I got to the surfing competition with my best friend Jenny, 2 hrs before it started on Friday and checked in. Turns out it was a junior freestyle comp with a junior boogie boarding comp in the middle of it... and I was not a junior.... but I competed anyways and made it to the semi finals but not the finals. All the 14 year olds schooled me with their light
limber bodies.Surfing the Gutter
So.. the wave that they had it on was the Gutter wave, which was pretty small and it was not easy to surf with the Ripboard. Ice showed up and lent me the new Carlson surfer to try.. which was easier to surf but hard to stay on. I lost anyways. Whatever. The whole thing was kind of dissappointing.
So after that, my friend Steve showed up and we
went out to the Bladder Wave which was the bigger hole. It had a really big bladder in the middle of the river that they can inflate and change the shape of the wave. It was 9,000 or so cfs and the eddy lines around it were crazy. So I spent an hour and a half trying to get on the wave and getting my ass kicked in the eddy lines... couldn't stay on the wave for more than a few seconds... it was HARD WORK to catch that thing.So, that night, we went to the party next to Otter Slide Rapid and hung out with all the kayakers and rafting teams. I saw a bunch of people that I knew from WV and met a bunch of new people. Good stuff.
The next day, Saturday, we got some breakfast and then headed to the Staircase section, where they were doing the raft and kayak races. I talked to the organizer dude and he wouldn't let me compete with the kayakers, but told me to just get out there and board and show people... so I did. My friend Steve and I did 2 laps on the Staircase section, at 7,000 cfs, each lap took us around 40 mins. So, we did our 2 laps right in the middle of the races, between rafting teams, keeping out of the way, with maximum people watching. It was sweet. Got the whole crowd cheering both times. The Staircase section of the S. Fork of the Payette was a super fun run. It was big, fun, and fast.
Hounds Tooth Rapid on the N. Fork
After the 2nd run, Steve, Jenny and I drove up to the N. Fork of the Payette to scout the lower 5 rapids. Some of them looked good to go, but a lot of it didn't. So, after that, I went back to the Bladder wave to try to get my ass kicked again... but was too tired and hungry to get out there... ended up getting some dinner, then heading to the festivities in the town of Crouch. I met a lot of people there and talked about riverboarding and about making it a real event in the PBR event next year. I thought I got a lot of respect from other people about my sport. I talked with a bunch of people about getting on the N. Fork lower 5 rapids the next day too.
Sunday, I got up and couldn't find anyone to go boating with. I went up to the N. Fork of the Payette to watch the kayak race. I watched the
race and took some video... which was super entertaining, then headed to the put in for the Staircase section again. I saw a bunch of cool boaters that were hanging out the night before and went down the river with about 15 of em. They asked me all kinds of questions about riverboarding and Ripboards. I think it was an awesome way to get out there and get the thought of riverboarding in people's heads.Everyone was impressed. Good stuff.
By then it was 2 pm and I had to go back to Boise and spend some time with my friend Jenny. I headed back to Boise feeling like I accomplished a lot for riverboarding this weekend. I had a lot of interest. A lot of people said they wanted to try, but then didn't... so I gave them a brochure to check out the website. I really feel like I did all I could to be a good riverboarding representative... and Ripboard representative. I think it turned out really well too.
So, from my perspective, the weekend went really well. I'm super stoked on the amount of people I met and talked about boarding with, and went riverboarding with. People are starting to take our sport more seriously and that's cool to see and make happen.
When I got back to Boise, I went on a really fun bike ride with Steve and Jenny on the Greenbelt, a long trail that goes all through Boise. Good times. We went to a Nature Preserve and had a great afternoon! YAY IDAHO!
