Boofing is not the be all and end all of big drop-running. If you've got a nice clean drop into pleasantly aerated deep water and a non-lethal hydraulic, why boof at all? Boofing can also be hazardous to your health; if you land on a rock or land flat in non-aerated water you're going to break something (ankles, neck, back, etc.). A boat landing flat in non-aerated water may not break the surface tension of the pool. You may as well be landing on cement! There's a kayaker in the N.C. mountains who is an inch and a half shorter than he used to be as the result of a horizontal landing in non-aerated water . . . we're talking pulverized lumbar vertebrae and some vaporized disks (ouch!). Another hazard of boofing is psychological: a boater may run a drop he/she knows is dangerous thinking he/she will merrily boof to safety. In real life you may not clear the boil line, you may not miss the submerged rock. If you're using boofing as a danger-avoidance technique, use it with extreme prejudice! Boofing can be done safely as long as the person in the cockpit has good judgement. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Rock-jumping --You're faced with a drop into a very terminal hydraulic. You decide that you'd as soon stick your hand into a Cuisinart as land in that hole. You notice a nice feeder eddy bottom right . . . the right-hand rock lip is polished smooth. You decide to run diagonally, skimming off the polished lip and landing in the eddy. You lean forward hard after becoming airborne to ensure a bow-first landing in non-aerated water. Skim-jumping --You're looking at some weird mixed-aeration below a drop. Making the correct interpretation of shallow water and heavy obstruction you realize you'll pin vertically if you run the drop normally. Except for immediately below the drop, the water downstream looks OK. The backwash is well-aerated, making a flat landing semi-safe. After a couple hasty prayers to the river gods you boof into the unobstructed water downstream of the drop, skimming over the mixed aeration. Excerpted from Kayak - The New Frontier: The Animated Manual of Intermediate and Advanced Whitewater Technique by William Nealy All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
