Section 4

Section 4 of the Chattooga is quite possibly my favorite run in my short career. It’s beautiful for one, and two there are so many little things in each rapid. There are boofs, eddies, holes, waves, boils, and lots of boulders. Each rapid is littered with these little eddy gems that you can bounce in and out of and even make the easier rapids ton’s of fun. That’s what I love, I love eddy hoping down rapids. It makes me feel like I am actually appreciating the river, learning to use it’s features, and navigating as opposed to hanging on. I don’t know that I could say one rapid was my favorite, I loved different things about each one. The eddies in Screamin Left, the line I missed on Raven’s Shoot, the curlers on Corkscrew and Jawbone, and the feeling you get right before you go through Crack in the Rock. The boof on Sock em Dog is actually a really good feeling too…though I imagine missing that boof is a really really bad feeling.

So here is the little highlight reel:

As far as paddling goes, I feel like Section 4 could turn a decent boater into a really good boater if they took the time to master all of the little technical lines. I felt really good out there but I can’t wait to for another chance to clean up my lines on Jawbone, Crack in the Rock, and Raven’s Shoot. I made it through Crack in the Rock fine it just wasn’t like I had intended. I’m definitely looking forward to going back. Oh, I guess I did have one more favorite part, the crew! You can’t beat paddling with Wayner, Bill Hester, & Trey Barnett. We boat scouted every rapid but Crack in the Rock. They even made sure I got the full experience by opting out of the motor boat ride, paddling the 2 mile lake stretch, and making me jump off Mountain Dew Rock. Wouldn’t want to spoil the newbie.

The launch pad on Sock em Dog

Wayner going down the slide at Woodall

Me in my new Recon.

How not to run the left to right line at Raven’s Shoot.

And here are some of the clips that didn’t make the first vid: