Posted by a friend today

"I talked to my inner lover, and I say, why such a rush? We sense that there is some sort of spirit that loves birds and animals and the ants – – – perhaps the same one who gave a radiance to you in your mother’s womb. Is it logical you would be walking around entirely orphaned now? The truth is, you turned away yourself, and decided to go into the dark alone. Now you are tangled up in others, and have forgotten what you once knew, and that’s why everything you do has some weird failure in it. "
Kabir, translated by Robert Bly.

Beautiful song

Perception Corsica and Pirouette

Perception Corsica and Pirouette

I get the different models of these boats confused, and asked for details on Old School Whitewater Boat Obsession forum.  Here's the conversation:

Me:   I never knew the difference between the Corsica, Corsica Matrix, and also the different Pirouette lines... do tell

Tim Kennedy:   Corsica was the OG. It was the first "keyhole" cockpit/creeking specific design from Perception, influenced by the short (relatively speaking) creek boats of the time, such as the T-Canyon and Jeti. Corsica S came next with more rocker and maybe a bit shorter ("S" for small or sport). Then came the Matrix with even more rocker and a bit wider for stability. The Matrix also came out with outfitting/safety improvements with the "Proline" outfitting (which was also now offered in Corsica and Corsica S). The Proline outfitting incorporated pe reinforced pillars and bulkhead footbraces. Then came the (Corsica)Overflow and later Overflow X.

Gary DeBacher:  First met Corran Addison when he was sitting by his glass Corsica prototype along the Nanty. He only had a hand in designing the Corsica and the Corsica S. Most considered the S to be the best boat with the Corsica name. The initial keyhole cockpit was too narrow at the front for big guys. Charlie Wallbridge hogged his out to fit. I had the second version and still had to cut back the braces. The third version was a better fit.

Christopher Muldrow: As far as Pirouettes, the regular Pirouette was an edgier, more slalomy boat than the Dancer. One could argue it was the first plastic "playboat." The Pirouette S shaved two inches off the regular model and had a lower volume stern. The Pirouette SS (Super Sport) had a concave stern and much lower volume overall. It was Perception's counter to the RPM. A Pirouette S and a regular Pirouette behave fairly similarly. A Super Sport will stern squirt you down the river if you're over a certain weight range. The original Pirouette came out before there was a Proline option, so you'll find some older boats that don't have that Proline outfitting. By the time the SS was out, Proline was available on all of them.

   Gary replied:  The Pirouette S was smaller than the regular in the bow as well as the stern. And the S had less overall rocker than the regular.

Willy B Roberts:   Corsica came out 88/89. Matrix 91. Pirouette and Overflow 92/93

Gordon Black:  I believe Corran Addison designed the Corsica. I may be wrong, but I think he did. It is faster than you would think. I really liked the Matrix, tho not nearly as fast.

Ultraphonix. This Is Bad Ass

The Critters

Endless River Adventures' Nantahala Open 2018

Great video of this year's ERA Nantahala Open.  I'm flipping over on the unicorn float at 1:50 btw.

April 15 2018 Upper Mulberry, Calvert Prong

Yesterday was fun in an old-school boater kinda way. I initially tried to plan a trip to East Fork of Flint Creek. This run has no internet gauge so Ron Looney who lives nearby it checked the bridge gauge on his way home from work, about 7 am. It was about twice the flow we hoped for. We changed plans to meet at the takeout of Calvert Prong at 11am. The thinking was, we might get another read of East Fork Flint, and Calvert was (sorta) on the way. 

The Locust was running about 7 feet, which usually means Calvert is in at a good level. Calvert doesn't have an internet gauge OR a bridge gauge. But there are pylons in the stream next to where County Rd. 1 crosses Calvert, and we can use them to tell if the run has water. I loaded up my trusty Liquidlogic Kayaks Stomper 80 creekboat. It's my 'default' kayak choice when I don't know what kind of day we are going to have, creeky or river running.

On the way to Calvert, I stopped by Blackburn, yet another run with no internet gauge. It was in flood so any gauge on the bridge was hidden. I've wanted to paddle Blackburn for the first time and have yet to get to do that... yesterday was definitely not the day to try it. Heading on towards Calvert, I drove past the turn to check on the pylons on the hwy 1 crossing, to discover they were under water.

When I arrived at the take-out for Calvert, I was surprised by the number of vehicles. A lot of Alabama boaters wanted to paddle something different than the standard Locust and Mulberry runs. I walked out onto the metal bridge that crosses the river at the take-out and looked at the current. As I suspected from the hidden pylons I checked earlier, Calvert was in flood as well. We had a discussion of what else nearby we could run, that included Upper Locust, but I was unsure of what Cornelius Falls would be like at this level (any beta on that?). Some of us decided to run Upper Mulberry. The Mulberry was at 6 feet per Ming's stick gauge. (Yes, the Mulberry has no internet gauge either; the state defunded the USGS official gauge of one of the most popular beginner rivers in the state. Two people have made their own homemade gauges that upload data to the internet and both of these gauges are down right now. One is Ming's stick gauge and she was able to report it on Facebook.) Back to the story. Some folks decided to stay and run Calvert. I predicted, "Well it will be flat, and fast..." While the others prepared to run Calvert, Andy Lee and Lynn, William Crafton, Ming Stephens, Chase Bryan and I drove 20 minutes to the Garden City parking area (takeout for the Upper Mulberry) and while we were consolidating boats for shuttle we got a phone call that the others were done on Calvert and headed our way! We put on about 12:30 with Matthew Walz and James Henderson from the Calvert crew, and the rest met up with us on the river.

The Upper Mulberry was wonderful. Just freaking wonderful wave trains, and I made a mental note to put this run in consideration any time the Mulberry was over 4 feet. I've ran it before but it had been awhile, and yesterday was a perfect level. There was one eddy line where some of the guys in playboats tried to stern squirt, with lots of rolling and laughing... I have some video to post later. There was a Jitsu, an RPM, and an Axiom rolling around...

We finished up and some of us headed back to the Calvert take-out. We got there around 4pm to find it had dropped a foot. We didn't check to see if the pylons were visible. I kinda pondered going home as it was still high, but decided to run it, hell we were there. Andy and Lynn, Ming, Matthew, James and I put on. The water had dropped enough that some of the rapids were in play, and the one bigger rapid, Cyclops, dealt out some carnage, including the wonderful view I had as I paddled behind James, as he got munched in a curler in the drop and executed a perfect roll. I wish I had a helmet camera video of that moment! 

I do think this was the highest level I've paddled on Calvert. A quick muddy run and some wave trains, but most of the surfing was washed out. I'd preferred it had dropped another foot; today it will likely be nice, as the Locust is holding at over 6 ft. I had a dry hair day again today, which isn't exactly a good habit, I need to roll more. It's hard to motivate myself to roll when I'm in my comfy Stomper, in a warm drysuit on chilly, brown water. I know, I know. On the way home I checked Blackburn again, it was still pretty high, which suggests the dam at Inland Lake might have been releasing overflow. It might be good today.

Pylons to check on County Rd. 1 bridge view of Calvert. They weren't visible yesterday.