Over Christmas my wife and I were near Hendersonville, NC, where my wife grew up, visiting her folks. My father-in-law has a tandem canoe, that we have used when visiting, to do short runs down the French Broad River. This past Christmas, we were speaking to a very nice gentleman in a clothing store as we were just po-dunkin around downtown Hendersonville, and found ourselves next to a display of Tilley hats. I ended up trying a couple on, and my wife said I looked very handsome…so step one complete - I own a Tilley hat.
We’re both fairly skilled in a kayak, and that seemed to transfer very well in terms of blade angle control with a canoe paddle. We both have found it quite enjoyable. So I’ve had an eye open locally for a solo canoe. Walking about looking handsome-to-my-wife in a Tilley, I somehow felt I should start looking a little more regularly. Well last Saturday, after racing 4 miles in my sea kayak against a bunch of paddleboards and an OC1, followed by a 4 mile run down the beach in a local paddle/run biathlon, I decided to make a call and take a look at a solo canoe. I picked up a beautiful strip-built John Winters Osprey (the easy way - a gentleman seemed to have done a very fine job of building, even showed pictures of the building in process, but said it was just collecting dust in his shed.) I gave it a little test paddle, and fairly quickly came to the conclusion that I just really wouldn’t know one solo canoe from another. I have never paddled a solo canoe. It felt very maneuverable, controllable, but I also recognized my own clumsiness in this new-to-me craft. I pulled the trigger, and I hope I’ve made a good decision. It’s certainly beautiful aesthetically, and it seems there are those out there that like the design - assuming this one was executed properly.
I borrowed the seller’s paddle to test it, but being a gift from his wife, and him being an owner of other canoes, he needed to hold onto it. I ordered a 58" Bending Branches Espresso plus, which arrived yesterday evening, just in time for the weekend. I got out on the water this morning, and the paddle feels quite nice to my hands, inexperienced with a single-blade as they may be.
So I’ve got my introductory solo-canoeing package, complete with a Tilley hat (not sure why that matters?..Oh yeah, my lovely wife says I look handsome in it!), out on a little lake this morning. I watched some short forward stroke videos last night, and kept the things I picked up in mind. And this brings me to the J stroke question.
From what I saw, during the J-stroke, you turn the power-face of the blade to face away from the hull at the end of the stroke. From what I saw in videos, and what I experienced this morning, this brings about quite the wrist action. I’ve spent countless hours in kayaks trying to eliminate any wrist bending, and I’m not seeing how this J-stroke is done without pretty excessive wrist movement. I could see where it had a nice feel feathering back to a planing angle and up out of the water, but I’m uncomfortable with what I was doing with my wrists. I think one video called turning the power face to face towards your hull at the end of the stroke a “uni” stroke? This certainly felt more ergonomical to me the first time out. But I was really trying to work out a proper J-stroke.
So I’m wondering if I’m misunderstanding the mechanics of the J-stroke, or perhaps misunderstanding the extent of use of it?
Congrats on your Osprey. I love my Osprey. Ospreys are exceptionally responsive to paddle inputs.
Try playing around with a bow draw stroke…preferably on a quiet pond with the boat at a standstill. See how you can easily plant the paddle ahead of the front thwart and pull the boat towards your paddle (push water sideways towards the bow of the boat). With a little practice you can paddle in circles with the boat turning towards the side of your paddle. The key is short strokes that never go behind your knee.
With that background I think a good j-stroke is really a c-stroke. It starts by planting your paddle so that the power face is slanted slightly towards the boat…that creates a gentle bow draw…then by the end of your stroke only a gentle correction is required. In reality the steering correction is happening throughout the stroke and not just at the end…like a C.
Congrats on the the solo boat - you will love it. For a good high-level overview of solo canoeing I recommend Cliff Jacobson’s Basic Essentials Solo Canoeing
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Essentials-Solo-Canoeing-Essentials/dp/0762705248
It has a little bit of everything - sit and switch, river paddling, freestyle. Not a lot of detail, but a good overview.
In a solo boat, the “J” stroke becomes a “C” stroke with a slight bow draw, the power stroke and slight stern pry at the end. It is done as one continuous stroke and the paddle follows the shape of a “C” - hence the name. That’s not to say you can’t do the traditional “J” stroke (thumb of control hand pointed down), or even the stern pry or goon (“uni”) stroke (thumb of control hand pointed up).
