Into the new decade

Last weekend I gathered a bunch of friends from various walks of my life to inaugurate the fifth decade for me.

Before the party I was really eager to show of the standing waves on the mighty DuPage river. It rained the night before so, with the vast basin on this river, I was hopeful. The gauge was not showing much rise. And there wasn't much to show for the rain, as it turned out...

On the positive end, when the water is not high enough to generate the waves, a kayak in capable hands can make it up the stream throught he drop/constriction. And we had six capable hands...

Thanks to Eimly and Pierre for helping me smoothly transition into the new decade. I hope that it will be full of paddling.

Paddle on and paddle hard!

Standing Waves on the Mighty West Branch DuPage River

With the water about a foot above average, there are some surfable standing waves on the normally placid West Branch of DuPage river just north of Butterfield Rd. in Warenville.

About four of them are progressively longer from the first one with all of 2' to the last one that's probably good 6-8' long. They are not steep, hard to get on to, reside in swift current artificially produced by strategically placed boulders that constrict the flow. The water is about a foot deep on either side.

It is a pretty good place to practice surfing as the set-up is completely unforgiving.  I clocked the average drift speed at 5.5 knots with the GPS.

PS Here's a picture of the spot from the other side at an average flow.

When it is that low, I can paddle through the constriction.  GPS speed with average water levels was just a hair over 3 knots.