Forward Paddle Stroke Tips for Whitewater Rafting

Video Transcript

"With the forward stroke the guide is going to want to make sure the crew is working together as a team. Everyone synchronizes their paddling strokes and then you really have just a couple of strokes. A couple of variations of the forward strokes; you have a nice easy forward stroke and hard forward stroke. We'll look at the easy forward stroke first here, a nice easy forward stroke bringing the raft upstream, the paddle stroke finishes at the hip, folks in the lead of the raft or at the bow of our raft are setting the pace paddling together. Then we'll show you a hard forward stroke, give them a hard forward stroke there. The raft accelerates, works its way upstream. The hard forward stroke is an exhausting stroke, so you want to make sure that you give your crew a goal to get to. You want them to be paddling froward as hard as they can, but they can't do that indefinitely. So if you say okay guys this is our goal, paddle hard forward to that rock or if you say okay guys I need 6 strong forward strokes and then you count off 1,2,3, your crew will give you the effort that you need to where you need to go and if you need an extra couple you can just add a few fractions in there, 5 forward strokes 1,2,3,4, 4 1/2, 4 3/4, 5 and that helps the raft get to where it goes. Your crew will give you every effort that they can to get you where you need to go. Often you're paddling not hard to avoid something so it's pretty important that you can make that move or you're heading to a section on the river that's fun to play with. So it's fun to have a crew that works for you and motivating your crew is a skill for one of the raft guides needs to learn."