Re: [Paddlewise] High bracing and elbows

 Scott wrote:
<snip>>>>>>OK, you really want to concentrate more on performing an edge,
tilting the
boat with the hips, then leaning your body into the wave. The problem with a
"lean" is, as you have found out, it can be difficult to recover from. If
you
are falling into the wave it may be a result of too much lean, as you say,
or
as the wave dissipates the wave begins to pass you by and you find yourself
bracing on the back of the wave. This is a fairly common mistake. There is
not any water movement on the back of a wave that will support your paddle
brace -- only in the face of the wave.<<<<<<SNIP>

I agree with this and most of what others have written about this problem
but would like to add a little more. Once while instructing my girlfriend in
the technique of side surfing in fairly gentle 2 or 3 foot surf of Makah Bay
(near the NW corner of WA) she kept falling over into the wave while side
surfing. I tried instructing her to gradually straighten up as the wave
dissipated, to maintain that dynamic balance between her tilted kayak and
how much upwelling water was supporting her paddle. Even though she was
trying to do that she still was having a lot of difficulty and capsizing
regularly. We eventually traded kayaks and she no longer had the problem (in
my 2" narrower kayak), but now I was coming close to getting dumped into the
waves and was only preventing being capsized by a very hard brace back
upright. What was going on? My new analysis was that her fairly low flat
deck on her 25" wide kayak made for quite a lip (and a longer lever sticking
out to the side) for the wave to grab hold of when the kayak was tilted into
the wave. Unfortunately once that lip was caught under the wave it wasn't
nearly as easy to un-tilt it again as the narrower kayaks I was familiar
with had been.
Sometimes when a little bit bigger waves were dumping on the beach I would
have to fling myself as hard as I could into the wave with my arm held high.
This was both so I could slice my torso into the wave in the thinnest way
and also keep my paddle blade out of the waves grip. I realize that this is
not likely an ACA or BCU recommended technique. A hard brace or even the
paddle blade being caught by the wave's dumping lip could dislocate my
shoulder if I didn't let go of the paddle with the wave side hand (if the
force lifting my arm up was too powerful to allow me to maintain
position--or if I'd got "Maytagged" anyway because the dumping lip knocked
me over).
A friend of mine who was training (for a circumnavigation of the continental
U.S.) in the Lapush, WA surf one January, tore his shoulder's rotator cuff
while doing a low brace in the surf. I think this injury is a serious risk
when low bracing in powerful surf because you can't let go of the paddle
when it is being forced up into the crotch between your thumb and
forefinger. Even though his paddle blade was not far from the kayak in the
low brace position his arm was forced back and up way beyond its normal
limits of motion. With a high brace I hold the paddle relatively loosely
with my (into the wave side) fingers so that too violent an upward force can
rip it from my grip. If that happens I capsize but hang onto my (feathered)
paddle with the other hand (while holding it out far away from my head. The
paddle thrashes around violently (and has occasionally caught the bottom and
been torn out of that hand too) but usually I can hang on by letting my
wrist be relatively limp so that the paddle blades can go thrashing around
with the (rather violent) flow but still not hit me during its thrashings
because I'm holding it away. When the wave passes I again find and grip the
shaft with the other hand and roll back up.
Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com
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