On Fri, 28 May 1999, Mattson, Timothy G wrote: <snip> > > I am also interested in hearing from anyone who has played in the cool tidal > rapids in the area. They don't look any worse than what I see in a class II > river. I'd love to confirm this with someone who has actualy been there. > The books say to avoid the deadly waters of Surge narrows, Arran Rapids, > Seymour narrows, and the Hole-in-the-wall. But when I read descriptions and > see the pictures, they seem like a neat place to play. Am I setting myself > up for disaster? Has anyone in the group taken a sea kayak into these > rapids. Tim, you and I think a lot alike it seems. After reading portents of certain doom about the rapids in this area, I once asked George Gronseth this exact question. His reply was that it probably was nothing that I couldn't handle, but even George is somewhat wary of the deepest whirlpools at Deception Pass. I think you will be fine provided you are extremely cautious about getting into the unknown while alone. This means scouting the rapids from the bank before entering, which has the additional advantage of being able to spot the best places to play. Assuming you have a totally bombproof roll on BOTH sides, your biggest danger is probably getting stuck in a deep whirlpool. I do not have much experience in the really big whirlpools, so I cannot advise you on the relative magnitude of this danger, but my understanding is that wide and shallow whirlpools are good while narrow and deep whirlpools are less good. Is it possible to have deep whirlpool literally suck you out of your kayak? I don't know, but they are probably unlikely to hold a sea kayak underwater for long. However I would imagine that rolling in one might be very disorienting and therefore difficult. Are you comfortable being held upsidedown for a while and having to try multiple rolls on both sides? If not, then you might want to avoid the biggest whirlpools :) Also, make sure your skirt fits *really* well. A blown skirt would be a disaster. Most my extreme tide rip experience comes from paddling an 8ft rodeo kayak at 14+ knot Skookumchuk Rapids. In a boat like that, the eddylines get really nasty because the boat is so slow. At the Skook, the game plan there is to exit the wave with river right momentum to catch the upstream eddy before the eddy fence starts. If you miss this eddy, then you are forced to ride the main current about 1/3 mile downstream until the eddy fence (a 30-50 ft wide mess of boils and whirlpools) is mellow enough to cross. Then the return eddy current whisks you back upstream at about 5 miles an hour for another surf. The ride downstream through the main current is like paddling in a big water class III river, and is really no big deal provided you have a GOOD roll. Swimming would still be very hazardous. Bull kelp might also cause a problem with entanglements in the eddies near shore, but this tends to lay flat if there is any consistent current. I admit to reading the description of Arran rapids and others, and getting excited. Sea kayaks are really the safest possible craft for exploring the worst places in tidal rapids. Good luck, and do let me know what it is like when you return! Cheers, Kevin ___________________ / Kevin Whilden \ |Dept. of Geosciences ___ |University of Washington \ |kwhilden_at_u.washington.edu| ________________________/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri May 28 1999 - 11:32:17 PDT
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