I like words and phrases. So I'm very interested to know the proper name for the side of the canoe that is opposite the "side of opposition". For example, I may want to shout at some unsuspecting sideslipper, "STOP RAISING YOUR SIDE OF _____________________", but I don't know what to call it.
To the extent raising the SOO (acronyms aid obfuscation) makes the sideslip slippier, it obviously relates to friction. Heeling away from the SOO must create a waterline shape that offers less drag friction than the waterline shape created by heeling toward the SO?. I have trouble visualizing these underwater shapes on my various boats.
Marc, your first two pictures appear to be prying sideslips, so RTSOO doesn't produce a prune scrunch.
The bottom picture is a drawing sideslip. While some may find that posture aesthetically pleasing, and vote for it, to me it feels prune scrunchy when doing it. And the scrunch would become even greater if the paddler raised the SOO even further and brought the paddle closer to the boat so the blade would be more vertical.
I have had fun solving the RTSOO prune scrunch problem for drawing sideslips by using the proper freestyle tool, the bent shaft paddle. Using the back face of the paddle, you can get a nicely vertical paddle blade while RTSOO-ing, without the prune scrunching arm and torso arch that "straighty paddlers" apparently find so visually pleasing.
I'm also having astonishing dynamic results freestyling with a GP, but still need a few years of secret practice.
Reverse Post[ing] Initiated by reverse strokes, reverse maneuvers are usually a little weaker than forward moves. To back into an eddy we might need the aid of carving stems, stern stem in this case.
So, how do we initiate, place the blade and conclude this Reverse Post eddy turn?
Its a great yoga move and stretches you out. For some its best shown with the hull toward the audience which of course makes the judges scores at best a good guess. Its not possible to see if the rail is on the water or not on the water.
Initiate with reverse j plant your butt on he offside rail and try to reach the water (choke up) with a reverse duffek.
Having trouble visualizing using this on an eddy turn going backwards. That would be in the category of an OH S—move.
Only when I have blown a X-axle and not paying attention, not enough momentum to punch through and end up going down stream in reverse. As the eddy begins to diminish, I can hit a cross post (assuming there is enough water depth to sink the paddle blade)and enter the eddy stern first. Not the knid of move I make as a first option.
The only time… I’ve ever done a Reverse Post eddy turn is when being a wiseass (I know, I know, how could anyone tell when I’m not?). Actually I find the timing different for this maneuver in an onside eddy vs offside eddy turn. In any case it is a dicey move to do in the differential currents encountered in eddy turns and the difficulty crashing the eddyline using reverse strokes. It requires good mechanical as well as cognitive skills. I’ll try to discuss an Onside Rev. Post ( eddy on the side on which reverse strokes are done)eddy turn below.
After setting a proper angle speed, and position, an Onside Reverse Post eddy turn is begun by crashing the eddyline with a back stroke (I prefer a compound or combination back) The last stroke before crashing the eddyline can be a hard Reverse C for power, if desired. If enough of the stern is in the eddy, the differential currents will start initiating the turn but I usually drop into the Rev. Post initiation position just in case. This is done by placing the paddle horizontal with the blade along the bow by bringing the shaft hand forward and dropping the grip hand, thumb down into the crook of the elbow. A hard correction might be overkill in this situation as the offside rail will be presented to the upstream current in the eddy and pushed with greater force than the bow. The paddler must gauge the situation and act accordingly. Timing to begin the heel is critical here. If beginning too early, there is a danger the stern will be pushed around and back onto the eddyline. We all know what can happen if your hull gets right on top of the eddyline. The amount of heel (to the rail is usually not necessary) and pace of lowering the rail depends on the radius of the turn desired. If all is going well, the paddler begins the static placement by raising the grip hand with control thumb pointing back toward the stern and the shaft hand moved straight back towards the stern so that the arms are straight The blade is placed in the stern quadrant behind the point of rotation with the blade angle opened to the stern. The angle at which the paddle is held as well as amount of heel is determined by the radius of the turn needed. Heel and paddle angle are adjusted as the hull turns in order to achieve the desired path. Some eddy turns need to be very snappy others wider. More often than not all activities must be adjusted in concert to achieve an exact path usually determined by obstacles and current speeds. Generally a Conclusion is not necessary but in a weak eddy if desired one can conclude by dropping the grip hand downward while bringing the shaft hand toward the stern so that the paddle is horizontal and simultaneously rotating the torso to achieve a Stern Draw.
