Right on Chris. Tumwater was a real step up for me as well the past two weekends. I got five runs in each weekend and was able to work my way out of two holes on sat. (First time getting out of a hole without swimming). Each run I rolled 2-3 times which really boosted my confidence. Definitely helped having experienced boaters to follow. I have to say the wall is the hardest rapid I've ever run, and although I did fine in it, I felt like I wasn't going exactly where I wanted to go and had to brace hard multiple times. Pow looks like a step above all the other rapids, and I chose to walk it too. Good to see you out there, I feel like we've been progressing at about the same pace. Remember the triple swim on the tieton?   Best day of my life.

Edited by commander fun - 19 Aug 2014 at 3:17pm

Thats great man. More importantly though, were you stoked? I still walk Exit and POW all the time, so don't worry about that.

A wise Man once told me that "even drift wood makes it to the bottom of a rapid". So work on the skills to run whitewater rather than survive it.

That being said, I feel like Tumwater get's sandbagged quite a bit and people get talked into running The Wall because they rolled up at the bottom of Boulder Drop a couple of times. The Most important skill you can develop while learning to run harder whitewater like the Tum or it's like is catching Eddy's. It's a skill that is oft ignored but is the basis of the harder skills like the boof. The timing you develop while catching eddies is the same timing you need for the boof stroke.

If your looking to step up to Tumwater and live in close proximity to the sky drainage there are two runs that are great for stepping up your skill set between Sultan and Index. The Sky and the Sultan. The Sky has a wide range of flows and tons of eddies, ferries, and technical moves to be made to develop those creeking skills. The Sultan has one high consequence class IV+ rapid that can be walked on the right and everything downstream is a skill building paradise. Lot's of water boofs, multiple eddies so ferry from one side of the river to the other, and tons of other fun stuff to work on your timing.

One other skill that often get's forgotten: the back ferry, the backwards eddy catch, and the backwards peel out. If your looking to paddle Class V you will NEED TO USE A BACK FERRY EVENTUALLY so practice it and get comfortable with it in class III. Sean Lee has a video of Ernie's where he rolls up and is pointing right towards a sieve full of wood, and without hesitation he sets his angle and takes a couple of back strokes and uses his back ferry to avoid the sieve. If you practice that skill enough when you need it you won't have to think about it, you'll just react to the situation. the back ferry is also a saving grace on FITWa if you get blown left above number three in the Fearsome Foursome.

I could go on. All I'm saying is that if your looking to step up to Tumwater there are better places than Tumwater to do that. If you're looking to step up to Robe, Tumwater is an excellent place to hone those skills.

Keep paddling and don't forget to practice those foundational skills. At these low flows Boulder Drop has more eddies and line than can be caught and run in one lap. Go out and run them all. Don't be afraid to get pushed by some of your friends who know what your capable of, but also listen to yourself and don't run something that you can visualize each move.

Have fun and see you on the River.

I don't like to think of it as being a chicken, it's more like making an honest evaluation of your skills and mindset. My feeling has been that if I'm not calmly styling both the wall and chaos to not really even consider POW. POW may not be any harder than stuff in those other rapids, but the consequences of getting off line appear to be more significant to me. I don't have any opinion on exit, but I'm sure it's more of the same. Isn't part of the issue with exit that there is rebar and other nasty stuff in play at this lower level?