I’m trying to learn sea kayaking. I am with a club and on a course but I need to try to do something more myself between sessions. I’m very cowardly about going on edge and really need to get past my fear. I’m thinking that I might take the boat to a sandy beach and stay in very shallow water and just test myself, edging more and more. If I tip over, it won’t matter, because it’s sandy and I can just push myself up again. This seems sensible to me but I’m wondering if there is some hidden stupidity in this plan that I’m not noticing. Would be grateful for any advice.
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It is a good idea. I practice edging in very shallow water with a sand bottom from time to time. I never end up swimming because I can brace easily in a foot of water. But if I did it would be very easy to recover.
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Thank you. That’s reassuring.
It’s always a good idea to practice, anything really.
for edging makes sure you have a good plant on your foot braces, with some bend to your knees so that you can push on the opposite side you are bracing on. Ideally you’d want your thighs braced somewhere at just below the cockpit rim that makes life so much easier.
if you have a rudder, then you need to push both legs on to counteract the leg you are using to brace for edging. (the forces will be unequal. don’t worry about it.)
then just work on shifting your weight to bring the boat to edge. Ive never come close to flipping trying to edge but I have come close to flooding the cockpit. for serious edging like this you should have a skirt.
but yea practice in the shallow, I didn’t have that luxury the sandy beach where I paddle is half occupied by the boat rental so can’t really practice there and the other half the kids are all roaming about even though its not a swimming lake they tend to not enforce it. So i had to figure it out my choices were in about a foot of water with 4 feet of muck you’d sink in up to your waist or 90 feet of water.
I opted for 90 feet. If I swamped the boat all the bulkheads would keep it afloat and I could pump it out.
another suggestion practice your unassisted reentries. if you have the flexibility a cowboy reentry is a breeze.
and I do apologize if I’m not making complete sense or accurately describing, I’m sh*t at describing something that you physically do.
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since you have a sandy spot , go to a very shallow place and lie with your back on the sand and your legs in your kayak. you are lying with your body virtually on the shore and in a balance brace position with the kayak in the water just so it will rotate, and sort of float,
from this position practice rotating the kayak with your lower body without moving your upper body. Get very relaxed. Just lay there and move the kayak upright and over, then upright again etc.
this will allow you to practice the kayak movement without the fear of going over… it is a precursor to learning to roll and should help with edging.
Best Wishes
Roy
no spotter required since your body is on the land , hope this helps some
showing the balance brace position
for edging keep your nose over your belly button and control the kayak with your hip movements that you practiced.
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Your plan is sound. An alternative, and perhaps more reassuring, is to do this with a buddy. I took that route to practice rolling and thereby avoid frequent wet exits and the consequent loss of actual practice time. And it can be more fun with a buddy.
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The best way I know to teach edging is on calm flat water under a tree. Tie a strong rope to a limb that extends down to the water and make a knot in the end to form a lump to grab onto. You want it to go to the water or within about 4 inches of the water.
Next bring your kayak under the rope and hold the rope so you can simply pull yourself back to an upright position. Grab the rope about 3" down from the “pull point” and edge over You’ll run out of rope before you run out of stability. Do it on both sides until you are very comfortable. When it’s easy and feels safe for you, move the hands down the rope about 1" and do the drill again.
Just keep that 1 inch at a time until you edge over PAST the point of tipping, but to a point you don’t capsize because you are holding onto the rope.
When you get there and are comfortable with doing it, start righting the kayak with your thighs and knees and only use the rope when you can’t get it with your legs. Legs 1st and rope as a back up.
You’ll find you have FAR better control with the hips, legs and thighs they you do with the arms and hands inside about 1 hour of practice.
When you can go past the point of edging to the place you’d just capsize without that rope, and can then right the kayak mostly with your LEGS, you are ready to let go of the rope altogether and go back to the paddle.
Now, — learn the sculling movement with the paddle! As you sit on the bottom in about 1 foot of water (no kayak) lean over and use the sculling sweep of the paddle to support yourself as you sit back upright. Again, do it on both sides, until it’s easy as walking.
Last, get back into the kayak and combine the leg movement after edging over, combined with the sculling movement of the paddle combined.
