{"id":14719,"date":"2017-10-29T01:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-29T08:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=14719"},"modified":"2022-01-06T07:13:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T15:13:13","slug":"green-race-youve-warned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2017\/10\/29\/green-race-youve-warned\/","title":{"rendered":"The Green Race: You’ve Been Warned"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have been warned of the stupidity of this activity, and I freely and of my own will accept this stupidity, ignore all warnings, and participate anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a direct quote of Item 2 of the Participant Agreement, Release, and Acknowledgment of Risk for the Green River Narrows Race in North Carolina. Other items include such terminology as \u201cfacial or other lacerations,\u201d \u201cfalling from high places,\u201d and \u201cphysical or emotional injury.\u201d The Green River Narrows Race is quintessential \u201cDirty South\u201d… kayaking style. Steep drops, rocky slots, and hundreds of people drinking beer and shouting at you while you breathlessly paddle as fast as you can down a Class V creek.<\/p>\n

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Leland Davis organized the first Green Race in 1996 and a handful of high-caliber paddlers took the bait. It was simple per say: the fastest person from the pool below Bride of Frankenstein to touch \u201cthe rock\u201d in the pool below Transit Slide wins. The first Saturday of every November at high noon, racers and spectators have gathered ever since.<\/p>\n

In the following years, Jason Hale, and now John Grace have successively taken over the role of race organizer. In 2006, the race reached 63 competitors, which Grace noted as a big year because, \u201cfor the first time, we had what we called \u2018the hour of power,\u2019 in which there were people going over Gorilla for an hour straight in one minute intervals .\u201d<\/p>\n

Gorilla, the Green\u2019s most renowned rapid, starts with a tricky boof through a narrow slot known as The Notch. After making a critical left turn, paddlers then launch off The Flume, a waterfall which looks as if it lands directly on rock. Luckily, the landing is actually a narrow, shallow stream of water, but it shoots downstream with the intensity of a firehose into a hole known as Speed Trap. If you didn\u2019t have the eyes of a boater from the Southeast, you\u2019d likely think the rapid was an obvious portage.<\/p>\n

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Green Race can be considered both formative and a basis of obsession. Over the years, drinking games were created as coping mechanisms for non-paddling significant others. Hear \u201cboof\u201d and you take a sip of your drink, \u201cGorilla,\u201d you take a shot, and \u201cGreen Race,\u201d you chug your beer (Note: exact rules subject to crowd, and game easily transferable to other river communities and races). In addition to inspiring drinking games, the race has even influenced boat design. In 2006, Dagger introduced the \u201cGreen Boat,\u201d a kayak literally designed for coming out ahead that first Saturday of every November, and soon after, Liquid Logic came out with the \u201cStinger,\u201d similarly designed to navigate the steep and technical Green River Narrows at racing speed.<\/p>\n

While the race is something local paddlers have on their minds year round, there is something about fall in North Carolina that gets a sort of Green Race buzz to it. \u201cWhen the air gets a nip to it, it\u2019s a subconscious adrenaline rush, because you know what\u2019s coming,\u201d notes Chris Gragtmans, a long-time prominent contender who will be competing in his 15th straight Green Race. It will be his first race as a dad with his 7-month old daughter \u201cAl-Pal\u201d cheering him on.<\/p>\n

With his renowned enthusiasm, Gragtmans adds, \u201cIt\u2019s a day when you elevate what you\u2019re willing to do in every way. One of the coolest things I think, especially for someone experiencing the race for the first time as a spectator is that you can tell where a racer is because you can literally hear the crowds\u2019 roars sweep through the natural amphitheater of the gorge.\u201d<\/p>\n