How To Use The River

Skills

Photo: Ryan Creary — Whitewater technique.

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.

Daily Photo: Stand and Deliver

Photo: Lisa DeHart — Daily Photo: Stand and Deliver

This photo was taken by Lisa DeHart. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.

Daily Photo: Dominion

Photo: Gamma Man — Daily Photo: Dominion

Richmond, VA’s Dominon Riverrock Festival is just two months away. There won’t be a three-storey launch ramp this year like the one in the photo, taken at the 2010 festival. There will be freestyle and boatercross comps and lots of opportunity to paddle. (Oh, and biking, trail running, adventure racing, climbing, yoga, slacklining and standup paddling…but really we care about whitewater boating.)

This photo was taken by Flickr user Gamma Man and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Think your image could be a Rapid Media Whitewater Daily Photo? Submit it to [email protected].

Daily Photo: Lake Tahoe

274f1bf2bd18e7f0d33d6244e658426e_XL — Photo: Phil Dow

Phil Dow met with friends Tim Krane and Jeffrey Fortuna in early spring to explore the north shore of Lake Tahoe. The crystal clear coves and perfect beaches of Sand Harbor were home to the opulent retreat of infamous early 20^th century millionaire, George Whittell Jr., before the State of Nevada purchased the land for a state park in 1968.

Location: Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Photo Phil Dow.

This image originally appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of Adventure Kayak. Read it here.

Daily Photo: The Life

This sunset picture was taken on the Nancy Lake Canoe Trails near Willow, Alaska. “Just us and a pair of loons on the lake. It doesn’t get much better.”— Marty

This photo was taken by Marty. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.

Daily Photo: Harness Up

Photo: s.schmitz — Daily Photo: Harness Up

When you feel like things are starting to get away from you a little, harness up, dive in and get after it.

This photo was taken by Flickr user s.schmitz and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Think your image could be a Rapid Media Whitewater Daily Photo? Submit it to [email protected].

Daily Photo: Kayaker’s Best Friend

e88c403143ae0a81dde94b0909e552aa_XL — Photo: Pygmy Boats

George the dog loves riding in the center cockpit of his loyal bipeds’ Pygmy triple. “And we love it when he comes!” says Pygmy’s Laura Prendergast. Photo courtesy Pygmy Boats.

Changing Competition; the Whitewater Grand Prix

Photo: Nicholas Gottlieb — Kayakers battle it out in a mass start race, Chile

Not much had changed on the event circuit in 15 years. Freestyle comps were surfing along at predictable venues, soul boaters had events like FiBArk and Gauley, and slalom remained obscure. Then, unrest took over and in 2011, the Whitewater Grand Prix was born. Scene-boaters are raving. December’s second annual Grand Prix was a huge success—it’s changed how we look at whitewater competition. Here’s why:

Lost in the Jungle

The Mountain Games take place yearly in Vail; the 2013 edition of the Freestyle world Championships on the Nantahala—hardly remote in comparison to jungle rivers of Chile. These events draw crowds and dollars from deeper-pocketed big-name sponsors and Olympic-level federations. they get exposure. The coveted 18–49 market fills bleachers to take in a competition, energy drinks in hand. The Whitewater Grand Prix sacrifices all that for the sake of balls-to-the-wall whitewater.

Sooo Much HD Video

The answer to a venue inaccessible to spectators? Both installments of the Grand Prix have been nothing short of media production machines. Judging by the footage, paddlers weren’t allowed within 50 feet of a river without a bobble head-inducing GoPro mounted to their helmets. For competitive whitewater paddling—remote by nature and with no reliable…

This article appeared in Rapid, Spring 2013. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read the rest here.

Paddling Pro Camera Kit

Gear

Photo: Darin McQuoid — Outdoor photography essentials

From the Sierra Nevada to Pakistan’s Himalaya, whitewater photographer Darin McQuoid shoots some of the wildest rivers on earth. This is what he brings.

1. Watershed Ocoee $84.95 // www.drybags.com

2. Nikon D700 $2,999 // www.nikonusa.com

3. 52mm Color Graduated Neutral Density 0.6 $69.99 // www.tiffen.com

4. 52mm Nikon Circular Polarizer II $100 // www.nikonusa.com

5. Microfiber Goggle Bag with Divider $5

6. SanDisk 16GB ULTRA CF Memory Card 30MB/s $51.95 // www.sandisk.com

7. 18% Gray Lens Cloth $8

8. Nikon ENEL-3e Spare Battery $39.95 // www.nikonusa.com

9. In my experience, mid-range zoom lenses generally give you the most boring angle for kayaking shots. A fixed lens like the Nikkor 50mm f/2 AI makes me work harder to get creative angles. $100 // buy used

10. Nikkor 28mm f/2 AI-S $450 // buy used

11. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Series E AI-S: All metal construction makes this a nice, tough lens. MF is an acquired skill, but for the price and weight you get pro-quality optics. $100 // buy used

12. $20 local currency, just in case

For pro tips on shooting an award-winning paddling film, click here.

This article originally appeared in Rapid magazine, Summer/Fall 2011. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.

Daily Photo: Badass Kayak

Photo: Grand Canyon NPS — Daily Photo: Badass Kayak

It doesn’t look like much, but this is the first kayak ever to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. It has a glass hull and canvas deck. The ballsy boater to perform this first? Walter Kirschbaum in June, 1960.

This photo was taken by Flickr user Grand Canyon NPS and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Think your image could be a Rapid Media Whitewater Daily Photo? Submit it to [email protected].