Transverse
in nautical terms means oriented “athwart”. What does “athwart” mean? It means oriented at a 90 degree angle to the longitudinal centerline of a hull. In other words, the paddler turns their body sideways in the canoe.
I first saw this done by Karen Knight and Mark & Becky Molina at the Nat. FS Comp in Huntsville in about 1994 (5). It produces huge hull dynamic and bio-mechanical advantages. First, the paddler can move the load much more forward for forward turns which pops the stern up and reduces resistance to the turn. Second, it allows much better use of the large muscle groups used, especially in the forward stroke but others as well. Third, paddle placement is much easier as it reduces the need to reach the offside arm across the chest (and etc.).
In the Post, naturally the paddler must face the Onside and heel to the Offside. From the transverse position this is the one maneuver where upper body weight initiates the heel. In this case, the paddler must start the Offside heel by leaning back a bit with the upper body so that their weight is transferred down into the lower legs and feet. It’s a dicey but very effective and very cool looking maneuver. And after all who doesn’t want to look cool in their canoe?
Pag.
Transverse Stance
Thankyou for that contribution on a stance I find more rewarding each time I resort to it (mostly around wildlife / taking photos and on twisty, weed filled creeks). I'd be interested in further discussion of the practical / creeking freestyle advantages of the stance: if it's got advantages, they should have an application for "real world" paddling!
Bio-mechanical advantage?
I think that if there were a bio-mechanical advantage we'd see racers using the stance. Looks cool? Sure. Functional? Maybe in some maneuvers but not so much for going somewhere.
And, transverse stances generally place the paddler in a wider, less efficient, boat to accommodate shin length across the chines.
Often there is a comfort factor
If you have long shins and big feet you have to go with a pretty wide boat unless you are comfortable with your toes bent up and sitting on your heels. Toes down takes up too much room.
Not too useful in tripping except for as mentioned, pictures…and they might be fuzzy as your feet go OW when holding that position to compose your shot.
If you have short shins go for it…as most solos are sized for femurs.
I thought some photos might help to
visualize the different stances. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one of the "traditional" 3 point stance. I'm still looking and will post one ( no pun intended) if/when I turn one up.
Photo #1 Semi Transverse
Photo #2 2 Point - Both knees in offside chine, paddler facing forward
Photo #3 Butt Post
Photos of Axle Stances
Photo #1 "Traditional 3 point stance
Photo #2 Transverse Stance
Photo #3 High Kneel Thrust (knee on/over the rail)
Note:
These photos were from competitions where there was an exemption from wearing life jackets. Conditions were controlled and safety boaters were present.
Also: Several threads above, I've posted several photos of different POST stances.
CEW…you are
correct. I should limit my remarks, re: transverse kneeling to freestyle turning maneuvers, not canoeing in general. In FS for forward strokes, prior to a forward onside turn, I find a bio mechanical advantage by turning my stance at about a 45 degree angle toward the onside, then after the power strokes, all the way around to the onside during the placement phase.
Pag
That makes sense…
Would it be fair to say that when using the transverse stance, you get pretty much the same bio-mechanical advantages propelling the canoe stern-first as you do going forwards? Not a practical creeking thing most of the time, but where you are really having to twist and turn around trees and weed, switching to stern-first sometimes seems more efficient than trying to continue bow-first!
Another possible plus for the transverse stance with a large blade: how much impact you can have with a single stroke, be that a compound forward/reverse or a sweep. Perhaps not really a position for high cadence, small blade paddling though...
The forward stroke
and the cross reverse stroke in a transverse position are quite similar.
If you can get through FS Levels 1-4, level 5 is, because most people go transverse,(there is a Wisconsin school that does not) a no brainer…at least your mind does not have to get as involved.
Transverse for X Reverse
is a no brainer. We'll probably talk more about it when we introduce that quadrant to the thread. As for X reverse as a practical quadrant on creeks, it most certainly is. Sometimes to back out of a tight spot, sometimes when you've misread the current and been spun around and occasionally to avoid a tight turn when the creek double back on itself.
