Whitewater Kayaking Basics

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:52:08 +0000

The most basic move that every whitewater kayaker must learn to begin to progress is how to stay even with the current and pointing parallel with the current. This sounds like an easy enough task since all it really requires is that you point downstream. Once you get in a whitewater kayak on a river though, you will realize it is hard with changing current speeds, river obstacles, turns and a whole manner of other things that will effect your ability to stay parallel to the river.

To practice staying parallel to the current, find a local river that has a long, straight section that will not have any whitewater in it. You are just going to familiarize yourself with slowing down your kayak while going upstream and downstream a river. This is a vital skill anyway and it will help you get a feel for the current and how to find it. The technique you are going to use is to first spin your kayak upstream. Practice slowly paddling to slow your kayak down against the current. Practice this movement for a long time. The more you practice it, the better feel you are going to have for it and when you actually need a powerful stroke upstream you will have it.

Once you get a really good feel for that, spin back around downstream and start paddling backwards. This should slow you down, but again you will want to practice this move till you feel comfortable doing it and do not spin around randomly while doing it. It will take practice, but these are two very basic kayaking moves to just get you started!
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Whitewater Kayaking Basics