well said… nm
Body Position
I notice at the very beginning of the video that the paddler appears to be off the seat and up on his knees. I assume there is a reason for that.
switching
Sorry, I don’t.
Moves weight forward
Going up on your knees in effect moves your weight forward in the boat. That decreases weight in the back which allows the boat to turn a little more quickly (because there is less resistance on the stern). On tight streams you don’t always have a lot of room to turn, so “speeding” up the turn can be helpful. We call it pitching, and can be done forward or back. Not sure if Marc wants to throw in a lot terms just yet.
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These Strokes Are Applicable In Kayaking
And work just as well with SUPs too. The strokes just occur automatically when using a double bladed paddle. I occasionally use a wet recovery, with a wing paddle, while paddling my surfski. Messing around is very beneficial.
@3:49 of first video
Really enjoyed the videos. The sequence starting at 3:49 was pure magic.
Thanks!
Messing around
I do a lot of “messing around”, on a small pond behind my house, local parks etc. I’ll tinker with paddle placement, angle or some other aspect and see just how the hull responds. I’ll experiment to see if the hull turns faster or slower. Does the hull rotate further or less before stalling? Is there more or less turbulence in the water (a sure sign of inefficiency)? Can I do something other than the “standard” initiation
(or conclusion) to begin a turn? There is no end to the “messing around” that you can do and it all teaches you something.
More on pitching
– Last Updated: Nov-18-14 3:06 PM EST –
The video and a slow motion version of it, linked below, show pitching of the canoe, while doing an axle similar to the one in the original video. When paddling rivers and streams I don't generally heel the canoe quite so much as in this clip.
You'll also notice that I have both knees tucked into the onside gunwale. I find this makes it easier to heel the boat, without straining to put weight on one knee and not the other. It also places my entire body closer to the paddle side, making it easier to maintain an erect posture and a vertical paddle. Not everyone uses this position, but it works for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsKiA4CSQnY&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB_MTz5ud3c&feature=youtu.be
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Side slips are magical
They are my most used moves (other than forward strokes) when paddling technical streams. I hope to address them in the coming weeks, as this thread continues. I appreciate your comment though I have to admit, the dramatic appearance of this pair of side slips is a bit exaggerated by the camera/lens.
I agree…sometimes on a technical
stream with a slight current you can travel a long ways just with combining drawing or prying sideslips and a few turning maneuvers, with some of the maneuvers initiated with a just slight boat heel or pitch; no forward strokes required. A very relaxing and enjoyable way to paddle…
Really appreciate
this thread as I have much to learn about the single blade coming from a kayaking background. Thanks, Randy
Thank You!
– Last Updated: Nov-19-14 4:47 AM EST –
Very nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aifSjuyeE5M
How About A More Lively Pond?
Maybe like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr2fi4NBUGc
For everyday functionality? Watch the wahine go backwards…
That video contains some fine examples
of open boat whitewater skills, including the reverse maneuvers you mentioned. What is interesting, relative to this discussion, is that in almost every case, the whitewater paddlers are letting the moving water, generally the differential currents, turn their boats. They use their paddles to provide forward or reverse propulsion and guidance.
Many kayakers have noted that they
do the same sort of stuff. I am way better at FS with a single but its fun with a double too.
Kayakers learn fairly early the advantages/ uses of edging…
There is more that is alike than not alike!
What’s a “skill” in canoeing?
So you want to become a more accomplished canoeist. What’s that entail? How might you go about it? Where might “Freestyle” fit in? Lots will depend on why you want to go canoeing, and on what you want to get out of it… but answers are likely to have at least two dimensions:
- Having the understanding and judgement needed to be independent in your preferred environment;
- Having the boating skills to back this up;
With goals set, some would have us analyse “needs”, perhaps breaking these down into the “tactical, technical, physical and psychological”. That’s great… but what then? How do we practice so that we end up embedding long term gains?
Key thing: Freestyle offers anything from a great answer… to a dreadful answer - and we really do need to avoid one thing: working on ability to consistently reproduce a move such as “my axle” - especially (as is often the temptation) in “laboratory conditions”.
Why? Look up “transfer Gap” in the coaching literature. Blocked practice of an artificially constrained movement pattern is NOT skill acquisition… and can actually do more harm than good!
So how / what DO we practice? Well… start with individual constraints.
Can you make weight shifts in your boat with confidence, adjusting how the hull interacts with the water? Can you link to the blade in ways that optimise your use of momentum? Is your power transfer efficient? Keep varying how your boat-body-blade system interacts with the water… as anyone who can develop such skills will do a passable axle at the first or second attempt!
