[Paddlewise] surfing boat wakes

Thought I would throw this in to the mix. I have found that surfing the 
diagonal wake from a boat is a little counter intuitive. You have to surf 
the wave at an angle. If you try to surf the wave perpindicular to its 
face, you will quickly fall off. However if you angle your kayak in the 
same direction as the boat/ship/tug was travelling, you can get extended 
surfs. This requires that you have a strong rudder planted to prevent your 
kayak from broaching.

Even more fun than surfing boat wakes however is throwing a wavewheel off 
the top of the wake. Even the smallest wake makes cartwheeling much easier 
once you figure out the timing. However, I wouldn't recommend trying to 
wavewheel in anything other than a rodeo kayak... unless you don't mind 
looking really silly.

If you want video of a wavewheel... check out Preston Holmes' new page with 
surfing video from the Channel Islands. You'll see several airborn 
cartwheels off the back of a wave. Cool stuff, and GREAT video. 
Unfortunately you need Quicktime to see it, but that's easy enough to download.
http://siolibrary.ucsd.edu/Preston/channelislands10.2000/index.html

Kevin


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