Before I tell you about my best trick ever, I need to explain what a bungee sniffer is. Many times when we are out on the rivers in the Northwest, people on the river- Kayakers, rafters, floaters, will be so amazed by what we are doing and how we are doing it that they will paddle right over onto the bungee. “Dude! Didn’t you just see me come flying upstream at 30mph? And now you paddle right over in front of me?” I am sure that what we are doing looks pretty freaky when they are coming downstream at us. They see a head and shoulders sticking out of the river, looking at them. And then all of a sudden this guy comes flying upstream on a little surfboard. One time on the American River in Sacramento a surfer had ridden upstream but missed the hook so the bungee was lying in the water. A raft of floaters who had seen this guy shooting upstream paddled over to the bungee and picked it up out of the water to look at it, and then sniffed it. And from then on, guys who paddle over into your path in amazement are reffered to as bungee sniffers.
I am 43 years old. I realize that I will never be the “Tony Hawk”, “Kelly Slater” of bungee surfing, I am simply too old to ever think of landing a kick flip on a riverboard. So don’t expect my trick to be anything fancy. One of my favorite things to do when bungee surfing is to launch upstream when a bungee sniffer is just outside of the path I travel going upstream. Right before I get to the sniffer, I put a hand down in the water which rotates my board so I am riding upstream with both feet pointing upstream(side-slipping). I then grab the upstream edge of my board and dig the backside rail into the water. This causes a huge spray of water that can soak a raft. We were surfing at AMF on the Payette River. This spot is a 9 out of 10 as far as good riding conditions go. I was stretching back as a group of kayakers came downstream twords me. One of them broke from the group and paddled over tword me. He was not in my direct path, so I launched upstream. I was coming twords him too fast, so I put a hand down in the water, did a perfect 360, grabbed the front edge of the board and laid a huge wall of water on the kayaker. He laughed and said ”That was so cool! How does that work?”. I honestly couldn’t tell you how many times I have explained bungee surfing in my life, but it is a LOT. Federal Maritime law states that on a river, the craft traveling upstream has the right of way. So if you see some dude, flying upstream on a small surfboard, doing skateboard tricks, please stay out of their way. Don’t hassle the surfers!
Excelent reading. I’m also a bungeesurfer myself.