River Leader of the Month – September 2011: The Other Side of Pat Keller

I do realize a lot of you already know Pat Keller or at least heard of him.  You probably know him as a big name in the paddling community, may have read prior interviews with Pat or seen footage of him on the internet, maybe met him in person or even had the opportunity to paddle with him.  Pat’s well known for his many paddling accomplishments including multiple first descents, Green River Race wins, World Kayak Freestyle Championships, river expeditions and the list goes on.  You can read about all of this in his other interviews.  But I’d heard there was much more to him than just all of these wins and accomplishments.  My mission: Meet the other side of Pat, the one that’s having fun while getting others involved in paddling.

Recalling the first time I met him, I didn’t think much of it.  Simply a really nice guy at the Dagger tent one demo day.  After that I continued to see Pat come up in cool videos and articles online and hear his name around town amongst my paddling buddies.  Even one of my friends that has been showing me the ropes (as I am just beginning to paddle) was stoked about having paddled the Green River Narrows with Pat for the first time a couple months back.  I didn’t think much about it and then realized, huh, this guy’s really trying to get others out there and into paddling, opening up, sharing his knowledge and leading the way as a role model for a younger generation of paddlers. 

It all began for Pat with his first experience on the water at age 3 when his father took him down the Nantahala River.  As a youth he continued to return to the Nantahala and progressed over the years to inflatable kayaks eventually getting his first boat, a Dagger Blast.  NOC is a home to Pat having grown up visiting the gorge frequently as if it were chapel.  But Pat was an active child involved in paddling, gymnastics, karate and skiing.  At age 9, when he tore his ACL all else ceased and he turned only to kayaking.  He began attending NOC Paddling School Youth Camps where he learned to steer, ferry and turn.  This made kayaking easier and allowed him to focus his attention on fewer things at once having the basic skills coming to him naturally.  “Learning to kayak is such a fun progression. A fun dance!” as Pat likes to put it.  “It builds self-confidence and awareness even with all of the real consequences.”  He pushes himself now by blending the skills he has gained from years of paddling across disciplines, combining freestyle, slalom and creeking to create new challenges.

 A Few Fun Lines on the Green River Narrows with Pat

Good role models are hard to come by in athletes these days.  We hear it almost everyday on the news and in the media about scandals: baseball player Mike Jacobs testing positive for HGH, Tiger Woods’ infidelity, Michael Vick’s dog fighting fiasco, and many more.  Pat desired to not only further himself and his paddling career meeting personal goals but also wanted to help others get into the sport and be a role model for paddling.   In 2001, he became an American Canoe Association certified instructor and began teaching at NOC’s Paddling School.   “To not spread the love seems bad. Everyone’s welcome.”  He continues to get friends and beginners out on the water even offering his own gear for use, showing the way and giving pointers.  “The life experiences paddling has brought me and the fun of it is satisfying.  Bring others in and you see it click.”

Pat is now living his life as a chameleon: working in the “real” world and continuing to progress his involvement in the paddling world.  He is a “suit and tie” at Merrill Lynch a few days a week working toward his professional career goals.  But he has “a foot in both worlds” and feels comfortable.  His passion for paddling continues to consume his free time.  “I haven’t lost who I am.”  Pat is a Dagger Team member, an Ambassador for American Whitewater and is working on his latest venture: a creek boating safety video.  “Your level of knowledge influences perception.”  Pat has plenty of paddling experience he has gained over the years and now he’s sharing it.  This year he’s looking forward to accomplishing a few personal goals as well and continuing his “Grand Adventure” with paddling in Mexico, getting back to the Green Race and skiing throughout the winter.  “My life is good!”  So, be on the lookout as Pat’s making waves and paving the way as a role model in the paddling community. 

