Touring Technique: As conditions get bigger get below the deck.

This past weekend at the 25th annual Grand Marais Sea Kayak Symposium, mother nature was serving up some humble pie out on Lake Superior.  With stong on shore winds swells of 4-5 foot turned into great surf as it slammed into the small town beaches of Grand Marais, Michgan.

If there is one thing I love about paddling it is playing in the surf, but not because of the "rush."  Although it is of course fun, for me it is the challenge of controlling a kayak in these conditions and testing my skills that gets me excited to paddle out again and again as things get rolling.  Core skills like torso rotation and edge control become even more important as waves wash over your bow and stern and essentially try and lock your kayak in place.  It is here that we start today's short lesson, because if we do not "get below the deck" with our paddling, we will never tranisition all the work our upper body is doing into the water efficiently. 

Have you ever paddled past a dock, a pier or a water front walk way and some maniac yells down at you from above, "HEY!  WHERE ARE YOUR LEGS IN THAT THING!!"  Well...have you given that much thought lately?  By pushing against our footrests with our feet, when going forward, and with our butt into our seat and back band, when going backwards, we essentially lock our lower body into place.  This gives us higher confidence, through more stability, but also allows us to generate more torque as we rotate our upper torso and move the paddle through the water. 

Practice this first on placid water. 

1-Sit up straight in your kayak and while keeping you shoulders square, reach your right arm and index finger out as far as you can, imagine you are trying to grab your bow toggle handle.  With your finger extended, touch the deck of your boat and note how far you reached.

2-Now, same excersise except, with your arm and finger stretched out, rotate your right shoulder forward, turining your torso, eyes forward!  Now lower the finger to the deck, look how much longer your reach just got!

3-Last step.  Arm extended, right shoulder rotated, reach hard without leaning your head forward!  Remember sit up straight.  NOW, move your right butt forward in your seat slightly, check how far you can reach.

Each step should gain you a longer reach with your finger, or "Catch" with your paddle.  However that last step, moving the butt should have significantly increased the pressure on your right foot rest.  IMAGINE how much more torque you will now create as you drive off that footrest with your feet as you rotate your torso and move the paddle through the water, across the morning glass or up and over that wave.

Try this same excersize only in reverse to feel the power of driving your butt into the seat and back band.  Now pratcice your basic strokes, like sweeps and forward and reverse strokes with your new thinking of, "Getting below the deck," with your paddling.  Practice on flatwater and as you move into more advanced conditions this will start to just become second nature for you and allow you to move your boat with a higher level of ease.  This is just a short intro to more efficient paddling, be sure to check out our Events Page for up and coming symposiums to work with some of our amazing instructors on the water or check out Go Paddling to find a Werner Paddles shop or Outfitter offering classes in your area.  Too busy to get out?  Sorry to hear that.  Check out our short Forward Stroke and sweep stroke videos on Werner TV for an introduction to this line of thinking.  Ready to graduate? Check out Team Paddler Ben Lawry's DVD on the Forward Stroke. We always suggest getting proper training and instruction before any level of paddling and especially as you increase the the difficulty of water you explore.  Because even at expert levels you are always one mistake away from this!

Words by Werner Paddles kayak instructor Danny Mongno and photos by Down Wind Sport's, Bill Thompson.  Be sure to keep an eye on Bill and the gang at Down Wind as they prepare to take the Symposium at Grand Marais to new heights in July of 2010.

Comments

[Rick Drew]

Hey Danny,

Looks like an exciting session for sure. Great photos and nice commentary/review on stroke efficency.

We are looking forward to your visit to Main Beach in Wainscott, NY on August 7th (4pm-7pm). We will be charging on Kayaks and Stand up Paddleboards at one of our local beaches that offer both surf and flat water paddling opportunities. I am personally very excited to participate in your stroke efficency seminar.

Rick
Main Beach Surf and Sport
Wainscott, NY

[keith wikle]

I was out on Lake Superior the same day, alas, no pictures of me on the inside of the pier :(

One question, how do I know my right butt from my wrong butt? I mean left butt... ;)

One thing we had students working on was keeping the blade in the water, and ensuring that they were linking strokes together. One sure fire way to wind up, upside down is to stop paddling. So by linking sweeps, forward strokes, draws, and rudders together you create constant contact with the water. Whitewater paddlers do this by nature, sea paddlers in surf take heed!

[Sergio Grgeuoldo]

Nice Dan, very nice. Having grown up on the shores of Superior there are times it's every bit as wild and wooly as the Atlantic - all that's missing is the salt.

Great overview on the "behind the scenes - or under deck" workings of strokes in big water

Hope to catch up with you somewhere soon

Cheers

Sergio