The Velvet Hammer (more velvet than hammer)

This is another dogscratcher special: poorly shot video of inconsequential topics.

This is Velvet Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon, with the river running about 2000 cfs on June 10th. This was supposed to be one of the more difficult rapids of the first day, but as you will see, the water was low enough that there really was nothing to be worried about.

First, you will see Sparky run too far left: she makes the pull to get behind the rock well enough (by the book), but then doesn't push downstream. This causes the front of her boat to stall in a small hole while the back end is swung around and she finishes the rapid backwards.

The second boat (sorry about the swearing), makes no pretense of making the pull behind the rock, and simply runs the center of the falls. He does pretty much everything wrong that he can, short of diving headfirst onto a rock. He makes no move to get to the left, never even gets sideways to the current (a blogpost all in itself), doesn't push forward over the drop, and has his bow passenger too far back. And nothing happens. I was more than a little surprised.

Makes me realize how forgiving rafts can be. I guess I work too hard going around stuff.