Vertical Pin on the Tellico made easy with "TEAM" work!!!!!!

[KAYAKN]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6L5W13zYxY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tmuse]

Thats what you get with a playboat on a steep low volume crik

[turboturtle]

Yup! the same thing happened to me in the Esses on the Tot below three foot. As a mater of fact, It happened about six to eight time in the Esses. I extracted myself every time. Without getting out of my boat I might add. It was all gud!

Bob

[Fish]

Luckily this happened at a low level where getting back up to the ledge was feasible. We had two boaters go right at Jerrod's Knee and pin. The primary hazard there is a very big undercut rock (you can see it in the background of the video). Kurt pinned on the ledge in a shallow spot, and then Wade pinned intentionally right behind him. Drew and I (in our boats), told both paddlers to not move unless they had to. Then we paddled up to Kurt to try to help him ease off the rocks without getting pinned. But when he slipped forward even a little, the boat pinned vertically. I told him to just hang on and let us get to him. Drew got out midstream and I bailed in an eddy just behind, and you can see the rest on the video. Wade and Kurt did a great job of staying calm - they were in no immediate danger from the pins, but the large undercut just below was pretty scary, despite the low flow. As was pointed out, Wade did a great job of hugging the rock and staying stable while we got to Kurt first.

Getting to that point was a classic case of miscommunication. We didn't scout (looks like a good idea in retrospect, huh) and I told everyone to run "10 feet off the left bank" and "don't get on the right". The water was low, and the far left line was almost too low to make, so my instructions were pretty confusing (again, seems likely in retrospect). Also, we had a well meaning group of paddlers on the left bank with a rope, telling folks to go more toward the right, since the far left side was low. I was trying to point with my paddle at the correct line, but it looked like I was pointing toward the right side too. Unfortunately, that looked a lot like "go way right" which was not good. And when Kurt came through, he went right and Wade had no indication to not follow him until he saw Kurt pin in front of him. Looking back, a scout is a good idea, no one should be pointing right at all, and better spacing between boaters would be good.

Bottom line - don't go far right at Jerrod's Knee on the Tellico - it's bad juju over there.

- Fish

[Dee Tucker]

Great work! Drew hands on with Fish backing up and guarding the undercut. Nice video and narrative too.

[jackatspa]

Yeah that was great to see everyone assemble so fast to get these guys unpinned. paddlers helping paddlers.