Thursday, January 10, 2008

O-Deck Surfing and other Good Times

Last weekend turned out to be a great weekend for Paddling on the Potomac. On Saturday Ian and I met up with Scott at Great Falls and paddled the Fingers on the Center line of the falls for the first time. Ian captured the moment best when he turned to me above the entrance rapids to the falls and said, "I'm nervous as s%#$!" We made it to the eddy and walked the top drop- Grace Under Pressure- and scouted the lead in and the fingers drop.

Another added layer of nervousness came when we noticed the portage was completely iced over, so we really had no option but to run it. All went well in the end and it is a super fun drop, just a bit more hair raising than the MD or VA sides.

I met up with Johnny Haddock on Sunday for a more mellow day on the river. We attained up to the O-Deck wave and had an awesome surf session. We switched off boats so we both got in some great rides.

We then paddled back to Angler's stopping for a quick surf at MD Chute, and then were pleased with the nice surprise of lunch food provided in the Great Falls parking lot by the camera crew who was filming a quick piece on kayakers at Great Falls for the visitors center.

I put together a quick video below including the surfing at O-Deck and other random acts of the Homegrown Locals squad over the last month.

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