Video Infoblog:15 River Features

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reading a river is no different than

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reading a book you just need to

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understand the language you need to have

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the vocabulary we're going to introduce

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to you all the different types of

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features in a river once you know those

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features are known by name you're then

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going to be able to put the pieces

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together to come up with what the rapid

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is really doing what we're going to

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teach you in reading a river is simply

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being able to identify the proper route

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through the river and the proper way to

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get through a rapid as easily as

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possible with the skills that you have

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reading a river is a super fun part of

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whitewater kayaking because every rapid

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is a little bit different and everyone

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tells a little different story some

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Rapids are long they read like a long

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chapter some of them are super short and

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they read like a sentence those are the

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easiest ones so let's first introduce to

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you each individual feature the first

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feature I want to introduce to you is

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the Eddy there are several parts of an

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Eddy you want to be aware of the anatomy

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of an Eddy

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the first is the top of an Eddy the top

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of an Eddy is the very most upstream

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side of the Eddy it's usually up against

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the rock or right against the shore

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around a corner then you have the bottom

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of the Eddy the bottom is the most

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downstream side where the where the Eddy

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or the slow water starts disappearing

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and turning back into current you also

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have the eddy line and the Eddy line

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separates the current from the Eddy

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understanding the Eddy line is key which

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is a separate feature in itself lastly

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you need to know about the pocket of the

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Eddy the pocket is the most stationary

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or upstream moving current in the Eddy

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that's the place where if you can get

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your kayak tube you're going to be able

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to sit there and hang out the next

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feature I want to introduce is the hole

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the hole is probably the most

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misunderstood feature in all of river

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running and the reason is because holes

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take a little bit of skill to work with

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now what a hole is it's simply where the

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water rushes over a rock creates a

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trough in the river and the downstream

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water fills in on itself fills the

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trough in creating a foam pile if you

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see a wave breaking in the ocean that

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foam pile it's essentially a hole same

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thing out here on the river now the

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anatomy of a hole a hole has several

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parts you need to be aware of the foam

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pile that

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the upstream rushing water what we call

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the boil line that separates the water

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it's kind like the bottom of the hole

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separates where the water starts going

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downstream again and where the water is

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still rushing upstream you also have the

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corners of the hole the corners of the

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hole or where the foam pile disappears

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enter back into the current very similar

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to the corners of Eddie's now the next

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thing you need to be aware of is the

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shape of a hole when we talk about the

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shape the shape is if you had a

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bird's-eye view looking facing

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downstream and looking at the foam pile

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if the if the foam pile is straight

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across we just call it a straight hole

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the foam pile looks like a smiley face

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where the corners are further downstream

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than the center of the hole we call it a

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smiley hole if the corners are more

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upstream we call it a pocket hole or a

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frowny hole the last kind of hole is a

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diagonal hole one where the foam pile

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runs diagonally across the river meaning

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one end is further downstream and the

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other end is further upstream each one

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of these holes you'll deal with slightly

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differently and we'll get into that in

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the technique section of how to go

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through holes another awesome feature in

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whitewater rivers are rocks rocks are

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pretty much what make the white water

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the rocks are the bottom of the river

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the rocks sometimes are large boulders

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or just little rocks in the river you're

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going to find all of these things in

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almost every whitewater river you run

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but you basically need to be able to

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identify with a rock is whether that

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rock is friendly or whether the rock is

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not friendly most rocks in a river are

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quite friendly you'll find that they

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have pillows on them they tend to be

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smooth enough that you can paddle around

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them you can paddle over them you can

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bump into them there are a few rocks out

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there that you most definitely need to

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be aware of those types of rocks are

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number one thin rocks are very sharp

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rocks where the water hits them and

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rushes past them very fast those rocks

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are not friendly because they tend to

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get a kayak stuck or pinned on them they

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can be sharp but also they're just they

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don't create any kind of a pillow so the

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water rushes by them very quickly you

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also have what's called undercut rocks

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undercut rocks are simply rocks that are

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sitting on top of something

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what happens is some of the water goes

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under them creating what's called a

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sieve an undercut rock is dangerous

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because not only can the water go under

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under the rock but also boats and bodies

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potentially can go under there causing a

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pin entrapment or even a death in worst

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case scenario now the cool thing about

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rocks are most of them are extremely

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safe but it's key as a River Runner that

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you can identify dangerous rock from

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friendly Rock and we'll go over those as

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well the next feature you're going to

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find in a river is the Eddy line the

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Eddy line is what separates the current

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going down river with the slack water

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which is called the Eddy now an eddy

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line comes in a lot of different forms

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you've got crisp clear Eddy lines which

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are sharp line between the current and

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the Eddy those are the easiest to deal

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with

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you also have wide 80 lines mushy Eddy

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lines or otherwise known as boilie Eddy

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lines there's any lines if you look at

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it you don't actually see a distinct

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line between the current and the Eddy

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the current almost fades out and then

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slowly turns into an eddy so it's a

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little it's less distinct another thing

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you're going to find with Eddy lines is

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how strong the current differential is

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some Eddy lines are super strong is

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really fast current and then a really

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strong eddy so the current differential

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is huge and the difference between the

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current and the eddy is extremely

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visible and you've got slow or slack

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moving water with a very much you're

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very slow eddy current differential is

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much smaller the next feature I want to

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introduce you to is waves now waves are

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awesome part of river running waves or

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would make your boat bounce up and down

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waves are things that you can surf in

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the river

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I mean waves make kayaking unbelievably

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fun awesome now what you're going to

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find in a wave the anatomy of a wave is

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the peak which is the very top of the

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wave then you have the trough which is

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the very bottom or the deepest

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depression you also have the shoulders

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of the waves as shoulders the most to

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the right or left of the wave is a wave

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starts to disappear as we discuss how to

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go through waves you're going to need to

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know that and that terminology because

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we're going to refer to it quite a bit