Running Waterfalls By Paul Kowatch e-mail

The fear in my stomach was growing, I swallowed hard, and wondered why I was here. Last December my wife bought me a Pirouette S for Christmas and I nearly froze paddling the Puntledge River. Since then I had people teach me how to roll, Kevin does the C to C and Tim the Sweep so I guess it was natural for me to do a screw roll. Still it seems to work and I like it. I have used it when I got my first stern squirt in a playhole and had to roll in turbulent water. It also worked at Long Beach when I was getting trashed by the waves.

I had been working on surfing, both side and front on the Puntledge but now that river has not a lot of water in it so on to new things. Running Englishman River Falls wasn't my idea but having only seen a picture it sounded like a great idea. We would have supper afterwards all the wives/girlfriends would come take pictures and video, then we would sit around and tell each other how good we were. I was even going to get hot dogs which can be a treat when you are on a low cholesterol diet, I mean these were real hot dogs, no soy or any of that stuff. We are talking pure Beef by-products. I just need to paddle over the edge to make all this happen. I guess I could back out but I have done enough of that.

When we paddled the Chemainus,
after I swam in the first canyon,
after my first roll attempt failed,
with my confidence wobbly,
I walked the next rapid.

I had also walked around the dam at the fish hatchery on the Puntledge because once I had a problem eddying out and watched my boat go over the dam and stay in the whitewater for about 10 mins. It seemed like hours to me. So every time I paddle up to it I watch the others run it and I would get out. So now I do some deep breathing exercises and focus on the chute. This waterfall is only about 20 feet high, I had practised off a bridge on Comox Lake that was 13 feet high and that was fun.

I can't hear anything and see only the edge, I paddle up with determination, too late to turn back now. Lean way back and then suddenly I am in darkness. On the video my stern squirts out of the water and I am upside down, all I know is that I need to roll. When I am up my hearing returns and I hear myself scream like a lunatic. I paddle over to a spot where I can watch my partners come over, they all do it with more style than me. I wasn't so scared on my third and last attempt, this time I really powered over, I still needed to roll up and managed to. So now I get to eat my hot dogs. Sitting down after supper playing with my six year old daughter I am laughing and having fun and wonder what do we do to top this.

Paul.
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