Green River Narrows Race

Working on getting the nose back down after slipping through the Notch

Racing usually allows the participant to push their personal envelope on a relatively safe course. No matter how many ropes, spectators, cheering fans, and Frog Men there are The Green River Narrows is NOT a safe course.

I love this race!  …..
Well, actually I don't like racing,
Why would I want to go as fast as I can through such an amazing canyon?
It's an entirely different rush, trying to challenge the stop watch and the river at the same time.

Practice, Makes Perfect?

The Green River water flow is seriously augmented by a damn that is located just a few miles upstream of the race venue. During the week leading up to the race, competitors were greeted with an interesting and unstable two hour dam release. The release water ran at a moderate flow of eight inches.

Race day, the generators were cranked up. Twelve inches was splashing on the gauge. Most of the competitors, weren't ready for such a step up. Competitors from out of town, internationals, and the folks that thought they might be able to make it down at 8 inches with safety set up everywhere, were about to get handled.

The Starting Line 

 

The starter looked down at me, 

"Chris you got 10 seconds"

Quickly I responded with a huge grin and a solid

"WHOOOOOP! this is so scary"

5    breathe
4    chuckle
3    splash water in face
2    breathe
1    laugh out loud

GO!

as Brad McMillian puts it, "the scariest words I hear all year"

Sliding towards the finish line

30 seconds later I muck up my line. Instantly I realized that I wasn't going to succeed in my goal of finishing in under five minutes. Then another small bobble, I had to sneak Go Left, someone had already created some spectacular carnage there. A racer had pinned their boat in the drop (a week later parts of the kayak where recovered). Next, I got loose coming through Zwicks, and pulled off an amazing side ways boof over a sticky ledge. Panting hard, I spot 100 of my best friends, along with 700 random yelling people, I was about to enter Gorilla (the big one). A quick gasp for air, a precise stroke, and I flew through the Notch. Skipping around the 90° left hand turn, and flying off the 18 foot fall, I hear all 800 of them cheering. The following slides, where a mess. Spinning through eddies I continued to pant. The last couple strokes sprinting towards the finish took every thing I had. All of the bobbles, spins, and a week of training at a vastly different water level lead to a personal best race time of 5:33. I could have done significantly better, but that's racing. It's not what you can do, it's what you do, that second, when they say GO!

800 friends, and a lot of vertical to cover to the finish line

Five years of racing the infamous Green River Narrows has produced some entertainment for me and the crowd,

2008   7:52    actually got lost on the race course and had to ask for directions
2009   6:03    tried to go fast
2010   6:14    stopped at the Notch eddy and blew a fun whistle all the way to the finish line
2011   6:30    stopped below Chiefs and set off a Roman Candle attached to my helmet
2012   5:33    first race in a long boat, tried  to go fast

After some analysis of my race times, I might just go back to silly antics instead of trying to go fast.

 

Post Race

 

Wandering back up to "Gorilla" hooting and hollering for my friends, I received the information that more then a couple good boaters had crashed. "WHAT? Hale swam?"  I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It wasn't just me that had blown some lines, the entire field was crashing.

 

Frog Men

 

Bill Clipper came over to ask me to join him in the "Pit" (the base of Gorilla) Bill said, "we need to relieve some frogs down there" The pit is a cold place, covered in spray from the falls, and slick as snot. There, we the Frog Men, assist racers that tomahawk off of Gorilla. We had our hands full.

Another adventure brought to you by Chris Baer

Green River Narrows

Probable the most documented class 5 river in the world, and for good reason. The Green River Narrows hosts a pile of photogenic and challenging rapids.

After paddling the Green for six years, I am still supper excited for my next lap. I'm not quite sure why I always find myself back at the Green, it could be. The nervous anticipation of running the big 3, Go Left, Gorilla, and Sunshine. Paddling with some amazing friends that were introduced to me in the parking lot. Doing switch back tours in the Wrec Center. Finding that allusive eddy. Or cleaning up that always problematic Frankenstein line. What ever it is, I am always happy to get back to such a high quality river and paddling with equally high quality friends.

Check out some helmet cam footage montaged together over a few weeks of laps this spring.

South East Tour

A couple of rafters approaching the Thing

Back in the south east, there is only one thing to do, well there is a couple things to do. Mainly hope for rain and when that doesn't happen enjoy the garrenties, the Green Race and Tallulah release.

My head was still spinning from three days of travel, returning to the States from Africa. I left West Virginia after Halloween with costume makeup still on my face, I had to get moving again. I swung through Kentucky for some White Lightning that would help fuel the next few weeks. First up was the Green Race, I have never taken the run lightly but I make the race into a joke. Last year I had a fun whistle in my mouth while launching off of Gorilla, this year I was trying to figure out how to one up myself. It was time for pyro techniques, roman caddles to be exact.

Chris Baer, with a Roman Candle attached to the back of the helmet, thanks again WRSI for protecting my head against all sorts of danger.

I came through Chefs, and eddied out to have a cohort place a roman candle in a sleeve on the back of my helmet. As the first round from the roman candle went off I knew I was back at home. The crowd grew loud, and I had an ever expanding smile on my face. I had explosives going off on the back of my head all while paddling towards Gorrila the crux of the entire race.

Chris Baer, getting my nose down on Gorilla

 My finish time was toward the back of the pack, but I had a smile knowing that I had more fun then most of the competitors combined... and that I was about to win the after party.

It was time to do a little planning for my next big adventure... Chile. I also had to plan the next weekends event Tallulah fest. I sat in the Henderson Ville library for three days of transferring video clips editing photos and checking on air plane tickets. After three days of sitting I was ecstatic for the weekend.

The South East runs are usually damn releases, and that means that all two hundred boaters put on the river together. Tallulah is a prime example, lots of officials, lots of lines, and lots of sketchy boaters. Tallulah also draws an amazing amount of friends, between Green Race and Tallulah I was able to see more then a hundred kayaking buddies. That amount of paddlers in a small place usually leads to after parties. Late evenings sipping on white lightning and speaking of different adventures, past and present.

Random kayaker getting intimate with the Thing

 Tallulah's white water is super high quality, who doesn't love sliding down a steep bedrock slide into a gigantic explosion called the "Thing".

The Tallulah river is dewatered for most of the year, there is a damn and hydro electric plant that divert the water from it's normal course. For a couple weekends in the spring and fall there are recreational releases. These releases will never replenish the ecological damage done by dewatering a delicate ecosystem. These releases do give us a chance to enjoy a spectacular valley and hopefully leave a long lasting impression that dewatering rivers, is not a sustainable energy option.  

These guys had a interesting craft, it was originally from Russia and was over twenty years old

 

Two days of paddling on Tallulah and the weekend was over, time to repack the bags and get ready for my next adventure... Chile.

Another adventure brought to you by Chris Baer.