Kayak Paddling Tips

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Part of the video series: Kayaks

Summary: When paddling a kayak, the hands should be a little farther ahead than the shoulders, they should be even on the paddles and the grip on the paddle should be light. Find out how to paddle backwards, forwards and how to brake in a kayak with help from a whitewater and recreational kayaking instructor in this free video on kayak paddling.

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By Matt Preye
eHow Presenter

Contact: http://www.weu.com/

Matt Preye has been kayaking for 15 years in both whitewater and recreational kayaks. Though his passion is whitewater, for over 10 years he has taught introductory and advanced...read more

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Video Transcript

"The first thing when you have your paddle is that you want your hands a little bit farther than your shoulders. You don't want them too close and you don't want them too far. Also make sure your hands are even on either side like this and not paddling like this. Now when you have your paddle a little bit farther than your shoulders what you want to do is you don't want to have what I call the white knuckle death grip on your paddle. Very common complaint that you hear from people first time they go out paddling is that their forearms are very sore. So what you want to do is you want a nice light grip in the paddle. Now I always tell people to loosen up, wiggle their fingers every once in a while. Now when you're paddling you can set the blades of your paddle to be parallel like this or offset like this. And this has to do a lot for personal preference and also on windy days if you have the blades offset this blade kind of slices through the wind so you're not working hard. Now to paddle forward all you need to know is to know where your feet are in the boat and where your back side is. When you're paddling you're reaching the paddle, grabbing the water by your feet and you're pulling towards your back side just like this. To paddle backwards you plant the paddle at your back side and you push to your feet in this motion here. If you want to turn all you have to do is paddle on one side. Either feet to back side or back side to foot. One other thing is you do have brakes in your kayak. If you're going to bump into somebody just don't stand there and scream. Plant your paddle in right at your hips and kind of push backwards quickly on either side. When paddling forward remember you reach the paddle by your feet and you pull to your back side. And this is done nice and relaxed. And you're not looking to win any races. You're brakes are you plant the paddle behind your back side. And to paddle backwards you push the paddle up to your toes. Back side to feet. To turn paddle on one side. Nice and slow and farther away from the boat. Remember to use your stomach to turn. And then you're on your way."