How to do Bow Initiations on a Kayak

Series Summary

There are many different types of kayaks from fishing kayaks to whit water kayaks and they are each designed with a particular purpose in mind. They are made for a single person and have styles that can accommodate up to three people. They use currents from the water type they are on as well as double ended paddles to propel them. Each kayak has a cockpit style seat for the riders. This ensures the kayak can be turned back over if it were to flip.

This is a great video series that will teach you some tricks you can use to more easily maneuver around holes and rocks and to use your leverage to keep you right side up. They are also just for fun of course as well. You will learn how to use the bow and the stern to flip you in the other direction and spin. Some fun tricks like kick flips and rock spins or a combination of a few moves when done right can make kayaking not only fulfilling but also a lot of fun.

Video Transcript

"Bow initiations are the way we sink our bow down just on top of the foam pile in a hole or if we want to do some eddy line tricks. What we're really trying to do is after we sink our sternum to the water first. It goes in just slightly and that rebounds and helps us get the bow down. This is called the double pump. Basically what I'm going to do is I'll paddle forward a little bit and go up a little speed. That kind of gives you a little weight to work with. As I paddle forward, I'm going to take a last forward stroke lowering my edge to that side and pull my bow up into the air. When the bow is up in the air, I'll rotate as far as I can really bringing this shoulder across the boat, and then do that bow pivot stroke that we already worked on. The thing that helps the double pump along is keeping a nice steady edge on your boat so you're not rolling your edge at all for this and getting as much rotation into the move as you can. The more I pull into the move and kind of throw my weight just forward out over here, the easier this double pump will be."