September 16, 2024
Why are SNM’s Coast to Coast training trips so popular?
– people like what we do
Why are they so successful with high rates of passing and grade 2 certificate completion?
– our courses are well planned and well executed
Why won’t you publish your Coast to Coast Kayak Tips that you teach on your courses?
– ok, fine, here you go…
1. Shallow Water Drag (Frictional Resistance): Shallow water increases drag due to friction between the hull and the riverbed, significantly slowing down your boat. The technical term here is frictional resistance, which is higher in shallows. This should be relevant for obvious reasons; stay out of the shallows, go deeper; go faster.
2. Path of Least Resistance: Always aim for the path of least resistance in rapids and ripples. Visualize smooth, consistent lines, avoiding eddies and turbulent areas. In low water, pick channels with continuous deeper water. A reference point is if the peaks and troughs are choppy enough to go over your bow, stay out of it. The bouncing around will upset your technique and mental game (slowing you down), the rocking of the boat creates friction when the bow dives and the stern submerges (slowing you down)…regardless of boats slicing through the peaks and troughs, this still slows you down. The laminar flow is sill abundant for you to catch on the sides.
3. Corner Cuts > 90 Degrees: On sharper bends (>90-degree cut), position yourself early to follow the apex of the turn. The inside line usually offers a quicker transition. In kayaking, there’s always a dilemma between taking the fastest flow with the longest line or the slower flow with a shorter distance. However, when corners are ~90 degrees or greater and have decent flow, staying inside the bend is almost always worth it. The water is typically calmer, with fewer peaks and troughs breaking over the bow, making the inside line a more efficient choice and straightens out an otherwise tighter corner.
4. 101 Geography class: read the landscape first! You will see more of what the land is doing before the river. The layout of the land; the way the valleys and gorges are shaped (by the water) will determine where the water is going. So you can already gain basic information on your lines well ahead of time.
5. Ripple and Rapid Reading: Identify the tail end of rapids and link them to your next target spot. Pretend like it’s ‘joining-the-dots’ from the finish of one rapid or moving current to the start of the next one. All your lines and angles should follow nice smooth curving arcs, no abrupt turns that will add friction and slow you down!
6. V-Funnels & Chevron Patterns: A glassy V or chevron shape on the water surface indicates converging currents that funnel you into the optimal, fast-flowing line. These V-shaped funnels siphon you into the laminar flow, but remember point #2.
7. Laminar Flow in Rapids: When entering rapids, bury your paddle slightly deeper to catch the laminar flow—the smooth layer of water underneath the chaotic surface—which provides more traction and helps you push through faster without getting knocked off balance.
8. Straighten at the Apex/Crux: On sharp turns, focus on aligning your kayak (parallel) with the flow at the crux of the corner. This straightens your boat before reaching the turbulent sections downstream. It also prevents you from ‘skidding out’ or drifting-out into eddies and slow water.
9. Lanes 1-5: break the river or channels down from river left to river right into ‘lanes’; lane 1 river left, lane 3 is in the middle, lane 5 is river right, lane 2 is in between 1 & 3, lane 4 you should be able to work out 🙂 The beauty of this is simply using river terminology and applying some ‘organised chaos’ to the river which helps you know where you should be directing your boat.
10. Rivers like to travel straight and uniform. There has been extensive field research on this and in general a river always has a change in feature (rapid, corner, etc.) at the following marks: the river is never straight for more than 10 times it’s width. Corners are never more than 5 times longer than the rivers width. Skeptical? Ask one man who spent 40+ years of his life traveling up and down water ways journaling these exact facts! What it means for you is to know more about what is coming up ahead and for how long.
11. Hybrid Stroke: Cock Wrists Back 45 Degrees: ONLY for use when needed and ONLY in rapids where there is a risk of imbalance. This combines a forward stroke with a support stroke. By cocking your wrists back at 45 degrees, you gain better control during both acceleration and balance recovery, especially in unstable water.
