The Gobbler @ Elkader Whitewater Park

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The Gobbler loves to gobble me up and spit me out. 

The Gobbler is the nick-name given to the whitewater wave feature in the brand new Elkader Whitewater Park in Elkader, IA. This park was built when they removed a low-head dam on the Turkey River, right next to downtown.


Low head dams often look small and 'runnable', but they are a huge hazard to boaters and anyone unfortunate to flush over one because they generate recirculating currents that trap and drown people each and every year. No one, under any circumstance, should ever expect to survive a trip over a low head dam. During a training session, I heard the swiftwater rescue instructor tell the local volunteer firemen that The Gobbler is 1,000x safer than the low-head dam it replaced.

The whitewater wave at Elkader

This photo shows the view of the whitewater feature from Main Street. The smaller feature on the far side of the river is considered a fish ladder and according to the locals, is a place where smallmouth bass hang out. The bigger wave on the near side is where the boaters spend most of their time and when boaters aren't around, folks show up to fish. The feature was designed and constructed to create a raised wave at the bottom of the outflow, large enough to allow a kayaker to surf, facing upstream, on the face of the wave.  Well, it allows skilled kayakers to surf. It offers the rest of us a big challenge just to get up into it and come out right side up if we are lucky.

My first day at The Gobbler, I was afraid to even attempt to get on the wave, because I wasn't sure my roll would work in the swirling currents coming out of The Gobbler.  On my second day, I discovered my roll and mind would both work in 'combat' so-to-speak, so my roll was officially elevated from "pool" to "combat" status. With that mental hurdle achieved and acknowledged, the FunFactor became greater than the FearFactor and I was ready to face off with The Gobbler.

This was my first attempt.

Yes, it gobbled me up and spat me out, but I am not easily defeated.  Again and again I went into combat and my roll was tested frequently. Occasionally, I remained upright when it flushed me out. Small victories, often enough, to make me want to do it again and again and again. I was hooked.

As I made the long drive home, I wondered when I might get another chance to tackle the Gobbler. Turns out, just one month later, I was able to return for two days of a gobbling good time.

On my second trip to The Gobbler, I had the most fun I've had in a very long time. I surfed, attempted 360* spins, and pulled off a couple of boogie board surfs on a board Sam brought.  A dozen different boaters showed up that day and a party atmosphere developed (stone sober- I've never seen a whitewater kayaker drink while kayaking). I loved watching Marty seal launch his kayak off the rocks, dive straight down nose first, then pop up into the air and do a front flip. Wow!

The Kellog family

When my body told me it was time to quit, I couldn't tear myself away.  A couple of local guys showed up with their kids who had a blast boogie boarding, tubing, paddling and getting rolling lessons from dad.
One lucky girl's father buddy-surfed with her in her kayak in The Gobbler.  It was wonderful to be surrounded by that many smiles and witness adults having as much fun as the kids.

Boogie board surfing.

I've met a bunch of new friends at Elkader: some who routinely make the 1.5 hr drive from Cedar Rapids, some local beginners, some locals experts coaching the beginners and introducing their children to the fun of moving water.

Elkader built a beautifully engineered, safe, simple feature that draws me in from 5 hours away and makes me want to return again and again and again.

Kudos to Elkader!

Sioux Falls?  Lets help make a whitewater park happen here!

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Kayak Trip Down The Big Sioux River

Sunday August 24, 2014 SDCKA had a cruise down the Big Sioux River. Since it was a beautiful 85 degree day with low humidity I decided to join. 19 paddlers gathered at our first canoe ramp in Sioux Falls South Dakota, corner of 57th street and Western Avenue at 1 pm. We shuttled some vehicles down to Kilian Community College downtown. It was a great trip with great people. Below are some pictures. I would say the trip tool about 3.5 hours with shuttling and ending downtown. Everyone was kayaking and having fun. One person fell out of there kayak but they stated "we were messing around!"

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First River Clean Up for SFWWP

Sioux Falls Whitewater Park organization is hosting their first river clean up. It will be on the Big Sioux River at Lien Park Sioux Falls South Dakota. Lien Park is located northeast of Falls Park right off of Cliff Avenue. Since this is our first river clean up we will just be cleaning a small section of the river from upstream of Cliff down to the end of the park. We hope to get individuals to clean up the shore line by foot, on the river by kayak or canoe, or walking the shallow parts of the river and river bank.  Plan to get dirty while cleaning this section.
The reason we picked this section of the river is to show people the potential future site of the whitewater park and this section is used by many paddlers going down the Big Sioux.

It will be Tuesday September 16 at 5:30-7:30 if it even takes that long.

Please join us and tell people to come out and help.

River Clean Up Facebook Event

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Falling into Whitewater -- Literally -- Part 2

How does one keep from falling into whitewater?

Bracing the paddle against the water to stay upright and rolling back up if the brace fails.  A roll (a.k.a. Eskimo roll) is essentially a brace done after the boat has flipped.

Boat first.  Head last.

What is the secret of rolling and bracing?

Snapping the boat right side up first, before the head comes up.

It sounds simple, but our bodies instinctively try to get our head upright first.  So many things in kayaking seem upside down and backwards, or counterintuitive-- rolling is a classic example. 

