Kevin...I know that wave! I have rafted (not kayaked, never done that) the Wenatchee 6 times to date. it does look a lot bigger in person, is your pic stretched horizontally?
Cool! Another river person... Yeah, that is the biggest wave in the last rapid on the river. On the raft trips, the guide hypes the size of the last wave all the way down the river, and even though there are plenty of huge waves on the rest of the river, K2 dwarfs 'em all. Going down deep into the trough and flying off the top is great fun in a raft, provided you are then able to miss the bus-eating sized hole just downstream, called "Suffocator". That particular hydraulic scares the bejeezus out of my frail heart. Fortunately it's not that hard to miss if your craft is in control.
The picture is not stretched... this is one of Laws of kayaking: everything looks half as big and half as scary in photographs as it did when you were there in person.
Surfing a wave like that is hard to describe. The water is ripping underneath your hull at HIGH speed, the wave is constantly surging and changing shape, and you are able to carve back and forth, spin, dance and essentially stay one step ahead of chaos. It's mind blowing and completely addicting. In fact, in many ways it shares the same properties as certain procreative endeavors...
I've got to say that paddling a whitewater river is just as much fun and pleasureable as being with the opposite gender, except the river is a lot more predictable! If it came down to making a choice to give up one forever, I would have to think about it for a loooong time.
