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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Melt Has Begun!

The snow has officially started to melt out here in California and its not going to last long so get it while you can! Last weekend I took to the water and kicked off my Spring kayaking season on two local classics- South Silver and Golden Gate.

I had not been on South Silver since my inaugural California season back in 2009, so it was great to get a chance to get back out there. While it may be short, South Silver is filled with one fun drop after the next and set in such a beautiful location, its the perfect way to spend a warm spring day.

Autobahn Slides
Triple Drop
David Maurier fires into Skyscraper 
Diane Gaydos shows us how its done on Off Ramp

After a great day on South Silver, we decided to stay in the American drainage and spent the following day enjoying the wonderful rapids of Golden Gate. Golden Gate is another run I had not been on in a few years and was excited to revisit. My previous runs on Golden Gate had gone well with the exception of one rapid- AFU (I'll leave it to you to figure out what that stands for). The first time I ran it I got, well, AFU and that memory left me taking the dry line around the rapid on my subsequent visits. Last weekend I decided it was time to face my fears and give the rapid another go. I am happy to report it went great this time around. It felt so good to replace that bad memory with a good one!

Me in the middle of AFU (Photo Credit: David Maurier)
Diane Gaydos finishing up AFU
What a great weekend with great friends to start off my California melt season. Time to start watching dreamflows and chasing that melt!