Ohiopyle Falls Race

Photo: Bob Anderson

I’d forgotten just how much I liked the town of Ohiopyle. Although I’d been there a few times over this past winter / spring it had really been over a year since I’d really gotten to hang out there much. It really is unfortunate that the Falls are only legal to run a few times a year (only once this year so far). It would be nice to have more reason to come spend some time in town.

I had a great time running the Falls for the first time last year and this time decided to go ahead and participate in the race. Geoff and I arrived just in time to get in a few practice runs. We hurriedly dropped off boats, registered and I got in to runs before the start of the race. The level was 1.5, a bit lower than last year. The approach rapids definitely need some more water! My race run started off pretty crappy as I got hung up on a barely submerged rock shelf that I totally didn’t notice. That cost me a lot of time. Oh well, its all fun! Geoff of course won the long boat class, again.

Maggie (Photo: Bob Anderson)

Geoff (Photo: Bob Anderson)

Bobby (Photo: Bob Anderson)

Jason

Maggie ( Photo: Bob Anderson)

Geoff

Ohiopyle Falls Race Video

After the race and watching some of the freestyle I met up with Jason B. and some people for a quick loop run. The weather was gorgeous and it was a great way to spend some time. Afterwards we got in 2 more runs on the Falls. Jason took me down in a Topo Duo on the second. I’d never paddled one of those before so that was a lot of fun. We had a great line and a nice flat landing. Way fun!

Maggie and Jason in the Topo Duo

After being wet all day it was nice getting into some dry clothes and grabbing some food before the attainment race. We spent the rest of the night hanging out in Ohiopyle (and yes ended up sleeping in the car in front of the Falls City pub). The next morning I sat at the Market Inn sipping coffee and recalled being there four years ago prior to my first Lower Yough run. I’d been so nervous that day! We hung out in town for a few more hours, checked out Meadow Run (which was very low) and leisurely made our way home. I do hope that some day access to the Falls will be open. Aside from being a fun and convenient drop when nothing else is running, Ohiopyle itself is just a cool place to hang out. Sure would be nice to having some more reason to be there.

Geoff taking the lead in the attainment race


More Ohiopyle Photos

Ohiopyle

We arrived in Ohiopyle around 1 on saturday. The clinic was supposed to start at 2 but it was 3:30 before we finally got to put on. Apparently they had about 150 people sign up for the clinic and although they had a good number of instructors it took a while to get everyone on. Clay Wright was leading everything and he started off by talking about the falls and giving tips. We all cramed onto the obeservation deck and stood there in the hot sun while he discussed how to run the falls. The advice was good but nothing that i didn't already know. He explained how to line up for the lead in rapid, where to punch the hole and how to time your final boof stroke. He also discussed proper landings, how not to hurt your back, what to do if you did end up under the curtain, etc. It was hot as hell standing there and i couldnt' wait for him to stop talking and just let us go paddle.

Finally he explained the rapids above the main drop. First there is an easy two foot ledge. However it is one of the biggest hazards on the river. The center has a mean little horseshoe hole that may not look like much but apparently will hold you mercilously. We were instructed to run the drop off a nice easy part of the ledge well to the right of the horseshoe.It didn't seem like you could go too far right and so the danger spot was easy to avoid. The second drop consists of a easy class III rapid to the left and a nice 4 foot boof to the right.

After the speech we got broken up into groups of 15 (this could have been a little better organized as we basically had to latch onto one of the instructors in order to get into a group, but i guess they probably didn’t expect that many people). One group went at a time. The clinic was meant to be run in such a way as if this was nothing out of the ordinary. AW wanted to show everyone concerned that this is a normal rapid and that it should be oppened up for legal runs on a regular basis. Therefore there was no mass safety set. Each group set their own. There were no bibs or stop signs to tell you if it was safe to go. One person stood at the top of the drop and signaled everyone by holding out his/her arms (up for go, out for stop) if the drop was clear of the previous boater. I think this was a good way to do it but with that many people it was far from natural. For at least the first couple of runs there was a big crowd of boaters waiting in the set up eddy. This thinned out with time as people started finishing up their runs.

