I made the drive over to Boise last Friday to pick up my boat from the repair shop after nearly 9 months of being out of commission. That is a long time to be boatless and I was overly anxious to get onto moving water.

Choosing the Payette though, for my fist trip out after 9 months, well I don’t know if it was the smartest move or not. All in all I am pretty good a reading water but I have had very limited time on the Payette, which is still a very rocky river at just over 5,000cfs, and running in the evening as I was the light is flat and those rocks can be difficult to spot, especially coming down at speed.

So once we got up there and going I got a little jittery with one thought that was constantly on my mind - don’t hit a rock! The idea of damaging the boat again did get a little nerve wracking for me.  Fortunately I got a good guide to help me pick my way back down the river and we had no mishaps that evening. It was worth it, once back down to the take out ramp that jet boater’s grin was glued to my face.

The next morning, Saturday the 16th was the WWA Payette River Run. I decided to sit this run out, not really wanting to deal with all the boats and choosing instead to drive up the highway to film the inevitable rodeo at Landslide Rapid, a gnarly class III rapid with teeth near Banks.

The morning flow was near 5,500cfs - a little to low for many boaters to comfortably run landslide so only a 1/2 dozen made the attempt. But a couple of them put on a good show.

The first three boats through ran it like like pro’s, coming into the rapid with great control and knowing right where to cross the big waves near the top of the rapid, sneaking around the right side of the big hole.

The next boat to come up was this 21ft Custom Weld Storm which cut right a little to soon leaving him trying to climb over a huge roller, and failing. Now I don’t think this was any accident as this guy has run Landslide enough to know the right way out of this rapid, maybe he just wanted to put on a good show for the audience gathered on the bank.

You can watch the whole run here:

These stickers can be purchased through the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. For more information visit the IDPR Website

A required waste of money.

The last time it was running this high was in 2006 - you can check out some videos of jet boats running Pilgram in 2006 here:

Hells Canyon Marine Web Site

Check out both parts 1 and 2.

Change is coming though (that damn “C” word we have been hearing so much about again). Hopefully in my case the change is a little more encouraging.

After nearly 9 months (yep- that’s right, 9 fraking months) of letting my boat sit I finally got her moved out of the driveway and over to Boise.

The list of to do’s:

Fix broken engine mount
Fix broken welds / support in bow
Tune up impeller
Tune up engine
Tune up Kicker Motor
Replace trailer brakes (convert to electric)

That should get me on the water again, and hopefully a little more enthused about boating (and living).

The boat should be ready just in time for the Payette next month. Hopefully gas prices stay down, and the truck keeps running. See you on the river.

I take back what I said about everyone needing to wear life jackets. These guys should wear Kevlar vests and helmets! Now that looks like some fun stuff!

That statement could not be more true!

Now of course we cannot be prepared for all possibilities, there are a lot of different things that can go wrong on the river, but we can always cover the basics that could very well save lives. 

These are a few of the things that I find the most important.

Life Jackets - Always, always, always while on the River wear your PFD and make sure all your passengers do the same. I have slacked from time to time about this but the longer I am involved in the sport and the more incidents I hear about or witness I tell you it just makes no sense not to wear it on the river. When things go wrong it happens way to fast to be scrambling around looking for your life jacket.

Passengers - Before departing do an emergency run down with your passengers. This can include going over where all the safety gear is located such as ropes, anchors, fire extinguisher, first aid kit and what they might be asked to do with those things in certain situations. It is also a good idea to go over how to start and operate the kicker motor.

Rope’s - Next to PFD’s, ropes are a must have on your boat but they only help you if know where they are and have them ready if needed quickly.  Over the last few years I have seen a couple boats saved by other boats only because ropes were immediately handy and were quickly deployed and attached to the other boat in time to pull the distressed boat out of danger.

These are just some real basic tips, by no means is this a comprehensive list on being prepared. But it covers some of the real basic stuff that in a pinch can make a difference.

This years event will be help March 14^th at the Three Island Crossing recreation area in Glenn’s Ferry, in the lower campground. There are usually a fair number of people that come down and camp Friday night with a lot of socializing going on.

The Jet Boat run will be Saturday morning with boats starting to launch around 8:00 a.m. They will usually try to get the groups somewhat organized Friday night at the campground with times for each group to leave the ramp in the morning, so everyone is not trying to launch at the same time. This attempt at organization is not always very smooth, so be forewarned!

It is a good idea to find the run chairperson when you arrive to get the low down on what is going on.

The jet boats will run up river in groups of 3 to 5 boats (sometimes more) to a point bellow Peg Leg rapid and come back down in the afternoon. Saturday nights dinner starts around 6:00 p.m. with the WWA providing the pig and asking those attending to bring side dishes. It is usually one awesome dinner.

This is not a real difficult run, and probably one of the better suited stretches of river for newer boaters. BUT, BUT, BUT – this is not to say there are not hazards along this stretch of the Snake River. If you don’t know this river there are places where you can get into trouble quickly. Castle Rock Rapid and Palmers Rock are not much in the way of whitewater but both have managed to inflict their fair share of damage to boats. And there is also the occasional boat getting stuck in a sand bar in the middle of the river, and as heavy as these boats are they are not a lot of fun getting unstuck.

This water, like any other, does warrant caution as always.  Link to flyer

My hopes were high, but my pocket book was not deep and after only three skimpy issues it was evident to me that I simply did not have the resources to pull it off.

Over the year I have hinted that it is not dead and once my financial condition improves I can get it back on track. Well truth be told, maybe it is a pipe dream at this point in the game, with the money situation turning from bad into a horrific nightmare - sadly I know I am not alone.

Back to jet boating - hmm, what is that again?!  Heck I only got my boat on the water a few times in 2008 so I’m not feeling like the jet boater I used to be. Can a person become a virgin again? But still I managed to have some good times even if I could not afford to drive my own boat by catching several rides in Hells Canyon, the Missouri River in Montana, the Payette River and of course there was plenty of whitewater action to jump in on around King Hill and Glenns Ferry.

Despite the money and job woes, I still feel blessed to be able to participate in river jet boating. It is one activity that makes me feel alive, and when I am involved in it all the rest of that crap just slips my mind.

Here is a  video clip (large .wmv video file) of one of my few run’s in 2008, it was our foster daughters first trip out on the boat with me to (no, I am not the  dude at the back of the boat with her at the end)

To a new year of jet boating - cheers!