Why you should not Kayak over a Low head Dam.
Many times you have probably seen a nice little dam in your area being used to hold up a lake or control water flow to prevent flooding. To the casual whitewater kayaker, this might appear like great fun to run! The hole at the bottom looks smooth and nice. This would be a huge mistake. Heres Why:
A low head dams are generally built using a very simple construction style. They are assembled straight across a creek or river. There are walls on each side to prevent the river from just rising up and flowing over there. There is a main channel at the start of the dam where water spills through onto a long smooth sloped surface. The water from here drops off from this into a pool beneath the dam where a nice looking hole is formed. These holes are probably the most dangerous holes on a creek. The reason for this is that the holes go across the entire river in a straight line and they have a ton of rotation power as well as an incredibly large zone where the river where the river will actually pull you back into the hole. By itself, any of these things would make a hole dangerous but with all of them put together it makes an incredibly dangerous river feature that you should avoid. Many river fatalities don't occur from crazy waterfall drops and class 5 river running accidents, they occur from drownings on low head dams where good competent kayakers get pulled in, flip or otherwise get stuck in the hole and are unable to make it out. Do not let yourself become one of these fatalities. Even if you think that a particular low head dam looks safe it could not be since they often have submerged items in and around them that can cause you to get stuck or otherwise injure you easily when you have no time or room to maneuver.
