I never heard about this "low-head dam" situation, and I thought that may be other paddlers should know about it. Best regards, Hap Prado The "rust belt" is full of low head dams. Others have said what dangers they pose. But a little one on the DesPlaines River, near where I live (Chicago suburbs), is the closest play spot to my home. At high water the dam forms a perfect surfing wave. It is the only low head I've ever met that has no homicide in its spirit. Even at high water an adult would only be thigh deep standing in its backwash. At low water duck walk over it. The Ohio department of public safety, not sure of the official name, put out a movie many years ago called "The Drowning Machine" about these dams. Very scary. Jim Tibensky *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Aug 29 2005 - 05:48:27 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:21 PDT