Friday, May 8, 2009

Barrel Springs Binge

Well the past two days Barrel has been at the hardest level you can run it at in my opinion. From 5,500 to at least 6,000 cfs, it is not only huge waves, but huge breaking waves that have no problem pushing you around. Yesterday Jake and I ran putting in at the bottom of upper death, paddling life-after death, barrel and shoshone. Life-after death was pretty technical at 5,500, but we were able to scout and everything went well. Because we had run barrel the previous day, we opted not to scout barrel, even though we had the suspicion that it was much higher because when we heard the dam release sirens as we hiked by. We dropped in. Immediately after the first couple waves I knew it was a different beast. I was pushed left savagely hard and had to brace very hard to avoid flipping. It was survival boating time. I turned on CHARGE mode, and from there on only had slight troubles such as getting turned around. Jake had also a very interesting run down with it being so pushy. We were stoked to make it down. We then went to the 5 point filmfest where our film "Life of a Non-collegiate: Living the dream" premiered. We met Tyler Bradt and Brad Ludden there. We set the plan to rally in the morning and get another run down barrel. It was around 6,000 cfs today and VERY pushy. Everyone got a little pushed around including Brad and Tyler, but we made it to the bottom safely. We were stoked. Another great day on the river and certainly not to be forgotten. It was a great couple days and it was great to paddle with Tyler and Brad, they are super cool dudes. Props to Rush's and Tyler's new film Africa Revolutions Tour, its really good and I suggest you check it out. Well anyway here are some photos from our first day of barrel running.

If you double click the photos, you can see just how much brine is around.Jake and I dropping into the Brine that is Life After Death.
Thats my head amidst some quite large holes in life after death.
The entrance to barrel, I was already pushed left.
Me pulling some very entertaining bracing techniques.

Running Barrel Backwards usually isn't ideal, but when in rome....
I turned around so that is good.
Jake about to crest another huge wave.
And jake cresting.
Sick photo of me running into the crux where avoiding the hole on river left is the main concern.
Jake and I running down, my that is some briney water!!!

And again, good stuff, I love that rapid, so much fun!
Jake running past a quite large hole at the bottom of barrel.
Yes we like BROWN.
Jake is killer at wavewheeling the jefe.
The brine from the drive.

The last few days have been a blast, I think we ran barrel 4 times in 5 days. It was good times for sure. Here is a lil helmet cam video I made of it at 4,000cfs (much easier level)

Barrel Springs/Shoshone 4000cfs from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

2 comments:

E.G. said...

yes the brown is quite brine out there in colobrado... check egcreekin

Shane Benedict said...

Nicely done boys. Damn I am bumming to be missing that this year.