... had been beatin' up an older inflatable SUP for the past few years on some fun solo flight downriver trips that are accessible via some relatively remote bottom Yough "put-ins", and then only after several miles of backwoods foot travel... had always wanted to "share the fun", but this was paddling out of the realm of the several shaped and rigid foam boards we have, and only had the one inflatable board up until this time...
... so recently picked up two 'NRS Adventurer' model inflatable SUP's - got 'em for a fair price - 12'-6" length and high (12 cubic foot) volume - 260lb maximum "payload" - was anxious to get 'em out on the water last weekend to check 'em out...
... 'Muscle Girl Sarah' and 'ZMan' were up for a short two mile hike up to the 'Casparis Hole' launch zone located along the bottom Yough to give 'em a downriver test flight...
... took 'em about five minutes to inflate using the supplied double-acting hand pumps which feature a built-in low pressure air gauge... think that they were havin' a race...
... short time later...
... and cruisin' 'Casparis Hole'...
... ditto...
... 'ZMan recovering a board adrift...
... hung around up there for better than a half hour - "the boards work great" was the consensus...
... before decidin' to head down river...
... couldn't have picked better conditions either - normal river flow this time of year usually stages at an unimpressive 1.5ft OPG (Ohiopyle gauge)...
... a previous day of downpouring rain (combined with some weekend dam release, we'd guess) maxed the river level at 2.6ft this day - still not great for "whitewater excitement" if river running the further upstream 'Lower Yough'...
... but it turned out to be optimum level for SUP navigation on this end...
... the flow was great for the several stretches of rock shoals and small Class I drops that were never too shallow nor too washed...
... and continually provided a bit of entertainment...
... while navigating upright on an air-filled chamber...
... a final image - takin' a break atop one of the large 'Three Sisters' boulders...
No comments:
Post a Comment