If you come down to the river
I bet you gonna find some people who live
You dont have to worry if you got no money
People on the river are happy to give
-j. c. forgety

Well, there have certainly been a lot of cross-dressers, no wait, I meant “cross-paddlers” around these days.  If you’re still a “no-current” type sea kayaker you’re really missing out on something, and it’s more than just the fun.

Here in the Midwest it’s easy for a sea paddler to overlook current. The Great Lakes are just inland seas in many ways but one thing they do lack is the type of tidal variances that cause strong currents. Great Lakes paddlers can surf, but they don’t get a lot of experience in tidal currents, races and over-falls. So Midwest paddlers with a mind toward ocean paddling have to find other ways to build up their skills in dynamic water. The simple answer is river paddling.

Ok, now before you get you’re undies in a bundle and start fretting over getting your old body in one of those tiny playboats, that’s not what I’m talking about.  Well it can be, but not necessarily. What I mean is taking your sea kayak on the river and not just any river, but one with some nice currents, eddies and bits you can surf.  This doesn’t mean running class IVs in your sea kayak, what it means is finding spots on even a small river that offer you the opportunities to practice working the dynamics of the flow. Often you can find areas where you can play all day in one spot without ever having to worry about shuttles. It just takes a bit of searching.

My local river is a great example.  Although it’s shallow and small, there are a couple spots that are perfectly set up to practice moving in and out of eddies and currents, ferry crossing, and even a bit of surfing now and again. Whereas a play boater might find them small and boring, they are quite nice for a sea boat. All of these skills practiced on the river translate quite well to the dynamics of sea paddling.

In some ways sea boating, even on a small river can be a bit more technical.  First, the currents are often much faster.  Moving in and out of eddies requires your edging and bracing skills to be rock-solid.  Again, due to the speed of the current and sometimes the turbulence of a shallow river, ferry crossings can take a bit of practice to get clean.  Even those tiny surf waves provide a good chance to sharpen your boat control skills.  On the sea, you often ride nice wide waves that offer you lots of room to move while still keeping your ride. On the river the wave may only be 3 feet wide, maybe less.  Keeping your sea kayak on that wave demands constant adjustments. You find yourself changing your edge constantly just to keep centered.  Translating those river skills to the sea can at times make the sea seem a bit more relaxing. Well, other than the ocean waves can be brutally huge and the raw power can be a bit of a shock! Still, the skills themselves do cross over. Thing is, we’d love to always be out on the big stuff, but if we can’t or if we are just learning new skills the little stuff offers some fun opportunities as well.  I’ll talk more about some of the specifics in posts to come, but with the new season approaching I just wanted to open some eyes to the possibility.