2025 Schedule for Group Sessions on the Ocoee River
The Ocoee is an incredible training ground with reliable flows, simple logistics, and a wonderful blend of technical moves and powerful water. For southern paddlers there isn’t a better summer training ground, and the river is the perfect venue for group sessions focused on a range of disciplines:
Work the Ocoee Sessions: Here we are milking the most classic Middle Ocoee river for all its worth, hitting hard lines, eddies, surfs, attainments and other moves. Repetition and workshopping each sequence with the group creates an exciting, collaborative opportunity to up your game. Work the Ocoee Sessions can also be geared towards milder, more conservative goals of dialing in the friendlier lines on the river - you’ll just need to coordinate a group that has this goal and book an exclusive session. Reliable Combat Roll is required.
Upper Ocoee/Olympic Sessions: While we’ll paddle the entire length of the Upper Ocoee, and snag a few laps on Alien Ledge, the meat and potatoes of this session is an intensive workout session on the Olympic Section itself - the most advanced section of the Ocoee, where a continuous Class IV environment allows for high pressure s-turns, slalom movement, and stout lines. There is no better training ground in the south for rivers like the Cheoah and Gauley than the Olympic Section of the Upper Ocoee. This is an advanced session.
Beatdown Sessions: Sure you can style the lines when everything goes well and you stay away from the holes, but what happens when things go sideways? This session allows a challenge-by-choice styled instruction experience, where we’ll start off setting you up with some basic hole surfing, stabilization, and extrication techniques, before applying it by actually getting into and out of holes. This is a classic Ace experience. Reliable combat roll is a must, and a willingness to fail and support you fellow sessionaires!
Broken Nose Sessions: Broken Nose is the technical piece de resistance of the Ocoee, and serves as both a nemesis and refinement course to paddlers depending on their skill. With an easy portage trail which allows multiple laps, this is a creeker’s training ground come true. Students will rotate out setting safety, practice cross-river communication, and learn to dial in both the safe standard lines, as well as have the opportunity to hit the hard eddies and drop-surfs if so desired. Solid combat roll required.
Long Boat Sessions: Paddling a long boat is a true art form. Controlling the eternal glide that a 12 foot boat allows within the context of a techincal river like the Ocoee forces a paddler to step beyond their normal understanding of what “close enough” means, where slight miscalculations of angle and timing hurt. The boat demands an adjustment of stroke portfolio and line selection strategy that is a delight when done right, and makes your creeker feel easy. These sessions are a must do!
Full Slice Sessions: Back in the day, they weren’t called full slices, they were called playboats. Unless you’re looking for big air and comp cred, the full slice is really the boat to play in, and the Ocoee has lots of good stuff. Let’s get out there and squirt, splat, blast, and surf our way into Ocoee bliss!
HERE’S WHAT’S AVAILABLE FOR 2025:
Group sessions last 4-6 hours and are physically very demanding.
Work the Ocoee Sessions focus on hard moves and creativity on the Middle Ocoee. Broken Nose Sessions spend most of the day at Broken Nose working on eddies, with repeated walks back up for laps. Upper Ocoee/Olympic Section Sessions focus mainly on the Olympic Section with lots of hard moves and ferries. Beatdown Sessions focus on getting into and out of holes and associated skills. Longboat Sessions focus on the unique skillset, approach and rewards to getting the most out of a full 12 foot long kayak.
August 3rd (Sunday) - Upper Ocoee/Olympic Section - FULL
August 4th (Monday) - Work the Ocoee Group Session - FULL
August 8th (Friday) - Beatdown Session - Middle Ocoee FULL
August 10th (Sunday) - Upper Ocoee/Olympic Section - FULL
August 11th (Monday) - Work the Ocoee Group Session - FULL
August 21st (Thursday) - Longboat Session - 2 left!
August 22nd (Friday) - Beatdown - TVCC Members event
August 23rd (Saturday) - Upper Ocoee/Olympic Section FULL
August 24th (Sunday) - Beatdown Session - Middle Ocoee FULL
September 29th (Monday) - Broken Nose Session - FULL
September 30th (Tuesday) - Work the Ocoee Group Session
October 1st (Wednesday) - Full Slice Session - Middle Ocoee
Cost to attend is $150 per person, per session.
Sessions are capped at a maximum of 6 students. A minimum of 3 registrants is necessary for a session to proceed. Once 3 paddlers have registered for a session, non-refundable deposits will be taken to secure paddler’s spots in the session.