Re: conditioning

Posted by craig on Feb 12, 2005

I can see the analogy, and yes that is the current directon that I am going in. That was not the point, though. I believe that any kayaker, anywhere, should know how to deliver a maximum amount of power to their kayak at any point in time. This is for safety sake. You never know what might happen. Though I live in MidFla(near Tampa) anything can happen at any time during a kayak trip. You need to be capable of dealing with the worst that can happen, or you may end up hanging on to a bouy in the Bay for two days awaiting rescue. Rain, tides, currents, rip tides or idiots that cannot understand how much wake a Bayliner at 1/4 speed can create, or what a change in wake frequency means to a kayker may make radical changes in the water you are paddling on. If this happens you need to be able to get a good head of speed in a hurry. To do this you need to know more than just an arm stroke. I take nothing away from using your lower back, but I'm getting old and its easier(for me) to use hip rotation and leg pressure to get there. Though it is more important in a racing boat, otherwise know as a tippy boat (there are no tippy boats, there are sensitive boats and tippy people) it is also important to learn how to be overcome by a wave and which side of a swirl(eddy) to enter, I think a lot can be overcome by learning to apply power to your yak, and being comfortable doing it.

In Response to: conditioning by LeeG on Feb 12, 2005

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