When you want to paddle whitewater in a so called playboat, you do need such a playboat in the first place. Most of the time you can buy them outfitted, but the outfitting of a whitewater canoe is a never ending story. In this article I try to describe some of the key components of a whitewater boat.

Airbags

Airbags are a fundamental part of your whitewater canoe. Where air is in your boat, there can be no water. This is important to protect your boat against damage and to keep it more or less under controll when filled with water.

Think of it, a boat outfitted with airbags from bow till seat and from seat to stern has an opening of about 1m length, 60cm height to fill with water. Leaving the airbags out, thats hundreds of liters water to pour in your boat. As water weights a lot more then air, you can see the impact on that boat: it would sink. An airbag outfitted boat will always keep a certain part of the boat out of the water.
When upside down, the airbags make sure that even most of the boat is still out of the water.

Secondly the airbags can protect your boat for a certain amount against the forces of the water. Imagine your boat tipped over in the river, open side upstream, pinned against a rock. without airbags, the water could exert force on your hull, over the full inner side of your hull, which has more or less the shape of an arc. With airbags in your boat, properly inflated, the water has only the possibility to exert force on the airbag, more or less the diagonal of your hull radius. The surface on which the water can work is a lot smaller with airbags. In some cases the airbags will save your hull, in some cases it just won't be enough. But best of all is to avoid getting pinned.

Ropes

As you can see on the above image, there are ropes attached. We do this at bow and stern. If you want to know how to attach the ropes to your boat, have a look at our paddling knots article.

These ropes are used for several different purposes. All important on these ropes is that they float and the are easily cut with your rescue knife.

The ropes can be used in following situations:

• In case you tip over, you can swim to shore, dragging your boat on the line. A boat on a line is much easier to handle then a boat on the gunwale.
• - If you decide not to run a section, you may be able to line your boat through the section. With the attached ropes you can steer the boat, keeping yourself safely on shore. This is a technique that needs practice!!
• If you have to recover a boat that's drifting down a river, you can use the ropes for thowing. You make a connection between your boat and the unfortunate boat, and paddle to shore. Have a look in the safety section to find out more about thowing. Also this technique needs  practice.
• In case of a pin accident you already have some rope attached to the boat. It might be easier to access that rope then it is to access the boat and tie a rope to it.
• If you forgot a line to dry your clothes on at night, detach a rope from your boat and there is your laundry line!

On the length of the ropes can be discussed. Some claim a length  of 10m is ideal, others go for 15m, some others go for the idea "the ends of the ropes should have max 10cm overlap with each other when attached to the boat".
If you're paddling with long ropes, be aware that can become dangerous. If the ropes strangle around your legs in the water, you're in a very unhealthy situation.
On the other hand, the "max 10cm overlap" philosophy avoids part of the murderous ropes, but it's not that convenient to line a boat with 2m of rope on each side. For swimming and directing your boat this length is enough.

Give it a thought, give it a try. I think for playboating you're best of with the shorter version, since you really don't want your legs bound together on serious whitewater. Though I think for trekking on easy water the 10m variant might be interesting. If you can line your boat through shallo water without unpacking additional throwbags and so on, it's nice.

But whatever you do, when you're working with ropes on the river, always have a sharp knive with you! 

Saddles

Whitewater boats are outfitted with saddles. You're seated in a saddle because it's a lot more comfortable then a bench, but you're also a lot better attached to your boat. That last property is what we need in whitewater.

Getting your saddle fitted right is responsible for the most of the never ending story. But basically you have two kinds of saddles: bulkhead systems and strap systems.

Bulkhead

They provide a foam over the knees of the paddler. The major advantage of this system is that it is really easy and fast to get in and get out. The disadvantage is that they are best made to measure and  you cannot adapt the fixation to your clothing or shape of the day.

Strap systems

There are several strap systems available. Most producers of canoes have their own system, and there is mike-yee and some other systems available as well.

Important when using a strap system are your knee cups. They should provide enough pressure and support to the inner side of your knee, eventually also on the outer side, because that's the area where no straps can support your leg. 

Typically you have a two strap system, one over the lower part of the knee, keeping that knee in place, and one quite a bit higher, mainly to keep the paddler in the boat.  Have a look at the mike-yee website. 

Here you can see some examples of boats outfitted with strap systems:

Esquif:

Mike Yee:

Additional modifications

You'll see plenty of other adaptations to boats. There are simply too many to mention. Some add extra straps, others insert hip support pads. Some people glue there "cockpit" full with foam, ... . You can give it a try, but make sure you're always able to do your wet exit, in ANY circumstance!