There can be a fair amount of wrist motion in the “J” or “C” stroke - especially if you are starting the boat from a dead stop or initiating a turn. Once the boat gets moving, it shouldn’t take more than a slight roll of the wrist to keep the boat going straight.
Like anything, practice makes perfect.
You have it pretty much correct. You did not say whether your Bending Branches Espresso Plus was a straight shaft or bent shaft paddle. Judging from its length, I would assume it is a straight shaft. The J stroke can be done with either but the motion is a bit different.
The John Winters-designed Osprey is a very fine solo canoe which should serve you well. As you undoubtedly know, with a single bladed paddle making strokes on only one side of the boat, the boat will want to turn away from your paddling side without a stroke on the opposite side to counterbalance the turning effect. And in a solo canoe, there is no second paddler to help mitigate the turning effect. So you need to either keep switching sides, or use some type of a combined power stroke/correction stroke.
Marathon canoe racers simply switch paddling sides every few strokes, a technique that has been called “sit and switch”, “hit and switch”, the “hut stroke” (for tandem paddlers), or the North American Touring Technique. This is actually the fastest way to paddle as it eliminates all correction strokes, and any correction stroke will tend to reduce stroke cadence or reduce the effectiveness of the power phase of the stroke. Most paddlers find the sit and switch technique is most effective using a shorter, bent shaft paddle.
Conventional paddling technique where the paddle is kept on one side of the boat can be done using a variety of power stroke/correction stroke combinations of which the J stroke is probably the most popular. Some other variations are the pitch stroke, the Canadian stroke, and the C stroke. The J stroke requires requires the grip hand thumb to be turned downward nearing the conclusion of the stroke, loading the power face of the paddle by executing a short “hook” of the paddle away from the boat just before the recovery. This can put a bit of strain on the grip hand wrist as the thumb turns down. The paddle shaft can be allowed to rotate loosely in the shaft hand, so that there is less or no need to rotate that wrist. The closer to the stern of the boat the correction is applied, the more effective it will be because it will exert leverage farther from the longitudinal pivot point of the canoe.
An alternative to the J stroke is what Bill Mason derided as the “goon stroke” years ago. This has also been called the “modern J stroke”, the “river J stroke”, and the “thumbs-up J stroke”. In this combination after the power phase of the stroke is completed around or before the paddle face reaches your hip, the blade is feathered to a neutral position in which the paddle face is vertical to the water and aligned with the long axis of the hull, with the power face facing the hull and the grip hand thumb pointing up. The paddle blade is carried back in this position to the stern of the boat and a “stern pry” is executed with a quick loading of the non-power face of the paddle outward away from the hull.
The J stroke is a bit smoother than the power stroke/stern pry combo and when mastered it feels a bit more relaxed, but the stern pry correction is much more powerful than the J stroke correction. Whitewater paddlers tend to favor the stern pry for that reason. I have known flat water touring paddlers who never felt comfortable with the J stroke who used the thumbs-up J stroke routinely, and it did not seem to significantly reduce their efficiency. So you might try experimenting with it.
With either the J stroke or the thumbs-up J, you want to keep the paddle close to the hull during the correction phase, Ideally, it should not stray more than 6 inches from the hull. If carried further forward, it starts becoming a reverse sweep, which will turn you very effectively back toward your paddle side, but kill your momentum badly. As with the J stroke, the further astern of your paddling position the correction is applied, the more effective it will be. But it also takes time for the paddle blade to get back there, so either stroke will greatly reduce your stroke cadence. The trick to going fast is to take more strokes per minute, so racers abandon the correction phase which allows them to take nearly two power strokes in the time it would take to do one J stroke or one thumb’s-up J.
There are some things you can do during your power phase that will increase your efficiency and reduce the tendency of the hull to turn away from your paddling side. When executing the power phase, you want the paddle shaft as vertical as reasonably possible. Get your grip hand out over the water and try to keep the paddle blade as close to the hull at the center of the stroke as possible. If you drop your grip hand too much and allow the paddle shaft to resemble a kayak paddle shaft during a low angle forward stroke, you will start to introduce a lot of forward sweep into your stroke which will increase the tendency of the boat to turn to the opposite side. But you want your paddle excursion during the power phase to be parallel to the long axis of the hull. Do not follow a curved path paralleling the sheer line of the hull as that will also increase the tendency of the boat to turn away. Try to get good forward extension on your paddle as you plant the blade and take the load off the power face before it reaches your hip, even if you allow the blade to drift feathered or unloaded further astern for your correction. The further forward you can keep the excursion of your power stroke, the less tendency it will have to turn the boat. As the canoe hull moves through the water, the longitudinal pivot point actually moves well-forward of center.
