All sideslips are stealth moves
on the onside. Not so for the offside.
Master the onside ones and that bag of yummy chocolates in someone elses boat is yours before they know it.
They are also a great way to get close to another boat to look at maps etc or to swap gear.
Sideslips on the river
Sorry guys - I seem to be about a week behind you on this thread. Lots of good stuff here, and its tough to keep up.
After reading the section on sideslips, I went back to some video that I made before Thanksgiving practicing ferries in some easy moving water. I thought I would see lots of examples of sideslips and cross sideslips. To my surprise - not so many. When I did, it really was to move the boat a smidgeon as described by pblanc. Here’s the video
http://www.vimeo.com/17351753
That would have been a perfect spot for a long sideslip right across the current. I guess I just didn’t think of it - next time I’ll try.
Its interesting to go back and watch the video after the fact. I do a lot more paddling than I would have thought, although its good practice for the cross forward. I use the bow draw more often than I would have thought - it seems to work, but probably wouldn’t in bigger water. I definitely don’t use sideslips as much as I would have thought – I’ll have to work on that.
This is a great thread - thanks.
Definitely agree with that
I may never execute a proper Christie or Wedge, but I’ll be a better paddler for trying.
Once you get the feel
for the maneuver, you can execute it without placing the blade against the hull. Helps to lock your shaft arm elbow against your side to stiffen the placement and transfer power effectively.
Placing the blade against the hull is the most efficient transfer of energy to move the canoe, but for those of us who are truly lazy this makes it a tiny bit easier to slice into whatever your next stroke will be.
One of the beautiful things about FS is that, when done properly, it allows the movement of the hull to appear effortless…and allows one to move in ANY direction without cross manuevers at all. Smoothness in stroke and manuever is the hallmark of an accomplished practical FS paddler.
By it’s restrictive rules, interpretive necessitates some starting and stopping. That should be corrected and I have long opposed many of the criteria for that competition, but that’s for another thread or board.
Prying SS vs Cross Drawing SS
It sounds like the prying side slip does the same thing as the cross drawing side slip. Since the prying SS doesn’t require you to cross over, why would one use the cross drawing SS?
Prying SS Photo
This photo shows nearly perfect form while executing a prying side slip. Ignore the fact that the paddler is not wearing a life jacket. I believe he was duly chastised for that transgression, some four or five years ago.
Note that the paddle shaft is perfectly vertical, with his grip hand stacked directly above his shaft hand. The side of opposition is slightly raised. In a functional setting, raising the side of opposition might not be a priority.
Marc Ornstein
For me
the static pry side slip is a heck of a lot trickier to execute than a static cross draw side slip, possibly because I don’t attempt it too often.
It also involves some of the same risks of stubbing the paddle blade on an obstacle in the shallows in moving water, and getting catapulted out of the boat, as was described for the wedge.
Not a lot of mention has been made in this thread about tandem freestyle technique, but a very nice side slip can be done by a good tandem team where the bow paddler uses an onside static pry and the stern paddler an onside (for the stern paddler) static draw, or vice verse.
It does
but if you think about where you are and what is coming up you may want to do a cross drawing side slip instead of a prying onside one.
If you see a tree snag coming up and you do a cross drawing sideslip and the tree gets way too close you have the option of doing cross draws and getting out of there quickly. Sometimes the slip just isnt enough.
But if you were doing a prying sideslip most of us have terrible weak actual pries and then we would have to cross the hull anyway to do a real cross draw. And the tree thunk us in the head in the meantime.
Useful for playing Chicken too! (NM)
Reverse Christie
– Last Updated: Dec-05-10 8:23 PM EST –
Reverse maneuvers have their uses. You've spun around in a river and need to back into and eddy to keep from going over the damn dam, etc. That said, the best use of the Reverse Christie is attracting other members of the species. As passing on small random biological variations to allow non-random survival of the more useful variations is our major contribution to the human condition, the Reverse Christie looms as a very important maneuver.
Like all reverse maneuvers, one needs have the hull running aft in a straight line; some sternway is helpful.
Inverting the paddle to load the powerface, this is only important with bent paddles, apply a Reverse J with enough Pushaway to initiate a reverse yaw couple, the bow now skidding offside as the hull is heeled onside. Palmroll to maintain continuity of powerface into a sweeping low brace, using almost imperceptible sweep to just keep rotational force of the horizontal paddleshaft on the hull.
Water is cresting just aft of the heeled down onside rail as the hull skids away offside. It is helpful to be smoking a cigar at this point, with a long ash drooping towards the wave across that onside rail. [There are those who would run a copper wire down the cigar to enhance theatrics, but it is shameful to be caught!]