Try this:  Start tipping yourself over to the right while sitting on your couch.  How do you get yourself back upright?  If you're like most people, you'll push down with your right leg.  But if you tip to the right in a kayak on water and you make that same corrective movement, what is going to happen? Yep, you'll tilt the boat even farther to the right.  Staying upright in a kayak often requires us to do the opposite of what we instinctively want to do.

So the key to learning how to brace and roll is training your mind that the boat has to be flipped up first and only after the boat is righted can you bring your head and shoulders back over the boat.  The head must learn to love being first-in and last-out of the water.

Watch this video clip and decide which knee pulls the boat upright after I fall to my right. (The hip snap = cranking the knee+thigh UP into a thigh pad to pull that side of the boat UP)

The boat comes up first, from a strong hip snap. We call it a hip snap, but you can think of it as pulling the thigh up. (This is an extremely late high brace or a roll and the right knee is cranking up to upright the boat).

Rolling and bracing are mostly mental skills plus a good hip snap. The paddle plays only a supporting role, so they are skills of finesse not strength.

Watch my right hand stay above water in the next video clip. There is barely any force applied to the paddle. The paddle is a gentle brace. The force of the roll comes from the hip snap.

I've been quite surprised at how learning new kayaking techniques has tested both my mental and physical flexibility-- this journey into whitewater kayaking has been a workout for both the brain and body!

More later, from the Elkader, IA WhiteWater Park--  the Turkey River Gobbler,

helen

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Falling Into Whitewater - Part 1

Installation 1--by Helen 

Hello folks!  Someone asked if I might write up some of my beginner whitewater paddling adventures, so I thought I'd start with a story about my journey into whitewater paddling.

Becoming a whitewater paddler was not really a goal of mine.  Perhaps I got tricked into it.  Maybe it was fate, or possibly a logical, necessary next step for an avid recreational kayaker, but for a 50+ year old lady?  Who am I kidding?  I must have been tricked.

It all started innocently enough, on a sunny warm vacation day, on a beautiful,  easy class II section of the incredible Wolf River in Wisconsin-- in what they call a boulder garden.  A boulder garden is exactly like it sounds-- lots of rocks, seemingly planted in the river, that a paddler must either navigate around, smash into and/or bounce off of. I navigated (mostly), had a blast, loved the clear water and scenery, but realized I didn't really have any real river running skills.  It dawned on me, then and there, that after 14 years of kayaking, a lesson would probably keep me safer as I explored new rivers.

So I went online, found the Wausau Whitewater Park in WI, and signed up for a class. The Wausau park is amazing and on the weekends when water is released from a dam into the course, it is always filled with talented boaters.  Lots of students and a bunch of instructors showed up for the classes, but much to my dismay, after 14 years of kayaking I found out I was a beginner.  I had never even tried to roll and without a roll, one is a liability in rapids.  Without a roll, if your sit-inside kayak flips, you have to hang onto the paddle, try to swim the boat to the shore, and dump out the water before you can climb back in and rejoin your group.  It usually takes a partner to help you swim the boat to shore on a river powerful enough to dump you in the first place.  So I stayed with the beginners that day, below the course, working with the currents coming out of the whitewater park.

Good kayaking classes are small-- typically one instructor for 4-5 students, so we got some great attention.  We were taught many skills:
-- How to wet exit a kayak while wearing a neoprene spray skirt (pull the  the skirt off the boat and fall out with skill :-)
--The J-lean that allows the boat to tilt without unbalancing the paddler.  That tilt allows one to carve turns and it is also used to prevent the current from catching the side of the boat and flipping it over.
-- The low and high braces, skills that take a bit of practice before they become an effective, instinctively performed action to prevent the boat from flipping over.
-- The hip snap, a key element of a kayak roll and braces.
-- An intro to the roll, but without a nose plug and goggles, I was an uncomfortable, nervous wreck under water.
-- How to ferry from one side of the river to the other, facing upstream right below a rapid.
-- How to enter and exit the eddy current next to a rapid (eddy turn and peel out), using the edge, lean, and a couple of new paddle strokes.

At the end of the day, I was mentally and physically exhausted- what a work out that was!  I was also very disappointed that we had spent  almost the entire day facing upstream and I had never even entered the whitewater course to run the features.  I hadn't learned what I had gone there to learn, and the skills I had been taught would take more time and practice for me to master, so lacking an inner tube and permission,  I still wasn't ready to get on the course the next day.  (Whitewater parks are a blast for tubing and foam boogy boards but Wausau caters to paddlers, exclusively.)

It wasn't until two months later, as I watched my friend almost get flipped while crossing an eddy line next to a wing dike on the Missouri River, that I realized that the techniques and insights I  learned in the class were very valuable and would prevent many potential flips on the Mighty Muddy MO River and any other river I paddled.   With a new sense of purpose, I found my swim goggles, bought a nose plug, and practiced calming my mind while upside down in the kayak.  I was bound and determined to learn that roll and master the skills to which I had been introduced.

More later,

Helen.

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Official website is up and running

Hello followers

We wanted to let you know our website is up and ready for viewing. Keep in mind there might be changes in the upcoming months to better the site for viewers.

We hope to change the paddling world in Sioux Falls by expanding people's options and adding more training classes.

Check it out

Sioux Falls Whitewater Park Official Site