Basic strokes
words: Seppi Strohmeier
photos: Guillaume Woehrlé
Once you are ready to go on the water, this article gives you a brief introduction of the basic techniques how to move and steer your kayak.
For the first time in a boat you should choose a lake or river with almost standing water as appropriate location. Make sure that you know how to enter and exit your kayak before starting to paddle. Go on the water and practice capsizing and exiting the boat first without and then with your sprayskirt.
Holding and turning the paddle
Before doing your first strokes on the water, it is recommendable to get used to the paddle on land. To find out the optimum grip width, you can postition the centre of the paddle on top of your head and hold it with both hands so that your elbows are bent at approximately ninety degrees.
For the case that you use a feathered paddle, you have to become familiar with turning the paddle after each stroke. Feathered paddles have blades offset at different angles to reduce wind resistance and are still very common, although the amount of feather is decreasing generally by now. The most widespread type of paddle is the right-handed control paddle. Here your right hand is the “control hand” which grips the shaft firmly at all times. After taking a stroke with your control hand side, you’ll loosen the grip with your opposite hand, often characterized as “grease hand”, in order to rotate the shaft and place the other blade in the water straightly.
Forward stroke
As soon as you feel comfortable with your feathered paddle, you’re ready for the most important technique to move your kayak, the forward stroke. Get into a straight or moderately forward leaning body position in your boat. This active position is prerequesite for an efficient power transmission from body to paddle and boat.
Start your stroke with reaching with one of the blades towards your toes and planting this blade fully in the water. This movement involves reaching with your arm and rotating your upper body, so that you push the shoulder of your active blade side further forward. This torso rotation is key to a powerful and efficient stroke, as the main power should come from your front and side stomach muscles, rather than just from your arms.
Once your blade has catched the water, you lead this blade along the boat, now unwinding your upper body and driving the boat forward. During the last phase of the stroke, you bend your active arm to a maximum of 90° untill the blade reaches your hip, where you take it out of the water to start catching with the other blade on the opposite side. At this point, your upper body should already be wound up to the other side reaching for the next stroke.
In the beginning, paddling straight might seem to be pretty difficult. In fact, every stroke you make also involves spin momentum and turnes your kayak to the opposite side. In order to minimize this spin momentum, you should try to place your paddle close to the boat and get the strokes more vertical by keeping your top hand higher. And with some more practice you will learn how to anticipate corrections rather than reacting to the actions of your kayak.
Forward sweep stroke
The most common strokes to turn your kayak are sweep strokes. A big advantage of the forward sweep is the fact that you can steer your boat while keeping your forward speed going. Unlike the propulsion stroke, you want to hold your paddle lower and move it further away from the boat to increase your spin momentum. Start digging your blade in the water next to your feet while rotating your torso and heading in the direction you want to turn. Now draw the paddle away from the boat in a large arc around your body. Throughout the stroke the active arm remains as straight as possible, while your top arm is low and bent. Once the active arm passes your hip, pull it towards your body at the end of the stroke and remove your paddle from the water to avoid moving your shoulder in a risky position.
Reverse sweep stroke
The reverse sweep stroke is based on the principle as the forward counterpart, except that you are pushing into the other direction using the back side of the blade. On the one hand it’s a very efficient way to turn and brake your kayak, but on the other hand it’s taking away your entire forward speed.
Initiate the stroke by turning your upper body towards the side where you want to go and dig the blade in the water next to the stern. As mentioned above, this torso rotation is essential for an effective power transition as well as to protect your shoulder from beein pulled behind to far. Push your blade from this point towards the side and further on to the bow by describing a wide arc with your paddle. Again you want to keep your active arm straight and the top arm bent and in a low position throughout the stroke.
Bow draw
As one the more advanced techniques, the bow draw stands for a very powerful means to turn your kayak while keeping up a certain forward momentum. In standing water the boat needs a little forward speed to provide enough pressure for the paddle blade. The following description refers to the bow draw performed on the left side.
Start with a few strokes in straight line and initiate some spin momentum with a front sweep on the right. Then twist your torso to the left and lean actively into the turn while placing your paddle vertically in the water with your upper hand in front of the head. Now bend your wrists backwards to turn the front edge of the blade away from your bow (= opening the power face of your blade) and start moving it forward and further to the side. As soon as you feel pressure on your paddle, unwind your rotated torso like releasing a twisted rubber band and pull the boat around your paddle shaft with your lower body.
