the first time i saw a paddleboard it
was
paddle surfers uh and surfing isn't my
background
you know my background is long distance
sea kayak guiding
when i saw my first touring paddle board
a long board with
gear tie downs i thought that's paddle
boarding that's what i want to try
paul clark said it was the john day
river that hooked him on paddle boarding
oregon's fifth longest river runs free
for
284 miles without a dam in sight
one 70-mile stretch known as the clarino
to cottonwood section
takes days to paddle through which is
why paul suggested that if we wanted to
see the future of stand-up
paddleboarding
or sup we should follow him here
i call it adventure sup adventure paddle
boarding anything that
requires a little bit more than fair
weather
and flat water paul likens adventure
paddle boarding to backpacking on a
river
we're doing a four night paddle board
trip basically five days four nights
and covering 70 miles and that really
makes for a pretty casual pace
the first few miles of the john day
meander through pretty unremarkable
ranch country
it's a fine looking heifer i'm gonna
push him for the right you push him from
the left
this is meredith austin and angelique
valdez's first
long-distance paddle boarding trip
fortunately the john day starts out
fairly mellow when i first got on a
paddle board i just
hopped right on it and fell right off
but once you get on you
you kind of like wiggle around i mean
you know i can jump
you know if i move around i mean it's
pretty
pretty stable but just five miles into
the trip
the river changes oh there she blows
up ahead is clear no rapid the biggest
rapid on this section
plato is a little more than a speed bump
if you're sitting in a raft
but running it while standing up is a
whole different game
yahoo it's big today look at that thing
curling back
yeah right down that green tongue
between the two holes
and making it through that big riser
behind it and then eddying out
and that's a big ride on a paddle board
for sure
so yeah it's definitely
the river definitely humbles you the
challenge is to
have all your angles and to make it
through standing up but in reality
i'll likely you know eat it in there
somewhere
meredith decides to play photographer
for this one
wayne goes for it and washes up
mark hates it too
and then it's paul's turn
temporarily defeated the crew decides to
make camp just below the rapid
but by morning it's paul who rises first
he starts trekking upriver for what he
calls
a session what a session actually is
is repeating the same rapid over and
over again
uh think about going to a ski area you
ride the chair lift you're sessioning
the mountain
we're doing the exact same thing with
our paddleboards
it goes without saying that staying on
your feet through this
is no easy thing it takes paul
a few tries but with one spectacular
back brace
he finally nails it
once again in slow-mo because this is
how you do it
as we continue downriver we passed three
fishermen
the only other people we'll see for the
rest of this trip
so now that we're out of agricultural
land and into the canyon
i don't think there's anything to
compare it to as far as other sections
on the john day
we wind our way north as a river cuts a
ragged gash
into gnarled layers of old lava that
once oozed across
a thousand square miles of what's now
oregon
these are the columbia river basalts
laid down between
12 and 15 million years ago
the columnar basalt is so awesome i mean
it just kind of draws your attention
and this canyon kind of narrows out for
long
stretches and it's just great to be able
to feel like you're kind of in a
cathedral
and you're just sort of quietly floating
along
this is a landscape formed by dozens of
volcanic eruptions
and left intact ever since
148 miles of this river are designated
wild and scenic
which means no development in the river
corridor
just uninterrupted geology and solitude
for hours on end
so we're going to go river left here we
have an option of going fully river
right
but i like left because it's a little
faster it's a little bit more exciting
you ready for this spread the needles
john day is running fast today about 4
000
cfs that equates to a speed of about 5
miles an hour
that's enough to keep everyone on their
toes
you get to feel every movement the river
has the nice thing is
the learning curve's pretty quick on it
yeah keep it going you're good
i think i finally figured out how to
fall nice get your blade in the water
some of the rolly class two long
rapids where you get into this motion
and you're just sort of floating along
and it's just like yeah it doesn't seem
like it can get a whole lot better at
that moment and you're like
this is where i'm supposed to be right
now
now it may be hard to imagine four days
on a river standing up
with everything you need at your feet
but paul even had room for this i am a
photographer by trade
paul often packs a drone when rules
allow
i go on river trips because of the
remoteness and i photograph river
trips because it's just such a wonderful
celebration of the place that we live in
what i've been doing with the aerial
photography on this trip
with the drone i've been enjoying the
reveal so that we're close we have that
human
presence and then doing a pull-up to
reveal the entire landscape
and what you do with that is have an
element of intimacy
and it gives that broader landscape when
you're now
300 feet above the water it's the bird's
eye perspective we always hear about
that but
a bird sees a lot
[Music]
a few minutes later and the drone is
back in hand i love my job
drone aside paddle boarding requires an
ultra light mentality
the oregon field guide raft is filled
with hundreds of pounds of personal and
tv gear
but the paddle boarders are on their own
they carry everything they need on their
own sup
no small feat for a trip that will go on
for several days i think
for those of us who have had backpacking
experience where you know how to travel
light
your little compact sleep pads in your
down
sleeping bags things that really can
become small
you realize that you don't really need
more than that
if you don't need much you don't have to
bring much
knife
what i find works for me on these trips
for
breakfast is quick oats and coffee
during the day it's a variety of
gorp-style snacks
summer sausage trail mix for the evening
ramen and tuna
it's pretty simple food but it works for
me
we wake to another gorgeous sky
to be honest weather on the john day
during the peak april to may season
is usually more feisty guys
it took a few days but by now angelique
who has
never been on a long distance paddle
trip is finding her groove
i still get butterflies i probably
always will too i see it i'm kind of
i don't know how this will go but uh so
far
i haven't had any bad experiences i try
to think
low center of gravity bend your knees
and as
it starts getting a little more rocky
and i start moving a little more i try
to just move
the hips like a hula girl and as soon as
i feel
the more rocking or more side to side i
think i'm going to slide off and just
like go down
drop to your knees i'm
totally fine with being a newbie and
being a beginner that's
totally fine with me
days into our trip everyday concerns
drift away
paddlers call this river time when it
really gets to its best
is when you aren't thinking at all i
think it's a tool
towards that absence of thought that
meditative space
you know i'm not really concentrating on
the individual paddle stroke
you know my mind is almost without
thought i'm letting it come in i'm
smelling the smells i'm hearing the
sounds i'm taking it all in
and really being in the present
a lot of people feel themselves most
alive in a place like this
the logistics are challenging the
sensations are immediate the fear is
real the cold is real
all of it is very close
so we're passing one of the most
distinct landmarks on the john day
hoot owl rock a basalt
sculpture carved by nature that looks
like an owl
and so we call tonight's camp hoot al
camp
not too many years ago paddle boarding
down a river was unheard of
the gear wasn't quite there and then
there was the perception problem
for people who are unfamiliar with this
type of activity
standing on rivers seems silly
paddle boarding was seen as kind of a
kook sport
by people like oh that's just so
lazy people could get out on the water
well
it's not that lazy people could get on
the water it's that everybody could get
on the water
the john day river is the kind of place
that seems tailor made
for the future of paddle boarding i
think that
when you finally get on the water and
you're going downstream there's this
you just kind of can let everything go
and literally go with the flow
and think about nothing and just try to
reset
when i'm in the outdoors i definitely
get that feeling of
this is where i'm supposed to be right
now and
once the trip is over you can get back
to the rat race and back to the mess at
home but
it's super valuable to be able to shut
off your cell phone
block everything out and just see what
the river gives you
see what's around the next bend