This is my Final Report as Past President of the BWA. The Official duties of my office have been discharged faithfully. The BWA Fall Party and Annual Reunion of 2009 are now part of the pages of BWA history. Here is my spin on that:

First of all, the BWA party and the RFRR have been dancing hand in hand for the past three years, as tribute to the early days when we started it with our Annual Fall party in 1994. The Rendezvous and the first race followed the next year in 1995. This proud tradition of gathering, racing and having a big party continues to this day. I believe this revisit of our annual party has blown fresh air into both the BWA and the RFRR over the past three years. We continue to have numerous past and present BWA'ers compete in this race. We coordinate safety and video of the event. It is simply amazing the BWA connection to this world class event. We should all give ourselves a BIG BWA HAND for this entire event and the success it enjoys because we are such a huge part of its past and present. So I personally thank everyone involved and interested enough to come out and paddle or hang, hike, camp and whatever.

I think this has to be up there with some of my favorite RFRRs/BWA parties ever. There was something very special about this weekend that I am not sure I can put to words appropriately. There were, it seemed like a stream of BWAer's, past and present, streaming in throughout the night. They kept coming into Saturday evening as well. The talent that is in and has come from the BWA blows my mind sometimes. Anyway, just lots of my favorite people and the BWA has brought them all together in some way or the other. Think about it cause it is true. Anyway, this was just shaping up to be a beautiful reunion that occurs with such an excellent flow of the past and present BWAers and their close friends that compete in the race and conduct the RFRR. A true BWA reunion of majickal proportions.

Friday evening was warm and relatively moisture free until late, so it was easy to get set up and start creating community space (aka "Kitchen"). As we settled in for the evening, I thought about what a fabulous season we had already had, blessed by abundance of agua for the River Gods and Goddesses. After two years of sketchy 800 cfs flows, we finally had a wet year where our average flows were in excess of 900 cfs (and one day at a 1000 cfs) every weekend. In my judgment, these higher flows are substantially better and more enjoyable. So, with rain on Friday night, and anticipating an 1100 release plus natural flow, we thought we would be looking at 1200 or more in the gorge. As it turns out, the Army Corp gauge indicated 1137 at the time of the race, but the rock at Garden Hole that has Gerald Delong's actual rock gauge, showed it lapping at 1200. Who knows? Anyway, we knew we had water and the day started off wet and warm.

We made the jaunt up to Bartlick around 10 a.m. Saturday morning to run the marathon. Of course there were BWAers all over the place. Nearly every pack of boaters we came upon seemed to have one of us or more with them. At complete peak of colors, it was just an awesome place to paddle with friends and warm up for a beefier than normal run in the gorge. We were not disappointed. Right off the bat you could see there was more push than the 900+ levels we had been seeing all season. With nearly a third more water, things definitely get fluffier and more rocks are covered. Anyway, we all had good lines and noticed folks starting to filter in to film and watch the race both by boat and by foot, as we moved downstream to set up safety and shoot some video at the Box at Climax. Mello and others set safety at Towers. Gerald Delong and others were at Triple Drop. (At this level First Drop becomes a substantial hazard). There just tons of boaters on the river everywhere.

After freezing in the dipping temperatures and the wind that picked up, we watched some fabulous finishes by all the racers competing in the "Lord of the Fork" race (named thusly after our bro, Jon Lord - 2004). Jay Ditty reported immediately that the 10 minute wall had been breached for the first time since Hipgrave did in 96 (I think). I am not sure if we had as many racers as last year, but if not it was durned close (I think in the 40s - but we will see the posted results soon I am sure). I have never seen so many times breach the 11 minute mark. We have some very solid and fast boaters in the BWA that were in that group. At the end of that, with Milt Aitken graciously waiting on his ole buddy, but nagging at me the whole time with a "let's go, I am cold", we all jumped back in our boats and finished the run down to the Reunion site anticipating Christine's beef stroganoff and the pot luck that we knew was being assembled.

Man, the BWA knows how to feast. The cooked veggies, the corn bread, the deserts and side dishes, all rocked out along with my wife's kickin' stroganoff. A good fire with plenty of wood thanks to locals like Teddy Sanders and Johnny Stewart, and we were set up to be the "chill" fire for those of us that wished to pull away from the HUGE fire and festivities over at the RFRR down the road or through the woods. With the sky clearing and the moon shining (pun intended), the music start completely groovin with a trio from Cincinnati that later where joined by Jeffro, Jeff K, Steve Ruth, Hugo, Angel and Mark Branch for some absolutle awesome jammin. Big Dave also gave us his smooth vocals with some old favorites.

