How to Find Good Holes for Beginning Kayaking Tricks

Series Summary

Kayaks have been used for thousands of years - the oldest kayaks dating back 4,000 years. Inuit Indians, who invented and named the kayak, have always used them as an effective means for hunting sea animals such as sea lions. Today the majority of kayaks are used for recreation. From sea kayaks to white water kayaks, these amazingly versatile boats are employed and enjoyed all around the world. Learning how to use a kayak is not exactly intuitive and getting instruction from a professional instructor is paramount for both beginners and advanced students.

In this free video series, watch as expert kayaker James Sullivan teaches beginning kayaking tricks while playing in holes and waves. Learn how to find a good hole and identify a bad one, how to enter a hole from above and the side, how to move forward and backwards in a hole, how to get on a foam pile, how to find sweet spots, how to edge control in holes, how to enter a wave from above, how to avoid pearling, how to carve an edge, how to use the power stroke, and how to use forward and reverse rudders on kayaks.

Video Transcript

"Okay, in this segment we’re going to look at good holes to play in and what makes a good hole for freestyler kayaking. You’re looking at this hole just behind me; this is a nice hole for freestyle kayaking. It has a pretty good-sized foam pile, which means that it’s going to be a nice deep hole. I also look at the upstream face of the water so the water dropping down toward that foam should have a pretty low angle to it. With a nice low angle I can have less edge on my kayak to be stable. What else I’m looking for is that there is a continuation of current through the foam pile. If I have a big sticky foam pile, it’s going to keep me too much in that hole, it’s going to make it hard to get to the top of it. But if I have some current flowing through the foam pile, that’s going to allow me to do a lot of freestyle moves. I’m looking for the downstream corners of the hole as well, the downstream corners are each end of the hole, so right about here would be one downstream corner and that’s downstream of the middle part that allows me to get out of the hole and also spin back into the hole pretty easily. If those are upstream we’re getting more into a bad hole, that’s it. "