Next, look at task constraints. Can you carve a wide arc and then tighten it into a skid, with the canoe’s remaining momentum carrying you back the way you came? Can you also tighten that carve and get the skid started earlier to reverse the boat but maintain momentum in your original direction? You’ll get less consistent results but will develop much better “feel” for what you are doing if you consistently VARY the task.
Finally, look at environmental constraints. Can you manage an axle with a headwind? How about with a tailwind, with a gentle swell pushing at the boat? Can you adjust, without conscious effort, to get consistent results? A canoeist’s skill lies in being accomplished in a dynamic environment… so unless you’ve good reason to take a time-out… keep varying the environment!
Crucially… can you perform one type of axle very effectively, then perform another move, and then perform a quite different axle? Can you manage this in the midst of a change of context (wind and wave direction, different current pattern in your stream, change in obstacle, whatever)? Embed learning through randomised practice in a dynamic environment
I make good use of Freestyle manoeuvres in all of my coaching. Through manoeuvres, students find our more about their own hull… and about how THEY like to make use of its characteristics… and about THEIR preferred ways of linking to the water through the paddle. Students develop their own STYLE of handling their craft. I may even do this in the midst of river-canoeing coaching.
Am I ever coaching people who want to “do Freestyle”? Almost never - but along the way, most of them become pretty accomplished at Freestyle moves - and I’ve never met a half-decent canoeist who can’t have a passable crack at ANY Freestyle move within a matter of minutes
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This is all very true
but remember that the “Laboratory” is only the beginning.
You do have to learn to walk before running and have time to discern when running is unwise.
It’s easier to regard this thread as a beginning and not an end. I will say personally I will never be fine with doing FS in four foot chop from wakeboard boats as is often found on my lake. Perhaps that labels me as less skilled from an evaluative metric even though I have been teaching for fifteen years. For me I know when to go and when to fold…
The variations come with stick time on the water. For this reason I have observed that the stick and the craft might not matter. Kayakers tend to catch on really quick if they have the desire.
Well said
– Last Updated: Nov-19-14 10:56 AM EST –
The concept behind "functional freestyle" is to take the skills/techniques out of the laboratory environment.
The 1st time I ran a functional fs class, I had an eye opening experience. There were several participants who I had known for some but only in the controlled environment of a quiet pond or lake. I thought they had pretty good skills. Immediately upon entering the new environment (a slow moving, winding stream with some modest dead fall extending from the bank). I realized how limited their skills were. Forward strokes fell apart, as soon as we headed up stream. Some immediately resorted to a sloppy hit and switch routine. Turning was suddenly relegated to mediocre sweeps, or reverse sweeps. I could go on. There was clearly a need to bring these skills into focus as part of our general paddling repertoire. We've been searching (with some success)for and used suitable venues, within close driving range of our existing symposia. We have located a good venue near the the Adirondack Symposium site and will use it next summer.
Recently we explored the concept of creating a new symposium, to be located in the midst of a great venue, the New Jersey Pine Barrens. My good friend Tim Burris took on the task. He located several suitable sites on which to base the symposium. After reviewing and visiting those sites with several of us, one was selected, a date arranged and papers signed. Thus was the creation of the Pine Barrens Canoe Symposium to be held Oct. 16-18 2015. More information is or will shortly be posted on the freestyle website, www.freestylecanoeing.com.
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In some ways the creeking approach
is a reinvention of the wheel.
FreeStyle did not come out of the blue. It came from a tripping heritage with the aim to make tripping less labor intensive and more efficient. I do believe the music came later.
Back in the '80s and early '90s a slalom course was integral to improving paddler techniques. You had to avoid the buoys. They were representations of hard immovable objects and the radii of turns had to vary.
I think in order to make the whole curriculum more user friendly we erred in giving people too much room. I have seen many a paddler also who can do a manuever on a pond free of “stuff” … Tell them to do a maneuver around an object ( or buoy ) and they literally flail. Part of that no doubt is psychological.
I was taught to backcountry ski by focusing on the space between trees. Not the trees. I suspect that paddlers focus on the object. That practically guarantees an error.
Wisconsin Canoe Symposium
– Last Updated: Nov-19-14 2:52 PM EST –
Apparently I spoke a bit too soon. My good friends Tracy and Paul have been on the same quest as Tim, looking for a suitable venue, where "Functional Freestyle" would be a significant part of the event. They have been looking for a site in the upper mid west and have found one. Those of you from the central and upper midwest, no longer have an excuse that "it's too far".
The Wisconsin Canoe Symposium will be held from June 19 -21 at Pine Lake Camp in Westfield, about 60 miles north of Madison. The details are currently posted on the FS website, http://www.freestylecanoeing.com.