One of the sayings that I first heard when learning to paddle was that the expert paddles gracefully through the water, using one stroke for every ten that the beginner uses. Having little else in the form of instruction or guidance at that time I decided to try to use this as an outline to become something closer to resembling an “Expert”.
I first figured that I would have to paddle a LOT harder if I wanted to use one tenth of the strokes that I was using then. Then I started hearing that racers trained for hours a day on making their strokes more efficient, so I figured that must be the trick; that those experts had WAY more “efficient” strokes and that’s why they were so powerful. I was still determined not to look like a complete idiot on the water; so armed with a few tidbits of stroke technology info I began trying to make that one stroke have the power of ten. This went on quite a while and bit by bit my strokes smoothed out and became more powerful, but still it seemed quite impossible to make one stroke have anywhere near the power of ten. The good part was I had learned a fair bit about how the currents worked during this formative period; after numerous poor lines and a few swims here and there I was beginning to learn to read water.
One day I decided that in order to “look” like something other than a drowning victim as I flailed down the rapids was to cheat; that in order for me to only use one stroke where I was sure that I needed ten, I would have to do some major coasting action here and there. I was starting to realize that If I could see far enough ahead of time I could just sort of point the boat in the right direction and the current would gradually drift me that way. Bit by bit I was starting to learn that I really didn’t need to paddle all that hard or often through most of the gentle rapids that I was floating; all in all I was feeling pretty good. I figured that most experts were just like me and had figured that you just kind of let the boat float with the current and most of the time things sort of work out, especially if you’re pointed the right direction. One day I was reading a paddling magazine, and I read somewhere in it that experts did not simply float through rapids, but rather they “eddy hopped” them; picking their way through technical rapids by moving constantly from one eddy to another.
The reality that I could not look the part of “expert” by simply coasting along was daunting; not only was I supposed to use the paddle much less than I had been, I was also expected to make a lot more moves than I had been. I started to try to catch more eddies but needed lots more strokes to do it. Eventually that same wisdom that I had acquired in the form of reading my water started to kick in. I started looking at the currents and setting good angles to make my moves; using, rather than fighting the currents. All beginners are taught that ANGLE is one of the key ingredients to any basic eddy turn or ferry. The key to real finesse paddling is taking that basic angle strategy and applying it when we read our water for all of our moves. You will get more bang for your buck, and look much smoother, if every time that you’re sitting in an eddy looking to another eddy; look to the currents and think it out in terms of angles that will minimize your need for paddle power.
It is important to remember that your boats angle to the current is THE primary determining factor in how that current will affect your boat. Looking at the basic eddy turn/ peel out as an example, there are two other key ingredients that are at work in determining the actual effect of the current on our boat: speed, and edge. While your boats speed and the amount of edge (or lack thereof) do both play secondary roles in how the current affects your boat, it is the angle of the kayak that plays the most dramatic role in relation to the current. This is only important because it means that angle is the first and most important thing that we need to take into account when reading our water to make a move. While a novice paddler can often power on through minor rapids with speed and power, an expert can gracefully dance through a difficult and technical piece of whitewater with no need for excessive force; the expert pays more attention to their angles than to their speed. Learning to set good angles to make use of currents, rather than be abused by them, is for many the essence of what makes kayaking so intriguing; the graceful art of playing with one of the more powerful forces of nature.
To really paddle gracefully and efficiently in whitewater we often have to identify a complicated string of angles in a set of moves. Lets say that you want to catch an eddy using approximately a 45degree angle or so, but to get to the eddy we must first deal with a lateral deflecting away from the eddy. If we approach the eddy with our eddy turn angle, we may loose that angle from the lateral; therefore, we first have to set an angle to compensate for the lateral to achieve our angle for the eddy turn. Things get more complicated if we start adding other obstacles to the process; the idea is to address the first current or obstacle with an angle that will set you up for the angle you want for the second (thus setting you up for the angle that you want for the third, forth, etc). Remember that waves, cushions, holes, eddy lines, boils, rocks, etc, all can have varying effects on your boat depending on your angle to them. If I could tell you all of the magic angles for every situation I would, but there are simply too many variables to do this (even down to the boat design, and the size and shape of the paddler). You can easily judge how good or bad your angle is on any move by examining how hard you are working to maintain that angle, and how hard you are working to move your boat where you want to go. If you’re working your butt off to get somewhere, try changing your angle a bit and see if that helps.
The magic angles seem to require so little effort on our part to work, but most often in the learning process you’ll find that your angle is not quite right on the money; but changing to a better angle is fairly simple conceptually. Some basic things to practice that will help develop your own intuition include: trying to make s-turns with minimal strokes and effort on your part, making ferries that do not need constant correcting, find laterals and cushions (or other cross currents) that you can use to move your boat laterally across the river, practice addressing and crossing deflecting currents coming from cushions, etc. Angles work in many directions, including upstream angles, and downstream angles (and everything in between); be sure to try practicing lots of moves using as many different angles as possible. By looking for currents and cross currents you will begin to read water better, and by playing with these currents with a variety of angles you will begin to develop a smoother style of paddling that will also help you to run more challenging white water more safely and solidly.
