While driving home from work on a snowy evening I started day dreaming about training for a SUP downriver race this up coming season but the allure of SUPing my local run kept taking a hold of my mind. That thought was too powerful for me to ignore. To get familiar with what taught me the fundamentals of kayaking but only to do it this time standing up just made my heart race. My local run called Slaughterhouse will start low and boney and potentially turn into a major flush over the course of a month or so. Ha, ha, how I love spring runoff. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Maybe I should get some padded tights to help out with this affair.

I was still relishing over a terribly exciting SUP experience I had with Charlie MacArthur and Dan Gavere last spring runoff where I swam a ton and simply got pummeled. I remember watching Dan gear up before our session where he was putting on motocross knee/shin guards with duct tape. What the?? Oh, my god that is genius, I though to myself! I was instantly envious and did not hesitate to ask if he had another pair. I knew it was a long shot but from out of the depths of his van Dan pulled out one and then another. I was so stoked that he had a pair to offer and it felt awesome strapping those things on.

So we started walking up the path above the swollen Shoshone section of the Colorado River to run some of the lower rapids of Barrel Springs which itself is class five rapid. I was already hooting and hollering with excitement as we started the walk up.  It was running just under 7,000 cfs and at that level I was always pumped and a bit nervous in a kayak.  But this time we were going stand up style and it was only my sixth time river SUPing.  Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!  I was getting psyched.  During the walk up I noticed that Charlie and Dan were going to use leashes and that I was only going to use foot straps.  Whatever I thought to myself for I was still not sure about using leashes on the river due to the dangers of potentially entangling rocks on the bottom of the river which I had no interest in.  So I simply told myself that no matter what, when I fall, I was going to stay in my foot straps, and roll my C-Mac SUP board up.  I had been practicing my SUP rolls in the ocean for a couple months now and had already pulled off a bunch of combat rolls in the river.  So why not pull them off in a section of river that was easily two times harder than any other section of river where I had previously pulled off a SUP roll?  So why not here I thought again nervously??  Ahhh, who cares!  This is gonna be sik!

So we get to the top of the rapid called Burma where we initially intended to put in.  I was salivating because the rapid was simply a juicy one complete with head high rollers, solid laterals, a rather large hydraulic that wanted to be a fat hole, and a bunch of funny water.  I knew there was a good chance I could clean it if I paddled the right line and kept a solid brace through the bottom.  But Dan and Charlie said lets look at Barrel!  Let’s look at Barrel, I thought?!?  I was bummed because I was so full of anticipation on charging Burma.  But I just bit my lip and started hiking up river again because I wanted to also look at Barrel from a totally new perspective.

As we approached Barrel Springs it was obvious that no stand up paddler was going to make it from the top.  So we hung out at the bottom third of this beast and wondered where to put it.  After searching awhile for a good place to launch I started to get flustered because I knew there was a chance that I could get pummeled in this section of the Colorado and there was no obvious or half way simple place to put in.  I was also wondering about Charlie and Dan’s confidence since only one of them had done the Burma rapid a few days earlier and at a lower water level.  After searching awhile and realizing that there was not a choice place to launch, I just said screw it that’s my spot.  It was a micro eddy with the main current rushing by about a foot out.  Dan and Charlie were a little bit higher up trying to figure it out and I decided that I could not wait anymore.  Paul Tefft was below me with camera and I just gave him a thumb’s up and I knew from the look on his face that he was not sure about the spot I chose to put in.  Standing on a low lying rock adjacent to this micro eddy I put my board in place, which basically filled the whole eddy and contemplated what I had to do.  I knew I had to hop on and as quickly as I could make one maybe two strokes on the downstream side of my board, move up into the current with a hard downstream lean, place a strong duffek stroke up high on the bow, grab the current, and be off to the races.  I got real nervous and totally stoked at the same time because I loved doing this in a kayak but standing up was something totally new on this section of the Colorado.

