A Flatwater Kayak Lesson with Flounder

Yet another change of direction.....

After thinking about it, I have decided to give a low down on a Basic Flatwater Kayaking Lesson. This post will attempt to explain what is expected from one of my lessons. I will take you through a journey of safe exit procedures, basic paddling strokes, Deck/Skirt Exiting procedures, other advanced paddling techniques, Self Rescue techniques and finally, paddling techniques on moving water.

Entering the kayak

To start with , an explanation of hopping into the kayak. Make sure that the footpegs of which will give you some control over the craft, are set to your height and comfort. Everybody is different in size and stature, so adjusting the squeeze triggers of the foot pegs should give you the length of the following :

You should be able to sit in the kayak with the balls of your feet well and firm on the footpegs either side in the front bow of the boat. Your knees should be placed up and inside the "knee braces" of the cockpit. Both the footpegs and knee braces will aide you in turning manouvres of the craft.

Ensure that the boat is stable before you enter into the cockpit at any time. You can place your paddle at the back of the cockpit to slide over the paddle and into the cockpit. This will do two things....your paddle will not go floating down the river, and it will give some sort of stability entering the kayak if it does tip over. Once you are in, you can then swing your paddle around in front of you.

On the first lesson (with the skirt NOT placed over the cockpit), you will be upside down in the water. So first thing....DO NOT PANIC, the exit procedure is that if you fall out or tip over, you need to put your feet together, drop your knees and place them together, place your hands on the craft at about where your hips are and slide yourself out of the cocpit to surface in time. This is in fact, the final part of the exiting technique.

The Forward Paddle Stroke

In effect, I have heard that it is harder to paddle in a straight line on flatwater than running rapids....which I had also found when I first learnt. However, the theory is simple. You will find that the kayak double blade is offset in angle. This helps with wrist and torso rotation when paddling. At first, you need to grip the paddle with your dominant hand firmly. Your submissive hand pivots the kayak shaft when paddling. With your dominant hand , you reach forward using your body core and place the dominant paddle blade in at your toes into the water. Bring the paddle blade equally and smoothly through the water back towards you, and bring the paddle blade out at your hips. You then pivot your paddle shaft in your submissive hand and reach forward on the other side at your toes and pull the blade through the water alongside the kayak, pulling out at the hips. This is whilst your other hand will be high above your forehead with an outstretched arm. It is best if you paddle with the kayak paddle as close to perpendicular with the water. This effectively makes the paddle hand NOT making the stroke as punching the sky in front of you.

You will experience the boat turn from side to side at first. However this will soon sort itself out as you get more and more speed and the boat tracks through the water better.

Reverse Paddle Stroke

Obviously this will be a reversal of the above. However, it is important to remember for an effective back paddle that the kayak paddle also remains in a vertical position. This paddle stroke needs to be done at a fairly quick time depending on circumstances and will draw more strength from you. You also effectively utilise the back of the paddle blade.

The Sweep Stroke

The sweep stroke is your most effective turning stroke. This is a positive paddle stroke as meaning as it is still positive in that you are also still going forward. However, the thing to remember is that whichever side you use your sweep stroke on, the bow of the boat will turn in the opposite direction.

What happens is, that compared to a forward stroke, the sweep is a horizontal paddle stroke. You place the paddle blade in at the toes yet again, but this time you keep the shaft and your other pivot hand low. You then pull your outstretched arm around in an arc so the paddle blade moves in an arc, and effectively pull the boat around in the other direction (ie. If you do a right sweep stroke, you are effectively turning the boat in an anti-clockwise direction - or to the left). You will find that you will have to accomplish a "torso twist" to do this manouvre, and it is good practice to do so. That way you get a lot of purchase on your stroke.

You will also find that a slight lean to the opposite side of the boat by your body will occur. This will also aid your turn and effectively create the situation where it will happen at a quicker rate of turn. You will find this also in the section of "edging" your boat.

