I scanned these notes after Chris Bell asked me if I had anything I wanted to add to his Green, Narrows Asheville Area Boating Beta Page. Ten years after the writing, I still get excited remembering some of the smooth moves that inspired these lines. The title and the tone focus heavily on the boof, a technique which was well-known to many creekers in '91, but which was not widely practiced or taught among paddlers unfamiliar with the pivot turn. I suffered pains of guilt after working through the tragedy of Slim Ray's back injury and subsequent paralysis. One way that I managed to come to terms with the pain so many of us felt was to write a guide to the Green River with complete photographic documentation (John Barbour would not contact William Nealy for me!). Because Slim's accident was the result of a piton, I felt very strongly that everyone who runs steep creeks must understand and master the boof. This is the reason for the emphasis on boofing. After I handed Slim my first draft, which I hope did not offend him, I grew to appreciate the impact cushioning provided by landings that were not boofs. My notes remained a first draft as I explored the full range of landings and discovered the appropriateness of each.
The notes did see daylight years later, when Philip Curry requested material related to the Green for one of the early Lotus Designs catalogs. I never called these notes an unfinished masterpiece, as the caption suggested, but I deeply appreciate the privilege of contributing to that fine publication.
So here they are, the unfinished piece, Boofin The Green. Actually, it's finished. Whew, that was tough! I am amused by the confused tradition of rapid names on the Green. I hope it helps every paddler new to the river to connect on a deeper level, and find their own meanings in the waters. Having recently rowed the Green River in Utah, and knowing that the Green in NC is rapidly eroding, I favor a system of naming the rapids numerically, and letting friends decide on their own names for favorite places. This is where I rant about conquistadors. It is time to discard the erroneous assumption that we must expose all places unknown to humanity. It's all bombast and hype used for the perpetuation of supremacy, and generally leads to egomaniacal, senseless destruction, and serves to glorify the past, hindering us from understanding history and appreciating the present. Stop reading this old pile of reconstituted once-was, go outside, and wade in the water!
Thomas Visnius, 2001.
boats | tom
NEW (June 5, 2009) Refer to this map for river details:
Thanks to jp_heinous for the link on BoaterTalk.
If you really like this kind of stuff, I typed up a tale of a descent of el Rio Chirrippo Del Atlantico, Costa Rica, back in 1986. It is a second draft, but it really needed revision to make it to print. If there is interest, I could post jpegs of those pages, too.