At 10:32 AM 4/8/2002 +0100, you wrote: > BTW, there was a good article in Sea Kayaker recently (I think the latest > edition), about "slipstreaming" in another paddler's wake. You just position > yourself behind a companion at a suitable distance (on their "second" wake) > and get a noticeable boost. As an incorrigible "wheel-sucker" cyclist, this > idea appeals enormously to me :-) Mind you, you are supposed to take turns > about ! Ah, wake riding. Wake riding can make a tremendous difference. There are two good wakes to attempt to ride when you are paddling with others. The stern wake, there are stern waves at about 1 boat length intervals behind a boat. To ride the first one the bow of your boat will need to be about 6 inches (15 cm) behind the boat you are wake riding. It's real obvious when you are parked on this wake. Out to the side is the second wake. I like to try and position my boat so the center of my boat is just ahead of the stern of the other boat and about 3 feet/1 meter to the side of the boat you are wake riding. This wake is much harder to stay on as the wake is diagonal to your direction of travel so you tend to get turned off it. On a good day you can find two boats paddling about 2 meters apart, there's a nice double wake that forms between the two other boats. You will want to position your boat so the wake is just behind the center of your boat, if you are further back on the wave, than that you'll be paddling up the wake instead of riding down it. Many moons ago I was in a canoe race where a solo canoist managed to catch the side wake of a 12 man war canoe. The solo canoeist sat on the side wake of the war canoe until the final stretch of the race, then paddled past them since they were now tired and he had just been surfing for the past hour or so. kirk *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Apr 08 2002 - 10:55:56 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:51 PDT