Meanwhile, over at the NPFF tent, B6, Will Singleton and I am not sure who else started assisting Will Lyons who was putting together footage from some of the cameras that day to display on a large blow up screen for all to see while they circled around the main stage Fire Circle. And then, suddenly, a shrill whistle could be heard somewhere not too far, then a loud BOOM, like a cannon went off, followed by a cascade of colors streaming in multi directions. Yes, it was the Second Annual "Viva El Griffo "Fireworks display, gratis Clay Warren (not sure what he spent, but it ain't cheap and it is super cool).

Back at the BWA camp (did I mention that we need a BWA Banner?), the fire burned warmly with much less crowding. I made some coffee and with plenty of witnesses to back me up, I stayed up until at least 1 a.m. and played drums with Wes Prince, John Mello, Super, B6, Jeff K. My buddy Milt was feeling shiny. Clark makes the best brownies and everyone enjoyed the offerings from Phillip Gall's tent where beer was provided to the festivarians. (Go buy stuff from those guys, they finally have a boater in there watching out for the things that we boaters are looking for. So support that effort and help them help us.) All in all, the party was just fabulously fun.

Sunday morning, having slept in, I was not sure that I would be able to get our camp taken down and everything in the truck, eat breakfast at the Rusty Fork (THE PLACE to eat in Elkhorn City - please patronize them), and anyone would want to wait that long to paddle. Plus, it was supposed to warm up to the upper 60's and that sounded really good to me. First, I have to thank Christine for hanging at Rat Hole for me to get a run in after a weekend of camping. Second is YT and Mello and Wes for wanting to wait to do a paddle a bit later in the day. So, we got back on, joined by my favorite newlyweds in the world, Brian Mattingly and Sarah Mello, and a new buddy from Hickory NC, and we buzzed it with another perfect level, I think a little less than Saturday, but certainly over 1100 from looking at Gerald's rock gauge.

Home before dark on Sunday evening, it is hard to imagine a more perfect river for a more perfect weekend after such a perfect Gauley and Russell Fork season. I can't believe it is over. But, now I am thinking about boating some down in the Smokies and the Plateau and surrounds. Anyone else game?
SYOTR,

Brent Austin
BWA Past President

i'll 2nd all of that...best octoba eva!

Many thanks to Brent and Christine and everyone else for all of their hard work. I had a great time this weekend.

Allen

The weekend was perfect!

Huge thanks to Christine and Brent for getting everything together for the party. And especially to Christine for all the hard work on the food; that was a massive undertaking and everything was great!

I'm sad it's all over. And think we should try to replicate it all in November. We'll have to somehow paste all those pretty leaves back on the trees...........

-bo

Brent,

Great summary to a great weekend.

As others will surely agree, great meal on Saturday and special thanks to Christine. Glad to see so many in attendance with so many smiles. As always, great to paddle with you on Sunday.

Driving home yesterday, I was a bit saddened by the thoughts of ending the 2009 Gauley and Russell Fork release season since great times had by so many. However, the recovery from this paddling depression is to keep boating through the winter! Could be time to head to the Southeast for the warmer climes for doses of aquatic-therapy.

YT

What a tremendous RFRR and Fall Party! Big BWA hand to Steve Ruth and the Elkhorn City folks for keeping the Rendezvous flame burning bright and to Brent and Christine for all their hard work and time putting together a great party and dinner. Thanks to all the other folks who contributed to yet another fine BWA feast - especially Cynthia for her awesome vegetable soup, Ellen for her scrumptious carrot cake and long past BWA Pres Mike Clark for those very magical brownies:-)

Gotta also give a special shout out to Mark and Sam and all the fine folks of Phillip Gall's for their unprecedented support of the RFRR this year. It's clear that there is a new whitewater boating friendly vibe at Phillip Gall's and one that the BWA should absolutely support.

Thanks also to all my fellow 2009 LOF Race videographers, Allen, Will, Shelby, Bethany, Brent, John and a special note of appreciation for former BWA member Will Lyons and LVM for their wonderful support and AV equipment at the RFRR. BTW, Will indicates that he will be putting together a 2009 LOF Race DVD and perhaps even something for the NPFF.

And last but not least, I want to extend a special thanks to those talented moonshine makers of Eastern KY for their support of the RFRR - partying hard and not having a hangover the next morning is a beautiful thing!
barryg

Well I'll have to say it was an interesting wkend for me. I got Brit and Ana down the Upper OK first off with a few dunkings for Ana and all clean for Brit. Both of them had clean runs in 20 stitches. With the exception of the hole flip at Bartlick Dam, all of Ana's thrashings came after flips off of rocks. After a few points of instruction on dealing with rocks, maybe we made some progress there.

