and just to further confuse things…
is their a difference between a “traveling C” and a “pitch”? Both use an in-water recovery. Perhaps the “traveling C” has a more vertical/perpendicular shaft to the water?
solo C
this is taking us away from original post AGAIN but I enjoy the discussion. Someone just brought up traveling C and I think it must be the solo C?
This is the stroke most solo canoe books discuss as the correct forward stroke to use with a straight shaft paddle. Is the traveling C some other stroke? Good god! I’ll never figure all this out! LOL!
And yes…I actually do have fun with paddling technique when I am not fishing from my canoe which is even more fun than paddling.
Now I’m confused!
My understanding of the pitch from Bill Mason’s video is that you essentially do a forward stroke but constantly increase the blade angle all through the stroke, as shown in Dirk’s diagram. I don’t recall anything about an underwater recovery. Funny thing is, I first tried the pitch after watching the video years ago and didn’t care for it. Just a couple of weeks ago I realized that my sloppy j-stroke has gradually evolved into the pitch without my even realizing it. It just seems like the natural way to go now.
You are correct…
I got the pitch mixed up with an “indian stroke”, which does have an in-water recovery. I pulled out Mason’s book and it appears that it is the same as a “Traveling C” but looks as though he might be using a little lower paddle angle on the “indian” than I use on the “Traveling C”. And if you look at the “pitch” diagram closely, if you added an in-water neutral paddle recovery, it would appear to be the same concept as a pitch.
I want to learn that Northwoods stroke! It gives me a nice excuse to buy a long skinny Canadian style paddle!
Isn’t nice to finally have all of this stuff totally clear to everyone, now?
several forward strokes you can use
paddling a canoe solo…Canadian, J, stern pry, inwater recovery , northwoods,pitch.
The traveling C stroke really isnt used much unless you look it at the same way as the pitch stroke…the bow draw can be eliminated once you pick up speed-its useful when starting up to eliminate the bow shooting away from your paddling side.
Whatever stroke suits you is fine. When its not fun try another.
Now about those double blades…Paddling a narrow canoe with a GP is a hoot and a major digression.
What???
Fishing more fun than discussing paddling technique? Them’s grounds for excommunication.
fwcruiser
Solo traveling stroke
equals solo C stroke. You’ve got it right Beachcamper, just stop listening to all these experts! Once you get the boat moving you will find you can probably eliminate the forward catch and just use a long, open J. Your Kestrel will respond very well to that. You’ve got it figured out; just go paddling!
LDC
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you wouldn’t have a picture of this
long open J technique? I am curious because it has no catch and no pitch in the blade? Interested in making that Kestrel respond with a beautiful technique that is not going to exhaust me at the end of a long day. Trying to get used to a single blade mitchell surreal that is not as light as my ZRE bentshaft.
Thank you for responding Dave! I am thoroughly enjoying the Kestrel, yes do spend alot of time paddling lately…it’s a beautiful canoe.
the perfect canoe forward
Canoe strokes are necessarily categorized and articulated so that they can be taught to others. Some students take this to heart and focus on learning and defining a menu of strokes to the highest degree. I believe that most strokes done in the actual heat of battle are not that abstractly formal. Eventually students of canoeing figure out that the best stroke is one that responds in the more efficient way to the given the canoe’s pitch, roll, yaw, speed, wind, etc. It does not have to be a perfect Pitch Stroke, J Stroke, or whatever. It just needs to be the best hybrid set of reactions to that finite set of conditions at that very moment. This comes only with time and focus. Perfection of a forward stroke does not result from mimicking perfect strokes. It is created, by reaction to a set of conditions which exist at a given moment in time and is exactly efficient for that moment under those unique conditions.
Having said that, I’ll get abstract and say that IMHO, the J and Pitch strokes are essentially in the same family. They both involve a thumb down action to offset induced yaw. I think of the Pitch as an evolved J stroke. When I see highly skilled canoeists do their version of the J it is usually actually a Pitch stroke. When they execute a forward, their sensitivity to correct blade angle, placement, and speed for that precise moment is so highly evolved as to produce maximum thrust and minimum induced yaw and allow the thumb down posture to start actually before the blade reaches the knee. It’s a type of J (or vice versa) but is so fine tuned that the correction can start a bit earlier and little or no pressure is put on the blade at the end of the stroke as in the J.
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one can include the pitch in
the C-stroke, as I have done in my drawing, because that is the way I do it. And when accelerating from a standstill I usually do a ‘Canadian’ after it.
indeed
– Last Updated: Aug-02-07 8:51 AM EST –
as it seems to me, most good (touring) paddlers use a version of the pitch stroke, but often they are not really aware of that themselves -- and as a result they will call what they do a J-stroke. It is my idea that this is a main source of all the confusion about correction strokes. Not a problem for the paddler in question, but it will be when they start to tell beginners how to go straight in a canoe and only teach them the 'real' J-stroke.