It was that time of year down under, and those amazing summer days were coming to an end. I knew that in order to improve my kayaking, I needed to step it up a notch. When I was in NZ I knew that I wanted to go overseas for the winter, but didn't know where to go. I saw some footage of the Great Falls of the Potomac, and thought that it was the perfect place to help me progress in to paddling class 5 whitewater. It was also a place that not many people travel to, so I wanted to do something different. I found a job working at the local kayak school, and began to organise my visa for the USA.
I arrived in Washington D.C. after multiple long haul flights. At first, the water on the Potomac was super high and I didn't fancy running the 'stout' lines - Brine Line, Bridge Channel and high water Back Canyon were not for me. My first day on the Potomac, I went to one of the trainings for Liquid Adventures, the kayak school I worked at. I hopped on the river and was asked several times "are you coming attaining with us?" I then asked "what the heck is attaining?" the locals explained "it's paddling up river, ferrying back and forth between eddies, in order to get upstream" all I could think was that it was such a bizarre thing to do. Anyhow I went attaining, and had a really good work out. At this stage, I was still worried about my shoulder not being strong enough, so attaining was the perfect way to paddle and get my shoulder up to full strength again. I recommend attaining to anyone who has a shoulder problem, and really needs to strengthen it back up. I would constantly attain for the next month while the water was high, and get myself in to paddling shape.
Here is a breakdown of the main lines @ Great Falls
Maryland Lines (the stout lines)
Rapid 1: Pummel Falls - Pummel is a 15ft boof with a tricky lead in. The lead in to the drop has large waves above it, so it makes it hard to line up where you want to be. It also has a narrow margin for error; if you're to far right you will slide right into the pit and understand why pummel gets its name, if you're to far left you drop in to the 'notch', not a place you want to be at high water. The reason why I think this drop is so stout is because it leads straight into non stop class 5 straight right after. If you swim out of this drop, it could be fatal. When it all goes well, it's one of the sickest boofs you'll ever do.
Pummel Falls @ 3.4ft
Rapid 2: Z Turn/Charlies Hole - Z Turn is pretty straight forward, but is almost directly after pummel on river left. It has a bunch of funky currents and changes direction in the shape of a Z, hence the name. Directly to the river right of Z turn is the infamous 'Charlies Hole'. This hole at these flows will eat you alive and is not recommended. Charlie's hole gets run at low flows, but only by crazy locals. That's why swimming at Pummel is so dangerous, and not an option.
Amongst the chaos of Z Turn
Rapid 3: Horseshoe - Horseshoe is another stout rapid which is directly after Z Turn and has a few waves and holes leading into it. At these flows you boof off a flake on river left, because the hole on the river right side goes to the bottom of the earth, and is one of the gnarliest holes I've seen (besides Charlies Hole). You boof off the flake and land right into a mess of whitewater, where you then carry on downstream avoiding holes while blinded.
Boofing into the mess @ Horseshoe
Centre Lines
Rapid 1: Grace Under Pressure - This waterfall has 2 moves in it to pull it off successfully. There is a decent hole on the entrance which requires a good left boof, then make your way through the boily pool and end on another left boof off the drop. This sequence feels so good when you get it right.
Entrance Hole
Lining up the boof - Grace Under Pressure
Rapid 2: The Ledges - The Ledges are two holes, one after the other. Pretty straight forward and an easy move. The second boof is sick, and lands you in a big eddie. The higher the flows, the bigger the holes.
Ledge 1
Ledge 2
Rapid 3: The Fingers - There are 3 waterfalls known as 'The Fingers'. After the Ledges you hop into the big eddie, and decide which finger you want to run. Just left of the fingers, is a sieve known as 'Subway' which is super gnarly. It must be avoided at all costs and has claimed a couple lives. The furthest left finger is the 'standard line', the middle finger is called the 'flatliner' and the furthest right finger is the 'pinky finger'.
