I have been working on edging my kayak this week. I have huge bruises on my legs, in the shape of my thigh braces. I’m guessing that this is from using my hips and thighs to get and keep the boat on edge. Is this a normal result of edging? If so, I’m ok with that, but if not, what do I need to do to fix things?
Not normal
It usually takes a lot of force to cause bruising. I strongly urge you to discuss this with your doctor as soon as possible.
Sounds like you really have those
knees and thighs pressed tightly up against the thigh braces. Relax a little. You want to keep your center of gravity low so when you think about edging your boat think more about shifting your weight to one butt cheek and not raising your thigh and knee to lock yourself into the thigh brace. You can actually get the boat a little farther over with a lower center of gravity. My .02.
Depends
I take alot of Ibuprofen for back pain and bruise so badly that I stopped seeing my OB-GYN in the summertime because she was convinced I was a victim of domestic violence (you should have seen her face the year I was perfecting my cowboy rescue). My co-workers check my arms for bruises when I show up for work on Monday. The joke that no bruises=no fun that weekend.
Some people do bruise easily. If you’re one of them in general or if you took aspirin or Ibuprofen before your edging session it’s probably nothing, but you can put your mind at ease with a trip to the doc.
Lyn
Thanks
I am a person who bruises easily, when I practice self-rescue I get really bruised up! I will try to relax a bit, and see what happens. . . and thanks for the concern/recommendations to see the doc, but bruising is normal for me 
Are you edging a recreational kayak
I can relate
"because she was convinced I was a victim of domestic violence"
I often have bruises on my arms because that’s where I seem to get bumped when loading or unloading my boat, and I bruise easily, too. Some friends were concerned about domestic violence especially when the ex and I filed for divorce. In truth, we’re still good friends, but I can see how it does look bad.
No
A Seaward Tyee. My main concern regarding the bruises is my technique, as opposed to the bruises.
cool!
Try this excersise
See if you can edge your boat without your legs locked into the thigh braces or foot braces. Edge your boat by just lifting a cheek. I think you will find that edging doesn’t require you being braced into your boat as tight as you think. So, edging can be accomplished by shifting your hips a little rather than hanging from your thigh/knee. I am not recommending you paddle this way all of the time, but use this technique as an excersise for better edging without being so tense and tightly locked into your boat.
Agree
Cool. Your concerns were misunderstood.
Another way of thinking about it is to lower the other cheek. Easier for me, anyway.
Lyn
Thanks again
for all of the advice. Sorry that I was unclear at first as to my concerns. I am going paddling tomorrow evening and will give the suggestions a shot.
Re:bruises
Besides the excellent advice offered by other posters. You might want to add a little more padding to your cockpit area. I also had the same problem. In my case I would get bruised when I really started working on skills training. I had used small Pads to keep me correctly positioned in the cockpit in the hope that I would be a little cooler, but found that they would create pressure points that led to bruising when I did serious skill training. I finally added wider and broader padding and it went away completely. My guess is better technique and outfitting will take care of your bruising.
Michael
no new bruises
I paddled on Monday, did some edging and no bruising. I relaxed, paid attn to not using my legs, and thought about putting all my weight on one cheek. Thanks everybody!