"Wilko" wrote in message
news:dKX9b.44958$tK5.5233861@zonnet-reader-1...
riverman wrote:

Well, there you go thinking again. We've warned you about that. :-)

Exactly like what happens when you try to translate from one language
to another. Maybe "petit amie" translates exactly to "little friend" in
english, but any french-speaker know that it really means the
equivalent
of 'girlfriend'. I say "the equavalent" because that is an English
translation of a French word. The actual word, to any Frenchman, is
"petit
amie".

Oh my, now you're getting on a slippery slope: with all the languages
being spoken by the posters on paddling forums, even those who share a
common language (i.e. English) can get confused by the use of that
language by other native speakers.


Too true, which highlights my statement that we all need to "think in River
Grades, not in translations of River Grades." When someone says 'its a class
4', everyone in every boat, every country, every experience level should be
visualizing the same type of difficulty. Then they can each determine for
themselves if they can run it, in the boat they currently are sitting in.
But the rating is a property of the rapid, not of the boater, boat or skill.

When I first started paddling with open boaters in the U.S., I
recognised their ratings of rapids. What baffled me was that their lines
seemed to be so much different than mine! If I rate a rapid, I take a
"virtual" line through a rapid in a kayak and I do so in the assumption
that it's the easiest route down. It's often possible to run harder
lines in that same rapid, but that's not all that interesting for rating
it, IMO.

Which brings us to the REAL question: is a rating for a rapid, or for a
line? I think that it should be for the line, exactly how climbers rate
climbs, not mountains. Saying "Zungo Rapids" is a IV could mean several
things: the easiest run through is a IV, the most common route is a IV, or
the 'average' route is a IV. These have vastly different ramifications, so
instead, it would be wise to say "the popular route down the middle is a IV,
the sneak route on the left is a II, and there's a class V run if you go
down the right." I think most boaters talk to each other that way all the
time, but the guidebooks seem out of synch.

And open boaters will alway overrate rapids. Its just too damn embarassing
to be that scared and wet after a class II rapid! It must have been class
IV... Mary had a post several years ago about swimming a class III, and it
really highlighted how people overrate rapids. I'll see if I can find it.

--riverman