In 2022, Mike Harvey and his crew of wave builders, re-constructed the Scout Wave into a fun, game changing smooth river wave up in the mountains. A first for Colorado mountains waves that always trended more to a kayak hole than a green-faced dynamic ocean style rapid surf wave.
The Scout Wave 2.0 has been surfed since the fall 2022 and people are just getting it dialed in both on how to surf it, what to surf on it, and what micro-adjustments might be able to be made to the wave by Mike Harvey such as raising up the back pool for a steeper face.
The wave surfs a bit flatter than other waves (Sixx, Benni’s, Bend, etc) so you have to get after it and charge the wave much like you do Eisbach in Munich. In other words, the wave is really NOT one to stand in single spot and then wind things up for dynamic turns. If you try to surf in one spot, you are going to get flushed so you need to get right after it with turns when you jump on in or do the back foot tail elevator drop thing.
What will be a challenge for your first time(s) surfing Scout is; trying to figure out how to harness the power of the wave in order to be able to surf back and forth. Unlike Bend, Sixx, or other waves, you can’t surf just off the top portion of the Scout Wave since the wave is too flat for that. You need to make full turns that grab power from the bottom half of the wave that you then carry speed up the top of the wave for a strong slash turn. (Although, watch out for fins ticks and hits on the shallow bottom front of the wave.) But for those who have Scout dialed in, they are railing the heck out of the wave wall to wall with incredible ocean style surf turns.
The eddys are strongest on surfers left. For you “natural foot” surfers who like to drop in front side, you will likely find that the eddy is weaker on surfer’s right and that the second eddy out on surfer’s right on the sidewalk side of the wave is better to use and get out to then walk back up to the wave.
Leashes? Leashes suck ass in river surfing (another story to blog about)!!! Many people surf with a leash at Scout, especially the locals (a carry over from down river SUP), so that means people do that unconventional swim and drag the board thing to the nearest eddy. But watch out for sling-shotting boards that are a danger if you are in the eddy and another surfer with a leash has bailed and is doing the swim/drag thing. Keep an eye out for flying boards that the swimming surfer is not managing, because they are more worried about the swim to the eddy than they are are about the board possibly hitting someone.
If you are used to not surfing with a leash, it is recommended to try to stick with that method of not using a leash for multiple reasons… including all the rocks in the river at Scout that could entangle your leash.
CAUTION: at posting of this blog entry, it is not known how high flows at Scout 2.0 will make for chasing your board or trying to swim/drag or paddle to the eddys. It will be a good idea before surfing, to walk down river to see how to get out in the event of high flows…. Reality it might be a spot NOT worth surfing at higher flow if you don’t use a leash or even if you think a “quick release” is really something you can trust your life to.
Currently, nobody has “the best board” figured out for Scout. Some people swear by 5’2″ and shorter, while others are surfing 6’6″ board at Scout. And at Scout 2.0 you can even toss in more dynamic blow-up board like a Bad Fish Wave-O. Bring you quiver to surf Scout and figure it out yourself for what works best for you.
Will update later as the Arkansas river gets high flows this melt season of 2023.
Here is a link to Mike Harvey’s write-up for Scout 2.0: https://badfishsup.com/blogs/blog/scout-wave-2-0-salidas-new-river-surfing-wave
The Denver Surf Report 