Shaneslogic

What an awesome weekend! A big group of us headed over to the Ocoee to get our playboatin’ on. It was Adriene, Maria, Juliette,Yonton, John Grace, Will Lyons, and a couple random Brits that we picked up on the side of the road. Everyone was jacked up to get out in the Biscuits and everyone came away psyched.

Adriene and Maria were paddling the 45 and really happy with how they could throw it around. They both were able to get flat water ends working. Maria later told me that the thing she liked the most about the boat was how loose it was and that she felt like she could move it around really easily. Adriene was starting to stick loops in the hole at staging eddie which is not an easy spot to set up let alone stick a loop. I was just happy because to be out on the Ocoee. It really had been almost 2 years since I had paddled there.
It was an awesome day out there with an eddie load of friends.

Lil’ A gettin’ some pop at Hell Hole.

Yonton, Grace, and Mefford getting ready to taste the Biscuits You can check out the rest of the shots from this day by clicking this link. From Liquidlogic Biscuits at High Water Hell Hole

Yours Truly, Biscuit boofing the first drop of the Cascades called “The Horns”

When you boof in a playboat you don’t necessarily stay on the surface.

We stayed the night in the area and it rained most of the night. Only thing is we didn’t have our creek boats, but we knew there was going to be some extra fun out there. On Sunday morning we jumped up and headed up to the Cascades on the Upper Nantahala before heading back to the Ocoee. Its not far above the normal put in for the Nantahala run but its a completely different thing if you haven’t seen it before. The steep section is only a half mile long but its really fun, with a handful of nice rapid nuggets. Mefford and I knew it well enough that we thought it would be fun to take the Biscuits down.

After paddling all day on the Cascades and then jamming down the Ocoee we came across this at the Put-In. I don’t know how to explain this other than we had a feeling something was going to happen when we watched these guys putting on the river as it was rising rapidly. They looked fairly together and they had a couple of guidely type folks at the helm but for some reason we decided to walk down and see how the run through Entrance went for them.

“Water seems a little high?”

I was guessing the flow to be around 3 or 4 thousand but it was hard to tell because it was coming up by the minute. The scene on the put in ramp was a tell tale sign. In this photo if you know the spot it makes sense but if you haven’t seen the put in ramp before this photo might look normal. The spot where they are standing in the water is 30 feet from where you normally put in. There usually isn’t a standing wave where you might normally put your skirt on and the river isn’t usually going through the hand rail.

We watched them slide the boats in the water and immediately get pushed against the river right bank. This I thought was going to be their saving grace. If they had only managed to scrape down the right bank they would have been fine but unfortunately they made it out into the main current where within the first 3 waves they nearly flipped and then found them selves staring into the pit of Grumpy’s Ledge.

Raft Guide just gets back up from nearly flipping to see where they are going.

From this point on it was total chaos. If you have raft guided before you know what happens to the guide at this moment; either he holds on or he flies into the front of the boat like a sack of potatoes. Believe me I know I have landed in a heap with the bow paddlers. I have actually completely cleared the front of the boat right here at Entrance rapid.

No time to brace himself before impact.

Shouting commands from the middle of the raft. It is easier for them to hear.

This raft proceeded to get a 3-4 minute pounding in the hole. The guide was trying to keep people high siding but it was all happening too fast. First a couple folks fell out then one by one it was down to just the guide and one person who wasn’t stoked. The folks that fell out seemed to go for one recirc and then flush out of the hole. Some, unfortunately, had a brief under the raft experience. In the end everyone was fine. There were some rattled nerves but it seemed as though folks were dealing. All I know is I wouldn’t want to be in there.

The beating begins

Notice the hand on the right

Emerging from the depths

In the end the guide pulls it out and calls it a perfect ride. The “Dump Truck”. For the whole slideshow of the action click the link below. From High Water Raft Carnage on the Ocoee

Take care folks and remember we are all inbetween swims.