Ida's Remnants Fill Dewatered Nantahala Along with Rest of WNC's Whitewater Runs

The Nantahala River (picture above), typically flowing at scenic but scanty levels this fall due to Duke Energy's Nantahala Plant maintance, is at robust high water levels this morning, along with every other runnable stratch of river in WNC after the remnants of Hurricane Ida passed over the region yesterday. Though we predicted last week would be the year's best whitewater week, thanks to the abundant rain, the Green River Narrows Race and the releases on the Tallulah and the Cheoah, it's hard to imagine a more ideal rain scenario. The rains came down evenly and steadily, slowly saturating the already wet watersheds, so we expect many of these flows to hold for the weekend, though the micro creeks will flush out sooner.

Micro creeks really are the story here. Below is a photo of Wesser Creek, a small roadside creek in the Nantahala Gorge that usually has about six inches of water in it. Today it looks really fun! Check out the waterfall dumping into the Nantahala below Worser Wesser. (Be careful on these micro creeks. You can see trees in the middle of the waterfall; running these creeks presents numerous unusual and dangerous challenges and hazards.)
I won't try to enumerate all the rivers that are going off today since American Whitewater already has that info here. Some highlights? Big Laurel, near Hot Springs looks awesome right now, and you'll get to finish the run on the swollen French Broad. I'm a big fan of the creek to river transition on this run. The easier sections of the Watauga look good right now as well as the typical Nantahala run, though it's at a high 2380 cfs . Many of the big runs, like Big Creek need to come back down, so if you can't make it today, that's cool. The Nolichucky at 5900 cfs would be a good way to spend the day waiting.

Check out some of the runs our Nantahala staff like when it's wet: Snowbird Creek, Santeetlah Creek and Slickrock Creek up near Joyce Kilmer if you're looking for something new. (These are way "out there" and there's not much info available. You'll need to be excellent to do the harder sections of these runs and very aware of your capeabilities to do the easier sections. AW and Boatertalk are the best places to get the skinny on these runs.)

Running flooded rivers and newly energized micro creeks not your thing? The other good news is the abundance of waterfalls that appear (sometimes out of nowhere) in WNC after a good rain. For instance, below is the waterfall across the street from NOC's Outfitter's Store that you really can't see on a normal day. So, if your significant other would rather not tangle with high water, s/he will have some nice views to check out while running shuttle for you.

Andrew Holcombe Wins Green Race in Record Time: Post Race Interview

NOC Head Instructor and Team Dagger professional paddler Andrew Holcombe bested his own record of 4:27 by nine seconds to win the 2009 Green River Narrows Race, the most compeititve and popular creek boating race in the world. The course, situated on the Green's steepest mile (which drops over 342 feet) takes paddlers over numerous Class V rapids, including the dramatic 18' Gorilla. (See photo of Leland Davis from AW's Green River page.)

We caught up with Andrew around noon today to ask some questions about his awesome run on Saturday:

NOC: So, How did you feel about beating your own record? Did your 2009 run feel that much better than the '07 run?

AH: At the time I wasn't sure if it was that much faster, but I knew it was better. I had better lines [than in '07]. In '07 there were obvious spots where I could have had a cleaner line. Also, I feel like I was in much better shape this year. I'm a lot stronger this year.

NOC: Did the water level make a difference?

AH: It was at a really good 100, and higher water makes you go faster, but in some places higher water does make things harder.

NOC: What about your boat? You were in a prototype of the Greenboat in 2007, right?

AH: Yeah, and the prototype was faster in a straight line, but the production Greenboat is much easier to paddle. Plus, you know, we've been in the Greenboat for three years now. That certainly helps.

NOC: Shaving 9 seconds off the record is really impressive. That's almost 3.5% of your record run. Can you do that again?

AH: I still think you can go faster, but there was only one place my line could have been cleaner (I kind of plugged at Powerslide). Overall though, my lines were very good, and of course there were a couple of places where I wish I didn't hit a couple of rocks, but to beat my time I'm just going to have to paddle harder. The lines aren't going to get much cleaner.