As seen on Badfish SUP

Hannah Ray J…Surf Iowa!

We first met Hannah Ray J when the engineering firm I work for, Recreation Engineering and Planning, designed and built a park in Charles City, Iowa. Already a talented whitewater kayaker, this Iowa farm girl took to SUP quickly. We noticed her FB posts surfing a Badfish River Surfer and quickly reached out to her about joining our team. Hannah has quickly become the most technical female SUP river surfer out there. She is also a really cool example of what happens when you combine modification of historic low head dams in places like Iowa and river specific SUP designs like the River Surfer…surf Iowa moves from a joke to a reality. Of course, as you’ll see in the video below, from the Werner Paddles Vimeo page…it ain’t all about the board…Hannah’s got skills! Check her out on Instagram at @hannah_rayj and see for yourself. With whitewater parks in Iowa and Ohio coming online in the next year look for more of surf flyover country to start producing talent like Hannah. -Mike Harvey, Salida, CO

This weekend we headed up to Charles City Whitewater for some whitewater fun. The river was running on the low end, 891cfs, but I knew we would find some form of fun anyway. The top wave, Double D, was super mellow and fun for surfing in our kayaks. Marty could back surf for days! I got my Badfish River Surfer on the wave and carved up a storm on the glassy green ribbon of water. Marty and I could even surf the wave at the same time! He would head over to surfers right and I would stick to surfers left where I figured out I could also do shuv its on my board! So fun! The second feature was ‘shaning’ and one could spin till you’re dizzy in the little foam pocket.

Entering Shanez Wave.

We decided to stay over in the parking lot at the whitewater park Saturday evening in hopes we could catch our friends possibly arriving that evening. It was a lovely, cool evening for July in Iowa. Perfect for sitting by the riverside, grilling hotdogs, and watching the mob of pokemon people wander about aimlessly.

Good thing we decided to to stay in our vamper (van camper) Saturday night! A thunderstorm passed through during the early hours of Sunday morning dumping buckets of rain, around 4” total! We woke Sunday morning to a quickly moving, chocolate milk colored river! This was going to be a fun day! Excitedly we hustled over to hyvee for breakfast and upon return to the whitewater park we noticed it was already rising rapidly! The gauge looked like something from nasa!

Old friends and new friends started arriving and we jumped in the river for all day! The Double D pocket was going off, offering up fast, bouncy surfs and flatspins in the kayaks. The second feature changed from ‘shaning’ to ‘tew shaning’ to a fun, fluffly wave-hole. Awesome boils, whirlpools and swirling eddylines formed and reformed in the rising river all day. Small logs, major limbs, and even a flip-flop shoe wizzed by as we surfed and enjoyed the river.