Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Boof move at The Flume (at 1' on the painted gauge)

1 on the painted gauge opens up some light creeking practice at Bulls Bridge.  One particularly fun move is to catch the last-chance eddy on river left above the Flume, then cross the horizon line and launch into the river right eddy at the base of the Flume.  It's a move that can only be done when the gauge is on either side of 1; too low and the river does not have enough water, too high and you'll boof into a sticky hole with rocks barely below the surface.

The first sequence shows me doing it in my LL Stinger.  The photos were taken from the river right side, by Tom Coker, standing on the ledge that makes the rapid.  Later sequences show angles from the river left eddy, then the angle seen from the landing eddy at river right.


approach the rapid from center and angle left to the last-chance eddy


There is a little rock just beneath the surface at the top of the eddy so you have to enter the eddy just a little off the top.  Be careful.  If you enter too low, you'll run a very rocky drop backwards.


Peel out and paddle hard across the main current.  The goal is to cross the current as far as you possibly can and boof at the far right edge of the horizon line.


Boof the drop heading about 45 degrees into the eddy.


A little hip and leg kung fu to make some micro adjustments to the boat and you're in the eddy.


Of course, the only way out of this eddy is to surf across the hole at the base of the main drop.

Here is Ted showing us how it's done in a shorter boat.  The photos were taken from the river left side staging eddy that is at the lip of the main drop.


You can see how last-chance the river right eddy really is.  


Ted driving across the current at the top of The Flume.


The crux of the move is to continue driving across the current.  The current at the far side of the move starts to push you back towards center.  The move takes a couple of more strokes than you might thing it does.


Ted making his boof stroke and landing in the eddy.


As mentioned earlier, the only way out of the landing eddy is by surfing across the hole at the base of the drop.  




Here is a sequence of Winston doing the same move from the same angle (river left eddy).  The last five pictures show the reverse angle; standing in the landing eddy (river right), looking back up the drop.








Below is the reverse view of the same move.