Charlotte Whitewater Center, St. Patricks Day
Gavin Chafin’s first ride on the bellyak
Who needs to wear green when the river is dyed green? åÊOur first trip to the Charlotte Whitewater Center was for St. Patricks Day, 2012. A fitting day to debut the bellyak. I had no idea what the day held in store…would the boat do fine in bigger water? Would I wind up swimming all of the rapids? I scouted the wilderness channel (class II/III), picked my lines, and went for it. Everything went great…the prototype Play worked great…boofing up and over holes, resurfacing like a champ, and doing it’s specialty: playing the river. I took my Jackson Fun (regular kayak) to make a few laps to check things out, and it was as Fun as a kayak can be. But I must say, it’s no bellyak. åÊThe intimate, face level experience of bodyboating a bright green river on St. Patricks day was equal to none…my little kayak sat on the bank and didn’t get much action all day, except to film other folks riding the bellyak.
Some folks don’t like man made whitewater…preferring to commune with nature in the way only a whitewater river allows. However, not having to have a shuttle and riding a conveyor belt up to do multiple laps on a bright green river is hard to beat. The quality of the whitewater is outstanding…great waves, holes, and moves to be had.
I lost count of the number of laps I did, but I only stopped paddling to drink beer (it was St. Patricks day). Not that I recommend drinking and boating, I was only drinking the beer as a quick way to replenish lost carbs from having so much fun.
I met several interested folks who also tried the bellyak…each lap they dialed it in a little more. åÊIt was great to see the light go off in them like it does for me.
Mike, who works at Legacy Paddlesports. He dialed it in real quick…here he is on his first of several laps. That’s me in the background paddling the Fun. It ain’t no Play. (but it is one of my favorite kayaks of all time).
Mike surfing Biscuits and Gravy. You can slide back on the Play and surf off of the stern…blasting. And yes, it’s a blast.
This guy was hand paddling his kayak and was interested in the bellyak…he took to it immediately, and on his first run had an awesome surf on the M-Wave (unfortunately no pics, yet.) I didn’t catch his name…if this is you write us!
I scouted out the competition channel at the end of the day (it was filled with rafts most of the day) and decided to run it. The whole channel was good to go as long as I picked the right lines through the bigger wave holes. All went fine, until the crux drop…Big Drop. I think that’s what it’s called. It’s a bit of a tricky move through some heavy current into a big hole. I flipped on the curler leading in and swam (and no, I didn’t get any footage). I retrieved my boat and finished the run. åÊNext time I’ll run it clean.
We plan to be back the weekend of May 12 and 13th with a fleet of boats…come try one out!
