Whether you’re looking to improve your precision maneuvering in rock gardens and tide rips, trying to achieve more finesse in your roll, or simply hoping to feel more relaxed, graceful and efficient in your kayak, the following exercises, modified from whitewater slalom racers’ warm up routines, will help.
These stroke-blending and blade-finesse drills help build the skills for you to make your kayak dance on the water, either purely for the fun of dancing, or, more practically, to dance your kayak quickly on over to a paddling partner in need of assistance. They also loosen up muscles and minds for learning and having fun.
You should have some proficiency with basic paddle strokes. I’ll include a few fine-tuning tips for newer paddlers but also throw in some twists in each technique to challenge more advanced kayakers.Later, we’ll put it all together in a series of easy to challenging stroke-blending exercises designed to commit the new skills to muscle memory.
Focus on Form
To get the most out of your paddle, it’s important to refine the precision with which you use it. The idea is that if you focus on good form, effective function will follow. Do the drills in slow motion at first as a warm-up, concentrating more on loosening up your muscles and building good “muscle memory” than on how much your boat actually turns.
Rushing through these techniques can lead to poor blade placement; sloppy strokes will be less effective when you put them to use at speed. By concentrating on precision they’ll soon become second nature.
Spin Turns: A great warm-up drill for loosening up the all-important torso muscles is to spin your kayak in place by alternating forward and backward sweeps. Sweeps are the basic turning strokes. They’re used to initiate most of the maneuvers and fancy stroke blends described later.
Many paddlers rush their sweeps, merely pulling harder on one side, too close to the boat, in just a slightly modified forward stroke. Turning your boat effectively requires leverage.
Extend your paddle and sweep it in a wide arc from your front hatch, out as far to the side as you can, and then reach it all the way back toward your stern as far as possible, following the blade with your eyes until it actually clunks into your kayak by the rear hatch.
Practice this “clunk-clunk” drill, tapping your kayak fore and aft with each sweep to assure a full range of motion. For a backward sweep, reverse the process.
Alternating forward sweeps on one side and backward sweeps on the other, spin 360 degrees in one direction, then back in the other direction. Start in slow motion, less than one-quarter speed, and focus on wide, bow-to-stern arcs with your blade fully submerged.
Then repeat these spins in each direction at half speed, making sure to anchor the blade firmly and pull gently. If you pull too hard on either sweep, you’ll create a splash instead of a turn. This splash is an indication of your energy going to waste instead of into turning your kayak. The goal for now is to focus on finesse rather than on how much your boat is turning: if you extend fully and remain splashless, turning will take care of itself.
More Advanced Sweeps.
Edging your kayak can really improve the effectiveness of your sweeps. Putting a boat up on edge results in lifting the ends out of the water, shortening its waterline and decreasing the resistance to turning. (Note the important difference here between properly edging your kayak—by lifting your knee while keeping your head centered over the boat to maintain balance—and leaning your head and upper body out over the water and letting yourself get off-balance.)
Generally, the further you can edge your kayak toward your sweep strokes (forward or backward), the better it will respond Go easy at first, but to really learn how far on edge you can get your boat, you’ll want to actually tip over every now and then. (It’s a great way to lead into a little roll or recovery practice.)
Compensate for the outward lean by adding an element of bracing to your sweep strokes. Angle the top edge in the direction of the sweep—about 45-degrees or more—to give yourself some support. What turning power you may lose in a less-vertical blade angle will be compensated for in reduced hull resistance if you can get your kayak well up on edge.
Gliding Low-Brace Turn: Next we’ll try some sweep turns on the move. One of the more useful and elegant maneuvers in kayaking is the low-brace turn. Not only does it look really cool, it is also the quickest way to turn around to retrieve a dropped piece of gear or get to a capsized partner (when you are too far away or the seas are too rough to simply back up).
Speed, blade angle, edging, and glide are four keys to an effective low-brace turn; but the “ignition” for those keys is a solid sweep stroke.
To turn to the left, begin with a good head of steam. Then “initiate the turn” (an important concept we’ll apply from here on out) by sweeping and edging on the left—lifting the left knee to angle the right side of the kayak downward—to start your boat carving to the left. (A good trick for us dyslexic paddlers who have trouble remembering which knee to lift is simply not to think about it. Think instead about reaching out as far as you can for more extension on the sweep; as you reach, the boat will naturally edge to the correct side.)
Next, as you reach your left blade back well behind you, edge your boat back to the left and gently plant the back of your blade flat on the water at about 7 o’clock (your bow is 12 o’clock). Reach back as far as is comfortable (this is essentially the beginning of a backward sweep, so again, leverage is important).
You want to be reaching across your bow with both hands so the knuckles of your right hand will be almost skimming the water on the left side and the paddle shaft is nearly horizontal. Now lean some weight gently onto your horizontal blade, held parallel to the surface like an outrigger, and use your momentum to “ride the glide” for several seconds.
