There’s a good reason why the best boaters make it look easy—they work with the water rather than against it. Develop your river reading skills and place your boat onto the most helpful currents and waves to assist your maneuvers.
When exiting eddies, look for a wave trough that meets the eddyline and angles downstream away from the eddy pool. If a good trough is present, you don’t need much momentum.
Relax, fall onto the trough and let the wave do the work. Remember to fix your angle perpendicular to the trough line, not the eddyline and you won’t have to paddle nearly as hard.
This article originally appeared in Rapid, Spring 2012. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