Catching some air time on the middle finger, 'Flatliner'
Virginia Lines
Rapid 1: U Hole - This rapid has 3 different lines you can run, dependant on levels. The name pretty much sums it it up, it's a big 'U' shaped hole. You can run hard left; which is two little ledge holes and then a sweep boof back right over the 'U' hole at the bottom. Centre line is a boof right into the mess of the hole, and the right line known as 'Normans' is a sweet left boof, straight onto a boil, which you want to skip over otherwise you'll be pushed right - not where you want to end up.
Middle line @ U Hole
Rapid 2: S Turn - S Turn is a sweet rapid with a lot going on. The entrance move is a left boof onto a curler, then setting yourself up to punch the big hole. Directly after the hole is a massive crashing wave, and before you know it, it's all over. Be careful if you head too far right past the crashing wave at the bottom, as there is a sticky little pocket you'll need to boof over. If you really have some balls you can run the 'confessional' boof on the right hand entry of S Turn. This hole is a man eater and is super retentive, you must be certain of your line on this one or you will be in some serious trouble.
S Turn, lining up the big hole
Rapid 3: The Spout - This waterfall is known by some of my paddling buddies as the 'icing on the cake'. The Spout is straight forward, drop in, and point your nose towards the curler, then feel the curler hit the bottom of your boat and place your boof. You can send some insane boofs on this waterfall, and it has two different lines you can run, dependant on water levels.
Dropping The Spout
Great Falls has so many different lines to run, and when the main lines are too high, all the back channels of the river come in. These high water channels consist of Fishladder, Back Canyon, Bridge Channel and Brine Line. All of these are pretty stout and need to be taken seriously.
Check out this video of some locals running the 'high water' lines - https://vimeo.com/77327174
So, my first time out @ Great Falls was amazing, we headed out bright and early around 5:30am while it was still dark. I was pretty nervous on the way there, knowing that I was finally about to see what it was all about. You get in your boat, paddle out over the dam and onto the Potomac, where all you see is one wide horizon line all the way across the river. I was following some locals who luckily knew where they were going, and got out on the flake (huge rock in the middle of the river), where you can scout all of the lines. After scouting, we decided that the Centre lines were the way to go for a first timer. I dropped in and had smooth lines, and felt that it was well within my ability. The experience for me was more about being out there, and being in the midst of such a powerful piece of nature, it was really quite surreal. Stoked on my first falls lines!
Another early morning, a group of us had decided to try and go out for a triple crown on the falls. This was something I wanted to achieve while I was in the area, and was definitely going to test my skill set. The level was 3.4ft, a really nice level - so we geared up and headed out. We got out to the Maryland side and scouted all of the rapids. I was pretty nervous about the first move, but after a few moments to gather some courage, I went for it and was able to have a good line off Pummel Falls. I had the nerves out of the way a little, and was able to clear my head and really focus on the next couple of rapids. I felt super stoked at the bottom of horseshoe, and was pleased that I had good lines all the way down for my first time on the Maryland side. We then moved to the Centre lines which I was familiar with, and felt confident on. Next, we hopped over to the Virginia side and saw that it was looking quite beefy. This was my first time running higher water Virginia, and once again the nerves hit. U-Hole was first up, and I was trying to figure out which line to take. I opted for the middle line after some consideration, and it turned out to be quite burly. I then bounced down through S-Turn and finished off with the 'icing on the cake' aka the Spout. I lined it up and sent a nice big boof, had a clean landing, then celebrated at the bottom. I was stoked to end the session out there on that line.
Here is the video of the day - https://vimeo.com/225773303
The entire summer I was getting laps in before and after work, which was exactly what I came for. I was running laps on different lines and trying to get more comfortable out there. We were lucky to have a high water season and enjoy Centre lines pretty much the entire summer. The lines I mostly ran were Centre & high water Virginia. This combo was amazing and really began to improve my kayaking, making me more comfortable running harder whitewater on a regular basis. The Maryland lines were the stout ones and I only managed to get a few laps in, mainly because it was to high most of the season.
