Great Falls Roundup

This is the lump sum of the photos and videos of 3+ years living in DC and the hundreds of falls runs that ensued.  There was seldom an afternoon from early spring to late fall where some combo of me, Louis, Nejc, Aaron, Kurt and sometimes Bhando were not out there.  I personally broke thousands of traffic laws and blew as many mental gaskets fighting traffic from work to my daily boofs.

The falls is an amazing resource.  There are so many lines to take and tiny fluctuations in water level change them dramatically.  On any day there is almost always something easy, something fun and something scary.  I hardly ever had a day where I was 100% sure that I wasn't going to get worked.  You can mix and match a near infinite combination of drops and walk ups that are sure to give you a fun 45 minutes of class V every day.  Even at really low or really high water we discovered lines that were new to us.  And after we were done boofing, there were usually great surfing options below.  It never got boring and it's the main thing about DC life that I miss.

Here are some pics mainly of The Spout, Pummel and Humbler surfing...

Gallery or slideshow:

Grace Under Pressure is my favorite line on the falls and one of the best boofs period.  These pics were taken when a bunch of us were out there at 4.0 feet (I think we even had Scotty that day.)   This is about as high as I run Grace.  Not pictured is a tricky entrance that is famous for turning folks backwards and causing other dynamic inconveniences.  On the second photo you can see me leaning right so I don't catch an edge on the cross current which becomes a factor at higher water.  Once I neglected to do this and, despite having a good line in the entrance and sticking the boof, I flipped and got one of the worst beat downs I've ever had.  The cross current smashed me into the river right wall when I was halfway rolled up sandwiching me between my boat and the rock.  I then hit my head violently a few more times and missed a few more rolls before getting up.  The whole thing was intensified b/c a notorious death sieve called Subway is below and very much in play at those levels.  Grace injects the perfect ratio of fear and excitement that creates a crescendo of emotions not yet classified by modern science.  It is everything I love about kayaking in an 8 foot drop that takes less than two seconds to run.     

Photos by Jure Poberaj:




Nejc made this video of a typical afternoon at the falls.  It opens with Pummel and then a bunch of folks on the entire Virginia side.  The last drop is the 20+ foot spout, the classic falls line.  

Willy Pell -> red boat

Ben Pittman -> dark blue boat

Kristen Podolak -> light blue boat

Mike -> orange and yellow boat

The Fish Ladder is a section of The Falls away from the main river.  It only comes in at higher water and it's quite exciting.  The drops stack up on one another much faster than any other section.  You also get the added bonus of having herds of fanny-packed gapers offering insightful commentary during scouts and secretly hoping for carnage.  The first set of shots was filmed from below and the level was 4.2.  The second set was filmed from the footbridge showing the entrance slide as well.  Level was 4.1.  There is also some footage of us at the end surfing the Humbler with a rogue oil drum.  Not filmed is the "Fifth Slide" at the end.  A low angle 50 foot slide into a hole that could eat a Miami Vice speed boat.  

Paddlers:

Willy Pell -> red boat

Aaron Mann -> blue boat

Necj Poberaj filming and talking smack (Might be boring for the first 45 secs, gets better, so does film quality):