Lava Falls: Flipping a dory, then unflipping before Son of Lava 

What I’ve never understood is why an inverted canoe, raft whatever seems to deal with the rest of the run far better whilst everyone is clinging on!

@@dewindoethdwl2798 Yeah… it’s kinda a lifeboat for a while. Until you hit the next rock wall anyhoo.

I got those same words of advice from Shocklee. Hoping to eventually get down the ditch. I told myself I wouldn't see the Grand until I'm taking a boat through it. Fingers crossed, ass puckered

Thanks for that... as noted before: I'm in a fragile wood and fiberglass boat, and one gets exactly 2 minutes to right it before entering Son Of Lava, and slamming into the left wall and splintering the boat (not to mention hurting people). I've had a few snarky comments in this thread, but I'd bet a lot of money none of those snarks have ever rowed a dory in Lava Falls. If you look at videos of soldiers at war, or even just a war movie, when they're in a firefight they're yelling, not because they're scared, but because it's loud, and it's important ;-). If you look at the gal in the water's eyes (she's still a great friend), she's looking for direction... and she gets it. Finally not all the loud voices shouting directions are mine. In any case, we got the boat back over and all hands on deck within 2 minutes and just in time for me to row away from the wall. Whew. Everyone was rather thankful, me included (at 60 years old I did need help getting up on the overturned hull super fast, but how many 60 year olds are still guiding, and if it works, who cares how it's done eh?) I'm now retired since I found my skills hit a mark at 65 that I recognized as not up to my own standards. Now it's the young bucks (male and female) with the best dang job on earth! ;-) PS: I flipped in Lava one more time after this video, that time in the Big Cahuna on the right. I was 62 at the time and we righted the boat with all on board and me rowing within 1 minute and even before the tailwaves were over, so the technique was perfected perforce. The spotting boats downstream were coming out to help, stopped mid stroke with mouths agape when they saw me rowing with all hands in the tailwaves, and said "I thought you'd flipped!!" We just smiled.

@@Jeffe01 Jeffe I recognized it right away. Guided a bit myself, not in GC, but enough to recognize the urgency. The river does not "wait" or "give you time" or "pause." So, when something happens, like the Rolling Stones song "You Got To Move"! LOL Cheers amigo!

​@@Jeffe01 Wow this is amazing and inspiring, I've always liked the Grand Canyon and want to come out and experience this I'm nearly 52 what's it like? and is flipping in those rapids scary? 😮

@@calebwigglesworth2740 I’m 69 and going back again the fall. It’s magical, powerful, and nearly a half century of world traveling clients have universally told me it was the best damn river trip on earth. Go!

@@Jeffe01 That's great and its sure gotta be one of the most spectacular and greatest places on the planet 🌏 Thank you, I'm definitely gonna go and take Girlfriend and few friends with me and have a great once in a lifetime adventure, film it then put my own music to it. Have you seen Canyon Dreams 1987 from Miramar? A music video album of the Canyon with great photography and Synthesized score?, its like John Muir was right its as if you found it after Death on some other Star 🌟. All the best on yr Fall trip back on the Mighty Colorado, I await my trip with Anticipation and excitement. Cheers. 👍

Pyrus Rex Thanks for the praise amigo but more lucky than good I’d reckon. If it makes you feel any better I (we) know and very much appreciate how dang lucky we are. If you watch my thought bubbles in the vid, you can see my tardy realisation that I’m too far right. “Often wrong, never in doubt.” Ah well, in the end 150 times down the Canyon and only 4 flips, all in a dory and all in Lava, and all within a 6 year window of sheesh I can’t find my line any more, over 45 total years. Not toooo bad I hope. ;-)

