# Whitewater Terminology



## j-star (Feb 7, 2009)

My husband has been paddling for many years, but I just started 2 season’s ago. Remembering all the proper terms has been a challenge.
For instance – “Peeling out” means pulling out of an eddy. Yup… got that!
So Eddying out must mean the same thing right?….WRONG!!! 
Well, I was using Eddy In and Eddy out. “In” meaning going In to the eddy and “Out” meaning going out of the eddy. Hubby is now really dismayed cause he never really knows what I am talking about. However, he told me that I have invented a whole new term in whitewater kayaking. It is called the “Eddy Over.” Ya…that’s me. Pull into the Eddy and fall over. I've become quite good at this. They tell me it is because I stay on the fence. Good thing I can roll.
Well at least I have all winter to study the terminology. I think Hubby liked it better when I was “Shuttle Bunny”


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## gannon_w (Jun 27, 2006)

The eddy over huh? Thats kinda funny because as everyone was learning and they 1st flew into an eddy from a fast current they did the same thing! 

Think of it as eddy out meaning to get out of the current. Pealing out means going from a stop to a quick start (like in a car) so your in an eddy stopped and you pull into the current and all the sudden are going fast so you peeled out. 

As soon as you get good enough to run his runs he will much better like you with him than as a shuttle bunny! GL and have fun....don't let him push you too fast and welcome to the rivers!






j-star said:


> My husband has been paddling for many years, but I just started 2 season’s ago. Remembering all the proper terms has been a challenge.
> For instance – “Peeling out” means pulling out of an eddy. Yup… got that!
> So Eddying out must mean the same thing right?….WRONG!!!
> Well, I was using Eddy In and Eddy out. “In” meaning going In to the eddy and “Out” meaning going out of the eddy. Hubby is now really dismayed cause he never really knows what I am talking about. However, he told me that I have invented a whole new term in whitewater kayaking. It is called the “Eddy Over.” Ya…that’s me. Pull into the Eddy and fall over. I've become quite good at this. They tell me it is because I stay on the fence. Good thing I can roll.
> Well at least I have all winter to study the terminology. I think Hubby liked it better when I was “Shuttle Bunny”


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## Redpaddle (Jan 10, 2007)

Welcome to the second best thing to running rivers: talking about running rivers! Over the course of many winters every riverman or woman finely hones their ability to describe rivers and rapids in excruciatingly complex and needlessly verbose ways. This is a talent that frequently supersedes their own true paddling ability and definitely takes longer than running the actual river. 

You may find these salty characters in a tightly bound circle at a party, swapping stories that no one else understands or cares about. Social outcasts, these men and women fuel their creative vocabulary with beer upon beer until the description of their latest exploits reaches a truly epic and indiscernible level.

choice terms include:

mank
boof
gnarly
sticky
glassy
fader
knee deep 
rippin
chunder

Armed with these and many many other words, the river-person can combine and modify any sentence to truly wend their tale. Take these examples:

"So he drops into this f$%&ing sticky hole and gets CHUNDERED..."

"Then you come up to this horizon line and you gotta do a right fader boof to dodge the sieve and that hole is backed up by a log right? so you gotta keep the bow up and...."

"So I'm knee deep in this b&*ch and gettin worked. my paddle gets ripped out of my hand and I'm tryin to hand roll outta this thing because Chaos is just downstream..."

As you can see, river terminology and story telling is a sport almost as exciting as paddling and with some practice you too can join the ranks of misfits who have no one else to tell their stories to.

Hang in there, make sure to add 10 feet to any drop and 1/4 mile to any swim and you should be fine!


