Photo 1
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xvCuQoLWdFY/VOjnH6PrZ-I/AAAAAAAACu4/QQNUNXsrOJM/s912/EFS%2520141%2520Charlie%2520Wendy%2520Denny%252087.jpg
I’m not sure what this is. Double draw?
Who is it?
Photo 2
http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-PD46xymkpps/VOjloCagmLI/AAAAAAAACt4/Ef93ShCQLm0/s912/EFS%2520113%2520Welbes%2520Wilson%2520Rev%2520X%2520Akle.jpg
What?
Who? No modesty.
Photo 3
http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3xDxm9u9Ao8/VOjmHPy9eEI/AAAAAAAACuQ/V644Hhbw_Tg/s512/EFS%252099%2520CE%2520Wilson%2520ML%2520Greene%2520X%2520Axle%2520.jpg
Bow looks like she’s transitioning a reverse sweep around the bow into a cross forward sweep. Mike Galt popularized the around-the-bow move because of the bow seating position in his Egret canoe. The bow seat was close to the stem.
Photo 4
http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-pm68LfQg7vg/VOjmOibqLhI/AAAAAAAACuc/aFAEB5xZAhI/s640/EFS%2520300%2520%2520X%2520Axle.jpg
Cross-bow axle? In whitewater, this would be a perfect off-side (for the bow) tandem eddy turn move.
Is that Lou Glaros in the stern?
Photo 5
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eyP4dd4IHvg/VOjmX3bTc6I/AAAAAAAACuk/aNF7ciepXQw/s800/EFS%2520126%2520D%2520Grover%2520Christie%252088.jpg
Solo Christie?
Who is it?
Looks like a Mike Galt Lotus BJX canoe – not easy to turn even with a perfect Christie. No, it looks too short for a BJX in this perspective. Definitely a Lotus. Maybe a Dandy.
Photo 6
http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1xgcXsDxJkg/VOjmnVSSFsI/AAAAAAAACus/lwN2DutubwM/s800/EFS%2520105%2520CEW%2520D%2520Welbes%2520Axle.jpg
This is the same on-side axle that I first posted. No disrespect to Charlie in the stern, but the bow (Deborah?) makes the dynamism of this move.
There was a picture like this on the cover of Canoesport Journal in 1988 or 1989. But it might have been of Mike Galt and Marylou (?) I may still have that issue somewhere. Maybe I can scan it.
Post
– Last Updated: Feb-21-15 7:26 PM EST –
Charlie and Wendy Denny of Lotus Canoe posting it up in a Sawyer X-17. Wendy has placed a Duffek and heel the hull away from the tun to carve the bow into the maneuver.
Charlie is Sweeping the hull through the maneuver and helping maintain the heel.
Great Shot!
This well-composed shot of an ordinary, everyday manoeuvre in an ordinary, everyday situation strikes me as the best of the bunch.
The image comes out a bit larger with this link: http://ow.ly/JrM7I
We’d ideally have a PFDs worn and kit in the boat… and the bow paddler’s blade fully submerged… but hey: the shaft’s vertical, the biomechanics look decent and it’s just a shame we don’t see this week in, week out on trips!
Again, inspiring…
My daughter, aged 6, took inspiration from footage of this move.
There’s nothing particularly difficult about the move, especially at that sort of pace, and getting that much support from an aggressive brace…
…but it’s an awesome way to start things off if you’re trying to get a newbie interested in Freestyle 
Here it is a bit bigger: http://ow.ly/JrMk0
Note: this is way more straightforward (and less likely to go wrong) than a Wedge!
Reverse Cross Axle
In Reverse, the Stern initiates with an onside Reverse Sweep, crosses the hull with his blade and sticks a Duffek, slipping head and shoulders across that far rail to hell the boat onside, the bow’s paddle side.
The Bow, inverts her paddle and applies a Reverse J, also helping turn the hull, then with a successive Reverse J she palm rolls the blade flat and applies a Reverse Christy, following the blade with head and shoulders across the rail. Obviously, as the Bow extends across the rail the Stern, needs bring head and shoulders back inside the boat because someone needs keep that rail above the water. This is insignificant as no-one is watching him at that point in time anyway.
As momentum slows the Bow’s paddle loses lift , so the Bow concludes by a sweepig draw to keep the boat turning. Similarly the stern concludes the Duffek with a sweeping draw to the stern stem.
The boat is a Lotus Egret, the Bow’s Lutra bent S is in Deb Welbes’ hands, the Sterns uses a Bent Quimby, I don’t recall him at all.
Cross Axle
– Last Updated: Feb-21-15 7:17 PM EST –
Looks like an extreme Cross Axle. The Bow initiates with a Sweep before crossing both rails to place a Cross Duffek. The Stern initiates with a firm, turning J, then palm rolls into a Christy, The Bow draws across the bow to a Sweep to keep the hull turning. In this case, MaryLou Green is in a Swift Otter, the seat far enough from the stem she's feathering the blade to get it across the bow to the concluding Sweep. Marylou is using her Mitchel bent S copy of the Lutra. The stern, identity lost through time, has a bent Quimby.
Cross Axle
A simpler Cross Axle, this one with Carol Glaros, Lutra Bent S in hand up on her knees to bury the bow during her Cross Duffek. The Stern, Lou Glaros could have driven the boat through the maneuver with successive J,s but has elected to “BackSlap” the turn, rolling his control thumb upwards and loading his Lutra S’s the backface controlling it’s orientation to keep rotational force on the hull, a Lotus Egret.