I had trained my crew up, just in case... this was the second time I flipped in the "Humpback Chub" wave. First time I made the mistake of rescuing my weakest passengers first, but learned that slowed things down considerably since they couldn't help up the others. On that first flip, I managed to get everyone out of the water and right the boat just before we entered "Son of Lava", but I didn't have time to get my oars in. We missed the cliff on the left by the Grace of God. This time you can hear one of my clients yelling out and trying to be helpful, so he was prepared. Upright and rowing in exactly 2 minutes post flip, just in time to pull off the Son of Lava cliff. My next two flips were even quicker, with my last one (2013 or 14) all hands on deck and rowing within 45 seconds... still in the Lava tail waves. Others were pulling out to help, took a second surprised look, and said "I thought you'd flipped!" My reply; "Who, me?" ;-) but really, 4 flips in 150 trips over 44 years.... not too bad overall I guess. All within a 3 year "bad JuJu" period until I "grokked" Lava again. Its all about respect. I learned to do the LavaHaka above Lava, prayed "Please let me pass" as we shoved off from shore, always found the time to glimpse the "eye of Odin" in the tongue no matter what, and learned to hit the Big Cahuna pointed at 11 o'clock, no matter what it looked like as the bow rose. Seems to have worked, though I have to say in my retirement that I wish I was still "279 miles above Lava".

They seem to slow me down a bit in the flats, and being older and slower, I need every advantage I have to keep up with the young bucks. But whilst things can happen any time, anywhere, I usually have a pretty good feel for the spots I'm most likely to flip and need to get back upright pronto. That's where I pre-set my belly strap (flip line).

Actually the "lost" oar was broke in half. I had to grab the spare oar and install in a hurry, only the foam padding that was protecting the gunwale got in the way. That's where I say "phooey" (not). I nixed the foam from that point forward ;-) I gave half the broken oar to one of the clients, and the other half is still hanging on my wall.

Hah, great trophy!

Others have auto pumps and I’ve used them on occasion. When they work they’re good and as fast as a person bailer. If they don’t work you’re in strife. When righting a dory there isn’t too much water left in the footwells so it’s not too bad. In this case it was the folks who bailed for me.

@@Jeffe01 That was one knarly hole but not as dangerous as a low head dam. At least it spits you out and you don't get recycled.

@@johnrflinn Exactly... not many of those on the Colorado in Grand Canyon fortunately

Yup...

Most people feel the left run is "easier" above about 13k cfs. How I read that is: its more predictable. You have a must-make entry, hit a huge wave straight (as I did), and all is good after that (NOT!). In the right run, even if you hit the top and V-wave perfect, the V can spit you out in all sorts of heinous ways: into the "Corner Pocket", the Black Rock (Cheese Grater), the Big Cahuna, with or without oars, etc. No calling it one way or the other. Also, in dories, flipping is not as bad as hitting (as in the Black Rock).

Caca pasa... there are those that have, and those that will...

Ugh! How to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

Ah Yes! And lesson learned: When running very low water, better stick to a very light-weight boat that you can actually maneuver!

Empathy. Gotta love it. We had a single malt afterwards to mend my ego. 🤣

Jon Didier it’s a family channel. Not what I really said ;-)

Andy Trimlett no worries. That’d be fine. I’ll try to contact you via your profile but you can also use my website. River-god.com.

Half of the voices you're hearing are another client, not the guide.. And, as noted previously, there is a big difference between panic and organizing scared and exhausted novices to act fast, over the roar of a rapid, with less than 2 minutes to recover or smash the boat and/or have someone injured. If you've never been in a flipped dory, please do not cast stones.

Please see updated video description for further explanation.

