[SWEEP STROKES]

by ray killen, ACA and BCU certified instructor

This is the second in a series of articles about paddle strokes. The sweep stroke is the most basic turning stroke used. It can be used when the kayak is stationary or while it is moving. All other turning maneuvers are first initiated with the sweep stroke.

The strokes listed below are what we call the basic strokes. When you hear this term you may be led to believe that if these are the basic strokes then there must also be advanced strokes… Nope! This is it. Everyone from complete novices to world class competitors use this basic repertoire of strokes. The more skillful kayakers can seamlessly blend one into the other and it may seem that they are using other worldly strokes unknown to us mere mortals.

Of course, all strokes can be subdivided further. the sweep stroke for instance, can be broken down into the forward sweep or the reverse sweep and refined by tilting or edging the kayak.

Starting Position (Forward sweep). The blade is placed into the water by the feet, power face out, left arm is fully extended, body straight, leaning forward somewhat. The right arm is held in a comfortable position at shoulder height but not higher.

To start the stroke, concentrate on moving the legs around the body to your right by using the paddle as a lever. Pretend that the water is wet concrete. Keep the left arm straight as you twist your torso to the left. This twisting will bring the blade around in a wide arc all the way to the stern of the kayak Follow the blade around with your head and eyes (after you are proficient in this stroke the head can be kept facing forward). Transmit the energy to the kayak with your feet and knees. When first practicing this stroke, keep the boat level and do not tilt. We will add this in later.

There is a good practice drill that can be performed whilst at home (for those with a swivel chair handy). Sit in the chair facing the edge of a piece of furniture with your legs up off the floor. Using your paddle or even your hand, place it alongside the furniture and apply pressure against it with the paddle. You will notice that you turn around in the chair. The furniture and the paddle have not moved in relation to the room. Now pretend that the chair is your kayak. See how it spins around and faces a new direction. Of course, in the water, the paddle will actually move a little through the water as the boat turns because there is more friction against the hull compared to the paddles resistance to the water but this is the same basic principle to use with the sweep stroke.

Once this is mastered, try it in reverse. Twist around with your torso and paddle, place the blade against the stern gunwale and sweep out toward the bow. Keep your eyes on the paddle. You can pivot the kayak in place by using a forward sweep on one side and a reverse sweep on the next. This is great to use for quickly turning around but suppose you are paddling and you want to go off to the right and don’t want to lose hard earned momentum. A good combined stroke would consist of a sweep stroke on the left and a power stroke on the right. Keep doing this sequence until you are pointed in the direction you want to go.

Now that you are getting proficient with the movement, let’s add a little more turning power. How? I’ll bet you guessed. Boat tilt or edging. This is the correct terminology. You may hear someone call it leaning but a lean is where the kayak and paddler lean over as one unit. Edging a kayak is where the paddler sits vertical and tilts the kayak by lifting the knee and crunching the hips to the waist sort of like sitting on one buttock.

A kayak is said to be edged to the left when the port gunwale is down close to the water and upward pressure with the right knee is applied. When a kayak is edged, the direction it turns is boat specific but most kayaks will turn to the right when edged to the left. The reason that the boat turns is that by tilting the kayak, you have now presented a new hull profile to the water.

So… how do we incorporate it into the sweep stroke? Let’s suppose you want to turn to the left. You would place the blade along the starboard gunwale and do a sweep stroke on the right side while applying pressure with the left knee to raise the left side of the kayak This is called edging the kayak to the right. The more you tilt it the more it turns but you may feel very unstable. To counter this feeling, the blade in the water can be flattened to give you more support during the maneuver. Now for your pivot turn; Forward sweep right, edge right. Reverse sweep left, edge left. The kayak turns even more now than by not edging.

Edging a kayak is a very important tool to keep in your toolbox. It should be used during any turning stroke. It is also very useful to keep the kayak going straight when being blown by the wind. Most kayaks want to turn into the wind. This is called weathercocking. And all the while you thought that this only happens to you, everyone else is doing fine on that windy day. What they are doing is compensating for this condition. Say you’re paddling along and the wind is quartering off the starboard bow, the boat wants to go to the right but you want to go straight. You counter by doing sweep strokes on the right and power strokes on the left. Keeping the boat edged to the right also helps to turn it back toward the left.