Waves on a Lake

Last Sunday, I went out for a technique-focused paddle. Not much sight-seeing but going to a secluded spot to practice various strokes. After watching recently acquired DVD's, I've been psyched to do more of this. I had good luck with most of the strokes I attempted. Since I was by myself and, due to warm temperatures, didn't bring the skirt, I didn't do much static bracing. I did practice a LOT of turns.

On way back to the put-in, I came around a corner of land and caught some decent waves kicked up by powerboats with skiers. This was great fun. With my Necky Manitou 13, the two-footers were enough to get my stern up and my bow down - even into the water. I didn't try to carve any turns. It was too much of a surprise and I had no time to get prepared. It was fun just trying to stay on them and ride them for a bit. I never felt like I would capsize. However, with a little coordination in the future, it seems possible to get some practice catching & riding little waves.

All the more reason to get a bona fide sea kayak in the 16 ft range.

Which Paddle?

A bazillion options. Okay, maybe not that many, but the variations are a lot to sort through.

I borrowed a 220cm Werner Shuna Performance from Great Outdoor Provision Company to try with a neighborhood lake trip. For kayak touring, they have 4 blade sizes, 4 blade material types, 2 shaft types, and 2 diameter sizes. This particular paddle is a fiberglass blade, the smaller of the two high angle sizes, straight shaft, and the normal diameter. It was perfect for a demo because I've realized I was (unconsciously) using a high-angle paddling technique with my low angle paddle. Now, I could see how it felt to paddle that way with a blade designed for it.

I took my own Aquabound 230cm Stingray and the Shuna and spent several hours on our lake. It was quite a lot more exertion with the Shuna since it catches a significantly larger amount of water. After using the Shuna for a significant chunk of the out portion of the trip, I swapped with my Stingray a couple times to compare & contrast the paddles with high & low angle styles. I learned the following:

• Paying attention to what I'm doing with my forward stroke makes a big difference.
• The low-angle blade shape suits a low-angle forward stroke better than the high-angle blade. Duh! Same with high matched with high.
• The low-angle blade seems to suit a high-angle style better than the high-angle blade with low-angle style.
  
• I am now looking to be a two paddle kinda guy eventually: one low-angle, one high-angle.
  
• Upgrade the low-angle paddle first: Camano or Kalliste
  
• I'd be looking at a 210cm length whenever the time comes to get the high-angle paddle.

I'm more comfortable with the straight shaft instead of a neutral bent shaft. Instead of feeling natural, the bent shafts have felt weird to me. And I think I'm more likely to revert to a clenching grip with the bent shaft versus a straight one.

So, I ordered a 220cm Kalliste. We'll get small diameter shaft for Kathleen. She'll use mine to decide between a Kalliste and an Athena. She'll also use mine to see whether she should go with the 215cm length or not. These are the Werner suggested lengths for us in boats less than 23" wide. We don't have boats this narrow yet, but it's all part of the broader upgrade plan.

Trip #18, Paddling Asheville, June 2010

I had a great time on a fairly nearby paddle today with Andy and Claire. It was a stretch of the Broad River in Rutherford County - trip #18 in Betsy Mayer's Paddling Asheville and Southern Appalachia. One of my favorite local trips so far is close to her trip #13. I'm definitely going to start working more trips from this book.

The put-in and take-out was somewhat steep. The put-in had a steeper incline - we used rope to lower our boats down. No pictures of my own since I dunked & ruined our camera at the May boat demo session with Great Outdoor Provision Company. Andy's will be linked here. The river had a steady, manageable current the whole 11 mile trip. It took about 5 hours with a lunch break and a tree hacking break. Claire and I got the break on the latter. Andy used his handy-dandy handsaw to cut some limbs to clear a way through a tree that spanned the river at one point. (We did use my tow rope to pull some of those limbs free. The next paddlers can thank Andy.) This, and an easy pull around, were the only serious blockages. We were easily able to navigate around other trees and rocks we encountered.

The water was clear enough to see some submerged stuff. And clear enough to see color differentials when the water went deep. This is an old theme for me - I'm just fascinated by the way the river bottoms change: sand, pebbles, big rocks; ledges of sand on an inside of a bend with deep drop-offs to the outside. The trees that were down gave me the impression that big water would roll down dragging behemoths from the river banks. That's probably not the case, but it was a compelling image in my mind.

We passed a pair of black cows, a pretty brown horse, a small dark heron, a great blue heron, several kingfishers, miscellaneous small brown things, a very big owl (that we didn't get close enough too), and a half-dozen turkey vultures by the water. Not a whole lot of wildlife, but the trip was very, very enjoyable.

I also got to put into practice techniques picked up from the Brent Reitz Forward Stroke Clinic dvd. This was recommended by a couple of guys I follow on Twitter, Bryan Hansel and David Johnston. Even with low-angle paddling, the "chicken wing" approach, of keeping the elbow up, even with the hand & shoulder, made a HUGE difference in how the torso rotation, and power in the stroke, felt. Brief description here.