Call it Progressionalism: My First Green River Race and Video

There's not really any experience quite like boofing over Gorilla with 1000 people watching. This was my first time racing the Narrows and it was one of the most action packed moments of my life. It was so much fun to get out there and race alongside all of the biggest names in kayaking.

Racers meeting - Photo by Jakob Kafer

Preparing for the race was really difficult. I wasn't very confident about my lines and I didn't have very much experience with running some of the rapids without stopping to set up or catch my breath.

I think the best part of the race was getting over the mental hump of running Gorilla. I ran the drop for the first time in August and had a terrifying experience when I flipped in the notch and barely got it back upright before going off the launch pad.

While training for the race, I mentally forced myself to get over it and build my confidence with my line. Before race week, I had only run it four times. During race week, I ran it another 9 times (4 of which were the day before the race). It wasn't until the day before the race that I felt confident about charging into that thing direct after sprinting the top half of the race course.

Deep Concentration just above The Notch - Photo by Matt Porter

When race day finally came around, I watched all the best kayakers in the world take off and spring through the first few rapids. When my time came, I just tried to tell myself to focus and concentrate.

When I heard the announcer say 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - GO! my adrenaline pumped and I pulled as hard as I could all the way to the finish line. I fumbled around in Frankenstein and ran some unconventional lines through Go Left and Die and Zwick's Backender, but everthing else went pretty smoothly.

A few people hiked in to watch - Photo by Jakob Kafer

When I got to Gorilla I dropped in with 1000 people standing on the shore cheering me on and it made me feel really good. I caught the notch eddy (by accident) and peeled out for a good line through the flume. A second later I was dropping into the next set of slides and a few seconds after that I hit the finish line.

Ahh yes, the monkey - Photo by Matt Porter

After the race I hiked back up and found my friends that had hiked and paddled in to watch the race. It really meant a lot to me that all my best friends were able to be in the gorge with me that day.

I ran Gorilla a couple more times after the race and did my first ever "notch gun" (run the notch, eddy out, shotgun a beer, run gorilla) and that got me really stoked. On my third run of Gorilla, I went for a long ride in the hole at Scream Machine but somehow after a minute or so I was able to rally out of that thing.

I paddled out mostly by myself and met up with Matt and Bo towards the end of the river. When we arrived at the takeout I felt as if I had just conquered the world. It was a really good feeling and now I can't stop thinking about doing it again next year!

Check out this video Matt made during the week leading up to the race: