Team TOG: Amber Clites

Amber Clites studied Sports Medicine and Athletic Training at Denison University. She obtained her Master's from California University of Pennsylvania in Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention.  Amber is currently the Head Athletic Trainer for the Pittsburgh Passion.  After graduating college, Amber became involved in running and mountain biking.  In 2011, some friends suggested she participate in an Adventure Race, and she's been hooked ever since. Amber has participated in multiple 24-hr races and completed her first expedition race in 2014.

Technical AR Principles: Reading White Water

Reading white water – Learning how to read water is like learning a foreign language. Just as being relaxed and confident helps your cross-cultural communication skills, being relaxed will also enable you to pick the best routes through rapids while in your boat. A cool head allows you to clearly see obstacles, drops, and paths, whereas anxiety clouds your vision so that you see only an undecipherable mass of white froth.

Volume – Volume is the amount of water flowing past a point in the river per unit of time. In the United States, volume is almost always expressed in cubic feet per second (cfs), though occasionally it is given in some other dimension, such as cubic meters per second or cubic yards per minute. Depth gauges usually give the river level in feet, which is meaningful only if you know the individual river and therefore have a reference level or some other basis for understanding the relevance of the gauge reading.
A river’s power and speed always increase with an increase in volume. This usually means a difficult river will become harder with more water, but sometimes the opposite is the case. Sometimes high water causes a rapid to wash out and diminish in intensity. Experience on a particular river is really the key to knowing what to expect.
High water can create other problems. Flooding can cause trees to fall into the river or be picked up from the banks, increasing the danger to boaters. Extremely high water also tends to wash out most of a river’s eddies, those still-water havens behind rocks that are used for scouting and resting. On a difficult, flooded river, there’s little room for error. The water can be so powerful that your strongest attempts at maneuvering will be ineffective. If you want to learn all sorts of fun facts about rivers in flood, see William Nealy’s book, Kayak.

Gradient – River gradient refers to the average steepness of the riverbed. A rapid forms when a stretch of river has a higher gradient than the river’s average. A consistently steep river forms one very long rapid. Conversely, pools form where the incline levels out and the velocity of the water decreases. Most rivers are characterized as pool-drop rivers, with the riverbed alternating between relatively steep sections and level sections. These are the type of rivers most commonly run because they allow kayakers to rest after each rapid and provide them with an opportunity for checking out upcoming drops.
Gradient is measured in feet per mile. The most popular stretches for river running have gradients ranging from 10 to 100 feet per mile. The relation between gradient and difficulty depends, of course, on the individual river. Some rivers drop so evenly that they have miles of continuous low-grade riffles, despite high gradients. Conversely, a river with a low gradient may have miles of flat water with only one drop—a 200 foot waterfall.
As an extremely rough rule of thumb, most rivers that have gradients from 5 to 30 are usually Class 1 to 2 rivers, and gradients from 30 to 60 are likely to be Class 3 or 4. But as always, this depends on the particular river. Rivers with gradients up to 300 feet per mile are run, but only by experts, crazed maniacs, or those who can’t read topographical maps.

Water Velocity – Water velocity depends on where it’s being measured. In a straight section of river, the fastest current is in the middle where the river is deepest (See photo above). Water velocity decreases toward the banks and near the river bottom. Friction accounts for much of this loss of speed.

When a river bends, a majority of the water travels on the outside of the bend. This causes a deeper and faster channel to form on the bend’s outer curve. Because the inside of the bend has slower-moving water, not much of a channel is cut into the river bottom and the water is shallow. Often, the riverbank is higher on the bend’s outside. If there are waves going around a bend, then the biggest and best waves are where the water is deepest—toward the out bank (See photo to the right). But be wary—the faster water at the outside of the turn can undercut the outer bank, causing trees to topple into the water. In addition, the outside bank may be covered with overhanging brush. The water wants to take you there, but this is not where you want to go, unless you enjoy being slapped and snagged by shrubbery.
When water hits an obstacle (midstream rock, bank outcropping, and so on), it piles up on the upstream side of the obstruction and then accelerates as it continues downstream. Consequently, water speed is somewhat faster downstream and to the side of (but not behind) and solid obstacle.

Water speed increases past obstacle and near eddy line

Eddies – An eddy is any spot in the river where the water is moving more slowly or in a different direction than the main current. Rocks in the river are the most common cause of eddies, but eddies also form behind logs, bridge pilings, and bedrock outcroppings, as well as on the inside of bends and along the riverbank where friction slows the water. The water in an eddy can move at a slower speed than the main current, be completely still, or most often, move back upstream. An eddy’s character depends on the shape of the obstacle and on the level of the water. The faster the current is moving when it hits an obstacle, the stronger the current moving upstream behind the rock. This upstream current is always fastest just below the obstacle, making the eddy strongest near its top. The phenomenon of eddy water flowing counter to the direction of the main flow is caused by downstream water pulling eddy water downstream out the top of the eddy. Water from the downstream end of the eddy then moves upstream to fill the void. This leads to a constantly circulating flow of eddy water upstream and then downstream with the main current. A big powerful eddy on the side of the river with a lot of upstream current is, in essence, a giant whirlpool. The center is somewhat like the eye of a hurricane and is sunken in relation to the periphery.

Team TOG: Lizzie Bronson

Liz studied athletic training at Ithaca College, and currently works as a certified athletic trainer in Pittsburgh, PA.  Although she was a sprinter on Ithaca’s track team, Liz transitioned to longer distances after becoming involved with the Pittsburgh marathon.   Liz was introduced to adventure racing in 2011, when she competed in the American Adventure Sports 24 hour Lionheart (and mountain biked for the first time).  Liz is drawn to the sport because it constantly challenges her to push her physical and mental limits.

Technical AR Principles: Holding Your Paddle

Technical Adventure Racing Principles #1 -- Holding Your Paddle

For the next few weeks, I will be posting general principles, methods, and suggestions on Adventure Racing disciplines. While an infinite number of volumes could be written on any one of the disciplines found in this sport, we have highlighted a few of the major points in order to help you develop yourself and your team as Adventure Racers. I am starting with Boat Basics and will eventually move on to Navigation, Climbing, and last, but not least, Biking.

#1. Holding Your Paddle

Curved and offset blades are standard on all performance paddles. Blade curvature imparts more power to a stroke than a flat blade, but it does make proper paddle control a little confusing at first. The concave side of the paddle is called the power face, and the opposite, or convex side, the non-power face. A paddle is always held so that during a forward stroke, the power face is pointed toward the stern, or the rear of the boat.

Because of the offset and curve, you need a strategy to make sure both blades enter the water with their power faces pointed back. Without such a system, one blade may slice through the water, offer no resistance, and possibly cause you to tip. Here’s the strategy: one hand, designated the control hand, maintains a firm grip on the paddle shaft and rotates the shaft within the other hand (the non-control hand) so that the correct blade angle occurs on both sides. Depending on the blade orientation, paddles are controlled with either the left or the right hand. Most paddles on the market are right-hand controlled. The control hand grips the paddle so that the wrist and forearm are at 90 degrees to the blade, with the power face pointed back. To place the opposite, non-control blade correctly, cock your control wrist out while maintaining the control grip. Keep in mind, for later reference, that there are times when you’ll want to cock your control wrist in. It’s not necessarily the case that left-handlers should automatically paddle left-handers should automatically paddle left-control. Some instructors go so far as to maintain that a paddler’s dominant hand should be the non-control hand.

Beginners sometimes mistakenly rotate the shaft partially within both hands. This causes blade disorientation because the permanent reference grasp the control hand is meant to provide, gets compromised. In addition, rotating the shaft within both hands makes it difficult to do some of the more precise strokes. If you’re having this trouble, try a visualization exercise and imagine that there’s super glue bonding your control hand to the shaft.

An oval shaft (instead of a round shaft), at least in the area of around the control hand, facilitates the correct positioning of the control hand and gives you more control over the blad angle with strokes such as the draw and the duffle (which will be explained in future posts). In addition, an oval shaft gives you a better grip and slightly more leverage with your control hand. If you already have a round shaft, you can make it oval in the control area by applying a thick line of Shoe Goo or some contoured fiberglass putty. You can even improvise an oval by placing a Popsicle stick on the non-power side of the shaft. A wrapping of electrical tape will secure the stick and provide a good grip.

Team TOG: Toby Angove

Meet Team AAS/TOG member Toby Angove. Toby is a long time adventure racer and a member of what we like to call the "twin towers" (himself and fellow teammate Bryan Mayer. Toby works at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the Military Science Department and is a Scout Platoon Leader and 1st Lieutenant in the United States Army.

After a childhood of non-competitive manure-hauling and hay-bale-throwing, his racing career began while at college with marathons and triathlons. In the mid 90s, Adventure Racing presented itself as the next level of challenge – an opportunity to truly test one’s individual limits, character and the strength of team dynamics. Since then, Toby has competed regionally, nationally, and abroad in Sprint, Stage, and Expedition Races as well as work in race production and course design.

Odyssey One Day Xtreme: Starting the Race Season

Team AAS/TOG will be starting the season in only a few short weeks on March 22nd with the  Odyssey One Day Xtreme Adventure Race. The race will have unsupported teams of 2, 3, 4 and soloist navigate, paddle, mountain bike, and trek their way through the beautiful mountains and waterways surrounding Fairy Stone State Park, while battling the elements of Mother Nature, by using only a map and compass.

This 24 hour adventure race will be a great practice run for some of the expedition length races the team will be competing in this season. 

Keep up with our blog this season for post race reports, training logs, gear reviews and more! We will be publishing bio's on each of our team members within the next few weeks.