I’ve gotten back into kayaking after a few years break and just bought a used fiberglass Current Design Gulfstream. Here in the panhandle of Florida I paddle a lot of bayous, point A to B and back. One thing I’ve noticed is when I come upon a point jutting into the bayou with shallow water, 2 feet or so, it feels like The kayak gets bogged down and it’s harder to keep the same speed. Is this real? Is a kayak slower in real shallow water or just some optical illusion or something? Just curious, thanks for any replys.
Definitely real. The worst feeling is in a race and you misjudge the channel. It’s a great feeling when you’ve slogged a distance in shallow water and finally get to deeper water, and it feels like you’ve been set free.
Yes real, I would do training runs near my home and use a GPS set on speed. I could see by the speed increase when the depth increased.
I am convinced that the hard chine boats suffer much more that the more rounded hulls.
A bit more detailed discussion a few years back. It’s sometimes called suck water.
https://forums.paddling.com/discussion/1348699/canoe-racing-popped-in-the-shallows
It is actually so real, that this behaviour is built into ship simulators too.
A few years ago, i tried the ship simulator shown in this photo:
https://www.aeroekommune.dk/Files/Images/Bosætning/Simulator%20Marstal%20Navigationsskole.jpg
I think my ship was a small oil tanker. I veered away from the channel and went into shallow water, and this caused the velocity to go down AND caused the ship to go deeper in the water.
Many of the racers call it “suck water”
If your going 6 miles in deep water and all of a sudden you are in shallows it is just like putting the brakes on
suck water, cement water and some other unprintable terms…
I usually plan routes to avoid shallow water as much as possible, even if that means going slightly further or offshore.
During races a lot of people stop paddling hard when they slow down in shallow water, since you aren’t going very fast and it is discouraging. The thing is that the sooner you are through it, the faster you can accelerate up to normal speed, so it often pays to go hard in “skinny water” .
Thanks guys, good to know I wasn’t going nuts or something.
The book “Canoe Racing” by Heed and Mansfield has a chapter dedicated to shallow water, breaking it down into shallow water and intermediate water (the latter sounding like the stuff Greg describes).
The book describes intermediate water as between a foot and two to three feet deep. Shallow is a foot or less. A few years ago I stupidly followed some paddlers through a shallow section (didn’t know how to read the water back then). A stiff headwind made the experience memorable and miserable. My cedar GP needed lots of remedial sanding when I got home.
Shallow water also tends to interfere with your paddle stroke. It is outside of the current. It is also the place where waves have bad effects. It is also where oysters lay in wait ready to attack……………….
@Overstreet said:
Shallow water also tends to interfere with your paddle stroke. It is outside of the current. It is also the place where waves have bad effects. It is also where oysters lay in wait ready to attack……………….
yum… Though here the oysters are on ropes…
In FL oyster bars are sometimes the most solid surfaces on which to take a pee break…
@kayamedic said:
@Overstreet said:
Shallow water also tends to interfere with your paddle stroke. It is outside of the current. It is also the place where waves have bad effects. It is also where oysters lay in wait ready to attack……………….yum… Though here the oysters are on ropes…
In FL oyster bars are sometimes the most solid surfaces on which to take a pee break…
Just not with a carbon kevlar kayak !
Also the oyster bars are just waiting to give you a nasty cut when you trip and fall
No issue. Carbon fiber RapidFire
Oyster bars since 2006
that is for 10-30 days a year
My RF was only really damaged by a piece of rebar in a rock on the Withlacoochee where it entered the Suwannee.