It's fast, challenging, and a rite of passage. It's the Green River in Western North Carolina. Every year crowds gather on the first Saturday each November to watch 150+ whitewater kayakers, each spaced 1 minute apart, lay it all out on a challenging set of rapids on the Green River Narrows. Navigating these rapids slowly is difficult, let alone charging through them while lactic.

This year I put on just before the racers and took out at Gorilla, the crux drop, to snap some photos. I wanted a different perspective from the classic downstream view of the pad, and decided to play around with angles on the river right side of the Monkey. Having a full view of racers coming over Flying Squirrel, through the Notch, over the pad, and through Speed Trap was special. The overhead view seemed to flatten Gorilla a bit, but some shots turned out pretty well!