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Sea kayak improvers, starting 22/4/25
Tomorrow, the canal-based improvers course starts again. Your coach is me, Maggie, assisted by Dave T.
Welcome participants:
Laisey,
Benji,
Andy,
Lewis,
David (late sign up)
Katherine (from 29th)
Chris (from 29th)
Drop ins:
Ceri
Possibly Laura/Evelyn as a team
Use this thread to let me know if you have problems attending, have any questions, etc. I may put a week by week recap here too.
I aim to be at the club shortly after 6 to help with boats etc. I hope we'll be paddling away before 6:30, return by 8.
The improvers course breaks down sea kayak skills and strokes, and is an opportunity to sharpen up on flat water before encountering waves.
We will start with a few mins of 'get to know you' and basic safety, then focus mainly on efficient paddling. Good technique acquired now will help make long days on the water much easier, especially for anyone not built like Popeye.
PLEASE DRESS FOR IMMERSION! It won't be every week, it doesn't have to be tomorrow, but kayaking is a water sport and capsizes are expected and practiced.
Looking forward to paddling with you!
Maggie
Welcome participants:
Laisey,
Benji,
Andy,
Lewis,
David (late sign up)
Katherine (from 29th)
Chris (from 29th)
Drop ins:
Ceri
Possibly Laura/Evelyn as a team
Use this thread to let me know if you have problems attending, have any questions, etc. I may put a week by week recap here too.
I aim to be at the club shortly after 6 to help with boats etc. I hope we'll be paddling away before 6:30, return by 8.
The improvers course breaks down sea kayak skills and strokes, and is an opportunity to sharpen up on flat water before encountering waves.
We will start with a few mins of 'get to know you' and basic safety, then focus mainly on efficient paddling. Good technique acquired now will help make long days on the water much easier, especially for anyone not built like Popeye.
PLEASE DRESS FOR IMMERSION! It won't be every week, it doesn't have to be tomorrow, but kayaking is a water sport and capsizes are expected and practiced.
Looking forward to paddling with you!
Maggie
Comments
Hi Maggie, I've been told that I should have completed a 'participant form' prior to this course. Can you send me one or tell me where to find one, please?
Look forward to seeing you later.
Many thanks
Andy
Boat fit - good contact for balls of feet, knees/thighs, bum, back band, and hips.
Sit tall, avoid armchair paddling,
Do a full stroke with relatively straight arms. No T. rex paddling, clockwork toy paddling, and fluttering damselflies. Blade in at the toes, out around the hip.
Don't dig a hole. If the blade comes out too late you're likely to be wasting energy lifting water. This happens most often when the top hand drops (see below).
Don't over reach and 'bob'. Equally, don't put blade in too close, such as by your knees, or you'll need to do twice as many strokes as everyone else. The trick is to keep arms relatively straight. Think about the paddlers box.
Straighter arms and power through the leg aids rotation needed to use muscles in the back, not just the arms. Self check - is my top hand moving right across the boat and getting almost out over the water on the other side? Is it staying level or am I letting it drop (and digging that hole). Dust that mantelpiece right to the end!
Light grip with relaxed fingers helps protect the wrists from awkward sideways flex and helps keep top hand level.
We talked briefly about kit. If buying paddles, think about length and blade size. The type of paddling you want to do will direct your choice. More on that here https://exetercanoe.co.uk/discussion/2345/research
We ended by going backwards while looking over alternate shoulders. This will help develop rotation.
TRAILER: next week is wobbly week, with an intro to steering using edging, and also strokes to stop you capsizing. However, learning this means we might well end up in the water. At the moment the forecast is for warm weather. If that holds we will definitely take advantage of it.
Hi I am a new member and just back from my Easter break. Is it possible to jump in on the session on the 6th May? I did some kayaking quite some time ago so not a total beginner but it would be useful to know my level. Tuesday nights are my only free night.
thanks
Joe
Welcome! Tuesday is club night, so that's a good fit.
