Mohawk

At 12 ft.

At 12 ft.

At 12 ft.

This is the wave at about 12 ft.

Saturday/ Sunday

Low water play.

Last week in October of 07 when the river was high.

View from above the wave to the dam below.

In general this posting is misleading. The levels for this feature are from about 11 and up; there really is no max flow. The limiting factor to surfing this wave is whether or not a swimmer will have time to get out which I will admit to having to do at 23 feet. Actually it takes only a few hundred feet as the current pushes you into the shore.

The main wave gets HUGE at certain levels especially if you catch the period where the upper dam is opened and the lower is still closed. The added pool height creates a monster green wave with a small foam pile.

This feature is formed by a shale shelf which has been eroded in the last year or two from a shelf into a V-notch. This has caused a pretty nasty hole to form at certain levels. Do not drop into the river right hole when first putting in. That mistake could lead to a brutal beat-down.

While the river left wave has become a semi-nasty hole the river center hole has gotten deeper and a lot nicer. This turns into a great spin/cartwheel spot, though it is still too shallow to loop. At high water this makes a nice wave to wave/hole. To reach this requires a ferry which can be difficult depending on the level, but makes for great training.

There really should also be a separate page for the upper waves at Cohoes which are located a 1/4 mile below Cohoes Falls on river left which appear at 15ft and top out as 8ft tall crashing waves. This is a high water feature only, the main attraction is the first wave which forms a hole at around 14ft, wave/hole at 15.5 and a full blown wave upwards of that. This feature is easily comparable to Inner-City Strife on the Black River in Watertown which comes in below Knife's Edge at 10.5-11k cfs.

Once again to paddle this feature you must have a very solid roll otherwise you are in risk of taking a long swim with a good likely-hood of going over a dam. There is a very large (800ft long) straight-forward eddy that forms behind the waves but missing it is not an option.

Reaching these waves is a bit of a challenge and is part of the reason no one seems to know about them.

From Saratoga Ave take an immediate left at the light after crossing the bridge over the Mohawk. Take a left at the first stop sign which is river street. Park by the fence where the road hits the cliff overlooking the river. There is a trail that goes upstream to the right. Follow it and at the third or so overlook will be a tree 10 ft in with a rope or two on it. If you can use the larger diameter rope to lower your boat and paddle down and then follow it down the slope. Otherwise you will be forced to transfer ropes halfway down which is doable but a bit scary. Use extreme caution scaling the cliff, the rock is loose and probably wet. This deposits you in the eddy in front of you will be the waves.

The wave at 18+ feet

This is close to flood level