Video: How to do a Cross Forward Stroke in Canoeing

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Learn the cross forward stroke for flatwater canoeing in this free outdoor extreme sports video from our kayak and canoe expert.

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Video Transcript

The cross forward is a way to take a forward stroke on your off side. Now, in a canoe...It's an asymmetrical boat by the way that this paddle is set up. We take most of our strokes on one side of the boat, but if you want to get speed up quickly, it's often useful to have a stroke on the other side of the boat to be able to off set the stroke on your on side. So the cross forward stroke. Here's the regular forward stroke. Cross is just a cross over the bow of the boat. I usually slide my hand up the paddle shaft a little bit to give myself a little easier leverage on the other side. Then with my blade the power face facing back toward the stern of the boat, I'm just going to kind of fall onto the top of the paddle and do a cross forward stroke. I'm going to paddle away from the camera and then back toward it and you'll see how especially my weight falling onto the paddle basically pushing down on the T grip is how I get power into the stroke. I don't tend to take a lot of cross forward strokes at once, so I'm going to take on side strokes and off side strokes alternating. Probably with a few more on side than off side strokes trying to take only one cross forward at a time to off set one or two or maybe even three on side forward strokes. Here's what it looks like. In a solo white water canoe and an open canoe, crossing over the bow can be somewhat inefficient because the bow is fairly as oppose to a Cone where it's easier and quicker to cross over the bow. So in a solo canoe especially, you want to limit the number of off side forward strokes, but do them when you need them. They're a great way to get quick acceleration when you need it an eddy or in other places on the river.

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How to do a Cross Forward Stroke in Canoeing

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