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How to Boof
Boofing is perhaps the greatest and most funestest things in kayaking. It’s where you go over a drop of any kind, from a 2 foot tall ledge to a 20 foot waterfall, and land your boat flat, making a hollow “boof!” sound when it hits the water.
It might sound simple, but boofing is one of the hardest things for people to get the hang of. It requires a series of body movements all done with correct timing.
Boofs can be done over waterfalls, pourover holes, ledges, off the corners of boulders… all kinds of places on the river.
Why does boofing kick so much ass? Easy. Because landing flat over a drop and on top of the water lets you stay in control. This is opposed to going underwater where you are at the whim of river currents (although some sick frikkers actually like this). Also, in shallow water, it keeps you from hitting rocks or maybe getting pinned in them. On some rivers like the technical, low volume creeks in the eastern US, a good boof is the only way you’ll get down to the take out. In big water, it means the difference between making it through a hole and getting munched.
I’ll break it down for you into a series of steps to make it easier to digest.
Where to boof
There are tons of situations on the river where you can boof. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to focus on what I call the “elevated eddy turn”. It looks like this. ***Illustration***. Your goal is to make it into the eddy at the base of the drop.
The Approach
This is the most important part. If you blow all the other stuff, you still might make it through if you’ve executed the approach correctly. Here’s how it goes:
You’ve spotted a 3 foot drop you want to boof well ahead of time. Let’s say you want to end up in the eddy below it on the right. First, you’ll want to make sure you’re boat is situated so that you can drive hard diagonally across the river to point where the lip of the drop and the rock making it meet. **Illustration**
Next, you’ll want to fixate on that point where the lip and the rock meet. For the next few seconds, you’ll be totally focused on driving you boat over this point.
Once you’re locked on target, paddle with firm, authoritative strokes toward your goal. You want to build up as much momentum as you can without losing control. This can be rather tricky if your approach involves going through though whitewater.
The Boof Stroke
This is the body motion that you use to lift the nose of your boat. It’s pretty tricky, and it takes a lot of practice to get the hang of.
As soon as you’re close enough to the lip of the drop, twist your body forward, leaning forward slightly, and plant your paddle far forward. Hopefully, you can actually hook your blade over the lip.
All of the following takes place at once in the next step. At this point, you are all wound up and ready to unwind like a spring. You not only unwind your torso, but you also lean your body back and thrust your hips forward. This hip thrust is what actually lifts your bow up, helping you land flat. Imagine an eight year old sitting on his butt, on a skateboard. He’s sitting next to a pole anchored in the cement. The boof stroke is like that kid grabbing a hold of the pole with both hands and yarding on it.
Also, put your boat on edge as you do the boof stroke. This helps use the curvature of your boat as viewed from overhead To lift the bow more. This is especially important in a long boat where you don’t have much normal rocker to work with. ****Illustration of overhead view versus side view*** You can lean on your boof stroke to get your boat on edge more.
The Flight
So you’ve done the perfect boof stroke, you’ve launched your boat so it’s almost airborne. Now what?
You want to immediately lean forward. If you land leaning forward, you have much better balance. Also, leaning forward is like doing a stomach crunch: it pulls your knees, and your boat, up towards your chest, making you land flatter.
The Landing
As I said, make sure you’re leaned forward! If the hole is really bad, stab the water as far forward as you can, hopefully, you’ll catch the water flowing downstream on the other side of the boil line.
Overview
Get up lots of momentum. When you get close to the lip, lean forward slightly, twist your torso forward and plant your paddle. Crank back, lifting your bow. Lean forward as soon as you’re done cranking.
Boofing In The Real World
When you’re actually on the river, rarely can you put in a textbook perfect boof or do you even need to. Maybe you’re to busy keeping your boat lined up correctly to put in a good boof stroke, or you don’t drive your boat up onto the rock as much as you’d like. The important thing is to maintain lots of speed and you’ll do all right.
Learning To Boof
PLEASE don’t take this info and plan to stick your first gnarly class V boof tomorrow! It takes a lot of effort for your body to learn the mechanics and timing involved. So first, practice, practice, practice.
Try to boof any rock you can. Take any little boulder in class II and try to get a boof off of it. Eventually, you’re body will automatically make the right boofing motion when it really counts without you having to think about it.
