A week ago my good buddy Nick Dobbs and I woke up early to catch the final day of releases at the Wausau whitewater park. Wausau is an awesome place to support and I was excited to teach Nick the basics of whitewater. Nick has been paddling around the Midwest in every fashion except a whitewater boat. I knew he would make the connection from touring to whitewater seamlessly. With Wausau being 4 hours away we woke up bright and early to make the most of the day. About a half hour outside of town I had to stop, take a picture, and enjoy this view of the sun rising over Witch Lake.
We rolled in to Wausau around 10am and were greeted by uncharacteristically cold weather, like 40 degrees. Nothing was going to slow us down though and Nick was pumped to make the jump to whitewater. For warm up you begin at the top in calm flat-water where you can practice rolls, go over strokes, and get yourself excited before you head down. To make Nick feel like a champ I put him in my Jefe Grande while I paddled my Hungee. He got the strokes down quick and even busted out a few rolls. His confidence was high and he opted to run the first drop instead of the recommended portage for his first run. He lined it up just right but the river gods didn’t want his confidence to get too high and he quickly exited his boat. He was determined to not let this mess with him and he quickly got back in his boat and styled the rest.
It was awesome to see him get after it and start kicking but on the drops below. There are many elements to deal with between the man-made holes, people surfing, canoes, and just general commotion. After a couple of laps we started talking about surfing. I gave him a quick talk about edges and tilt, then before I knew it Nick was charging into the holes side surfing. I didn’t expect him to just go for it. He got a few good surfs in and at one point he flipped but nailed his first combat roll. The final score of the day for Nick was; multiple successful laps, 2 swims, 1 combat roll, and a priceless day of kayaking in a Liquidlogic kayak.
Here are some photos of Nicks day.
Charging
Hiking up for more
Punching holes
And only minor first aid at the end.
One major part of Wausau that I never get tired of is watching the canoes. Nora let me give her’s a try and it gave me all kinds of respect for people running rivers in those unstable crafts, especially tandem. Here are some of the canoe all stars.
I even had a few laps in my Biscuit and some race laps in my Hungee.
An awesome way to spend the last day of releases. Now lets hope these fall storms keep the Upper Peninsula’s creeks running for a while!
