KAYAKING BASICS
Choosing Your Wave Firstly we need to make sure the wave that we are about to surf is safe. It’s no good catching a sweet ride if, when you drop off the backside, there’s a 100-foot waterfall waiting a few metres downstream. Look for waves that have no hazards downstream and that ideally, have a flat section or pool to give you plenty of time to roll or recover in if need be. Ideally, you’ve chosen wave will have a good eddy to the side of it, on both if you’re really lucky. This allows you to sit and watch the wave for a bit to work out its character and to be able to catch and paddle back up for another go when you wash off.
Types of River Wave
HOW TO SUR F A R IVER WAV E
Rolling Waves – As the river’s water speeds up it gathers energy and a constricting, or narrowing of the river’s channel or a rocky river bed can cause it to rise and fall in to a series of shallow waves. These aren’t generally steep enough to have a defined peak or pile but they can be ideal to learn on. Standing Waves – When fast moving water is slowed, by moving over a submerged rock or hitting a slow moving pool at the bottom of a rapid, it gets forced upwards to form a standing wave. Because unlike ocean waves all river waves stay in one place and don’t move they are also sometimes referred to as ‘stationary’ waves. Standing waves normally come in sets of at least three or four with the first usually being the biggest. They also usually have well defined shoulders, faces and peaks. They come in all sizes from just a foot or two to huge overhead monsters. No matter what size, they are they are usually very safe and our favourite kind of wave to surf. Breaking Waves – If the face of a wave gets steep
Surfing standing waves in your kayak is the basic starting point for learning nearly all wave and hole playboating moves. Here’s how to perfect your wave catching skills and some top tips on keeping your front surf going once you’ve caught one…
enough, the peak will completely crash and fall back down the into the trough. On gentler waves this will just create a small pile, but on bigger waves it can create a big crashing pile which can start to resemble a hole. These can be dynamic and big fun to surf, but are best left until you’ve perfected your surfing on smaller waves. Unlike holes though, the water is only falling back on itself from the lip and not recirculating from downstream; so although they may give a sideways or
sition with the Forward body po towards the bow paddler’s weight
IN YOUR K AYAK Catching and front surfing on river waves is one of the most fun things that you can do in a whitewater kayak. Carving about on the face, looking back upstream as the river rushes underneath your hull, it feels like the embodiment of freedom. It’s a basic playboating skill that will teach you a lot about edging, trim and feel in your kayak, and it’s the foundation for building your playboating repertoire. When done properly, front surfing can look almost effortless but it requires you as the paddler to master some basic techniques. We’ve put together this useful guide to learning the skills that will have you catching every wave on the river and surfing it up till the cows come home.
Anatomy of River Waves Waves on the river are usually created by a combination of a riverbed feature, such as boulder or a constriction, and
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increased flow. River waves vary hugely in their types and forms but all surfable waves will have certain features in common. We should be looking for the following: The Face – This is the business end of the wave, it is the upstream side of the wave and the surface upon which we will surf. The Peak – This is the top of the wave and if the wave is steep enough, may even be falling back upon itself to form a retentive breaking pile. This pile will really help us in catching and surfing the wave and is often referred to as the ‘sweet spot’. The Shoulders – These are the raised edges on each side of the wave and will usually angle in towards the peak. The Trough – This is the dip, or depression at the bottom of the face. The Backside – Yep, you’ve guessed it the back of the wave.
Surfing small waves is a great way to perfect your wave surfing ready for bigger-faster waves.
Body positioning with the paddler’s weight towards the stern
Good dynamic forward positioning
body
Aproaching an eddy line ready to drop on to a well formed wave.
upside down kayaker a short bouncy beat-down they will flush you downstream fairly quickly.
Body Positioning Keeping a positive and dynamic body position is the key to successful surfing. Ideally you want your weight as centred over your kayak as possible. Sitting upright in a dynamic position allows you to engage your core muscles and provides the best stability and control over your kayak. Although it’s your ‘default’ position it’s by no means static. Surfing a river wave puts you and your kayak in a dynamic environment, so you need to be ready to lean backwards or forwards to adjust your boat’s trim and position on the wave if needed. If you feel yourself starting to drop off the back of the wave move your weight aggressively forwards. Similarly if you find yourself driving down the face in to the trough, lean back and move your weight over your stern. Once you’ve re-established yourself on the wave, move back in to your default position once again. Your Paddle – The engine and the steering wheel. The paddle not only provides the power to drive your kayak on to the wave it also acts as a rudder too, alongside your kayak’s edges, help you maintain control on the face of the wave. Plant your rudder with your paddle parallel to your boat. Your front hand should be held between your eye and shoulder level because keeping your front hand high meant that your active blade is buried deep in the water to give you maximum control. The reason we keep the paddle parallel is to prevent it from acting as a brake. Although breaking strokes and rudders can be useful on steep, fast waves they can all too easily pull you off the wave, especially if it’s fairly small. As with your body position, as you surf the wave you will begin to feel what your paddle needs to be doing. Controlling your boat in a perfect stern rudder, acting as a break to stop you diving in to the trough or becoming an accelerator to fire in a few forward strokes to prevent you falling off the back of the wave.
