Coastals

Hi,
I am a new member. I just signed up for the forum and am sending in my paperwork today.

I just moved from the northeast and am living in Williamsburg.

I am not sure what kind of trips you guys do that are closer to my area. Are they advertised right here on the board?

I do some Class III kayaking, Class I-III canoeing and multi-day tripping.

Looking forward to getting on the water with you!


thanks
Matt

Welcome Matt.

Prescheduled club trips can be found in the newsletter and on the web site here:

http://www.coastals.org/trips/

I think the closest whitewater to you will be in the Richmond/Petersburg area. Class I-III+ stuff for the most part. I rarely get there to paddle, but there always seems to be multiple groups paddling the James every day.

This time of year, there isn't much running in central VA besides the James.

Keep an eye to the forum for trips as they pop up. Hopefully we'll get some rain.

Daryl

Welcome to the club. I'm in Richmond, we paddle the lower James every Wednesday evening during DST, meeting at the 14th Street takeout about 5pm. At summer levels, the trip is class 2. As the river rises, the rapids become more difficult approaching class 4 around 7'. At that level, the upper James becomes a class 2-3 run. Keep your eye on the forum for OC trips as well, next weekend the club meets at the Yough for our quarterly gathering. I look forward to meeting & paddling with you.
Tom Wood

If you are interested in paddling for fitness (outrigger, marathon canoe, surf ski, etc), check out Mid-Atlantic Paddler's Association on Facebook. We meet twice a week in the Hampton Roads area to paddle. We have a couple of members in the Williamsburg area, but are much smaller than Coastals.

Matt,

Clearly you have found the best group in this area to paddle with. Lots of options. As you were told the James thru Richmond is the nearest whitewater and nearly always can be paddled. The major rapid through the lower section, Hollywood (named for the Cemetery nearby) is often debated about difficulty, but at the current level is probably a II+ III-. As the level goes up the difficulty of various sections of the lower james changes, as does the character of the river. Some lines open, others are better avoided. I strongly suggest for your first few runs you hook up with others that are paddling to point out features on the river. The James is an old industrial river through Richmond and littered with debris. When the levels rise it isn't uncommon to see entire trees floating by as the watershed is huge. Make note that the current level (3.8 feet about) flow is only 2400 cfs. The 7' level that Tom refers to is a flow of 14,000 cfs. The flood stage of 12 feet flow is over 40,000 cfs. Trust me that the difference between 7' and 9' is huge. Above 9' a high water permit is needed from the city and most folks avoid downtown and head to other sections. Point being, exercise caution and realize the river changes quite dramatically across the seasons.