Another magical thing about sideslips…
… is that you can be a so-so paddler like I am yet inadvertently fool average paddlers into thinking you are exceptionally good. Sideslips aren’t just handy, they look really cool.
Paddle under the boat?
The goal, when traveling straight ahead (or backwards) is to keep the paddle blade as close to and parallel to the center line of the canoe. In an ideal world, there would be a slot along the keel line, through which we could paddle. This would eliminate the tendency of the hull to yaw (turn away from the paddle side).
Generally, keeping the paddle shaft vertical with the grip hand out over the gunnel and stroking straight back, close the the gunwale (but not following the curve of it)is about the best we can do. Occasionally one can reach the grip hand far enough across the gunwale that the paddle shaft goes beyond vertical, actually putting the blade beneath the hull. If this can be accomplished at the “catch” or beginning of the stroke, yaw can be reduced to near zero.
What I believe you have observed in the video is the conclusion of the post, ending with the blade slightly beneath the bow and the “catch” phase of the next forward stroke.
Axle vs Duffek
What is the difference between an Axle and the Duffek?
Agee
Most advanced paddlers want a knee in each chine. The Canadian stance, both knees in one chine, is appropriate to folks soloing a tandem cane and often used by FreeStyle Exhibition paddlers. That the latter may use the stance on rivers kinda begs the point, and compromises the concept of functional FreeStyle.
When to weight shift - and why!
Canoeists famously optimise hull shape (the hole in the water) through weight shifts. Question (to all): when and why should this be done?
Let’s stick with the axle…
- What’s the impact if we heel our canoe immediately after initiating a turn?
- What’s the consequence if we wait until we’re following the blade to the placement?
- How will our 2-point axle differ if we delay rising from our seat until mid-way through the placement?
Ps. If you’re most commonly in a Flashfire / Nakoma / Felicity… you may consider the answer to (1) to be “not a lot” - how does this commonly change with more of a “touring” hull, such as the Rapidfire, Keewaydin 14 or Magic?
Neutral slice vs. active blade…
Very much related to the weight shifts issue…
We can transition very quickly from initiation to placement in an axle… and that transition can be a “neutral slice” (blade doing nothing)…
…or we can dawdle through that phase …and open the face fractionally throughout the slice… maintaining an “active blade” throughout the transition.
What’s the impact of doing one rather than the other?
Duffek is actually the term for a stroke
which is generally described as a static paddle placement(i.e. hanging high brace) to enable a quick pivot turn; named after Milosek Duffek, a Czech slalom canoeist. Some refer to it also in that it morphs into a bow draw. Developed for peeling out and getting into eddies. The FreeStyle community came up with the term “axle” to describe one type of on-side turning maneuver, which include a number of components: an initiation, static(usually) paddle placement-hanging high brace or duffek, boat pitch-forward, heel-onside, and a conclusion-bow draw.
The axle is also a pivot turn.
I’m afraid we may be drifting
away from functional FS and into the realm of exhibition/interpretive FS. None the less, the boundaries are blurry and there are functional aspects to these questions.
I like to make all movements smooth and consistent. I think that translates to efficiency. As such, I try not to break maneuvers down into individual steps or components.
The degree of heel and pitch and how soon it is initiated is determined by the severity of the turn required, the length and the rocker of the hull. A short moderately rockered hull will require less heel and pitch than a long hull of minimal rocker. Likewise, if the required turn is minimal, so too is the heel and pitch required.
As a general rule, I tend to begin the heel while I’m initiating the turn. I increase the heel a bit more as I slice forward and reach maximum heel shortly after placement.
As for pitch, if I’m going to, I tend to come up on my knees, as I’m slicing forward. It helps me to get to the placement easily and by combining the two motions, less bobble is introduced.
As for a neutral slice and opening the blade after placement, vs. opening the blade “fractionally” during the slice, I come down strongly on the side of a neutral slice. Any setting of blade angle throughout the slice will result in stern drawing, side slipping or simply introducing drag. Unless I intentionally want to side slip (drawing) during the slice, I stay neutral.
Having addressed these questions, I think we do a disservice to the intent of this thread when we get this far afield of the basics. Perhaps such discussions would be better saved for another discussion.
Depends on my hull
If I am touring with a full camping load an initiation is going to be ineffective with flat boat and stuck stern.
I tend to heel the boat over before the initiation so that the stern is loosened and a turn can actually happen.
If you are on the river with a highly rockered boat this may not matter at all but for me on a trip trying to get as close to a dry portage landing I tend to heel before the hard J of an axle.
Otherwise the initiation just does not work.
Have to admit…
I do have a little trouble with the terminology sometimes. Heal is side-to-side lean. Pitch is front-to-back lean. Active blade is an in-water recovery with the power face open so it is drawing the bow over? it’s obvious to folks who do it all the time, but maybe not to the rest of us.
I definitely think that there is a difference between true “freestyle”, which I see as turning the boat in still water with just the paddle (and boat lean), and more functional freestyle where you are using the same or similar moves to maneuver in moving water. In freestyle you have complete control over the execution of the turn - when to execute the turn, when and which side to lean, how long you want the turn to continue.
In more functional freestyle, you have less control since you have to follow the course of the river or stream, and you have to deal with the effects of current and other obstructions. Paddle placement and boat lean is no longer an academic exercise - what you do next is determined mostly by where you are and where you need to go. If you do it wrong, you will find out immediately by crashing into the bank or spinning out somewhere that you done’t want to be.
So I guess I agree with Marc - while there is a benefit to detailed understanding of the intricacies of each of these moves, I am more interested in the practical application of how and when it can be used on the river.
This is a great discussion and I hope that we keep it going.
