At 10:13 PM 12/29/99 -0800, Doug Lloyd wrote: >At 07:24 AM 12/29/99 EST, Bob Vilter wrote: >>I would like to improve upon my bracing skills, and would also like to learn >>how to reenter and roll. >> >>Your advice on techique for developing and improving these skills would be >>greatly appreciated. > >I'm working on an article for Sea kayaker Magazine on the reenter and roll. >I will gladly post some of my thoughts, but it will have to wait for the >new year (too busy right now). Perhaps some other posts will come up in the >mean time. I'm looking forward to it. In the case of bracing, all I can really think of to suggest is that it's all about blade orientation. That is, the blade should always be *close* to parallel with the water surface. I say close because usually a brace is done one the move and the leading edge of the blade should always be slightly higher than the trailing edge. A little exercise that I've suggested when showing people the importance of blace orientation is to have the paddler lay their paddle out to the side with the blade parallel to the surface and then sweep back and forth in a wide arc just skimming the surface. Angle the leading edge just higher than the trailing edge and you can skim the blade across the surface quickly. Turn the leading edge down in the direction the paddle is moving just slightly and watch the paddle dive. The other exercise that Derek Hutchinson taught me (I first learned to brace in a class I took from him) was to achieve the "depth charge" sound to get a feel of how much resistance the water provides to a flat paddle. Hold the paddle such that the blade over the side where you're going to brace is about 30 degrees back from perpendicular and the non-powerface paralell to the water. Your elbows should be above the paddle shaft as if you're going to do a push up. Push down on the blade into the water until you can get a "depth charge" sound (ker-plush). Once you do that a few time try edging the boat at the same time and you'll begin to get a feel for how much resistance the paddle and water surface provides. Keep practice and after awhile it will become second nature. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Jan 01 2000 - 06:05:37 PST
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