Walk on water - High water has some kayakers turning to surfboards
By CHELSI MOY/Photographed by LINDA THOMPSON of the Missoulian
With his spiky blonde hair, dark tan and shades, Kevin Robinson looks like a California surfer.
But the 31-year-old hails from the flatlands of Illinois and has lived no closer to the Pacific Ocean than mountainous Missoula.
Still, when a shirtless Robinson peddled up to Brennan’s Wave recently with a surfboard strapped to his cruiser, he looked the part.
Though an outdoor-sports enthusiast, Robinson is also a maverick who bores easily. Kayaking preoccupied his time for nearly a dozen years before the thrill-seeker picked up a less common, less gear-intensive sport: river surfing.
Ross Peterson surfs Brennan’s Wave in downtown Missoula this May. This year’s high water turned the kayaking wave into a popular destination for river surfers. Photo by LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian
Spotting a surfer on western Montana’s rivers is like bumping into a cowboy with muddy boots and a can of snoose on Rodeo Drive. At the least, it’s cause for a double-take.
Indeed, many times during the past few months, surfers have attracted a crowd to Brennan’s Wave, the whitewater play hole in the Clark Fork River in downtown Missoula.
A heavy winter snowpack and steady spring rains brought the water in the Clark Fork to a level rarely seen in recent years - and kept it there.
And higher flows mean bigger waves.
Which means surf’s up, Missoula.
In the past, only a handful of surfers took to the rivers each year toting sturdy plastic surfboards rather than the fiberglass models used in the ocean. Dodging rocks, jumping snags and scaling steep embankments to reach the water requires a heavy-duty board, said Robinson, who’s been surfing in Montana for more than five years.
But this year, the surge in river surfing came primarily because of kayakers, who temporarily ditched their boat for a board. Throwing tricks and maneuvering in a kayak when the water is super high is difficult, said KB Brown, a professional kayaker who took up surfing a month ago.
Brennan’s Wave transformed from a perfect frothy kayak wave into a light green rolling powerhouse - enough to make kayakers salivate. At its peak, the surfers equate Brennan’s to a small ocean wave.
“Because the water was so high, this was the year for river surfing,” said Brown. “The public got to see it a lot.”
By the last week in June, the surfing season at Brennan’s Wave was drawing to a close, but there was still plenty of river-surfing potential in the area: farther downriver at Alberton Gorge and across the stateline in Idaho, on the Lochsa River’s “Pipeline” wave. In all, the river surfing season runs about five weeks.
Though the sun was blazing, the kayakers guessed the water was a cool 50 degrees. Robinson squeezed into a full body wet suit before clawing against the fierce current, his eyes fixed on a spot upstream. Once firmly planted in the wave, he gripped the sides of his surfboard, idling almost effortlessly.
Just as in the ocean or on the ski slope, carving is the name of the game. Robinson makes it look easy.
“It feels like snowboarding in powder on a mellow pitch,” he said.
On his last paddle out, in one swift motion, Robinson makes a move for his board. Except it’s not to his feet, it’s to his head. The headstand draws cheers from onlookers, but lasts only seconds before he’s washed downriver.
As if on cue, his 8-year-old dog, Buck, lunges into the water to greet his owner at the shore.
It was Robinson’s last hurrah at Brennan’s Wave until next year. If next spring is more typical and the Clark Fork runs lower and slower, it may be his last ride for some time.
“So long wave,” said Robinson, dripping wet. He blows a kiss in that direction. “It was good while it lasted.”
“When it goes dead, it just goes dead,” Brown added.
Growing up, these men learned to surf while vacationing at the beach, but they haven’t spent an extraordinary amount of time in the salty waves. That, along with their ability to read water and understand how rivers work, is invaluable when learning to surf them, Robinson said.
At the end of July, a handful of local river surfers will head to the Oregon coast to test their skills on waves twice the size of those found in Montana.
“This is like novelty,” Robinson said. “The ocean is the real deal.”
So, on any given day, how does Brown decide whether to boat or board?
“It’s a fun-to-fun ratio,” he said, as in whichever is more fun that day on that water.
On this particular day, Brown is back in his kayak flipping tricks. He bought a board - obviously online, as there are few, if any, inland surfboard shops - and surfed through International Surfing Day, which the crew observed on June 20.
What’s weird is no matter how many technical tricks Brown pulls off in a kayak, nothing gets the crowd cheering like a surfer, he said.
This day is no exception. Robinson and others make it look easy, so onlookers occasionally ask to borrow a board for a test ride. Typically, Robinson says no. But today, since the wave is nearing its end, he agrees.
“I left my board at home and already I was crying to my wife about not surfing for 12 days,” said Theo Kracke, 45, a surfer from Santa Barbara, Calif., who was visiting Missoula to attend a wedding. “I was ready to pay someone to loan me a board and wet suit.”
The day before, while crossing the Higgins Avenue Bridge, Kracke did a double-take. Surfing in Montana?
“I was blown away,” said the Californian. “It cracked me up. I’ve been surfing for 30 years in Southern California, but I’ve never done any waves in Montana.”
Fully clothed, Kracke straps the board to his ankle.
“I can’t wait to tell my buddies about this,” he says.
On his first try, Kracke doesn’t make it 5 feet from shore before the current hurls him downstream.
KB looks on with disdain. The regulars at Brennan’s Wave take safety seriously, and this guy has no helmet, life jacket or wetsuit.
“It sends a bad signal,” he said. “I don’t want yahoos down here.”
On his seventh attempt, Kracke manages to maneuver into the wave. He idles, eyes wide, trying to figure out his next step. He positions a knee on the board, but falls. Several tries later, feeling more confident, Kracke manages to get his feet under him.
Back on the shore, hugging himself to keep from shivering, Kracke admits that river surfing is harder than it looks.
“Those Californians,” says Robinson, “don’t know what they’re missing.”
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