Towards the end of the season the Great Falls Race was due to happen on the 19th of August. The week leading up to the race was high water, and sitting around 3.6 3.7ft which was making it hard to predict what lines we were going to race. The day before the race, the levels were sitting around 3.25ft and looking like a good race for the Virginia Lines. The very next morning was race day and I woke up to check the flows and saw a rise in water levels which peaked off around 3.6ft, so I assumed they would have shifted the lines to the Centre. We turned up to the briefing and were told that the Virginia Lines were going ahead, as it was too late to change all the slalom gates and the viewing points for all the spectators. This made a few heads turn. After the briefing we headed out to the flake, ready to scout and see what we were in for. Needless to say it was a very intimidating race course and I felt the nerves hit. I was on the fence about racing, as it's a completely different ball game to just paddling down. I hung out on the flake until my number was about to come up and I decided that I was up to the plate, I attained up to the start and was sitting there listening to the countdown. Next thing you know, the nerves rushed away as I began to descend into the race. It's non stop class 4/5 for just over a minute, but that minute was amazing and I'm super happy that I raced. The level was between 3.5-3.6 ft during the race and I finished with a time of 01:11 seconds. My goal was to try have smooth lines and take it at a reasonable pace. Next time I hope to improve on my result for the race and push it a bit harder. Here is how it panned out.
Wyatt the 'smooth operator', about to drop in to the Spout
Feeling the power of Great Falls
Myself dropping in to S-Turn
Hanging out on the Flake
Geoff, sprinting to take the win
Pat Keller, paddling hard all the way to the finish
The Chaos of S-Turn
Represent
Myself dropping the Spout
Racing to the finish!
Ian, full beast mode
Here are also a couple of cool shots I got throughout the season.
Classic evening session, with great views
Myself trying to show Grace Under Pressure
The Community
One of the things I loved about the community around Great Falls, is the sheer amount of people to go paddling with. I felt accepted, and didn't feel like people were 'too cool' to go out for a rip with me. The community was welcoming, supportive, and weren't out there to try and prove a point. There is nothing worse than being amongst EGO boating. The locals know the consequence out there, and generally make smart decisions. We all understood that the access is a privilege, as this amazing section is located in a national park, and ruining this access would be a huge loss to the community.
I also really liked the wider community of kayakers on the Potomac, I would often go play boating @ the Maryland Chute (a well known play hole) and there would be first time kayakers, and people on the USA play boating team mixing and mingling. I really liked this, as it showed me that they were very inclusive of people's ability. The kayaking community here really appealed to me, and made me realise that we are all out there for the same reason, for the love of the river. It's also so awesome to see the amounts of different craft out on the river; open canoes, C1's, creek boats, play boats, slalom boats, long boats and more.
Surrounding Areas
There is so much to offer in this part of the country and I believe it is super underrated. West Virginia is pretty close and in 3 hours you can be on some world class creeks. Once the rain hits there are so many choices. Blackwater, LBS, Manns, Meadow, Mill, Green, Elk, Linville, Toxaway, Beaver, Moose, Oswegatchie, Independence, Delaware Water Gap and many more. These are all classic rivers/sections in the surrounding states.
If you want to know more check out this book - http://www.kayaksession.com/new-guidebook-whitewater-of-the-southern-appalachians-volume-1-the-plateau-and-volume-2-the-mountains/
Overall, Great Falls is a one of kind sort of place, I would highly recommend it as a destination and is heavily underrated in my opinion. If you're looking to push yourself from class 4 to class 5, it is the perfect place to do so. It has options no matter what the water levels are, and it runs 365 days a year. Great Falls also teaches you how gnarly things can be, with dangers and consequences everywhere and it teaches you a lot about making smart decisions on the river. If you paddle class 5 on a regular basis, you can still come here and scare yourself shitless, I guarantee it.
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