A common mistake is pushing down on your blade too soon, dragging it through the water, which kills your forward momentum and ruins the efficient and stylish glide we are shooting for. The idea is learning to trust that the paddle will support your lean and being patient: allow the turn to happen rather than trying to force it.
If you lean on the paddle and ride the glide too long, obviously you’ll capsize when your momentum gives out, so this is where the “low-brace” part of the technique comes in.
As you start to sink into the water at the end of your glide, counteract the capsize and brace yourself back upright by pushing gradually against the left blade with a slow, full, backward sweep stroke all the way to your bow as you did with the stationary spin turns earlier. At first, practice the finesse of riding the glide for as long as you can.
Then practice bracing back up as smoothly, and with as little splash, as possible. Later, experiment with getting your boat as far up on edge as you dare, even if that means some frantic bracing and occasional capsizing. Eventually this teaches you how to get your boat further on edge while still being able to brace back up smoothly.
Bow Rudders
Developed by whitewater slalom racers who need to make constant quick and subtle course corrections, bow rudders—sometimes known as the running draw, hanging draw, static draw or Duffek—can come in extremely handy for sea kayakers.
While convenient for things like reaching a partner’s bow more efficiently for a T recovery (or for sliding up alongside her before she finishes the last bite of her snack bar), as well as being fun to mess around with, bow rudders are essential for the tight maneuvering required by advanced rock-garden paddlers.
If the core of turning is the sweep stroke, then true blade finesse—necessary for the bow rudder and the other maneuvers below—begins with sculling. Developing this finesse and a better “feel for the blade” can also help your roll. Some familiarity with sculling draws is assumed, i.e., you know that feeling of “spreading peanut butter” with the face of your blade toward you at slightly less than a 45-degree angle. Turn your shoulders sideways to “face your work” and keep your paddle shaft fairly vertical by reaching your top hand out over the water on the sculling side.
To find the right position for a bow rudder, start a sculling draw slowly on your right. As you scull from behind your hip back toward your bow, lean slightly forward as you slide the right blade forward to about your foot and about one foot away from the side of the boat.
The blade should be facing you and the leading edge (the bottom of the blade) should still be angled away from your bow slightly. If your bow is at 12 o’clock, then your blade should be opened up to an angle of no more than 1 o’clock (on the right side; 11 o’clock on the left). Hold that 1 o’clock position and remember it, because for this to work, you’ll now need to get some momentum, and then put the blade back in precisely the same place by your foot so that the slightly angled face of the blade catches the water now rushing by. (Another way to find the right angle is to plant the blade parallel to your bow so that it slices through the water, then slowly roll your palm outward until you just start to feel the paddle pulling.)
If you keep the paddle stationary it should gently turn your bow to the side your blade is planted on. A common mistake is trying to force the turn by rotating the blade too far outward (to the 2 or 3 o’clock position) and grabbing too much water, ripping the paddle out of your hand.
For the cross-bow rudder, establish momentum, edge and sweep to the right, then bring your right blade back up over the bow as if setting up for a roll, and plant the cross-bow rudder by your left foot. Work on maintaining your edge on the right so your boat continues to carve.
Like the glide on the low-brace turn above, the bow rudder maneuvers also require the patience and finesse to allow them to happen. You’re going for a gliding course correction here with little loss of speed.
Once you’ve got a feel for proper blade placement, to make the bow rudder really work, you’ll want to initiate the turn with an edge and sweep on the left before planting your bow rudder on the right.
Think of it this way: You’re not using the bow rudder to make the turn, it’s simply being used to tighten and control the turn you’ve already stared carving with your lower body. Practice carving turns using “offside lean” (edging away from the bow rudder), maintaining the edge to the left you had when initiating the turn with the sweep stroke as you glide on the bow rudder on the right—the more extreme the edge, the sharper the turn.
Since this is not a very powerful turning stroke on its own, it takes good edging to be effective. Keep your paddle as vertical as possible, reach well forward and immerse the blade completely so that it applies more turning leverage on the bow. A common mistake is to plant only the tip of the blade by the knee instead of burying the blade by your foot.
There are two styles in which to practice bow-rudder turns: one to maximize the turn, the other to maintain momentum. First, practice turning as far as possible until your momentum dies out; see if you can turn 90 degrees. Next try for subtle and precise course corrections of only a boat width (just enough to slip past a submerged rock or another kayak, for instance) while maintaining as much forward momentum as possible. This is the style you’ll use in “real life.” For more sudden changes in direction, you’ll use the low-brace turn.
Doing the bow rudders with one hand, and the free hand on the aft deck refines technique and makes for a good show. For a one-handed bow rudder of either kind, start by planting the paddle as above with both hands, then, when you think you’ve found equilibrium, let go with the top hand. Lean the top blade away slightly, to help balance out the force of the water on the bottom blade. Finding this equilibrium requires you to develop extreme finesse and a better “feel” for the blade.
Blending Strokes
The next level of difficulty involves “stroke blending.” As you finish a bow-rudder turn, you’ll be reaching forward by your right foot, with your body all wound up and in perfect position to begin a forward stroke that will set the kayak on its new course.
