Introduction to Whitewater Kayaking Video

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Introduction to Whitewater Kayaking

Good day! I am Bill Dvorak, with Dvorak Kayak & Rafting Expeditions, based here in Nathrop Colorado. And what we are going to do here today is give you a basic introduction to Whitewater Kayaking. And to help us out I have got Matt Thomas here from Indiana and Zois Moka here all the way from Scotland. What we are going to do, is we are going to talk a little bit about the different types of options that you have for Kayaking, and the basic equipment and then go through the basics that you need to know, and it's one of those kind of sports where you better off getting instruction. It's not the kind of thing that you can read a book, go out and start to learn by yourself, you be tips to head, if you go ahead and get somebody that spend a couple of days with you, going through these basics, that we are going to talk about today. Alright, Kayaking is started up in the Arctic with the Eskimos. It was basically a craft that was used for hunting and fishing, and for moving from one place to another, as the condition changed on the ice and the terrain. Some of the Kayaks that the Eskimos use were big enough that they could get the whole family and all the dogs down inside. And today it's kind of progressed where even in Whitewater boating, 20 some years ago we use to have one boat that would kind of do at all, now we have lot of speciality boats. We have got Down River boats, Playboats, Creek boats and there is a broad spectrum of boats out there, that are specially places and we have brought a couple down here today. We have got a couple of playboats over here, the blue and the red one, and they are designed to be very short, so that you can go out and there is a way that we are going to be planning in here in a minute, and do tricks. And those are the two styles of boats that we have here and then we can go over here and just look at some of the basics that you want to have in a boat. Alright, one of the key things on these boats is what we called the Outfitting. And the boat wants to fit you like a glove. So you can see in here that we have back braces, thigh braces, ways to adjust how tight we are with our thighs and with our hips. We want to be in the boats so tight that when we move the boat moves. Both side to side and front to back. And the boat responds that way and everything about these boats is designed to turn. And I would say for a beginner one of the most difficult aspects of Kayaking, is actually to be able to make your boat going on a straight line, to make it go straight because it is not designed to go straight and it's not a down river craft, it's a whitewater craft that is designed to span and turn in whitewater. Okay a couple of other key component is every boat should probably have a throw bag in it. It is actually been a bunch of documentation done on all the river accidents that have happened both rafting and practicing over the years and one of the conclusion was that if every boat it had it throw bag and known how to use it, the majority of the serious accidents and fatalities probably could have been prevented. So some sort of a throw bag that you can deploy into your kayak and then you will see that it also has the sponge here, because the sprayskirt are not totally waterproof. There is always a certain amount of water that gets down in there and when the water gets in, it's starts swashing back and forth in your kayaks, so it's a good idea, to bail it out, and the easiest to bail a kayak out is to go ahead and take a sponge and get small amounts of water. The other thing we have on this particular boat is we have actually got a stern drain plug. So you can actually undo that drain plug, tiff the boat upon its end and the water will run out. And again the beginner is one of the key things that we always try to teach them is if their boat is upside down, they leave it upside down, because it traps air inside, whereas if they go to turn it right side up, then they will fill it for a more water, there will be less buoyancy and it will also be heavier and harder to pull in the shore. And you get full again, keep it upside down and then you just bring the tip up on the shore and then you are going to raise the back, so it's nice in level, drain as much water as you can out, then you are going to spin it around, run it up on shore right side up. And he is got to tip it back and forth. Of course, a couple of other key things, right here, Chi on his boat actually has a deck plate, and that fits over here, so that it's out there, playing in these waves, it doesn't collapse his sprayskirt and he is actually able to again create a more buoyancy that way. Some people will actually put other buoyancy devices in there, even a beach ball sometimes can be deployed between your legs to give you more buoyancy. First you got paddles and the school of thought now is the shorter, and shorter the school of thinking on paddles because you want to be very quick with your paddle. In the old days we use to have a longer paddles, I have use to have 90 degree offset so when you are paddling down river into the wind, the paddle blade it wasn't in the water, didn't catch the wind and sort of blow as backup stream and now some of the paddles have no offset at all. Some are twenty seven-and-a-half, some are 45, some are 35 degrees. So it is just is the matter of how you are taught, how big of offset you might like to have. Once you master them, kayaks are probably the most sea worthy kind of craft we can be in whitewater, you can run more extreme whitewater in kayaks than any other kind of craft.