Whew! Know what, this is too complicated to verbalized. One cannot pay attention to all these cognitive skills until the mechanical skills are second nature. That’s why learning FS is so helpful. The Florida FS Symposium is in March, Adirondack FSS in July, and the Midwest FSS in Sept.
The palm roll I said above that the sideslip and wedge were the two most practical things that FS instruction has polished up in my paddling repertoire.
I forgot something even more basic, the palm roll.
Since getting involved with sport canoeing with Mike Galt in Tampa in 1984 through 2009, I had paddled non-whitewater almost exclusively with bent shaft paddles having asymmetrical grips. Even my “straight” paddle for maneuvering in swiftwater and Southern blackwater was actually a 2.5 degree S-blade with an asymmetrical grip. I didn’t even own a decent Sugar Island flatwater paddle with other than a T-grip.
So it was when I first met Marc Ornstein in 2009 in his shop. Marc explained how his paddle allowed smooth palm rolls. I asked him, “Why would you want to do that? Seems inefficient.” I now laugh at my naivete. But I only can suffer my own laughter. Please keep my palm roll skepticism a closely held secret, especially from anyone involved with freestyle canoeing.
So, I designed my own straight paddle with a symmetrical, hooded, thumb-indented T-grip, and have engaged in a titillating orgy of palm rolling ever since.
Others can explain if they so desire the specific uses of the palm roll in the freestyle repertoire. I will only say that it gives me the aesthetic and functional pleasure of linking various paddle strokes, movements and positions without taking my blade from the H2O. Efficiency, schmefficiency.
Kind of makes as much sense to me as the techno jargon we fall into. That is a turnoff for learners for sure. After realizing I dont know what ubod is , I gave up.
In paddling a palm roll is when (never mind the bad grammar) you rotate your grip hand on top of the paddle without moving the paddle. Imagine doing a J stroke and holding in that awkward thumb down position that hurts. Without moving the paddle move the hand on the grip from thumb down to thumb up. You can actually do this in the kitchen without risking your dishes.
Thats a palm roll. Use? Its good for inwater recoveries where you bring the paddle forward in the water for the next stroke. In and by itself this may not be the most efficient due to friction with the water but its quite restful and you can sneak up on wildlife and the beach party.
The main utility of the Palm Roll is maintaining continuity of powerface - keeping force loaded on a given blade.
For example, in a Christie, one could, after a strong K initiation, flip the thumb up, but we'd loose rotational force and brace during the inversion. WE get a much smoother and more confident maneuver by rolling the top hand over on the grip.
The palm roll can also be used to keep force on the powerface during a compound back stroke, again, we don't loose energy as is the case when the blade in inverted.
There are also times when we're using a bent paddle that a palm roll is necessary because the bent is so extremely ineffective when the backface is loaded.
Grip design can be critical to smooth palm rolls, but practice is easy in Kim's kitchen with your fav paddle and a tennis or other ball. With the ball on the floor and loose hands on the paddle, sweep the ball in clockwise, then counter clockwise circles, ~ a foot in diameter using only the powerface against the ball. The top hand must loosen to allow the paddle to rotate, and you've just done a palm roll!
Any tandem maneuver starts with the stern skidding one way or another… then the sternsperson is done and can take a nap…
After the stern is skidding the bow takes over and the range of the turn depends on momentum and the bows staying ability.
Weight shift forward accentuates turns. Tandem this is accomplished by coming up on the knees and straightening the hips so that weight is on the knees only and not the butt.
Boat heel is a function of trust between the two people. The bow paddler often heels the boat and the stern having the eyes to see when water is coming in stops the heel. Properly done with “trust” exercises the divorce lawyer is out of luck.
We can run through the same forward, cross forward, etc sequence in tandem; that would start with the Tandem Axle.
