Falls of Glory

Last time we were on the lower Yough I told Eric "this is way too easy for you - let's come out for the falls race this year". The falls race (fallsrace.com) an annual event in which boaters from all over converge in SW Pennsylvania to run Ohiopyle Falls on the only weekend of the year in which this is legal. This is nominally a race but most people show up just to say they ran the falls and lived while also having a good time at the party on Saturday night. Eric, however, decided to enter freestyle competition and get a chance to show off in front of the crowd a little by doing tricks (surfs and spins) on the wave at the lip of the falls.

When October arrived Eric and I piled into the car and made the mad eight hour dash to scenic Ohiopyle. I wanted to get there Friday so Eric could have some extra fun and get a chance to feel out the whole falls thing. We arrived right at 3 and found that they were still getting set up. I decided to make myself useful and volunteered to work safety while Eric geared up for his first run.

Even though he had never done a big falls before (it's about a 15 foot drop) he was fearless and ran second once they were ready. I was able to photograph his first run in front of a cheering crowd. The falls are in "downtown" Ohiopyle and a big tourist attraction with viewing platforms on the side. I then headed over to a rock at the base of the falls with a throw rope and watched a few other boats come by. After a bit, we stopped seeing boaters and I started to wonder what was up. The guy at the top of the falls (named Charlie Brown!) who signals to each boater that the way is clear shouted down to me that someone had gotten trashed in a small pourover well above the falls. I was sure that Eric wouldn't have been dumb enough to get in that kind of trouble and was waiting patiently for them to pull some hapless newbie boater out of the water.

After about 20 minutes boats again began to appear. One after another with no sign of Eric. Strange - his first run looked easy and I was sure he would be eager for more. A bit later, I looked upstream and saw Eric pulling his boat out of the river back up to the tourist area. Hmmmmm. Then I saw him walking around a little and head back out of view. He soon came barreling over the falls and pulled up to talk. Turns out on his second run he had attempted to punch a completely innocuous looking hole which promptly sucked him in. He managed to do lots of tricks (pops, cartwheels, and whatever) but none on purpose. Mostly he sat there getting windowshaded and having a tough time getting air now and then. Finally, he had exited his boat and tried to swim out. This didn't work much better - he was still recirculating for a while but finally came out and was pulled to shore by a safety boater. His boat had to be knocked out by another kayak and it was quite a while before everyone was back to normal. This was Eric's first swim in four years and he was pretty annoyed about it.

On the next run, he managed to slam hard into a rock coming down a very small waterfall (about three feet), mildly spraining his ankle. It was not Eric's day!

A few other boaters got stuck in Eric's hole up at the top, always leading to a delay in the parade of boaters. By the next day they started having the safety people signal everyone to stay way away from this hole so nobody else would get trashed.

Eric finally became tired and at 6 they shut down for the day. He was too wasted to do much except sleep and complain about aching body parts that evening.

Next morning we showed up bright and early. I spent most of the day on a rock next to the falls watching the crazies come by. I got to throw my rope once to a guy that got sucked into the recirculation next to the falls but that was about it for excitement. The main attraction was watching (along with a big audience in the viewing stands) the carnage and comedy. Lots of people swam but they were pretty easy to rescue.

The worst thing that ever happened was getting sucked back under the force of the falls but it tended to flush people out the side so nobody stayed too long in the pounding water. Among the more interesting sights to come by:

• The bumblebee (yellow / black striped boat and antenna on the helmet)
• A guy in a viking costume
• Long boats (racing kayaks far longer than ordinary play boats)
• Bart Simpson (a couple of guys in a 2 person kayak; the front guy had a huge Bart Simpson mask). They got trashed but someone rescued the mask at least.
• Occasional people running the falls while upside down. Not on purpose.
• Playboaters doing various aerial tricks as they dropped.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. At noon the race began and a swarm of people came by paddling hard for fame and glory. Then there was a pause and I bailed out of safety duty to sit in the stands for the freestyle competition.

