Jeff checks in from the Kern

You missed a fine trip, 7.5 miles Thursday, 12 Friday, lots of fun class 4 thrown in with a 5+. One of our crew "Monterey Pete" ran the 5+ "Royal Flush" our second day, laughed at it after it was over. Balls the size of grapefruit!

As you folks know, I don't like driving too far for kayaking, but this run is 2.5 hours away from Frresno and well worth it (best thing this close to us besides Kaweah), so I'm going back soon. We bombed down this run both days, but unfortunately didn't get any shots of us running the rapids.

Jeff

Jeremy in the hot springs on a hot day

Jeremy's ready for more

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Down in a hole

Hey boaters,

This year we have managed to have a tremendous amount of fun on 47% of our average snow pack. Thanks to a wonderful group effort, it looks like we are going to have a little bit more fun. On July 3rd, I was on my way to work. I passed by an intersection that I go through everyday. For some reason, I glanced down the canal at Shaw and Brawley and I saw a horizon line. Curious, I pulled over and walked down to the water. What was found, was a gentle little hole that had a lot of potential for fun. I returned later that day with Larry in tow.

Brawley Hole

The hole is fairly deep and super mellow. It is the best hole I can imagine for someone just starting out in hole surfing. It is very forgiving with good eddies and playful shoulders. We managed to play in the hole for about 45 minutes, then the cops showed up. They were nice and told us to leave. We talked with one officer at length, and he said they generally don't write tickets for playing in the canal. (Just FYI).

With our curiosity fully sparked, we called Jeff on the phone and had him jump on Google Earth. Using cell phones to communicate, Jeff navigated us all over the valley, as we combed the canals looking for a safe place to play. What we discovered was terrifying. There are pour overs, in our local canals, that would swallow you up and never let you out. A couple of them, on the west side of town, gave us chills just looking at them. Feeling deflated, we returned to the hole on Shaw to call it a night.

Back at the canal, an employee from the Fresno Water District was there checking the flow. He was a nice fella and gave us a lot of good information on where to find some play spots on the east side of town. At 9:30pm we headed east and thought we found what we were looking for. When we pulled up to the side of the canal, we saw a great pour over that formed sweet holes on the left and right, and a green wave in the middle. We shined our headlights on it for about 20 minutes and then went home, eager to return the next day.

The following afternoon, Paul, Eric, and myself pushed off the bank of our new play spot, only to be sorely disappointed. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't great. The hole on the right was sloppy and flushed too easily. The hole on the left was much better, but didn't have eddy service. The wave in the middle was hit and miss, as it would glass up, and then turn into a mushy foam pile. Needless to say, I felt defeated. I stared at the hole and shouted out loud, "Why?"

Strike two

Two days later, armed with even more Google Earth locations, I met Dan at the Alta Weir for some surfing. It was pretty fun. The main wave is a bit slow for our short boats, but is still good enough to carve on. Behind the wave is a hole that has a small sweet spot. The hole is fast and turbulent, but it will give up loops and cartwheels. We surfed for over an hour and then decided to check out the canals again.

There is a saying that states, "Persistence pays off." Well today it did. As we slowly drove down the dirt road of an orange orchard, we came upon what is destined to be our new favorite park and play spot. It's a big hole that is very much like Gauge hole, only better. It's deep and retentive, and has a huge eddy on river right. Looking down on it, I was scared.

Reluctantly, I slipped off the bank of the canal and ferried across to the eddy on river right. Dan was on the bank with a throw rope. He had explicit instructions to pull me out if I yelled ROPE! I took several meager passes at the hole, each time getting deeper and deeper into the trough. Finally after several passes, a few rolls, and some cartwheels, we deemed the hole safe. It is VERY retentive, but will flush if you flip and stay down for a second or two. We played for over an hour and had a blast. We worked on tricks, rolled a lot, got window shaded a lot, and went home tired and happy. We've yet to name the spot, so feel free to voice any ideas you have.

DISCLAIMER: (this is the part I hate, I will try not to sound like a prick)

A. It's in a canal
B. It's on private property.

Call me or email me and I will give you directions on how to get there. You can also ask Dan. It is hidden off the road in an orange orchard. We saw the homeowners who live near by and they seem ok. We waved, and they waved back. They didn't call the Sheriff, so for now we're good. We are currently looking for access to the spot, where we don't have to cross any private property. I'll keep you posted on that. So if you will enlighten me, I would like to set up some ground rules for this spot.

1. Drive very slow down the dirt road and try to not kick up any dust.
2. If you run into someone, be really really nice to them and explain to them what you are doing and invite them to watch.
3. If you are asked to leave, do not argue, just politely leave. We want to be as nice as possible.
4. Keep the place clean. Even pick up other peoples trash if you see it. This is not a problem with our group. You guys are great at this.
5. Carpool. Don't play here alone, but don't bring 10 cars either. Find a spot to meet and then carpool in. We don't want a bunch of cars drawing attention to ourselves.
6. Report any positive or negative feedback from the land owners or Sheriff, to our NEW kayak club site.
7. Most important, HAVE FUN! This is a sweet hole. I promise you will love it. If it was just so so, I wouldn't go through all this dialog with you. It's amazing. That said, it is a pretty sticky hole. If you have played at Gauge Hole at 2500 cfs, Chili bar Hole, or Reno, you'll be fine. If not, call me and I'll take you out there to show you the rounds. A strong roll is required, no swimming please.

