Surf Practice in Salida
& Helpful Advice from Pro Kayaker Jed Selby

Scenery on the way to Leadville & Salida.

My surfing abilities are quite limited, but the Salida park is definitely the place to efficiently develop surfing skills.
It's also a great place to build confidence with a combat roll. I am constantly being flipped during my surf attempts.

I am kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I swam again today.
But at least I did learn something valuable from the swim, something that I should have picked up on long ago.

I was the only person in the park when I first arrived. There were a couple of people eating lunch by the river, but I had the only boat in the water. Later after a few surfs, some teens came down to the park to try and surf in the lower wave with body boards. They were unsuccessful. The boards were not buoyant enough, but these guys were admirably persistent in their efforts.

During one of my rides, I was flipped as usual. But this time the water did not immediately begin to get calmer. It was as if the turbulence was continuing downstream with me, even though I knew this was not possible. I was being tossed around violently while upside down. I could not get my first several roll attempts to work. I was just pulling the paddle through aerated water with little resistance and the violent tossing seemed to counteract all my attempts.
I eventually decided to swim.

The lower wave in the Salida whitewater park is a relatively easy place to self rescue. I was able to get out of the river safely enough, although I was winded from the effort.
I thought about leaving because I was so disappointed in myself.

But I hiked back up to the wave and jumped back in, and as almost always is the case in life... not giving up turns out to be the absolute best decision.

I start surfing again and my roll becomes more reliable on first attempts, but I also finally realize what happened to me earlier.
I was stuck upside down in the hole created by the wave. I assumed I was flushing downstream but the violent turbulence continued because I was simply stuck in the wave's suction.
This is actually a good thing, because if you are a more skilled paddler, you can intuitively roll back up without losing your spot on the wave.

This is the first time I have ever been held so tightly in a "hole" but I still feel pretty dumb for not figuring out what was going on while I was upside down.

Later after some other boaters arrived and as I was waiting for my turn, an expert kayaker dropped into the wave from above. I did not recognize him at first but it was obvious that he was an exceptional boater because of his casual ability to link many advanced moves.

It turns out to be world class professional kayaker Jed Selby. I have met him before at Colorado Kayak Supply's Paddle Fest held at the beginning of the season in Silverthorne. We discussed the movie Savage Snow at that time and he recognized the film logo sticker on the bow of my boat today.

Incidentally, Jed Selby won 1st Place in the Pro Men Finals in Salida just a few days ago during the FIBArk Whitewater Festival.

I was happy to see him again because Jed is a filmmaker also. He screened an impressive short kayaking film at the Paddle Fest Exhibition. I saved his contact information from our Paddle Fest meeting because I am hoping to persuade him to become involved with the shooting of the kayak segments in Savage Snow.

After watching a few of my surfing attempts today in Salida, Jed made a simple but helpful observation. He noticed that I was not leaning downstream very much when side surfing. As a result, the rush of water from upstream was catching the upstream side of my boat and flipping me constantly.

I knew that I was supposed to lean downstream and thought that I was, but his observation made me aware that I was not leaning adequately. I was able to immediately double the length of my average surf as a result of Jed's tip.

I am not yet ready to work on the river scenes in Savage Snow, but I will definitely be giving Jed Selby a call when the production gets closer to shooting on the water.
-Dan