You might as well take advantage of that position. Smoothly pivot the face of your right blade to transition your bow rudder into a smooth forward stroke. As you exit the turn with the forward stroke you’ll regain the momentum you lost while gliding on the bow rudder.
Practice on both sides, using this S-turn drill: Get some speed up, sweep and edge to the left to initiate the turn to the right, bow rudder right, glide, and blend it into a forward stroke—still with the right blade—and take a few hard forward strokes on both sides to get your speed back. Then sweep and edge on the right, bow rudder left, glide, and blend into a forward stroke on the left. Repeat several times on either side, trying to use as few forward strokes in between turns as possible (try to get it down to only two strokes) while still maintaining momentum.
Do this drill in the maximum-momentum style, making only slight S-turns back and forth. Remember to keep your kayak carving on its offside edge instead of allowing it to flatten out as you plant your bow rudder.
To further refine blade finesse, this S-turn drill can be practiced with a cross-bow rudder. As your glide starts to wane as you hold the cross-bow rudder, notice that you are all wound up as you would be for a forward sweep stroke, but reaching across your deck.
Hop the paddle over the deck and blend into a sweep stroke on the right to regain momentum and continue the turn. Another technique to unwind out of the cross-bow glide, say with your right blade in by your left foot, is to lower the left blade into a low-brace left turn. Warning: this is a good way to capsize, so try it slowly and carefully at first, or when you’re prepared to practice recoveries.
This blended stroke is particularly valuable for developing the blade finesse needed for stroke blending but my intermediate students often ask, “So when would you actually use that?” Well, never, if you haven’t practiced it first. But more advanced paddlers find it useful in tight quarters, like sea caves.
Blending It All Together: Sweep Circles and Figure 8s
A multilevel exercise I call “sweep circles,” is a warm-up routine designed to work on stroke combinations, edging and carving all at the same time.
Get some speed. Sweep and edge on the right to start your boat carving, and take a forward stroke on the left, followed by another sweep on the right. Repeat this combination—alternating long, slow, wide sweeps on the right with short, vertical forward strokes on the left—until you’ve completed a full circle.
Then reverse it, sweeping on the left and forward stroking on the right until you’ve completed a circle in the other direction. These two circles in opposite directions will form a figure 8. Work on maintaining (or intensifying) your edging throughout the 8, and see if you can make tighter and tighter circles. Eventually see how few strokes you can use to complete each circle.
Remember: no splashing!
Add a level of complexity by doing sweep circles with a bow rudder. Start a sweep circle as before, but this time throw in a bow rudder to further tighten the turn. Edge and sweep right, bow rudder left, glide for several seconds (allowing your boat to turn but not so long that you lose too much momentum), blend the bow rudder into a forward stroke, sweep right again, and repeat this three-stroke pattern (sweep, bow rudder and glide, forward) until you’ve completed a circle; then go the other way to finish the figure 8.
The challenge is to maintain your edge and carved turn as well as your momentum, while also remembering which stroke comes next. This can seem a little like the old trick of patting your head with one hand while rubbing your belly with the other.
To get over this awkwardness, expect to spend a good 5-10 minutes practicing in slow motion at first, again focusing only on getting the stroke combination in order and not worrying yet about how much your boat is actually turning. Having trouble maintaining momentum?
Start with more speed and focus on stronger sweep and forward strokes and more subtle bow draws, or take several sprinting forward strokes to reestablish momentum any time you start bogging down.
Sweep circles with a combination of bow and cross-bow rudders is a stroke-blending drill designed to challenge even the most dexterous paddlers. But with a little practice, this drill will teach you to smoothly blend a variety of strokes, one leading fluidly into the next, until it all starts to feel like a dance.
Establish momentum, sweep and edge left, bow rudder right, glide and blend into a forward stroke to regain momentum.
Here’s where it gets tricky. As you finish your forward stroke on the left, notice that your right blade is starting to cross your bow. Let it continue down and across your bow into a cross-bow rudder on the left.
Glide on the cross-bow rudder, noticing that you are all wound up for another sweep on the right, which starts the whole process over again: Sweep right, bow rudder left, blend into a forward stroke which blends into the cross-bow rudder with the right blade by your left foot, which after a short glide blends back into the sweep on the right, and so on until you complete the circle and then reverse it into a figure 8. If this is too easy for you, try getting your boat further up on edge or throw in some one-handed bow rudders.
Warm-Up Mind Set
I find that starting my paddling day or my classes with a few spin turns and sweep circles as warm-up exercises seems to set a tone for myself and my students.
It loosens people up and makes everyone more willing to play and experiment with new techniques during our paddle. It is also a subtle reminder that we are out there, each of us, as much for any eventual destination as for the experience of being on the water in a kayak and simply “messing about in boats.”
And, as Ratty noted to Mole in his famous Wind in the Willows bon mot, “There is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing.”