This past week, New River Academy took a two-day drive from Lijiang to the Salween River. This may be my favorite river ever and it had some of the best big wave surfing I have ever experienced. Growing up in West Virginia, I have seen my far share of good waves but the Salween blew away my expectations giving up huge play that rivals anything I have ever surfed.
The Salween ran deep through a lush, green mountainous area of China- very different from the high altitude Mekong. Running about 20,000 cfs, the Salween was a deep and steep run with very few rocks scattered through the riverbed that made for huge clean waves that gave up huge clean air.

New River Academy students at the Mekong Base

Our base was on the river in Gong Shan. We were able to catch the Kung Pow wave, the wave Andrew Holcomb and Steve Fisher surfed in Burning Time 2. This was an amazing wave. At first glance it looked small in comparison to the rest of the river but once we paddled out to the wave ,it was everything but. Every move was possible and to top it all off, the wave had eddy service.
We hit Blunts, Pan Ams, Helixes, and a number of other tricks. Daniel Stewart, Cael Jones, and Brain Boyle were anxious to get some great video and shot their butts off getting some great footage. Everyone was going big. Brian Boyle and Cael Jones got two of the biggest bounces I have ever seen. The 10+ foot tall wave broke and they fell like 6 feet to the trough. Sam Fulbright and Eli Spiegel were also going big, hitting their first airscrews and pan ams.
The whitewater section on the river is very long. We actually drove for 7 or more hours up the Salween to get to our base and for the entire 7 hours we passed numerous big class 5+ rapids, fun class 4 wave trains and more play than we could keep track of.
The section we ran was typical of the whole river with big waves of all kinds and big holes to maneuver away from as well as good wave surfing. The biggest rapid we ran was Glass Pack. Named for its large glassy waves leading into a steep choppy rapid ending in a giant diagonal hole. I was excited to see the whole group take on the rapid and everyone made it through safely. Michelle Yates was nervous scouting the rapid but ran it and had a great line. I was on line but tried to punch the corner of the wave and got window shaded.

The down river play was awesome and reminded me of the New River Dries. We all were hitting some good kickflips off the fast clean waves. Some kickflips that stuck out were from Brian Boyle and Matt West. Matt said he got the biggest kickflip of his life. I used a large curler to attempt an offside kickflip and ended up clearing my head as the curler picked me up, rolled me, and slammed me flat back on the water. Very cool feeling. Tino Specht got one of the biggest kickflips the group had ever seen off the top wave in Glass Pack. That was a brave move above such a demanding rapid.
The Kung Pow wave started to drop out and our muscles and backs needed a break so we packed and up and left to get ready for our trip on the Yangtze. But, we got 2 and a half hours down the road and found another giant world class wave every bit as good as Kung Pow. It was 9 in the morning and we put on our cold wet gear for one last session. The wave was perfect. All the water funneled down in a huge wave train with a huge breaking wave with a giant eddy. I got the biggest tricks ever.
The group had mixed feelings about what to name the wave but Dave Hughes and I agreed on Fortune Cookie.
We are back in Lijiang having classes and preparing for our trip on the Yangtze. Due to a dam being built we may be the last trip ever to paddle the Great Bend section of the Yangtze. It is a little high running close to 60,000 cuffs but with the raft support of Jed Weingarten and Willie Kern we feel confident that we can make it down the infamous Yangtze River. I should have another post in a week or so. Stay tuned and wish us luck!