For Juxtaposition:

Difficult Run @ 9CFS




Difficult Run @ 1847CFS



Photos are of the same whitewater feature at different levels.

You wouldn't even be able to make it through in that first picture would you?

That's nasty looking. I love it. No chance of death? No fun. Did you do this in a raft or kayak? If kayak, props bro.

That's intense.

I've never kayaked that section, there are very few people who have. Actually, kayaks are far better than rafts in really big water like that. Finer control, less chance of ejection, etc means the survivability rate goes up.

This is the same rapid at 340cfs which is considered a great "runnable" level. At this rate it is a 5.1 (each .1 above a 5 is the same order of magnitude as the difference between a 4 and a 5) and due to the width of the stream, it would be un-runnable in a raft. At the 1847cfs shot above, it would be somewhere around a 5.4 or 5.5 and even though you could theoretically use a raft to get down it, you wouldn't be staying in the raft on that kind of water, which would make it a Class VI (un-runnable in a raft)

The most I've done in a kayak is Class III+ as I only own a 10' rec kayak which is unsuitable to roll. Once I get better and move to the country (which may happen sooner than later) I'll be getting a 7-8' whitewater boat. I've run IV's and V's in open canoes and I've run IV's in inflatable self-bailing whitewater kayaks.

NiQ-Toto wrote: Wait, you can't roll a kayak? Come on man. Ill tell you this: its ALL in the hips!

Kinda like that time your mom taught me.... ohhhh sorry, bet you didn't know about that!

I can roll a kayak, just not a barge of a kayak.

My rec-kayak:


vs

A Dagger Approach whitewater kayak:


Note the lack of hip and thigh braces in the rec boat? The cockpit is so big you'd have to sit virtually indian-style to get your knees under the gunwales just to keep from falling out. Add in the fact that there's ample room between my hips and the seat brace and you've got a recipe for easy-to-get-in, easy-to-get-out, impossible to roll. Besides, it's got such a broad beam that I think it'd take more effort than you'd want to expend just to get it back over.