Whitewater kayaking, while not a booming sport, has proven its longevity as a viable adventure option, where practitioners can explore some of the most beautiful cracks in the Earth’s surface for a relatively affordable price of admission. It just takes work to learn how to do it stylishly (see safely). And as with every sport, things can still go wrong.
The vertical pin might be the worst scenario in whitewater: it usually happens when a paddler is navigating a vertical drop and fails to apply the ol’ boof stroke to keep the bow up, forcing the boat to pencil into the water where, if the nose finds a sticky point (lodged between rocks, etc.) it can become pinned vertically, trapping the kayaker behind a curtain of water with the force of the river crashing down on his or her back in a flowing death grip.
Such was the case with this vertical pin on the Rio el Salto, an upper run on the Rio Valles near San Luis Potosí in central Mexico. Typically, with its travertine drops, it’s one of the most joyful sections of runnable waterfalls in North America. But things go bad on what looks like a guided trip. In the video, posted by Kayak Sessions magazine, the lead boater looks as though he’s got his shit together, quickly hopping out of his boat to help the pinned kayaker who becomes vertically pinned on a small drop. It’s not clear from the video if the boater came out on his own or the rescuer was able to pop the neoprene spray skirt (seal around the cockpit) of the trapped paddler. But either way, it was a quick reaction to help avoid a potentially tragic situation.
