on 7/14/00 7:20 AM, Matt Broze at mkayaks_at_oz.net wrote: snip > If you have the time and are in a safe location and are unhurried teaching > the slower paddler some better more efficient paddling techniques might help > (especially later in a longer trip). snip the time teaching the slow paddler does not produce a significant improvement in paddling speed. However, occationally it does help and I remember one time that the improvement was so dramatic that I could hardly believe it. This happen a few years ago while teaching a one day kayak surf class for George Gronseth's Kayak Academy. Usually we have a breeze from the sea in the range of 10 to 15 knots or sometimes 20 knots but on this day it was in the 25 to 30 knot range. After the on-shore instruction and some time swimming in the surf I had each student launch in a sit-on-top surf kayak. The three men in the class were able to slowly make their way out in the surf against the wind but the other student, a woman, could not make any progress at all. With the force of the wind and the incoming surf against her she was just paddling in place a few feet from shore. I waded out to let her know that we would refund her money or let her reschedule for another day but decided to give her a little coaching on the forward stroke first. I taught her four things (1) torso rotation (2) reach, catching the water up by your feet (3) make sure the blade completly in the water throughout the stroke (4) lift out at your side. This lady listened to everything I said and made all these changes in her forward stroke and it wasn't too long before she was making her way out into the surf! She finished the whole class and had a blast doing it. As Matt Broze pointed out you can't always give a lesson on efficient paddling, depending on conditions, but if I can I try to teach the slow paddler the forward stroke technique, knowing that some (for whatever reason) are not able to make immediate improvements yet there are a few who will surprise you. Rex *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Jul 15 2000 - 04:46:46 PDT
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