Overall it seemed like the clinic went pretty well. I certainly hope that the powers that be were satisfied with the result. Unfortuantely there was a good bit of carnage though. There were number of swimmers at the base of the falls which is to be expected. However there were also several swims above that really shouldn't have taken place. In his initial speech Clay let everyone know that although Ohiopyle was a relatively safe rapid that this clinic was intended for experienced boaters. He said that it was fine if this was your first waterfall as long as you felt confident in your ability. He said that if you didn't think you could make it down the lead in rapids then you should seriously reconsider runing it. Clearly a few people did not heed this advice.

As we were putting on for our first run i looked down and saw someone right above the horseshoe! Bad enough that he was there but he was backpaddling!!!
My immediate thought was: "You idiot!!, its too late! you're commited now, what are you doing backpaddling? you should be paddling hard forward to get as much speed to punch it as you can!!!”. But i moment later i realized why he was backpaddling as two boats and two swimmers came out of the hole. A completely ridiculous scene. Things like this are not going to help with the access issue. The danger of the horseshoe was drilled into our heads by all the instructors, no one should have been anywhere near it. But with a crowd that big some people were bound to miss that key piece of instruction. Additionally there were several pins in the rapids above the main drop, one boat ran it sans boater, one person ran the main drop upside down...

So anyhow after the mess of swimers was cleared up we finally got to put on. Ran the first ledge with no problems and found the 2nd to have a pretty sweet little boof. Not counting the falls itself that is probably the most fun little rapid on the entire Lower Yough! Finally we got down to the set up eddy. Mark and i decided to get out and take a look for our first run. When you are sitting in the set up eddy getting ready to run the falls all you see is a horizon line. There are really very few markers to tell you where to go off to hit the tounge. Even after looking at it from the shore i had to watch a few people run it from the eddy to see where to go (there are some partially submereged rocks and a little tiny curler that are visible from the top but you can’t really line up too well till you get right up to it).

The lead in rapid right above the falls is actually pretty impressive given that it ends in an 18 foot drop. You go down a green tongue / slide surrounded by some decent sized curlers. At the bottom of the tongue is the hole. Although not all that big it does slow you down a bit so you have to be prepared for it and be ready to padde through and not loose too much speed. The best way to run it is on the right. The left side of the drop is where the meanest part of the curtain is so you don’t want to be over there. If you go to far right it is easier to make your way to the left. But if you go left of the hole its really not possible to make your way back to the right.

On my first run i started off on the far left side of the tongue at the top and angled right to punch the right corner of the hole. Unfortuantely my angle was a little too sharp and i ended up hitting the curler above the hole which slowed me down and threw me off a bit. I also wasn’t expecting how far off the drop was from that hole. Looking at it you think the drop is going to be right after you go over the hole. But the actual distance is a bit more. Additionally the main drop isn’t 100% vertical. After you go off the lip the water arcs off before the bottom drops out. So you really have to time your final boof stroke for when you clear the arc. My boof stroke wasn’t timed very well since i wasn’t quite prepared for this. All the drops i’d run before (Wonder Falls, Moats, Valley Falls) were much more straight forward: paddle across a flat pool, reach the lip, take a stroke, and you’re done. no lead in rapid to deal with. Anyhow i didn’t entirely pencil in buy my entry angle was pretty steep. I hit the water and was thrown way back on my back deck. Immediately flipped, waited for things to calm down and rolled up. Felt kinda silly but knew what i’d done wrong and was ready to go back up and fix it. I didn’t get the full working in the curtain though, i was just on the edge of it and it didn’t feel bad at all.

After the first run with the instructor we were allowed to form our own groups of 4 or more and paddle on our own. Mark and I met up with Andre and Anatoli and did three more runs. On my second run i lined up much better on the lead in rapid and got in a good final stroke. I over did it a little and landed really flat. I’m sure it looked fairly pretty but it did hurt. My back was sore for a while. The next two runs were better though. On the last run i landed well but was a bit close to the curtain and paused too much instead of paddling out immediately. I got surfed on the boil off to the left and then flipped on the seamed formed by the merging of the flow from different parts of the drop. Not a big deal though.

