Chain of Rocks

Sunday Evening Surf Session:

8.6' Nathan BR and I hit the chain last night for an evening playboating session. I’m posting because we found some great features at a river level that hasn’t been documented that much (to my knowledge). I’m anxious to get back later this week.

Start your ferry to the Missouri side HIGH. The crossing is probably a good ½ mile and the water was moving with purpose, in and out of the main channel. Nathan and I ended up eddy hopping behind the bridge pylons and were pretty dogged by the time we made it.

Blockhouse has some Ocoee racecourse-type holes. Poor eddy service, but nice features. The green waves next them look good, but aren’t .

Rookies was in, as always. Deep enough to throw ends, not retentive enough to hang on after.

The Cobblestone feature made the trip worthwhile. The hole had almost washed out, but offered some great fun. From surfer’s left to right: [eddy]\_/\_ . Elevator eddy, far surfers left. Diagonal wave hole that could be surfed right from the eddy to the main waves. Low standing wave with a little bit of foam for retention. Next, a green diagonally oriented wave which wrapped upstream to surfer’s right, forms an unstable point, then moves diagonally again to drop you off at the last wave – a tall, moderately steep, relatively smooth and narrow green wave on the far left.

With a little luck and the right timing you could move back and forth around the point from wave to wave. Very cool . I’d set up on one, and watch Nathan throw some blunts about four feet to my left on the other wave. Pretty cool, as we were never blocking each other’s surf. And serviceable via a stable, conveyor belt-like eddy. 

Tuesday Evening Surf: (a little higher)

BLOCKHOUSE - great foam pile and adjacent surf wave, but sketch consequences.  Directs right towards Oilcan hole.  I ran it twice, had a great ride my second time.  Lots of fun to be had on a steep 4-5 foot glass wave.  Nathan joined me in the hole for a repeat performance.  Not much better than a party surf with friends.  This trip was a really an exercise in comfort limits.  The ferries were really fast and unnerving, the good surf had horrendous consequence for a swim, and the overall scale of the place really hits you when the water is moving that fast.  Ran the Trolls on the way back, and I tried my luck with a wavewheel on the first couple of rollers. No dice.  Next time i'll wait for a steeper wave in the fray.