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## j-star (Feb 7, 2009)

You all make me laugh & made my day. THX...Here goes a try with a story.
Hmmmm....I was paddling along the glassy tongue of water, trying to find the line to boof over the gnarly 10 ft. drop. Missed the line and got manked. Should of Eddied IN...ooops I mean Eddied out first and scouted. Got pushed into an under cut rock broke my hand and swam for 1/2 a mile.
How was that!!! This story is actually somewhat true except the drop was very tiny, it was only class 3 and you have to be a complete idiot to miss the line and hit the rocks in the middle. Instead I chose to run it upside down and did just that. Lost my paddle when I broke my hand. 
Still love kayaking though. Nuts!!! I know.


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## LDean (May 6, 2009)

Redpaddle said:


> As you can see, river terminology and story telling is a sport almost as exciting as paddling and with some practice you too can join the ranks of misfits who have no one else to tell their stories to.


Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself when I'm explaining the gnar gnar from my last adventure to friends and family that don't paddle. 

Kayaking is DA BOMB!!!


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## raftus (Jul 20, 2005)

j-star said:


> You all make me laugh & made my day. THX...Here goes a try with a story.
> Hmmmm....I was paddling along the glassy tongue of water, trying to find the line to boof over the gnarly 10 ft. drop. Missed the line and got manked. Should of Eddied IN...ooops I mean Eddied out first and scouted. Got pushed into an under cut rock broke my hand and swam for 1/2 a mile.
> How was that!!! This story is actually somewhat true except the drop was very tiny, it was only class 3 and you have to be a complete idiot to miss the line and hit the rocks in the middle. Instead I chose to run it upside down and did just that. Lost my paddle when I broke my hand.
> Still love kayaking though. Nuts!!! I know.


Not so sure that 'mank' is used as a verb, it's more of a noun. Like 'that is a manky rapid.' Or 'All the road construction debris makes Clear Creek super manky at low water.' Chundered is a verb and you can definitely get chundered after missing a line. If you are kayaking you can also get window shaded - and sometimes a cataraft can get window shaded - which is truly spectacular to see. 'Getting worked' is also something that happens when you get surfed or take a bad swim. 'Glassy tongue' isn't a term that is often used - usually glassy is going to refer to a wave that you can surf and 'glassy' just means that it is unusually smooth. Good luck.


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## j-star (Feb 7, 2009)

What does window shade mean? I have a lot to learn!


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## bobbuilds (May 12, 2007)

Dump trucked, surfed, subbed out, prairie dogging it, plugged, worked, hammered, i mean hot dogging.


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## Redpaddle (Jan 10, 2007)

don't listen to these guys J-star. when you use a pronoun as a verb it only makes the story better. I am a big fan of the term: "I got manked" that is seriously one for the campfire. I think you did great in that story. 

But for the reals, for a second, I do think it is valuable to have a good terminology base with your paddling partners. There are no absolutes for this, it just develops over time. I have friends who can tell me about a rapid for an hour and I still have no idea what to expect and other friends who can look me in the eye and give me the best beta in 3 words. 

That being said, you are right, there are some terms that are somewhat universal. Like you mentioned: Eddy Out means, in fact, pull *OUT *of the current into an *EDDY*. This stuff is important. Fortunately, the real serious stuff is pretty cut and dried. You won't hear anyone in the river yelling: "he's not *A SWIMMER*!" or "there is no *ROPE* needed!" it is always good to go over basic terminology with new people in your crew before you put in but the basics are pretty self explanatory. 

Sorry to hear you had a bad run, glad to hear you are still hooked. Everyone here will tell you the payoff is much larger than the risk. Even if you are "droppin a gnarly 30 footer into a manky pool with a sieve filled runout and tons of chundery [email protected] me rocks all over." 

good on ya!


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## gannon_w (Jun 27, 2006)

If you want to hear some creative river terminology about getting worked or hitting the mank or whatever ask BOB to describe his "ride" in red house hole!

Lets here it Bob! 

Also lets hit up whiteline asap!!! Don't give me this too cold/ski season crap either!