By the time we got to Garden Hole ... the main crew had left and John, Hugo and someone else was putting in. This was at 1:30 - still long before race start. John said he would wait for me at Towers, and I said OK, then the more i thought about it, the more I didn't want to paddle to Towers alone and I knew there was no way I would make it in 10 min as told him initially as I hadn't eaten and needed to change boats and gear plus help the girls load and secure. So I was afraid John would no longer be there. John ended up waiting and I'm very sorry John for screwing up your plans.

So Brit wanted to do another run on the Upper, and Ana was fried so this time just Brit and I we blazed it pretty quickly just as the water was starting to drop. I think it was a slow turn off as the water was already lower when we put in at 3:07.

By the time we recovered Ana's car and all grabbed a quick hot shower at the lodge we missed most of the club party / meal. There was just enough left to curb our hunger and a few got to sample Ana's yummy brownies.

We had fun at the party ... and I enjoyed trying to drum with Brent and others later ... thoroughly amazed at Brent being awake after midnight. Then I was dying and I had the only negative event of the whole wkend. While trying to drive past the bonfire and head back to the lodge, there was a bunch of locals blocking the road. Half the road was blocked by a stalled 4 wheeler and the other by a lone drunk with his hand up. After what seemed like a long minute he wandered up to my window and the conversation went something like this:
Drunk: Where ya'll from?
Me: KY
Drunk: Where at in KY?
Me: Lex
Drunk: Are you a supporter of Coal?
Me: What? (Thought maybe he meant David Allen Coe? Or some dude named Cole was running for a local office? Took me a bit to realize he meant COAL)
Drunk: Do you support Coal, you know, COAL?
Me: What does that have to do with anything?
Drunk: Well you come here and run our rapids, don't you think you ought to be supportin' our Coal?
OK, here's rule #1 that I was too tired to remember, never try to reason with a drunk, and especially a drunk who is an idiot before he gets drunk.
Me: (Good think I'm not Pinocchio) Yeah, coal is fine, it keeps the lights on.
Drunk: Well alright then.
At which point his drunken toothless woman had wandered out of my path and I gunned it the hell out of there.

That ... along with the sheriff showing up after the brawl left kind of a sour taste in me about this RFRR. I realize this bozo was just a drunk local that obviously had no clue as to what the RFRR was all about, he was just there to party ... but nevertheless it was not a fun experience.

Sunday, I had my shot at the Gorge at near 1200. I made it ... with pretty good lines except at the Box .. which continues to befuddle me at above 800. Man that water slams into Braille pretty fast / hard at that level. So after another close enounter with Braille, and flip and a roll I wandered through the lower Box with more of a bruised ego than a bruised body. I felt pushed everywhere and did not feel I was in control in the Maze, Dave's and Foreplay nearly as much as I wanted to be. As I told Brent I wanted to get more comfortable at a little lower levels (800-1000) before I would consider the Gorge at that level again ... Brent insisting what a great level that was ... and my reply, well of course it is, when you know the lines as well as you do and have lots of experience at that level. After thinking about it a bit more, I got 3 words for you - Bear Creek Falls And no, I don't know it that well, with <10 runs there, so that puts us at similar experience there I imagine if I had more experience with the RF, I would think very differently about it ... just need a lot more experience with it at higher flows to ease my jitters.

After the Gorge the plan was to motor the girls up to the Upper to try to sneak in a run before shut off ... but looking at the time, we had to change that plan. After moving Ana's car to the Gas Station takeout, we decided to do a long lower run. In retrospect, having seen that section, I suggest doing 2 lower runs to Carson's instead. It's all class I/II down to the BP and lots of pools in between. Ana and Brit both had interesting runs at Meat Grinder. The plan was to have Ana follow me, and Brit follow her. As soon as I got nearly backendered in my playboat in the first drop, I knew we were in for some interesting runs. As I spun around after the bottom hole below, I saw Ana upside down after 2nd drop, and Brit moving a bit left above 2nd drop. So as Ana is in the current below 3rd drop Brit somehow ends up surfing the bottom left hole. So I'm thinking ... chasing down 2 swimmers alone (thinking Brit would be too tired to roll after the rapid / surf), this should be interesting but amazingly with no experience in practicing hole surfing Brit surfs this hole for a very long 6-7 seconds and surfs out upright ... I was amazed. Not only that but when Ana's paddle finally washed out (think it surfed bottom right hole) she picked it up and immediately learned how to paddle with 2 paddles - not an easy task with hands as small as hers. Ana wanted to carry up and give it another shot but Brit wanted nothing to do with a round two so we moved on.