12. Bicycle Legs on Flat Water: On calm, flat stretches (which is ~80% of the Waimakariri), engage your legs in a cycling motion by pressing on the foot peg with each stroke (the same leg as the same side you stroke). This engages your core and stabilizes your hips, giving you more power and balance whereby your leg drive helps rotate your torso. Watch Lisa Carrington.
Breathing & Endurance
13. Therapeutic Breathing: Breathe in through your nose every two strokes, and exhale through your mouth every two. This rhythmic breathing boosts endurance and focuses your mind, helping you stay calm during prolonged exertion or tricky rapids. Breathing quicker will speed up your kayaking and vice versa.
Environment and Emotions
14. Awareness and understanding: We are all sensitive to our surroundings; the weather, geography and people. Take a moment to engage all senses, be realistic with your feelings and acknowledge the reality of it being cold, wet and/or windy. Don’t deceive yourself or others and be overly optimistic. Focus, paddle and endure!
Handling Bends & Braids
15. Navigating Braids & Wide Rivers: When rivers split into braids, look for the branch with the highest water volume rather than the widest or fastest. Higher volume often indicates a smoother, more navigable path with fewer obstructions.
16. Landscape gradients: Observations reveal slanted terrain – such as mountains on one side and farmland on the other – affect water depth and speed. If the landscape overall slants in one direction, e.g. high/left to low/right, the water follows, resulting in greater depth and speed in that same area (fast/deep water to the right). But what might confuse you, is if you have a low/left farmland slanting down and right to a cliff/bank that is high and right, the theory still suggests that the faster/deeper water would be to the right because we are following the overall SLANT that would seemingly follow the farmland down and right.
Kayak Stability & Drifting
17. Boat Angle & Speed: Where your boat points might not always match where your actual self is going, especially when drifting. To reduce drifting and improve tracking, increase your speed. Speed stabilizes your boat and makes your rudder more effective.
18. If you have no speed your rudder does not work! Not even ‘barge’ turning (edging) will help!
19. Hips as a Gyroscope: Your hips are key to stability. Keep them centered and aligned with the boat’s movement, especially in technical sections. If you lean too far into turns or waves, you’ll lose balance. The reason being is you need to keep your weight over your hips which is not your centre of gravity but your midline, which if you pass weight over, will likely have you fall in that direction. A paddle stroke can help on that side!
20. “New Water”: Always leaning downstream with your boat lifting upstream is a broad-sweeping misconception. It does not work in every situation. For example if there is a rock, eddy or island mid-river that you want to catch and get in or behind, this concept is wrong. What is fool-proof is to always lean/edge away from “new water”—the sudden flow changes that can destabilize your kayak. This new water is relative to you: you are either in an eddy (same) breaking into the moving water currents (new) or you are in the moving river currents (same) moving toward the eddy (new). So lean away from what is coming toward you or what you are traveling toward.
Reading the River for subtle details
21. Floating clues: These are oil, debris, leaves, white bubbles/foam etc. as natural indicators of the racing line—the fastest current. Follow these in straight sections and benign waters and avoid getting caught in slower water on the sides. Even with the Coast to Coast race you will find these on the Waimakariri River.
Things to avoid
22. Parallels: The more sideways you are in rapids or on the bends; the more vulnerable and tippy you are. Go faster, which will make you straighter, which will stop your drifting which will speed you up!
23. Rolling: of all things: ~90% of ‘coasters’ can’t roll, those who can roll probably can’t reliably in a rapid by surprise when needed. The ability to roll consequently from capsizing in itself is an issue…why did you capsize?!?! Don’t spend your time and money learning to roll, rather learning not to roll. Seems ironic and a disservice when we teach people to kayak roll ourselves, but we know the time, costs and reality for most coasters who just need to do two things: paddle for a long time and pick good lines. Become a better kayaker, avoid capsizing. Sure, all good kayakers can roll…but they almost never use it!
By keeping these Coast to Coast Kayak Tips in mind, you’ll improve your efficiency and confidence on the river while using the best techniques to paddle for the coast and other multisport events.
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