This class is full, with six participants. But the same course runs again in a few weeks time with another pair of coaches. Meanwhile, even though you're not a beginner, there may be space in the beginner session. You could check where you're at, meet a few people, and find your feet. If it's too slow for you you'll still find social paddling on a Tuesday.
Maggie
Laisey, Lewis, Andy, Chris and Katherine, plus David for a few minutes.
We recapped efficient forward paddling.
We looked at edging and support strokes.
EDGING = lowering one side of the kayak relative to the other, so 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 I’m about to fall in and need to act like an angry monkey, 4 beyond my balance point and will capsize without support.
Weight transfer to one buttock, knee lift, upright posture but with a C shape to upper body, centre of gravity stays over the boat (self check, head in line with bow).
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 skiing, rather than riding a bike.
We also edge when surfing, when crossing an eddy line (inside edge), and sometimes to counteract an unhelpful wind.
We practiced gentle S turns while paddling along.
If we overcook our edge we'll need a recovery/support stroke to avert a capsize. This course doesn't teach a high brace.
LOW RECOVERY STROKE
Elbows up (angry monkey), paddle close to body.
Extend out to one side but not too much. Self check: other hand somewhere around the cockpit rim, roughly maintaining paddler's box.
Blade flat to water.
Punch down hard and slice back up, or possibly a bit forward. Hear a sploosh, not a slap. Punch with wrists locked, don't tap/knock with bent wrists and lowered elbows.
At the same time, right the boat with your hips.
LOW BRACE STROKE
This gives massive support to a strong inside edge turn - but only when you are moving. Blade out to the side, roughly level with hips (not too far back). Skim the paddle across the surface with a slightly climbing blade angle. Too much angle and you'll dramatically lose speed. You can blend into a recovery at the end, as you slow down.
ASSISTED RE-ENTRY
When someone capsizes, think of it not as a rescue, which it's often called, but simply as assistance for your buddy.
The helper asks the swimmer if they are OK and reminds them to hold on to boat and paddle.
Helper asks swimmer to turn the boat over at the cockpit. These stages get the swimmer involved and active, and over the shock of capsize.
Swimmer moves hand over hand to where the helper tells them (often the bow of helper's boat where there is eye contact).
Helper gets flooded boat bow 90deg to them and pulls it up over their cockpit or front deck, bow first (important), and turns it over to empty.
Once it’s empty, helper arranges boats bow to stern (usually).
Swimmer comes around hand over hand to their cockpit and hands the helper the paddles for stowing.
Helper holds boat with decklines on both sides and in front of the cockpit (so not to get kicked). Effectively, helper tucks the boat under their armpit and leans full weight on it.
Swimmer puts one heel in while reaching over their boat and grabbing helpers deckline, then pulls up so they lie face down on the back deck, keeping body low and holding on to helper's deckline.
Swimmer puts other foot in cockpit and wriggles back to the seat, keeping low, then rotates back on themselves into position.
It is important not to try to do a full 360 rotation because you would have to let go of the deckline. You'll be looking back out to sea with no support. One good wobble and you'll be back down the middle of the kayaks, possibly capsizing the rescuer too. This is especially likely if the swimmer is much heavier than the helper.
Helper helps with spray deck, returns paddle, and says something nice – because paddling is a team effort and we are all between swims.
Lewis and Andy both did an assisted re-entry.
NEXT TIME
More assisted re-entries, in both roles.
Moving sideways
Rudder strokes
Lewis, Andy, Katherine, Chris.
No Laisey or David.
Emma joined as a drop in.
Dave assisting.
Memory jogger
We started by sharpening up two sideways strokes. Classic draw and sideways sculling. Both really benefit from full rotation, ie if you were to drop the paddle it splashes in the water rather than clattering on the deck.
Classic draw main points.
Loose top hand, control with bottom hand. Basically, you need to push water under the boat, about level with your hip, then recover the blade back to the start. Some people will lift the blade out and back. Some will recover it by slicing forward and out. It is most efficient to rotate the blade in the water and slice back to starting point at 90 degrees to the boat. Don’t get the blade caught under the hull. Use a slight edge towards the blade. When you've got this figured on both sides, try speeding up. Doing this with someone around to help with a capsize is advised.
