The Mighty James

On Saturday the 24th I hopped on a plane in Portland, Oregon headed for Richmond, Virginia. I was ready to leave school, unusually cold weather and visit home for a few weeks, so flying back for five weeks of teaching kayaking at Passages Adventure Camp was a welcome change. I had heard talk of super low levels really early in the season, so I figured the kayaking would be mediocre at best, but, I was pleasantly surprised.


Paddling the Might James River...
All photos courtesy of Epicocity


Richmond is a unique place, a city of over a million people, and class III/IV whitewater running right through town, honestly in-between skyscrapers. The Mighty James River is where I learned to kayak as a 12-year old camper at Passages. When it rains hard in western Virgina, it turns into a raging class IV/V big water run with fun play and amazing access.

On Monday the 26th, the forecast was for rain and the river was forecasted to go from 1,000 cfs, mid-summer low, to 60,000 cfs, usually a winter high. I didn’t believe it. I told all my friends that work at the summer camp not to get excited, NOAA had to be wrong, the river wasn’t about to multiply its flow by 60 times. I was wrong.





At 1,000 cfs, or 3.5 feet, the James isn’t so mighty, more of a bony place to learn your roll and perfect dodging rocks, cartwheeling and running class III. At the peak flow in this flood, 16.8 feet, the James is half a mile across with multiple channels. There are eight miles of whitewater, the first five feel like an ocean of standing waves with three memorable surf spots with blunts, cartwheels and everything but air possible. The highlight is the Z-dam, a river wide wave with space for hundreds of kayakers right next to a very popular scenic drive. The best part of the wave can be cartwheeled, looped, blunted, you name it, but is near impossible to shoot without a helicopter.





The bottom three are steeper at close to 24 feet per mile and include many dams, bridge supports, islands, and drops. Hollywood rapid, the biggest and most famous, is a 100 yard section with three man-eating holes big enough that a few people go in and never come out each year, usually not kayakers. The move is to ferry as hard as you can 50 yards from the bank and last eddy to avoid one monster hole, then paddle as fast as you can back to avoid the second and scariest hole, then back out to the center of the river to avoid the last.






At 16 feet we were able to run a fun boof, which is usually dry due to a 15-foot diversion dam. It’s actually made by a concrete walkway. Notice the handrails in the photo of Van Null boofing.

Hope for more floods!
Trip