So the thing that really bothered me the day we filmed the “Chilton” bit was that shot of me paddling away from, then under the camera. I could just see the Milwaukee twosome (also coaches) sending me long emails analyzing my paddling technique. “Not enough torso rotation”, “get that blade out of the water sooner”, and so on. Video does not lie. Well, it can with proper editing but that’s another story. . .remind me to tell you about it sometime.

As we all progress in this sport a good “forward stroke” seems to become a bit of a mantra. Sure, we all tell people when we teach a forward stroke that we don’t spend enough time on it. . But somehow that just does not quite ring true any longer. Ever since Brent Reitz came out with his DVD a good stroke has been foremost on our minds. Hmmm, that’s not quite right, . . certainly Brent is an attractive man, . . yet maybe I should endeavor to re-phrase. . . No, if anything, since the dawn of time, a good stroke has always been foremost on all of our minds. . .which is also true, AND off-topic. But you get the point.

Then there’s the battle of the American vs. British stroke that went on a decade or so ago when the Americans were pushing down the bow and the Brits were rotating their arms/hands to the side of the boat. Even today we keep weaving back and forth. (literally and figuratively) I’ve found myself becoming a “rotate to the side” paddler recently. But things change. In the future, who knows what I might do!

Thing is, I think as instructors we have to watch making the “Forward Stroke” a religion. To much nagging on proper technique can really take the fun out of the sport for a lot of paddlers. Let alone coaches with lousy rotation lecturing students on that very same subject! Somewhere between safe, solid locomotion and Einstein-like mathematical efficiency is a line that probably is just not worth crossing for all but the most avid of us. And that’s ok. I’ve seen too many really good paddlers that don’t give a care for Olympic style technique and I’d put money down to see most of us keep up with them.

Then there’s the bit where your forward stroke has to change constantly depending on the boat and weather you’re paddling in. Hopping in a white water boat you find out really quickly that the stroke you use in your sea kayak requires a bunch of adjustment or you’ll be zigging and zagging all over the place. The weather will ask all sorts of adjustments to your stroke depending on the day. Sure all the roots of your efficient “master-stroke” are still there, but you may shorten up a bit or get a little more angle on the blade to compensate for conditions. I’m quite sure all those Uber-Kayakers out there would tell you they make no adjustment to conditions, but I’m betting it’s all become so natural that they just don’t notice making them.

Then toss in the “Feathered Grail”. At one symposium this year I got to see a well known instructor teach the forward stroke. Something I’d very much wanted to do. The first thing he does with his students is require them to “feather” their paddles if they had not until this class. Well, he lost me there. For the folks who used a feathered blade the class was great. However, I think he probably killed the usefulness of his class for the normally unfeathered lot. And why do that? Thing is, you don’t need to feather your paddle to have a solid forward stroke. Just ask any traditional paddler. Sure, we “Euro-bladers” all know that at some level feathering the paddle is more efficient. Don’t we? Wind resistance and all that. . .Yet as a person who bounces from a traditional paddle, to Euro, to playboat I know there are always a few moments of adjustment when I switch. Especially when I’d been immersed in one style for awhile and suddenly switch to something else. When I say a few moments, keep in mind I live in my kayaks and am not the average rec boater at my first symposium. My first day on white water was interesting in part because I suddenly switched to an unfeathered paddle which I hadn’t done in awhile. All day my bracing had gone to hell. I ended up switching back by midday. I can’t imagine how a student used to an unfeathered blade can concentrate on an efficient stroke and torso rotation when they keep feeling like their going to fall over with a suddenly feathered blade. (run on sentence alert!!) At that point video modeling and all that other fancy stuff just becomes mute. You could easily chew up a 2 hour class just making that single adjustment from feathered to unfeathered blades without ever even considering proper rotation. New Coaches, here’s a tip. If you have students with unfeathered blades, how about asking them “Why?” before you drag them into enlightenment? You may find they have very valid reasons for why they do what they do. And that’s ok. If you get that, then you can teach them to be better paddlers in their world. And isn’t that what we’re there for? When I think of the mantra “Safe, Efficient, & Effective” that leaves a lot of room for leeway if you ask me. In time if the student does want to move to that, “next level” so to speak, they’ll come back to the feather/don’t feather argument and find what works for them. But then as I often say, “What do I know??”

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Feature Link

Here’s something I want to start tossing in as a regular part of my journals. Every few days I’ll tag on a “featured link” to an article, shop, website or whatever just to give us another place to browse for the day if we’ve not yet absolved our kayak addictions.

So our Inaugural Feature Link for today is:

Adventurous Experiences – instruction & guide service located on the Isle of Man in the UK. Even if you’re not planning to run to the UK be sure to check out their photo gallery.