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Sea kayak improvers, starting 14.4.26
Welcome!
This thread will be for the course. Dave and I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday evening, aiming to be paddling away at 6:30.
I'll put up recap notes or useful links as the course progresses, and also any last minute info.
You can use this thread to ask questions or to let us know if you can't attend.
This thread will be for the course. Dave and I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday evening, aiming to be paddling away at 6:30.
I'll put up recap notes or useful links as the course progresses, and also any last minute info.
You can use this thread to ask questions or to let us know if you can't attend.
Comments
Hi Maggie and Dave, I am going to have to cry off tonight as I am not feeling too well. I have come back from my Easter break with a head cold and a cough and I think it best to stay in and rest up. I will definitely be there next Tuesday.
best
joe
Hi Maggie, I am also feeling under the weather.
I will look forward to meeting you all next week.
X
Joe and Rowan, Isabelle, Josie.
We talked about hull shapes and why it's worth trying different boats.
We went through boat fit (toes, knees/thighs, hips, back as well as bums). We put spraydecks on and off on the water.
This week had a strong focus on thinking about what makes forward paddling more efficient. Here's some reminders.
Sit tall, and think about your paddler's box, ie shoulders parallel with paddle shaft, arms relatively straight. Torso rotation is key. In order to keep those arms straight (ish) you'll need to rotate your paddler's box/torso slightly away from the side the blade is going in on. Then unwind as you push the whole boat past the paddle, rather than reaching forward and pulling the blade towards you. Do full strokes, blade in at toes, out at hips (not behind). Imagine how many more strokes you'll need over a day on the water if you're paddling close to your chest. Consider the weight of water you'd be needlessly lifting if your paddle comes out too late.
Number one top tip: keep your top hand level. Don't let it drop or you will start pulling and 'digging'. Push across the boat with top hand - its supposed to be working too.
We talked about looking after your wrists. Don't grip the paddle hard. Top hand should be almost open, pushing rather than gripping, allowing the paddle to shift with your grip rather than forcing awkward sideways wrist movements.
We introduced edging for turns.
EDGING = lowering one side of the kayak relative to the other. This turns the boat because a shorter keel line is in the water and the hull shape in the water becomes asymmetric.
0 is flat. 1 slight edge, 2 stronger edge but one you can hold, 3 is getting tippy.
Weight transfer to one buttock, lift other knee (fine tune), keep upright posture but with a C shape to upper body, centre of gravity stays over the boat (self check, head in line with bow). If you lean instead of edge, ie if your centre of gravity is no longer over the boat, you'll capsize.
Edging is boat and person specific. A smooth round hull edges progressively. A hull with a hard chine will have a more pronounced change point. Eg, look at the difference between the Virgo and the Scorpio. A slight/short paddler will have to work harder to edge than a heavy/tall paddler.
Edging while paddling turns the boat. To turn and maintain speed, drop the outside edge. Think of the turn as part of a big circle and lower the edge on the outside of that circle.
We practiced gentle S turns while paddling along.
We talked about two styles of stern rudder. One is a relaxed, low shaft-angle ruddering stroke that gets a bit of support from the convex side of the blade. This stoke turns the boat towards the blade side. The other is where you put your paddle in more vertically, and hold the shaft at a higher angle, and use your wrists to alter which way the boat turns. We plan to come back to this next week with tow lines.
TRAILER: next week is wobbly week, with more on edging, ruddering, 360 Deg turns, and how to recover when off balance. Learning this means we might well end up in the water and extend to rescues. If the forecast is for warm weather we will definitely take advantage of it, so be prepared to get wet. (But if it's miserable we will take it easy).
Since Josie can't make next week there is one drop in space on this course for anyone who wants to practice those skills.
WEEK 2 RECAP
Joe R, Joe S, Rowan S. Present.
Isabelle, Josie and Ruth couldn't make it.
It was breezy, so we discussed the mechanics of using the skeg in a wind, especially a side wind. In summary, when under way the water passing the boat 'holds' the bow, leaving the back of the boat a bit slippy and it gets blown down wind. This means SK have an overall tendency to head up into wind (called weather cocking). We counteract this by dropping the skeg, which makes the stern more grippy. But, importantly, this only helps under way. If you are stationary there is no pressure pattern around the boat to hold the bow. The whole boat is now vulnerable to wind, with the higher front deck most affected. The boat now turns down wind. If you are being blown down wind onto rocks from stationary it's important to undertake you need to raise the skeg, trim weight forward, and sweep the bow up into wind and put some power on. Leaving the skeg down will make your life v difficult.
We recapped good forward paddling technique.
We used tow ropes so we could explore how the wrist angle on a stern rudder determines which way the boat turns: knuckles down and the boat turns towards the blade. Knuckles back and wrists down, the boat turns away from the blade.
