Whitewater kayaking is fun. I’ve been doing it most of my life. But then there are moments that aren’t fun. Like this one. And that’s why it pays to paddle with an awesome team.
Clay Nash and a group of friends were running the Chattooga River last weekend during the Thanksgiving break, an absolute classic whitewater run in the Southeast (among dozens of classics in the region). The river is divided into sections and this particular piece of video is from Section 4, which forms the border of Georgia and South Carolina. Nash catches an eddy above a drop known as Woodall Shoals. Woodall is actually only a Class III + rapid but many paddlers like to use it as training and catch eddies in difficult places. That’s what it looks like Nash is doing but when he exits the eddy above the main drop, you can see he gets caught, or slowed, by a submerged rock that turns him and he runs the drop almost backwards, with absolutely no speed. He’s then pinned under the water, unable to release his sprayskirt, which keeps him in the boat for precious seconds as his team—that included his 14-year-old son—rush in skillfully to save him.
He’s incoherent when he’s pulled from the water but slowly regains his bearings. Pretty crazy scene and quick work by an experienced group.