Others have thoroughly covered the mechanics, I’d just like to chime in and suggest it is common for paddlers new to the single blade to complain that the wrist twisting required is not comfortable. It seems that over time most people adjust to it and after some experience accept that the J or at least turning the power face away from the hull near the end of the stroke is the most fluid way of dealing with the yaw while setting up for the next stroke.
Peter
Okay, first, let’s cover the most important thing. The reason it’s important to wear a Tilley hat is because they are made in Canada, where modern canoeing is practiced in its purest form. Even Bill Mason wore a Tilley hat, so nothing more needs to be said.
Now, the stuff about the J-stroke is of minimal importance in comparison to wearing the proper hat, but I can offer a few comments. I’ll also mention that the stuff which Pete described about paddle orientation and path of power application is something that many people, including many so-called experts, haven’t really thought about, but it’s critically important.
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Yes, there’s a lot of wrist-bending going on at the end of the J-stroke, but that can be reduced and made easier by avoiding a death grip with your top hand. The top knob of the shaft mainly needs to press against the heel of your hand and you can rotate the orientation of it within the palm of your hand to further relax the wrist motion. There will be times you need to grip more tightly and thus wrist action is more pronounced, but in time, you get used to it.
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I find that what’s far more difficult than bending the wrist of my top hand is creating outward pressure on the paddle shaft with my lower hand during the correction phase but without changing the orientation of my forearm to a position more conducive to pushing (if you don’t change the position of your forearm, it works more like a cantilever than a pillar, and for me, that’s more stressful). That’s more of an issue for me than for many people because I am of very slight build, and I’m not nearly as rugged in the arms as most guys are. To totally eliminate that problem, I let the heel of my lower hand come into light contact with the gunwale, and even let it slide a bit on the gunwale as necessary for that part of the stroke (that’s the reason I wear light gloves too - it lets the hand slide freely when necessary without vinyl burn (that’s similar to rug burn but it can happen at much slower sliding speeds)). Many people just let the shaft of the paddle bump against the gunwale as an even easier method of accomplishing the same thing. That’s the method that was used by Bill Mason, and since he wore a Tilley hat I believe the method has merit, but I found that prying a round-shaped paddle shaft against square-shaped vinyl gunwales puts a zillion dents in the wood, so I came up with the method of letting the heel of my hand rest lightly against the gunwale instead. I’ll reiterate that it only takes light hand contact with the gunwale to accomplish what’s needed.
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About 98 percent of the people you see doing a J-stroke actually let the paddle drag like a rudder for a moment, or for about two seconds in more extreme cases. That’s the easiest way to do it and there are videos on YouTube of “experts” doing it that way, but I consider it wrong, and so did Tilley-hat-wearing Bill Mason. Instead, learn to give the blade angle just a little flip toward the end of the stroke and then make your recovery happen right away, without letting the correction phase reduce your cadence by a noticeable amount. Those who say that the J-stroke is slow (that includes a couple of longtime posters here) are simply doing it wrong, and letting the time spent dragging their paddle reduce their cadence. This is one of the advantages the J-stroke has over that other method that you found more ergonomic. It reduces how much time must be devoted to the correction phase. Still, as pointed out by Pete, that other stroke (stern pry, goon stroke, etc.) is better when you need a stronger correction, and sit-and-switch paddling allows a faster cadence, since even in a well-executed J-stroke, the time needed for correction is reduced but never eliminated.
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What feels awkward and inefficient right now will get better, but it takes a while. You have the advantage of an intuitive understanding of blade angle and motion, which a lot of people don’t already have when first learning the J. I dare say I had a decent understanding of blade action when I took up solo canoeing, but it still took me at least two seasons of frequent practice to reach the point where the J-stroke wasn’t slowing me down or feeling awkward in some way. Once I got the hang of it, I could paddle a loose-tracking canoe without thinking, altering all phases of the stroke (not just the correction) in subtle ways to counteract what the squirrely boat wanted to do before it even had time for its unpredictable wanderings to take effect. That’s a very satisfying thing about single-blade paddling, when applying super-detailed control of the boat means that no individual stroke is exactly the same as the one that came before or the one that comes next, and it all happens without thought on your part. On a harder-tracking boat you won’t be forced to reach that level of control, but you’ll know it when you get there just the same. Just realize that it’s okay if you don’t get there as soon as you had hoped.
