I have hard time edging or keeping on edge because I don't seem to have enough strength and dexterity in my (lower?) back. When I manage to edge, the kayak doesn't turn even if it's moving, or it turns to the left no matter which side I edge to. Discouraging.
Doing this with a loose grip and straight wrist put less strain on the wrist. The blade will find its angle by it self. If not, initiate the shift of angle with your upper hand, since the weight is on the lower hand.
Best Line off tutorials I have seen so far. I will still reckomend real life training though. Tom Nickels performs details in the execution that he does not point out (these are 3-minutes videos). You have to be very observant to get it just right from only seeing the videos.
Tom you taught me to paddle on the C&O canal in DC and took me on my first open water paddle at Jekyll Island GA. Hope all is well, I am still paddling!
Very good instructional video indeed. One thing that Tom doesn't mention in this video or his other excellent videos is that this technique and most of the other techniques he shows in his videos work better with the skeg up. So, if you can remember to retract your skeg before doing this and other techniques, it will be a little easier.... for me, remembering to pull the skeg up before launching a technique is the hard part. :)
Is it important to keep the top hand on the same side of the body as the lower hand, as in this demonstration? Or can this be done equally effectively with the top hand on the opposite side or centered over the keel like is normally is? I want to try to apply this technique in my down river racer, a notoriously unstable boat design with almost no rocker and a round shape hull, no chine at all to speak of. So not much secondary stability. Keeping the body balanced and centered in this type of boat is critical to staying dry and moving both arms to one side of the boat seems very unbalanced. If this technique has to be performed with both hands on the turning side of the boat, then I wonder if it is even feasible to use this in a DR racer type boat. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated
Hmm, that's a pretty timid demo of a high brace. This is supposed to be a preparatory stroke to learning to roll. You have to get the boat right over on it's rail and get your ear wet before starting to learn to roll. You have to be able to recover from a complete 90 deg knock down before your high brace skill is adequately useful in rough water. Even, low brace you need to go much lower than this to be useful and prepare for combining strokes. To do a tight turn, you need to combine a forward sweep with edging, then go into a stern rudder on the opposite side, roll the boat right over on it's rail while transitioning the stern rudder into a reverse sweeping support stroke. This gets the ends of the boat clear of the surface so the long boat can spin freely. Then transition from the low grip support into the high grip still sweeping the blade forward to finish in a bow rudder position. While combining strokes may seem more advanced, you need to get to a whole lot more confident and committed with basic support than this. If your going to put training video up, you need to demonstrate the level of skill and confidence that students need to aim for. This is just nowhere near adequate. In fact, it's down right dangerous to give students the impression that this is an acceptable level of skill needed for safety at sea. It simply is not sufficient for safety at sea.
Edging is good for virtually any kayak technique, the more you put into it, the more you get out. Still, many of us could benefit more of edging. Nice subject for a video.
A huge thank you for posting this Tom.I have watched every other youtube instruction on a hanging draw and out of 50 plus attempts I have maybe achieved the side slip twice.I watched your clip several times last night and then put the instructions into action this morning and nailed it multiple times.I had a mate watch me from behind and he said it was definitely working so thanks again. Cheers from Rick
