As a little boy, I spent a lot of time zooming about in outboard powered dingies. My parents had a sail boat that they took to Catalina Island off LA. I spent many a summer there, frolicking about in boats. As an eight year old, I had a pretty good definition of planing that I haven't seen reason yet to jetison. Simply put, planing boats generate a smooth green wake behind the transom, often called a rooster tail when it gets big. I used to love watching the rooster tail behind every speed boat I saw zooming by. Conversely, non-planing boats do not create a rooster tail, and often have a breaking wave as the first wake behind the transom. Now, I am aware that kayaks never have a breaking wave behind them when moving in displacement mode. But the issue at hand is not whether kayaks can move in displacement mode, but rather the issue is whether kayaks are planing when surfing a wave. People who doubt that kayaks are planing when surfing really ought to take a trip to Skookumchuk and watch the kayakers there surfing that 10' high monster standing wave. You'll notice that every kayak on the green part of the wave has a nice fat rooster tail behind it, while it planes. Kevin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
From: "Kevin Whilden" <kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org> > by. Conversely, non-planing boats do not create a rooster tail, and often > have a breaking wave as the first wake behind the transom. One of the things I noticed this summer is that some kayaks do produce a "rooster tail." It only seems to happen on kayaks that have sterns like the Solstice line. It's a little dribble about one cm high :-) Mike (Actually, it's caused by water moving aft along the keel and sticking to the keel as the keel turns up out of the water. Gravity eventually overpowers it and pops off.) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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