Afterwork Vermont Whitewater Adventure

By:  Ben
August 18, 2010


One of the problems with having a job is that you’re supposed to go to it. Sometimes you get lucky and can sneak away when conditions warrant, but other times you can’t. Here at FIS we’ve been taking advantage of the long summer days rushing around trying to get post-work adventures in, so I’m only now getting the chance to post some of it.

This story starts the week after my run of the West Branch Deerfield. My friends Nick and Kurt both had nothing to do one Thursday afternoon after a thunderstorm (ok, so I only worked a half day…), so we headed back to the New Haven. Although it was a lot lower than when Brian and I had caught it after the monsoon a week earlier, it was still very runnable, and this time we brought a better camera!

Ben tucking in for Toaster Falls, a 15 footer



Kurt showing off the All American Boof



Ben following the line



And landing with the gnar-face fully deployed



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Read about the author:   Ben
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7 Comments

  1. Greg
    wrote on August 18th, 2010 at 5:53 pm  
    1

    Can’t say I know what half the words in this are (“boof”?), but holy crap that’s awesome… exciting tales. Looking forward to next week’s installment!

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Ben
      wrote on August 18th, 2010 at 7:59 pm  
      2

      Ooops! I should have included a boating term translation section…

      Boof – A strong paddle stroke combined with a kind of sit-up motion that you take at the edge of a waterfall/ledge to launch yourself out horizontally from the edge and avoid nastiness like rocks or hydraulics that lurk at the bottom.

      Piton – When you land vertically off a drop. Not what you want to do.

      Gnar-face – The awesome faces you make when you’re in the middle of the rapid and not thinking about what your face is doing. The best gnar faces are generally right before you get beat down.

    • Dwyer
      wrote on August 18th, 2010 at 8:44 pm  
      3

      Are these Gnar-faces?

    • Anonymous
      wrote on August 18th, 2010 at 10:54 pm  
      4

      you guys should be able to have some fun making up a dictionary of schuss terminology… here’s one i’m eagerly awaiting a completion of: “pow tickle”

      @Dwyer I’m not sure that shot is street legal

  2. Ben
    wrote on August 18th, 2010 at 11:44 pm  
    5

    that shot is most definitely a gnar face. it should probably be rotated in the banner at the top of the page….

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  3. K_C
    wrote on August 19th, 2010 at 3:06 pm  
    6

    I’m really loving the second to last photo with the rainbow. @Dwyer, those are definitely stir crazy pow searching vogelzang loving gnar faces.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  4. Porter Haney
    wrote on August 22nd, 2010 at 6:38 pm  
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