I’ve been sea-kayaking a little over year. I’ve spent 20 years as an alpine ski instructor and want to relate something I learned that I relates to a feeling of stability in a kayak.
I’m close enough to a beginner to remember when getting in a sea-kayak, it felt wobbly. The kayak wiggle underneath me and I’d be a bit afraid to move for fear of tipping. One trick I learned on order to calm it down, I was raise one leg until I felt some pressure against the thigh brace and it would quiet down. As soon as my body, felt something, the wobbliness stopped. Another thing to try is to keep your spine straight up and down by wiggle your bottom from side to side. I find that a great drill for getting used to a boat.
So, here’s what I think is happening, all that wobbliness you experience is caused by your autonomic nervous system trying to feel for some stability. Your unconscious muscle reactions are causing oscillation to either side hoping to feel some resistance. Consider what it’s like when you are simple standing. Your body is always getting instant feeling of stability through pressure to both feet. But, there is very little resistance to slight movements in a kayak. But, this oscillation will all go away once your nervous system gets used to it. As others have pointed out on this thread, a point that feels unstable when you get in it, could have a few hours feel great.
The reason I’m mentioning this is because I’ve experienced the exact same phenomenon in skiing. A little over 20 years ago, really short (113,123,123cm) and soft learning skis came out. We did a bunch of clinics as instructors on these skis both for our own skills and to learn how to teach with them. What happened to every experienced skier when they got a pair of these skis and got up to intermediate speed is the wobble like CRAZY. Particularly the inside ski will oscillate right and left so much you feel like it will fly off your foot. One of the reps from the company that makes these skis we were clinicing with explain why. It is exactly because your autonomic nervous system is trying to feel the tip and the tail of the ski. But, the ski your nerves are used to feeling isn’t there. Your unconscious nerves don’t feel the ski so they rotate your legs left; oops, don’t feel a ski there; rotate the skis right; no feeling there; rotate left again. It’s really uncanny. For the first few hours on these things, experts skiers are like “what the heck is going on???” But all it is is your nervous system not used to not feeling something it is used to feeling and your autonomic nervous system hunting for it.
