Cheat Race Day by Barb

This year, most of the Youts made it to the Cheat race: Liam, Ben, George, Will and Thomas competed and did very well. The results of the race can be found here.

Thomas, Sandrine, Tom, Georgio, Liam, Ben and ... we are missing Will who could not be very far.

We also had an honorary team member joining us this year.  Barb, Ben's Mom, tagged along in the Little Gray Van to fully experience the Cheat Race fun.  Barb nicely took the time to write about her experience so here is her account:

"Ben did not complain about his Mom cramping his style. She rode up in the van ride up to the race. 

Mom learned many things:

1.  It’s a long ride for six minutes of viewing.

2.  The road to the take out is especially scary in someone else’s vehicle.

3.  Mom needs to learn how to be calm like the kayakers:

Mom was too scared to drive LGV* back up the road so she waited for someone to rescue her. Tom and Sandrine noticed Mom and the boys waiting for rescue and graciously got off the shuttle bus, leaving their paddles behind. 

After the shuttle bus dropped everyone off at the put in, it drove away with Tom and Sandrine’s paddles on it.  So, once those of us in LGV got back to the put in, Tom and  Sandrine had to find their boats: which had been dropped off in one direction and their paddles: which had been driven off in another direction.

Meanwhile Mom felt guilty and responsible for the lost paddles: if she could have just driven LGV up the horrible road Sandrine and Tom would not have been separated from their paddles.  So Mom fretted while Tom and Sandrine found their paddles.  Mom should just learn to chill and be calm like the Kayakers."

(*) For those of you who would not be acquainted with Tom's now legendary vehicle, LGV is the Little Gray Van."

I also think that Barb ended up driving LGV home while everybody else was snoring in the van after a full day. :) And yes, this was a bit of a chaotic day but I am not sure I know any kayaker who would mind a little chaos once in a while.

The Cheat Race is always a great cap to the end of the Spring paddling season and I know I always feel a little pinch in the heart at the thought that the fun weekly training with the Youts are over.  But this year again, I had a fun time with this great group and I am already looking forward to next year!

Saturday April 21: Wavehopping on the North Branch of the Po

This weekend marked the second water release of the Bloomington dam, on the North Branch of the Potomac.  Upon Tom's advice, the Wavehoppers headed to Barnum, WV to train on this classic Wildwater run.  The Cheat being too low to be run in our boats, the timing was perfect.

After getting only slightly lost, Sandrine met with Thomas and George before heading to the take out.  There, they found some familiar faces: the LAKS Cheat Lite group, lead by Hollie, was also there to enjoy this nice Class II/III run.

The team geared up for their first "classic wildwater run" and Thomas drove us and our pile of Wavehoppers to the put-in.
 

There we met again with Hollie, who was very familiar with this river and gave us a few pointers about where to put-in. She also introduced us to Kurt Smithgall, who paddles on the US Wildwater team.  He was there for the day, doing loops on the upper part of the run and biking his own shuttle.  Kurt nicely offered to show us the lines on this short section.  We carried up about a half mile, put on and... tried to keep up with him while he was "taking it easy".  We left him at the end of this top section and finished the run by ourselves, paddling steadily and constantly.

At the take out, after refueling with our favorite healthy food (Yes, that includes Pringles) and a deep reflection on the most efficient ways to run shuttle, we found a nice crew of gentlemen who agreed to take Thomas back up to his car.  How could they not when Thomas looked like this:

Thomas most convincing look to find a shuttle ride.

We shuttled for a second run and waited for Kurt to be back to the put in to start our second run with him.  In the meantime, the guys decided a little rest was in order and what is more comfy than a Wavehopper for a nap??
 

A bed of nails is George's second favorite for a power nap.

We started our second run as soon as Kurt came back.  After a few miles, Kurt, who was paddling at a "leisurely pace" dropped out of sight.  We paddled paddled paddled! So hard that we finally caught up with him (Yes we did!!)... OK, OK, we found him in an eddy, where he stopped to do a little wave surfing, so what? 

Overall, this run was different from anything we had paddled so far: continuous class II/III with no major rapids, allowing for regular pacing and continuous paddling. We all had a good time on what was our first classic wildwater training.  Thanks Tom for encouraging us to do this! :)

 

Saturday, April 7: First Trip on the Cheat

Only Taylor and Ben made it to the first trip to the Cheat.  The river was level was around 2 feet, which was perfect to introduce Taylor to the canyon.  After the past Cheat Training Season during which the levels remained around 4-5 feet, Ben, now a veteran, found this level to be child's play.

At the put-in, while waiting for shuttle to be setup, the guys did not remain idle.  After Ben struck an engaging group conversion on Zombie apocalypse, they decided to use their talent to build a raft from sticks and ... trash(?)... well... let's say: from what they could find on the spot.  And ain't that a fine looking boat!?

  

Not sure if the goal was to have the raft follow us all the way down the river but the journey of the so carefully hand-crafted craft ended up being short-lived.

Everything went well as we made our way down the river and Taylor had a few opportunities to show us his bombproof roll.  He even took a little "ding" in the face without flinching.  Way to go!

This was a gorgeous sunny day on the Cheat and we all enjoyed a great day of paddling together.

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