When I began paddle boarding I was immediately curious if boards could run rapids. The Deschutes river runs through Bend, Oregon where I live. It is a great place to paddle flatwater on fair weather days in the heat of summer. But I was curious about the rapids above town, Big Eddy in particular.
Big Eddy has six named rapids pouring and turning over lava rock through Ponderosa forest. The Notch is the most challenging. Over the years I have paddled these rapids ,many times at different levels, at lower winter flows and at pushy and violent summer flows. Dropping in is always nerve racking, and clean runs are never guaranteed.
Here is a video shot by my friend Devin Tegen at 1850cfs. It shows how difficult it is, and how rewarding when the clean runs come.
Paul Clark SUPPAUL is a professional adventure paddle boarder running rivers and doing multi-day sup-support expeditions. www.suppaul.com