NOOZ
Like any good kayak site, we need a blog to keep you all up to date o our adventures in whitewater medium, and that's what the Nooz is all about!
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I wasn't going to go to the Green Race. Too far, haven't been on it enough, too much hype, low water, blah blah blah. But as it got closer, I started giving in to the hype, wishing I was going, but couldn't justify the drive. Then I got the idea to see if anyone else was going. Kevin and Art were heading down Thursday afternoon, and they were releasing more water for the race. I'm in. I'd only run the Green twice before, once last fall, once about 5 years ago. I wasn't sure if I'd be up for racing, since I didn't know the lines very well. So I spent a few days training by watching helmet cam videos of the Green over and over and over. By the time I put on Friday morning, I had the major lines memorized. I then proceeded to botch the line in Frankenstein- not a good start if I wanted to race. Things went better from there, with clean lines at Go Left and Gorilla. Run number two had a little less water, and would be my only practice race run. Kevin and I took off from Frankenstein, and I told him I'd wait for him after Go Left. It was his second run on the Green, and I started getting a little nervous when he didn't show up at Go Left. Then I saw him come down the sneak. He said he got confused where he was. The rest of the run went well, catching the eddy at Gorilla since it was lower, and I felt really slow through the small stuff. But I came a long way for this, and it's called the Green Race, not the Green watch other people Race.  Gorilla  Scream Machine  Kevin in Rapid Transit Race day: 6:45, wake up, eat complimentary breakfast at the hotel- probably not the best race fuel. Head for the Take-out 8:00, Wayne and Art drop us off at the Take-out to register, then head out to get better breakfast. Get signed up, and try to stay warm. Since I didn't pre-register, I'm at the end. 8:00-10:00, hang out at take out, socalize, organize gear, try to stay warm, try to get motivated to put on cold wet gear. 10:30, Race meeting at Put-in, and group photo. Man, there are a lot of people here- 120 some racers 11:30, Hike down to the put-in, float down to the start line. Lots of nervous energy. That's the hardest thing for me with racing, dealing with that nervous energy. 12:15, the first racer goes off, last year's winner, Pat Keller. I'm not going until 2:20, so I decided to hike down and scout some lines, watch how people are running things. Got all that little stuff that gave me trouble yesterday figured out. That's where you really make up time. 1:15, make it to Gorilla, talk to friends who have already raced. Some good, some not so good results. Decide to head back up. 1:45, Chill in the shade, cool off, drink water, try not to let the nerves get to me. It was nice being able to see what it'll look like when I get to Gorilla with the big crowd and what not. No guy in a Chicken suit this year. 2:05, get in the water, do some sprints in the pool and eddy turns to warm up. 2:19, Corey Volt takes off, I line up at the start. 5-4-3-2-1 2:20, Go! Come through Frank cleanly. Get right- but not too far. Shallow boof, bounce off rock. Right of the next rock. Then right to center in the next rapid. Enter right at Pin cushion, cut left throught the slot, back into the flow, driving right to avoid the ugly rock. Hit a hole, then over a little pourover into some slack water. Damn, forgot about that, should have looked at it again. Through the next pool, I'll take door #2 into Whale tail. Feeling fast so far. Fast water into Boof or Consequence, this is where it starts picking up. Slow down to make the winding move into the Boof, come off it clean. Now it's time for Go Left. Through the little slot at the top, boof off the log heading left, there's the slot, holding on a big right stroke. Oh no, shouldn't have held that stroke, should have taken another one, not going to make it. Land in the hole. The crowd goes wild! Surfing, Surfing, Surfing, get the bow in for an ender. Crowd goes wild again. Sets me up on the boil on the right. Time to make my exit, backwards through the right slot. Get surfed over to the left on the bottom before taking off downstream. Damn, lost a good bit of time there. Boof on the left, get right for Zwicks. Stomp an awesome line through Zwicks, yeeee haaawwww, feeling back in it. Drop through Chief. There's the crowd- a few hundred people watching me, Pencil sharpener, the notch. Split second to collect myself. Ok, don't think about anything other than the move at hand. Sweet boof off the middle at Pencil Sharpener. Ok, now the Notch, follow the eddy line on the right into it, hit it with that left-right stroke combo, style it. Not get left for the Launch Pad, prepare for take-off. Falling, tucking, this is SWEEEEETTTT, I'm so styling it! Land and get a split second to gloat before hitting Speed Trap. Going vertical, splatting the wall, going over backwards back in the hole "oh, not this again," but I've got plenty of air in my lungs. Wash out after a few ends- it's kind of a blurr, bracing off the wall with my helmet (thank goodness for the full-face), paddle torqued around all wrong, "I hope I fall over soon, so I can roll up, since I really can't brace like this." Roll up, hear Clay yelling at me to go, and skirt past the holes at Scream Machine and Nies' Pieces. Drop into Powerslide and blast out the bottom. Running out of steam, that pool before rapid transit never seemed so long. Definitely not charging now. Get just far enough left in Rapid transit to have a good line off the bottom. Charge across the river to the finish. 2:25:29. Hit the rock at the finish, exhausted and relieved. I wanted to go under 5:30, and I did by 1 second. I finished right about the middle of the pack, both overall, and in the Short boat class. I lost a good bit of time playboating on the way down, probably 20 seconds or so, but I was overall pretty happy with how it went. I know I can improve a lot for next year, clean up some more lines, and stay in better shape- since the end of Gauley season, I've only gotten out about 3 times before this trip. I was surprised how sore I was after Friday's runs. The trip was great, got 4 runs on the Green in 3 days, and redeemed myself at Go Left on Sunday. I was psyched to see that all the hype and smack talk on the internet didn't really come out on race day. People can talk all they want, but the people out there racing were, by and large, just doing it for fun, like Kevin, who raced the Green on his 3rd run and took it easy. It doesn't matter what boat you're in, how fast you are, if you crash, just as long as you have fun. Though next year I'm figuring I'll do better in the race if I playboat less...during the race. Now it's back to my regularly scheduled boat building. |
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