Sculling draw to go sideways: start by thinking it’s like spreading butter on toast. Keep the scooped side of the blade facing down into the water. (Don't flip the blade over to use the convex side.) 'Spread' with a shallow shaft angle, and gradually raise top hand so the blade goes deeper. Keep blade parallel to the boat, not arcing through the water. There's a trade off between a shallow stable blade angle and a more vertical powerful blade angle. There's also a sweet spot between a slicing almost neutral blade movement and a powerful angled movement. Again, bottom hand is the control hand. Most people use a slight edge towards the blade. Practice both sides.
We recapped edging and efficient sweep strokes, and emphasized that a sweep with a strong edge is much easier on the elbows and wrists han the bow rudder (see later).
We did some 360 turns with sweep strokes and alternating edge (drop the edge on the active blade side). Focus on the first part of each sweep stroke. A slightly forward posture helps release the stern. Look where you want to go.
We talked briefly about the value of a light paddle. There's more info on choosing a paddle elsewhere on the forum. We talked about semi dry cagoule and neoprene trousers as better than a wetsuit and cheaper than a drysuit. Remember wetsuit trousers could even be cut from a charity shop find. You don't really need kayaking specific cag until you're keen to get wet. Then you need proper neck and wrist seals. When you want to paddle all winter (and why wouldn't you...) you might need a drysuit.
Rudders - they only work when you are moving.
Stern rudder, bow rudder and even the sideways-moving hanging draw are all part of a continuum.
Stern draw. A shallow shaft angle, with blade away from the boat and a low top hand that's still over the boat will turn you towards the blade side. A higher top hand, with blade fully submerged and at a nearly neutral blade angle parallel to the boat lets you keep straight through a narrow gap.
A bow rudder is used to top up an outside edge and sweep turn. To find the right place for the blade, practice putting it roughly where your foot is, scooped side towards the boat. When familiar, move it out away from the boat a bit, and play with the blade angle. Your top hand might be on the far shoulder (fairly stable, relaxed, not hugely efficient), roughly on your forehead, or on the shoulder the same side as the blade (efficient, and helping you blend strokes). Practice your bow rudder on both sides.
Oddly, no one took up my invitation to practice capsizes... So we'll come back to that next week. Dave made the excellent suggestion that we practice bow rudder around the bouys in the basin while waiting for any late arrivals next Tuesday.
Sorry to miss the session.
Andy
Lewis, Katherine, Chris, David, Emma as drop in. No Andy or Laisey. Dave T assisting.
We had an opportunity to practice turns around bouys in the basin.
We had a brief intro to towing, touching on:
Clip up, rather than down, to reduce the risk of waves opening the clip.
We only clip to one deck line, so that if the front fixing pulls out we don't lose our tow.
A tow line must have a quick release, and everyone wearing one must feel comfortable using the release.
If equipping yourself for the sea, choose a tow line that has a big enough bag to pack away quickly (alternatively, in a hurry, loop up the line and stuff it under your BA).
Tows are used to:
Hold a position while a capsize is being sorted out, ie the tow-er might clip on to the helper's boat to keep them off rocks).
Help someone who is just too tired to make adequate progress on a challenging section.
Tow someone, perhaps another craft, back into safe water.
Land a raft with an injured paddler.
Climb out onto rocks without losing your boat.
Being towed gave us the opportunity to get to grips with the high angle stern rudder, and experience how altering the blade angle can turn the boat towards or away from the paddle. This is extremely useful in negotiating narrow gaps. But remember rudders only work when you have some speed.
We really needed to practise assisted re-entries. So we did some balance challenges until people started falling in.
Standard club 'rescues' are described more fully under an earlier week's notes. Remember: don't just try to climb back in torso first. Your rapidly shifting weight and relatively high centre of gravity will make it almost impossible for a lighter paddler to hold your boat for you. Instead, reach for the helper's deckline and heel hook in to lie face down looking at the stern, then wriggle back into the cockpit before turning back to sitting. Keep holding your helper's deckline. Do what your helper asks you to do, not what you want to do.