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## Jensjustduckie (Jun 29, 2007)

Here it is: 

http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f11/red-house-hole-poudre-river-26231.html

In a nutshell Bob and Brian both surf the hole, unintentionally, until Bob became the main event and went through the wash cycle a few times before he decided swimming was a good idea. Turns out he was wrong, he got chundered in the mank while his crew collected his gear. Brian watched as he got the crap beat out of him, eventually Bob flushed - wheee....


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## raftus (Jul 20, 2005)

Windowshaded - I always think of watching a friend on the Upper Lochsa. We were doing out first run, running blind (having never seen or scouted the section), and I was leading in my raft. One of my friends was in his kayak, being from out east he is a good class V boater - but used to creeky runs, not big water. The Lochsa at peak flows is big water. My boat gets through this class IV/IV+ drop and I turn around to see him drop straight into a massive hole. Then I see his boat shoot straight back up into the air before dropping back into the gut of this monster hydraulic and disappearing. He eventually got spit out and rolled. To me, that is getting window shaded.


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## glenn (May 13, 2009)

Meltdown, beatdown, piton, seeing god in a rapid, visiting the green room, nasal enema, funny water, boogey water, taco (referenced almost exclusively regarding rafts). The list goes on.


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## TakemetotheRiver (Oct 4, 2007)

raftus said:


> Not so sure that 'mank' is used as a verb, it's more of a noun. Like 'that is a manky rapid.' Or 'All the road construction debris makes Clear Creek super manky at low water.'


Actually both of your examples use "mank" as an adjective, Sean. Using it as a noun would be like, "that run is nothing but mank" or "I ran the mank last week."


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## waterratNE (Aug 9, 2009)

I completely understand the eddy over, and love the term. When I was on the Lehigh about a month ago, I eddied over three times. I seriously love the term. 

-Lex



j-star said:


> My husband has been paddling for many years, but I just started 2 season’s ago. Remembering all the proper terms has been a challenge.
> For instance – “Peeling out” means pulling out of an eddy. Yup… got that!
> So Eddying out must mean the same thing right?….WRONG!!!
> Well, I was using Eddy In and Eddy out. “In” meaning going In to the eddy and “Out” meaning going out of the eddy. Hubby is now really dismayed cause he never really knows what I am talking about. However, he told me that I have invented a whole new term in whitewater kayaking. It is called the “Eddy Over.” Ya…that’s me. Pull into the Eddy and fall over. I've become quite good at this. They tell me it is because I stay on the fence. Good thing I can roll.
> Well at least I have all winter to study the terminology. I think Hubby liked it better when I was “Shuttle Bunny”


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## rivermanryan (Oct 30, 2003)

TakemetotheRiver said:


> Actually both of your examples use "mank" as an adjective, Sean. Using it as a noun would be like, "that run is nothing but mank" or "I ran the mank last week."


Leave it to the school teacher for the grammer correction!


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## TakemetotheRiver (Oct 4, 2007)

Yeah, that's my way of saying hey, Sean, how the hell are ya- but he didn't take the bait. 



rivermanryan said:


> Leave it to the school teacher for the grammer correction!


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## Kendo (Jul 26, 2006)

some also call this by other terms

*"MAY Tagged"* - getting stuck in a deep hole and cannot escape on either side, no matter how many times you brace(getting tired) you get rolled, after a few times upright and back down you have been "*May* *Tagged*"


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## tomcat (Oct 16, 2003)

My hand slipped on my shaft...blew a hairy ferry...and did an unentendo in the juicy hole and my skirt emploded. 

:mrgreen:


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## caseybailey (Mar 11, 2008)

raftus said:


> Windowshaded - I always think of watching a friend on the Upper Lochsa. We were doing out first run, running blind (having never seen or scouted the section), and I was leading in my raft. One of my friends was in his kayak, being from out east he is a good class V boater - but used to creeky runs, not big water. The Lochsa at peak flows is big water. My boat gets through this class IV/IV+ drop and I turn around to see him drop straight into a massive hole. Then I see his boat shoot straight back up into the air before dropping back into the gut of this monster hydraulic and disappearing. He eventually got spit out and rolled. To me, that is getting window shaded.


