Papstapalooza 08!

What a great awesome weekend! Bryan, Graeme and I went out to Papstapalooza this weekend. The weather was supposed to be marginal but it turned out great! The river was at about 2500cfs. Big and powerful. There were three events. Two boatercrosses. One starting below Misicot Falls and one above. I entered the below with four other guys. Yeah I know I have said no more boatercrosses for me but you know how that goes. Keep in mind this was my first time ever running this river. I had my plan...go right at Chicken Ender and all would be well. Starting off in the squirrely water below Misicot I think everyone of us flipped in the same spot. I tried a roll and didn't make it. I reset and hit it. Took a few strokes and flipped again. Rolled and check my location...I was way left of Chicken Ender. My thought at the time was "I am sooo screwed" I paddled hard to the right to catch the line thru First Sister and caught the green just to the right of the pour over above First Sister but not right enough. The green I caught fed me kiddiewhampus right into the center of First Sister and trashed me. Even tucked I whacked the back of my helmet and pulled. Tom was the only one out of the five of us to finish the race. The Advanced went much better with an incredible miss on Misicot. If you enlarge the photos you'll see the man, I think his name is Bruce, who went into river right of the line. He fought it out and finished the race. Plenty of flips but no swims in the Advanced. Craig Esposito winning! The night time events were great! The two bands rocked and the swag given out was great! Awesome people and a great time. Be sure to check Bryan's Blog and the Team Papst site for more photos. BTW Jim...I would have loved to have taken you up on the offer to paddle the river before we drove home and even though you said wake me up early at 7 I didn't have the heart to. Let me know if you guys are headed up there again! Team Papst did a great job organising this. During the events team members were helping new paddlers with impromtu skill sessions and the safety was top notch! All that and they can really grill a Johnsonville! Thanks Team Papst for an AWESOME weekend!

The inflatable race...rules were ..1...it can not be a "boat". 2...all team members must be with the inflatable at the finish. This has never been attempted before at Piers Gorge and expectations were high. Before the race all throw bags that were available were collected and distributed to the shore support...carnage was expected. The first swimmer was ejected at Chicken Ender. From then on it just got more interesting. The highlight for sure was Terminal Surfer. Team Papst on a twin size air mattress was headed right towards the hole...Jim looked at his team mates and said in a calm, steady voice. "Hey guys...we are soooo screwed!" Watching from behind it looked awesome! Rich was reported to have done a somersault over Jim when they hit the hole. All three washed out and were OK! The next into the hole was Tom and Paul in a tandem..kind of tied together double with an inflatable "girlfriend". Tom in front came thru but Paul and his "girlfriend" Judy got munched in the hole. Tom bravely paddled hard in the front but was pulled back into the hole and trashed. They had plenty of company as Team Renegade hit the hole and kind of exploded. At this point Bryan, Graeme and I were the only team to miss Terminal and looking back we could see swimmers with a backdrop of pool toys flying up and all over in Terminal. Most swimmers made it out OK...Tom got recirced three times before getting free. The toys took about 20 minutes before all were released from Terminal. Would I do it again? Oh Yeah!! That just rocked! Plans for next year are to set up the video at Terminal and require all to pass thru. Kudos to Chevie who followed us down in an inflatable kayak for her first run of Piers. She hit every line perfect...even backwards past the Sisters!