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SLICE REAR BLADE INTO WATER.


RAISE AND PUSH AWAY


WITH LEADING HAND. PHOTOS: NIGEL FOSTER


DIFFERENT STROKES After Nigel Foster taught the stern draw in the Summer/Fall 2012 issue’s technique column (www.adventurekayakmag. com/0065), we wondered how many readers found this stroke helpful. Facebook fans Mark Whitaker, Tom McFetridge and Birgit Kuhle wrote they used the stern draw “all the time,” and Kuhle added, “Although I didn’t know what it was called for the longest time.” Write editor@adventurekayakmag.com with your questions about skills, strokes and rescues, and we’ll ask the experts to answer them in our new Q&A column, debuting this is- sue on page 51.


TECHNIQUE BY NIGEL FOSTER Master the Stern Draw


If you’ve ever experienced weathercocking in your kayak, you’ll value an efficient way to counter it. The stern draw accomplishes this with very little effort or loss of speed, helping you maintain a straight line with or across the wind. The stern draw is one type of stern rudder:


the blade position pulls the stern sideways rather than pushing it sideways or tracking it straight. The blade is held high, as in a draw stroke, rather than low, as in a sweep stroke. The maneuver relies on water flowing across a static blade face. Used on the windward side to correct


weathercocking, the stern draw is stable and the stern will not skid out. However, attempted on the downwind side, or with no wind, cur- rent or waves to counteract it, a good stern draw will initiate a tail skid. This is not its pur- pose: the stern will overrun the paddle, which could flip you. For this reason, first practice at a slower speed without edging on a windless day. Should your tail skid, keep balance by transi- tioning into a low brace. Next, pick a target ahead across the wind so


you can monitor the effect of each of the fol- lowing steps. With forward speed, you’ll likely turn into the wind from your target—the stern draw steers you back.


1. Rotate torso toward wind/draw side. Hold paddle low, parallel to both water and kayak, both hands above water. Tuck rearmost elbow to hip.


2. Slice rear blade into water. Blade should remain neutral with water flowing evenly along both sides.


3. Hold bottom arm and hand position, raise 26 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SUMMER/FALL 2012


front arm to shoulder height and with this high hand, push paddle further from kayak. Ideally, straighten top arm at elbow and bring perpendicular to kayak—this depends on your flexibility. This action changes the blade alignment, bringing light pressure against the face. Your kayak should start to turn away from the paddle and the wind. Check against your target.


4. Press with draw-side foot and edge kayak down toward the active blade to release stern and accentuate turn. This also aids top arm extension.


5. Adjust the amount of pressure against blade by raising or lowering your top hand. Remember, you must push away with your top hand. As you become more proficient, use your bottom hand to fine-tune blade angle.


Note: A stern draw placed too far forward be- comes a sideslip. If your kayak moves sideways toward the blade without turning, move the blade back.


Next Step: Transition into the stern draw from a forward stroke. Finishing your forward stroke, slice blade diagonally back from the side of the kayak. Pull your lower arm elbow to your hip and push top arm into its stern draw position.


A sea kayak pioneer, Nigel Foster is an author, boat designer and BCU Level 5 Coach based in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he is a partner and Director of Training at Sweetwater Kayaks.


DIGITAL EXTRA: To watch a video tutorial, go to Adventurekayakmag. com/0065 or download the Adventure Kayak app.


AND StAy ON COURSe eFFORtleSSly iN WiND, CURReNt AND WAVeS PEER REVIEW


As Nigel indicates, the stern draw is a subtle stroke. Too much push with the top hand or edge with the windward hull can cause the kayak to turn downwind, resulting in a drunken series of S turns. —Michael Pardy, Paddle Canada level 3 instructor trainer, Victoria, BC


Use your bottom hand like you would on the throttle of a motorcycle, rolling it forwards or backwards in order to transition between neu- tral, a pushing sensation and a pulling sensa- tion. By doing this you will be experimenting with both the stern draw and the stern pry. Blade angle is one way of compensating for reduced torso rotation due to lower flexibility. —Meaghan Hennessy, Paddle Canada level 2 instructor trainer and BCU level 3 coach, Vancouver, BC


We learned this great technique from Nigel about 15 years ago. Having this skill has allowed us to paddle kayaks without using skegs ever since. —Shawna Franklin and Leon Sommé, BCU level 4 coaches, Orcas Island, WA


As handy as the stern draw is for correcting weathercocking, it is also delightfully useful when surfing, especially on gently rounded swells or small waves. Apply it at the end of a forward stroke/sweep at the first hint that the kayak wants to broach. —Ginni Callahan, ACA level 5 instructor and BCU level 4 coach, Cathlamet, WA / Loreto, Baja


Remember to always look at your target. As Nigel says, this may be hard if you are not flexible, but it is key to knowing if the draw is working. —Christopher Lockyer, Paddle Canada level 4 instructor and BCU level 4 coach, Halifax, NS


Read more peer reviews from lead- ing coaches and instructors at www. adventurekayakmag.com/0066.


SALTED OR UNSALTED?


