Whitewater SUP

Dan Gavere and Nikki Gregg invited me to join them on a whitewater SUP expedition on Sunday morning. The plan was to run the lower White Salmon river (I think that’s what they call the run–it goes from Rattlesnake Rapids to Northwestern Lake) and then do a downwinder on the Columbia. Sounded great to me.

My whitewater experience consists of flyfishing in the Deschutes river in a Hobie fishing catamaran and a few runs down the Deschutes in a drift boat, occasionally handling the oars. Still, I figured it wouldn’t be that hard. I won’t keep you in suspense–I sucked at it. I spent the morning kneeling on my board or bobbing through the whitewater alongside it. It was great fun, and for some masochistic reason I can’t wait to try it again.

Everything works differently in the river. The toughest thing to learn (for me anyway) is to keep the up-current edge of the board angled up so the water runs under it. Also, your paddle works very differently depending on which way you are facing. Sometimes it zips away from you and sometimes it wants to hide under your board.

Nikki and Dan were great guides for the trip. Not only were they patient with my flailing but they taught me a lot–not that it probably showed yet. Dan is amazing on the board but he knows exactly how to break down what he’s doing and explain it clearly. Didn’t help, but that’s my problem. Nikki hasn’t been doing it as long as Dan, but she’s really good and charges everything. Inspirational and fearless. Here’s an animoto video of the two of them, first running Rattlesnake rapids, then a long turn with a big rock in the middle of the drop, and finally surfing in some standing waves. Enjoy.