Re: [Paddlewise] WoW White Water Slalom

On Sun, Aug 20, 2000 at 09:05:23PM -0400, Phlopz_at_aol.com wrote:
> WoW, those folks in the K1 slalom kayaks do nothing like what I do with my 
> sea kayak on lakes.  The bracing, strokes, banked turns, draw strokes.  Brace 
> and power the boat at the same time. HIGH, HIGH braces. AWSOME!
> 
> Even wierder are the C1 -single handed canoes.  These folks kneel in what 
> looks just like a K1 with a spray skirt and a single bladed paddle.  They 
> don't have time to swap the paddle left to right; they simply twist over to 
> the other side and keep the same hand position (roughly).
> 
> I recommend those who have not witnessed this amazing stuff to keep an eye 
> out for the opportunity.

You're welcome to come and join us in the sport -- beginner races are held
on class I water with an emphasis on teaching technique -- a focus that
comes in handy when you're running a river and need to go from <1-boat
eddy above gnarly drop> to <hypothetical chute through monster hole
on the other side and below gnarly drop>.  I got my start at the Penn
Cup series (http://www.penncup.org/) which consists of 5 beginner-level
races held throughout Pennsylvania each fall.  Each race includes a clinic
the day before taught by successful races (often including people who
compete at Team Trials, and sometimes including people who have represented
the US internationally).  If you're anywhere near the area, you oughta
try it.

Up in Canada, there's a lot of slalom paddling in places like Madawaska
(*beautiful* course in the Chalet Rapids), Minden (world-class steep
fast course) and the Ottawa (where Canadian Nationals were held two
weeks ago)...plus other places across the country.  I'm not sure where
the beginner-level races are offhand, but I do try to keep a comprehensive
schedule of slalom/wildwater/rodeo events for North America at
http://www.whitewaterslalom.org/2000/schedule.html so you might check
that if you're interested.

BTW, that's not a "high, high brace" that you see people doing: it's
a duffek, a stroke named for a Czech paddler who invented/popularized
it many years ago.  It's designed to accelerate a high-speed turn by
providing a stationary point to rotate around.  Done well, it gets turned
into a forward stroke (by feathering the blade) and allows racers to
do upstream gates *very* fast.  Done badly, it stalls the boat, flips
it, and other less-than-desirable things.  It takes practice -- lots and
lots of practice.  Even then sometimes things don't work out.

Slalom racing is done in decked and open boats; the decked boats
come in three flavors: K-1, C-1 and C-2; the open boats are OC-1 and OC-2.
Most races break these classes down further into junior/senior/master,
male/female/mixed, etc., in order to give everyone a roughly equal
chance against similar competition.  I race K-1 and C-2 mostly,
dabbling C-1 (poorly!); each boat has its advantages and disadvantages:

	K-1: Roughly equal power on both sides; can brace on both
		sides (although bracing != good because it doesn't
		push the boat toward the finish line).

	C-1: Better visibility; superior leverage on blade.  But must
		learn to paddle offside and develop some sort of offside
		brace (not easy) in order to make left- and right- moves
		with equal facility.

	C-2: Incredible power -- can take a stroke on both sides of the
		boat at once.  Very fast in straight line (long hull).
		Harder to turn; must fit two bodies through gate, not
		just one.  Have ready brace on either side.  Must coordinate
		the roll so that both are going the same way.  Teamwork,
		teamwork, teamwork.

The idea of slalom is combine speed (time is measured from start
to finish) with precision (2 seconds/gate if you touch them with
*anything*, 50 seconds/gate if you miss them or run them out of sequence).
On a class I 22-gate course, this is harder than it looks; on a course
like the Ocoee (class IV) with big ugly gnarly munchy holes *with the
gates occasionally in the holes* it's very demanding.  Racers talk
about going "fast and clean", which is, well, the goal.  The margins
can be quite small: Scott Shipley won the US Nationals in K-1 a couple
of days ago with a 233.07; Scotty Parsons was at 234.00.

Thanks to Steve for the mention of http://www.whitewaterslalom.org/ ; I'm
rewriting it from scratch and have all of the basic info up, but not
the picture gallery yet.  For photos, I can point you to:

	http://www.spwt.org/jr-sr-ms-nationals-1999.html
	http://www.spwt.org/midamerica-1999.html

For a (if I do say so myself!) nice closeup shot of a C-2 in action, try

	http://www.rockandwater.net/pix/riversport-98b.jpg

The doofus in the stern c'est moi, being gracefully tolerated by
the talented C-1 paddler in the bow (Caroline Ortmann).


---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
rsk_at_gsp.org
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