Random, Thoughts, X,XXIV

#28,864
#28,864
Sgt_Nick_Fury said:


I miss the ocoee.....
Click to expand...

Had my raft get flipped upside down on the Ocoee around 1980. One of the chambers had developed a leak, and the raft just folded in half. I was caught in a hydraulic. It felt like I was a wash cloth in a washing machine, no control at all. I could only hold my breath a few seconds, and when I gave up it spit me up/out and under the raft.
Dumbfck!!!!!
 
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#28,869
#28,869
Go aeiou said:
Had my raft get flipped upside down on the Ocoee around 1980. One of the chambers had developed a leak, and the raft just folded in half. I was caught in a hydraulic. It felt like I was a wash cloth in a washing machine, no control at all. I could only hold my breath a few seconds, and when I gave up it spit me up/out and under the raft.
Dumbfck!!!!!
Click to expand...
I used to white water canoe down the Hiwasee alot, it was always my dream to take a canoe down the ocoee. We'd go in rafts on the ocoee but never once did we get flipped or fall out accidentally, frequently we would just roll out before the last rapids just to get "full experience" though, much to the guides chagrin. I don't think I could do a canoe down the ocoee now, but would love to get to a point I could still try. I loved whitewater......
 
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#28,870
#28,870
Sgt_Nick_Fury said:
I used to white water canoe down the Hiwasee alot, it was always my dream to take a canoe down the ocoee. We'd go in rafts on the ocoee but never once did we get flipped or fall out accidentally, frequently we would just roll out before the last rapids just to get "full experience" though, much to the guides chagrin. I don't think I could do a canoe down the ocoee now, but would love to get to a point I could still try. I loved whitewater......
Click to expand...
The bad chamber in the raft doomed us. It folded in half, the front half backwards over the back half. I should have ended things or gone around that hole. My understanding is that newer rafts no longer have that problem.

People that fall out are almost always lackadaisical. Don't wedge their feet in the raft correctly, and don't realize how sudden and hard a jolt may be.

A good friend of mine worked(co-op in college) for the engineering company that rebuilt the Ocoee flume in the early 70s. He said seeing a 5 foot snake was a daily occurence. Many of them poisonous.

We used to go on the French Broad occasionally, but hired local guides. When we had children I would only take them on the Hiwassee.

I understand your guides concern. I think there have been at least 6 people killed on the Ocoee.

Moving to upper E TN and back surgery ended my rafting days.
 
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#28,871
#28,871
Go aeiou said:
The bad chamber in the raft doomed us. It folded in half, the front half backwards over the back half. I should have ended things or gone around that hole. My understanding is that newer rafts no longer have that problem.

People that fall out are almost always lackadaisical. Don't wedge their feet in the raft correctly, and don't realize how sudden and hard a jolt may be.

A good friend of mine worked(co-op in college) for the engineering company that rebuilt the Ocoee flume in the early 70s. He said seeing a 5 foot snake was a daily occurence. Many of them poisonous.

We used to go on the French Broad occasionally, but hired local guides. When we had children I would only take them on the Hiwassee.

I understand your guides concern. I think there have been at least 6 people killed on the Ocoee.

Moving to upper E TN and back surgery ended my rafting days.
Click to expand...
Wonderful sport, but when things go wrong...

3/4/2018
www.citizen-times.com

World champ Asheville kayaker and mom drowns in Cheoah River on Saturday

Asheville kayaker Maria Noakes, a former New Zealand champion paddler, drowned in the Cheoah River Saturday.
www.citizen-times.com

Maria Noakes, seen here in July 2016 paddling the Ocoee River, died in a kayaking accident on the Cheoah River Saturday, March 3.

ASHEVILLE—Maria Noakes, of Bryson City, an expert, world-champion kayaker, wife and mom, died Saturday in a paddling accident on the Cheoah River in Graham County.

Hundreds of Facebook messages poured in from New Zealand to Mexico and Chile to Kathmandu over the weekend expressing sadness and shock at the loss of the energetic, generous, infectiously happy and highly respected whitewater paddler.

Noakes, 50, was paddling the Cheoah River with her 12-year-old son Matteo and two of his friends, all considered expert paddlers, according to family and friends, when something went wrong...“The water level was normal. It happened below Python (rapids). Her boat was found pinned against river right. She was found downstream. We will never know exactly what happened...

