Raft Pin & Rescue Attempt on Ocoee River at Broken Nose Rapid

June 10, 2017 was a rare 3000 cfs high-water release on the Ocoee River. One of our 1st-year guides pinned on Kimberly's in Broken Nose Rapid. After attempting to unpin it while rafts continued to cross the rope and chaos continued to unfold, we decided to leave the raft pinned until the water cut off. In addition to the pin, we saw 2 runaway guideless rafts, multiple rafts trapped in 5-minute surfs, and several swimmers.
Swim to eddy. 1:00
Rope throw to guide and guests on rock. 2:10
Raft dump and beginning of 5-minute surf. 3:44
Runaway guideless raft. 3:50
Failed rope throw. 5:54
Another guide throws rope to help boat trapped in surf. 7:10
Successful rope throw. 8:09
Chaos as Cascade rafts come through rapid over rope. 8:58
Rope to pickup raft. 14:07
Kayak boofs pinned raft. 16:05
Runaway raft #2. 16:54

[@eldril1009]

what a day you had! i cant wait to be back in a raft spring is so late in quebec

[@guerillin]

Wow much respect to these guys.

[@ctina2572]

it's hope! I met her yesterday she's way way better now. David was my guide for this and ziplining

[@Iconoclast55]

Good job bro, Great swim..Those kill me.

[@1982jeepcj8]

zen rafting where your raft becomes one with the rock. To unpin that boat either the water needs to drop OR you have to unbalance the force on the boat so the river helps you peel the raft off the rock, you can unbalance the force on the boat by shifting weight to the most down river side of the pin and pulling on the up river side on the most under water part of the boat, it does not take much to unbalance for the river to do the work for you. When I guided unpinning boats was one of my favorite parts of job. That is why I liked being the sweep guide, cleaning up the mess

[@1337-David]

That does sound like a fun job! I love trying to help people get sorted after a spill lol

[@Gnarnivores]

Yeah, under normal conditions, that is what you do here. But the water was much higher than normal and all of the other guides were busy rescuing other boats and people downstream, so it simply wasn't possible to unpin the raft this way under these conditions. It definitely is not a simple task to unpin a raft pinned in this spot at this level.

[@FastFredRuddock]

There was plenty of action that day for sure! Thanks for sharing. SYOTR

[@matejhosner1980]

1982jeepcj8 just do a Z-drag inside the raft...

[@RaftingMagazine]

Looks like a seriously challenging rescue scenario. It's hard to tell from the video, but it looks like one of those good old fashioned 50/50 wraps. Some selective tugging looks like it wouldn't do it. Given that there were so many rafts and other people charging down that right side main channel it is probably best not to have a line under tension out there. Either way, setting up any mechanical advantage system here looks like a nightmare. Since only you were in that scenario, it is hard to say what anyone could have done differently from a video in retrospect. Could you have tried other stuff? Maybe. Would it have worked? Maybe. Rafting is really about improvisation and doing what works in any given scenario. Looks like the guests and guides were safe so we would call that a successful rescue. As long as everyone involved was happy and out of danger that is the most important part. Part of being on the river is watching each other's backs no matter who it is out there. We have always operated under the philosophy "Whatever happens, you never turn your back on another boater."

[@RillaVanillaKilla]

You have a rope across the river above a hole. Where is your up stream safety?

[@amherst6577]

This is just one of the guides at ocoee river rafting in Georgia. I was there today.

[@harviecz]

You were lucky that nobody was pinned between the raft and the rock.

[@baylordoughty748]

If I can I would love to know where you work and your name so I might have the chance to raft with you

[@shenanigoon2K]

There really should have been more kazoo music for this video

[@otis1408]

That was a cluster duck. That raft could’ve come off that rock in two minutes if done right. All you had to do was let the air out of the floor and the slowly start letting the air out of the thwarts. Bam. The raft comes off. I’ve pulled so many rafts off like that. Way to much work on this raft. Especially the close line.

[@wadebankston7344]

I wouldn’t be telling them how to do there job most of them have done it for more than 20 years

[@hoffmanfiles]

it they try deflation of the thorts or part of the boat to unbalance the thing?

[@mortschubert3909]

They pulled quite a stunt, those rowers. Impossible to achieve if they had tried to do that on purpose. The easy way out: deflate the boat.

[@isaacmont3623]

Wow.. what a mess.

[@tjreyer7281]

Just an FYI- if your guides wore guide belts she could've unstuck herself-and you needed to clip your rope to the lowest d ring you could reach and then grab the rope and lean back-a slow steady pull would've had that out a lot faster and safer 😊 especially since your decision to throw your rope to the bank created a dangerous hazard for upstream boats

[@TheLargeGnarbanero]

Used this method many times and it's amazing how simple and easy it is. Glad to see someone else knows this trick.

[@crazyysmog]

Deflate the pinned raft and watch it go

[@Dan007UT]

What a cluster F!

[@k9er233]

Seriously. Bad case of clusterf@ckeritis.