Sea Kayakers, I, as well as many others, had a great time (it was a party) at the Southwest Kayak Symposium in San Diego, California this weekend. It was nice to finally demo some kayaks from manufacturers who don't have dealers in the area. The instruction was good too. What amazed me most about the instruction was the varied opinions, particularly from Nigel Foster, Derek Hutchinson and Brent Reitz, who were each teaching his own very different style of forward stroke and paddle type. I was lucky enough to have Wayne Horodowich demonstrate his surf bracing drill on me during one class. In the evenings, Nigel premiered the first of his ten-video instructional series, and Derek told his special brand of funny stories. A band played afterwards, and Brent joined in with his harmonica and brought the house down. If you live in the Southwest and missed this event, be sure to come next year. If nothing else, it is great to be around so many friends at once and make a bunch of new ones too. Duane Strosaker Southern California *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
At 05:54 07/10/02, you wrote: > What amazed me most about the instruction was the >varied opinions, particularly from Nigel Foster, Derek Hutchinson and Brent >Reitz, who were each teaching his own very different style of forward stroke >and paddle type. I can relate to this. As one who is tired of being last and therefore constantly trying to improve his forward stroke, I bought Brent's tape. Brent paddles with bent elbows; he does not straighten the top elbow when pushing. With Brent's stroke, the hands are positioned on the paddle just inside of 90 degrees (this is not mentioned on the tape, but I confirmed it by email from Brent). On the other hand, my instructors use a very different stroke, involving a nearly straight lower arm, and full extension of the top elbow and arm when pushing. Hand position is greater than 90 degrees. I'm always going back and forth between these strokes. My gut feeling is that if you can do anyone of them really well, you will paddle well. Torso rotation is key, and this is easier said than done. Many of us, I think, may be rotating our shoulders more than our torsos. IMHO Brent's bent-elbow push stroke is more conducive to good torso rotation. As a result, however, it is more tiring. See you on the water. Josh ============================================================================== Dr. Joshua Teitelbaum, Senior Research Fellow Tel: [972] 3-640-6448 Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and Fax: [972] 3-641-5802 African Studies Tel Aviv University Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978 Israel E-mail:teitelba_at_post.tau.ac.il www.dayan.org ============================================================================== *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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