...“She was probably one of the best boaters in the world,” Kastorff said of Noakes. “Whatever happened was a fluke. For her it was an easy river. The Cheoah for her was like her backyard, She had been paddling it for 10 years. She was paddling with people who she was responsible for and she didn’t take that lightly...”

Noakes competed in just about every whitewater discipline including slalom, downriver, wildwater and freestyle. She competed in the notorious Green River Narrows Race in Polk County, shooting over Class V waterfalls, and represented New Zealand in the 2013 Freestyle Kayak World Championships on the Nantahala River....She was also a professional guide, leading trips down the world’s iconic rivers, from the Salmon in Idaho to the Zambezi in Africa...
 
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#28,872
#28,872
Go aeiou said:
The bad chamber in the raft doomed us. It folded in half, the front half backwards over the back half. I should have ended things or gone around that hole. My understanding is that newer rafts no longer have that problem.

People that fall out are almost always lackadaisical. Don't wedge their feet in the raft correctly, and don't realize how sudden and hard a jolt may be.

A good friend of mine worked(co-op in college) for the engineering company that rebuilt the Ocoee flume in the early 70s. He said seeing a 5 foot snake was a daily occurence. Many of them poisonous.

We used to go on the French Broad occasionally, but hired local guides. When we had children I would only take them on the Hiwassee.

I understand your guides concern. I think there have been at least 6 people killed on the Ocoee.

Moving to upper E TN and back surgery ended my rafting days.
Click to expand...
We were all experienced white water guys, who had done ocoee multiple times. we knew how to protect ourselves in a rapids via kicking off, protecting head, and if need be knew what to do in a keeper area, and we were past the keeper dangerous area. Our only concern was to stay away from power plant….but we knew that too. But the guide didn’t know that we knew, he laughed about it later, we literally just tucked and rolled out the sides at the allotted time. The only really dangerous part of ocoee is the keepers, and that part we paddled and flew through as your supposed to. There’s just one short rapids at the end, and the power plant. The snake part is interesting. I know they are there, but I have never seen them. always figured that water is a bit cold for them. Now in my backyard on the Tennessee River….…..copperheads and moccasin are everywhere……..I hate cottonmouths worse then anything.
Hiwasee is a good starter one, you can do it in an inter tube really…..but just right for flat bottom canoes. Other then on standing wave not a lot of issues, I have grounded there in the shallow part more then ever having issues in the rapids.

I am woefully not in shape to do white water now, I’m working on that, taking my son down the river would mean a lot.
 
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#28,873
#28,873
Sgt_Nick_Fury said:
We were all experienced white water guys, who had done ocoee multiple times. we knew how to protect ourselves in a rapids via kicking off, protecting head, and if need be knew what to do in a keeper area, and we were past the keeper dangerous area. Our only concern was to stay away from power plant….but we knew that too. But the guide didn’t know that we knew, he laughed about it later, we literally just tucked and rolled out the sides at the allotted time. The only really dangerous part of ocoee is the keepers, and that part we paddled and flew through as your supposed to. There’s just one short rapids at the end, and the power plant. The snake part is interesting. I know they are there, but I have never seen them. always figured that water is a bit cold for them. Now in my backyard on the Tennessee River….…..copperheads and moccasin are everywhere……..I hate cottonmouths worse then anything.
Hiwasee is a good starter one, you can do it in an inter tube really…..but just right for flat bottom canoes. Other then on standing wave not a lot of issues, I have grounded there in the shallow part more then ever having issues in the rapids.

I am woefully not in shape to do white water now, I’m working on that, taking my son down the river would mean a lot.
Click to expand...
Hiwassee used to be a nice float using tubes if TVA was letting water flow from upstream dams. Otherwise a chore to navigate some areas( find enough water).
At 71 I'm not in shape these days. More of a grumpy old man.
Hope you can work things out for you and your family.
 
#28,874
#28,874
I have been watching them demo this building. I was shocked they did not close the street as they got to that part.

I was at lunch across the street and heard concrete falling. When I was walking home I couldn’t believe what they did. I saw the slabs leaning not long before they fell.

www.nbcmiami.com

Viral video shows debris from a demolition falling into the streets in Brickell

In the video, crane is seen attempting to grab a loose piece of debris that ultimately falls to the sidewalk near oncoming traffic.
www.nbcmiami.com www.nbcmiami.com
 
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