I played around with putting the blade to the sides of the bow when gliding backwards. Corrections could be made with pressure either going outward (as in a pry) or inward.
My question: What do you CALL a cross-bow rudder that is done when paddling in reverse? Is it a reverse cross-bow rudder?
Trying to remember if anybody has ever showed me this, and the answer is, Not that I can recall. But it works, so I imagine it is a standard maneuver, and it has a name. It acts just like a stern rudder except that I’m moving backwards.
Stern Rudder
I use it when practicing or getting back out of tight spots. I think of the bow and stern as relative terms - relative to the direction of travel. Hope this helps.
Now, sit backwards in your cockpit with your legs on the rear deck and paddle forward. You now have a new boat! A sit-on-top! See if you can get it to weathercock.
Cheers
Cross Reverse J
Kayak or canoe?
Very handy canoe stroke…
For the life of me cannot figure out why you would want to do a cross reverse anything in a kayak. Its hard to twist around that far… You have two blades for a reason…and it would be a reverse rudder.
In a canoe …
would you ever do a cross forward J? When? Whitewater? Seems like it might be pretty awkward, but don’t think I’ve ever tried it.
cross forward is a standard solo canoe
stroke… It turns the boat without slowing it. Yes it has a river application but the cross forward is also useful travelling upwind or in situataions where a braking component to steer the boat is not needed
1 blade, 2 blades
"You have two blades for a reason…"
It’s quicker to use the blade already in the water to perform the needed stroke to achieve the desire effect immediately, than to take it out then drop the opposite blade to do a “proper kayak stroke” at a later time!
I understand about the cross forward
stroke and use it a lot. My question was cross forward J stroke? I just don’t get that and envision being somewhat contorted trying. Charlie’s answer was “Cross Reverse J” which I can see with a single blade, but why when you can just do a reverse J? For a kayak you could call the OP’s question a cross reverse J, although it is probably easier to do with the thumb pointed up.
So, my question is could you/would you do a cross forward J? And if not, why would you do a cross reverse J?
There are both reverse J
and cross reverse J .
The cross reverse J in practicality feels more like a regular forward as it easiest done facing transverse in a canoe.
Its very handy for backing up as you can see where you are headed to easier…as in when you pick the small branch of river that goes nowhere but is too narrow for a u turn.
You can also back up seeing where you are going using a far back to reverse j onside but that paddle maneuver requirs a paddle flip or palm roll in order not to turn yourself into a pretzel.
The cross reverse J requires no such heroics.
Also FreeStylers use cross reverse Js for the reason of putting on miles in office fountains
That sounds like fun
I love playing around with the boat and paddle and will try that next time.
No, it’s easy to do (nm)
just the same as doing a J stroke with
a double blade only in reverse as I envision it.
I do the j often with a double…as the other blade sings “Raindrops keep falling on my head”
You lost me there.
So you are saying to use the blade that’s already in the water, and are also calling it a cross stroke. That means the right blade is in the water on the left side of the boat or visa-versa. If that’s the case, sure, use the blade that’s already planted in the water, but Kayamedic’s question is why would the blade already be in the water on the “cross” side of the boat when initially, you had the option of dropping the other blade there in the same place, with no need to twist your body around to make planting the offside blade possible? I’m not a kayayker, but I have a hard time imagining why a person would do that, except perhaps to make use of the power face of the blade rather than the “wrong” blade surface when backing up. Is that it?
Back surfing is a special case …
We untrained, unwashed, un-BCU call it a bowrudder.
Secret when you are getting pushed at high speed is to not think, but feel what the boat and wave want to do and crank it around into a 360, lifting the rail to glide over the water as you rotate…or letting it go flat to grind a slider.
When ever I start thinking about what to do with the paddle I crash.
this thread is surfing in too many
directions. I think the OP wanted to practice or know about something on flatwater.
so far we have flat and ocean kayak and canoe, cross forward and cross reverse… and the bow rudder.
You gotta think and do before you drop the think.
Category is "Kayaking Technique"
I thought that explained it.
The stuff I was practicing was on flatwater with a little wind. I happen to like the cross-bow-rudder (going forward), so of course I was testing it out while back-paddling (albeit in only light wind). Then I got to wondering what to call that. The blade in the water has the same orientation (power face TOWARD the boat) as if it were a stern rudder while paddling forward, but now it’s next to my bow, which is acting as the trailing (stern) end.
Since there doesn’t seem to be consensus in terminology anyway, I will call it reverse-cross-bow-rudder for my own categorization. Because it means paddling in Reverse, then putting the paddle into the Cross Bow Rudder position to influence the loose rear end (now the BOW) of the kayak while the front end (now the STERN) cuts its path.
This is a case where a video would be worth a thousand words.
I understood the original …
post completely. 
Maybe it’s because I have also practiced it.
Yup
The fact that you’ve done the same thing substituted for the thousand words, eh?