Another hard rain brought the dries back in and lots more sweet action with it. The put-in waves at the dries are really unique, there aren’t many places in the world where you get so many big waves in one rapid at so many different levels. The put-in waves start coming in at around 25 000cfs and keep getting better as the level rises. In the last few weeks we’ve been lucky enough to have levels as high as 73 000cfs and as low as 18 000cfs.

That’ll happen!

At the high levels the put-in waves allow some of the biggest aerial moves you’ll get anywhere. Big surging waves with random boils coming through all the time can give you the biggest bounce of your life or the hardest wha-thunk. On one of my surfs the wave steepened perfectly with me at the top and I got a huge bounce launching off of an on-coming boil. Mid air screw I decided it’d be a great idea to let go of my paddle and land on my face. Then came the “baaaaaaaa, come on hand roll don’t fail me now!!!”. I rolled up shaking my hands around like a Broadway singer so everyone knew I’d lost my paddle and someone could help me if I needed it. I started hand paddling to shore when I saw my paddle pop up ten feet from me. All I could think hand paddling after that thing was “I can’t lose another paddle, I can’t lose another one this year!” The last two years I’ve lost paddles almost to the day. The last thing I wanted to do was call up the guys at Aquabound and say, “Yeah, I lost another one, do you have any that come with a James Bond remote control so it’ll come back to me?” Anyway I managed to get it and save myself a little embarrassment.

Helix on the top wave

Something that you usually don’t hear about is the dries run. Basically the deal with this section of the New River is that there is a dam that diverts water from upstream around a section of river and then pumps it back out down stream where the river has dropped a significant amount in order to generate power. Since the water is diverted there is no water in this section of the river most of the year, hence the name “The Dries”. The run itself has world class play and big water at all levels. Today we did the run on the lower end, around 18 000cfs, and there were tons of sick play holes and surf waves. Nothing as big as the put-in waves but an amazing amount of quality play in a short section of river.

Air Screw while holding paddle, simple enough….

Only a few weeks left in West Virginia so check back soon to see what goes on. Special thanks to Bryan Kirk and Ben Guska for the sweet pics.

Kelsey Thompson