River Surfing eddicut

Trey,
Yes we would love your insight. WE are putting together a series of river sup articles for 2013. We are organizing the topics now and would love to have both you and alex help with writing and putting out the content. Could you send an email to erin@supconnect.com and I will email both you and Alex more about our plan for 2013. Thanks!
Erin Robbins
SupConnect Social Media / Editorial

Monday, 17 December 2012 02:32

Alex Mauer,

I would honestly respect the other surfers enough to never throw my paddle I to the eddy. I have seen people hit by them that way. It's all well and goo if you are surfing a spot where there isn't a risk of hitting anyone. But you could also damage your paddle and those are pretty expensive! You always have another option. For example this is how you can get back to the eddy at Gwood. After you come off the wave get to your board stand up and paddle back up to the wave toward the center where the other eddy is and ferry back across to the main line up. Or you can drop in from that side. If you need some practice ferrying one o those classes that trey mentioned would help you out a great deal. Hope to see you on the river.

Thursday, 13 December 2012 00:11

Trey Knight,

Andy, great comment. I know there are some great waves where many SUP'ers would really love to throw there paddle and get back into the eddy. This is something that will be very new to many kayakers and other river users and will def. get you some negative feedback if you do so when other people are in the eddy, esp. not paddleboarders. I would also say that people should be very cautious about surfing above something that they can't paddle. The common practice in the rivers is that we you blow off the wave you paddle yourself back into the eddy and if you miss you should have a plan and be able to get yourself safely back to shore. Most river users consider swimming in whitewater a bad thing and avoid it whenever they can, so deliberately jumping towards an eddy off a board when you blow off a wave is a new thing to a lot of people on the river. You should also make sure you know very well what rocks are where before you go jumping into the river and this wold not be a practice to teach new river stand up paddle boarders. Dan Gavere and Charlie MacArthur both have very good videos out that show the basic of stand up paddleboarding on the river. You can also take a class from the ACA that was developed by the above people and more river stand up paddleboard experts and pioneers. CKS Paddlefest will feature some very good river SUP classes in 2013 if you are in Colorado.

http://americancanoe.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, 12 December 2012 22:27

andy,

Alex

All straight forward except the 'no throwing your paddle to the eddy line' rule. You know how it gets on bigger waves like G-wood. Not throwing your paddle and trying to swim would be more dangerous. Every wave has its set requirements. I think the gunnison wave would be extremely dangerous to not throw your paddle. You need to swim like hell to avoid getting washed through some very sucky holes. Holes with tons of debris. Pray for snow!

Wednesday, 12 December 2012 07:24

Alex Mauer,

http://supconnect.mylocallineup.com/SUP-How-tos-Techniques/river-surfing-etiquette.html

Wednesday, 12 December 2012 02:15

Alex Mauer,

Trey, great input! I have been riding river waves for 12 years! I started on boogie boards moved to surf and then SUP. Stay tuned because I wrote an article that modifies surf etiquette to the river. I have used my experience on the river and in the lineup to write it! Please let me know if I missed anything! Thanks again. Paddle fast and take chances!

Tuesday, 11 December 2012 05:19

Trey Knight,

Erin,

I would love to help in this venture. The ACA has been been certifying instructors on whitewater rivers for 40 years and the Whitewater SUP curriculum was written by many of the best pro's out there. I myself am a whitewater instructor and trainer having trained instructors and taught students about whitewater SUP. I have also been a kayak instructor and trainer working in the outdoor education industry for over a decade. The river environment is a little like the surf zone but far more different and accepting of paddleboarders. For start there is a limited number of good waves in a single day, this is just physics; however in a whitewater river the wave feature doesn't go anywhere so paddlers in this environment are far more patient and accepting. The other things is that unlike the surf zone commonly paddled river have traffic coming downstream and the downstream traffic has the right away over people on a river feature. Please let me know how I can help. I believe you have my email from working on promoting the ACA SUP survey earlier this fall. I am also working with John from Distressed Mullet on expanding his river section.

Alex, to your question there is usually not and eddy cut while surfing on the river. People just form and stay in lines often letting less skilled or expereienced paddlers cut them if the river pushed them that way. Most eddy's are not calm and can be very difficult, sometimes more so than the wave to manage, espcially if you are on a board for surfing. Combine this with the rocks in and on the side of the river and a less skilled paddler on a board can get injured if they are too caught up on whose turn it is. Because of this type of environment other more skilled paddlers often allow them to cut at times because they also know this person will not be on the wave for very long. There is also common practice to alternate side of access to a feature if there is access from both river left and river right. Many times one of these two side will have better access and less skilled paddlers are encourage to use that one and the more experienced paddlers can use the more difficult side which because of its difficulty has a much shorter line.

As for time on the wave, if you are somewhere that does not have much traffic that might cut a ride short and if you are not working on carving or other maneuvers most times other people will not hurry you off the wave as long as you are being patient with everyone else and not being a bully in the eddy. However, just standing on your board on an easy and stable wave for more than 3 minutes might become a little rude.

With regards to kayakers or canoers they are accepting because in many places a SUP is still interesting and fun to watch and they are also watching to see if you wipe out and will root you on whether you style it or wipe out. The main things is to not be out of control in a manner that makes them perceive you might fall on them, cause them to flip in shallow or cold water, or injure yourself in manner that would require their help. Beware of rafts, they are large and hard to control and should always be given right of way and steered clear of.

Thanks,

Tuesday, 11 December 2012 04:40

Erin Blunt Robbins,

Great question Alex! Let's write an article about this for SupConnect. Would you like to write up a few paragraphs on the issue. You can send it to me at erin@supconnect.com and after final approval let's get it front and center on this website!!! What do you think?

Saturday, 08 December 2012 08:01

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