In my previous write up on trajectories, I hope that I have you convinced of the power of trajectory. This one is designed to help you learn to develop and exploit the potential of trajectories in as many ways as possible. In reality, the boat is always on some sort of trajectory, and the key is to not just recognize what path the boat is on at the moment and adjust it: the key is to understand what path of trajectory the boat is ABOUT to be on and adjust it BEFOREHAND. The is a simple point that is constantly hammered in all instructional classes; that you have to look downstream, and stay one step ahead of the action. With that in mind we're going to look at a few examples to help you begin to develop your skills and better utilize the rivers currents.

One of the easiest and most predictable types of trajectories that you've already played with is that of the Peel-Out: a combination of angle, speed, and edge, and of course the speed and angle of the current, all work together to push your boat out into the current in an arc. We know that there are simple things that we can do to control what type of arc this is (sharper, or wider), and we also know that we must assess what the current is doing in order to choose the ideal combination of angle, speed, and edge from our kayak. This small simple analysis, and action, has huge ramifications in how we deal with other situations on the river as well. Take for instance the S-Turn: depending on what type of arc we set up in our peel out, and how we maintain or adjust it along the way, will be the determining factors of how and where we catch the eddy on the other side of the river.

So when we are looking at a big rapid, especially one with some critical must make moves; we must begin to calculate how one move will affect the next one. Often the timing of a move (or even a specific stroke) is of crucial importance, and a poorly timed move will then have a negative impact on the next move; thus initiating a downward spiral of loss of control. One trick that many people use while scouting, is to look at the last move first: by having an ideal goal of how they would *like* to do that move, that will often influence how they would do the move above it, and so on, possibly having a huge influence on how the rapid is even entered. This strategy is obviously much harder when you are in the middle of a rapid that you didn't scout. Ever had the experience of making a simple decision to go to one side of an obstacle, only to then find yourself being "herded" in one steady direction by the next several obstacles? You've basically made several choices by choosing which side of the first obstacle to pass by.

Ok, so this is all sort of random theory at this point, that could probably be summed up in one simple sentence: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. But if only the planning part was obvious or easy! So here are some more specific examples to help expand your personal bag of tricks, and help you to exploit the power of trajectories.

JET FERRIES: One of my personal favorites! Jet ferries typically use some type of wave feature to help the boat plane out and stall the downstream movement of our kayak: thus nearly all of our energy AND the energy of the current are focused on moving our kayak laterally! This is the ultimate in using the force of the current to help us. Often, however, that wave doesn't go all the way across the distance that we may need to ferry, in fact many times we don't really have much of a wave at all to use when setting up for a big ferry.

For this example imagine that we have a large wave starting out next to our eddy, but then gradually flattening out to nothing, still far short of our intended ferry to the middle of the river. Looking at this problem, we want to leave the surfing portion of this (partial) jet ferry with as much momentum as possible. This is where timing can really pay off. I see this type of situation all the time, and one of the more common reactions to paddle as hard as possible coming out of the eddy; the exact wrong action to take. Instead, the idea is to try to stay as high up on the wave as possible, and, just before the wave starts to flatten out and stop offering any assistance, we want to then begin to accelerate diagonally down the face of the wave. The delay tactic is allowing us to get as much speed as possible at the moment where we most need it: when the wave stops helping us. All that speed coming out of the eddy would only send us lower in the wave, not only wasting our energy, but also takes away our ability to develop the extra speed of dropping down the face of the wave at the far edge; thus the difference in trajectory at the edge of the wave would be dramatically different in these two strategies.

LATERALS AND CUSHIONS: Particularly in big water, you will need to pay attention to waves, and the effects that they can have on your boat's trajectory. This is one place where the gung-ho, paddle hard types usually do pretty well; by keeping speed, and punching through the lateral waves, it's easier to stay on course. Where you can have problems, however, is if in your maneuvering you end up taking big waves at an angle or with little speed. These waves can act as huge deflectors, and in big water you can find your self very quickly way off line. This can be a small, but important thing to pay attention to.

The big thing to remember is that if we know that these waves can push us accidentally off course, then we also know that we can be deliberately pushed on course. When reading your water, try to identify any waves or cushions coming of rocks that could either throw you off line, or any that you could use to help establish a positive trajectory for a key move. Cushions, in particular, can be very dramatic in establishing lateral momentum of your kayak, just be sure to brace into them or you can find you boat developing upside down trajectory. Hint: for all you running the North Fork of the American River, look for a classic cushion move in "Bogus Thunder" rapid.

AUGURING IN: Trajectories aren't always about going fast, quite the contrary; often you'll have more calculated and precise trajectories by going nice and slow. While I am not typically a fan of back-paddling in the middle of a rapid, there are some times where being able to slow things down a bit can be helpful. The trouble is you don't usually want to establish a pronounced back-ferry, which is what is happening every time that you start back-paddling in the middle of fast water. That's were you can sometimes "auger in" to a small hole to slow things down a bit.

While most of the time we are concerned with punching holes, and trying to NOT be stalled out by them; there are some times, with the right type of hole, where it may be helpful to auger in a little. All that you want to do is allow the boat to sink into the backwash a bit. Rather than boofing the hole, or getting a huge amount of speed up, you want to let the bow drop into the backwash with just enough speed that you don't stall too much.

This can also be used in cases where you are on a trajectory that you don't want to keep: say that you are in a narrow chute that hits a hole and then heads towards an undercut. In this example you definitely would not want to keep the same trajectory that sent you towards the hole, so slowing down in the hole long enough to change directions and take a stroke or two away from the undercut would be VERY helpful. Obviously an example like this is NOT a good place to experiment and learn how to do this smoothly!

Try to play around with small pour-overs that are not to steep, and have a fairly minimal backwash. You want to get a good feel for how much speed you can have going into a wide variety of holes, so you'll need to play around in lots of them at some point in time. This can end up in a side surf from time to time; both accidental and deliberate side surfs can still end up being very useful in terms of slowing our downstream descent, while allowing us to develop lateral momentum to avoid hazards or catch eddies.