Driving down the ‘Lorne’ road we met up with a disappointed Nick Troutman, “Its Flushed”, referring to ‘Big Bus’. The water had been on the rise for the last few weeks and now the river was a swollen, raging mass of cold, dark water. This wasn’t going to stop us as we had just driven all the way from Foresters Falls for some big water fun and we were determined to find some. We convinced Nick to join us for a quick run down the river, and that’s how it started, on that cold April afternoon Dan Caldwell, Nick Troutman and myself (Tyler Fox) put on a large, freezing Ottawa River. There wasn’t much time to get accustomed to the speed and power of the water. We put in above the ‘Lorne’ and within seconds we found ourselves dropping in and surfing a decent sized wave just above the giant crashing green wave that was once the infamous Bus Eater. Impressed with the wave we had found above Bussy we did the hike up on the river right island and had a few more goes at it. It was big and fast enough to get big air on, but this would only be a warm up for what there would be in store for us later. I don’t mean warm up literally as we were only able to surf there a short while before it became hard to hang on to our paddles due to the cold water. Moving down stream at a very quick rate we were passing the biggest, deepest whirlpools I’ve ever seen at ‘Butchers Knife’ before we knew it. Normally a fun place to go for down-time this would surely be a cold watery grave. I am sure your head would pop from a combination of the biggest ice-cream headache ever and the pressure from being on the bottom of the Ottawa river. Passing the spot where ‘BFR’ usually is we were amazed to see the water up through the trees on river right. From this point on it was a continuous wave train of massive green waves as far as we could see. It was like wave wheel and kick flip heaven; one after another the waves just kept coming. The waves continued right down into the ‘Normans’, which was shore to shore with the only reminder of the large island that usually forms the ‘Canyon’, a small clump of hardy trees sticking out of the water. We eddied out on river left above the ‘Coliseum’ and got out to scout. That’s when it happened; standing on the lookout we all simultaneously shat our pants. There in front of us was the biggest wave any of us had ever seen, and it was surfable, bigger than the biggest Bussy ! - Gladiator Wave. So there we were staring at this beautiful giant, smack dab in the middle of the biggest rapid on the Ottawa and at the biggest level any of us had ever paddled it at. In order to ‘do battle’ with the Gladiator you first need to get to him. Two options, option one is paddle in-between an almost river wide Whiteface Monster and an equally nasty hole coming off river left with a completely blind lead in. Then paddle hard left avoiding the 20ft exploding Kahuna waves through pushy water and line yourself up to drop in. Option two is from a river right eddy below Whiteface. You need to paddle out avoiding two holes at the top then paddle hard left over a bunch of random and shifting 15ft waves to line it up and drop in. Either way you are paddling hard completely focused at the task at hand until you crest that last wave and get a good look at this juggernaut, then the only thing that can come to mind is …………. Holy Shit! So, now you’re on Gladiator and you’re happy cause if you can keep your shit together there’s a good chance your going to go bigger then you ever have before, but for some reason this doesn’t comfort you because you remember that if you flush off the river left side of the wave there’s a good chance you might end up in ‘The Ledge’ which is river wide with the exception of 20ft on either shore. A good majority of the water in the river pushes towards the center of the Ledge in a 5 – 10 ft tall wave train. I can’t claim that we were the first to surf this wave, as it is on the Ottawa River, which is home to many pioneers of this sport and crazy people alike. I have a mental picture of Paul Harwood, Tyler Curtis or someone from the old school dropping in and surfing this monster in a Dancer or something stupid like that. I can however assure that we were the first to surf this wave in small boats with the intent of launching massive aerial tricks. The first surf went to Dan Caldwell, but it was Nick Troutman who threw the first trick on the wave, a massive Pan-am his first ride. I was so lucky as to be the first person to flush left and almost end up in the Ledge, almost is an understatement, as I actually had to surf off the shoulder as I dropped in to the Ledge. There were a few glorious cold days of surfing this giant before the levels changed and with it the waves temperament. As the water dropped it became a pity and trashy death hole. The actual water level that this wave was in at is unknown as all gauges were underwater. Have fun, go explore. By: Tyler Fox Photos By: Deuce
Nick Troutman
Joel Kowalski
Coliseum
Nick Troutman
Nick Troutman
Joel Kowalski
Joel, Nick And Deuce
Nick Troutman
Joel Kowalski
Gladiator Wave Bottoms Up Kayaking