Diving at the bottom of a waterfall

[Dr. Lecter]

Man has no one ever gone whitewater rafting. Yes you need to know the technique for getting out of a hydraulic but the basic idea is correct ball up inflate if the fall pushes you down when you bounce off the bottom you should be pushed out too. I got a great video of a guy going over Pillow Rock in West Virginia and popping up 50 yards down stream.

In addition to having gone on whitewater rafting trips (even guided a couple summers when I was younger), I've done the New and Gauley rivers in a whitewater canoe, including a dam release day on the upper Gauley. Pillow rock is fun, I've done it; but turning yourself into floaty agitator ball in a real hydraulic is a terrible idea.

If you get stuck in a hydraulic current, you want to get negative, be as close to the bottom as possible and swim/hand over hand downstream to get out of it. If you head up, you're just going to get pulled back, smashed into whatever's causing the circular backflow in the first place, and then pulled back under. Eventually, yeah, you'll get spit out.

 

[DiverGirl1972]

Man has no one ever gone whitewater rafting. Yes you need to know the technique for getting out of a hydraulic but the basic idea is correct ball up inflate if the fall pushes you down when you bounce off the bottom you should be pushed out too. I got a great video of a guy going over Pillow Rock in West Virginia and popping up 50 yards down stream.

The Gauley!!! I have some great pictures of us all trying to slap the rock with our paddles right before we flipped over. It was oars and bodies everywhere, but we all lived to tell about it. Good times

 

[fisheater]

Or, you could die.

A friend of a friend, a very experienced (& "credentialed") river diver got stuck in just such a hydraulic and couldn't escape. This happened just a few weeks ago.

What you don't know CAN kill you.


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[Steve_C]

My brother got caught in a hydraulic in a small rive in MT. He spent over 30 minutes being sucked down, pushing off the bottom, just getting a gasp of air and getting sucked back in. He finally was able to work himself free. Feels it was one of the closest calls he has ever had.

There is special training/knowledge for river diving, just like for wreck or cave. Do not do it lightly. A slow current with volume can exert a lot of pressure. You do not want to be pushed against some boulders below water level.

 

[uncfnp]

In addition to having gone on whitewater rafting trips (even guided a couple summers when I was younger), I've done the New and Gauley rivers in a whitewater canoe, including a dam release day on the upper Gauley. Pillow rock is fun, I've done it; but turning yourself into floaty agitator ball in a real hydraulic is a terrible idea.

If you get stuck in a hydraulic current, you want to get negative, be as close to the bottom as possible and swim/hand over hand downstream to get out of it. If you head up, you're just going to get pulled back, smashed into whatever's causing the circular backflow in the first place, and then pulled back under. Eventually, yeah, you'll get spit out.

Ya got to love the Upper Gauley, except when it's 28 degrees with wind snow. I was very disappointed the year I went and they had changed the dramatic churning water release to the anticlimactic display of my last trip many years ago.

 

[Jim-SAR]

This video describes the hydraulics very well. You may not be at a man-made dam, but a waterfall produces similar results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF7vB5aHnBc

Here's a link I found on hydraulics discussed on a kayak site.

http://www.ccadc.org/instruction/ACA_RKTLA_Class/TLHazard/RiverHazards.html




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[Doc Harry]

Here is one of the deadliest hydraulics in the USA. Doesn't look very impressive, does it?

[video=youtube;M062UGY3g4c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M062UGY3g4c[/video]

 

[raftingtigger]

This video describes the hydraulics very well. You may not be at a man-made dam, but a waterfall produces similar results.

Over The Edge - YouTube

Very powerful video. Low-head dams are known as drowning machines. One way out of nature made hydraulics is to swim to the side to try to reach water flowing downstream. This doesn't work with low-head dams as they have no side flow.

Waterfalls can be very similar. Two important things to consider are water flow (CFS) and depth below the waterfall/dam. The lower the flow and the deeper the water the safer it is to go under the flow. At what point is it safe? Depends. Look at the downstream boil line. The farther downstream it is the more dangerous the situation. The safety WILL change with changing flows.

I was invited to a dive among the salmon on the Feather river. The five or six divers there that had done the dive before all talked about swimming to the base of the dam underwater. I took one look and said "No way, today it will kill you". As we got within about 100 yards of the dam the current turned upstream, and we turned downstream. Turned out the flow was 10,000 CFS and they had done the dive at 3,000 CFS. A few weeks later I did the dive again with a 4,000 CFS flow and there was negligible current and no turbulence at the base of the dam.

Know your flow, know your river, and don't go off other's experience unless it is under the same flow.

 

[DougK]

I am a news photographer and I covered a rescue a number of years back, before I was certified, where a young boy was swimming or diving near a water fall. He got trapped in the water and managed to get on the wall BEHIND the waterfall. He could be heard calling out from behind the water. So a diver came out and went under the water and came up to the victim. What I find remarkable this many years later was he gave the boy a quick lesson on how to breath off a regulator and was able to successfully rescue him by taking him down and under the hydraulic and out of the fall area before surfacing.

 

[swimmer_spe]

I am a news photographer and I covered a rescue a number of years back, before I was certified, where a young boy was swimming or diving near a water fall. He got trapped in the water and managed to get on the wall BEHIND the waterfall. He could be heard calling out from behind the water. So a diver came out and went under the water and came up to the victim. What I find remarkable this many years later was he gave the boy a quick lesson on how to breath off a regulator and was able to successfully rescue him by taking him down and under the hydraulic and out of the fall area before surfacing.

"Here put this in your mouth. Keep breathing as you would if you were on the surface. Now hold on as we go under."

I doubt it would be much more than that. Seriously, it is not much more than that.