April 2, 2000

Not-All-In

I've always been a believer that if you aren't practicing in water that can knock you over, your not really learning how to brace. Today I would use a method that puts you in that condition on flat water.

Today's goal: Practice my low brace. The wind was high and blowing towards shore but I was also in the somewhat protected area of Ft Belvoir, so the waves were small.

As I unloaded my kayak a man and his dog approached and asked questions related to kayaking ( the man - the dog remained speechless). He asked about rolling and I mentioned that would be in my practice session today. He became interested and decided he wanted to stay and watch. As I dressed in my dry suit a military police car pulled up and soon there were three of us talking about kayaking. I noticed I couldn't find my nose clips and I was a little irked as this would impair my practice session today.

On the water I did the obligatory rolls and braces. I had hoped this would be enough to satisfy the audience on shore and they could be on their way. Not the case today. Already tired of the water up my nose I switched over to self-rescues.

I had attached a strap with quick release buckles to my rear deck. Now I could push my paddle under a bungie and attach the strap to limit my paddle movement while I climbed back in. VAST improvement in helping me get back in the kayak. Without the stretch of the bungie on my near side, the kayak was much more stable as I hoisted myself aboard. This is a success story pending giving it a try in rougher water.

I also tried a few reenter and rolls. Some working well, some failing miserably. Setup and slowing down to take my time was important to doing it correctly.

I decided to practice my low brace using a technique in my BCU handbook. Called the 'not-all-in' exercise, it involves sitting on the rear deck with my feet hanging to the sides and paddling around. This was tipsy and required repeated use of a low brace. The wind kept pushing my bow downwind so I usually paddled backwards to get away from the shore. It was good practice, as it didn't take much to *require* a firm pat on the water with the backside of my Euro paddle to keep me from spilling over. I eventually got fairly comfortable and balanced in this position and had to lean one way or the other to force a brace.

Next I tried putting my feet in the cockpit while sculling for support. This was pretty easy, but once I stopped sculling and tried to go back to using just a low brace, I usually ended up in the water. More opportunity for reenter and roll or paddle float practice.

I'm sure the folks fishing on shore thought I was crazy. I paddled out from shore and after sculling a bit more and trying a couple of bow rudders (which just didn't seem to come together today) I headed in. Without my nose clips I wasn't going to try and work on my offside like I had wanted. I loaded up my kayak and as I took off my dry suit I found my nose clips stuck to the Velcro that fastens around my neck collar. Too late to do any good, I put them away and headed for home.