Inflatable Kayak Blog

After our quick paddle on the Indian Creek at the beginning of the month I was thinking how quiet and relaxing it was paddling along this shallow water. That got me thinking of all the exciting rivers there are to paddle and a couple of the kayaking terms dealing with river kayaking.

 “Eddies” can be a paddler’s best friend. Eddies are currents of water behind obstacles where the water is calm and can be paddled into. Eddies provide paddlers with a place to rest, check gear, drain boats or scout upcoming rapids.

 Another term that’s used on a river excursion is when you’re thinking about how neat it would be to just see what was around the next “River Bend”. Did you know that the water on the outside of the river bend is usually deeper and moving faster than the inside? The outside bend is also a more dangerous area of the river because this is where the debris can pile up, creating very dangerous obstacles that you might not be able to see when moving along at a fast pace. If you were to flip over in such an area you could get your life jacket or paddling vest caught on the debris and end up trapped.

We are looking forward to a chance to get out and explore a small part of the Ohio River soon. This should be an exciting change from the little river we had just been on. Will write more about that after the trip. If anyone would like to share a river adventure we would enjoy hearing about it here.