the.com/rapids
where a river forgets it ever wanted to be calm
means a section of a river where the water flows fast and turbulently over rocks, often with white foam and a steep gradient
from the plural of 'rapid,' from the Latin 'rapidus' meaning 'seizing, swift, tearing away,' built on 'rapere,' to seize or snatch — the same grabby root that gives us 'rapture' and 'rapacious.' The water, in other words, was named for its hurry: a river caught in the act of grabbing at everything in its path.
- grade scale
- rated I to VI, VI meaning nearly unrunnable
- made of
- steepness plus rocks equals beautiful chaos
- whitewater color
- foam is just water full of trapped air
- hydraulics
- holes can recirculate and trap swimmers underwater
- named features
- some rapids earn names like Lava Falls
niagara falls — 750,000 gallons of water per second flowing between usa and canada
congo river rapids — livingstone falls section with 220-meter drop over 15 km in democratic republic of congo
zambezi river rapids — victoria falls rapids on the border of zimbabwe and zambia, one of world's largest waterfalls