Vortices
Common on eddylines. Look for areas of circling water with a light coloured outer ring around a darker centre depression. Cross eddylines quickly, aiming your bow for the eddy pool.
Hydraulics or Holes
Appear as dark water approaching a ledge, then white frothy flat water downstream of the ledge. Potentially hazardous recirculating water.
Boils
Appear as mounds of water mushrooming to the surface in a current. The water welling up from below is surrounded by water that descends to the river bottom. If boils must be navigated, strike the mound perpendicularly and paddle hard.
to rest, bail water or scout the next section of river. It’s crucial to know the location of eddylines to execute stable eddy turns—the entering and exiting of eddy pools. Te most common colour patterns on
a river are long parallel bands of similarly shaded water. Each band indicates a speed of current with neighbouring bands being either slightly faster or slower. No set rule seems to indicate that one shade of water is quicker than another; you’ll have to be the judge as sometimes an eddy effect will be dark, while other times, deep fast-flow- ing currents will also be dark. It’s the alter-
nating dark and light bands of current that show changes in velocity. When considering current speed, first pick
out the slow bands of water and determine if they are caused by submerged rocks that should be avoided. Next, identify the fast bands and make sure they don’t flow toward unavoidable obstacles, like rocks, ledges or hydraulics. If you’re planning to cross the river in a
front ferry, adjust your ferry angle to match the changing speed of the current to aid effi- ciency and possibly avoid an unfortunate loss of balance when traversing from one band of current to another.
Reading whitewater is similar to learning
a language. Te more you practice, the better you’ll be at deciphering its message. Fluency comes once you can glance at a set of rap- ids and know precisely where to place your canoe. Understanding the basic vocabulary of texture and colour will help you to scout a safe route down the rapid, or more impor- tantly, recognize when it would be safer to portage around it.
ANDREW WESTWOOD is an open canoe instructor at the Madawaska Kanu Centre, member of Team Esquif and author of The Essential Guide to Canoeing.
westwoodoutdoors.ca.
www.canoerootsmag.com
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ILLUSTRATION: PAUL MASON
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