Flutterby™! : Ocoee "fun run" 2008-07-01 11:52:25.940593+00

Ocoee "fun run"

2008-07-01 11:52:25.940593+00 by Nancy 6 comments

My son Ben, a guide for one of the Ocoee rafting companies (O.A.R.) is planning a "fun run" for us this Friday. If anyone cares to join us, drop us a line. We should know the time of the run today or tomorrow...

#Comment Re: made: 2008-07-01 12:27:47.43602+00 by: meuon [edit history]

He's worked his way up to the top bunk in the "Ghetto", and is running sweep a lot, A couple of weeks ago he went down in a kayak. First time EVER in a kayak, and he did the Ocoee. Ben dumped twice at Grumpy's but otherwise made it with no problems. The Ocoee's been good to him.

The Ocoee is a strict but fair teacher. Swimming Grumpy's is a good reminder that you're either not doing your trip speech right, or you're hot-dogging the ferry by Whiteface, but it's nothing personal, the put-in rapid does that to everyone who isn't scrupulous about those things.

And I had a pretty solid roll in flatwater, but the Ocoee was the first whitewater I did in a kayak, too. First whitewater in an OC-2 as well, which, in retrospect, was a mistake: My bow paddler had only been down once or twice in a raft as a passenger.

Ben cannot roll a kayak in any type of water. He was terrified. And having said that, I'm sure he'll do it again as soon as the chance presents itself.

He's training for group leader status Sunday. More money per trip for beer and other unmentioned recreational items ;-)

We'll be camped at OAR Friday and Saturday (and maybe Thursday) - with lots of food for hungry rafters. Red beans, rice and sausage one night and white chicken chili the other. (Vegetarians and vegans can fend for themselves.)

So I hope he's at least practiced a wet exit, that first time trying to get out of a kayak while you're disoriented can be terrifying. On the other hand, I also remember what it's like to be that age and in that group... For some reason I thought it was a great idea one afternoon to give a woman her first experience in a kayak at Western Flyer (just below Diamond Splitter), and just asked the guide of the raft she'd been in to stay close so I could dive in and swim to her if she had trouble.

I deliberately avoided the extra 40 hours of first aid training it took to be a trip leader 'cause I never did it for money. Happy to run second boat, do the rescues and un-pinning and such, but also happy to let someone who wanted the cash to be a TL.

This weekend's hard physical labor reminded me of what it felt like to come home on Sunday night after a 7 trip weekend. Painful as hell, but in a way that just felt fantastic. And that 4^th trip on a Saturday, I'd piss and moan on the bus on the way back up from the shuttle about getting sucked into this crap, and how I should know better, and why didn't someone who wanted the money take that extra trip (generally because they weren't experienced enough to handle that many runs in a day) but somehow when the Tevas hit the gravel, and it was showtime and we were "on", knowing that the only thing we had to have left at the take-out was enough to get the boats back on the bus, that 4^th trip was awesome. Every ounce I had remaining went into giving those folks the ride they wanted.

He loves it too! And I don't think he's doing it for the money, either -- does anyone!? The extra 10 bucks is just a bonus. He also loves the medic (?) training and is getting recertified --in something or other-- I can't quite recall-- so the extra training is all stuff he enjoys. We've talked to him about getting a paramedic degree of some type...

I don't think anyone "does it for the money", but for some people the money is an appreciable portion of their income.

When I was guiding I think it took "Advanced First Aid", which I think was a 40 hour course although anyone serious took the 80 hour wilderness first aid class, on top of the two day CPR for the professional rescuer and the one day (maybe 6 hour?) Basic First Aid which we had to take every other year. I think we all giggled over that last course, because it was basically a "how to keep the rescuer calm until qualified help arrives" sort of thing.

And the fun part of the CPR course was having the kindly old ladies who were teaching the class read the statistics for things like pulse rate before we checked each other, and all of us being way off the scale low.