Re: [Paddlewise] Strokes

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Treby" <ptreby_at_ozemail.com.au>
:
>
>
> "Turn the kayak quickly by means of a low brace turn and by a bow rudder."
>
> I'm OK with the low brace turn, but my impression of using a bow rudder on
a
> long sea kayak is that it is not very effective.


To turn any sea kayak quickly, you need to use a LOT of edging.  There's no
way around this.  The low brace turn (or "hockey stop") works so well
because of the extreme amount of edging you can produce by laying your body
sideways on the water.  And by the way, this turn is even better if you use
a high brace, because then you can get waaaaay over and then recover using a
reverse or back-deck roll.  And as much as the BCU boys hate the high brace,
it can be done perfectly safe so long as you keep your off hand touching
your chin.  And you can even add in a little paddle blade bite during the
back deck roll portion to further turn your kayak.  It's a lot of fun.

To turn the boat using a bow rudder, you also need to edge quite a lot in
addition to the bow rudder.  As with most sea kayaks, you edge away from the
turn, and place in the bow rudder.  Us whitewater folks call it a duffek
when crossing an eddyline.  But no matter what you call it, the technique is
the same, and I often see it done incorrectly.  The key is to obtain
skeletal linkage between arms and spine, so that the forces are transmitted
to a part of the body that can handle it.  To make this linkage, wrap your
upper arm directly across your forehead, and tuck your lower elbow into your
waist.  Now you've got skeletal linkage!  The only thing is that it takes
most people a while to get comfortable with this position, as it is awkward
at first.  Also, the balance of edging away from this awkward paddle
position is DELICATE to say the least.  But once the balance is mastered,
you can carve short radius graceful turns that will amaze your friends.  I
have seen Nigel Foster do a 180 turn with a diameter shorter than the length
of his kayak.  Also, this is one of the very few times that I will ever
admit that a Euro style paddle blade is more effective than a greenland
stick when performing the maneuver.  A larger paddle blade and the wider
grip make the difference.  Write it down, because you won't hear me say that
very often....

Have fun!
kevin

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