After our fourth run we exchanged our creek boats for our playboats, grabbed some hot dogs from the snack booth and went for a quick run of the loop. It was nice to stretch out with some flatwater cartwheels and a leisurely float.

Ohiopyle Falls is a fun drop and great practice for running waterfalls with a lead in rapid. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who hasn’t run a waterfall before though. There’s a good bit involved and having some prior experience is a good idea. I’d have to say that it is the hardest i’ve run so far.

Thanks to Hector and boaterphoto.com for all the great pictures!

Ohioplye Beatdown

I joined Mark Saturday night so that we would be ready Sunday morning to do our volunteer work at the Ohiopyle Over the Falls Festival. We put in our four four hours which mostly meant we sat around and talked to people while wearing our falls fest t-shirts over our sweat shirts (it was cold!). I, for the record, was too lazy and to self conscious to run the falls in front of the big crowd that had gathered. After his successful hand paddling run of the UY the previous day, Mark decided to go ahead and do it again. Below is his account of the run:

While thinking about it I got the image of the picture I wanted taken of me running the falls (they had a photographer taking shots right below the falls): boat completely vertical looking at the camera with my hand paddles making moose ears and a stupid expression on my face.

After getting in the boat and running the short, but pretty fun, entrance rapid I got to the large eddy above the falls and decided that it was pretty blind from up there (there’s a rapid right above the falls that hides the falls from the eddy above). So I waited and watched where another person went over the horizon line into the rapid above the falls. After getting the go signal I peeled out and went over the drop, I remembered from looking at the shore that I would want to maintain a little left angle and punch a hole just before going over the drop so I did that and the next thought I had was…..I need to make sure I get my shot.

So without any concern about the landing or running the drop correctly I stopped paddling (no boof or control stroke here) and just stuck my paddles next to my head and pushed the boat completely vertical! We got a video, and it’s a beautiful image, me sailing out into the air, paddles next to my head, and boat penciling in hard right into the curtain. Slamming into the water I went deeeepp….I had a moment to reflect and realize that I probably should have at least given a moments thought to how this plan was going to affect my landing…but too late now. I came out pretty much how I went in…vertical right under the curtain.

The hole below the falls began kicking me to river left and I felt a moment of calm so I decided to roll up, just as I was almost completely up I slipped under the second heavy section of water coming over the falls, feeling no unlike a being hit by a bag full of foam covered hammers this one imploded my spray skirt and ripped one of the hand paddles off of my hand. The boat instantly filled with water and I immediately disappeared into the foam. As I again went down I was laughing the whole way realizing how hilarious this must look from the shore. Based on the video I was down for about 13 seconds before the float bags in the back of the boat finally brought me back up to the surface, my first great mystery move, I may yet be a squirt boater!

This time luckily I was beyond the falls, with my one hand paddle and water laden boat I rolled up to many cheers. On the video you can hear one guy on the observation deck yelling “oh my god he’s still in his boat, he’s still in his boat!”. I got the pleasure of waving and laughing as people around cheered me as I SLOWLY paddled 60 gallons of water to shore. I even managed to get my other hand paddle back! So my first priority was…the shot! I had to see it! It was perfect I knew it would look awesome. So we waited until they had processed the pictures and we went to look. After about 20 minutes of going over all the pictures….and going over them again…..and again, I found out there was no shot…he had missed me! In all my glory (and I’m told the only hand paddler that day and one of two for the entire weekend) penciling into my certain beatdown it would have been beautiful! But alas it was not to be! I got a video so at least there’s graphic evidence of my beating complete with gasps from the crowd, but nothing to hang on the wall! Just my luck!

-Mark

View the VIDEO here (warning: 14 MB)

Mark post run - still in his boat