Week of Rivers + Tellico stout-running!

The past couple of months have brought a boon of bountiful rain and excellent river levels! Because I cracked my GoPro late May flipping at the Charlotte Whitewater Center, little media of these expeditions was captured, but I'll do my best to list the minor fails and epic wins that unfolded...

Big Creek: Finally ran this awesome creek at both 2.5' and 3', definitely the most continuous run I've done so far! Great practice for tight maneuvering skills in the Stomper that should come in handy someday.

Upper Ocoee: Partook in some sweet big water long-boating fun with some of the Endless River Adventures crew, earning my stripes running the tight line to the right of Humongous hole. I had an interesting close call after botching my boof stroke above the hole at Roach Motel, landing sideways into the meat of the drop, but I fortunately had enough momentum to pry my way out of the hydraulic before any serious carnage commenced.

Greenbrier: The day we ran this section, the bridge gauge was reading a stout 3 feet as the American Whitewater gauge showed upwards of 4200 CFS at the Little Pigeon at Sevierville. This was DEFINITELY the toughest, most continuous section of big water I've ever run: between the 5-6 foot waves, gnarly pour-over hydraulics and scarce, recirculating eddies, the run was pretty intimidating even in my creekboat.

Tellico: Completed my personal first descent of the entire ledges section, including Baby Falls, Diaper Wiper and Jarrod's Knee. Lapped Baby Falls a few times for some extra hucking action, and then headed down to Bald River Falls for some awesome treat-laying action! Along with my sister and a half dozen other waterfall-running newbies, our friend Meghan Pendergast helped us prepare to line up the drop. Measuring in at a solid 22 feet, this was definitely the tallest drop I've ever run! I set up the line pretty perfectly, and held my paddle off to the side in eager anticipation of my impact in the pool. It turned out that I had hardly tucked at all, as the water in the pool smeared me onto my back deck as I resurfaced, but regardless I was incredibly pumped! Although the hike up the side of a steep rock wall prevented us from lapping the drop, I would definitely run it again if I get the chance.

Me running off the lip of Baby Falls

Bob Wiggins stomping a sick Baby Falls boof! Too bad he couldn't brown claw at the same time

Lil' sis Greta getting steezy off of Bald River Falls!

Me lining up the drop!

In other news: After days of fruitless window-shading sessions, I got my first loop at the NOC competition hole. I also got a replacement case for my GoPro, so hopefully I'll have more POV media for my future trips! Until then, check out older GoPro videos on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/GnarMar56

Surfing Falls Dam

Bank view of the wave

This past Saturday brought with it excellent flow levels at the Falls Dam, releasing at a considerable 3000 cfs. Stoked to give the 4-5 foot breaking wave below the lake release a shot, I joined up with Raleigh locals Seth Yearout and Luke Osborne to get my surf on. As wave access from the eddy below required a near-impossible attainment at this level (see photo), we chose to hike our boats up to the rocky bank upstream of the feature, ferrying behind the backwash of a considerable hydraulic and onto the wave.

Banging my way up the eddy surges on a fruitless attempt to ferry back onto the feature.

Check out the footage below:

Introduction & Future Expectations

My name is Marlow Durbin and I'm a 17 year-old whitewater kayaking enthusiast and member of the Carolina Canoe Club. This spring I was thrilled to hear that I'd made it onto the Nantahala Outdoor Center's Youth Paddling Team, and as such I'll be embarking on numerous unique adventures with other talented paddlers my age. One thing that's interesting about myself as a whitewater paddler is my geographical challenge -- living in North Carolina, I am tantalizingly near some of the East Coast's best whitewater, but as a resident of Chapel Hill, most rivers lie a considerable driving distance away. Nevertheless, I am firm in my resolve to pursue this unparalleled sport, and I'll share word of these paddling peregrinations on this blog.

As I finish up the last few weeks of my Junior year of high school, I look forward to improving my skills with the Youth Team this summer, making new friendships and pursuing higher-caliber whitewater while retaining focus on safety.Until I get some fresh photos or footage for this blog, here's a photo of myself paddling Big Laurel creek for the first time late March.

Cheers!
- Marlow