Kayak Racing

I will be moving to Kamloops British Columbia at the end of November. A good friend and kayak racer lives out there and giving me to opportunity to get into kayak racing. He has sent me some links, which I have already been through regarding all kinds of things about kayak racing from technique to boat design.



I hope to guide throughout the summer on sea kayak trips and train for racing as often as possible.



If any of you have any advice or links and websites that you could provide would be greatly appreciated…



Thanks to all…Can’t wait to hear from any of you. Can’t wait to get into kayak racing too, need to improve my forward stroke…

Kayak Racing
This site has some good articles on racing: http://worldofendurance.com/canoeing/main.asp

This site has good video on wing paddle technique:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Jimsquad

surf skis
great surf ski site with lots of training articals written by the best paddlers in the world is www.surfski.info absolutley awsome forward stroke article by chalupsky and barton. really good training artical for the intermediate paddler by barry lewin i think.

Surfski/racing kayaks/OC’s…
…a good website is Yahoo!Groups whatcompaddlers They are based out of Washington state and have been very helpful to me as a newbie surfski racer.

Enjoy!

Kyle

K1 technique
Hi

Check out this one: http://www.basistrening.no/motorikkteknikk/idrettsteknikker/padling/padleteknikk-evl/page194.html



It shows the top norwegian paddler Erik Veraas Larsen. The text is in norwegian, but the videos are good.



Harald

Thanks for all the prompt responses
I’ve been digging deep into allthese sites, I appreciate all the help thus far from each of you who have responded…



Anyone else who cares to chip in some advice, would be greatly appreciated.



jim.

sites
Hey Jim,



Check these ones out dude…

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/surfski

and this one… http://groups.yahoo.com/group/surfskiBC



A couple of good surski sites.



Cheers…Joe

Kayak Sport
I’m not a racer, but Mike Fekete at Kayak Sport in Canada gave me some free welcome advice when I was buying a Struer flatwater touring boat (not from him, by the way). He has paddle technique movies and whatnot on his site:



http://www.kayaksport.net/index.htm



By the way, they’re now having an end of season sale - if you want the most beautiful, lightest boat out there, pick up one of the mahogany Struers - just be ready to answer questions from everyone who sees it. They have a bunch of composite boats too.

bulkhead
Racers are great at going fast but hope you learn to roll or do reentry. When weather gets bad, getting back on ski is not easy. Please be safe. I added bulkheads to my west side boats so have option of laying perpendicualr across back deck and paddling to shore. A neoprene hood worn down around the neck can be pulled up for warmth. Xc skiing is such a great fitness trainer. And please forgive the tough advice but every year fast paddlers die on a warm day in cold water. Lots of canadians do not paddle until spring but are in great shape. Dress to swim and practice swimming in this water. I hated my goretex kokatat drysuit because gaskets are so tight. Please try hiking or ski until water is warm. Enjoy the full range os seasonal sport!

My rolls and braces are solid
as for climbing onto a swamped kayak…I am blessed enough to find that extremely easy and can complete a full scramble, in full dry gear, unassisted in less than one minute, thats climbing onto a P&H Sirius…



thanks for the advice…as for climbing onto a surfski…well, I’ll have to start at step one all over again :slight_smile:



Jim

paddle blew away
I thought I was good until paddle blew away and could not swim fast to get paddle wearing all that stuff. Hope you train with friends. Congratulations on living in such a beautiful area.

Kayak Racing
The Barton Mold on the Epic website can be downloaded and has lots of info on racing. Also, Peter Heed’s book on Canoe Racing has useful info for all types of marathon racing. There are various Yahoo groups, Kayak is one although it is primarily for sprint & ICF, there’s a surfski group, a marathon canoe group, one for the United States Canoe Association, another associated with the New England Canoe and Kayak Racing Association. Lot’s of info available, just have to search it out. Pam