Information about Whitewater Kayaking

Whitewater kayaking is the sport of paddling a kayak on a moving body of water, typically a whitewater river. Whitewater kayaking can range from simple, carefree gently moving water, to demanding, dangerous whitewater. River rapids are graded like ski runs according to the difficulty, danger or severity of the rapid. Whitewater Grades or Classes range from I or 1 (the easiest) to VI or 6 (the most difficult/dangerous). Grade/Class I can be described as slightly moving water with ripples. Grade/Class VI can be described as severe or almost unrunnable whitewater (classic example: Niagara Falls).

Design

The kayak (or just 'boat') used in casual whitewater kayaking is different from those used in Whitewater Racing or Sea Kayaking. Traditionally, kayaks were made of animal skins stretched over wooden frames. Early whitewater boats were fiberglass or kevlar, and this is still preferred for racing due to the light weight, but most modern whitewater boats are typically rotomoulded from a tough plastic that is slightly flexible and very durable, if easily scratched. Boats can range in size from barely long enough to hold the paddler (around 6 ft/1.8 m long), up to 12 ft (3.6 m) or longer.

Types

There are five 'sub-categories' in whitewater kayaking:

River Running

This can be thought of as a tour down a river, to enjoy the scenery as well as experiencing challenging whitewater. River running includes short day trips as well as longer multi-day trips. Multi-day kayak trips often entail the use of gear-toting rafts to allow a more comfortable experience without a heavily-laden kayak. Whitewater Racing is the competitive aspect of this sub-category, racing canoes or kayaks down a river as fast as possible.

Creeking

Creeking is perhaps best thought of as a subcategory of River Running, involving very technical and difficult rapids, typically in the Grade/Class IV to VI range. While people will differ on the definition, creeking generally involves higher gradient (approaching or in excess of 100 feet per mile), and is likely to include running ledges, slides, and waterfalls on relatively small and tight rivers, though some will allow for very large and big volume rivers in their definition. Kayaks used for creeking usually have higher volume (more gallons of displacement) and more rounded bow and stern, as these features provide an extra margin of safety against the likelihood of pinning, and will resurface more quickly and controllably when coming off larger drops. Creek boats usually have increased, "rocker" or rise on the bow to go up and over obstacles and obstructions within the river. Extreme racing is a competitive form of this aspect of whitewater kayaking, in which kayakers race down steep sections and or generally dangerous sections of whitewater.

Slalom

Main article: Whitewater slalom

A technical competitive form of kayaking, and the only whitewater event to appear in the Olympics. Racers attempt to make their way from the top to the bottom of a designated section of river as fast as possible, while correctly negotiating gates (a series of double-poles suspended vertically over the river). There are usually 18-25 gates in a race which must be navigated in sequential order. Green gates must be negotiated in a downstream direction, red gates in an upstream direction. The events are typically conducted on Grade/Class II to Grade/Class IV water, but the placement of the gates, and precision necessary to paddle them fast and "clean" (without touching a pole and adding 2 seconds to the total time), makes the moves much harder than the water's difficulty suggests. (Slalom has been described as performing class V moves with class III consequences.) Pro level slalom competitions have specific length (350cm for kayaks - new rules), width, and weight requirements for the boats, which will be made out of kevlar/fiberglass/carbon fiber composites to be light weight and have faster hull speed. (Plastic whitewater kayaks can be used in citizen-level races.) This is the only form of whitewater kayaking currently in the Olympics.

Playboating

Main article: Playboating

Also known as Freestyle or Rodeo, is a more gymnastic and artistic kind of kayaking. While the other varieties of kayaking generally involve going from Point A to Point B, playboaters often stay in one spot in the river (usually in a hole, pourover or on a wave) where they work with and against the dynamic forces of the river to perform a variety of maneuvers. These can include surfing, spinning, and various vertical moves (cartwheels, loops, blunts, pistol and donkey flips, and many others), spinning the boat on all possible axes of rotation. More recently, aerial moves have become accessible, where paddlers perform tricks having gained air from using the speed and bounce of the wave. Kayaks used for playboating generally have relatively low volume in the bow and stern, allowing the paddler to submerge the ends of the kayak with relative ease. Competitions for playboating or freestyle are sometimes called whitewater rodeo in the US, but more frequently just referred to as freestyle events in UK and Europe.

Squirt Boating

Main article: Squirt Boating

Squirt boating incorporates the use of low-volume boats to perform special moves in whitewater features. Squirt boating predates, and was critical to the foundation of, playboating. Squirt boats are often fairly long and flat, with low volume throughout the design. Because squirt boats are custom built to the paddlers weight, inseam, and personal preference, they are constructed with composite materials instead of plastic. Many squirt moves are intended to submerge all or part of the craft and paddler, such as the "mystery move," in which both the boat and the paddler submerge completely into the river's flow for several seconds and up to half a minute.

Techniques

Boofing

In whitewater kayaking, boofing refers to the raising of the kayak's bow (see Bow (ship)) during freefall, while descending a waterfall. This technique is used to avoid submerging the kayak by ensuring it lands flat when it hits the base of the waterfall. The term is believed to be an onomatopoeia derived from the sound that is sometimes created when the hull of the kayak makes contact with water at the base of the waterfall.

Timing is critical to properly execute a boof. The final stroke coming off the waterfall should be close to the lip and relatively powerful, in order to force the bow of the boat up.

A boof may or may not be appropriate, depending on the anatomy of your selected waterfall. Generally, if it's shallow at the base, you should boof to avoid pinning. Waterfalls higher than about twenty feet should not be boofed, because doing so may cause spinal injury.

See also

• Canoeing
• Whitewater
• Extreme racing
• Rafting
• Riverboarding
• River surfing
• Freeboating
• International Scale of River Difficulty - Whitewater is normally rated on this scale which goes from 1 to 6, normally designated by Roman Numerals. Class I are the easiest rapids, while class VI are the most difficult and most inherently dangerous.
• List of whitewater rivers

External links

• Whitewater kayaking at the Open Directory Project
• River level Readings
• List of wikis specializing in whitewater.
• MCA HUT! Archive: Boof Is What? (full definition and etymology)
• Flow Rider (html). Kayaking.