RE: [Paddlewise] Clapotis technique

Heike wrote: -
>What is Clapotis

G'Day Heike and thanks Doug, Steve, Kevin and Robert for your encouragement
and advice,

Heike, clapotis is a word used to describe waves that seems to leap up from
nowhere. Its caused when reflected waves eg from a cliff, or point meet
waves travelling to the cliff or point. Sometimes the reflected wave will be
going down while the oncoming wave is going up and the two cancel each other
out. Sometimes both waves will be going up at the same time and they add
together giving a bigger one that seems to come from nowhere. The
combination of waves from either side and waves jumping up typically 3 or 4
feet (1-1.5 meters) is what I have experienced. They can be much bigger but
I haven't experienced that yet.

I come across them regularly when rounding a point as a Jet Cat Ferry gos by
or along the stretch of coast from North Head in Sydney to Blue Fish Point.
This stretch takes about 15 to 30 minutes to cross which is plenty of time
to get used to the conditions. My Pittarak hardshell is fairly narrow and
tippy and balances really well in confused water with flexible hips. The
beamy Klepper is very good also. Theres an ancient "disused" treated sewage
outfall at Blue Fish point so I really want to paddle at my best in that
locality:~)

I sometimes get trapped in these waves, not being able to go forward very
fast and being knocked way off direction as Doug described, just maintaining
balance. As Robert said the boat is quite often knocked back into the right
direction anyway. The fast shallow angle strokes work like Steve said except
that its not as fast for me and its reassuring to know that its not bad
paddling technique. There are also periods of calm in between the chaos when
I paddle more "normally" in the right direction and with a lot of energy to
build up forward momentum until the next chaotic run. These calm periods
seem to last a few seconds. When all this is happening I'm just focussing on
the immediate surroundings and it requires concentration. Its not an easy
place for rescues.

Robert and Kevin both mentioned relaxing and Kevin also suggested not
paddling just sitting maybe eyes shut. While I'm not exactly relaxed I've
certainly tried just sitting (out of laziness and exasperation) and its as
you say Kevin there doesn't seem to be a major problem with balance though I
do have to low brace sometimes. Trouble is the stretch of water I'm thinking
of takes about 20 minutes to cross at the best of times. My objective is to
make efficient progress I think the balance is OK. As Doug suggested I will
try a deeper angle stroke while being prepared to brace more often, as well
as optimising the shallow angle stroke (nice to know its a Greenland
technique). Sitting without paddling and your eyes closed sound like a
useful challenges best done with a friend in carefully selected water.

Looking forward to learning more through trial and hopefully not too many
errors and heeding the voices of experience,

All the best and thanks again, PeterO



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