The Clarion \ Sept. 11,2009
News —
Paddling club's Ocoee fest: An epic
by Brian Randall
Contributor
The paddling club embarked on its an
nual trip to the Ocoee river this past week
end and as expected
it was nothing short
of an epic. The
Ocoee is a Class III
(has big waves and
little consequence)
and Class IV (big
ger waves, more
rocks and more
consequence) river
Needless to say this
is by no means the most
difficult river that us
Brevardians are used to miming; however,
Ocoee fest takes names every year This
year it took mine. My name is Brian and
the Ocoee made me its bitch.
We left Brevard with seven kayakers
and two cars packed full of boats, gear and
beer Three hours and to many hilariously
disturbing personal anecdotes later we ar
rived at our camp site, which was full so
we went to our backup, which was full so
at ten o clock at night we pulled over in
Duckville Teimessee on the side of the road
photo courtesy Bert Hurst
Charles Jordan punches through hell hole
and camped.
We made our first mn down the Class
III section of the river without any carnage
stoked that all our begiimer boaters styled
the lines. After throwing down on a play
wave called hell hole ( I killed this hole
and through my hubris in this moment the
dramatic irony began to unfold.)
As we were loading
up our boats to head up
stream to the big Class
IV section; famously
know as the Olympic
section. We locked the
keys in the car, an ob-
V i 0 u s
sign that
would
have
spared
my fate
but like cleaver thieves we
broke into my car, loaded up
and put on the water
The Olympic section is
only about a half mile but
it is continuous white water; it’s
like ocean waves continuously
in between and over rocks. Our
begiimers did great. We had a race; I won.
We ran it again and I caught air by launch
ing over some rocks and then on the fourth
and final run it all went down.
Jay Wolfe got lost (on a river?) and
floated miles down stream. As he hitched a
ride back up: I got cocky ran a narrow and
risky line past a hole called Humongous and
told a novice follow me. In a second, two
rafts and two kayakers were being tossed
around like clothes in a dryer I hit my head
on a rock, lost my paddled, managed to roll
up, told Joe that, “I was wrong.” Got beat
down some more, roUed up, flipped hit my
head again, laughed under water at myself
then pufled my spray skirt and swam. A
few seconds later Joe, who was getting
a tremendous beat down had his spray
skirt imploded on him, so he swam. He
got out on land
and chased his
boat down riv
er I fell down
because I was
dizzy. And if
things couldn’t
get any worse...
our camera man
got bit by a Ger
man Shepherd.
(Sadly no pic
tures of this 20
mins were tak
en.)
After that we thought it best to go home.
Eat pizza and cafl it an epic day. Join Pad
dling Club!
photo courtesy Bert Hurst
Brian Randall navigates the river
during Ocoee fest
Psychology Club restarts for the new year
by Thomas Lide
Staff Writer
The Brevard College Psychology Club
will hold their first official meeting next
Wednesday, September I6th at 9 p.m. in
MG 224. Food and drinks wifl be served,
and anyone that has an interest in psychol
ogy and has taken at least one class is
strongly encouraged to join.
Meetings are held one day a week at the
same time (You wifl be notified if the time
does change). Some of the activities that
students participate in include watching
psychology related movies such as Good
Wfll Hunting and I am Sam, participating
in fundraisers and social events to raise
money for the club and build a good re
sume’, and last but not least, students wifl
work on a research project and present
it at S.E.P.A (South Eastern Psychologi
cal Association). S.E.P.A is a prestigious
convention to present research done by
other schools in the region, and BC is one
of the few undergraduate school programs
that attends each year This year S.E.P.A
wifl be held in Chattanooga, Teimessee on
March 10th - 13th. A research project has
not been selected yet so anyone that has any
ideas should join the club or at least make
suggestions as soon as possible.
The “I Scream Social” wfll be discussed
at the first meeting as well. This event wifl
allow all the psychology majors on cam
pus to converse with one another and get
to know their professors a little more. So
anyone that has a slight interest in joining
should come out to a meeting and dis
cover afl of the fascinating and adventurous
events that the Psych Club has to offer this
year