Eventually rotation abates, the ash falls in the water, and we bring the top hand up as the blade comes abeam our body to conclude with a stern draw.
Most Freestyle skidded maneuvers are enhanced by rising to our knees or beyond, but not with the Reverse turns. Why not?
Pitch when heading the other way…
Adjusting pitch should surely be a consideration for pretty much any turning move ever made in any canoe… but I’ve yet to find a good way of adjusting it in the right direction for skidding the bows in reverse moves: maybe sending my daughter or dog to that end of the canoe would be an idea.
Getting up on one’s knees is clearly going to skeg the end that needs to skid: not good. On the other hand, you still gain from heeling that hull to the rail - if you can heel the boat to the rail by getting all one’s weight in one chine, and struggle to get that heel any other way, you might find that the gain from the heel would outweigh the loss from the less advantageous pitch.
If only my Bell-era Flashfire had a sliding seat as per the Swift Osprey…
As we bring that top hand
up we need to palm roll again to be in position to draw to the stern. If you’re practicing(meaning repeating the maneuver over and over)from the end of the stern draw, palm roll once more into a reverse stroke and keep the hull moving to set up for another reverse christie.
Response
Snowgoose, Stevet response
Snowgose got it! Rising off the seat pitched the bow down, but in reverse maneuvers the bow is skidding; pitching it down dampens the skid. Back in the day, Interpretive paddlers removed their seats to pitch reverse maneuvers leading stem, stern, down. This is an obvious issue when tripping.
I’m unsure about controlling seat location with a loose slider, but check out Colden’s new slider tracked side pods this spring!
I’m pretty sure we don’t need another palm roll. With a bent paddle we invert/ palm roll to start the Rev Christie loading the powerface. With a straight, we can load the backface no problem. Either way, we palm roll to maintain continuity of powerface through the J as it flops over to a Sweeping Low Brace. To conclude we bring the top hand up with force on the same powerface and draw to the stern to conclude. It doesn’t seem to need another palm roll, but I’ve been way wrong before.
The forward Christie definitely needs a palm roll to the conclusion, and, of course, there isn’t a Cross Christie. With forearms crossed we’ve lost the kick-out/J power to activate the maneuver.
Charlie and Stevet its time
to break some dinnerware.
Get the paddle out and to the kitchen. We dont want you busting your 46 inch TV.
The Reveres Christie has one palm roll.
Off to WalMart for more cheap glasses. I always practice off season FS in the kitchen. I got that tip from Mark Molina some time ago. Why its a tip is beyond me.
Cross Christie…
Hmmmm - someone had me doing Cross Christie’s from a normal stance half-way through my first visit at Kringelfieber - lesson 3, I believe! I did laugh at the idea of ever using it in anger on a river…
For completeness (so as not to mislead anyone) we should acknowledge that a Cross Christie is pretty straightforward from a transverse stance - though not as straightforward as the Reverse Cross Christie from that stance.
Practical / creeking freestyle? Not really, but fun on a sunny day when the water is warm 
SGS we are talking reverse
christie, not cross christie. Cross christie is the move most related to "how to turn yourself into a pretzel).
The reverse cross christie, amusingly is straightforward.
As the audience can see, directionality can be confusing especially with just the written word. It gets better on the water.
Talking at cross purposes…
I was responding to Charlie’s note that “there isn’t a Cross Christie” because “With forearms crossed we’ve lost the kick-out/J power to activate the maneuver” - though I prefer you’re explanation of it “the move most related to ‘how to turn yourself into a pretzel’”
We should probably get off the reverse cross christie though: straightforward it may well be, but novices sat in kitchens across America could wreak havoc this winter trying to work out the mechanics without first seeing a video!
Adjusting pitch on Reverse Moves
When I do reverse moves I often change to a sitting posture or nearly so with the backs of my knees tightly against the front of the seat, feet still beneath the seat. In a boat that has been trimmed for kneeling, this will actually pitch the stern down a bit.
Occasionally I’ll lean back as well. If my legs are still under the seat (as they usually are) you can actually pull up on the front rail of the seat with the backs of your knees, further transferring weight toward the stern.
The downside to all of this is that you’ve raised your center of gravity quite a bit, reducing stability.
Which of these elements you employ and to what extent depends upon conditions. In functional or creeking FS it will be limited. This clearly begins to blur the line between functional and interpretive FS.
Marc Ornstein
In whitewater boats
that are set up with neutral pedestal position in which your knees and thighs are securely strapped down, it is also possible to significantly load the stern for back ferries, back surfing, or reverse turns by leaning back and pulling up with the knees.
Good point
in FS we are free to move around, and lacking the leverage of thigh straps. Leaning back helps… and some of the truly small and creative do away with obstacles like thwarts… For the rest of us, that would probably deform the boat.