​@@Jeffe01 You are correct, I have only been White water rafting we don't really care if you flip or get tossed you just hold the boat and protect yourself but you aren't worried about the boat getting destroyed. I would panic as well if my boat was going to get damaged but comparing yourself to soldiers in a firefight is silly, it is pretty unlikely someone would die from floating down a river if they are wearing a life jacket and a good helmet with other groups nearby, otherwise you wouldn't have tour groups operating. Your boat might get destroyed & you might get some scrapes and bruises if you make a mistake but your life is hardly in danger. More people die from lightning strikes than river sports www.liveabout.com/whitewater-rafting-death-statistics-3969676

QarbitraryQ Thanks for responding and being respectful. I have been involved in several deaths on the river, thankfully never on one of my own trips. More often than not it has been due to the error of omission or respect of the relentless power of a river on the part of the guide or boatman, as well as the understandable ignorance of some clients or passengers of same. One was in the very rapid we are now discussing; “Son of Lava”, with a private rafter who didn’t accept help, and who apparently also felt the same as you. He paid with his life. On the same note, I’m not talking particularly about life jackets and knocking into rocks. I’m talking about my personal experience with a ton and a half of solid boat moving at 10 to 20 mph with someone holding on the downstream side in a panic, and getting squished hard into a cliff. That has resulted in serious injury from time to time. That’s why I’m in full-on director’s mode, and whilst I freely admit there’s a lot of ways to skin a river trip, a also have no apologies. Have a look at the gal in the water’s eyes when I tell her to move away so we can turn the boat back upright and you may understand a bit more. I know what I need them to do, I need it fast and unerringly, and I’m getting their attention off of panic and into positive action. It worked.

It’s been a few years, and you’ll have to forgive my forgetfulness, it in the same vein as before; this was flip number 2 in the same spot. On the previous one, which was my first in 119 trips and 36 years of guiding in the Canyon, I was less direct and paid for it; I went for the weakest client/passenger first, not realising till later that this meant I had no help to get the other 3 on board. I also had a passenger who would not help us unflip the dory , and was bizarrely trying to find his “expensive sunglasses” whilst slipping around on the bottom of my curved wet hull moving at Mach ten towards Son of Lava. As it turned out I had just barely enough time to get everyone out of the water (which is critical), yell at them to hold on over the roar, and it was only by the grace of the great spirits we slid along the cliff wall and didn’t smash to bits. Definition of insanity?... doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result.

Appropriate helmet is good advice. Boaters slowly and painfully came to appreciate that back in the late 60's - early 70's as I recall... even lifejackets originally were meant for the passengers while we guides honed our macho tans in the sun's ultraviolet light. Stupid happens, but the river teaches us if we listen.

Bet ya a hundred bucks my Lavro has as much or more rocker than any drift boat you’ve ever seen. In fact it’s off a drift boat hull mold. We have more maneuverability than any boat I’ve ever seen or rowed in our dories. Go to the whitewater dories FB page to get educated amigo.

@@Jeffe01 Must be go-pro effect- looks really flat- I stand corrected.

Ironic that the other dory boatmen and women with Briggs boats, originally designed by Jerry Briggs (see link), used to laugh at my lovely Lavro because it supposedly had too much rocker! 🤣 but I tended to get downstream faster and survive the rapids better than most. A 44 year career with just those six years where I actually flipped in Lava four times. Just seemed to lose my juju. But then I started doing my Lava Hakka above Lava and things settled down again. 4 flips in 44 years ain’t too bad I reckon. fretwaterboatworks.com/briggs-dories/

Ironic that the other dory boatmen and women with Briggs boats, originally designed by Jerry Briggs (see link), used to laugh at my lovely Lavro because it supposedly had too much rocker! 🤣 but I tended to get downstream faster and survive the rapids better than most. A 44 year career with just those six years where I actually flipped in Lava four times. Just seemed to lose my juju. But then I started doing my Lava Hakka above Lava and things settled down again. 4 flips in 44 years ain’t too bad I reckon. fretwaterboatworks.com/briggs-dories/

Yeah I thought it looked really flat too but it has more rocker than it looks.

Jon Dunn Have you ever flipped a dory in Lava Falls, or any other rapid where there was another one 2 minutes below and novice clients on board? Part of the yelling is one of my guests. Where I am directing loudly over the roar of whitewater, well, that was part of the plan.