Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/04/watch-these-kayakers-pass-thro.html
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Holy, heck. One of my favorite vacations was doing rafting on class 5 rapids in Penobscot, ME. This just makes what my buddies and I did look like child’s play.
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This looks like so much fun!
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Can somebody explain why, in the videos, they cut to another scene so frequently? Are we only seeing the tricky/successful parts, and everything in between is them getting stuck or flipping over or…? Or do they think everything in between is too boring to include? It would be great to see the entire run from start to finish.
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Whitewater kayakers all suffer from ADHD. Seriously though in some kayak videos, you’ll only get the “goods” while in others you’ll get the whole rundown sometimes even with names of the rapids. Depends on the person behind the camera and editing. Mostly you get the quick cuts though. In this particular case I’m 99% sure the rapids are stacked pretty much back-to-back and mostly separated by a tiny pool. What you’re missing is likely them getting in and out of the boat to look at the next rapid to pick a path down it, assess changes and hidden dangers before committing to it. We’re (kayakers) are a vain bunch and it’s rare to see “carnage” in kayak videos, but definitely not unheard of. In this video you do see a mistake (among other little ones) early on by the other paddler, when he pins on a log in the landing of a waterfall. Dane misses a line and explains he was supposed to go right in the landing of a powerful waterfall and ended up getting shoved into an eddy on the left. Dane’s a super-natural kayaker so his mistakes look like it was “the plan” to most. If you want to see carnage by world class kayakers and not-so-world class, google Kayak Session Carnage For All, pick a video or two and see what happens when it hits the fan.
I’ve done two lower sections of the Kaweah and while not as remote, idyllic, or challenging they were definitely a big treat on my trip to California for kayaking a couple springs ago!
Fun fact, the act of driving off of these ledges and waterfalls over rocks and water is called “boofing” due to the sound of the hull hitting the water in the landing. It’s an amazing feeling and sought after. The other meaning of the word is medical/drug/criminology term of hiding drugs in one’s butt.
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I’m boofing right now.
Wait…
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Yeah, I got that from his massive humble-brag:
"Most people hate this / I love it"
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Yeah, the first time I watched this video it was without sound and I enjoyed it more when I didn’t realise how bro-y those guys are being.
Very true. I should caveat my statement a bit, 1) I don’t know how I came to construct that sentence so poorly. My apologies! 2) When I think of myself as a vain kayaker, it’s simply that I love seeing myself in video and photos kayaking; it’s inexplicable and I think many feel similarly. Part of it is that in the moment of running a rapid it’s sometimes hard to place one’s self relative to the “plan” for a given rapid and the photo or video provides feedback on performance. I do think in this video the on-water comments are sort of nice; usually the videos are accompanied by someone’s idea of good music, but I recall thinking generally the enthusiasm was conveyed (mostly) correctly.
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