South Canyon came in yesterday.

Yesterday after almost a week of patiently waiting the South Canyon wave came in. The level was at the "high side" of good but I preferred the dynamic bounces to low level consistency. This year there seemed to be a lot less people than normal and the line kept moving at a steady pace to the point that you weren't bored. The line was moving but slow enough so that you did get a break between rides. A crowd but not the standard mob.

all photos by Nico Rienaecker

After a morning of interviews (more about that in the next post) I demoed the Wave Sport Fuse 56 and met Nico at the wave. Nico and I scouted the rapid mid- afternoon and the level looked too high. After much thought we decided to run Glenwood Springs to South Canyon. This is Nico's first season kayaking and she has really excelled. After a nice float down we stopped above Little South Canyon were Nico practiced her roll. Her first one was perfect but later was having problems remembering which step comes first; sweep, hip snap or head up. Alas she had a few successful attempts and we were off to tackle her first Class III Rapid. She ran Little South Canyon perfectly!! I stopped to surf the river left hole above South Canyon and lo and behold it was a green wave and was very entertaining just to front surf forever. After one surf (five minutes) we were back on track to ride down backbone of the dragon. Nico followed me down the v and attacked the rapid. Having enough of the excitement she decided she didn't want to run the rest of the rapid and wanted to eddy out. After a quick combat role she was safely eddied out with a huge smile under the bridge. She and I were both excited on the success of her first Class III. After practicing some eddy turns she decided to get out and nicely take pictures while I surfed. Thanks Nico!!! Here are a few of the highlights.....
A few of the bounces made me duck for cover.


Another one of the classic right blunt shots. A classic picture of this wave.


After a few rides I got out of the Fuse 56 and got on my old school face and surfed Nico's Perception 3D. It was great to ride the wave in such a fast boat and was even able to pull off a flat spin. After recovering from my euphoric state of nostalgia I surfed the third boat of the day the trusted purple Airhead. The rest of the day was spent working on the flat spin to right blunt; I only stuck one. Of course I ended up paddling until I could barely paddle back up the eddy. It was nice to end on a great ride....... front surf...................... ..bounce......................................... bounce..paddle twirl..................................................
......................................to spin to front surf.............. to spin to front surf.................................................... .......... to more front surfing..........to spin to flush. All in all it was a great day.


While I was working on the combo Nico shot this video that I'd like to dedicate the Leif Anderson the original Captain Front Surf, this right blunt was for you.