Shaneslogic

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Johnnie and Bryon have been up in Pennsylvania for the last week getting the Jefe ready for production. Which means breaking in the mold, tuning in the cook cycle so that we get the best cure for the plastic, and making the final adjustments to the outfitting. It takes a while to break a mold in so that it can run boats smoothly. In fact molds usually take a week or more to get broken in properly if you include the tuning of the mold and getting the best cook cycle for the boats. The guys were up there for a week and were able to start getting good boats so they loaded a few up and brought them down for us all to check out. What better place than our home run here at LL, The Green.




So of course the first thing we all wanted to do was go run the river. We called up the gang and everyone was psyched to check out the final version of the boat. The paddling group was Johnnie Kern, Tommy Hileke, John Grace, Nate Elliot, Daniel Delavergne, and myself. We also ran into a bunch of others that were on the water that day. Here is a video of the trip.
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It was a sweet day. We all took turns paddling the boats. Checking out the feel. The first thing that I noticed was the comfort factor. Johnnie worked hard to dial that in. The deck is a little higher from the front of the cockpit area through the foot area so there is a ton of room up there for your feet. The first paddling thing that I noticed was how it planed out on the surface as you went into rapids. It was sweet. You didn’t feel bogged down in the water at all you sort of skipped across stuff. There is a shot in the video of Tommy going into the eddie in Gorilla and you can see that he just skims right into the eddie even though there is some pretty weird currents right there. The other thing I reeeeaaaallly like about the Jefe is that it comes off of drops smoothly. It has a really nice amount of crown in the hull that allows you to pull the hull under you as you slide off drops of water, or rock. I also liked how easy the boat was to manuever. The hull is a little flat it lets you spin and then head a different direction. You can see examples of that in the first part of the video. Where folks are running different routes through Frankenstien and they can change direction instantly. This last picture is a sweet shot from above Sunshine that John Grace took. In the video the last shot is of Tommy running the left line at Sunshine this is that line. Its a cool shot because if you look closely you can see the loss of altitude below. Thanks to John Grace for shooting the action shots. I will put some more stuff up in the next week with final measurements of the boat. As well as a closer look at our outfitting for this thing.
Later
Shane

The rain flow had mellowed out on the creek runs and the Green wasn’t running so Saturday Woody, Nate, Yonton and I loaded up the mini van and headed for the Chattooga. Maria Noakes met us from NOC and we ran into all kinds of people taking advantage of one of the most beautiful runs in the Southeast. The Chattooga was running a nice medium level of 1.7 which is really a great level for all the rapids. There is plenty of padding on the rocks, and enough water to make it an enjoyable amount of time to spend on the water.
Here is a video of my day on the Chattooga. Shot by Nate and Yonton. Thanks to them for putting up with my long boat playday.
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The Chattooga is pretty much where I learned to paddle. My brother and I came down here when we were in our early teens with a camp group from Highlands, North Carolina called The Mountain and tackled Section II of the river in our Quests, Mirages, and Grumman and Blue Hole canoes for a few years, and then we started guiding and doing our own trips down the river. I pretty much call the Chattooga my home river because that is where I learned and pushed myself for years. Overflow and the other tributaries of the Chattooga are also places where I did a lot of my first creeking. So whenever I go there it does feel like going home. Its a pretty cool feeling when you know the river that well.

One of the things I like to do when I know a river really well is try to change it up. So this time I loaded up a 14 foot LL touring boat and decided that I would give it a go. There were a couple reasons for it. One I knew I could do it and it would be a fun challenge, and the other reason was that it would make the two mile lake paddle very sweet indeed. So we loaded up some cold beverages and plenty of snacks in my storage hatches and off we went.

Seven Foot is the first main rapid and its one of the hardest lines to nail well in a long boat or a raft because the eddies and current just above the drop really want to mess with your angle and that is what its all about with big boats is angle control.

Ravens Chute was not too bad and we made Yonton go through pothole even though the water was freezing because he hadn’t ever done it before. He was a stud and did it anyway.

Then you get to the 5 falls and we also ran into the mobs there were probably 30 paddlers in the 5 falls together. Which is sweet because you get to watch alot of people run the rapids and everyone hangs out at the bottom and chats and shares snacks and all.

Entrance was pretty mellow. Corkscrew can be pretty weird, at 1.7 the hole is a little more pronounced so you have a good chance of getting shoved against the wall or maybe surfing the hole. Its not too bad but still fun to try to nail the line.
Crack has really changed in the last few years. It was really nice at this level. All you had to worry about was keeping the paddle in. Jawbone is probably the hardest rapid to smooth especially in a long boat. The curler coming out of the parking lot eddie really wants to slap you into the rocks on river left. Which is pretty much what happened to me but it came out okay. I just kept her moving along the rocks and slipped into the eddie above Sock’em dog which is perfect at this level. At 1.7 the launching pad at Sock’em dog is as pronounced as it gets and it makes for a great 6 or 7 foot launch over a pretty good hole at the bottom. If you miss it you go deep, or you get trashed but the flight is good enough to go back and do it again and again.

Everyone was hanging out at the Dog watching the lines and having a good time. There were some good lines and some not so good lines but thats kind of how it goes.
Just thought I would share my Chattooga day.
cheers
Shane
P.S. We had sunny skies and 60 degrees and then 24 hours later we had this: