Launching the Coho

Yesterday, Todd and I snuck away for a few hours at Bagaduce Falls again. After Rebecca's great photos, I won't even bother with the ones I took yesterday. This time the water was flowing out, toward the ocean. You know how I mentioned I should just dump and get it over with? That's what I did on my first peel-out. As Todd observed, I had my low brace too far back, more like a stern rudder, and in I went. Several times. Which is good in the sense that I was a bit looser and taking some chances and making some mistakes. We decided to call it quits when I felt the paddle scraping on the rocks above... no below my head as I took on the current upside-down- the tide had gone down.



I'd been missing the ocean, so this morning we took a Sunday morning paddle out around some nearby islands. Rebecca launched her self-built Pygmy Coho for the first time in salt water. It's beautiful and ORANGE- bright orange. The deck is still finished bright- it's hard to cover up that gorgeous wood, but the orange hull shows up well. And what a warm, perfect day... clear, dry air; we'll be lucky to have many more days like this before the snow flies.

Bagaduce Falls

Thursday afternoon looked pretty nice: blue sky, calm ocean; the air was even a bit warm. When Todd called I thought, yeah, lets take a paddle out to the islands. But no, he'd been scouting the reversing falls on the Bagaduce River over in Brooksville. We'd gone there on Tuesday and watched for a couple hours as the brisk current went completely slack, and started flowing the opposite direction.


So we cartopped the kayaks over to the falls- 22 miles away, arriving as the water flowed inland. A bridge crosses the river here (which is really just a long tidal inlet) constricting the flow and creating a strong current with a long line of standing waves.



The bridge also provides photographers with a good spot to watch the action. Rebecca took these. She got so many good shots that it was hard to choose.


Of course we like the shots in which Todd is about to dump, like this one. Todd successfully rolled out of most of these spills, and only had to swim once. His ability to roll well helped him really push; I was a bit more cautious, but I'd probably have more fun if I'd just dump and get it over with.


We practiced peeling into eddies and riding downstream. Moving upstream, we tried to surf on standing waves, and found a few, but found them more elusive than at Sullivan Falls.



The occasional passing cars seemed to enjoy the show, occasionally honking. We spent a couple hours playing in the current before it began to die down. By then we were tired and ready to call it a day.


Earlier this week, I also circumnavigated the Lily Pond with Sarah, who was there to work on paddlefloat re-entries. And you've probably noticed my new paddle: a Werner Camano, like Todd's. What a night and day difference: lighter weight, shorter shaft, smaller blades... very light and agile. But now maybe I need a light and agile paddle with big blades for river paddling. The quest for gear never ends.



All photos by Rebecca Daugherty

Sullivan Falls

Today we took a class in tidal currents with Mark Schoon of Carpe Diem Sea Kayaking from Bar Harbor. We've been looking forward to this for awhile, and I'll admit: I had some reservations about venturing into standing waves and other wild water. I've fallen asleep on the couch plenty of nights while watching any one of the This is The Sea dvds, and I've woken in the middle of the night, amid half-dreams of scary-looking water.



Well, fortunately, Sullivan Falls isn't Penryn Mawr or Anglesea or the Bitches or The Skooks. It is, however, the second biggest tidal race, or reversing falls in Maine. We started out slow, in some calm water. Mark got us warmed up and then coached us on our strokes, especially the low brace, an essential piece of the puzzle for managing currents. We moved on to ferrying across the current, to sliding in and out of eddies and then learned how to surf on a standing wave.



The above photo is of Todd going down. He'd been surfing on the standing waves, but got turned sideways to the current. We're more accustomed to doing a high brace on the wave side, so it feels counter-intuitive to lean downstream. Well, if you lean upstream, the current flips you right over. Fortunately, Mark is pretty quick at getting himself there for a rescue.



Bob came up from Cape Elizabeth. Three people to one instructor is a pretty nice student to teacher ratio. I didn't really get that many photos for the time we were out there; I was too busy keeping up, and I'm sorry, but I just wasn't ready to take the camera out in the thick of the gnarliest waves. One mental picture I have is of looking downstream to see Todd on a big wave, nearly vertical, his bow buried beneath the current. It inspired me to paddle extra hard to keep myself off that wave.


We had a great day and learned a lot. Mark could have kept going, but the three of us were worn-out, and the waves were only getting bigger. Besides, my helmet was squeezing my brain. Any one of the many things we learned today would have made the class well worth it. Aside from that, it was a blast.