Tips from the Pros

Caroline Brosius I Ginni Callahan I Robert Clegg I Joe Glickman I Abel Hastings I Ben Lawry I Joe Shaw I Eric Stiller
Ian Gray I Zsolt Szadovszki I Freya Hoffmeister I Greg Barton

Boat Control in an out of Control World

I once watched a freighter cross the Columbia River Bar with a 30' following sea. It twisted and yawed in slow motion in a way that made me feel better about my kayak doing the same in 3' seas. That's when I realized that some things are inevitable.

Accepting the inevitability of some chaos is the first step towards enjoying the bouncy ride and even harnessing some of that frisky energy.  Here are some more steps.

Listen with your body to the sea's energy. 
There will be times in even the choppiest water when your kayak is heading downhill. You can feel this in a rising of the stern or a dropping of the bow. There may be patterns and you can learn to anticipate that downhill moment.  And there may not be.

Ride it, don't fight it. 
When aiming downhill, seize that moment to accelerate. The rest of the time, keep the pace and rhythm as best you can. You must be traveling at a rate close to that of the wave to catch it. If you feel like you're paddling uphill, save your energy by paddling more lightly, let that slope pass, and put muscle in as the water surrounds your bow and the stern begins to lift.

The bow is the gas pedal and the stern is the brake. 
Experiment with shifting your torso weight forward when you want to accelerate. Don't compromise good paddling technique, however, and the ability to power from the torso. 

A trick I sometimes use when nothing else is working to catch that ride is scooching the hips. You're wound up for that reach and plant, the paddle enters the water, and what pushes the boat forward is not only the foot closest to the planted paddle, but also a sharp hip thrust.  This is most effective when applied with or just after the forward trim so you don't end up leaning back, and pushing down the brake.

Disclaimer.
These ideas come from hours of simply enjoying the open water and being inherently lazy. They work best, of course, in a following sea.  But I've also used them in a quartering sea and in some wild Pacific Coast clapotis where there aren't really patterns to work with. Feel the bow drop, trim forward, power the torso and foot, perhaps scooch, and enjoy the ride.

Staying on target.
Captain, the good news is that we're going faster than we ever have! The bad news is that we're 45 degrees off our course one way or the other 90 percent of the time. 

So, you actually had a destination in mind? Ever tried to out-sweep a careening kayak and turn it to the direction you wanted? Good luck. Edging helps, but try this, too:

Steering at the stern. 
A kayak moving forward will build up high pressure at the bow-as if it were wedging itself into the sand.  The stern has low pressure and will swing, especially with the wind behind it, or a wave pushing it, or when you don't want it to. It's not your bow that's going awry, it's your stern. Bring it back in line with a stern rudder.  Not the stern rudder that also stops you, but a streamlined rudder that pulls, not pushes, that stern back inline.

To turn left, for example, rotate your body well to the right. Your paddle is fully over the water. Drop the back blade in like a knife with no resistance so you don't turn either way. Then raise your knuckles a few degrees at a time and perhaps the front hand as well, until you feel a pull on the power face of your blade wanting to go away from the boat.  This pulls your stern towards the side that your paddle is on. The stern will slide more willingly if you also edge towards that side and trim forward.  Envision the keel line of the stern not pushing broadside but tilting to skim in that direction. You can blend this stroke into the end of your sweep or forward stroke for a graceful maneuver.

Put it all together. You have momentum. The stern lifts, you trim forward and plant your paddle well forward with a rotation of your body.  With the power of your stroke, the wave catches you and swooshes you down its face.  Your paddle strokes quicken to keep the momentum as long as possible, but your kayak is veering left. Your next stroke on that side stays in the water past your hip, and you follow with your body rotation, putting the kayak on its left edge. At the end of the stroke, with a flex of the wrists/elbows and a slight trim forward, you bring the stern back in line and continue on your way.

Balance in a troubled world.
Erase the lines between upside right and counting fish. Make braces part of your stroke, centering your balance in your hips and seat. With practice, it becomes like keeping your balance while walking in rough terrain-it flows naturally without analytic thought. 

By making bracing part of your stroke I don't mean make your forward stroke horizontal, stable, and inefficient for forward propulsion. Did you know you can roll a kayak (up) with a forward stroke? Even with a perfectly vertical paddle held still. The pressure against the water, even if it's not pressure down, gives enough leverage to roll the boat up with good technique. That is, starting in the hips.

Straight up power.
The most effective paddle angle for propulsion is perfectly vertical.  And the most effective path of the blade through the water would be straight down the middle of the kayak, if it weren't anatomically disastrous as well as impossible. Even in rough conditions, the vertical paddle principle still holds true. What does this mean for bracing?

Before race day, and for many fun years afterwards, I recommend playing with different kinds of rolls, learning typical fat-bladed techniques of whitewater and sea kayaking, Traditional Greenland techniques, and invent-your-own techniques. It will expand your definition of bracing as well as improve balance and instinctive reactions on the water, allowing you to focus on moving forward and harnessing the sea's playful energy to assist you.

Ginni Callahan

Ginni Callahan is the owner of Columbia River Kayaking and is one of North America's more talented female paddlers.

Ginni is a BCU Level 4 Coach and an ACA Advanced Open Water Instructor who frolics in the sea on the Pacific side of Baja, the Sea of Cortez, the Oregon Coast, and the lower Columbia River.