How to do the Forward Sweep Kayaking Stroke

Video Transcript

"Forward sweep is the method to turn our boats. Sometimes we want to turn it fast and sometimes not so fast. Also think about the forward sweep and the type of boat you have. I have a small little whitewater boat. Some of you may be in recreational style boats or sea kayak. So the forward sweep or the length of the forward sweep changes slightly depending on boat you're going to be in. We're going to talk about the forward sweep for this whitewater boat. Let show you a couple so you can get the idea before I break it down into parts. Here it goes. Did you see it? Basically what I did was I wond up my torso, placed my paddle up near my toes and keep my paddle shaft nice and horizontal, I swept away from the boat. The other thing I did which we talked about in our basic principles is looking in the direction I want to go. Let me do it a few more times so you can see what's really happening. Wind up, look where I want to go and there you are again. Now the other part of the sweep or if you have a longer boat is the back half. If I had a very long, say a sea kayak, I would have to make my sweep much longer almost taken out near the end of boat. I'll show you one and you'll see it turns this boat very quickly. This sweep tends to be for a little bit longer boat, but I'll show you it. Low paddle shaft, start at the toes way out behind you. So adjust the length of your sweep depending on the boat you have. Remember, all these paddling principles can be for a long boat or short boat. So that's the forward sweep."