The Outdoor Line Forum

Ruckus wrote:Thats a great idea, there's gotta be a niche for that. Clackacraft has a video they put out on rowing tips and safety. I've seen some books too. Bob Ball wrote a nice article in a recent Salmon Steelhead Journal on drift boat safety. See if you can't hire a guide for a day and explain to him what you are looking for, the guys rowing the rivers in Forks are some of the best oarsmen on the planet hands down! Try Bob Ball or Carl Windle.

Ruckus wrote: See if you can't hire a guide for a day and explain to him what you are looking for, the guys rowing the rivers in Forks are some of the best oarsmen on the planet hands down! Try Bob Ball or Carl Windle.

That's a great idea, but....

Probably not a good starting point, those guys along with a handful of others (Mike Z, Larry Scott, Billy Meyer, Bret Lowe..etc) make it look almost *too easy* and those rivers are so technical that if you haven't already mastered the basics you'll get a great boat ride but I can't imagine that you would learn too much. Flatter water is a good place to implement the same idea, the satsop, wynoochie and many others all have stretches that are entry level friendly and drift boat guides work them too, starting there would be a great idea and I found that when I started just having someone in the know in the boat telling you to "point that way and pull hard.." was all it took to have the confidence that I was doing it the right way, I had the pleasure of giving Bob Ball the front seat in my boat on the Bear Creek run of the Sol Duc last spring, I had done that stretch before, but I was always guessing on the fly if I was going the *right way* technically I was there, but..being shown those trails by someone who knows them is invaluable... and, 12 or 15 years of rowing is all it took to get to the point where I felt ready for that.

Good luck and enjoy the curve
stam

brad_tgl wrote:

That's a great idea, but....

Probably not a good starting point, those guys along with a handful of others (Mike Z, Larry Scott, Billy Meyer, Bret Lowe..etc) make it look almost *too easy* and those rivers are so technical that if you haven't already mastered the basics you'll get a great boat ride but I can't imagine that you would learn too much. Flatter water is a good place to implement the same idea, the satsop, wynoochie and many others all have stretches that are entry level friendly and drift boat guides work them too, starting there would be a great idea and I found that when I started just having someone in the know in the boat telling you to "point that way and pull hard.." was all it took to have the confidence that I was doing it the right way, I had the pleasure of giving Bob Ball the front seat in my boat on the Bear Creek run of the Sol Duc last spring, I had done that stretch before, but I was always guessing on the fly if I was going the *right way* technically I was there, but..being shown those trails by someone who knows them is invaluable... and, 12 or 15 years of rowing is all it took to get to the point where I felt ready for that.

Good luck and enjoy the curve
stam

Thanks everyone for the good advice


Spot on. I would add that it seems these days that the trend in learning is to jump in the raft and go for it. Which is validated in to some degree that you can bump your way down. However, in starting with a drift boat there is far less margin for error and so it is advisable to hit some soft drifts. Watching a true oarsmen in a drift boat is awesome to behold but will do little in the learning curve at the start. As lame as this may sound to some I learned best by pulling plugs when I was a teenager and found what it took to hold my position in different depths and currents. It also rewarded me with a fish or two.