So...
Friday, Ian and I put two boats (and one useable skirt) in his truck and embarked on a visit to our local waves. 'Embarked' is misleading since we didn't get to be in our boats... We got to Sewer wave and Paul (surfer) was there to point out underwater ice. It was VERY different from what we're used to. The water directly below the wave was an elevated shelf, 10 feet wide and about as long, of slow moving water. The second wave that forms normally behind the first just wasn't there. This reminded me of the water directly below the second wave at Champlain bridge at high water. There may have been underwater ice there, or not. Below all that was another V-shaped wave/hole. The first wave looked nice, about 10 feet wide, but not the kind where you can be assured of remaining upright the whole time. Since it was -13 C at the moment, we decided to go take a look elsewhere.
The Deschesnes wave in the left-most channel (refer to the photos in above post) looked great, very much like the Sewer wave we're used to, but the already small eddies on either sides were iced over, so it would have been a catch-on-the-fly only event, ending in a STRONG eddy at the bottom with an ice shelf sitting one foot above water, making it difficult to land.
There was nothing to do at Champlain. Although there is a very nice wave 30 feet to the left and below where the 2nd wave is normally, you need to drop-in from above every time.
In conclusion, if the weather warms up a bit and we find out that there is no strange ice lodged underwater, then Sewer wave would be a good bet since the waters below are calm for a few hundred meters. But a trip there would probably include a bit of ice breaking with an axe to arrange a couple landing spots...
No photo, as the battery in my camera does not seem to be willing to push those electrons at -13 C (it had been riding in the back of the truck). Next time I'll keep it in my pocket
--Christian