Marc Ornstein
Disagree
For every paddler who goes into a transverse position and uses X reverse strokes for extraction from a beaver dam, I’ll bet a good bottle of bold Zin that more than 100 will use the more powerful and more quickly accessible back stroke.
You may be right about 99 of them
but with my bad rt shoulder there is no strength in that backstroke. Far back, maybe?
I don't mean to imply that X reverse is the 1st choice for going backwards. Certainly a quick backstroke or three may do the trick and without rotating oneself around in the boat. But if I want to stay in reverse for any distance, the backstroke wreaks havoc on a torn rotator cuff and lately more and more of the paddlers I know seem to be suffering from similar ailments. It's just another option.
Marc Ornstein
LOL
I got a little stuck when I took the wrong alder choked stream in La Verendrye.
The backstroke just got me more stuckker.
Far back well the object was a little to one side and with the far back I couldnt get enough sweep on the boat…Still stuck.
Swiveled around and did cross reverse draw. Out…It seemed that as I wasnt looking where I was going during the backstroke I kept banging into the same alder…
I guess I would backstroke if the beaver were working on his dam and he started to get poed at me mashing it. Those teeth…
more stuckker.
I’ll have to remember that phrase.
Marc Ornstein
FreeStyle is
a paddling skill set that takes advantage of advanced whitewater skills, ie boat heel and pitch, cross and reverse strokes and complex maneuvers to have more boat control, hence fun, on flat and moving water. We also emphasis effective bio-mechanics to improve power and endurance. Tens of thousands of paddlers have taken a FreeStyle course or two and are out having more and safer fun afloat.
FreeStyle also has an interpretive component where advanced maneuvers are choreographed to music and become a performing art analogous to long program figure skating. Interpretive boats tend to be fitted a size larger than needed to allow transverse stances because it is stunning to watch.
The dichotomy is pretty stark but the line between the two endeavors is sometimes blurred. Sure, most will come up their knees to pitch a hull bow down and lift the stern to enhance a skidded turn around a bend in the Pine Barrens. Cool and fun!
Another wrinkle is to keep the stern in the water and heel the boat to let current force the stern to either side; knee steering around riverene bends.
Few FreeStylers are capable, by boat fit, predilection and practice, of assuming transverse positioning and using cross reverse strokes. Maybe 100 world wide, would choose to do that on the Mullica. That’s neat stuff, there are lots of folks who will help you learn it is desired, but it’s beyond the core curriculum which focuses on more likely to be useful skills.
X-reverse critical for back ferrying
How you back off a beaver dam is one thing. How you back ferry back laterally, left and right, across a swift current while deciding which slot to run in a hard rapid … is another.
From my earliest days as a river paddler–where, IMO, all “freestyle” moves ideally should be taught–I have used alternating back strokes and cross-reverse strokes to stop in current, back ferry in current, change ferry angle in current, and even to go backwards in current. A back stroke on the on-side, followed by a cross-reverse stroke on the off-side, etc., etc.
This is a critical skill as you slide left and right to decide where to run a ledge or waterfall, or which branch opening to go under through a killer sweeper in the Pine Barrens at flood.
You don’t need to go into a “transverse stance” to execute this. You can stay firmly kneel-seated … and safe.
Alternating forward strokes with cross-forward strokes is similarly important to accelerating the boat during peel-outs, front ferrying across currents, and wave/hole surfing. Again, the importance of these crucial solo canoe cross-maneuvers only becomes truly apparent when paddling in river or tidal currents, where they will be more efficiently learned by the immediate Discipline of the Dump.
Well…
I used to use that combination of alternating reverse back and cross reverse back strokes for back ferrying also, until I became more proficient with FS technique. Now I usually never switch sides for back ferrys; all accomplished onside.
I still have plenty of other uses for cross reverse, though.
