West Fork of the Tuckaseegee | PFD | Whitewater Kayaking Class IV+ | Using Hi-N-Dry Rolling Aid

In this video, I take on the West Fork of the Tuck river in North Carolina. This was the hardest and scariest river I've done to date. It starts off immediately with a class IV ferry across pourovers with no warmup and if you were to flip here, there's a tree downed on river left that will entrap you and you will most likely drown. Not cool. After this is a class IV+ pair of boulder gardens that are steep and fast with little room for error. Then things get easy with class II-III rapids for a mile or so. Then comes Flight Simulator rapid which is a 60 foot 60 degree slide into a wall of water. Flip here and you could get seriously hurt. At the base of this slide is a piton situation which I did hit and it dented the front of my boat. Not cool! Then comes the 7-8 foot tall rooster tale of water at the base which flipped me. I rolled up uninjured. After this comes another mile or so of class II-III followed by some more class IV boulder gardens that are steep and fast. Then more class II-III till the takeout. It was not big and powerful like the Upper Gauley. It was not as jam packed with challenging class IV like the Upper Yough. But it did have scary stuff on it and the very beginning is super intimidating since you put in at the base of a waterfall with no warmup and it is pretty sketchy right away. But overall I'd say the run is well worth the trip. Oh, and another huge scary factor is the .7 mile intense walk down a winding mountain path with a boat that takes ALL of your energy away before you even get onto the river! That does not inspire confidence when you are too tired to get your skirt pulled onto your cockpit rim for 3 tries right before you have to paddle like your life depended on it - which in this case it does! Super scary start. Hope you enjoy the video!

To purchase or find out more about the Hi-N-Dry rolling aid I'm using on my paddle, visit http://www.shaftfloat.com