Dropping into the crowd off Pencil Sharpener.
Yes I took the P&H Hammer down the Green. Why did I do this? Well, mainly because it is the only longboat that I had to use. That and after paddling the Hammer a few times I was pretty confident I could make it down the Green just fine. Plus, I was number 23 in the race.. MJ!! How could anything go wrong?
Lining up Gorilla.
The P&H Hammer is designed to be a precise wave surfing, rock gardening machine. The Freestyle kayak of sea kayaks if you will. With a ton of bow rocker and a nice flat hull, I’m sure it does this quite we’ll. Actually I did surf a small wave in the Hammer at the takeout of the Russell Fork river in Kentucky. I was amazed that I could flat spin this boat on such a small feature. Anyway, the Green race. Thankfully I was able to get a few practice runs in the Hammer before the Race. The first day I was walking that stout into the Green I will have to admit I was pretty damn scared. There where two rapids that concerned me the most. The 1st one is the first drop in the race. It’s basically a technical move into a 4 foot boof that lands in front of a rock. The rapid is called Frankenstein. The other main concern of mine is Called ” Go Left”. This one is pictured below and maybe you can see why it was of concern to me.
Go Left
After making it through this section of river I was in the clear except for Swicks, Chiefs, Gorilla and all those slides below Gorilla. The reason these did not bother me as much as Frankenstein and Go Left was because they are pretty forward moving lines. Where as Frankenstein and Go Left are pretty technical moves and turning was the biggest challenge here. I would say all and all the Hammer did pretty well in the Green Race. I had a pretty respected time of 4:43 which put me in 22nd place overall. After the first run or two down the river the challenge of this boat on Class 4-5 became really fun for me! I would race the Hammer again for sure. Doing the Green Race really legitimizes the Hammer as being called a shit running sea kayak……actually I may be the only one that calls it that?
