Things You'll Need:
- Kayak paddle
- Kayak
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Step 1
Find the control position that is correct for you. Every paddler is either going to have a right-hand control or a left-hand control. Using a paddle, with the blades at 0- to 90-degree angles to each other (most two-piece paddles can be feathered in increments of 15 degrees, and somewhere between 15 and 45 is most comfortable), stand and put the edge of a blade on the ground parallel to your feet, and if the top blade's power face (concave side) is on the right, then it is a right-hand control; if it is on the left, it is a left-hand control.
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Step 2
Sitting in your kayak, place your hands on the paddle slightly more than shoulder-width apart; this is called the "paddler's box." Center the paddle directly between your hands, with your palms on top and thumbs underneath. If your hands are less than shoulder-width apart, you will not get enough leverage. Hold the paddle out in front of you at chest to chin height with arms slightly bent. Your control hand should always remain stationary; you twist the shaft with this hand. The control-side blade should be perpendicular to your body when you hold the paddle out in front of you; the other side should be parallel to the water if it is set at a 90-degree angle. This is your basic paddling position.
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Step 3
Bring the control-side blade up and back to about ear level, and extend the nondominant blade out and down into the water as far as is comfortable. Reach the blade as far as your ankle, but extend it past your knee area. Dip the blade so there is only an inch or two of water covering it.
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Step 4
Push the shaft of the paddle with your control hand while twisting with your core muscles and hips so that the nondominant blade is pushed back through the water toward you. Push with your control hand about 60 percent, and pull back with your nondominant hand about 40 percent. Do not grip tightly when using your control hand to push forward, but cup the shaft of the paddle between thumb and forefinger, relaxed with your wrist slightly dropped while pushing with the upper, cushioned part of your palm. Overgripping the shaft will result in blisters.
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Step 5
Bring the nondominant blade up out of the water once it is pushed to your hip area. Allow your hips and body to bend with the movement more than your wrist. If your wrists take all the twisting, then you can damage them quickly.
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Step 6
Transition the paddle. After the nondominant blade emerges from the water, the paddle is briefly brought in front of you at your basic parallel paddling position. Continue the cycle by pushing the shaft with the nondominant hand this time, the palm cradling the shaft between thumb and forefinger. The control blade is brought down into the water approximately where the paddler's ankles sit and then taken up out of the water when it reaches back to the hips. This cycle is completed over and over again to create the forward paddling stroke, while using your core muscles and torso more than the pulling force of your arms.
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Step 7
Reverse the cycle if you wish to slow or stop the momentum you have created. Using a similar backward motion, you can turn right or left. By dipping your left blade into the water and pushing forward, the front of your kayak will begin to turn left; if you dip your right paddle in and push forward, it will begin to turn right, all the while keeping the power face of the blade facing toward you. Move sideways from sitting still by using the draw stroke. This consists of extending the paddle blade several feet from the side of the kayak with the blade parallel to the boat and pulling the paddle through the water toward you, thus pulling the kayak in the direction in which you previously extended your paddle.
