| If you want to get serious about whitewater kayaking, | | | | pressure to form behind the obstacle which the river |
| you need to have a great understanding of what an | | | | attempts to fill in with water. It pushes water from |
| eddy is, and how they are formed so that you can | | | | downstream actually upstream against the current to |
| use them properly. An eddy is a complicated river | | | | fill in the area. As a kayaker this means that you can |
| feature that has all sorts of different currents affecting | | | | easily pull into this eddy area and be pulled safely and |
| it including deep underwater currents, currents that pull | | | | securely into an area that you can rest and exit the |
| opposite to downstream currents, and are found | | | | river from! Once you learn to use eddys properly, it |
| behind other river features. For a whitewater kayaker, | | | | allows you to break river down into segments where |
| an Eddy is a much more important river feature than it | | | | you move from eddy to eddy. |
| is for rafters or canoers. The offer you as a kayaker | | | | Entering and exiting can be challenging to new |
| a lot of opportunities to park your kayak to load and | | | | kayakers. Every eddy has what is known as an eddy |
| unload, places where you can get out for lunch or to | | | | line, a line that marks the divide between the main |
| scout a new rapid and a place to rest during a rapid. | | | | downstream current and the eddys upstream current. |
| They work great as meeting spots during a longer | | | | The sharper and more pronounced the object, the |
| rapid that you can meet and discuss upcoming river | | | | thicker and stronger the eddyline will be. If it is a |
| hydraulics and features to choose the best line. | | | | rounded object, often times there will not be a strong |
| An eddy is created by the main current of a river | | | | eddy line and the currents will mix more than divide in a |
| hitting an obstacle, compressing as it does and | | | | line. |
| accelerating away. This causes a zone of low | | | | |