Whitewater Kayaking Terms

Learning whitewater kayaking skills is mentally and physically challenging. Developing a kayaker's vocabulary can help you better understand the sport and river flow as well as the paddlers who are trying to help you improve your skills. Learning kayaking terms may help you accelerate your progress by allowing you to attach a vocabulary to new concepts and observations.

Equipment

The front of the boat is called the bow; the rear is the stern. The bottom part of the boat is called the hull; its shape is a key factor in how your boat will handle. You sit in the cockpit, tuck your legs under the thigh braces and press your feet against the foot brace or foot pegs. Your kayak may also have bow and stern bulkheads, a cross-sectional support wall.

When on the river, you should always wear a PFD—personal flotation device—or life jacket. Wear a spray skirt, which keeps water out of your boat, under your PFD and fastened to the cockpit rim with the grab loop outside for quick release. Sit-on-top kayaks have an open cockpit without the option of a spray skirt. Flotation bags, air bags that you pack inside your boat, add buoyancy and make it easier to rescue and drain a swamped boat.

River Features

Learning to name and identify river features is an important part of the fun of kayaking; it will also help keep you safe. An eddy is the calm water immediately downstream of an exposed rock or other object. It is calm because the object causes the water behind it to move back upstream. The line between the calmer water and swift-moving water is the eddy line or eddy wall. Water will also move upstream when it flows over a submerged object. There are many names for this recirculating current, including hole, pourover, hydraulic or reversal. The force of this current can hold onto your boat. Holes can be fun to play in but also very dangerous, depending on the river conditions. Other dangerous river features include downed trees, called strainers, and undercut rocks. The shape of undercut rocks allows water—and, sometimes, boats or swimmers—to flow underneath them.

Understanding terms that describe an entire section of river can help you make more informed choices about where to paddle. A river described as continuous is one with nonstop rapids that offer no break in between. A pool-drop river offers rapids with stretches of calm water in between. If you swim—come out of your boat—on a continuous rapid, it may be a while before you get to shore or back in your boat.

Slang

You may hear a hole or hydraulic referred to as "sticky" or as a "keeper hole;" this means the hole tends to trap buoyant objects that enter and it may be difficult to "punch through" it. You might hear that current is "pushy" at high water or "bony" in low water. Pushy means it will be more challenging to control your boat while bony means the rocks and other debris will be exposed, which might make it difficult to find a route through.

Techniques

Eddy turns and peel outs are essential to whitewater kayaking; they will out help you catch and exit eddies without flipping your boat. This technique is all about angle and proper lean, often called edging because you must lean with your hips and boat, not your waist. Ferrying is when you point your boat upstream at a 45-degree angle to cross the river or to gain better positioning before heading back downstream. The ferry angle is also used to exit or peel out of an eddy. Attainment is paddling upstream, usually through strategic use of eddies. When you enter and exit an eddy to get across the river, you are doing an S-turn. A wet exit is when you pull the grab loop of your spray skirt and exit your boat while under the water. A roll is when you upright your boat from under the water without exiting.