river terms and definitions
Printed From: ProfessorPaddle.com
Category: General
Forum Name: Chit Chat
Forum Discription: Non Boating Related Discussions
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10157
Printed Date: 18 Apr 2024 at 7:52pm
Topic: river terms and definitions
Posted By: water wacko
Subject: river terms and definitions
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 10:00am
| Where might a guy find river terms and definitions of things such as "rock sieves", "weirs", "undercuts", "strainers" an such?? Multiple sources are preferrable... |
Replies:
Posted By: JoesKayak
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 11:10am
|
This book, has good definitions of all and is the classic book on river rescue... it's pretty old and some stuff seems out of date, but a lot of the info is timeless: http://www.amazon.com/River-Rescue-Bechdel/dp/0910146764 Edit: That's the link for the earlier edition. Here's the newer 2009 4th edition. haven't read the new version, but should. This is one book EVERY boater should have. http://www.amazon.com/River-Rescue-Manual-Whitewater-Safety/dp/0964958562/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287771088&sr=1-7 Bennett's books: The Complete Whitewater Rafter, the complete inflatable kayaker, the essential whitewater kaykaker, the complete river ironing guide, the complete pancake cook, etc. have some good definitions too. As for on-line. The best thing I can think of is the American Whitewater Safety Code.... http://americanwhitewater.org/content/Wiki/safety:start |
Posted By: James
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 11:22am
| Check out http://www.chrisj.winisp.net/lexicon.htm - Chris J's Website with the Paddling Lexicon Page |
Posted By: chipmaney
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 1:10pm
|
wow, Chris's dictionary even includes Safety Meetings; now that's a comprehensive lexicon.....you know what they say: Safety Third! Or in this case, is it still First? Now I'm confused! That beg's the question: Can anyone tell me what's Nos. 1 & 2? ------------- sitting all alone on a mountain by a river that has no end |
Posted By: rayw
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 1:28pm
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number one is don't let go of your paddle! ------------- rayweinrich@gmail.com 253.370.6299 |
Posted By: chipmaney
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 1:59pm
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that's somewhere down around number 8 on my personal list....however, based on your advice and my own personal experiences, i am immediately moving it to the top..... Also, the sage Rob may construe this one as "Paddle Hard", which necessarily includes having an actual paddle in your hands, but not necessarily while in your boat: JP taught me how to paddle hard even when I'm swimming! ------------- sitting all alone on a mountain by a river that has no end |
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 3:08pm
| Thanks. I forgot about chrisj's page, and Joe, I've never heard of that book, either. Thanks. |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2010 at 6:59am
|
This is a great topic for these forums, Brett. I went through those books joe mentioned, and scores of other whitewater books besides (I have a HUGE library of whiteater books from all eras).
what I found was that each book was very limited (to a page or so). Each book contained some overlapping common terms, and each had a few terms not covered in the others. But even when I looked at them together, the info appeared incomplete.
There was talk a few years back among James, myself and a few others about assembling such a lexicon here on Professor Paddle. I still think it is a great idea and would be a worthy addition to the reference materials on this site.
One night after a "safety meeting" when I had cabin fever I unleashed my obsessive compulsive tendencies on this task, believe it or not, with some considerable progress.
But before I continue --I don't know-- how important is this to you all? Is it something you are seriously interested in? ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: chipmaney
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2010 at 8:28am
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Seems like Chris's page pretty much has it covered, JP. One possible exercise would be to review his lexicon to identify any missing terms.
------------- sitting all alone on a mountain by a river that has no end |
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2010 at 10:31am
| I think it's a good idea. It would be a fun exercise for all of us. A collaborative effort. Sounds cool. Kinda like a whitewater wikipedia thingy. |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2010 at 12:44pm
|
yeah, that's what I had thought as well. personally I was thinking that something that exclusively focuses on River Anatomy and related terms would be cool. You could also include everything paddling related but where does it stop? Everyone knows what a boof is, for example, and if they are interested they can find out what a Pan Am is, ect. Staying true to your original thread topic makes the most sense to me: River features. That way you don't have to wade through all sorts of slang to get to the definitions of river anatomy you are looking for. The reason it seems benificial to me is that it has the potential to help paddlers communicate more effectively when they are standing above a drop scouting together or sitting in an eddy verbally describing something. Often boaters are inarticulate in this context, and perhaps this could serve to eleiviate that. Of course, if nothing else it gives us something else to geek out about  ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2010 at 1:08pm
|
and, yeah chip-- I've seen it in the past. I've admired his site before, and I've paddled with the guy. He's a great paddler and a "good hand on the river" as my old man used to say (meaning if sh*t goes down, he's one of the people you want around). But his lexicon illustrates my point. Personally I'm not in need of a definition for "Blue Angel" or "Chunder" or "420", "Fuzzy Rubber", ect. seems to only clutter up things I'm looking for. No offense meant to Cris. Like Brett, I've often thought that a lexicon specific to river features, river anatomy ect, could be most useful without all the other stuff. Verbs describing paddling technique, nouns describing gear, or other descriptions, adjectives related to gear and kayaking seems to me to be better off kept separate from a glossary of strictly kept river anatomy features. After all, if you want to know about geology, you shouldn't have to wade through a bunch of info about climbing and hiking. Perhaps that's a poor analogy. I'm interested in this for sure, so let me know. see yall soon ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: irenen
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2010 at 12:34pm
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I know this is a little out there because most people don't paddle in icy rivers (although some of us do, or would :) but I thought this write-up might be worth adding to a list of links if you put one together for a river terms page, it's the US Army's River Ice Guide with definitions and pictures - who knew. ;)
http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/ierd/tectran/IEnews15.pdf - http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/ierd/tectran/IEnews15.pdf
------------- It's all fun and games until someone loses a paddle. |
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2010 at 3:00pm
| Maybe set it up as "written by the public" if you have 500 posts or something with the obvious clause that if you start post bunk info yer gettin' the boot. |
Posted By: irenen
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2010 at 3:17pm
Well, that leaves me out.  ------------- It's all fun and games until someone loses a paddle. |
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2010 at 11:10pm
| just a guideline suggestion, irene ;) |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 12:30pm
|
If there was a clamour for such a thing I'd be into putitng in plenty of time on it, otherwise if it doesn't seem to be of interest to the users of this site, I probably wouldn't put my time into it. ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |