Paddling a kayak is all fun, but it can sometimes be very challenging when you don’t about expert tips and tricks on how to control a wild kayak gracefully.
When thinking about paddling a kayak, you are sitting in a chair on the water, moving your arms to and fro to prevent yourself from drowning in the water. But when done correctly, paddling a Kayak can be the most fun experience you can ever have.
In this article, we have come up with 6 expert tips and tricks on How to paddle a wild kayak that will make your paddling game graceful, effortless and would make it seem like you are doing ballet on water. Keep reading.
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Amazing Tips on How to control a wild Kayak
How to use your arms
While paddling may seem like an upper-body sport, it’s all about using your legs properly and efficiently. Your arms are supposed to do the only thing while paddling a kayak holds the paddle, and place it in the right direction. The power of pushing the bulkhead comes only through the legs, and the paddles come from your hips and core for rotating.
This is one of the major things you need to keep in mind while learning how to paddle a wild kayak.
Sitting in the best position.
Sitting in the best position will give you the right amount of strength you need to paddle a kayak. Try to lean slightly forward and keep your hands wider than your shoulder. And with a light grip on the paddle, place your feet on the footpegs and put your knees beneath the thigh braces. This position is guaranteed to give you the best strength or paddling power to control the kayak efficiently.
Stay on the edge
One of the most effective tips on paddling a wild kayak this one involves tilting the boat to one side with the help of your knee, butt, and hips. Rember, this has nothing to do with your upper body; you just have to use your lower body for this purpose. Kayaks are meant to be edged; this is how it is supposed to move with the air and water flow.
While beginners’ big and heavy kayaks are not easy to be edged, once you learn how to control a wild kayak properly, you can try edging lighter boats to enjoy a fun experience.
Seperation
The most important thing in kayaking is to learn how to seperate your upper body movements from the lower body ones. This art helps professional paddlers make their kayaks dance on the water, make a turn or accelerate their speed without even doing anything significant.
It would help if you learned how to move your lower body in a completely different direction than your upper body to make your kayak dance or your feet.
Use your weight
Teh kayak wouldn’t paddle properly on the side-to-side movements. To paddle, it effectively uses shifts in your weight to move it forwards and backward. These shifts will help you define the direction in which you want the kayak to go. This is one of the best tips on how to paddle a wild kayak and should be used properly to make it dance on top of the water.
Stay calm
Staying calm is one of the most useful tips on how to paddle a wild kayak. Dont worry about falling into the water and drawing; simply enjoy the movements. Relax your body and keep it loose. This way, you will be able to concentrate more on paddling rather than worrying about tipping over.
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How to paddle a wild Kayak: 3 Useful Paddle Stroke
Paddling isn’t as complicated as you think. You just have to keep some simple tips in mind, and you will be good to go. The most common thing to remember while paddling a kayak is to go slow at first and pay attention to the movements of your body; once you get comfortable, you will automatically start paddling faster and faster.
Listening to your body is also essential; if any posture while paddling a kayak hurts your body, it might be in the wrong position.
Below are some basic paddling strokes for beginners who have just started learning how to paddle a wild kayak. Keep reading.
The Forward stroke
This is one of the most common paddling strokes and the easiest one. Practicing how to efficiently stroke your kayak forward will let you paddle faster with lesser effort.
It is very simple to stroke the kayak forward. Start by deciding the direction in which you want to go. Now, with your foot’s help, anchor the blade in the water and pull it towards your hip. Move the blade out of the water before it reaches your hip and repeats it until you l the destination.
The Reverse Stroke
Unlike cars, Kayaks do not have reverse gears, but that does mean that they wouldn’t need to back when paddling a wild kayak; you will sometimes need to go back to reach the destination, but how to do that? Worry not, paddler; start by anchoring the blade behind your hip and sweeping it. Slice the blade towards the hip and repeat on the other side until you reach the desired destination.
The Sweep stroke
Professional paddlers turn kayaks such gracefully that you wouldn’t even know they were doing anything. One of the most important lessons of the paddle of a wild kayak is learning how to turn it. The sweep stroke might help you do that.
To go left, you will have to use the right blade and vice versa. Sweep the blade slowly towards the kayak’s rear and slice it out of the water. Repeat until you have successfully made the turn. To go right, use the left blade and repeat the same instructions.
Final Words:
Kayaking is a fun sport to explore the waters and see the beauty of nature from a diffrent perspective, and we hope we’ve made you how to control a wild kayak journey a lot easier. Try taking classes from an experienced instructor and follow the tips mentioned above to excel in the art of kayaking.
Tell us which paddling stroke you like the most and if you know about any other strokes, and then let us know in the comments below.
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