I really enjoy kayaking on rivers where I know the lines and can focus on hitting them smoother each lap but I also love kayaking down new rivers. I think that’s even one of the cooler parts of the sport, getting to see new places and experience different types of water.
I always found trips to new places the most nerve-racking when I was younger. I have memories of stomach churning car drives to rivers that housed rapids with reputations. Happily most times it was time spent agonising over nothing – the river was amazing, the rapids that I was anxious about became my new favourites and I loved the feeling of completing a new river.
It’s very easy to get comfortable with what’s familiar but it’s all the more buy tramadol online refreshing to venture out and do something new. It’s a wonderful feeling and important to remember that kayaking down new rivers is not all about international flights, day long drives and first descents.
Regardless of how many people have been down it before you, a new river to you is still a new river. Although dropping into a river nobody has kayaked down before is an adventure unto itself, often we have rivers nearby that we haven’t been to and are just waiting for us to kayak them.
Here are some tips for when you go off to kayak down a new river.
Collect info
Good information about a river is priceless. It can be trickier than you may think to buy tramadol overnight find and interpret successfully. Try asking people that have done that river for some information about it. I often tend to only ask only about the access, characteristics, and any serious potential hazards on it. Everything else I will deal with when I am in front of it.
Interpreting other people’s information is difficult, it’s important to not take any of it as absolute and to make your own decisions on the water. Take things with a pinch of salt and adjust for who is giving it accordingly. For instance the way some people talked about Serpent’s Tail when I was a kid left me weak kneed and sweating, when it is in reality a fairly straightforward rapid without any major hazards. On the flip side to that, if my mentor Dave Fusilli tells me something is chill, I know that it is almost certainly not going to be chill. At least not the first time down. No matter who is giving you the information, make your own decisions.
Know what you are getting into before dropping in, if possible. Below are some things that I look for to help me make decisions when I am kayaking down a new to me river.
Where does the water come from?
If it comes from a glacier and is freezing cold then I will always wear a drysuit my first time down it.
Glacial rivers will rise throughout the day and if the river is rain fed and I am in monsoon country then I am planning quick routes to higher ground the whole way down the river.
How long is the river?
It gives me an idea of how to layer up that day (check out Eddy’s post about layering) and what to carry with me. If it’s going to be a long day on the water I will carry water and some snacks.
In countries where the weather can change drastically I will consider bringing an extra thermal and group shelter.
What rocks is the river is made from?
Is it bedrock or boulders? If it’s mostly boulders then these types of rivers have a habit of moving around and changing with high water events.
Are they the type of rocks that will form siphons? Unfortunately these types of rocks often form both amazing rapids and siphons, still good to know what to potentially look for.
Will the rocks tend to form slides, rapids or waterfalls? An important thing to consider when you come up to a horizon line.
Are they grippy or slick with moss? Makes a big difference to the lines I will take and how I will scout the river and set safety.
Is the water thick and heavy or light?
This is one of my own weird quirks, but rivers that carry silt or salt down them carry thicker water and that effects everything from how much I get pushed around by it, to how powerful my paddle strokes are, and even how easy it is to roll. Not a huge point but I still factor it into my decision making. If the water is clear then I know when I see rocks under the surface there is usually a touch more water than it looks like. If I’m on a river with really murky water then I’ll need to pay more attention to avoid the rocks.
What is the landscape next to the river like?
Thick forest? Be on the lookout for trees in the river.
Crumbly mountainside? Lookout for potential rock fall and changes in the rapids.
When kayaking down the river be on the lookout for the landscape narrowing up or dropping gradient. Normally that means a bigger set of rapids is coming.
If the river is in a gorge or hard to access, I will normally take some extra water, a snack bar or two and take a longer throwbag such as the Bolt instead of my usual Lighting throwbag.
Are there any points to get out if you’ve had enough?
Sometimes things just don’t work out. Having a potential early exit strategy is a nice thing to have sometimes.
Where is the take-out and what does it look like?
Make sure you know what the take-out looks like. Take a good look at what it will look like upstream from the river and even put a temporary marker out if there’s no particularly obvious feature. Paddling past the take-out when you don’t know it can make your trip take a lot longer!
Count the bridges – quite often runs start and finish at bridges since that’s where the road nears the river.
Stick with it
Some rivers require more work than others but they all have some magic in them. On a recent *PFD down the Lech river, we portaged several times in the first few kilometres because of trees or siphons. Looking at the landscape by the side of the river, forest melting away into landslide after landslide I was all for giving up and getting out early. On the insistence from my mate Phil Bruner that it would get better we kept going and lo’ and behold it did get better. Chossy boulder strewn rapids gave way to bedrock and smooth lines and we enjoyed several kilometres of gorged-in class 4/5 kayaking.
Follow a local
Perhaps the best piece of advice. Following someone that knows the river and kayaks it regularly changes the entire day on the water. It’s faster and less stressful. Though don’t limit yourself if you can’t find someone to show you down.
If in doubt scout
Part of the adventure of the new river. Often more tiring than actually kayaking down it but also completely necessary at times.
Thoroughly encouraging you to venture out and find your own new to you river when you get the chance.
See you on the water, Bren
*PFD – personal first descent
