March 2016 – Waterlines — A Maine Sea Kayaking Journal

The wildwater boat is sometimes viewed as a specialty boat, but in many ways it is more versatile than most of the boats on the market. Imagine you wanted to combine the speed of a surf ski, the buoyancy of a creek boat, the turning ability of a slalom boat, and the toughness of a whitewater boat. The wildwater kayak is what you would end up with.

According to the United States Canoe Association, wildwater kayaks have a maximum length of 4.5 meters (14 feet 9 3/16 inches). Rules prohibit wildwater kayaks from having rudders. Other than that, the design of kayaks used for wildwater is open. Most modern wildwater kayaks, however, are narrower than 20 inches at waterline and have considerable above-waterline reserve buoyancy. Much of the reserve buoyancy is in the “wings” that flare out just aft of the cockpit.

Two examples of high end composite wildwater kayaks from Zastera are below:

The Zastera Corvette

The Zastera Aggressor

Those just getting into the sport can start with just about any durable kayak (yes, you will mix it up with rocks) that is 14’9″ or shorter. The Perception Wavehopper (discontinued in the U.S. but available used) and the Pyranha Speeder are reasonably fast polyethylene kayaks well suited for wildwater racing on Class I, II, and III whitewater.

Wildwater Kayaks are fast due to their narrowness. Their narrowness makes them “twitchy.” Their twitchiness makes them a challenge. Never a dull moment in a wildwater boat. In the unlikely event you start experiencing those kinds of moments, time to get a narrower boat.

Wildwater Kayaking is part of the Penobscot River Nationals Regatta on Maine’s Penobscot River in July 2016. The event is open to wildwater racers of all experience levels, and paddlers are at least as friendly as they are competitive. Come and join the fun!

From my biased perspective, it’s hard to understand why wildwater kayaking is not more popular.

Wildwater kayaking gets you outside, provides adventure, and takes you to beautiful natural places.

Wildwater provides similar cardiovascular benefits as sports such as running, bicycling, and surf ski racing.

Photo from WWKC.net

At the same time, wildwater provides the same rush of that can be found in sports such as downhill skiing, snowboarding, and whitewater playboating.

In addition, like golf or tennis, wildwater is a thinking person’s sport that rewards experience, knowledge, and technique.

One trend in paddlesports is the “first descent” — elite paddlers racking up air miles in order to take on never-before-paddled stretches of whitewater in Africa, Asia, or South America — and expending increasingly huge amounts of resources as they do so.

Many local paddlers follow the same pattern but on a smaller scale. As they master local rivers, they are forced to drive farther from home to again experience the level of challenge and exhilaration they used to get from rivers closer to home.

Wildwater paddling is an antidote to this problem. Imagine spending months or years paddling the same local river but in progressively narrower and tippier boats. Imagine that each time you race that same river, you are looking to run better lines and to cut seconds off your previous best time.

If a quest for improvement that draws on cardiovascular fitness, strength, technique, ability to read the water, and knowledge of particular rivers is appealing, wildwater racing could be for you.

A couple of resources for learning more about wildwater racing include:

Wildwater.org
Danger Zone