The past few years have been full of adventure. The pursuit of whitewater paddling has risen to become the foremost focus in my life. I've shaped my lifestyle, both personal and professional, into a mold that allows me to more fully immerse myself in the navigation of swiftly moving, and falling water. There is a closeness, a tremendous bond that forms among people who share any passion, or who triumph jointly over great challenges. Often adventure is met at the point where great passion and challenge come together. It can be both enlightening and terrifying, exulting and tragic. Whitewater is the medium on which I choose to focus my passion. It is the challenge for the body, mind and soul that elevates focus and blots out all distractions. And it is over this incredible dynamic medium that I have been able experience and explore some of the most incredible places on earth and share time with some of my closest friends. I hope this blog will serve its purpose of sharing the passion for adventure and whitewater equally with both those who may already be familiar with its draw and those to whom it is foreign. I'd like to nurture that closeness, and strengthen that bond that has been created as a result of these pursuits while also shedding light toward the reason behind my addiction to whitewater for my non paddling friends and family. Through photos and stories this blog is my shot at defining adventure.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Husum Falls of the White Salmon!


After two summers guiding here in the North-west for Wet Planet Whitewater, I've gotten to raft on some awesome stretches of river. The People are great, the weather is great, and on a twice daily basis on the White Salmon River we get to run over this crazy 10 ft waterfall called Husum Falls. If you've ever wondered what it must be like to run a bunch of people over a waterfall in a raft, here's a few pics to help your imagination. The guide usually get the worst of it here as demonstrated by raft guide and kayaker extrodinare, Curt Joyce (Below) on one of his seven flips this year (Ouch those rocks look close). Cheers to the King of Carn!

Occasionally a passenger or two will go flying as well
This is my handy work on this poor family of five, I think its that little guy hanging on that closed the coffin on this baby, sealing my third ever commercial flip (all three here at Husum). Eleven year olds love rafting!!
Bald Maniac Boatmen... the rest of the line was about as ugly as these two mugs (below).
Even our Husum Falls Champion, Sara Cohen (below, out of sight), has a little excitment, she actually sat this one back down, but had everyone in the boat sitting in her lap!

Here's a fun series of a typical run over Husum Falls... Everyone hangs on for dear life as the raft goes vertical...
Going DEEP! Wet Planet uses 14 ft long self bailing Aire rafts, and they go all the way under water...
we spend life under water for a second or two, the raft begins to re-emerge, click on the photo below for larger images of what remains of the crew

Disheveled but happy to be still upright, it is not uncommon for the guide's disembodied head to hover behind the raft while the crew recovers
This backender (below) didn't work out so well for Dave Martin's crew, but at least the self bailing floor works well.

While most rafts actually stay up right over the falls, it still always feels like you got away with something when you resurface still up right. Always a crazy feeling. If you want to know more about Wet Planet and Husum falls check out the Wet Planet website at http://www.wetplanetwhitewater.com/.
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1 comment:

  1. Lindsey FrangerOctober 25, 2010 at 7:11 AM

    3 cheers for husum falls and for all you guys who are crazy enough to guide it! Thanks for posting these pics...brings back good memories of the summer. Be well, Drew!

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