Video: How to do a Low Brace Maneuver in Canoeing

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Learn the low brace maneuver and its benefits when flatwater canoeing in this free outdoor extreme sports video from our kayak and canoe expert.

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Video Transcript

When you're about to flip toward your on side in an open canoe, you have a very powerful tool to keep yourself from doing that. It's called a low brace. In a canoe, a low brace is especially powerful because of your high seating position and because of your ability to reach out over the side of the canoe and get a really powerful support from your paddle on the water. The way you do a low brace is you face your work; your turn your torso toward the side you're going to brace on. You choke up a little bit on your paddle shaft so that you can reach your top hand over the gunnel easily. If you start with your top hand in board, in like this, you're not going to get nearly the effective brace that you can if you start with your hand out over the gunnel. The next thing you're going to start with your top hand lower than your bottom hand. What I'm going to do all at once is my paddle is going to hit the water. I'm going to put my head down, lift up on my on side knee, and right my boat. I'm putting my head down as a counter weight to lifting my knee. If I don't put my head down and if I try to lift my knee, I'm just going to go. Here's what it looks like again. You can see I have a very powerful lever action with my hands. With my bottom hand or my top hand, which is lower, coming up with my bottom hand pushing down, I've got a lot of power that I can put into the water. Once more, here's what a low brace looks like. Good luck!

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How to do a Low Brace Maneuver in Canoeing

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