This whitewater open boat technique article originally appeared in Rapid magazine.
Over the years I’ve picked up some lesser-known canoeing techniques that have allowed me to do awesome things in shorter canoes like the L’Edge. I discovered most of these tricks a decade ago when I was paddling a Spanish Fly. The smaller the canoe you paddle, the more important it becomes to leverage your upper body weight to create momentum. Here are some techniques I use that will help you on everything from your local class III river to highly technical class V runs.
If you’re running continuous creeks in a canoe, your boat is going to fill up with water, making it tough to catch eddies. One trick I use is to aggressively throw my upper body forward to help punch strong eddylines. It makes a huge difference if you have a canoe full of water and are worried about getting rejected and slipping into the next rapid backwards. The key is to throw your weight forward as you approach the eddy from a perpendicular angle. Once your body weight is through the eddyline, your stern will follow.
Another way you can use your upper body weight is by leaning forward on big, fast, bouncy slides—a move David “Psycho” Simpson taught me 12 years ago, the first time I ran Oceana on the Tallulah Gorge. Your natural instinct is to lean back on a slide. But if you hit a rut and take a funny bounce, your canoe can easily get off line and send you in a direction you don’t want to go. Shift your weight forward on fast bouncy slides and your canoe will track better and take you where you want to go.
Upper body momentum can also keep you dry in big wave trains. Lean forward going into a wave and then aggressively throw your upper body back to raise your bow. This helps keep your boat dry on waves where most boats take on water. That leaves you in a better position for the rest of the rapid. Less time spent stopping to dump out water means more time for playing.
When your canoe is completely full of water, you can also use upper body weight and momentum to punch large holes. Generally, I try to avoid large holes altogether. However, when your boat is full of water, skirting a hole may not be an option. If you’re full, throw your upper body weight forward aggressively as you enter a large unavoidable hole. If you commit with your weight forward and you’re carrying good downstream momentum, you will punch the hole and come through right side up more times than not.
Upper body weight also comes into play running waterfalls. I like to go off waterfalls slightly faster than the current. I spot my landing visually, plant my paddle and take a quarter-strength boof stroke, count to one and then throw my upper body forward and tuck. If I find myself flipping to my onside, I tighten my core, arch my back and use my upper body lean to get the boat back under me.
For more ways to boost your whitewater game, click here.
Dooley Tombras is a Tennessee native known for shattering perceptions of what can be accomplished in an open boat.
This article originally appeared in Rapid, Fall 2012. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