Window shaded is a metaphor. If you remember the old vinyl window shades, then you probably remember what a pain they were to retract. You'd have to pull them down just a bit to get the spring inside to roll them up (much like the movie screen in a classroom). If you accidentally let go, the shade shot up and went, "whap, whap, whap" as it coiled around itself. 
That said, window shaded in kayaking is when a kayak gets stuck sideways in a hole and the kayakers body goes under on one side, gets pushed by the current and they pop up the other side. The momentum then takes them back to the original side where they go back under and the cycle continues. I would be impossible for a cataraft to be window shaded as there is not a single tube for the oarsman to be pivoted around. 
With all this language talk, I must admit I am a bit of a post modernist as far as language is concerned. I feel the main point is that intended communication is as close as possible to received communication. I rather enjoyed J-star's post and really didn't have any difficulty picturing exactly what was going on. Pick it apart as you may, I rather liked it.


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## fdon (Jul 23, 2008)

It is easy to laugh along, warm, and sitting in my chair, with everyone as the jargon is dissected. The funny part is most of these terms were spawned out of a real and not-so-funny moment. I will never forget when I was "typewritered" for the first time. Very scary and I still do not know what saved me from a big, cold swim after the river picked up the boat and threw it sideways 20 or so feet off line. When told by a friend what had just happen to me, the term was a perfect description.


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

fdon said:


> I will never forget when I was "typewritered" for the first time. Very scary and I still do not know what saved me from a big, cold swim after the river picked up the boat and threw it sideways 20 or so feet off line. When told by a friend what had just happen to me, the term was a perfect description.


Typewriter - that's something we do on purpose on catboats all the time. Super fun, Super-fast across river ferry, usually initiated with a faux surf attempt. Sometimes you can surf away from the mank, but you gotta be careful, just as easy to surf INTO it. Or at least that applies to me still.



Redpaddle said:


> you too can join the ranks of misfits who have no one else to tell their stories to.


Isn't this why we all come to the Buzz?


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## LSB (Mar 23, 2004)

My friend PJ once says to me "you ever done the Poudre?" I reply "Nah, I tried a few times but I never had a girlfriend that was into it" None of the nonboaters in the room thought it was funny.


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## raftus (Jul 20, 2005)

caseybailey said:


> Window shaded is a metaphor. If you remember the old vinyl window shades, then you probably remember what a pain they were to retract. You'd have to pull them down just a bit to get the spring inside to roll them up (much like the movie screen in a classroom). If you accidentally let go, the shade shot up and went, "whap, whap, whap" as it coiled around itself.
> That said, window shaded in kayaking is when a kayak gets stuck sideways in a hole and the kayakers body goes under on one side, gets pushed by the current and they pop up the other side. The momentum then takes them back to the original side where they go back under and the cycle continues. I would be impossible for a cataraft to be window shaded as there is not a single tube for the oarsman to be pivoted around.
> With all this language talk, I must admit I am a bit of a post modernist as far as language is concerned. I feel the main point is that intended communication is as close as possible to received communication. I rather enjoyed J-star's post and really didn't have any difficulty picturing exactly what was going on. Pick it apart as you may, I rather liked it.


Great clarification, I knew the reference but thought it was in the vertical plane. However I can now picture exactly what you are saying. Thanks.

What would you call what I was describing?


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

raftus said:


> Great clarification, I knew the reference but thought it was in the vertical plane. However I can now picture exactly what you are saying. Thanks.
> 
> What would you call what I was describing?


pirouetting is what I've heard (if you're talking about spinning around the tips), along with something else I can't now recall. If it's tips over tips, that's open for naming based on the situation.


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## st2eelpot (Apr 15, 2008)

The McShade- same thing as windowshading, but sounds much more like a cool playboat move.


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