Re: [Paddlewise] Sculling Brace

At 12:13 PM 11/13/2003 -0600, Mark Arnold wrote:
>Yesterday I was trying to help someone with their sculling brace.  He did 
>very well with supporting himself in an extreme edging situation.  He 
>could bring the the kayak over past 90 deg, hold himself above the water 
>in a J lean, and had water well up over the sprayskirt.   However, 
>whenever he tried to lower himself so that all his body was in the water 
>the paddle would quickly dive and he would lose all support.   Fortunately 
>he has a good roll and despite about 6 capsizes never had to wet exit.
>
>We talked about raising his outboard hand as he lowered himself so that 
>the paddle would stay more parallel to the water's surface and about 
>laying back so there was less capsizing force.  However, he just could not 
>seem to keep the paddle from diving.   I used to have the same problem, 
>but it just seemed to go away one day.  I am not aware of any particular 
>adjustment I made to keep the paddle from diving.   Is there some "trick" 
>to getting lowered into the water without having the paddle dive.   A 
>couple of things I thought about were:

A deep sculling brace is one of those skills that definitely becomes easier 
once you learn a few tricks.

As Kirk mentioned "spreading the peanut butter" for the actual sculling is 
a good analogy.  A shallow angle with a long slow stroke provides the 
greatest lift. Typically if the paddle is diving it is due to the angle of 
the blade not changing when the paddle changes directions.  Slowing down 
the sculling motion helps.

Secondly, you mention that your "friend" is able to get the hull past 90 
degrees.  The goal here is not to see how far you can get the boat over, 
but to get into a position that provides the most support.  When I did some 
greenland techniques training with Greg Stamer he stressed the importance 
of *not* letting the boat go past 90 degree.  Once it does, the boat itself 
will push you deeper in the water.  Instead, as you get into a sculling 
postion, try to tilt the boat away from you as much as possible.


>1.  Moving both hands more outboard as you get lower into the water

Be careful with this.  If you attempt to move your hands outboard as you 
lower yourself into the water you're likely opening up your shoulder and 
risking a potential shoulder injury.



>2. Eliminating/reducing the J-lean so there is not so much upper body 
>angle change when lowering the body into the water.

That's sort of the idea.  Sculling from a J-lean position means you're 
trying to keep your center of gravity up over the boat, but in deep 
sculling you're getting some amount of support from the water (a bouyant 
PFD helps).  Transitioning from one position to the other can be 
tricky.  One of the hardest parts is committing to going over all the way.


Here's how I do it.  When I'm ready to go over I take a sweep from bow to 
stern as I commit to going over.  At the same, I turn my body so that I am 
presenting my back to the water and attempt arch my back as much as 
possible. Basically, I try to open up my hips, which allows me to tilt the 
boat away from me.  When I hit the water, I tilt my head back and look up 
at the sky.  If you attempt to hold your head up out of the water, the 
weight of your head will help push you under.  If your head and the rest of 
your upper body is floating the amount of lift required  from the sculling 
motion will be less.
About the time I'm in this position I change the direction of the paddle 
from stern to bow, and then try to make long, slow strokes.  When I'm ready 
to come back up I start to lay on the back deck as I'm sweeping from bow to 
stern.

A few tricks...

Keep your onboard hand close to your chest.  If it raises up it changes the 
angle of the paddle so that it's easier for it to dive.

Keep your offboard arm very loose.  A problem that a lot of people have is 
that they lock their elbow as they're starting to go over which makes it 
difficult to keep the paddle from diving.

Think of hanging underneath the paddle shaft.  You're essentially in a high 
brace position so your elbows should be beneath your wrists.

You can help your friend by getting parallel with his boat and grabbing 
onto the cockpit.  You can pull the cockpit toward you as he gets into 
position.  Try to hold the boat upright until he gets into a comfortable 
sculling motion then loosen up your grip so that he's doing it by himself.
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