I drove back to North Carolina on the 14th of May, and on the morning of the 15th I went over to the NOC for more playboating lessons.

It turned out that the Tuckaseegee was not running, so Eternity Hole was not a go. However, the Ocoee was at very high levels!

In Hell Hole:

I had to pay a bit extra for a travel fee, as the Ocoee is some drive away from the NOC center. However, as the Ocoee was on my list of rivers to paddle, I paid it gladly!

I got lots of photos in Hell Hole with my SLR, but unfortunately, the rest of the river I have no photos for. Not even from the guiding companies that take photos along the river.

The day was hot, far too hot to wear my drysuit, but I wore it anyways. It turned out to be a good thing for the amount of time I spent upside down practicing playboating moves.

It was unfortunate that I had a very bad cough, and was sick throughout the paddle, thus I was also exhausted when trying the playboating moves.

The river was fantastic despite my condition, and I had a great day.

At the end of the day, when I got people to use my camera to take photos, a huge thunderstorm broke around us. At times it was deafening.

I had not fitted my seals on my drysuit tight enough, and a fair bit of water got in. However, the water was so warm, and it was such a warm day, I saw people paddling in just a PFD with not even a spraytop on!

On May 8th and 9th I took private whitewater playboating lessons from the NOC on the Tuckaseegee River in North Carolina. The lessons started with lake practice, which I was thankful for, as my instructor Andrew covered some edge control drills that I had not seen before.

Then we went to go paddle in the man made hole on the Tuckaseegee called “Eternity Hole”. It was made by students piling up rocks to divert the river and create an eddy. It is a prime example of how to build a man made feature.

Paddling into the hole. It is considerably smaller than Tarp and Play on the Puntledge, and that makes it perfect to practice the basics like cartwheels and front loops.

I spent a great deal of time practicing front loops. I did not get any, but I got close. Andrew was a fantastic instructor for this.

I kept setting up for a roll instead of keeping my paddle out in front of me - which, as you can see turned my kayak away from upstream…

And I practiced carwheeling. This photo is not one of me linking ends, but I did start getting linked ends by the end of the second day.

I had such a great time I am going back to paddle again on May 15th for another day of practice before I head back to Memphis to work on the client’s project.

I also managed to get a Palm Stikine Drysuit for a steal of a deal, and a new Sprayskirt, and the total price of both was under $800, so I won’t have to pay any duty!