Ditto
Once enough paddle sensitivity is achieved it would be counter productive to windmill back strokes onside and offside when strokes can be taken with higher cadence and more power onside.
ditto…
I do not windmill when paddling whitewater. I do not get why a ww solo paddler would consider transverse stationing when virtually all ww solo canoes are outfitted with saddles which totally prevent this. I would not paddle ww with a kneeling thwart. Much too much potential for disaster.
Not all of the FS competition skills translate to ww and I don’t think anyone implied this.
Pag
Huh? Strongly disagree!
You don’t “transverse station” in a WW boat; you are strapped into a three-point kneel. I said that. But you can easily paddle cross-reverse from this position if you have normal torso flexibility.
Of course you can back paddle on one side only in the typical “freestyle” venue. That’s because there is no current, no rocks, no ledges, no eddies, no swirls, nothing to torque and spin the boat.
Sure, you can back paddle on one side in WW, too. And I will happily assume for the sake of argument a paddler who is very competent with “freestyle” backstrokes, far backs and compound backs. But I don’t consider paddling on one side only to be a Platonic virtue. Unlike some “freestyle” propaganda, I consider one-sided paddling to be a necessary but not sufficient canoeing skill.
More specifically, IMHO, there are times when alternating backstrokes with cross-reverse strokes is much more powerful, accurate and safe than one-sided back paddling. These occasions include situations where the current is angling from the rear quarter and you are constantly changing your back ferry angle to remain stationary, vis-a-vis the downstream current, while sliding back and forth above an obstruction.
A good example is when you are trying to decide where to run a 3’-4’ river-wide ledge, such as on the Tohickon. You can move laterally across the lip of the ledge with your bow hanging over if you have strong control over the back ferry angle and stroke. I find this maneuver to be much safer and controllable with the method I am advocating. Trying to angle ferry with only a one-sided back paddle stroke on the upstream side, and hence perhaps leaning upstream, in a strong, angling current is very dicey, to me. I can control the angle and vector the boat much better with a cross-reverse stroke on the downstream side while leaning downstream.
As a historical footnote and lamentation, the solo back ferry in WW, like the hook shot in basketball, is a highly effective but almost dead art. Hardly anyone does it. It’s just too easy to spin a micro-boat upstream and ferry that way. WW kayakers probably haven’t done it much since the “soft attack” style of Walt Blackadar.
Windmilling? Well, I didn’t mean you literally have to alternate every stroke. You alternate when you think stroking on the other side would give more velocity or better-quicker angle control.
So, tell me, Canoeist11, how do you get up the velocity to peel out of an off-side eddy? Do you paddle only on the upstream side? Do you not alternate forwards with cross-forwards, or vice versa. Well, maybe Jon Lugbill doesn’t; but I do.
I put “freestyle” in quotes because I think it is an artificial term, a term that suggests that the basics of freestyle canoeing are something different from the basics of regular canoeing. I think those basics are exactly the same–only the lingo is different–and I further think the basics are much better learned in moving water than flat water.
What is artificial about freestyle is the performance scoring system, which overly emphasizes exaggerated turns with railed boats, almost to the exclusion of all sorts of other real world canoeing maneuvers. This artificial scoring system has ended up affecting the design of competition boats and the core of the freestyle curriculum. I think this 20 year development has had pluses and minuses.
On the plus side, the turning strokes have become highly refined, well-described and very competently taught by a great cadre of freestyle instructors.
On the minus side, a bunch of frou-frou French pastry maneuvers have been developed that have little relation to real world canoeing in flat or moving water.
I include in the frou-frou category things like 180+ degree, slow motion turns. This may be a Holy Grail of stylized “freestyle” competition, but it is not necessary for competent canoeing. A lot of other things are far more important.
French pastry also includes coming up off the seat, high-kneel thrusts, pitching the boat, and transverse stations. These are technical niceties that are interesting to practice, but people do them mainly because they serve the artificial and exaggerated boat-turning performance rules. They are not necessary in real world canoeing situations, and could be downright dangerous in some.
In long, I am very encouraged when freestyle symposiums offer courses in addition to the core curriculum, and that Marc is apparently going to offer a moving water course at FFS.