How to Link Spins in Freestyle Kayaking

Video Transcript

"When you start practicing linking spins in flat water, what you're really focusing on is the timing of when you switch your edges and when you switch the rotation of your torso to keep your body in front of your boat. When linking spins what I'm first doing is bow pivot turn, which is a reverse sweep and sinking bow down, and then catching myself on a stern pivot turn for the next end. Sinking the stern down and pulling the bow back around. This is the way that we spin in holes or just doing some nice flat spins even. The timing is really important. Every time that I'm sideways, my paddle can only be on my downstream side, and my up stream edge has to be up. Anytime that I'm in line or straight onto it, now my boat can be nice and flat. When I link spins, I begin with a lot of edge, flat in the middle, a lot of edge, flat at the end. That way I'm continually pulling the boat around. The other that changes with our sweep strokes with this is the first pivot turn is the same. Once I get to backwards, I don't need to start all the way up my toes because it wastes time. I'll actually start just at my hip here and then I'll catch the oncoming water on my paddle, and that'll give me the extra push to bring the boat around. Starting at the hip, we already have a lot of that momentum built up from the first bow pivot, so we're just continuing the momentum by getting a bracing sort of stroke against the current."