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Saturday April 16th, 2005

On Thursday April 14th Steve Graybill and I headed up to Vermont for a weekend of creek boating with my good friend and Burlington resident Chris Skalka. Friday after an all-night drive we hit the sack for a few hours of well deserved sleep before getting wet on some of the local creeks. By the end of the day we had boated the Middlebury, Big Branch, and Easy Street slides. Saturday with Vermont water levels running a bit low we decided to head up to the Richelieu to paddle the Chambly Waves. Neither of us had ever been there but armed with some basic directions and a low res map we made our way into Quebec and after a few wrong turns found our way to the river. The first thing that caught my eye was the massive dam above the put-in which forms one of the most lethal deathtraps I have ever seen. About 100 yards below this dam is the put-in which is located in a beautiful town park. Just downstream were several surfable waves. The top one dished out the best rides for short kayaks while the second and third proved great for long boats and surf boards. Unfortunately the level was a bit on the low side so even though the spot didn't quite live up to our expectations it was still great fun. Perhaps the best part about surfing at Chambly on a warm spring day is the scenery... :-) We will be back!

-Joe Stumpfel (Team Fluid)