Christie
Dana Grover is applying a Christie with my old T grip bent Quimby. The boat is a BJX. It lived with Steve Tunnicliffe for years.
Indeed Mike Galt and Marilu Wilson
"in the middle of a static axle" […]
I still have a video tape (from Lou Glaros), where Mike Galt and Marilu Wilson and Charlie Wilson and Deborah Welbes are performing on the L.L. Bean North American Canoe Symposium in 1990 (?).
Someday I might get it digitalized if it still works, as I cannot play it anymore 
Close
Formerly young Stern is focused on the onside rail. The Bow provides the basic heel with the weight of her torso across the rail, but the stern is responsible for precision, keeping the heel stable and the rail to the water.
Let’s note, again, this is an extreme Axle, not a Functional FreeStyle maneuver. Halve the heel, bring the bows head and torso back in the boat and we’ve something useful.
Photo of tandem post turn from CEW
http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-DpI8KqGhZkE/VOq_mloLNNI/AAAAAAAACwg/FiSNxbn-cxU/s800/IMG_1325.JPG
Charlie sent me another photo that I’ve put in the album. It’s Anita LoVan and Bruce Kemp doing a post turn in what looks like a Colden Starfire.
That Post
Anita initiated the onside turn with a diagonal draw that melded into a short forward as she heeled the boat offside, away from the turn to start the bow carving into the maneuver. Bruce helps maintain and control the heel. In this case with both knees in the down, offside chine and powers the hull through the Post with sweeping forward strokes.
Enhancements would be for both paddlers to pitch the bow down to increase the carve by getting up on their knees. Done with enough velocity, heel and pitch the stern doesn’t need do anything at all, the hull will rotate 180 dg with the Bow Duffek and the carve.
Post or axle on twisty stream bends?
– Last Updated: Feb-23-15 2:02 PM EST –
It might be informative if experienced tandem paddlers -- recreational or racers -- explain whether they prefer axle or post turns for going around bends on twisty streams. And why.
Some have suggested Brown's Tract in the Adirodack Fulton Chain as an example of a twisty place where crisp and efficient turns are needed in a race. One paddler has even done it many times in a war canoe.
To briefly recapitulate, the difference between axle and post turns is mostly the direction of hull heel. The axle heels the boat toward the inside of the turn; the post heels it toward the outside.
In solo canoeing, it's pretty generally accepted that post turns are a little crisper than axle turns in touring hulls on flat water, primarily because of the differing underwater hull shapes during those differently heeled turns. But in tandem canoeing you can have a bow person dedicated to pulling the bow around a Duffek (hanging draw) and a stern person dedicated to sweeping, reverse sweeping or prying the stern.
Are axles or posts preferred for twisty tandem turning?
Or might the preference change depending on whether the turn is on-side for the bow paddler, who then executes an on-side Duffek, or is off-side for the bow paddler, who then does a cross-Duffek?
Tandem Considerations
With modern, highly manoeuvrable solo canoes, functional arguments for “Creeking Freestyle” become challenging. If the hull wants to spin the moment you blink… the rewards of moving with grace and style might remain… but the functional NEED for refinement recedes.
Paddling tandem, especially with any sort of load on board, the functional case for refinement is far stronger. Quite frankly, anything less tends to be just plain miserable - especially with any sort of tripping load on board.
Two obvious ways to ensure a miserable experience…
- Doing ANYTHING out of sync - and that includes driving the boat whilst a partner is on a static placement. If the bow wants to slice out and add an active draw, the stern can add a well timed forward stroke… but one without the other just sucks!
- Going for an inside heeled turn with the bow paddler on his/her onside. The biomechanics aren’t as good in the bow… but the stern position (onside on the outside of the turn, over the highside of the boat) just sucks! Just switch on the approach / turn the other way: everyone gets a better experience!
If you ARE going for Freestyle… here’s a third way to make the tandem experience miserable…
- Going for anything more than the most subtle changes in pitch during manoeuvres. Go for the extended axle by all means… and sure, go for minor weight shifts - but the rewards of small body movements near the stems of a ~17’ boat tend to be minimal - so don’t go overboard and compromise biomechanics and linkage!
Ps. Minor note to photographers: our ideal “Creeking Freestyle” gallery would consist primarily of boats carrying more than just the paddlers - if we’re going anywhere of note, we’ve got kit!
axle/post
For us, in our “everyday” paddling we tend to apply only a modest amount of heel, nowhere near taking it to the rail; that partial heel is usually quite sufficient to encourage the boat in its arcing. The less heel is applied, of course then the less difference between a post and an axle. That said, even a modestly heeled post will turn a bit more crisply than a similarly heeled axle, but for our paddling an axle works just fine in most situations (though going upstream, a post is often more effective in counteracting current). In those instances which call for a very sharp and quick on-side turn - sharp bend, tight quarters, or maybe shallow water on-side – Anita will sometimes use a cross-wedge to move the bow more quickly. As always though, on tight and twisty streams in particular, the bow’s choice of stroke and placement, and when to initiate/apply it, how much, how hard, and for how long - not to mention degree of heel - are all very much based on what’s right here, as well as what’s-coming-up-next. A combination of several adjustments is more common, than a straight “textbook” move.