Running waterfalls in playboats?

[ski_kayak365]

Any suggestions for technique for running falls in playboats? set up, tucking, boofing, how to land. I'm in a kingpin, and looking at up to 30foot drops. I'll be in Costa this winter, and will only have my playboat if we deceide to run any. I've run drops in my creeker, but never a playboat. Im mostly interested in my lower body impact. My feet are already crapped, so Im looking at the impact the most.

Thanks
Josh

[onefatdog]

the kingpin is a great river runner. should have no problems. don't land flat unless the pile is super foamy and it's less than 15' pencil or free wheel. your feet never what to hit anything but water if your in a creeker or spud so you won't notice anything. remember it's super easy to boof a kingpin so be carefull.

[Meng]

From what I have experienced, the technique is the same as in a creeker but is is even MORE important NOT to land flat.

Also more important not to piton.

Take the last stroke at the angle you wanna land at, distribute your weight over the deck versus straight up over your spine etc... all the normal stuff.

Consider updrafts if the falls has one....playboats seem to be more affected by them, and they have the ability to flatten your boat out.

When in doubt, just rool over the lip & oregon tuck!

[kiwi up a tree]

kingpin????? i run lots of waterfalls in my rad175, i just rail up on my boofin side and lean forward a bit.

[caspermike]

ive boated my kingpin through a number of defficult rapids super max on bailey trucked it through gore! some other shit up here in wyoming! i went off a 40 foot rail road bridge in it don't suggest that Kinda over rotated, but this boat is sick for runnin a little slow id go with the agent 6.2 thats what ill be running some serious shit in this year! the king pin is a nice boat just a little slow so plan your lines right and don't miss your eddies

[Mike Harvey]

running drops in playboats sucks. can you do it? sure. I did for a long time. But at some point I realized that playboats are good for surfing and creek boats are good for creeking and never the two shall meet.

I know that people will disagree but I wanted to give you another perspective. The margin for error is smaller in a playboat and if you pin or something bad happens the safety margin in a playboat is quite small. Ask Hobie or anyone who has designed creek boats, safety improvements come from people having terrible accidents. I want to have those safety improvements with me when I am running hard stuff, so for me I just don't question it anymore I just grab the creek boat when I am going creeking.

[ScottBarnes]

little playboats are slow, so you won't speed-boof any drops. but, they are really easy to boof little drops with no speed.
Downside is that if you use a little bit of a sweep stroke in with the boof stroke then you can correct an angle last minute (or over do it and just crank a giant boof that lands you sideways)

just keep in mind that the playboat is slow and won't ride over those holes at the bottom.