South Fork American River, Chili Bar run, Troublemaker rapid. On July 2, 2024 a group of friends and I kayaked Chili Bar run. I had been on this run probably a dozen times previously. Never any problems, no swims. This day the flows were lower than I had ever paddled this run-1386cfs. Every other time the flows were 1,800-2,000+cfs. I was paddling a hardside kayak, Dagger Code medium. I went into troublemaker rapid, flipped over and went thru the gunsite upside down. As I went over I impacted a rock extremely hard on my upper right back, then I successfully rolled up in my kayak.
At that point I could not move my arms or upper body and I floated thru the rest of the rapid and downstream a ways. A friend came up to me and I told them what happened. We floated to the take out at Marshall Gold. I figured I had broken ribs but I did not want to go to the hospital. My friend drove us home to Yosemite, a four hour drive. I went to sleep, then went to Yosemite medical clinic in the morning and they xrayed my ribs. They noticed broken ribs and my right lung was punctured and collapsed. They operated on me right there in the clinic and made an incision and put a tube in my chest then send me in an ambulance to the hospital in Fresno where I stayed for 6 nights.
Conclusion. Troublemaker rapid is a dangerous rapid at lower flows. I learned that 2 weeks before my accident a woman broke her neck at this rapid, and a week later a guy hurt his elbow really bad.