You’ll have the righting movement down pat in about 5 minutes after you combine the 2 drills above. it’s far easier then you would think but overcoming the fear is the hard part. Learn on your own time and at your own pace.
The technique is different, but the core principal lessons I use to teach rolling are the same. I focus on overcoming fear in the student at their subconscious level and teaching the subconscious mind to feel no dread of the water. Our logical mind knows the water is not harmful but our subconscious mind says different and it’s the subconscious that locks the body up and causes us to do things wrong. Remove the fear and when that is behind you the rolling is very fast and easy to learn. If you can easily roll nothing else really scares you in learning kayaking. No matter what caused you to fail in the next skill you want to do (bracing, edging, ruddering, or broaching a wave, ) if you tip over you just come back up and continue on. The reason the Greenlanders teach rolling before they teach paddling is to overcome all fear of the water. We are wise to learn the same way.
Where are you Harobed? It may be that someone near you would take the time to help and in having a good coach you can learn more in 3 months then you can teach yourself in 5 years.
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Yes! I’ve been doing weekly sessions at a sandy cove on the lake, where I can effectively “pick my depth”. I’ve worked up to float assisted rolls and sculling braces. If you mess up you can just push back up with the paddle. Works well. Worst case you can exit and just walk it back to shore.
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Thank you for that helpful detail.
That’s really interesting to see. I can see how that could help to build my feel of the movement and help with confidence. Thank you.
Yes, I’ve been trying to persuade my (adult) son. I’m thinking of the shallows partly because of my confidence but also for the business of having to empty the boat, which I think could get dispiriting pretty quickly.
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That sounds fantastic. Having that rope would give me exactly the confidence I need to experiment and test and teeter on that edge until I get the feel of it. I can’t think of anywhere where there’d be an overhanging tree though. I’m in Wales, on an island, so there’s plenty of sea. I will definitely keep my eye out now though for any feature where it might be possible to fix a rope. Thank you.
Thank you. That’s encouraging to hear. I feel more determined to give it a go now!
There are a lot of comments here that will have you building compensation, not capacity. Your idea of doing this in shallow water is sound.
There is no “weight shift”. That is, again, an idea that will build compensation. not capacity. Think of farting on a bar stool. You want your center of mas over your base of support (your boat). If it isn’t, same result as on a bar stool - you fall over.
Edging is going to come from lifting that offside knee. Upright posture is essential. If you are touching your back band you won’t have the ROM to execute.
Some of this will also depend on how well your weight is matched to your boat’s secondary stability.
I do find it confusing the way the way the mechanics of initiating edging are described sometimes. Lifting the offside knee is really the only way I can begin to edge, so it’s good to hear that. I will carry on with that model in my head.
One word I saw that helped was the the “lifting” knee should “hang” off the thigh/knee pad when edging to turn. Some contact so you know where you are, but you don’t want it locked in there.
Thanks, I will try and think about that when I’m in the boat and see if it clicks for me. Sometimes someone just uses a particular word or phrase and it suddenly makes sense!
Right on. You see a lot of people in videos and print with their COM well over the boat. That is just not balanced. It is just not efficient. It looks compelling, but is not efficient (good) boating.
If you are having difficulty it could be that your boat has a bit more volume than needed for your weight. In which case you can get the boat over, but secondary stability never really firms up and instills confidence. It may also be a range of motion issue with hips and lumbar.
Enjoy.
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Get over your fear of doing wet exits. Do a lot of them. Practice in warm water. Learn to brace.
Stay near shore,. Have an assistant if you want. You will quickly get over your fear.
I used to lead canoe trips. One of the first things I did with newbies was take them out in an empty canoe and learn how far they could lean them over without capsizing. Then I would have them capsize boats and learn to rescue them. Then the fear goes away.
Ah yeah, I’m not exactly afraid of the wet exit. I don’t like that initial moment of tipping over but after that it’s OK. I’m a sea swimmer so the water doesn’t bother me. It’s more that it’s slow and tiring to keep emptying the boat and I want to keep practising to find that edge, so I can feel confident about where it is, so inevitably I’ll go over. That’s why I thought the shallow water where I can push up again would be helpful. No assistant, I’m afraid, nor any chance of warm water