Frog Rock Playboating

A playboater is seen frolicking in a rare standing wave near famous Frog Rock on the Thompson River between Lytton and Spence's Bridge BC.

According to wordiq.com:

Playboating is a discipline of kayaking or canoeing where the paddler performs various technical moves in one place (a playspot), as opposed to whitewater canoeing or kayaking where the objective is to travel the length of a section of river (although whitewater canoeists will often stop and play en-route). Specialised canoes or kayaks (boats) known as playboats are often used, but any boat can be used for playing. It is the paddling equivalent of skateboarding or BMX.

Playboating is also known as Rodeo.

Playspots are typically stationary features on rivers, in particular standing waves (which may be breaking or partially breaking), 'holes' and 'stoppers', where water flows back on itself creating a retentive feature (these are often formed at the bottom of small drops or weirs), or eddy lines (the boundary between slow moving water at the rivers' edge, and faster water). Playboating is sometimes performed on dynamic moving features such as haystacks (large boils) and whirlpools, or on flat water (this is often referred to as flatwheeling). Playspots are found on natural whitewater, on artificial weirs, on artificial whitewater courses, and occasionally on tidal races in the sea.

Basic moves consist of front- and back-surfing, spins through any of the three axes (flat spins, cartwheels and air loops), stalls with the kayak vertical on either end, and getting airbourn (bouncing the boat on a wave, or submerging part of the kayak so that it pops out when it re-emerges). The playboater usually aims to stay surfing the feature after performing each move (as opposed to being washed off). More complex moves are made up of combinations of these moves.

Playboating has grown massively in popularity in recent years due to innovations in boat design. Modern playboats are made from plastic which is much more robust than glass fibre or wood. Playboats typically have much less volume in the bow and stern than dedicated river running kayaks. This allows the paddler to easily dip either end underwater.

See more about this region on The Rattler (www.therattler.ca).

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• extreme sports