I bought one Tilley. I wore out two. I’m on the third. The guarantee is a real thing.
Thank you! I really appreciate the input from everyone.
I bought a straight shaft paddle. I find myself desiring to work at control and maneuvering, kind of a playful approach to start out. It seemed like sticking with a straight shaft might be the way to go with that in mind.
This gives me a lot to think about and play around with the next few times. I’ll keep reminding myself of my progression in a sea kayak, and that should help keep me patient as far as deliberate actions becoming something I don’t need to think about anymore. I’m sure everything will need to be deliberate for quite some time to come. I really enjoy this discovery phase though, so that should help.
I’ve never been called handsome in my Tilley( 2nd one) but I don’t get a sunburned head).
Read carefully what Pete and GBGuy have written above. Keep your paddle shaft as vertical to the water as possible when effecting any forward power stroke. I am one of those ultra long distance marathon race paddlers who uses (must use) the hit and switch technique when competing. However, when not racing, or even when just getting out on the water when training solo sometimes, and certainly when recreational paddling, I do not use hit and switch. It is just not as fun as other strokes. A proper J-stroke is always the primary enjoyable forward stroke, along with its variants. I don’t see the “C” as an actual J at all, but they are related and used differently. That’s the thing about the J, once you get comfortable with it, there are many strokes that can easily evolve from it. I tend to use the pitch stroke as much as any for normal fast straight line cruising. The pitch is essentially an early twist of the paddle leading to the J. No need to carry the paddle past the power phase at the hip. Do it right and there is no need to linger at all at the end of the stroke applying final ruddering pressure in a goon or in a standard full J.
Other than the pitch stroke, I most often morph the J into a Canadian stroke during the recovery phase, a very relaxing and pleasant feeling stroke. Essentially a very elongated application of the J, angle the forward edge of the blade down ( power face up toward the sky) while the blade is carried forward underwater during the recovery, time underwater, amount of angle and of pressure applied determines the amount of directional correction to the canoe.
How tall are you? I fear a 58 inch may be a little long and if so would contribute to wrist twist discomfort. I have some long paddles that I bought 40 years ago when those were the advice. Since then the trend is to go shorter. Although a long paddle will make ruddering easier, as force would be applied further from the canoe pivot point, the right size paddle will make accomplishing the J much easier and far more comfortable. In any case, your lower hand on the paddle should not twist the wrist, only the upper grip hand twists to thumb down. A loose hold of the shaft with the lower hand should allow the paddle to rotate during the J. Keep in mind that you are only rotating the grip wrist, you do not need to awkwardly drop the wrist at an uncomfortable and potentially damaging angle. New paddler painful tendonitis is common with improper technique. It does take some conditioning and practice to do right.
When using various strokes to move or turn, I tend to look at it like riding a bike. When you see a pothole coming before you in the road, do you need to actively think in detail about how to avoid it? Probably not, you simply do what is needed without any thought at all. The same happens when canoeing and you have a number of available strokes in your skill set. You simply use your body and your paddle to do what is necessary to employ the stroke that will get the job done without any thought at all. The J is the stroke that most easily allows you to go from applying one kind of force to another with a variety of blended strokes. If you are locked into a goon stroke position, then bringing the paddle to an effective necessary correction power position can be awkward and complicated, and makes you look like a noob.
I thought I’d add one thing after reading yknpdlr’s statement about not using the lower hand to twist the shaft. Of course he is right about that. In my post, where I said you could let the top knob of the paddle pivot within the palm of your hand to reduce the amount of wrist motion, I was not implying that the lower hand rotates the shaft to make that happen. What I do is hard to describe. I just alter the shape of the palm of my upper hand so that the top knob of the paddle shaft naturally rotates a little bit, and yes, the shaft of the paddle spins within the loose grip of the lower hand. Since it’s hard to describe, I’d say that for now, keep things simple and accomplish all of the paddle-shaft rotation with twist of the wrist of your top hand. You’ll probably figure out how to get the same amount of paddle twist from a slightly smaller amount of wrist motion as time goes on.
agree that with time you’ll minimize the wrist movement of the grip hand. Ditched the J stroke long ago in favor of the pitch stroke. Instead of thinking of the thumb rotating down, think of it rotating out (away from the boat) just before the paddle exits the water. Think of feathering your paddle and catching a bit of water at the bottom of blade as it exits the water. I’m sure there are some good videos out there that would help.
