Making an attainment is the act of "gaining" an eddy further upstream, and is often used as a way to get back up to a play spot, or potentially as a way to get a better approach to the next segment of white water. It is often an essential skill to have in many rescue situations, and in these times there will be little time to "figure it out". It can be quite challenging depending on the attainment(s) needed, and the complexity of the currents, but the basic idea is always the same: using ferry angles to shoot across jets of current into slower eddy water and then using that slower water to climb further upriver. Some key points to consider are:

Angles:

In general while attaining you will need to keep your ferry angles pretty tight, more-so than with making a normal ferry. If your angles are too wide you'll be exposing too much of the kayak to the current and therefore have a hard time holding position or gaining any distance against the current. While it is very important to not give the boat too much angle, you should also try to set an angle that is sufficient enough that your boat will spend minimal time in the current. Sometimes it can be a bit of a choice as far as which will slow you down more: a wide angle presenting more of the side of the boat to the current versus more time spent crossing the current with an angle that is narrow to the current. Practicing making attainments will do wonders for your ability to judge currents and set optimal angles...

Speed:

You will want to be thinking a lot about speed and how you will use it to get through any current that you'll deal with. In general the idea is to spend as little time in the stronger currents, and as much time as possible in the eddy waters. Be sure to hold enough speed throughout all of your encounters with river currents during the attaining, but also remember to rest and catch your breath while you can in the eddies (although not all eddies will provide much rest).

Often you will need to make a small "step" up against a slight current where you will need to climb straight upstream. In these cases it is mostly about building momentum to cary your boat up and into the slower water above the step, but you will also want to help the process by doing a slight "see-saw" movement with your body weight to keep the bow out of trouble. This means that you'll want to lift the bow slightly by pulling up on your knees and leaning slightly back for the moment that the bow needs to climb up over the step of water, you will then want to sit back up forward again once the bow has cleared the step, thus helping to unwieght the stern slightly allowing your momentum to carry forward relatively unimpeded.

Timing:

Asses where you will have the toughest currents to deal with and try to time your strokes so that you reach your peak momentum at the critical moment. Often paddlers will miss-time the approach to a tough jet of current and peak too soon, and as they begin to hit the main current they are already kind of slowing down. Once the boat begins to stall in the current, or move down-river, it will be very difficult to get your momentum heading back up river. On the other side of the coin you can't wait too long to start building your momentum, for the same reason; if you get into the main current with insufficient momentum to carry you through to the next eddy you'll find that it becomes MUCH harder to build the momentum once you've already hit the full force of the current. Most boaters will find that they can hit peak speed within 3-5 strokes, especially if they are already moving somewhat; therefore you should try to plan your approach with this in mind.

Strategy:

Not only is the timing of your paddling speed important, sometimes even the specific strokes will need to be pre planed. For example, if there is a rock on one side that you want to get up river of, you will want to plan to be paddling on the opposite side of the boat as you pass the rock, therefore allowing you to pass within a couple of inches of the rock and staying out of the main flow as much as possible while still keeping your momentum. In the previous example if you hadn't thought ahead and planed your strokes out it is very possible that you would come up to the rock and find yourself wanting to take a stroke but having the rock be in the way (thus loosing valuable speed), or be forced further into the current (potentially too strong to attain against). Strategy also means taking a close look into all the currents and making decisions on what the best choice of moves would be to attain back upriver; often in a more serious attainment you will have a range of options as to how to go about moving upstream, and reading your water well ahead of time can really pay off.

Use of features:

One of THE most important issues to consider when making your strategy is what kind of features you will deal with. Some of the most obvious ones will be waves and small holes, which can be a great help or a great hinderance depending on how you deal with them. Examples of how to use them well would be surfing across the face of a wave to hit the next eddy, and using the backwash of a hole to get a quick boost into the current. Also worth considering is if there are some decent cushions on any of the rocks; by ferrying your boat into a cushion on the upriver side of a rock you can often stall the boat just enough to gain a couple more feet (or maybe inches) to get the next eddy. The idea is to read your water and try to figure out how to work with the current as much as possible, and minimize your own personal output in trying to move the boat around. Learning to attain well will make you a much better river runner and play paddler by teaching you how to really work precisely with the currents and river features... Oh yeah, it's also a lot of fun!