by Darlene Archer

“Hey, I don’t usually run this rapid.”

“Why not? Let’s just go for it.”

I was a little shocked to hear this conversation above Sock’em Dog, which is usually considered by most responsible paddlers to be one of the more difficult rapids on section IV of the Chattooga River.

I was headed downriver with a group of paddling friends. We had a couple of first-timers with us, so we were taking it slow.

The reckless paddlers had blundered into our group three rapids prior at Corkscrew. At the time, we tried to slow down because we were uneasy with their immature performance. We wanted them to get ahead of us, so that we wouldn’t be recirculated by their careless mistakes. We were unsuccessful.

At Sock’em Dog, they chose not to scout the rapid; instead they stayed in their boats. After hearing so little discussed about such a challenging and dangerous rapid, I butted in.

“The hole at the bottom of the drop can be a keeper at this level. You may want to look at it.” I wanted to tell them, “The hydraulic at the bottom is big enough to swallow a canoe.” In fact, it has, but I held my tongue.

Each time you run a river, you encounter a new experience. That’s the beauty of it. The river constantly changes. Even when running the same rapids over and over again, each line differs from the last. The newness is refreshing and exhilarating, which is one reason why most of us paddle. Whether you have run a rapid before or not, it’s always your first time.

This is evident especially on the Chattooga River, where the smallest difference in levels drastically changes the features of the river. What appears to be harmless one day, transforms into a potential nightmare the next. The river itself is a paradox of pristine, peaceful beauty mingled with deadly undercuts, potholes, and hydraulics. Taking the time to scout rapids is key.

“You want to go straight off the drop with speed, and then throw in a right boof stroke to make up for the force of the water wanting to push you left,” suggested my friend Chris Port to the rest of our group. Too bad the hasty paddlers didn’t take the time to scout the rapid with us, or they would have been able to take advantage of Chris’s helpful hints. As a former guide on the Chattooga for seven years, he knows the river like the back of his hand.

We set up safety lines before running Sock’em Dog, but no one in our group ran into trouble. Everyone styled it. At the bottom, we watched one of the reckless paddlers approach the rapid. He seemed to have no clue where he wanted to end up and almost came to a complete stop at the top of the drop. He fell into the hole sideways. A shocking stillness overtook his friends as he surfed in the deadly hole.

Thankfully my friend Nate, who had been holding safety lines for our group, was able to throw a rope to the paddler and pull him to safety.

What went wrong? The reckless paddlers didn’t scout the rapid beforehand. They didn’t respect the rapid or the river. They also chose to run a rapid without proper experience or knowledge of the river. Their choices inevitably introduced them to the hard laws of cause and effect.

Each river creates its own unique qualities that are uncontrollable. Paddlers need to know the hazards, be prepared for them, and always have a back-up plan if things go wrong. Most important, they need to recognize and respect river karma-the basic, fundamental laws that guide the water and those that paddle it.

Darlene Archer is a kayak instructor. She can be reached at darenearcher@hotmail.com.