Eric had been taking practice runs but hadn't wanted to try any tricks. Although there is a good surf wave at the lip of the falls, almost nobody stopped to play on it. Eric was having second thoughts - he had no idea what was expected of him in the competition and figured that all the honchos would make him look silly. Maybe not as silly as the viking or bumblebee, but he had definitely seen a lot of people doing (or attempting) tricks that he had never done before. I gave Eric the usual pep talk and told him "I paid your registration - you have to compete!". He reluctantly agreed to give it a go. There were twelve boats competing and Eric hung back to see what everyone else was doing.

The first runs were not too spectacular - a few boats took the left side where you would easily slide into the surf waves from an eddy and played a bit. A lot of other boaters bombed as fast as possible over the falls and tried to do tricks while falling but didn't really pull off much. Eric tried to catch the surf wave above the falls coming from the center. This turned out to be really hard to do - nobody else was able to do it either - and he flushed over the falls without having done anything interesting.

Aside from a couple of people surfing the wave above the falls, there wasn't much to see on the first round. Everyone dragged their boat back up the falls and set up for the second run. I watched as the second runs started. Again, a few were able to surf the wave above the falls but nobody did any major tricks while shooting over the lip.

I was standing above the announcer, listening to his commentary. They talked about how the race was judged and the kinds of tricks the boaters were doing. I heard them mention that one of the racers was only 16 and and yelled down to him that Eric was also just 16 in time for them to add this to the commentary as Eric started his run.

This time Eric took the river left side and was able to easily slide in to the first surf wave. He played for a while and then slid over to the biggest wave just above the falls. He seemed totally calm and in control while he did a series of surfs and spins. He also does this thing where he bounces his boat rhythmically on the wave while surfing. He was having a great run and finally turned to take the falls. He got crunched a bit at the bottom and had to wait a while before he flushed out but soon rolled up to a big cheer from the audience. After a couple of more competitors came down the show was over. Although Eric did a good job surfing, I wasn't sure he was any better than the other boaters. Plus he hadn't done any tricks on the falls itself so my hope was that they would give him a prize for being the best 16 year old kid or something like that. I headed back for my rock at the base of the falls. A while later, I looked up river to see Eric waving franticly at me from the shore. He had a big grin on his face and seemed to be saying he had won something. Then he jumped into his boat and came rocketing down the falls to pull in next to me on my rock. He was really excited - it turns out that he was not only the best 16 year old, but the best all around finisher in the freestyle! He was going to get a $100 gift certificate and an engraved cup. Evidently the judges really liked how he controlled his boat and executed the surfs and spins. Anyway, Eric took another couple of runs over the falls for me and then we took off for some R and R. The award ceremony was that evening. They had a band playing and everyone was in a good mood - even a bit of rain and wind didn't slow things down much. Eric was presented with a medal as well as the other stuff. The cup turned out to be an elaborate clay pot with little kayakers surfing down the handles. It's engraved with all of the previous winners and we would get to keep it for a year once Eric's name was added. Eric strutted around the party showing anyone and everyone his cup and receiving plenty of praise and congratulations. Finally, we have the cup back and took off - Eric was totally wasted and ready to sack out. We made a quick stop in town and Eric walked around the shopping mall wearing his medal and grinning from ear to ear. The next day Eric and I ran the lower Yough - very tame at the low water level they use to make the falls safe. Our main goal was to get a video of him at Swimmers - his favorite surf wave. He sat on that thing for a long time while I filmed, eventually throwing away his paddle to hand surf for a while. Eric filmed me making an ass out of myself, barely able to stay in the wave. I come from an era where doing tricks means just sitting on your butt in the same position for a bit while surfing - none of these fancy spins, loops, cartwheels, blunts, or whatever these guys in the shortie boats can do. We headed back to the falls for one last run - Eric stopped and surfed at the lip for the spectators and had a run almost as good as the one in the competition. Then we packed up and headed back to Connecticut, a weekend well spent. After returning home, Eric made a short movie of his falls runs. If you want to see him in action, then check out Eric's Falls Race Movie - it's about 30 meg long.