FF is not for me a river thing
There are far more lakes than rivers on my trips. But there are portages and there are obstacles between clear water and portage landings.
My use of functional Freestyle is in a different context: flatwater, with wind, with immovable obstructions… Sometimes but not always current. Almost all the time there is gear for one to two weeks in the boat.
And the boat is probably not a maneuverable river boat, but a straighter keeled solo tripping boat.
Whatever the context, and as you see there can be several, the aim is to get efficiently around the obstacle exactly where you want to get around the obstacle.
Unlike Lab FreeStyle ( in the absence of a better word) where the turn can happen most anywhere and for some that anywhere can depend on the music…or how much thinking the paddler has to do to keep the steps of initiation ( getting the stern to skid) placement ( how much extra turning force you want for how long) and conclusion ( if any is needed. In Lab FS there is a conclusion)
Heel and pitch come later after paddle placement work and are always under development; they evolve to some extent on their own.
Remember… Paddler is always parallel to standing tree trunks despite whatever wonky thing the boat is doing…
Even in the runner up photo on P net this week… I don’t teach standup FreeStyle It helps to be young and unafraid.
Erik , You make some good points.
– Last Updated: Nov-27-14 11:49 AM EST –
I'd like to elaborate on them.
Kayamedic was apparently responding to Erik at the same time I was. She hit the send button first so there is a bit of overlap in our comments.
An "active blade is an in water recovery with the power face open so that it is drawing the bow over".
The power face can be open or closed. When open, it will draw the bow over, if the face is opened after the blade is forward of the center of rotation. If the face is closed, it will pry the bow away from the on side if done after the blade has passed the center of rotation. An active blade (open or closed face) can also induce a side slip, during the recovery. Using it to induce a side slip during the recovery is a bit trickier, as the blade angle will have to be set during the slice forward, a bit before reaching the center of rotation and held until the blade is a bit forward of the center of rotation. This is a balancing act, necessary to avoid rotation of the hull. I submit that describing these intricacies is difficult. They are more readily demonstrated, on the water.
I threw out a new term "center of rotation". I couldn't devise a way to describe what we were discussing without it.
Every canoe (any boat for that matter) has a center of rotation. It is that pivot point upon which the hull turns, left or right. For most solo canoes, it is near or a bit forward of the paddler's knee (assuming a kneeling paddler). Hull shape, seat location, whether the hull is pitched or not and other factors may alter that spot. In a tandem canoe, the center of rotation will be near the center of the hull, subject to some of the same variables.
We generally break freestyle down into functional and interpretive. Interpretive is generally done on flat water, often with routines that are choreographed to music. Functional can be on flat water or moving water with the emphasis on "getting someplace". On flat water that may mean maneuvering around the coves and vegitation surrounding a pond or dealing with the wind on an open lake. On a moving stream, we add the various currents, twists and turns. On a stream, one needs to take those variables into account, so as to maintain control.
Learning the How and When
it can be used is part of the flat water “exercises”. We do those maneuvers over and over in a controlled environment and gradually we begin to “feel” the effects of our actions on the boat.
85dragonfly talks about a two way conversation between you and your boat. Throw in current and the boat has a reaction, or a voice in the conversation. From your flat water training you instinctively know what you need to do to keep your boat on course. It takes practice in current, just like it does on flat water, but you pick it up pretty quickly if you have paid attention to what happens when you do the exercises.
It’s a Five way conversation
between me, my boat, my paddle, the water(current and/or waves), and the wind.
conversation
Amen Tommy - the boat “speaks” to you in its reactions to all forces upon it here and now, of which one’s own actions are but a part. As mentioned somewhere above in reference to paddling being in one sense an “ongoing conversation”, it’s about being both a good communicator AND a good listener. It’s about holding up your end of that conversation. And to Tim’s point, sometimes one just needs to feel how that conversation’s going at any particular point, and adjust on the fly…like any good conversation, there can be more than one ball in the air. Just one way to look at it, think of it, is all…
Practicing a physical skill
usually involves recognizing cognitive vs. mechanical skills. For this purpose let’s think of mechanical skills as the “How to” and cognitive skills as the “What and when”. Traditional FS as done on completely still waters is the purest form of boat, body, and blade interaction. It is a ballet in which the juxtaposition of these three things by the paddler, at any given moment will determine the efficiency of a given maneuver. In this context, FS maneuvers when done on still water are very mechanically based, and cognitive skills will grow in importance as current, obstacles, wind, etc. increase.
In summary, I would define “Functional FS” as traditional FS, with more cognitive skills entering more and more into the mix in proportion to the increase in outside variables.
Conversation
Well i certainly agree with Tim ,Tommy and you Bruce. I’m an instinctive paddler with freestlye influences. The last three posts really sum it up for me !! This is a great conversation Marc !
Functional Freestyle on Rivers
When I first got into Freestyle I was surprised at how much of it paralleled the whitewater techniques I’d been taught by Tom Foster and his disciples.
Paddling up to class III I often use sideslips and axles. Posts and Jams can be risky, but in the right situation they are useful. Shifting my weight fore and aft is likely more valuable in current then it is on quiet water. No I don’t come up off of my saddle like I might on the pond but in a shorter more rockered hull that really isn’t needed.
All tools in the quiver. The more you got the better.
WW paddlers and FreeStyle
the tempo difference. People that come in with a WW background sometimes need a tranquilizing agent.
But… the good thing with this slow tempoed stuff is that one learns to make each paddle maneuver count. That translates to powerful strokes on the river and not a lot of aimless batting.
Good Point
I know my interest in precision boat control started when I began paddling the flooded glades that formed when the Connecticut river flooded. I seemed to control the boat just fine in open water, those trees taught me otherwise!