The front wave at 17.6k
Located immediately upstream of the Rte. 302 bridge over the CT River between Woodsville, NH and Wells River, VT, they are easily accessible and a lot of fun. They are high water waves, beginning to come in above 12k on the CT River @ Wells River usgs gauge. I've surfed them as high as 25k and I expect that at least one of them continues to be excellent above 25k as well. The CT does not get this high for very long. It's up in this range for maybe a couple of weeks worth of days per year. So if these waves are in, get on it! These are better than most of the other stuff in the upper valley when they are high (except for the cliff wave on the white).
big picture at 17.6k
The front wave is a gentle wide wave with a nice pile that forms in front of a big pourover (partly from the compression upstream of the pourover rock). It looks like you could get stuck in the pourover if you washed off wrong, but you'd have to really try. This wave allows blunts, spins, even cartwheels at the lower levels, and all manner of elaborate modern freestyle moves for slower waves. This wave is better at the higher flow end for this spot but works all the way down to 12k or so.
The front wave (right) and the fast wave (left) at 25k
(lame cell phone photo)
Behind the front wave and more in the main flow is a series of faster waves in a wavetrain. These waves come in at the higher end of the scale. At until the low 20ks they are not well formed enough to surf (too surgy) The first fast wave forms off the trailing corner of the pourover. At higher levels it's pretty bouncy and surgy allowing for aerial moves.
A rodeo was planned for this location in April of 2009 in conjunction with the Ledyard River Festival, but water levels did not cooperate. checkit: http://www.ledyardriverfestival.com/competition-events
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