RECIRCULATION AT BLIND FALLS

            Overflow Creek, in the headwaters of the Chattooga River in northern , has a gradient of 370 feet per mile in the Damnation Alley section. I’ve been running Class V water for eighteen years, everything from steep creeks to large-volume flooded rivers. I don’t get into trouble very often and am not reluctant to portage if I don’t feel comfortable with a particular drop. I have a bombproof paddle and hands roll on both sides. I paddle every other weekend and am in very good physical condition. I’ve run this creek several times over the past two years with no problems. And I’ve only been recirculated once in a hole, in Woodall Shoals at 1.7’, but was able to swim out.

            I was making a run in November of 1994. We got to within one hundred yards of the first major drop, Blind Falls , a vertical waterfall about sixteen feet in height. Jerry eddied out and began giving the group information about the drop.

            “There are several Class III rapids before Blind Falls , but no other eddies large enough for us to group up,” he said. “We’ll eddy hop, follow the leader style, to the drop.  Just remember, when you get to the falls be sure to be in the center of the river and to the right of the diagonal wave.”

            I was number three in line, eddy hopping down to the falls. Each time I entered an eddy, I looked over my shoulder to see the boater downstream peeling out. I arrived at the third eddy, looked over my shoulder, and couldn’t see anyone. However, I though I knew where I was. I had a mental picture of the approach from my run two years before. I though the boater in front of me was in an eddy above the falls, and that I couldn’t see that person because the approach was steep and boulder-strewn. I peeled out and headed river left looking for the next eddy. The must-avoid line for Blind Falls is river left, due to a huge pothole and a keeper hydraulic. You can imagine my dismay when I realized there were no last-chance eddies. I was heading over Blind Falls on river left. The reason for this rapid’s name is that you don’t see it coming up.

            As my bow cleared the lip, I was looking six feet straight down into the barrel of the worst looking draining pothole I had ever seen. I looked plenty big enough to swallow a boat. There was no time to do anything other than paddle forward and try to boof over it. I paddled hard and my bow skipped off the rim, and I went sailing down another ten feet to the base of the falls. I though, “Damn, I just dodged a major bullet.”

            I hit the bottom of the falls and was immediately backendered into it. The noise of the falls hitting the bottom of my boat was deafening. I decided to remain upside down to see if I would flush out. After about five seconds, there was little change, and the waterfall was still pounding down on my boat with that incredible noice. I rolled up in a curtain of water so violent that I couldn’t breathe or stay upright. Within seconds I was upside down again. I rolled a second time, and as before, was unable to breathe or stay upright. The feel of this hole was vicious, and I decided to take my chances swimming while I still had some air.           

            I popped my sprayskirt and down I went. As I surfaced in the backwash, I could see the light of the sky through the bubbles. I never completely surfaced. Because the hole is so highly aerated, the buoyancy of my lifejacket ( a full-size Extrasport) and the air in my lungs were not enough to get me to the surface. I was being recirculated back into the falls, still underwater. At this point I was getting low on air. I continued tat the mercy of the backwash until I was pounded down by the falls. Again, as I surfaced, I could see the light of the sky. Very soon I realized that I was being recirculated again and again without ever coming to the surface. I remember thinking . . . this is what it feels like to drown. However, I was completely relaxed. I was experiencing very little discomfort, and I knew that I needed to try something else if I was going to get out of this hole.

            The bubbles passing my face were about the size of oranges. I though maybe I could breath them. I sucked through my teeth, swallowing the water and breathing the air. This technique seemed to help a little bit, but swallowing all that water was the last thing I needed. The situation was getting desperate. I thought I had only one or two tries left to get myself out of the hole.

            I still had a hold of my paddle, a squirt design. During the summer, my eleven-year-old son and I had spent considerable time at the lake working on his roll. During these sessions we found time to play, and discovered that a kayak paddle is a very effective locomotion device when swimming using a forward stroke with the body trailing. This time, as I was surfacing, I started stroking like mad. Within seconds, I popped out. I took that first glorious breath, and began to cough up water. Jerry was right there and helped me into an eddy. My boat stayed in the hole for about ten minutes before being spit out. Three other boaters had run Blind Falls while I was in the hole. After a twenty-minute rest, I paddled the rest of the creek, walking the two biggest rapids, Gravity and Marginal Monster.

SOURCE: Greg Hall, Sylva, NC

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In twenty years of boating, I have never encountered a hole like this. I have spoken to no one who has ever experienced or heard of a hole that recirculates a swimmer underwater.