Tony's SUP 1st D of Rockwood

Rivers Media
Hiking in. He won’t be smiling for long.

The kayaking season here in Durango has more or less dried out, literally. With flows on the Animas hovering in the 200cfs range and temps in the 90’s I was inspired to give the Rockwood Box of the Animas a go on my Kona inflatable SUP.


Starting to look nervous.

I have been paddleboarding quite a bit this season and was feeling pretty confident that I would be fine in Rockwood. I had not been down Rockwood at such low flow in probably 7 years and well, the channels were not as deep as I had been hoping.

The first major rapid, Mandatory Thrash was boney, steep and had a tricky angled entrance move that put me in the water pretty quickly.

Tony wishing he had brought ass pads.

From there it was a lot of trying to pick the deepest channel and stay low on the board, which was on my knees in many cases. I portaged a couple of the more shallow rapids, Red Wall and one other one.



I finished up the last rapid the same way I did the first one, in the water. Overall, I had a good time but I think I will keep practicing and the next time I will go in with more water and more pads as I feel it would have made my life a lot easier and the run less painful.

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