The bow draw is perfectly suitable to be combined with with different other strokes and can for example easily be passed over into a forward stroke to get up some speed again after turning.
words: Seppi Strohmeier
photos: Guillaume Woehrlé
Once you are ready to go on the water, this article gives you a brief introduction of the basic techniques how to move and steer your kayak.
For the first time in a boat you should choose a lake or river with almost standing water as appropriate location. Make sure that you know how to enter and exit your kayak before starting to paddle. Go on the water and practice capsizing and exiting the boat first without and then with your sprayskirt.
Holding and turning the paddle
Before doing your first strokes on the water, it is recommendable to get used to the paddle on land. To find out the optimum grip width, you can postition the centre of the paddle on top of your head and hold it with both hands so that your elbows are bent at approximately ninety degrees.
For the case that you use a feathered paddle, you have to become familiar with turning the paddle after each stroke. Feathered paddles have blades offset at different angles to reduce wind resistance and are still very common, although the amount of feather is decreasing generally by now. The most widespread type of paddle is the right-handed control paddle. Here your right hand is the “control hand” which grips the shaft firmly at all times. After taking a stroke with your control hand side, you’ll loosen the grip with your opposite hand, often characterized as “grease hand”, in order to rotate the shaft and place the other blade in the water straightly.
Forward stroke
As soon as you feel comfortable with your feathered paddle, you’re ready for the most important technique to move your kayak, the forward stroke. Get into a straight or moderately forward leaning body position in your boat. This active position is prerequesite for an efficient power transmission from body to paddle and boat.
Start your stroke with reaching with one of the blades towards your toes and planting this blade fully in the water. This movement involves reaching with your arm and rotating your upper body, so that you push the shoulder of your active blade side further forward. This torso rotation is key to a powerful and efficient stroke, as the main power should come from your front and side stomach muscles, rather than just from your arms.
Once your blade has catched the water, you lead this blade along the boat, now unwinding your upper body and driving the boat forward. During the last phase of the stroke, you bend your active arm to a maximum of 90° untill the blade reaches your hip, where you take it out of the water to start catching with the other blade on the opposite side. At this point, your upper body should already be wound up to the other side reaching for the next stroke.
In the beginning, paddling straight might seem to be pretty difficult. In fact, every stroke you make also involves spin momentum and turnes your kayak to the opposite side. In order to minimize this spin momentum, you should try to place your paddle close to the boat and get the strokes more vertical by keeping your top hand higher. And with some more practice you will learn how to anticipate corrections rather than reacting to the actions of your kayak.
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Forward sweep stroke
The most common strokes to turn your kayak are sweep strokes. A big advantage of the forward sweep is the fact that you can steer your boat while keeping your forward speed going. Unlike the propulsion stroke, you want to hold your paddle lower and move it further away from the boat to increase your spin momentum. Start digging your blade in the water next to your feet while rotating your torso and heading in the direction you want to turn. Now draw the paddle away from the boat in a large arc around your body. Throughout the stroke the active arm remains as straight as possible, while your top arm is low and bent. Once the active arm passes your hip, pull it towards your body at the end of the stroke and remove your paddle from the water to avoid moving your shoulder in a risky position.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Reverse sweep stroke
The reverse sweep stroke is based on the principle as the forward counterpart, except that you are pushing into the other direction using the back side of the blade. On the one hand it’s a very efficient way to turn and brake your kayak, but on the other hand it’s taking away your entire forward speed.
Initiate the stroke by turning your upper body towards the side where you want to go and dig the blade in the water next to the stern. As mentioned above, this torso rotation is essential for an effective power transition as well as to protect your shoulder from beein pulled behind to far. Push your blade from this point towards the side and further on to the bow by describing a wide arc with your paddle. Again you want to keep your active arm straight and the top arm bent and in a low position throughout the stroke.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Bow draw
As one the more advanced techniques, the bow draw stands for a very powerful means to turn your kayak while keeping up a certain forward momentum. In standing water the boat needs a little forward speed to provide enough pressure for the paddle blade. The following description refers to the bow draw performed on the left side.
Start with a few strokes in straight line and initiate some spin momentum with a front sweep on the right. Then twist your torso to the left and lean actively into the turn while placing your paddle vertically in the water with your upper hand in front of the head. Now bend your wrists backwards to turn the front edge of the blade away from your bow (= opening the power face of your blade) and start moving it forward and further to the side. As soon as you feel pressure on your paddle, unwind your rotated torso like releasing a twisted rubber band and pull the boat around your paddle shaft with your lower body.
The bow draw is perfectly suitable to be combined with with different other strokes and can for example easily be passed over into a forward stroke to get up some speed again after turning.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Getting started - River classification
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