The Rudder Stroke

This stroke is another turning manouvre. However, it is more of a "negative" paddling stroke in that it slows the speed of the boat to some extent. What happens is you place the paddle into the water at your hip and using the back of the blade. you hold the paddle in that position against the flow of the water. You can even push the paddle blade against the water to effect a quicker turn. If you continue this stroke, it basically turns into a "reverse" sweep stroke.

Please remember, that with this stroke is that the boat will turn to the side that your paddle is on.

This stroke is also used a tool to straighten your boat whilst paddling forward. In reality , since paddling is hard first up on flatwater, you can use this stroke in conjunction with your forward paddle to keep the boat on the track that you wish. You would use it limitedly and then go straight into your forward stroke. However, the trick is once you feel the boat coming around, you effect your forward stroke by starting your forward stroke from the other side.

The Exiting Manouvre

This is the part of the lesson that gives the most anxious feelings for the kayak trainees. Basically the thought of being trapped upside down, strapped into a kayak underwater, is definately an unnerving feeling. However, it is better to learn on flatwater with someone standing beside you to aid you, than trying it out on the flowing river for the first time.

A kayak skirt or deck is the covering over the kayak's cockpit so water does not flood into the boat compartment.

Like entering the boat, it is best when putting on your skirt/deck over the boat's cockpit, to be able to do this on a stable platform. That way you are not worrying about whether your paddle will float away and any rapids are rushing up to greet you.

You always feed the skirt on from the back to the front over the cockpit , whilst ensuring that the tag, which is your escape pull cord, is out and free of being stuck under the skirt

The next requirement is to listen intently to the instructor's procedure. I will then explain your exit procedure which is : when I tip you over, you don't need to panic. Instead count to three and this can be done by placing your hands on the outer bottom of the kayak (whilst you are upside down). This gives you time to think about what to do next. You then find the edge of your cockpit, slide your hands along it until you find the tag, pull the tag forward and "up" towards you so that it will "pop" the skirt of the cockpit. You then put your feet together, your knees together place your handson the side of the cockpit and push away, effectively sliding out of the boat. Then obviously you look to getting your head above water.

You will be asked to do this procedure at least twice. The last time will be to do that procedure whilst hanging onto your paddle. This is because paddles have a tendancy to run rivers effectively on their own and find themselves out to see swimming with Nemo.

Self Rescue

Self Rescue is all the same in paddling white water whether you are canoeing, rafting or kayaking. If you get separated from your boat in the midst of a raging torrent of whitewater, hang on to your paddle, point your feet down river with your toes pointing out of the water, lay back keeping your body straight, but still looking downriver.
If your feet are out front and up, this does two things. The first thing is you will not get caught in a foot entrapment. A foot entrapment is when you leave your feet dangling below you and your feet slide down the bottom of a hazard and effectively trapping you underwater. With the rushing water pushing on your back, you cannot go back the same way you came, and you cannot go forward due to the rock or obstacle. Hence you are in a very dangerous situation. Lives have been lost this way.

The second is that your feet can actually "bounce" you off any oncoming obstacles. You also leave your hands out to the side so as to do the same things with your hands.

Once you are in gentle flatwater, you can the swim to the side. However, you may still be in the rapid, try to find an eddy (of which we will discuss later) and then you could work your way to the side of the river, or you may have been lucky and grabbed hold of a throw rope (rescue rope - of which we will also later discuss) and can be aided to the side by the safety person.

Once you are able to exit a kayak safely, you will find that you have newfound confidence in the boat. No longer you will be worried about water getting in through the cockpit to sink the boat. Once water is in the boat, it does make your paddling harder as due to weight transference, it will throw out your balance and ability to guide the boat properly. You will now be ready to move up to more advanced paddle strokes.