A couple caveats first. The smaller paddler almost always paddles bow which generally means in mixed couples the woman is the bow paddler. Most tandem teams use large bladed bent paddles, and both paddlers are almost always in cadence. Tandem maneuvers are more exciting to watch than solo ones because the boat accelerates more quickly, power is often maintained through the turn and the paddlers can extend across the rail via counter balancing and the physics of the bent paddle.
With headway, the Tandem Axle is in initiated by Bow and Stern together, both adding a diagonal component to their forward stroke. This sets the Yaw Couple, determining that the hull will turn Onside, towards the Bow's paddle side.
The bow paddler heels the boat to her Onside by extending her weight across the Onside rail into a Static Draw with the paddleblade at an aggressively opening angle of attack. In extreme versions the bow will extend shoulders and torso horizontally across the rail with the onside rail at water level. The big bent is a key piece of equipment, because the blade can be presented to the water at a Low Brace angle, fairly flat to the water, while the paddle is held as a High Brace.
The stern paddler power's the hull into a stern skid around the Bow's placement with a diagonal drawing component added to a series of forward strokes and extends across his Offside rail enough to counterbalance his Bow's extension.
Paddlers can continue the maneuver as long as strength and attention to detail allow, achieving 180, 360, 720 degrees of rotation or more, but eventually the Bow brings her torso back inside the rail with a strong Draw and the Stern brings his shoulders back across his rail as the hull is heeled back flat, and the team accelerates away with Forward Strokes.
Tandem maneuvers are pretty much the same as solo's; we induce a yaw coiuple, mostly pullinf or pushing the leading stem to one side of the direction of travel so the stern skids out in the other, except the trailing paddler can continue to apply forward power so turns are snappier. And, the ability to counterbalance extension across the rail implies greater paddler risk of a swim.
I’ve been away for the past week and am pleased to see the progression of thread. Between Kim and Charlie, the execution and use of the palm roll has been described better than I’d have. Glenn, I’ve chuckled to myself more than once, how, in my shop I tried in vain to describe it’s usefulness and when you approached me later at Star Lake after a class, where it all became apparent.
I was wondering where we’d go once we’d exhausted the functional maneuvers. We stretched the definition of functional to the breaking point. Tandem of course Duhhh.
I’ll largely sit back, read, follow and learn from this portion as I have little 1st hand experience in the tandem FS arena. I do have a fair background in tandem WW and river touring.
I’m not a tandem maven but make a contribution anyway.
The side slip is my most used river move whether paddling solo or tandem.
For a drawing side slip (moves the boat toward the bow paddler’s on side), with the canoe moving forward, the bow paddler plants his/her paddle with a slightly open face (leading edge pointed away from the boat) while the stern paddler plants with a closed face (leading edge pointed toward the boat). The boat will begin the slip. Each may have to tweak their blade angle a bit in order to keep from turning. Greater angle will put more torque on that end of the boat at the cost of forward speed. Too much angle will put the breaks on. Due to the greater mass/momentum of the tandem, the side slip will carry for a longer distance than with a solo, before running out of steam.
Tandem Christie? There are very few FS tandem paddlers participating in this thread so I reckon this question goes to CEW. especially considering that he was heavy into the FS tandem thing in the early on and participated in writing the FS Manual and curriculum.
In my pre-Freestyle days my wife and I were tandem paddlers. We often used an offside turn in which was initiated by the Bow paddler executing a sweeping forward, and the Stern paddler a hard J correction followed by a low brace placement. The Bow paddler continued with a sweeping forward resulting in an Offside turn.
The first Freestyle lesson I took were in tandem canoe. We were told there is no FS tandem Christie i.e., no tandem low brace turning maneuver. I wonder why the above described turn cannot considered a tandem Christie. I understand that in all other tandem FS maneuvers the Bow paddler does the static placement but wonder if this is not just a bit too dogmatic. Why can’t the Stern paddler do the placement? This low brace tandem turn has been used for centuries. I’ve discussed this with many tandem FS experts over the years but still wonder. Any enlightenment will be appreciated.