With two brand spanking new Mad Boys hot off the press, Andrea and I decided to head into the Piamonte to run the Devero river.

The Devero is one of the few Italian rivers that is made up mostly of large drops, rather than continous class 5 bolder strewn runs. So I was looking forward to putting the Mad Boy through its paces in this sort of water.

What I didn't know was that by the end of the day I would have one of the closest brush's with death in 15 years.

But more on that later....

The shuttle we walked. A simple 2km from the take out along a very steep trail. This should tell you something! The roar of the river just 20m to the right keeps you company during the entire hike, letting you know that it's going to be good.

The put in is right into a continous solid class 4 run that is hardly a warm-up. But in fact it is just that- the warm-up for things to come. Several large drops that are stacked one on top of the other; the pools spilling directly into the next drop.

None of the drops are "free-bee's". They all have fairly complex entreys. This first 7m drop has a weird series of rocks and curlers protecting the ideal line, and the left goes into a hole that goes right into drop number 2, so you want to make sure you're right. Ooohhh... lets go!

I have to give the Mad Boy this... for a "river runner" its an exceptional creeker. OK, its no Critical Mass (but then again, NOTHING is), but its faster than the Critical Mass, boofs like a dream and is simply easy to paddle. No matter how you land, the nose sems to come up while moving forward and away from the base. Really nice.

Andrea had a sweet line into the first drop and rocked right out and into the right side eddy.

The entrance (especially at this level) into the 2nd drop is really tricky. We dubbed the drop "Viagra Falls" because the entrance and control throughout the drop is really hard.

You can see the first falls in the background pushing right into this one. Then a sneak between some rocks, and a duble boof... here i'm setting up for the first boof...

This is not the top of the drop, though it looks like it. This boof stroke is critical to lift the nose up and over the falls coming in from the top left of the image. Getting your nose on top of this before the lip is critical. If you succeed, then its a free run over the falls angled left. If you fail, your nose will get turned right into either a piton rock at the bottom right, or sink you into the curtain and a probable backender at the bottom into the falls and the cave behind the falls.

Yummy.

Beautiful. This is as clean as you can get it. Nose up and over the jet, angled left, and boat fairly flat (jsut a slight down angle).

... and off into the left eddy.

Andrea's run looked perfect coming in, but the left jet caught his nose just a little, pulling the boat into the curtain and the stern under.

the tail dropped and he landed stern first, and got pulled into the "room of doom" at the base. But all was well,a nd he made it out without too much trouble.

This is just a great angle of this drop....

I ahve to say, I really am impressed with how well the nose of this boat comes up and it moves forwards away from holes and drops. Not ROCKET to teh surface (which causes backendering, and stops the boat moving away from the base of a drop).

Andrea getting ready to run the drop that gave me my trouble. This peice of steel girder in the forground should have been a signal of caution.

Ideally, he wanted to drop into this further right, just to the right of the rock next to him. But he got pushed left by a boil and came in far left. This causes the boat to angle right into the hole at the bottom, and he went really deep and came up with a blown skirt.

So I decided to peel out of the eddy just a foot or two higher right below the drop above and make the turn around the rock that he went left of so I could get right to left momentum for the drop.

Suddenly a boil coming off the rock pushed me backwards just a foot, and my tail was caught by the falls above, and I got sucked into the hole sideways. No big deal...

Without warning, I suddenly felt something like a log pushing onto my back. The boat was naturally trying to move from river left to river right in the hole (backwards) and as this happened the "log" crushed me forwards face first onto the deck of the boat until I was completely under water. My arms were crushed against the deck as the log moved up to my neck, pinning me forwards. I was completely imoble. I had no possible body movement and was under water.

I wiggled as best as I could, and after a few seconds I managed to get the log over my head and I popped up and got a breath of air. But now the log was across my lap, pinning my legs into the kayak. My arms were still crushed against the deck and I could not move them, though I felt like my elbows were going to snap from the pressure going the wrong way. At this point I realised that it wasn't a log, but a iron girder wedged into the rapid.

Suddenly I was pushed back under water and completely submerged again. The girder was acros my lap and I could feel the bottom of the boat pushing up against my thighs from bleow, crushing me into the boat. No chance of getting out of the kayak, and no air. My arms were still imobile and pinned. I couldn;t even let go the paddle because my fingers were crushed around the shaft on the deck of the kayak. The tail of the boat was pinned on a rock, the girder ove the cockpit, and the boat slowly sinking lower and begining to fold under me.

I thought at that moment "Well this is it. It's been a good run. Italy isn't such a bad place to die!"

I wasn't out of air yet (I've been training to hold my breath to go surf jaws in hawaii this winter), but I decided to act before I was out of breath, as even if I did get off this pin, I still had a rapid to run... in a place I wanted no part of! So I made a "all or nothing decicion": use the power of the incoming water from upstream to help flip me over upstream. If I could flip just enough to get out of the boat before getting jammed irritreavibly under then girder... I'd jsut have to deal with swimming over the nasty falls. So I went for it... in one effort, I threw my body upstream, caught the edge and the boat sank in an instant (and I thought "Now I'm really screwed"). But the movement dislodged the tail from the rock is was pinned on, and suddenly the whole river let me go. I braced back upright as fast as I could and looked downstream at what was coming. I had not even scouted that part of the rapid, but I know vaguely that i didn't want to be there...

Instantly I washed up against another rock, leaned into it and pinned for an instant - just lng enough to see that I wanted no part of what I was about to wash over. To go forwards was a really bad idea because for all I knew the girder was going to be in that path too. Backwards appeared to be right into a vertical pin situation.

Better pinned vertically on a rock that crushed into the girder again. Here goes... (this all took 1 second).

As best I could I put in a backwards boof stroke to try to get up and over the rock (that appeared undercut). I got the tail up...

...and then things went wrong again... and the nose was pushed down into the undercut, and I thought "now I'm going under this bloody rock too". But, the boof stroke was enough...

I was high enough to where it was just the nose that caught the water going under, and I landed flat onto the main chute and washed backwards down the flume into the hole...

... great... right into the hole. Just bloody perfect! I flipped as I hit it (not intentionally, but at this point I was out of breath, and off ballance). So I jsut reached as deep as I could with my paddle and hoped the paddle grabing "green water" and momentum would be enough to pull me out.

It was... and I rolled up, very shaken, but oh so happy to be alive.

It was a very close call. A seemingly easy rapid and casual entrance turned horribly wrong in one second, and I almost cahsed in my chips!

Hell, at least most of it is on video (andrea stopped filming for a bit as he scrambled trying to figure out what to do to help - not that there was a single thing he could ahve done at all).

my skirt shreded by the pressure from the bar (remember that Dragorossi cockpits are recessed below deck level!!). My hands are mangled, and my elbows really sore - I ahve no idea how far they were hyper extended, but enough to hurt like the dickens!

But... we're not done. There is another km of rapids to do, so off we go. Back on the horse, and show him who's boss. I was surprisingly calm and ok after the experience and had good lines and no problems for the rest of the run down, though we didn't film much any more... I wasn't in the mood ;-)

Honestly... it's a great boat!!!!! I love it.

Here is a picutre of the Mad Boy for you. You can see the outfitting and new seat, and general shape.

This is actually not a very easy rapid! Not spectacular looking, but hard enough to keep you on your toes!