Lofting Your Bow
Lofting your bow means lifting your nose a little bit. You kind of use a very toned down boof stroke or a quick flick forward stroke in combination with a small hip thrust. You’ll use this most to keep your bow on the surface when going through small pourovers or holes. This helps you maintain your control and forward speed. You’ll find yourself using it quite often.
Running Waterfalls
Before you go any further, make sure you’ve read the boofing section as this is essential to waterfall running.
When I scout out a new waterfall, the first thing I look at are it’s sides. I usually try to boof off the corner of the waterfall into an eddy. The reason is this: I hate running things down the gut. I know some people like it, but here’s why I don’t: there could be rocks below the surface or you could get worked in the hole at the bottom. Its much harder to boof a long boat if you run straight through the meat usually.
If you can’t run the corner, sometimes you can go off in the middle with your boat pointed diagonally. Try to look for some kind of a feature in the lip that protrudes out. You might not get a great boof, but your stern will get clear enough from the lip for you to land at a 45 degree angle. You can also use the Hopkins Hip Twist.
When not to boof
If a waterfall is too tall, you can seriously hurt your back if you land dead flat. You’ll hurt it even worse if the water at the bottom isn’t aerated much. What’s too tall depends on the person. Usually when you get over 10-15 foot (3-5 meters) you want to think about landing not so flat. If you land at a 45 degree angle, that’s a good compromise between saving your back and penciling in too much.
It also depends on what kind of bottom your boat has. Flat bottom boats are much worse for injuring your back. The reason is this: Imagine you are strapped sitting down to a piece of plywood. Now imagine you are dropped flat of the high dive of a swimming pool. Hurts, doesn’t it? It can break your back. I know, I’ve seen it happen. This is yet another reason why playboats are unsuitable for serious river running. Avoid flat bottomed creek boats, as well. Boats with curved bottoms have much cushier landings.
Working With The Water
Long boats are much harder to turn than regular boats. That’s why you’ll need in your bag of tricks not only good paddle strokes, but ways to work with the water. The first piece of advice I have for you is to try not to fight the water. Lets say you’re paddling along and your bow cuts though an eddy. The eddy water wants to turn your boat upstream. Even though you wanted to go straight, why fight it if you don’t have to? Do a quick little eddy turn and get on with your life. Raft guides have a name for this. It’s called “spin to win”. You’ll save energy in the long run.
Turning on wave crests
When you’re in a wave train, wait until your boat is at the top of a wave to turn it. Now your bow and stern are out of the water, making it much easier to turn. If you try to turn while your boat is at the bottom, both the ends will be buried in the waves making it much harder to turn.
Use small holes to turn your boat
Let’s say you’re paddling diagonally across a river. Sometimes, you can let the stern of your boat tag the edge of a hole, causing you to turn downstream.
Trusting The River
A lot of the time, if you just go with the current, it will take you where you want to go even if it doesn’t look like it. Take this example:
***Illustration*** The kayaker in this picture could throw in a bunch of sweep strokes to avoid the rock. Or, if he just keeps paddling straight, the water being deflected off the rock will turn the boat as he gets right up next to it, no sweep strokes needed. This takes a lot of careful observation of the water, and thinking about what’s happening to it as it flows around obstacles.
Try this little experiment: When you’re floating in class I, just stop paddling for a few minutes straight. You’ll find that when you come up on rocks that you were sure you’d hit, the current will take you magically around without hardly tapping it.
Attainment Paddling
Attainment Paddling is where you paddle up a rapid. It’s not as impossible as it sounds. You actually use river features to help you climb up a rapid. Here’s how:
Use eddies like ladders
***Illustration of long eddy**** If nothing in the river changes it, an eddy will continue for dozens of yards, albeit faintly. The attainment paddler uses these eddies like ladders to climb up a rapid. Rarely will she paddle head on against the current. ***Illustration of using eddies as ladders. The challenge is in using the water to your maximum advantage.
Attainment paddling can be great fun during low water and a real challenge. I’ve paddled upstream in class II for miles on end. I’ve also spent months working on completing one move, like a rock climber trying to complete a tough route.
Rivers during low water work the best. I’ve found that too much current washes out the features you use to go upstream. Also, attainment paddling is more enjoyable in the Eastern US than the West in general. This is because the rivers in the east flow more slowly and have more large boulders in them, creating more features to climb up.
To attainment paddle you’ll want at least an 11 foot boat but the best boats are downriver boats. As you can imagine, it’s a great workout.
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