Hi All—another topic inspired by the past few months of my paddling my new-to-me Tempest 170 sea kayak (with a skeg but no rudder).
On the subject of leaning to turn the boat (or to assist in turning the boat), I’d always assumed that the “correct” way to lean is toward the outside of the turn.
But recently, I’ve been experimenting with leaning to the inside of the turn. And here’s the thing: assuming you are doing well-executed (and reasonably strong) sweep strokes, leaning to the outside or the inside of turns both work!
I will say that doing sweeps on the same side you’re leaning toward is a bit easier (so leaning toward the outside of the turn)…but I was able to turn the boat pretty well leaning toward the inside of the turn as well.
I’m no expert in hydrodynamics, but I’ve always assumed the whole point of a lean is to reduce hull length at the waterline, right? So when taking the upward sweep of the bow into consideration, is length at the waterline much different whether leaning to the inside or outside?
I was puzzled noticing the same thing. However, I evetually concluded that it was actually the paddle stroke that turned the boat, regardless of whether the boat leaned or remained flat. Once I improved my ability to hold an edge, by using a hip shifting motion rather than lifting a knee, the refined edge gave more consistent results. The boat turned more efficiently, even without as much paddle input.
Better mastery of the edge also resulted in straighter tracking. Based on topic literature, the submerged side has a greater underwater than the high side, and the curve influences the turn. One article suggested that the reshaped underwater section also creates greater rocker that allows the kayak to turn with less resistance. I believe @szihn mentioned that possibility as well, based on his observations.
Sing, I don’t know the tech terms, but it looks like your turns rotate around a reverse stroke or stop stroke that allows the power of the waves to catch the stern and rotate the boat. I thinks the dynamics are a bit different than an edged turn on relatively flat water. Even though that paddle action would work, the reverse stroke or stop stroke would create the turn rather than the edge. Without the aid of the following wave, such a stroke would retard forward speed, as compared to a proper edge.
You definitely perfected the technique of staying in the sweet spot for riding waves.
Heeling (by leaning) can be done for two main reasons: stability and maneuverability.
With extreme heel you can get the ends out of the water making a boat turning easier. But in waves and currents heeling for stability has more preference unless you don’t mind instability.
When maneuvering is more important than stability (say Whitewater Slalom or Flatwater FreeStyle) one may heel for maneuverability instead of stability.
Otherwise maneuvering is secondary to heeling for stability – especially when your life depends on it…
The effect you get when you heel your boat, depends on:
to which side you heel your boat;
how much you heel your boat;
the trim of your boat;
the hull shape of your boat;
the speed of the boat through the water.
the direction of movement of the boat through the water.
So if you heel to the inside or outside of a turn depends on what performance you get and want…
Edging always help turn sharper or will less energy, simply because you are slipping a rounder surface through the water when a kayak is on edge. Turning into a turn (like you would on a bicycle) or away from the direction of the turn (as you do on snow skis) both work, but for longer hulls on Touring /Sea kayaks the outer edge turn seems to work better. The advantage of an inside edge turn is that the blade doing the work is also in the correct place to effect an instant brace, so when I teach a new kayaker I show then this first. The outside edge turn requires less energy and can turn the kayak in a tighter turn will less loss of speed, but it’s more of a balancing act then the inside edge turn.
Having used both with about 3 Dz different kayaks I would say from what I see so far that for short rec kayaks and for any kayak with hulls of 12 feet and less that is not all that much difference. At 14 feet to about 15 you start to see the better dynamics of the outside edge turns, and for hulls of 16.5 to 18.5 the outside edge turn is better for turning and not slowing down much.
In very rough chop and waves however having a good inside edge turn is a good skill to have.
My opinion is that to learn them all is “best”. The cool thing about kayaking is the fun of learning new things and expanding your abilities, so there is no right or wrong way. There are times when turning fast and slowing down are exactly what you want. Such times include missing an obstacle or dealing with an oncoming boat. For those times the inside high brace turn and the inside low brace stern rudder are excellent.
For turns in non-emergency settings I like the outside edge turns more.
But All these techniques have a place and learning them when it’s not an emergency is a great way to expand your skills and give you another tool in the toolbox.
I’ll apologize in advance lest this seem too pedantic, but “edging” and “leaning” are not the same movement. “Edging” is heeling the kayak while maintaining your weight over the kayak itself–this requires that you curve your spine laterally (in a C shape). The videos linked by @szhin demonstrate this nicely. In “leaning”, your spine would remain straight as you heeled the kayak, with consequence that your weight would now be over the water, past the side of the kayak, and you would be dependent on bracing from the paddle to keep from capsizing.
“Edging” is the British kayaking term for heeling a kayak without leaning your body outboard. “Leaning” then is heeling with your body outboard.
Although heeling with some leaning your body outboard may be inevitable in some kind of boats and situations, staying inboard as much as possible when heeling limits the need for a paddle brace to prevent you from tipping over and that allows you to continue making other paddle strokes than paddle braces.
