Seize the Day While the River You Know Is There!

Seize the day because the river you know may not always be there!

For eons paddlers have used various excuses for walking rapids such as, “I’ll run it next time” or “That rapid will always be there.” I’m here to provide an opinion from the opposite perspective. The river and rapid you know today may not be there tomorrow!

This is not an article about sending every drop you come to or paddling recklessly above your skill. This article is meant to encourage you to cherish each moment on the river and paddle within your skills, but take advantage of the skills you have built to run the rapids you want to run. 

The Green River in North Carolina was once home to one of the finest whitewater kayaking runs in the world with its steep drops, reliable dam releases, and iconic rapids such as Gorilla, Go Left, and Sunshine.

In the fall of 2024, Hurricane Helene came through and destroyed the entire surrounding area and left the river bed scoured with almost all of the rapids changing greatly. Gorilla, in particular, took a beating with boulders moving and diverting the flow to areas uncertain.

The rapid sat untouched for a month and a half before a few intrepid paddlers ran it, attempting to solve the puzzle that Hurricane Helene left. The rapid, Go Left, shifted major rocks and eliminated the challenging tight squeeze of old. It remains a runnable rapid with a fun double boof.

Sunshine has changed into a gigantic sieve with the majority of the flow going through a siphon under the boulders. There is a chance that rapid may never get run again. 

Every year for the past 5 summers, I have taken a trip to the Green Narrows as the climax of the most ambitious kayak program that Calleva’s River School offers, Green Training. On our most recent trip, we showed 7 paddlers the wonders of the legendary Green River. We had a fantastic first day with everyone hitting their lines.

On Day 2, we were having another excellent day and we got out at Gorilla, as always, for the group to portage. While walking up for my second lap, I stopped to talk to the group about how they felt about the drop.

Stephen Bretzik was feeling good and was thinking about trying it. We talked the line over in extensive detail, including consequences, and he told me that he really wanted to run it. I told him that if he was going to run it, I wanted to run it with him.

We had Ollie Jones on live bait for safety and Stephen followed me into the Notch eddy to set up for his Gorilla run. He styled the rapid with a nice launch off the pad and clean run out through the Speed Trap. I was stoked for him to get to run that rapid and ace it in the process. Ollie had been talking about throwing a freewheel off of Gorilla and decided there was no time like the present. He greased his approach through the Notch and lined up in the perfect spot to throw an incredible freewheel! I was stoked for him to have pulled off such a spectacular move!

For me personally, there are few rapids out there as exciting as Gorilla was so I always tried to get many laps on that rapid each day. I left there happy and content with my 8 runs over that 3 day trip. The whole weekend was superb! The entire group had the type of adventure that you remember forever but none of us had any inkling that we would never see that river again as we saw it on those days. What will become of Green Training in the future? Time will tell.

Nature is constantly changing and you can’t count on the river always remaining the same. Gravity is undefeated and the higher gradient runs tend to be more susceptible to large scale changes from high water events.

However, this phenomenon is not exclusive to Class 5 runs. Back in the 1990s on the Potomac River in Mather Gorge, the Class 2-3 rapid called Fishladder Rapid (now known as Portage Rapid) had a series of tall, glassy surf waves that came in at typical early summer flows.

Paddlers would fill the eddies on both sides of the river to carve back and forth on these beautiful creations. At times, 3 different paddlers would be lined up, riding 3 consecutive waves at the same time! It was a sight to behold and truly a thing of beauty that few wave trains can provide.

Then, one high water event shifted the river bed and waves disappeared into the sands of time, forgotten except by a privileged remaining few who still remember the joy they provided.

Whether you are scouting a big rapid, running the line on a familiar drop, or heading out of the eddy to get one more surf, remember to enjoy the moment that you have right then and there. If you want to run a drop one more time, carry up and go do it! If you want to have one more surf, go take it!

If you feel that your skills have prepared you for that scary rapid, go seize the day! The only thing we are guaranteed is at that moment, time and opportunity are ours. This discovery of your own present time is infinitely valuable. Go and fill it with joyful experiences and adventures!

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