That's it. Sorry I ran so long. I hope you enjoy the video and even more the hole itself. I'm going to Santa Cruz for 2 weeks. I'll see you when I get back. I hope you all have some great stories to tell.

Take care.
Evan

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Brawley Hole

Could this be the playspot we've been lookking for? I doubt it, but it is food for thought. If this is right in the middle of town, there has got to be a more secluded hole we can play in. It's your mission to go find it.

It's a real mellow spot. It's shallow in the trough, but gets deeper in the foam pile.

Nice shoulders and eddies on both sides

Guage Hole @ 2500 cfs

Daniel dropped off a video tape that he filmed earlier this year. It was a one of our first playboating sessions at Guage hole at the 2500cfs level. We were trying to get the hole dialed, while working on some moves. The results were a sloppy fun time. Daniel also hit his first Re-entry move, and loop. Way to go brother.

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American River Festival

Saturday morning Gary Eggerts, Glenn Boxx, Evan Lloyd and I made it to Chili Bar, where Evan registered to participate in the rodeo. With bib number 32 in place, he headed out for some practice. Evan headed out to Chili Bar Hole for a warm up session. You could see how much he had been practicing. He nailed cartwheels, split wheels and some loops.

The format for the rodeo was two 45-second rides. The scoring was to be done on the best two tricks. Evan’s first ride included some cartwheels and split wheels. On his second ride he nailed a loop. Evan took home the bronze!

Glenn headed down Chili Bar with another paddler. Evan, Gary and I headed down to the Gorge after the rodeo. We decided to start from camp Lotus and play at barking dog. There were only 13 people sitting in the eddy. We got in a couple of rides and then headed down stream. We had forgotten how much flat water there was from there down to the Gorge. There were also hundreds of rafts on the river. It was crazy!

Once in the Gorge we all had a great time and enjoyed some nice rapids. This was my third time in the Gorge and I decided to hit Satan’s Cesspool for the first time. I caught the seam down the middle...no problems.

Saturday night we headed to the awards ceremony. Evan was awarded the bronze medal and $150 cash. In support of the American River Conservancy we also participated in a raffle. I won a kayak coffee table book, semi-dry top and a used Dagger Kayak.

Sunday morning we headed up to Chili Bar. Glenn volunteered that morning at the slalom race while Evan, Gary and I headed down river. We got to the put-in early and beat most of the rafts out onto the river. We stopped to play at Maya and First Threat. At First Threat there were only 11 people in the eddy waiting to surf. Those waiting included river boarders. We made several rides, with Evan nailing a couple of spins.

I had only run Trouble Maker once before and half of it was swimming alongside my boat. This time I caught the eddy with Evan and paddled over Goal Post. No problems! Gary ran it flawlessly too.

Good times at the American River Festival!

Larry

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N. Fork Mokelumne/Tiger Creek

Recently, American Whitewater secured the rights to several scheduled releases on the Tiger Creek section of the Mokelumne. Many boaters showed up to paddle this great section, and also to show their support to AW. A group of Fresno boaters from the N.E.W. Kayak club came up last weekend and the video documents their run. Enjoy the video and be sure to boat Tiger Creek the next time it comes online. The more people who boat it, the more they will release water for us. It's a fun class II-IV section that is creek-like in nature. I would consider it a great place to practice creeking moves in a class III environment.

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Until Next time
Evan

South Silver

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This weekend was craaazzzy!! Evan and his wife Allison, picked up Jeremy and I in Modesto. The original plan was that Evan, Massa and Gene were going to run the South Silver. Jeremy and I were going to go along for the ride and to film their run. We stayed the night in Rancho Cordova on Friday night and went up to South Silver on Saturday. I had brought my boat along in the hopes of running one or two drops. We met up with Gene and his wife Kristin and Massa. Just as we were rounding up to leave to the put-in, we ran into Thomas and his wife Stacy. Thomas was looking for someone to run with, while his wife ran shuttle. Lucky for us that we met Thomas there, he's run this run five times or so.

Even with a map, it's hard to find your way around up there, so it was fun frog-leaping the cars in hopes that the other guy knew the way.

Everyone walked down to Autobahn for the start of the run. Jeremy set up for videography and we were off. Autobahn was a crazy slide. I was giggling the whole way down. Everyone ran it clean. After that the drops seems to slide into one another. The teacups were bigger than I thought they would be. Everyone else seemed to have expected it...and were ready for it. Skyscraper came next and was pretty intimidating. Allison, Kristin and Stacy were had hiked up and were taking pics. Everyone ran it so clean (except me, my boat ran it pretty sweet though while I walked it). My boat pinned in the cave at the bottom Off Ramp. Thomas pulled a live bait and swam across and got my boat for me (Thank you, thank you, thank you). Several other big drops followed: nose job, plastic surgery and quadruple bypass and some stuff in between. At the end of the day, it's safe to say, we had all used up our adrenaline reserves and were ready to kick it! That is, after the old booty beer, enjoyed by Gene and yours truly. It was an awesome run that I know I wouldn't have gotten through without Evan's encouragement and Thomas' excellent lines. Massa's positive outlook on the run and no fear attitude was super cool. Thanks to Gene for pulling me out just above Skyscraper (saved me a very ugly swim). And thanks to Jeremy for scurrying along side the river to capture it all on tape, or else no one would have believed me.
See you next time
Brandi Lynn

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