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Things You Better Know Before You Go Whitewater Ka

When talking about the sport of whitewater kayaking, to make a statement that is merely taking a paddle, in a kayak and going down or up stream, is a serious understatement. Kayaking is both dangerous and challenging, especially whitewater kayaking.

http://www.articlesbase.com/article.php?aid=50022&pid=9461024403

Good day! I am Bill Dvorak, with Dvorak Kayak & Rafting Expeditions, based here in Nathrop Colorado. And what we are going to do here today is give you a basic introduction to Whitewater Kayaking. And to help us out I have got Matt Thomas here from Indiana and Zois Moka here all the way from Scotland.

What we are going to do, is we are going to talk a little bit about the different types of options that you have for Kayaking, and the basic equipment and then go through the basics that you need to know, and it's one of those kind of sports where you better off getting instruction. It's not the kind of thing that you can read a book, go out and start to learn by yourself, you be tips to head, if you go ahead and get somebody that spend a couple of days with you, going through these basics, that we are going to talk about today.

Alright, Kayaking is started up in the Arctic with the Eskimos. It was basically a craft that was used for hunting and fishing, and for moving from one place to another, as the condition changed on the ice and the terrain. Some of the Kayaks that the Eskimos use were big enough that they could get the whole family and all the dogs down inside. And today it's kind of progressed where even in Whitewater boating, 20 some years ago we use to have one boat that would kind of do at all, now we have lot of speciality boats.

We have got Down River boats, Playboats, Creek boats and there is a broad spectrum of boats out there, that are specially places and we have brought a couple down here today. We have got a couple of playboats over here, the blue and the red one, and they are designed to be very short, so that you can go out and there is a way that we are going to be planning in here in a minute, and do tricks. And those are the two styles of boats that we have here and then we can go over here and just look at some of the basics that you want to have in a boat.

Alright, one of the key things on these boats is what we called the Outfitting. And the boat wants to fit you like a glove. So you can see in here that we have back braces, thigh braces, ways to adjust how tight we are with our thighs and with our hips. We want to be in the boats so tight that when we move the boat moves. Both side to side and front to back. And the boat responds that way and everything about these boats is designed to turn. And I would say for a beginner one of the most difficult aspects of Kayaking, is actually to be able to make your boat going on a straight line, to make it go straight because it is not designed to go straight and it's not a down river craft, it's a whitewater craft that is designed to span and turn in whitewater.

Okay a couple of other key component is every boat should probably have a throw bag in it. It is actually been a bunch of documentation done on all the river accidents that have happened both rafting and practicing over the years and one of the conclusion was that if every boat it had it throw bag and known how to use it, the majority of the serious accidents and fatalities probably could have been prevented. So some sort of a throw bag that you can deploy into your kayak and then you will see that it also has the sponge here, because the sprayskirt are not totally waterproof.

There is always a certain amount of water that gets down in there and when the water gets in, it's starts swashing back and forth in your kayaks, so it's a good idea, to bail it out, and the easiest to bail a kayak out is to go ahead and take a sponge and get small amounts of water.

The other thing we have on this particular boat is we have actually got a stern drain plug. So you can actually undo that drain plug, tiff the boat upon its end and the water will run out.

And again the beginner is one of the key things that we always try to teach them is if their boat is upside down, they leave it upside down, because it traps air inside, whereas if they go to turn it right side up, then they will fill it for a more water, there will be less buoyancy and it will also be heavier and harder to pull in the shore.

And you get full again, keep it upside down and then you just bring the tip up on the shore and then you are going to raise the back, so it's nice in level, drain as much water as you can out, then you are going to spin it around, run it up on shore right side up. And he is got to tip it back and forth.

Of course, a couple of other key things, right here, Chi on his boat actually has a deck plate, and that fits over here, so that it's out there, playing in these waves, it doesn't collapse his sprayskirt and he is actually able to again create a more buoyancy that way.

Some people will actually put other buoyancy devices in there, even a beach ball sometimes can be deployed between your legs to give you more buoyancy. First you got paddles and the school of thought now is the shorter, and shorter the school of thinking on paddles because you want to be very quick with your paddle.

In the old days we use to have a longer paddles, I have use to have 90 degree offset so when you are paddling down river into the wind, the paddle blade it wasn't in the water, didn't catch the wind and sort of blow as backup stream and now some of the paddles have no offset at all. Some are twenty seven-and-a-half, some are 45, some are 35 degrees. So it is just is the matter of how you are taught, how big of offset you might like to have.

Once you master them, kayaks are probably the most sea worthy kind of craft we can be in whitewater, you can run more extreme whitewater in kayaks than any other kind of craft.

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