[Paddlewise] Leaning in Surf vs Rivers

From: Nick Schade <nick_at_guillemot-kayaks.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:00:02 -0400
On Aug 27, 2009, at 11:48 AM, Craig Jungers wrote:

> This is what's confusing for me. The dynamics of a standing wave  
> seem far
> simpler (to me) than ocean surf and I'm having a hard time picturing  
> all the
> motions.


To my way of looking at it the dynamics of surf and standing waves are  
exactly the same if you use the water as your frame of reference. When  
you are sitting in front of an on coming surf wave, you are  
essentially motionless to the water underneath your boat with the wave  
coming towards. When you are drifting down a river coming towards a  
standing wave, again you and your boat are essentially motionless  
relative to the water below your boat.

Obviously you may be moving relative to the water under the boat, but  
in both cases it is the water under your boat that you are dealing  
with at any given moment, so if you use that as your frame of  
reference you can get a handle on what is happening.

In both ocean surf and river standing waves, the wave is approaching  
you and the chunk of water your boat occupies. In both cases you want  
to lean towards the wave. On a river this is called leaning down  
river, but it is really exactly the same thing as you do on surf.

Typically we use the river/ocean bottom as our frame of reference, but  
to the water both surf and river waves are traveling through the water.

Instead of thinking of approaching a wave in a river, think of the  
wave approaching you and you will see you deal with exactly as you  
would in surf.
Nick



Nick Schade

Guillemot Kayaks
54 South Rd
Groton, CT 06340
USA
Ph/Fx: (860) 659-8847
http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/
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Received on Thu Aug 27 2009 - 10:00:10 PDT

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