Knowing River Features & Dynamics for Whitewater Rafting

Video Transcript

"It’s great to understand a little bit about river dynamics and river features so that you’re able to use them to your advantage when you work your way downstream. Taking a river rescue course will also enable you to get a better understanding of how to use these features to your advantage and also which features to look out for and which features to fear. Uh, on the river you commonly have a lot of sections where there are wave trains. Wave trains for rafting are a lot of fun. While you’re in a wave train you also need to be looking out for upstream and downstream V’s. With an upstream V, that is often determined by a rock in your path. You need to make sure that you understand that and that you avoid those rocks. Downstream V’s point in the direction that you want to go, so that you can have the maximum amount of fun. Also on the river there are eddies. An eddy is an area of water that is slowly moving upstream, it can actually be moving quite rapidly upstream. It’s often caused by a shoreline feature or a rock in the river that interrupts the flow of the river. Eddies can be real useful to you as a raft guide, or as a rafter, for slowing down or stopping, you can use an eddy as an area to drive into and stop so that you can wait to bring the rest of your trip downstream or just to take a break and hang out. Also it’s a great way to scout from the river using an eddy to pull over and stop. Rafting again, is organized chaos, things happen very quickly and the river is sort of a conveyor belt though that chaos and eddies are an opportunity for you to step off that chaos conveyor and take a little break and look around and see what’s going on. There are holes and hydraulics out there that are fun to play in, you need to understand a little bit about which holes are appropriate for you to go in depending on the size of your raft and the type of trip your crew is looking for. There are some holes that are quite big, quite sticky and quite complicated to get out of, and can be quite life threatening. There are also other holes that are small, playful and fun, and it’s a shame to miss an opportunity to play on the river when it passes you by, so having an understanding of what’s appropriate and what’s in-appropriate is something that you can get from a river rescue class. "