[Paddlewise] accident scenerio

What troubles me most about Mark's unfortunate accident is the fact that he
was paddling a 14+ foot touring kayak  on a class 3 - 4, 825 cfs, rocky
whitewater river. When queried, he responded that he'd taken it on class 2
rivers,  and his friends paddled the same boats through the Grand Canyon,
(8,000 to 40,000+ cubic feet/ second).

Please forgive my limited knowlege, but I thought that touring kayaks are
designed to optimize paddling speed in straight lines, while whitewater
boats need maneuverability and responsiveness.  (In fact, whitewater boats
have evolved into very odd watercraft, with some models under 7 feet, flat
planing hulls and hard chines that look like handrails, and scallops on the
bottoms that would work as a cross country ski pattern.)

I've heard several sea kayak on ww river disaster stories over the years,
(a Folbot totalled on a class 2 run,  Boy Scouts badly bashing up a troop
of borrowed glass sea kayaks on the Deschutes), but haven't heard any
successes. Is this a common practice in some areas?

Tina



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