2020 and the Low Water Beaters

Like most sentient beings I am glad that 2020 is about to be over.  It has been one of the saddest years of my life with my sister Kathy dying.  As it is, I know I have a lot to be grateful for and my circumstances weren't nearly as bad as they were/are for a lot of other people. 
I am not sure I could have made it through the past few years without the river, 2020 in particular.  Once the pandemic hit, there was a small group of us in the spring who would go to the Cahaba and paddle around/practice rolls/socialize with appropriate distancing.  We were dubbed the "Core-rona Paddling Group".  Russell made a sticker for us but I don't have a photo of it handy.  Anyway that started the sticker making (paddlers tend to love stickers, at least I do).  During the summer the Cahaba Rolling sessions happened as well.  I designed a logo/sticker for Cahaba Rolling.  We were able to continue practicing rolling while being safe.  

I was also able to do some socially distanced trips to the Hiwassee, Ocoee, and Nantahala.  These river trips were what kept me together through a lot of unexpected stress.   Most of the big events for the year were cancelled, well really all of them were but some of us went to "Not Week of Rivers" in July.  Since we were each camping in our own tents, outdoors all of the time in our own spaces, and eating our own food, we made it work. It of course was nothing like the annual event, but we were grateful to be able to paddle at all.   Caving convention in West Virginia was cancelled, TAG Fall Cave-In was cancelled, Gauley-Fest was cancelled, and GAF was cancelled though some of us went to the Nantahala anyway with the parameters described above for safety.  SERA Cave Carnival happened on Halloween weekend, but I did not attend.

As we continued through the fall, the dam release runs out of state stopped for the season, and local water started running.   I have been able to go to my favorite run, the Mulberry, many many times.  The Mulberry is just class II, but it has some of the best surfing waves in the state if not the Southeast.  Also when it is in flood it has epic huge waves for the big water enthusiast.  However...
My friends and I were going when it was really low, because we could, and we found a lot of fun to be had, including rock splats, spins, slides, and looking for a friend's lost camera (we haven't found it but I haven't given up!).  We called ourselves the Low Water Beaters and I designed a sticker for us as well.

I design motion graphics, but I'm branching out to paddler stickers.
 I made this using a frame capture from a video I took of a friend, as the basis.
I dig it.  

I am hoping next year proves to be a good one and the vaccine(s) get us all back to a little more normal.  I'm not sure if things will ever be the same.   

I want to give a shout out to Jackson Kayak for their excellent warranty and customer service.  I had a crack in my Antix 1.0, as second owner, and they warrantied my boat and enabled me to get the Antix 2.0.  I'll write a review of it at some point but I feel like the Antix is like Festivus - the boat for the rest of us - who want to just surf until our arms fall off and find fun on both easy and more challenging runs. 
I might add more to this, probably won't but you never know.   I like talking about boating, it keeps my mind off of my sadness.  Whitewater is the best thing ever.