So an interesting weekend, but overall I think we all had a great time.

Wes

Wes:

LOL. Well, I do have alot of experience running the river at that level, but, I think you are such a solid boater (more solid than me I think), that you should not have problems at that level. But, I agree, it is a comfort factor for sure. Dude, you did great. The Box is just sorting out the technical aspects of that move. You will. Everything else you were rock solid looking to me. Come on, Dave's was FUN as heck at that level. Juicy Class IV+.

I am just saying that I favor the 1150 flows better, much better than the 800 cfs flows. I really enjoy 900 + flows as well. In my experience, the better flows fluff up the rapids and make some of them less manky and more manageable. That is mostly because I like to take class IV lines through the gorge and those are good flows to run some of the drops that I will walk or sneak at lower levels.

BEAR CREEK FALLS on the otherhand, looks like a potentially hard hit if not run correctly, which my back doesn't like after decades of doing just that, hitting a rock below some drop. Show me the soft landing line next time and I will follow you over it.

Finally, Wes, has anyone told you that you try to jam an awful lot of stuff and activities in a single 24 hour period? You do. Occasionally, doing that, things are going to misfire and be frustrating. BTW, good answer to the Coal question. Another good answer would be to lie to the next drunk who asks: "Don't you just LOVE our ATVs tearing up these fabulous trails going up Pine Ridge"? Gulp, er yeah, pass me your moonshine.

Brent

Dave's run was fun ... but my boat caught an unexpected jet of current just above the final drop and the 360 right above the final drop was not planned I just learned a long time ago that if you get kicked off course sometimes it's easier to go with the current and spin all the way rather than force the bow back agaist the current. I felt out of breath below every rapid (and I'm in pretty good shape) just from fighting all those weird currents to stay online and bracing my a$$ off. I think if you know a river, you anticipate all of that and the effort is minimal. I used to think 5 Falls got easier as the water got higher up to the highest I ran it around 4 ft and b/c we ran it alot at various levels and just knew and anticipated every little new feature at each level. Same with the Ocoee during my guiding days. I ran it so much that it seemed like class II to me ... but re-visiting it years later ... wasn't nearly as easy as I remembered it! I'm hoping the RFG will be the same with me ... more experience with it will make it more easier / fun at the higher flows.

I don't have that much experience with the lower Cheoah but consider it much easier ... maybe b/c the element of risk is much lower and that factors in. BCF does get my heart rate up still ... but as much about the excitement of doing that big drop and not as much fear ... the big drop is a big thrill for me. I've never hit hard there, but have hit rock at the bottom a few times ... it's a glancing blow. Think I found a soft spot on the right lately (by accident) but flirting with the protruding rock from the second ledge of the Creek Line. And there's always the Creek Line, no hard hits just maybe a bit more difficult and gnarly if you flip. One of these days I'm doing the Creek Line ... maybe if I get in laps one day cause I hate the idea of doing the Cheoah and taking away the thrill of the big drop. One reason I like left line at 3rd drop so much BTW ... the Cascades are on the way to the Tallulah from the Cheoah ... what do you think about Cheoah, Cascades, Tallulah, Chattooga weekend? Would make for long wkend and tiring ride home but man, what a thrill. After reading about Yellow Creek, the secret trib to the Cheoah, it sounds good too, and sounds like it runs alot.

Brent you are right ... I sometimes cram too muchy into 24 hrs and do things for me as well as trying to keep the girls happy. That's not easy sometimes and does add to the stress of a trip. Makes day tripping to boat between shifts hard too, and stressful, and tiring but it's either that or not boat some wkends.

Wes

BTW, I just visited the Cheoah page on AW, and there's an LVM interview with Jeff Paine from AW low on the page. The beginning of the interview is a video of Jeff running BCF on the right ledge line I was describing. Looks like exactly where the sweet spot is for me. Most folks line up on the eddyline above for the big drop, which lines you up for more of the middle of the drop where the rock on the bottom is. The right line is just right of the eddyline and goes over the drop just as it starts to curve around to the right. Interesting he stutters his stroke timing at the lip to do a left boof stroke ... which turns him slightly toward the protruding rock ... I recall doing the opposite, going over the ledge with a slight right hand angle but doing the right boof stroke to turn the bow directly downstream just as I'm going over as the current on that part of the ledge is actually pushing a bit right as I recall, toward the protruding rock as it goes over. You shot a great video of me doing that line I should dig up.
Wes