The Draw Stroke

As discussed earlier, kayakers and river runners look for places on the river known as "Eddys". Eddys are a safe haven for a kayaker in that the eddy is a place directly behind a rock in a middle (or to the side) of a flowing river. This enables the kayaker to compose themselves and enable them to scan downstream for what lays further ahead in the river. It also enables the kayaker to a safe place to display to his paddling colleagues information that they may require for travelling downriver.

Due to the speed of rivers, eddys tend to form better in faster flowing rivers and where there are larger rocks or obstacles. So in fact, the kayaker should be able to make a quick decision to turn into a small eddy. This decision will be followed by a quick turning stroke known as the bow draw (or duffek as some know it).

The Bow Draw is done by cocking your bottom wrist, placing the paddle at a verticle angle to the water, and allowing your top hand to be over your forehead whilst hanging on to the paddle. This effectively makes you lean into the turn whilst holding your hands on the paddle shaft. This will enable the boat to swing around and pivot fairly quickly on the spot at which you placed your bottom hand blade. By cocking the wrist , you enable yourself to "catch" more water with the bladearc facing downriver compared to it's normal position. When you effect this turn, it is imperative that your bottom elbow sticks close to your torso, and your upper hand is close in front of your forehead.

Your kayak should then swing around in a small arc and you should end up facing upriver. With river speeds and the speed in which you "break out"(breaking out of a river is also known as eddying out), you must remember to keep your balance as the law of physics is when you come to rest in the eddy, you will have speed in which to flip you over in the other direction.

The Brace

Bracing is a balancing manouvre where it enables you to keep upright on the river once going over a rapid and hitting rocks or different angles of river flow and dynamics. What happens is that the kayaker pushes the paddle blade hard and fast downwards in the water to give momentum to force the physical direction in the other direction due to water displacement. You can have a Low Brace and a High Brace. A low brace is pushing down the back of the paddle blade into the water.....a High Brace differs due to a rather large tip of the kayaker and the kayaker reaches out to stablise himself.

Edging the boat

Edging is a term in which you utilise your torso and basically paddle the boat on it's side. you can use this in a number of ways. Edging a boat is invariably about balance and you can use this as a way of "breaking in" to a rapid. Edging a boat allows water to get on the underside raised side of the boat to push you further downstream in an arc.

Edging a boat can also aid you in river running in that you hit a rock partially with the boat and the physical force wants to tip you into the river on the other side. This will keep you paddling forward and accept the rock into your life, and then manouvre past the hazard.

Ferrying (or Ferry Glide)

To ferry across the river, is for the kayaker who requires to get to a safer eddy, or merely just wants to cross the river at the flow. This is done by pointing the boat upstream and angling across by utilising a combination of Forward strokes, Sweep Strokes and Rudder Strokes. It is imperative to keep paddling forward at the angle. It all depends on how fast the river is flowing as to how fast and hard you need to paddle. On the above left photo, Lawrie successfully manouvres the boat across to the eddy across stream (in the top left of the photo). A point to note is that once the bow of your boat crosses into the Eddy Line (the distinction between the eddy and the flowing river), the river force will want to turn the boat downstream. So it's a "feel" thing....it is up to you as the paddler as to how hard you need to paddle to keep the boat on the angle.

Breaking In

To break into a river, what happens is that you similarly paddle as to your ferry glide and then when you are ready, you simply do a Bow Draw Stroke on your downstream side. This will edge the boat and you should be leaning downstream, and this then will show more of the bottom of your hull to the oncoming water. With more water directing you, this will tend to turn your bow and enable you to turn downstream.

Once you are turning, you only need to power into your forward stroke to maximise your speed.

On some occasions, you can effect a "break out" or "eddy out" and eddy out over on the other side of the river.....this then becomes an "S" Ferry.

I hope you enjoyed the basics and if you would like a lesson, please free to contact me

Blue Skies

Flounder

Remember : When paddling the fabulous natural watercourses of this great country of ours, please do not leave anything except footprints in the sands, and take nothing away except for photographs and memories