We explored a low recovery stroke. Angry monkey, high elbows, locked wrists. Sink the blade and slice back up. Transfer the power to the boat with a hip flick, head up last. Low recovery links in with the edging we've been practicing - use it to save yourself when you over cook it! Practicing this until it becomes second nature will help guard against capsizes on the sea.
We didn't get around to 360 degree turns. Next week then...
Joe S, Rowan, Josie
We did a bit of backwards paddling, looking over alternate shoulders, to remind ourselves of the need for good rotation.
Josie caught up on the high angle stern rudder from week two.
We did some 360 turns, exploring how using an alternating edge (towards the active paddle) cuts the number of strokes needed to get all the way around.
We recapped the low recovery stroke, then introduced a low brace to support an inside edge turn.
That gave us a bit more confidence on how we can get support from the blade, so we revisited the 360 turns to see whether we could get the stroke count lower.
We introduced 2 ways of going sideways. The classic draw and sculling (like spreading butter on toast).
Because of the blue green algae risks elsewhere we held off having everyone practice deep water re-entries. But Dave and I talked through and demonstrated a standard deep water re- entry.
However, rescues are the one crucial aspect of this course. So:
**********IMPORTANT *********
Weather permitting, we will see if we can move next week's class to Teignmouth. At present this looks likely.
It's crucial Dave and I know who is coming well in advance so we can coordinate boat transport.
Joe S can take himself and Rowan (NB minors need family transport) plus boats.
Dave can take up to three boats, but would need help loading.
Josie has transport, and can carry a boat if needed.
I can transport myself.
Isabelle, if you're coming please let me know.
Ruth, I'm assuming you're not, but let me know.
Dress for the water - we will all be getting wet.
Joe Rowan and Josie all did their wet exits and climbed back in from deep water.
We did a tiny recap of going sideways, trying to catch each other.
We had fun with some balancing on the back of boats until everyone got wet. We did some tight circles around the boats in shallow water. We gently explored how the eddy moved us towards the point and then the flow carried us back into the estuary. But it's not always like that!
So this week's theory....
On the beach we looked at patterns in the water and introduced the 50 90 rule: for a tide with 6 hrs between low and high water this helps you estimate likely tidal flow. At low or high water in the local port you might expect to have slack water, ie no flow. NB this isn't always true, especially on the north coast. At the end of the first hour you'd expect to be at 50% of the max flow for that tide. After 2 hrs it's 90%, and after 3hrs it's 100% - max flow. After 4 hrs back to 90 %, after 5hrs back to 50%, after 6hrs back to slack water. (If the tidal period is not 6 hrs you need to do the math.)
You find the expected spring and neap flows in an almanac or tidal stream atlas, usually in knots. As a rule of thumb neap tides are approx half of spring tides.
There's lots more to say about this but the take home message is tides move you sideways, they don't just come in and out or up and down.
Yesterday's tide was a flood (rising tide) just coming off springs so quite big and sending us back toward safety. If we go back to Teignmouth next week it will be an ebb tide, potentially carrying us out to sea. Yikes! If that offshore wind stays forecast we might be back on the canal.
Estuary mouths and headlands can accelerate tides. Most people will struggle to make any progress against a 3knot / 6km per hour flow. There may be headlands etc you can't paddle back around once the tide kicks in. Don't assume that a venue will be the same as last time you were there, even if the wind (and swell) are the same.
If we can we'll go to Teignmouth again next week, but it's not at all certain. So please check for updates.
Next week is the last in this class. We'll catch up anything we've missed. For example, bow rudder and possibly hanging draw.
Thanks everyone. But also
HUGE THANKS TO DAVE - for coaching and especially for helping with boat transport. These last two weeks at Teignmouth, which have been a delight, wouldn't have been possible without him.
As on week four, we had Josie, Joe, Rowan
Yesterday the new content was bow rudder, in a decent breeze and gently moving water, all adding challenge. Well done. Don't expect to have nailed it. It's a stroke to keep working on and exploring - blade angle, boat trim, blade position along the boat, and top hand position (far shoulder, forehead or near shoulder). Remember - the bow rudder bit of the stroke is the top up. Most of your turn should come from good outside edge and a strong forward sweep before you even think about putting the blade in near the bow.
We also did some gentle ferry gliding across the ebb tide and backed around an obstacle with and against some flow. Tricky!
We talked about paddling in a port, the channel marker system, and where the flow is faster/slower.
We didn't leave the estuary because we had plenty to do, but also because the ebb looked strong enough to make paddling back uncertain, and the near beach on the seaward side was closed for reprofiling. Thinking about how to get home safely is part of our learning! We also talked about stacking the effort in our paddling day early on, and making sure our return is the relaxing bit.
Looking forward to seeing you on the water soon. Well done to Rowan, our junior. What might have looked quite a challenge from the shore turned out to be manageable!