Understand the Dangers of High Water Levels While Whitewater Kayaking

Video Transcript

"If you've ever been down a river on a hot sunny day, the water is kind of low, it's kind of meandering, not too much to worry about. Things change in the spring when water levels get really high. Things move faster and if things go wrong in faster, higher, water, they go wrong in a big way. Out across there's a large log on the rocks. That was deposited when the river was really high. It may have washed out all the features, but it also took all the debris and some of the trees down and deposited up there. Some things to keep in mind. If the water is powerful to move a tree that size or even bigger, imagine what it could do to you if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. So keep an eye on those water levels. Things come up quickly. If you're in a steeper beam and you see thunderstorms on the horizon they may flash. If you have a big watershed where the water can just sparse over a wide area, the water may rise slow and it may go down slow, so make sure you check those things. If you look here at this current, if I just put my paddle here. In this lower current, there's not much force on it. I can kind of hold it here, no problem. If I put my paddle out here, it's really strong. You can feel try to struggle to keep it in the current. If you've got stronger current its harder to get places, so you want to make sure you have the skill and the information to know what's going on in your rivers. With the shallow river or if water levels go down, that would be difficult for your river trip as well. May be tough to get down. Places may be impassable, so you want to keep that in mind. So check out your rivers, check out the water levels, check out the watershed around in your area and get involved your local river areas to know what's going on. "