I remember a dam like this back when I was in high school. On the Guadalupe River in central Texas. I forgot the name of the dam, I think it was "Guadalupe Falls", and it was quite dangerous. Our schools canoeing club used to run that river all the time back in the early 70's. There was a large sign strung overhead across the river as you approached the dam warning you of the dangers. The drop was only 3 feet or so but the hydrolics were dangerous. The experienced canoers would shoot the dam with spotters on each shore below the dam. Only if the water was flowing high so you wouldn't snag on the damn and get sideways - you had to shoot it straight or you were toast. One person fell out of the canoe once and got caught in the hydrolics. The spotters canoed in from the sides, jumped in (I was one of them) and got his life vest off. We all dove towards the bottom, and popped up downstream OK.

Looking back, we were pretty dumb to do this in the first place. Teenagers in high school ... what can I say?!