White water Rafting Vocabulary A – M
White water rafting has a highly specialised vocabulary that has developed largely in the USA and been borrowed by European rafters. Here is a quick rundown on the language you might hear:
Above: Upriver from.
Beam: The width of a raft at its widest point.
Below: Downriver from.
Big Water: Large volume, fast current, big waves, often accompanied by huge reversals and extreme general turbulence. The terms big water and heavy water are closely similar, but big water carries stronger suggestions of immense volume and extreme violence.
Boat: Raft. These words are interchangeable.
Boof: To slide over rocks and off drops in such a way that the boat lands level with the bottom down. Landing level keeps the boat up on the surface compared with landing nose down and diving deep. Canoeists, as they go over drops, can boof by leaning back to lift the bow. In rafts this is generally done by emptying the bow compartment and moving everyone toward the rear of the boat.
Boulder Garden: A rapid densely strewn with boulders that necessitate intricate steering.
Bow-In: With bow pointed forward.
Broach: To turn a boat broadside to the current.
Cartwheeling: Technique of spinning a raft just before a collision with a rock so as to rotate the raft off and around the rock.
CFS: Cubic feet per second. A unit of flow used to indicate the volume of water flowing per second past any given point along a river.
Channel: A raftable route through a section of river.
Chute: A clear channel between obstructions, steeper and faster than the surrounding water.
Dig: Plunge paddle blades deep to grab the stronger downstream current well below the surface. Often initiated with the captain calling “Dig! Hard Forward! Dig!” This technique can be effective in powering rafts through large holes - especially when used by the two bow paddlers just as the boat hits the holes.
Drop: An abrupt descent in a river.
Eddy: A place where the current either stops or turns to head upstream. Usually found below obstructions and on the inside of bends.
Eddy Cushion: The layer of slack or billowing water that pads the upstream face of rocks and other obstructions.
Falls: A drop over which the water falls free at least part of the way.
Feathering a Blade: On the return, knifing an oar or paddle blade through the air.
Flip line: A line used to turn a flipped boat right side up. These may be tied across a boat's bottom or worn as part of a belt around a guide's waist.
Foot cup: Shaped somewhat like the front half of a shoe and attached to the floor of a raft, these fabric/rubber "cups" can help rafters stay in the boat. Also called toe cups or foot cones.
Freeboard: The distance from the water line to the top of the buoyancy tube. .
Ghost Boat: To push a boat out into the current and let it float empty through a rapid. Use to check flow and obstructions in uncharted water
Gradient: The slope of a river expressed in feet per mile.
High Side: Jump to the downstream side of the raft, fast! This command is used just before collisions with rocks and other obstructions, If a crew, is quick, the raft's upstream side is lifted up in time to let the current slide under, rather than into, the raft.
Lean In: At the sound of this call, crew members shift their weight in over the boat so that if they lose their balance, they will fall into, rather than out of, the boat.
Ledge: The exposed edge of a rock stratum that acts as a low natural dam or as a series of such dams.
Left Bank: Left side of the river when facing downstream.
Low Siding: Moving people on to the low side of a boat usually to squeeze through a narrow channel.
Meander: A loop-like bend in the course of a river.
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