One way to reduce the wrist movement by “J” stroke is to get a “double bladed” canoe paddle. (It looks a lot like a kayak paddle) The blades are flat not spoon shaped. My solo canoe friends use them. They also use them in the 9 ft length range. Of course we, they , don’t do white water and all that down here in the flat land.
Track down Functional Freestyle Canoeing to get a feel for the subtleties of solo (or tandem) canoeing. There is a performance side of freestyle that may not be for everybody however the skills are very valuable. Marc Ornstein used to hang out on p-net although I’m not sure if I’ve seen him since it became p-com. here is a group doing small stream work in the Pine Barrens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xpkibUY1X4
@Overstreet said:
One way to reduce the wrist movement by “J” stroke is to get a “double bladed” canoe paddle. (It looks a lot like a kayak paddle) The blades are flat not spoon shaped. My solo canoe friends use them. They also use them in the 9 ft length range. Of course we, they , don’t do white water and all that down here in the flat land.
I hope you are joking. While it’s true that a lot of people choose to do it this way, and there can even be reasons for a skilled paddler to occasionally pick up a double-blade, the OP has expressed an interest in learning a complex and immensely rewarding skill, and that will never happen if he shortcuts the process by sticking with a double-blade. A canoe that’s well propelled by a single blade is a graceful athlete or even a dancer, while a canoe that’s propelled (by shortcut) with a double-blade is just a waddling duck, and the duck’s waddling is greatly amplified when the paddle is as long as suggested here. The waddling duck will still get you and your stuff from Point A to Point B in average situations, but with only about 1/1000th the feeling of “involvement” on the part of the paddler.
That was a very satisfying video - even for someone not particularly interested in taking up solo canoeing.
@Guideboatguy said:
I hope you are joking. While it’s true that a lot of people choose to do it this way, and there can even be reasons for a skilled paddler to occasionally pick up a double-blade, the OP has expressed an interest in learning a complex and immensely rewarding skill, and that will never happen if he shortcuts the process by sticking with a double-blade. A canoe that’s well propelled by a single blade is a graceful athlete or even a dancer, while a canoe that’s propelled (by shortcut) with a double-blade is just a waddling duck, and the duck’s waddling is greatly amplified when the paddle is as long as suggested here. The waddling duck will still get you and your stuff from Point A to Point B in average situations, but with only about 1/1000th the feeling of “involvement” on the part of the paddler.
Amen, exactly what I was thinking and trying to come up with as an appropriate response of my own. Learn efficient and pleasurable single blade strokes and you will never go back. I regularly paddle a solo PlacidBoatworks Rapidfire, a canoe originally sold for most people to sit low and be paddled by a double blade. I put in a high seat for better positioning for single blade use. It is a canoe, afterall, not a kayak. I stopped carrying a double blade as a spare paddle more than a couple of years ago when I realized that I never used it under any condition and it served no purpose for me. I carry only a spare single blade paddle now.
@Guideboatguy said:
I hope you are joking. While it’s true that a lot of people choose to do it
Pretty much…of course people get excited down here watching waddling birds.
From a watcher of waddling birds in a RapidFire with a single stick who’s been off paddling. Just avoid the top hand death grip. The moment you feel the uncomfortable stretch from the thumb down position rotate your hand so that it is thumb up before pushing the paddle with the lower hand
Don’t rotate the paddle! This is called a palm roll and only works with straight blades.
You’ll get it with water time
I use my lower hand or the thumb and index finger only as a loose gooseneck.
Sometimes he palm and one or two fingers of the top grip hand
@rival51 said:
Track down Functional Freestyle Canoeing to get a feel for the subtleties of solo (or tandem) canoeing. There is a performance side of freestyle that may not be for everybody however the skills are very valuable. Marc Ornstein used to hang out on p-net although I’m not sure if I’ve seen him since it became p-com. here is a group doing small stream work in the Pine Barrens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xpkibUY1X4
Looks like Cedar Creek in the Congaree N.P.