When images from the Gales Storm Gathering (report on page 66) began circulating the web, there was widespread disbelief that waves so large could be found on freshwater. It seems ocean paddlers are hard-pressed to give unsalted waters a fair shake. “No contest. Give me a wide open ocean with swells and chop and crazy currents any day over a boring lake or river!” Sandy Ducharme wrote on Adven- ture Kayak’s Facebook page. James E. Delaney agreed, “Freshwater is not as interesting as [the] ocean.” Meanwhile, sweet water paddlers kept a more open mind: “Never paddled on saltwater,” wrote Sarah Cristen Heffner when asked which she preferred, “I’d have to try it before I make a decision.” Happily, many who joined the debate didn’t seem to care where they wet their hulls. “As long as it’s large enough to be able to see the horizon,” wrote Todd Strasser. Amen.


BEST SEASON EVER


There’s a reason this issue is themed “Your Best Year Ever” rather than “Your Best Season Ever.” Because we know that every season can be fabulous. Voters from every corner of the country confirmed this on our Facebook wall. “All seasons are good, but spring and fall are best,” wrote North Carolina’s Rob O’Briant. Alaska’s Brian Owens also welcomed the spring, “There is nothing like laying on a warm beach soaking up the sun after a long day of paddling.” Quebec’s Sébastien Lapierre preferred “a nice cold evening in the fall.” Autumn was also the popular choice for Lake Superior’s Tim Gallaway,who liked the season’s “warm water and cold wind,” and Calgary’s Jane Otte: “The glorious autumn when all the colors are vibrant and there’s a stillness in the air!” In Tampa, Florida, Robert Reppy voted for winter—“no bugs”—and panned springtime paddling “because of rutting ‘gators.” Turn to page 57 for a month-by-month guide to this year’s best pad- dling experiences.


Fl &Jetsam otsam STREET CRED


We call it “Rock the Boat” for a reason. In our last issue (Summer/Fall 2012, www.adven- turekayakmag.com/0071), illustrious RTB guest columnist John Dowd wrote about the scourge of certification in “Freedom Lost,” and struck a chord with West Creek, New Jersey, reader Pat Filardi. “Dowd hit the mark, as an un-certified instructor since the early 1980s I couldn’t agree more,” Fi-


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ROCK THE BOAT By JOhN DOWD Freedom Lost


There was a time in the early ‘90s that the Clayoquot Sound beach on which I live was host to half a dozen private groups of kayakers on any one evening. Sometimes, as many as 50 campers vied for a spot to put their tents during the summer months. During the summer of 2011, it was a very different scene. Calm seas and mild weather did


not entice the numbers of previous years. Labor Day brought silky seas and warm, sunny days but the only campers on our beach were hikers dropped there by water taxi. From April to September, the groups that did arrive were mostly instructor training or outdoor


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programs run by colleges and high schools. The rest were a smattering of commercial tours with their distinctive green and white tarps and customers who always look just a little out of place. What’s going on? To answer that question, I have to go back 10 years to a consulting job I did for a retail store


that sold dive gear in one half of the shop and sea kayaks in the other. I asked the staff what they were really selling on the dive side of the shop. After much discussion they agreed they were selling a sense of belonging. Belonging to a society whose members had undergone a rite of passage. They had completed the courses and received the blessing of their peers. They were certified divers. So what about the sea kayaking side of the shop? There they agreed that they were selling free-


dom. It was noted to the surprise of the shop’s owners that the crossover was barely 15 percent. This difference isn’t one of chance. When sea kayaking began to take off in North America


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in the 1980s, I was in the midst of it as a publisher, retailer and manufacturer. The sport’s popularity at that time was due in large part to a conscious focus upon accessibility to ordi- nary folk, especially women and families. We realized that we had to avoid the macho whitewater attitude with its over-emphasis


on technique. Rolling, surveys told us, was a turn-off for most of our customers, and not much use for the most common emergency situation in which a paddler becomes gradually overwhelmed by conditions. We had the British as an example of what not to do. Across the pond, a thriving post-war


kayak industry had been reduced to a tenth of its glory of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Instructors bent on right and wrong had scorned and certified the kit-built boat people and their simple craft out of the market, replacing them with heavy West Greenland-style boats that appealed to a very different crowd. From family activity, “sea canoeing” became 90 percent young males. I am convinced that the reduced number of serious sea kayakers who appear on our beach


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each year has to do with the shift of sea kayaking from a freedom-centered activity to a be- longing or following activity. The first question a new member to a local sea kayak club was recently asked by other members was, “What level (of certification) are you?” New books on sea kayaking do not emphasize seamanship, which is at the heart of the


activity, but focus in excruciating detail on an array of marginally relevant whitewater strokes and a forward stroke taken straight from flatwater racing. The distinction between surf kaya- king and sea kayaking has become blurred. The mood has changed. I predict that those who have brought about these changes will find themselves regulating


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a smaller and less freedom-loving group. Such few kayakers who make it out to our beach un- der their own power will be the remnants of an old guard I’ve come to know and like so well. We can talk about life, not just levels. John Dowd is the author of the classic text, Sea Kayaking: A Manual for Long-Distance Touring, and paddled from Venezuela to Florida in 1977, long before kayakers carded each other.


ILLUSTRATION: LORENZO DEL BIANCO


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