Years ago, hubby and I took a Sevylor canoe to Durdle Door coast..paddled through the door and back again to the coast. If we ever make it back up to Scotland I'd like to go paddling with him somewhere with it. Fortunately hubby knew what he was doing and I paddled like mad.
I wish I could HappyG(rrrr) but to be honest it's been years since I was in a boat I used to be a kayak instructor and got up to 3 star BCU for canoe but never really did any canoe instruction. That was about 20 years ago.
What I remember was when I first started each stroke was quite long as I would pull back and then kind of trail the paddle to steer before the next stroke. But as you get more used to the feel of the paddle and the water you get to the stage where you can judge the movement better so if necessary you can push out a bit from the boat on the end of the J stroke to correct the direction quicker and therefore get to your next stroke quicker. Not sure that makes sense?
Reading your exploits and seeing the pictures makes me want to get a boat! I have a white water kayak and a sea kayak (both from when I lived in North Wales) but now living in land locked Bedford, neither have see water for years.
G, Elsie, it's even longer since I did any open canoe paddling but, from what I recall, the J stroke is so-called because the stroke ends with the drive face of the blade (the side that's pushing the water through the stroke, rather than the front of the blade) turning away from the boat to act as a bit of a rudder effect counteracting the boat's turn due to the power stroke.
So if you're paddling on the right side of the boat each stroke makes the bow turn slightly left doesn't it?
So as you finish the drive bit of the stroke push down on the paddle handle with your thumb and the blade will turn away from the boat (to the right) and draw a "j" in the water, and by putting that bend in the stroke you push the bow back to the right.
That all made sense with the pictures in my head! Not so much when I read the text back. I'll have a little google on youtube and see if I can find something helpful.
Free training & racing tools for runners, cyclists, swimmers & walkers.
Fetcheveryone lets you analyse your training, find races, plot routes, chat in our forum, get advice, play games - and more!
Nothing is behind a paywall, and it'll stay that way thanks to our awesome community!
Sailing - dinghies, yachts, inshore, coastal, ocean?! :-)
Nov 2024