiding a Wild and Scenic River is the natural flow. No dam up stream to govern water flow, lots of rain or lack of, changes the river.
Every day the water is different. I, by necessity, learned to read water. A skill, passed down, generation to generation, raft guide to raft guide. “Look for the downstream V”, “Use the eddy to help with the turn”, “At this water level, you gotta use the back ferry”. Phrases I understood in theory and at the beginning, couldn’t actualize.
Now, it’ has begun to feel like a dance. The twisting, the turning, delicately placing your raft into channels no wider than the vessel you steer. I understand those phrases. I speak River. I dance with her. Using her features, I flow with her downstream.
Occasionally, I step on her toes, or she on mine and it usually means I go for an unexpected whitewater swim. I have swam more than I care to admit. Full on flips, flops (boat stays upright, everyone is in the water) and everything in between. It keeps me humble, on my toes and fired up to learn.
The clean lines through the low water shoaly, not even really rapids, are just as good as stomping Jawbone (Class 5) at high water. Albeit far more work with a heavy boat.
I truly love the finesse guiding a raft on the Chattooga presents. I also love the raw power is takes to turn a boat at high water. I enjoy the challenges of meeting my guests where they are as paddlers and continuing to be able to get them downstream safely.
The beauty of the river surrounding me, hugging my soul every day.
Dancing in the sunlight, river shining bright, going to keep dancing until the moon shines bright. Then, we keep dancing.
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