I used a high brace
Friday night landing on the beach. I took a nice long ride, and my kayak settled back into the water at the 2nd dumping point. I paddled hard, but my stern lifted too abruptly. It still looked kind of strong, so I pressed my elbow into my side, intent on keeping it there, and quickly threw my body into the wave, blade into the middle of the wave. Everything turned out nicely. The whole thought process going on at the time was telling me to take care of my shoulder. Not tall waves, just nice, strong swells. I typically prefer the high brace, but I know it’s always an instantaneous decision.
Delicate wash 
what is the safety limit on high brace
– Last Updated: May-27-09 10:53 AM EST –
The usual warning is to not have the hand??? above the shoulder for the high brace.
What would be the limit with reaching out and away from the body? My uneducated guess is don't extend the outside arm into a locked straight position and keep the other other within the shoulders?????
shoulder limit
In general I hear avoid your arm above shoulder level or behind you back (combination of these worst). Extending out I think is okay. But with all of these you have to add some margin for error because the force of the wave could suddenly push you past safe limits. For example if you do extend out and then your arm falls behind a bit you have more leverage to cause damage. So general rule of thumb is to keep elbows bent a fair bit and close to your body.
depends on what you mean by elbow
above the shoulder. (I have also heard hand about the shoulder). Personally, I never let my mid-forearm go above the shoulder (when my spine is straight from my pelvis to my shoulders). If I am edging my kayak a lot and have a nice C-shape in my back then my elbow my be above my shoulder in relation to the horizon line, but not in relation to my upper (if I were to straighten my spine). Does that make sense?
Not true
Trust me, I’ve used this technique on waves with PLENTY of power and on waves that reared up suddenly and surprised me. Actually thinking about it, those may be the only circumstances where I’ve used this technique, since when I have time to react, I’ll turn into the wave and eliminate the need to brace.