Shane

Jerry with friends

This past weekend was as nice as we have seen yet this year. Clear skies and 80 degree weather made a great weekend for Jerry’s Baddle. The first thing most folks ask is, “Whats Jerry’s Battle”? First its a Baddle Bike/Paddle and here is the description of what Jerry’s Baddle is from the JB Website. “Jerry’s Baddle is a dual sport race that began in 2006 to honor a good friend, Jerry Beckwith, who had been diagnosed with ALS. The race was born out of a desire to keep his spirit and passion alive by raising money to help fight the disease that took his life and to foster the community he loved.

Daniel slicking Go Left during the paddling segment

From that comes an event that is at the core of the paddling community around the Green River.
The Baddle is a very unique event because it combines two very different events, road biking, and class 5 kayaking. I am not sure how many entrants there were but the fact that there were somewhere around 50 people that could both paddle the narrows and ride a bike 26 miles is a pretty cool combination of skills.

Adam Herzog has been the reigning champion of this event for a while and he came into this one no different. The man is a living endurance machine. He has done things that I want to do in a lifetime in a single day. He has run across the Sahara desert and paddled the across the ocean as far as I am concerned and it didn’t look any different at the beginning of this race. Adam was charging right away as was evident in his duel with Green Race Champ Andrew Holcombe. The two traded places a few times during the paddling section. So that meant that Zog was ripping down the paddling course.

Zog making the pass on Holcombe at Sunshine

Mefford Williams had been training tough on the bike for the last several months to get ready for this race and it showed as he powered up the switch backs of the Green Take Out road. Most folks don’t know that he actually used to compete on the road bike before he was famous for floundering around in the mud for Vacation to Hell commercials. He is a regular for the Green Race so his paddling was solid as well. There was also another fast competitor Paul Stamilio. Let me just say that Paul f%$&*#@ flew on the bike and was chasing Mefford down the entire paddling course.

Mefford taking the “Glass Elevator”

Meff powering up the switchbacks

After the paddle everyone had kept their places. Zog was first off the beach, Holcombe was looking good in second but the bike was not a strong point, Mefford had held off Stamilio and they were headed into the heinous climb up the 18 switchbacks of Green River Road. This is where things started to change drastically.

The amphibian transition

This was shaping up to be a good Baddle. Nate and I jumped on my motorcycle to follow the bike action and we were thirsty by the time we got to the top of the hill I can’t imagine what these guys were feeling. Things were changing quickly on the hill.
Zog the dominator was taken down by a flat tire that he changed quickly, Holcombe said mid climb, “I am dying”, but Stamilio was still going hard, as was Mefford. While these guys were giving their all Nate and I stopped for a Gatorade, stalled my bike, and then couldn’t get it started so we had to roll start it. I actually started to sweat after that.

Zog didn’t want to chat

Uh Yeah the Roll Start

After the switch backs up the hill its a long down hill that was scarier than the Green to me. I dropped the bike back a gear and watched as Stamilio passed me like I was standing still. It was a little embarrassing but he was fricking flying. This is where his luck ended and his chain jumped gears, snapped, and broke. Then he threw his bike into the woods.

Stamilio passing me on my motorcycle during the race

Mefford pulling away

To the winner comes the spoils PBR on the head

Here is a link to an interview by LVM with Mefford Williams 2009 Jerry’s Baddle Champ
Click Here

In the end Liquidlogic had an awesome day winning all three categories.
Mefford Williams winning the Solo Baddle
Jennifer Cribbs winning the women’s Solo Baddle
Clayton Gar and Jed Hinkley Winning the Team Baddle
and Adriene Levknecht and Bob High taking third in the Team Baddle.

Here is a link to all the results.
2009 Jerry’s Baddle Results

Jerry’s Baddle, this year has raised more than $5000 dollars and still counting for the fight against ALS.

Congratulations ya’ll!

After a great day of racing we had a few beverages listened to live music at the festival and then went up to The Purple Onion in Saluda for more music and dancing. A good time was had by all.
Thanks again to everyone that helped put on the Baddle. Its an awesome event.

Oh heres the video.

Jerry’s Baddle 2009 from Shaneslogic on Vimeo.

The music from the video was all recorded live.

Thanks to:

The Scoot Pittman Trio
Red Dirt Floor
and
M.C. Suntan Lotion

Take it easy folks

Shane