Short description: This clinic is designed to help you improve your body and boat control and maneuvering strokes, improve your ability to read water and to be where you want to on moving water, and improve your surfing skills.
Main emphasis: maneuvering and surfing.
Target audience: whitewater canoeists with some to considerable canoe experience (whitewater or moving water) who are interested in improving their maneuvering, reading, and surfing skills.
Class size: limited to 5 students (tandem or solo canoes)
Date offered: Sunday, April 28, 2024
Location: dependent on water levels and resulting eddy lines and waves.
Start time: 9:00am
On water time: 10:00am to sometime in the afternoon
Some videoing and video critiquing: after water or interspersed on water.
Finish time: late afternoon
Skills and drills to be worked on: body weight location and posture (center of gravity versus center of buoyancy, boat weighting versus paddle weighting), edging versus leaning, torso rotation (separation of the upper and lower body), joint safety (box, flex), moving the boat versus the paddle, forward strokes, back strokes, sweep strokes (components, spinning versus carving), draw strokes (static, dynamic, bow, stern, open, closed, neutral, water pressure and blade faces), cross bow draw, compound back stroke, turns (control from the inside, stroke recovery), bracing (blade faces and elbows, sculling low braces, balance on edge, minimize paddle weighting), reading moving water (and more reading water including your effects on moving water), use of the strokes in moving water, vision, ferrying (purposes, targets, angles, forward, back), side slipping, pillows, unbroaching, lots of eddy work (eddy lines, eddy currents, entering techniques, leaving techniques, edging versus leaning), lots of wave work (reading, targeting, getting on waves – catch on the fly versus access eddy, vision, carving on waves, looking, weight shifts, edges, spinning on waves, fast ferries using waves), upstream attainments, possibly some friendly wave-hole work.
Equipment needed: your own food (snacks, lunch, liquids), suitable paddling gear for air and water temperatures (dress for getting wet, have towels and dry clothes for after), helmet, suitable personal flotation device (pfd), whitewater canoe paddle, whitewater useable canoe, air bags/flotation in canoe.
Skills needed to take the class: moving water low brace, ability to strongly paddle your canoe along a desired path in moving water, edge awareness and some edge control. Prior pool sessions with Piper highly recommended.
Complementary Strokes and Moving Water Work for Canoes class highly recommended.