By the way, when I say newbie, I'm referring to the Upper Gorge, not to paddling.

Yo Mark:
The Upper Green is my staple weekday run due to proximity. Weekends I am off looking for other river adventures.

But should you happen to be available after work next week, flows permitting I'd be happy to show ya down. I'm not allergic to hikin out at Paradise, just allergic to running Upper Green with less than 1500 cfs if I can avoid it. If I'm jonesing I'll run it as low as 1200, but as frequently as its been running lately, that's not likely for me. I suppose I'd make an exception for 1400.

Anyway, if weedays metting at 5-5:30 work gimme a shout. I'm looking for sea kayakers to paddle w/ who aren't lilly dippin pond posers, btw, so we should definitely meet.

Right on- I've heard Cattle Pass gets pretty rockin, but the times I been through there its been pretty chill.

I'm content to be travelling in the opposite direction of sea kayakers:
I have a few decades of solid whitewater exp, having paddled some of my first class V runs in the middle/late 1980's. Ample experience to tranfer to the salty foam. I still proceed w/ caution though. Mostly I'm afraid of being run over by container ships.

Hope I can get out to the Olympic coast again this year. Mr. Rogers went down to the mouth of the Columbia a few times and said there was action to be found. I haven't been down there yet. Deception Pass is like a big river. Can't say I ever been "mystery moveed" in my Tempest, but kayakers do throw that term around loosely these days. Based on the true definition of a Mystery Move, its nothing I care to experience in a 17' boat. I have been back endered in it though- exciting but manageable.

Salt Yakkin is jolly good fun. I want a skin on frame boat and some Greenland gear! There, that's as close as I can swing it back around to the "Green" topic.

Oh yeah- the other fear I've discovered out in the salt water. Sea Lions don't put up w/ no sh*t, do they?

I know the folks in SSAK. 

Regarding the direction of Sea Kayakers, I got into it due to proximity.  When I was a teenager, I got into WW due to proximity, though it eventually got me out of the boat and into the crags.  I sort of fell back into the river a little more than a year ago.

Cattle Pass can get big and terrifying!  A 3/4nm run of giant waves and no way out once your in a place that's about 1/2 to 3/4 miles across. 

Actually, the SJIs are quite dangerous, but the hazards are just less obvious.  The biggest killer in the salt, just like on the river, is lack of appropriate skills/knowledge.  When I teach beginner classes I always ask what their paddling goals are and many want to go paddle in the waters around Orcas.  Well, I've had some harrowing epics around there when the winds kick up.  And they always do.  Current against waves creates a pretty dangerous set of conditions for the unprepared.

My goals on the river are simple.  To be a good, solid class IV boater.  If I get to V great, but don't need it.  I've done a few nervy runs in the past, I've captained rafts down Warm Springs on the Yampa and Hells Half Mile on the Green in Lodore and been down the Royal Gorge on the Arkansas a few times, but that was in the days of my immortality.  Now, I have a family and I ran out of immortality about 10 or 12 years ago.  I find that I prefer to trust to skills and knowledge rather than immortality and am working hard to gain them.  Since I've returned to the river I find that I like to be in the lower half , skillwise, in a group rather than the top half as I get more out of it in terms of development.