Learn Useful River Features for Whitewater Kayaking

Video Transcript

"There's lot of river features and hazards to be aware of before you get on the river. One we're sitting in right now is an eddy. There are good things to keep in mind. That you can stop and rest, take a look at what's going on. As you can see, the water hits this rock, comes in and fills into this space behind the rock, and that's our eddy. That's one thing to keep in mind. We also have things called holes out there. Say my hand is a rock. If the water hits the rock on the upstream side, curls around, comes in, that's an eddy. If the water comes in over the rock and comes back on itself, that's a hole. As the water gets higher, it can create waves all the way down the river. Those are some things to keep in mind, but this rock could have many shapes. One things called an under cut rock. That means instead of being flushed with the bottom of the river, it's tilted so there's a place where boats, people, logs, things can get stuck underneath it. It's called an undercut. You identify an undercut because there's usually a dark place right in front of the rock. Not always but a majority of the time. A couple other things to keep in mind would be trees. Trees go down in the river; they're called strainers. As a tree goes down, there branches go in the river so the tree acts like a spaghetti strainer. Water goes through but boats and people do not. Your first rule of thumb is to stay away from them. If you can't, you're going to have to up and over because you can't see what's underneath. A couple other things to stay away from are dams. You want to basically stay clear of dams because they form a uniform structure and a uniform hazard behind it called a hole. You want to kind of keep in mind what's going on out on the river. When in doubt, scout; get out and take a look at what's going on around you. A couple of other things to keep in mind is which way the river is turning. Faster current tends to be on the outside of the bend, but that also forms erosion on that outside of the bend so that may be a way some trees come down into the river. Keep your eyes open and ask some friends what's going on in the river. I'm on my river everyday and one day there's not a tree down, the next day there may be. So you want to keep aware of what's going on and keep up to date. "