New Play Wave on the Belly

With the hard work of Chris Goble and a few hardy volunteers (on Saturday), we now have an even better play wave on the BellyRiver!


Notice the huge eddy wall that has been built up on the bottom right of the picture. This eddy not only diverts water towards the play waves, but makes it easier to catch the upsteam current to get back on the wave.


Here we have some friendly paddlers willing to try out the great surf wave! Flows were around 13 cms. With the location of the wave, it makes an almost perfect park and play location! With a short hike upstream (less than 5min.) you could ferry back across the river and get back to your car! The put-in is at the bridge that crosses the belly river on the way to Waterton. Below is a map if your unsure of where that is.


See you on the river!

Snow

On April 27 we were Mountain Biking in Blairmore (deadman pass) and the snow melt has not really even started yet. One could almost still ski Allison Creek as most if not all of the lower trails still had atleast a foot of snow. It meant that we biked on the trails closer to town (backside of turtle mountain). Great rides on friday pm and saturday but it is absolutely dumping (big monster, wet snow) today (sunday) and more rain is in the forcast. That means there should be lots of water for boating for some time to come. On a side note; my Moab holiday (mountain biking over easterwas) was great, slickrock was a morning ritual as was the cup of java at wicked brew that followed. Ran into Isabelle and Lannie who were also down to do some bipedal movement. Any word yet on Chuck's (pincher crow creekers) may long weekend rendezvous. I have been seeing people advertise it on their websites but nothing from the big guy himself as of yet.

Kayak Store in Town!

For those looking for a new boat, we have a specialty boating store.

High Level Canoes and Kayaks
1805 - 2 Ave South
Lethbridge Alberta
Phone 403 327-4506
Hours 8:00 -5:00 (Mon - Fri)
10:00 - 4:00 (Sat)
www.highlevelcanoesandkayaks.com

They are carrying Necky, Oldtown, Madriver, Clipper, Wilderness, Perception, Dagger,and Wave Sport. There is a discounts for club members, so if you like the possibility of having gear available without a 4+ hour return drive to Calgary, it might not be a bad idea to swing some business their way.

They are keen on finding ways to integrate the club into their activities / promotions! Look for postings about possible demo days, club discount night or end of season clearances!

Show up at the AGM for your new Cards & to hear about the club member discount.

Trips April 28 to May 4

I just wanted to open a spot for posting trips for the next week. My brothers and I are planning for the Belly on Saturday... Chris introduced it to us early this week, and it has provided a couple of fun, early season paddles already (see Chris' comments on previous "Belly" post). If Chris stays back form Calgary this weekend, he may take us down Middle Fork instead.

The weather is inviting, and it's time to get wet. Please use this post to either join up with a planned paddle or let club members know of an adventures that you wouldn't mind sharing.

Happy Paddling!

For Sale

king pin icon
Originally uploaded by cgoble72.

I have a couple of boats for sale for anyone interested. The first is a king pin icon 6.2. It is for medium sized paddlers. I am askiing 700 for it. I just got it for 750, but find it is a bit small for me.

I may also still have a dagger outlaw. The backband is in rough shape, but those are pretty cheap. It is a good boat for a beginner. I am asking $450 for it, but may be talked into a deal.

SOLD

If anyone is also interested in a big boat, I have a Dagger Vortex. It is the big monster style boat. $100 would be good.

If you are interested, email me at cgoble@allstream.net or call me at home at 859-2452

Easter Break In BC!

Well what can I say! Nothing like a good surf! This is a great little spot . Anyone guess where? I'll update when I get some guesses!




Hint 1: East of Penticton, West of Fernie.
Hint 2: South of Mark K's Suggestion.

And Stew is the winner! For those wanting to learn to surf bigger waves, the Rock Island Play spot is a great choice. It's easy access (drive right down to the river) with a great eddy to get in and out. I think a trip our that way would be great.

As well, the Slocan river and Salmo river have some great runs on them as well. I'll post some stuff about all these spots later this week.

