When is a waterfall not a waterfall?

[Big Henry]

Waterfall - (n) A cascade of water falling from a height, formed when a river or stream flows over a precipice or steep incline.

On a thread I started last year about Skelton Beck in the North East of England, Jim Pullen asked:

Skelton Beck has been paddled.

Worth it? I see there's one "waterfall" marked on the OS 1:25,000....

I finally went and had a look yesterday, and I was rather disappointed:

For scale, the concrete stepping stones are about 20-24" tall!

I walked further up and downstream to see if there was anything else that could be classed as this Waterfall that's on the map, but nothing. There is a bit of a waterfall that trickles into the main stream, but that is just upstream of the railway bridge, and there is an artificial drop a little bit further upstream, but both couldn't be the waterfall referred to on the map due to their location.

So, anyone else trekked in to look at a waterfall they've seen on a OS map and been a bit disappointed? Or does anyone else have photos of other waterfalls that seem to fail to live up to their title?

[nutterboy]

I seem to remember soething in franco ferreros white water safety and rescue book about him saying that a waterfall was more than 3 metres tall but the could just have been a personal opinion

David

[cswalker]

Um, when it doesn't fall...

[Poke]

Um, when it doesn't fall...

Well, water is falling in the originally posted picture...
...albeit only 6".

So you'd class that as a waterfall?

[morsey]

When is a waterfall not a waterfall?

... When it is a slide.

... When it is a rapid.

... When it is a force.

... When it is a cascade.


For canoeing it roughly would be a vertical drop over ten foot high.

For mapping it is all about the gradient drop, and that doesn't always give a single vertical drop.

[banzer]

OS maps are among the best in the world IMO but even they make occasional mistakes, especially with water features! For instance this waterfall: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/575762

...is not shown on the regular 1:50000, as the map section below indicates.... the two waterfalls shown are different ones entirely.

[feelingjustfine]

Banz is that the one that you and Dom went and hucked when it was in mega flow and both of your decks blew out but you get away with it fine anyway?

[eeonz]

You just need to make smaller foam boaters.