- Playspot
A playspot is a term used by
kayakers andcanoeists to describe favorable stationary features on rivers, in particular standing waves (which may be breaking or partially breaking), 'holes' and 'stoppers', where water flows back on itself creating a retentive feature (these are often formed at the bottom of small drops or weirs), or eddy lines (the boundary between slow moving water at the rivers' edge, and faster water).Playboating
Playboating is sometimes performed on dynamic moving features such as haystacks (large boils) andwhirlpool s, or on flat water (this is often referred to as flatwheeling). Playspots are found on naturalwhitewater , on artificialweir s, onartificial whitewater courses, and occasionally on tidal races in the sea.Popular Playspots
Natural playspots
* Lunch Counter on the
Snake River inWyoming
* Hell Hole on theOcoee River inTennessee
* The Rabioux wave on theDurance inFrance
* Rock Island State Park in theCumberland Mountains ofTennessee
* School House Rock "KRH" playhole inCalifornia
* Kaituna "bottom Hole"Rotorua ,New Zealand
* Zoar Gap rapid on theDeerfield River nearCharlemont, Massachusetts
* Hawaii-sur-Rhône on theRhône River , inLyon ,France High volume rivers
Often run for their playspots (quite commonly featured on playboating videos):
* The
Slave River inCanada
* The Ottawa River inCanada
* TheWhite Nile inUganda
* TheZambezi inZambia
* TheLachine Rapids inQuebec Weirs
*
Hurley Weir on the Thames, nearLondon
* Sluice onRiver Liffey , Lucan, IrelandMan-enhanced playspots
* The Gutter on the
Payette River inHorseshoe Bend ,Idaho
* TheU.S. National Whitewater Center inCharlotte ,North Carolina
* TheSalida playhole inColorado
* The Golden Kayak Park inGolden, Colorado
* The LowerSaluda River inColumbia, SC . Specifically,Millrace Rapids near theRiverbanks Zoo
* Rio Vista Park on theSan Marcos River inSan Marcos, Texas
* Slumber Falls on the Guadalupe River nearNew Braunfels, Texas Tidal races
*
Skookumchuck Narrows inCanada
*The Bitches inWales
* TheSwellies on theMenai Strait ,Wales
* TheFalls of Lora inScotland
* The Arches,Malahide Estuary in Dublin, Ireland
* Cohasset Tidal Rip inCohasset, Massachusetts
* Sheepscot Reversing Falls inNewcastle, Maine
* Clifden Hole,Clifden , County Galway, IrelandOthers
The Tryweryn in Wales, the Dee near
Llangollen in Wales, the Washburn in England, andHambledon Weir on the Thames have been modified (by moving boulders on the river bed, or in the case of Hambledon by installing pneumatic kicker ramps on the river bed) to create better playspots.Construction has been completed on
Brennan's Wave a project in Missoula, MT that is converting a broken diversion dam into a playpark for kayakers.
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