How to Catch a Wave from an Eddy Getting on to the wave is the hardest part of surfing river waves. You’ll be faced with two scenarios from your eddy. Firstly the eddy line will be butted right up to the wave’s shoulder, so you need to set a reasonably steep upstream angle and ferry glide over straight on to the wave. If you get it right it will almost feel like you’re sliding out on to the wave face. The trick is to get your positioning, boat speed and angle right. You need just enough ferry-angle so you can cross over the eddy-line and on to the wave. If you put too much angle on your kayak then the fast moving water will spin your bow around and wash you downstream. The faster the water is moving the more ‘upstream’ your bow will need to be pointing. Remember to use your paddle and a positive forward stroke on your downstream side will fire you over the eddy line and hold your angle for a moment as you slide on to the face. Your boat speed up and out of the eddy will dictate the position you start your ferry-glide from. You want to start just upstream of the wave face. If
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KAYAKING BASICS
Tricks to Stay on the Wave The bow diving in to the trough is one of the most common reasons for getting washed off a wave. If this happens lift a knee and put your boat on edge. It will instantly pop back up to the surface so you can continue your surf. Be ready with a couple of quick forward strokes if needed. Powering over the eddy line at the top of the eddy with boat edged and ferry angle set.
Keeping the power on .
Crossing the eddy line.
Surfing Your Way Out Of Trouble As well as being a seriously fun thing to do having good wave surfing skills can be useful when running rapids too. We’ve seen experienced kayakers use
surfing skills to surf pressure waves across river blocking boulders, to surf diagonals to avoid big holes and to surf a series of small waves to help them cross a river with minimum effort.
Practice Makes Perfect Just like any other skill the more you do it the easier it becomes. As you surf more and more waves you’ll find that you begin to recognise the feel and characteristics of different types of waves and what you need to do to surf them. So what are you waiting for? Get out there on the river, find yourself a wave and get surfing!
The paddler’s bow has ‘pearled’ and dived under water
Adjusting trim and angle as the boat nears the wave’s peak
you go too far up, especially if the water is moving really fast you risk being swept up and over the wave by its downstream momentum, or having your bow dive (or pearl) and again washing off downstream. The second scenario involves a wave positioned further out in the flow and will involve a longer ferry glide across the current. The technique is basically the same but you will probably need to start just a little higher out of the eddy and set more of an angle to help cross the flow. A good tip is to set an angle to get you across the flow and then adjust the angle with your bow pointing more upstream as you reach the wave. Keep paddling and it doesn’t hurt to put in a couple of extra forward strokes to make sure that you are firmly on the wave and surfing. We’ve seen many a surf missed for want of a single last forward stroke.
Front Surfing OK, the hard part is over and you’ve caught your river wave. Modern whitewater boats are spot on for surfing waves and their shorter lengths, rails and planning hulls
A couple more power strokes and weight coming forward again to establish the kayaker in the sweet spot
Almost there
Catching Waves on the Fly
make them pretty forgiving. If you’ve caught the perfect wave then you can pretty much just sit tight and enjoy the ride using just the slightest of body and edge movements to maintain your surf. On most waves however you’ll need to do a little work and use your rudder and forward strokes as well to keep you surfing.
This basically means spotting a wave and then dropping on to it as you float downstream. It can be a great way to access waves in the middle of the flow, but requires a lot more power and spot on timing, as you have to battle your downstream momentum. The
Carving Turns Carving turns on the face of the wave is fun, but it is also the set up for some more advanced moves like blunts and spins. It can also allow you to control where abouts you are on the wave’s face. On a steep fast wave, carving turns will have a braking effect and keep you further up the face, keeping your bow away from the trough. We carve by using the rails and edges of our kayak and by using our paddle. Set your edge and carve the boat towards the shoulder. As you reach the shoulder dynamically change edges and put in a rudder on the wave side to carve you back into the centre of the wave… hold that edge over t the other shoulder and then repeat to infinity and beyond.
The kayak starts to plane and a front surf is establised. The paddler uses the odd forward stroke and dynamic body positioning to keep his surf going
Using a stern rudder-pry and dynamic body positioning to carve the kayak on the wave
hardest part is getting yourself lined up to drop on to the steepest part of the wave and slowing the boat down enough so it can start to plane on the
By quickly lifting his edge and maintaining a good body position the paddler’s bow pops back up to the surface and he maintains his front surf
face. Use a ferry angle to line yourself up and then get some hard, powerful forward strokes in to slow you down. Try and have your bow pointing just off directly upstream, and as you hit the wave move your weight back as this will help prevent your bow from diving and blowing you off downstream. As soon as you feel the
Using dynamic edge transfer to carve the boat on the face of a wave
boat pick up the wave and your bow is clear of the trough move in to the default position and put in a few extra
Info Check out our great How to Surf Videos in the Video Gallery at www.camoekayak.co.uk
strokes to make sure you don’t wash off the back of the wave.
crossing the eddy Leaving the eddy and e. Note the paddler line out on to the wav is going. focussing on where he
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Maintaing a positive ferry angle and body position out on to the wave, keeping the power on when needed
k n as the kaya ic body positio ve wa e Good dynam th of ce fa e on the starts to plan blished nt surf is esta and a good fro
aches the The paddler re wave e th of ot sp t swee
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