River surfing adventure

• Posted on November 27, 2009 at 5:06 PM
• Previous
• Next

Zak Cross rides again on a Puntledge River surf wave, while I prepare the rope for my next ride.

 zoom  zoom out

I'm always up for trying something new, so with all this high water we've been having in the last two or three weeks it didn't take much to get us out doing something different. There's a great play wave on the Puntledge River near where I live. It has an eddy right beside it, so you can surf on the wave and when you fall off get back in the eddy to do it again. I've surfed it in a whitewater boat a ton, but only talked about surfing it on a surfboard. Finally one morning a couple weeks ago we decided to give it a try.

Onto the river We didn't think we could paddle onto the wave; the current is too strong. Instead we set up a rope off a tree upstream and towed onto the wave. It took a few tries to get it figured out, but before long I was body boarding on the wave. And then stand up surfing. After a while I could actually move back and forth.

It's definitely different than ocean wave surfing: you're sitting still and the face is always changing as the river tends to do. Boils and ripples pop up threatening to topple you and pull the tip of the board under. And when you do fall you've got to paddle like heck to get back in the eddy. But it's exciting like surfing. It's a lot of fun and mildly addictive.

Gear Wise We've found almost any board will work as long as it's got lots of rocker. More rocker at the tip helps keep the "hand of god" from pulling the board under. We use full surfing wetsuits, which are 5 or 6 millimetre thick neoprene, and a helmet. We wore PFDs the first coupe of times but they get in the way and seemed redundant. We do wear a leash, though a lot of people on the internet don't. Catching the leash on a branch could end badly.

Anybody got any river surfing tips to share?