Thanks particularly to Emma, who gamely offered to capsize twice, and had to adjust her technique away from paddle board norms.
Chris, Katherine, Lewis, Emma, David and Andy (earlier week). Have done the mandatory 'get back in' needed before going on a club trip.
Next week is bingo week...when I get out my copy of the syllabus to check I've covered it. As always, feel free to come with requests or queries.
Week Five Memory Jogger
A bit late – sorry!
Lewis, Andy, David for the first half. Dave T assisting.
This week we mostly went on a journey, interspersed with chats introducing further topics to explore, either through more courses or club trips. You are not expected to go out paddling on your own at this point.
Tides: they vary in range from springs to neaps and therefore so does the speed of tidal streams. When we think about tides we are thinking about how they will move us laterally as well as what the beach will look like when we launch and land.
Headlands can speed up tidal flows and cause rough water, especially where wind acts against tide. Unwary paddlers can can swept up into more conditions than they expected. Conditions will vary with the state of the tide.
It’s important to know roughly how fast you can paddle, especially if a headland might prove to be a ‘tidal gate’. We talked about the South Devon tidal stream atlas, and that you can currently buy a copy through the club.
Sources of weather info:
Windguru lite app
windy app
XCWeather app
Surf-forecast.com (there's more free info on the website than on the app, and there's a useful map feature for main and subsidiary swells)
Inshore forecast https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/specialist-forecasts/coast-and-sea/inshore-waters-forecast
In meteorology, words have specific meanings. For example, a moderate sea is moderate for ships, not kayaks, and means waves of 1.25-2m. Rough means 2-4m. For anyone wanting to learn about sea kayak navigation, check out onlineseakayaking.com for really good video courses and the book most paddlers have from Pesda press https://www.pesdapress.com/index.php/product/sea-kayak-navigation/
There is a list here https://exetercanoeclub.org.uk/sea-kayaking-information/ of the equipment you should consider taking on a led club paddle (your leader will have more safety gear for the group).
We talked about using skegs to make the back of the boat more 'grippy'. This helps to keep straight against a side wind, and to hold the boat straight in a following sea.
We talked about the difference between weathercocking (tendency to turn upwind when under way) and leecocking (a tendency to turn downwind), why the boat turns and what to do to counteract that in terms of weight distribution, edging and paddle strokes.
We also ran through the different approach when you want to turn up into wind from stationary (skeg up, forward trim, strong short forward sweeps, get some speed up).
We talked about not pushing wired skegs up, because they kink. And we talked about making it a habit to check your skeg works once you've launched.
We talked about dressing for the water temperature not the air temperature, and about taking the risks of both hypothermia and hyperthermia seriously.
We touched on environmental issues like the need to reduce the risk of moving invasive species from one water body to another: check, clean, dry.
We also mentioned local access restrictions: year round on the back side of Dawlish Warren. https://www.southeastdevonwildlife.org.uk/sites/default/files/content/Dawlish-Warren-Code-A4-electronic.pdf
Seasonal at the Duck Pond, Exmouth https://exe-kiteboarders.co.uk/spot-guide/duck-pond/
The bay/cove south of Berry Head closed to all boats including kayaks and SUPS to protect the guillemot colony from March to end July.
Intermittent at Straight Point, east of Exmouth. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/straightpoint-and-wcta-grenade-range-firing-times
We got out on the higher pontoons at double locks, and portaged - good practice with trickier exits and entries.
In terms of new paddle techniques we backed into a confined space and we played with hanging draws to shift sideways while also going forward. Remember the last forward stroke is on the same side as the hanging draw will be. This stroke takes some practice to find the sweet spot of blade angle, blade position, shaft angle, and edge. There will be more opportunities to practice this, and to learn about all of the above on coached paddles, club journeys and further canal-based sessions.
Thanks for your company over the past few weeks. I'd encourage everyone to set an aim for their paddling this year, and to talk to a club coach about next steps.