HUGH high water paddling on the James!

[KNeal]

Joey joined me for a flood stage paddle on the James today (about 15.5 feet at the time) and had an AWESOME day of surfing the "Z" dam adjacent to Riverside Drive in Richmond. WOW! That is about all we did, but it was a REALLY great time! I'm pumped and wanting to do it again, so we are going out on Tuesday in the afternoon. If any advanced/highly skilled intermediates want to make the run with us, call me at (804) 405-3767 to coordinate. Because the water is so high, so fast, so turbulent, so wide, and so cold, you really need to have a solid/bombproof roll down and appropriate rescue equipment and skills. If there is a swim, the rescue will come only from fellow boaters, there is no place out there to land a boat and get out (the river is about a half-mile wide in the narrow parts). The river classification is class 3-5.

Since the river is above 9 feet, anyone coming in to town will need to get a high water permit so coordinate with me on this. Richmond City police were sending boaters away from strategic points who didn't have permits, so needless, to say Fire Rescue Station #1 was very busy filling the permits out. What a great day it was for paddling!

KNeal

[Alden]

You need a permit to paddle on the river? Even at floodstage, that seems a bit strange. How long has this been in effect? What are the fines if you don't have one? Does the James belong to the state or something? (I've never quite understood who owns a river) Who gets a permit and who doesn't? Sounds very curious.

[Sir Adam]

Greetings...

Actually, I know of a few rivers (at least 1 I can think of, but I recall hearing of more) in a similar "boat" (pardon the pun). Big water, or dangerous situations often prompt municipalities to make people get permits to boat, thereby (in the minds of the municipalities) limiting liability.

To go down the lower half of the bottom Moose in upstate NY you need a permit and tag (body tag, literally). The tag must be returned upon the completion of your run. Mind you, this is pretty much all dam release, and it IS the power company passing out the permits / tags, but it's the same sort of thing-to limit liability.

I've got an Uncle down in VA who's on a volunteer rescue squad...it's amazing the number of people that will hop into an aluminum canoe (with or usually without floatation for the boat or themselves) and paddle down a swollen river.

Big water is FUN, but you do need to paddle responsibly...otherwise not only you may get hurt, but some of the rescue team sent after you may be injured as well.... So KNeals insistence on having a bomber roll, and get the proper permits is EXACTLY the thing to do.

Time to hop off the soap box

[KNeal]

Thanks for expressing your interest in the permit issue here in Richmond, Alden. This issue only applies inside the Richmond City limits and only serves as a release-from-liability for the city, so if you need rescuing then you get stuck with the cost of Fire/Rescue coming out. I do not know what the fine is for paddling without a permit, but the city police are actually very accomodating to us paddlers (they can usually tell in about one minute after you put on whether you should be out or not at these levels. What happened this weekend was the police strategically positioned themselves at specific putin sites and just informed the boaters they needed to go get permits. There really was no hassling. I have seen the police stop and just watch us surf and play and not bother checking for permits(like I said, it's pretty obvious who should not be out there).

By the way, a golf course is flooded over as is Riverside Drive. I think we'll go paddle there today.

KNeal