Wow!!  This is going to be great I kept telling myself as I was using my paddle to keep my board’s position in the bouncy micro eddy. After a bunch of river surges I hoped off the low lying adjacent rock, made one quick forward stroke, quickly placed that key duffek stroke, and felt my whole board and myself rise as I broke the eddy line and caught the main flow.  At that moment of blissfulness where I actually did what I wanted to do I pulled a novice move, stood up, and came off of my duffek stroke when I should have left the blade of my paddle in the main flow rushing under me for at least three more seconds.  Well to say the least, I did not have a chance.  The current grabbed all ten feet of the upstream edge of my C-Mac, I was able to get one last glimpse of Paul videoing me, then was flipped upside down in a hurry.  Strapped in with no leash I committed to my next move, rolling up, and at the same time I could feel the overwhelming presence of the current rushing me past the very rocky outside curve of the river.  At that point I knew I was an idiot for putting myself in that situation.  Roll up or your going to get pummeled went through my head.

Well, I missed the first roll and bricked on the second, slipped my feet out and POW took a hit to the shin.  I was amazed, it didn’t hurt.  I love you Dan went through my head then, POW I took a hit to my other shin but that one made me instantly lie flat on the top of the current as best I could because it was a stinger and I needed surface time to deal with it.  As I was taken away by the ripping current I was stoked that I still had my paddle in hand which is cool in the kayaking community.  I started looking for my board as I was struggling to stay on the surface of the river and began to wonder if anyone was going to assist me.  I looked back for Paul but I was quickly disappearing down river.  I knew he saw my head come up swimming for a brief moment but that did not matter.  The river was too fast and I was on my own.  Greaaaaat, this is going to be a long and brutal swim I thought while holding my breath underwater.  Where is my board!  It took a bit to find since I was looking downstream and it happened to be just upstream behind me.  As I started swimming for it I got pulled under again and ended up banging my shins on the bottom.  This time it hurt like hell and for good reason, the shin pads had been ripped off on the first round of blows.  And now I had dropped my paddle, it was no where in sight, and I realized that I had already flushed through Burma.

 

Luckily the beef was over but I was fast approaching Shoshone.  Damn, I hope I find all my gear I thought.  Getting out and running was not an option.  The river was too fast.  After various versions of finding gear, getting held under and losing gear, standing up on my board looking for my paddle, being held under again, swimming, and floundering for the most part down the Colorado River in high season I managed to get to shore with everything but one shin guard.  By this time I made it through all but the very last rapid of Shoshone which was about two miles below where I had originally fallen.  Standing on the side of the river in exhaustion I quickly became jealous thinking of Charlie and Dan SUPing Burma with out me.  So I ran and gimped as fast as I could back up.  On the way up I was stoked to find the other shin guard circling in an eddy and was able to retrieve it.

 

Panting in excitement, I got to the top of Burma and realized that some how I had passed Dan and Charlie and that they were at the bottom of Burma.  Oh man I wish I could have seen them run it, have they cleaned it, how many tries have they made??  I was still way too excited to find them and ask, so I quickly caught my breath, tossed my C-Mac in above the rapid, hopped on, and started stroking down river to the horizon line entry point of Burma rapid.  Here it comes, stay river right of middle, your going to clean it, I told myself!  Somehow I hit the perfect line, stood tall, and sneaked past all the beef.  I felt like Jesus walking on water.  Let me say that again, I felt like Jesus walking through a rapid.  As I was about to clean Burma I wilsoned off of a hard brace at the bottom and was looking at another long swim.  This time I chose to swim to shore, drop my paddle on the river bank and run as fast as I could past my board in hopes of jumping in the river ahead of it and hand paddling it to shore.  Well after about a mile of running my ass off and not getting any closer to my C-Mac ripping down the river ahead of me I realized that I would probably never see that board again and the feeling of going from hero to a zero was settling in for a second time.  I kept running which was going to be to no avail unless I hoped into my car and drove to the closest bridge which was about six miles down river and wait for my board to float by under me. Luckily Dan and Charlie were on it.  They paddled right past me and were after my board.

Well this coming season I know much better than to not use a river leash set up.  Bring on the spring run off!

Bill Mellenthin

Snowmass Village, CO