Here is a PDF file that has the description about the wave shown above and how to get there.

Click the download button!

See you on the river!

Kan Upgrades

It looks like people have done some upgrades on the Kan and a nice wide surf wave now exists above the green tongue. More info at calpaddle
http://www.calpaddle.com/calpaddle/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1185&posts=19

Flows

WIth the cold freezes this week, it looks like the rivers have been dropping. The Lower saint is ramping down, the upper saint is a bit too low for me (13 now 18-20 my min). The castle is low (~20). The belly looks allright for a short play run at 9. The middle fork and montana seems like the place to be with the MOFO at a strong medium. The elk and bull also look good for a weekend destination. Chances are there will be more than a few paddlers up that way.

Nathan and I and a couple of others were going to do the upper saint on Wed, but with the low flows that may have to change to the belly. We'll see. I won't be off work till 4:00pm so we will meet in front of DQ then.

I am off to see about upper cameron this evening.

UPDATE

Meet at DQ at 3:30 in Cardston. We will be hanging out at the wave around the corner of the Belly River bridge just past Mtn View. (50m walk from the car)

UPDATE 2

The flows on the Oldman Dam Run are also up to 30cms or so. This would make a decent run for newer kayakers looking to try things out. If I remember, the surf wave below the bridge and by the campground also started to appear at these flows. Too bad about the poor eddy service.

Belly

I went out for a run on the Lower Saint today, but the long take out hike had a backhoe working near the old farm house. I decided i would try the welling ford take out, but 1/4 of the way back on the bicycle shuttle, I realized I had forgot my helmet, so called it a day.

On the way back though, I salvaged things by doing a short run on the Belly. With my parents now living in the area, a number of the farm roads have opened up. I thought about doing the super short run by taking out just after the canal where the old road heads down. Instead I decided to go a ways past the monster log house on the hill, down past the gravel pit, just before the high water play spot.

The river was at 8cms or so. While you could paddle it a bit lower, I wouldn't want to. The wave around the corner of the put in was good. I spent some time there and notice that a large eddy fence of small boulders now exists just above the wave. With a few more rock, eddy service should be had to this feature. More water now pours into it, and it resembles the river left side of double trouble. After hopping back in it, spins were pretty easy. One does have to watch out for the underwater ledge though. At these low flows it comes close to the surface. Right now the feature is more of a hole than anything else. There are eddies on both sides that you can catch. However with water still pouring through the small fence, you still don't have that much time to get back up.

A few trees on the canal are leaning into the river quite a bit. A saw would do wonders to clean that up. The first ledge is fun at these levels. Being by myself, I didn't play in it much. It is a tongue into a compression hole. There are nice eddies on either side, but if you wait too long on your roll, the ledge below comes up quick. This one is again a fun run at these flows, but probably a poorer play spot. The last weir like ledge is still weir like. The low flows however mean the pillow isn't too high. Since there weren't any more play features until my take out, I am thinking this could become a decent play run. Hang out at the wave on the corner, and then bash through the holes on the canal. Then hike the boats out on the old road.

A seismic survey has strung a number of unflagged cables across the river. Watch out. However I think they are in the process of taking the down right now.

Oh Cameron creek also looks like it can be run. Due to the way the water drains into it, I would put in at McNealy's not oil city.

Early Paddler gets the Wave?

The Lower Saint Mary's is currently flowing around 20cms. Any takers? Clay and myself are thinking of hitting it tomorrow around 5pm for a short surf paddle. Post if your interested and Check tomorrow for an update. If the flows stay up, consider the paddling season started!

UPDATE

Well, Clay and I hit the river around 6:20 and had an awesome paddle. It was a perfect early evening paddle with NO WIND! The first surf wave around the bend was small but grabby enough that both Clay and I got our first back surf of the season on it.

Rain Wave had an easy eddy on river right so you could get on it again and again. Nice flows at 19 cms. Enough to paddle and surf! If the heat goes up it would be great to see the flows get around that 30 cms mark.

Anyways... see you on the river!


Mark