first time in the river questions

[alap]

ok, today on the way back to my car from the dam, I took a river (river flows from the dam to the parking lot, its a 15 minute walk, and it was about 5 minutes ride).

basically, I was very cautious. I started at the bay with no current, and entered the water. its very simple actually. you just go with a current. there are small swirls and vortexes here and there, and if you look on the water you are not moving, but if you are looking on the bushes - yeah you are moving very fast. I turned upstream and started to paddle, but still I was moving backwards: the current is way faster than I can paddle!

at one spot there was something that probably would allow me to surf, but I was too afraid to try, besides I dont know even if this was a right place.

there was a shallow stretch sticking out into the river, say 10 meters (30 feet) out, perpendicular to the bank. Big boulders were quite visible, I'd say they were only half a feet below the water surface, and the water was moving very fast on top of those. The feeling was it was sorta spilling over. I took further to the middle to avoid it. But just downstream of it as the water was spilling over it, the surface was getting lower and then one or two meters it was getting higher - the standing wave! about shin high, I'd certainly coulda catch it easily in the ocean.

Is that the typical place to catch a river wave?

How one approaches it?

going from above, paddling upstream, still moving downstream on top of those builders? sounds suisadal to me?

or trying to enter it from the side? from the middle of the river? again paddling upstream, moving backwards trying to get into this narrow opening sideways?

or may be from the shore?

and if you miss.. what do you do?

go to the shore and try to walk upstream?

if anyone can answer i'll appreciate this.

Anyway I after I pass this potential wave (or potential place to damage myself) I went to the shore. I was afraid how could I get out of the water, but this part was remarkably easy. Despite such a quick current, the moment I disembarked my vehicle and touched the bottom it was extremely easy against all my expectations to stand on the bottom to keep the gear under control and to walk out of the river.

[kwhilden]

How one approaches it?

going from above, paddling upstream, still moving downstream on top of those builders? sounds suisadal to me?

or trying to enter it from the side? from the middle of the river? again paddling upstream, moving backwards trying to get into this narrow opening sideways?

or may be from the shore?

and if you miss.. what do you do?

go to the shore and try to walk upstream?

Basically you can do all of the above, it depends on the situation with rocks, currents, and eddies. The best way to catch a standing wave typically is to 'ferry' over from an adjacent eddy. You might want to take a basic whitewater kayaking class where you will learn all of these techniques.

Anyway I after I pass this potential wave (or potential place to damage myself) I went to the shore. I was afraid how could I get out of the water, but this part was remarkably easy. Despite such a quick current, the moment I disembarked my vehicle and touched the bottom it was extremely easy against all my expectations to stand on the bottom to keep the gear under control and to walk out of the river.

You actually made a potentially fatal mistake by trying to stand on the river bottom in current. A foot entrapment can occur when your foot gets  caught under a rock, and the current pushes you over. It's not something to take chances with, because the weight of the water  is so strong that some  people have drowned this way in just a couple of feet of water. This link has some info... http://www.performancevideo.com/swim_whitewater

I highly recommend that anyone who wants to SUP on rivers should take a whitewater kayaking course first. The river is a very counter-intuitive and dangerous environment. I can't stress that enough. A 2-3 day whitewater course will teach you all of the fundamentals to get comfortable on a SUP in moving water, such as reading and using eddies, catching waves, and being safe. You will also definitely enjoy the challenge of whitewater kayaking as a sport unto itself.

Kevin

[alap]

thanks kevin,

no I didn't go over this section, I took to the middle of the river and avoided it....

but to be honest after your comments I have no desire really to pursue this further..

on another hand the section I was doing it... its not white water. its just swift enough current with one possibility to try to catch a wave...

[kwhilden]

Hey Alap,
I wasn't trying to scare you off the river completely! I'm just making the point that rivers are very different environment with some unique and non-obvious safety hazards. FYI, I'm particularly safety conscious by nature... I taught beginning whitewater kayaking for six years in the 90's, and gave many a safety talk on the non-obvious safety hazards of moving water (it doesn't need to be whitewater to be dangerous). They are easily avoidable, if you know they exist.
Kevin

[rkdjones]

I've been reading about SUP on whitewater for a while and seen those awesome videos.  I've done my share of open boating on whitewater.  And I gotta say, the whole concept of standing up while going down a stretch of whitewater with rocks inches below the surface seems inherently risky at best.  I put it in the same category of extreme sports (like street luge).  Now there are folks who know a lot about whitewater, knowingly accept the risk, and enjoy the challenge.  And I say more power to them.  But I think this is a side of the sport that requires a big red warning sign and most folks should just stay clear of it.
Robert

[mountainpaddler]

It depends on where you paddle and your river reading ability. Deeper rivers like we have near here reduce the risk as does the ability to know where it is shallow and to avoid it. Rivers are dangerous regardless of how you ride them. Foot entrapments, strainers and long swims are all part of running them and affect rafters, kayakers, tubers and even swimmers. Just know your limits and start slowly and learn as much as you can from lifelong river runners. Its all good.

kh
Colorado

[PonoBill]

RKD,
Are you on the east coast? My limited whitewater experience in eastern US would probably lead me to the same conclusion. I suspect Kayaking a river like the Deschutes is marginally less dangerous than doing it on a SUP, but not so much. Seems like the biggest problem on the west coast, or at least in Oregon, is the power of these high-flow, high velocity rivers.

[kwhilden]

There aren't many high-flow high-velocity rivers on the west coast either, because these are the most attractive for dams

The Deschutes, along with the Wenatchee are fairly unique in having high flows (5,000+ CFS) combined with high gradient that is not drowned by a dam. The Columbia would have been the best whitewater SUP river in the world if it wasn't dammed to utter damnation... think 100,000+ CFS with high gradient.

I think whitewater SUP is going to be really fun on lower gradient class II runs. I would like to take one down the lower Clackamas for example. Boring in a kayak, but great fun on a SUP.

I love the Deschutes, and have kayaked it many times.  Most of the class III stretch near Maupin would be fine for SUP, but there are some rapids that I would not run because the foot entrapment potential is frighteningly high (e.g. Oak Springs, which is a maze of jagged volcanic rocks and potholes.

[rkdjones]

Ponobill,

I live in Seattle now.  But you are quite right in that my whitewater experience was on the east coast when I lived in DC.  And the water can be kind of thin there, as you point out.

SUPing in deep fast water?  Sure that sounds like fun.

Robert