While @kanoniem notes that some undesired or inadvertent leaning may occur when edging is intended, this discussion raises the question of when deliberately leaning the kayak is useful. I can think of a few, limited, examples. One is the low brace turn. The video posted above by @szihn illustrates this nicely. At the 0.34 mark, you can see the kayaker edging through his low brace turn, but at the 0.52 mark, the kayaker is clearly leaning. In this maneuver, leaning allows you to get the kayak further over on its side than does edging, allowing a tighter turn, but a much faster bleed off of speed. Another use would be while bracing into a wave face while side-slipping down the wave. In this case, the lean allow you to apply body weight to the downward force of your paddle blade, which may be needed to counteract the force of the wave. I think leaning can be useful if surfing your boat, when you “blend” a low brace with a stern rudder when trying to turn up wave, but I some may disagree on that point. Leaning is also useful when practicing braces and sculling, but that is more practice than actual paddling.
Okay this is all getting very confusing, LOL. Not a complaint—I think there are a lot of good points here…but very little physics (and I don’t know physics so I can’t offer any, LOL).
For example, @kanoniem you mention leaning for stability: I’m assuming you’re referring to “stability” in conjunction with a low brace? I say this because if a sea kayak is inherently more stable on edge, then why isn’t the boat made with that shape hull (the shape that results from leaning) in the first place? It almost seems like the ideas of primary and secondary stability go out the window (e.g. if secondary is actually more stable, that would make it…primary, right?)
It might have helped clarify things if in my original post, I’d said “Let’s examine the performance of the hull at various angles with zero input from the paddler whatsoever.”
In this scenario (no paddler input at all, no blade in the water)…is a 17-foot sea kayak hull more stable on edge? And does it want to turn when leaned over? If so, which direction will it turn relative to the lean?
When you start adding paddler inputs to all of this it gets wildly confusing, because there are SO many possible inputs! (Different paddler heights and weights, different reaches, different techniques, different paddles, different fore/aft seating positions, etc.)
Putting a kayak on its side, whether by leaning or edging makes it easier to turn the boat, especially a boat with a straight keel. A rockered boat is already easier to turn and putting it on its side makes it even easier. You can just about spin a highly rockered boat in place.
How stable a boat is when on it’s side depends on its secondary stability. All boats vary. You can take a boat past its secondary stability without capsizing by simultaneously bracing.
Getting back to the original question, the boat will turn easier when on its side in either direction. However, it’s easier to brace on the turn if you lean into the turn. You can lean further into the turn if bracing as well. The further you lean the boat, the easier and faster you can turn.
By slightly angling the paddle blade you can combine a sweep stroke with a brace.
For stability you can heel a bit towards crosswinds and side waves, and downstream in a current for example to avoid that you have to make a brace in those situations.
In some situations (as mentioned above) yes.
That depends on the design, but with enough forward speed and the right direction of movement a boat may want to turn when heeled somehow.
When you heel to the right when moving forward, the resultant asymmetrical shape of the hull in the water will give most touring kayaks a tendency to move to the left and vice versa.
Some touring kayak designs react more strongly to this then others though. Some kayakers prefer that behaviour (or are just used to it?). I however prefer hull designs that are quite neutral in their behaviour when heeling with forward speed.
Leaning and edging are different.
My understanding, and the way I was taught says that leaning always needs a paddle to brace and with out a paddle you’d capsize. That stern rugger and high brace turn in the above videos are examples of leaning to turn.
Edging is using the body to tilt the hull but not so much the paddlers center of gravity goes past the gunnel so edging can be held with no paddle at all and not capsize.
The hardest edge is where you almost touch a lean, but not quite. We do use a paddle to edge, but it’s mostly there in case we go too far and in an edge you can lift the paddle out of the water.
with your description you describe exactly the problem of using the terms leaning and edging, as they are often used as a way to describe how to heel a boat. Since the distinction between leaning and edging can be vague, it can distract from understanding when to heel away from the turn or toward the turn, as the original question was.
Another thing about leaning and edging, according to Headwaters youtube channel, is that edging into a turn allows you to not lose all speed, but leaning to turn causes a big loss in speed or stops forward progress altogether if a sharp turn. Correct if wrong.
I dont typically padfle in challenging locations, so I don’t use braces, because if it remains stationary, it’ll slow your speed. I onlynuse a rudder if I can’t control the boat any other way. There is not a definite answer to hiw the rudder influences speed. If you’re going with the wind and current, there will obviously be less inpact than if you’re going into those conditions. It also depends on the boat. Dont take anyones word for it. Play with it. If you don’t have a GPS, don’t make assumptions based on perception. I’ve never seen anyone accurately guess changes in conditions, such as turning a corner and heading into the wind or reversing course, based solely on perception.
The next best thing to a GPS is a phone app running in the background so you can at least measure output after the fact.
