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KAYAKERS WITH NO BRAINS New

Forum: BoaterTalk
Date: Jul 20 2008, 17:53 GMT
From: Kelldawg


	I have a slightly appalling incident to report from my home spot the Potomac River. Yesterday around 5:30 I proceeded to drive to Great Falls Park, Virginia to put on for my daily falls runs which has become an ever common routine of my summer stay at home. I put in at Fishermans eddy and then worked my way up to the top of the Maryland lines which were still slightly high, the level was 3.1 but seemed higher. I opted to run Pummel but not the pencil sharpener because it just looked manky and disgusting. When I was doing a quick scout I noticed another boater scouting the Virginia lines and I waved a peace sign. The guy clearly was not a local and his mannerisms just gave away the fact that he had no place being out there. After boofing the living crap out of Pummel I eddied out above Charlies hole and then proceeded to hike my way through the dried up center lines and to the top of the Virginia lines. I parked my boat at Z-turn rapid and then walked down to see what this guy was doing. He clearly didn't know the way up the rocks and was moving slower than molasses. When i came nearer to him the first thing I did was ask him whether or not he had been out there before. In the most unconfident tone this guy who i pegged as being maybe 40 years old said to me, "uhhh yeah ive been out here before but ive never run anything" FIRST off this guy is by himself, something that only experienced falls paddlers should ever do and its still shooting yourself in the foot safety wise anyways no matter who your are. Secondly, he was excessively scouting back and forth back and forth with the observation decks packed full of people. Now this guy had crappy gear and was wearing an Old Navy sweater vest underneath his PFD. He was clearly and completely incompetent even just from distant glances. I told him maybe 3 times that the falls is serious shit and that there are places you just can't go and moves that you need to make or else your day is gonna suck or worse. I said to him that he should come out with experts who knew the lines and set optimal safety and make sure that he was fully ready before running anything. I nicely told him that he should get his boat and hike back down at which time he said, "dont be a dick man", I then told him that I wasn't and I was looking out for him and me and the kayakers access to running the falls. He continued to ask me stupid questions about technical advice to running the rapids and I told him that if he couldn't figure it out for himself he should hike back down. At this point I was beginning to not give it to this guy soft anymore and I basically started telling him that if he was ready to run the falls lines than he would already know. At no point did i swear at this guy or anything but I suppose my persistence in nicely telling him to get the fuck off the falls triggered him to say " fuck you youre an arrogant prick, thats what you are," which i shook my head to. I told him again that he had no business being out there and then dropped in and ran z-turn and the spout. I hope I talked him down enough to the point that he hiked down. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Know the hazards of the Potomac RIver and DO NOT attempt to kayak Great Falls unless you know what the hell you are doing or are with expert kayakers. KNOW THE GUIDLINES of running greatfalls which you can easily read on Americanwhitewater.org, PLEASE DO NOT ruin the access to the falls for all of us who actually know what the hell we are doing and love running the stoutness!