Rolling a Yak

No, I’m not talking about mugging a shaggy Mongolian protein source.  I’m talking about tipping over that far-to-skinny-for-my-ample-behind kayak you bought. Now, because I am, in fact, an expert paddler, I can keep one upright quite easily.  That is, if it remains afloat at all.  I once climbed into a kayak at a small craft boat demonstration at Tyler State Park one time.  Simpson’s Bike and Sail let you try out the kayaks in hopes you’d love them so much you’d buy one of the over-priced little darlin’s.  Unfortunately, I have a rather distorted mental body image. I keep thinking I’m 155 pounds like I was when I was 18.  So I sat myself down in a little rodeo boat, one of those short ones they use for playing in the rapids.  It went straight to the bottom.  I decided to test a larger model.  Turned out I had to solo a kayak meant for two people in order to keep the deck above water.

Sigh.

Finding yourself upside down in a kayak can be a disconcerting experience.  Getting yourself back upright is literally a snap (hip-snap that is).  There is so much to fuddle your brain when you flip your yak.  First you're upside down.  Then, the double bladed paddle adds to your confusion.  Finally, the paddle stroke you need to do is upside down from the way you normally paddle.  Now, this guy below shows how it's done. He's in a pool of known depth, so he's not wearing a helmet.  It's better to practice with the helmet to get used to the extra drag.



The Setup

As you turn over, tuck your head down low and pull the paddle alongside the cockpit, lengthwise to the hull on the side toward which you are rolling.  Place the opposite side blade forward toward the bow and the near side blade toward the stern.

Orienting Yourself
Once you are upside you’ll experience confusion since the world has gone upside down.  Take a second to get your bearings.  To flip back up, you’ll have to push down on the water – what to you, being upside down, will feel all wrong.  You’ll probably need to pause to reorient yourself until the skill becomes second nature to you.  Katrina here is practicing in a pool for photographic purposes, and doesn't have a helmet.  She is shown below practicing in more realistic conditions.  Note the helmet.

The Reach
Bring your head up near the water surface on the side you’ll be rolling up on.  Get your head above the forward blade, so that it feels like you are pressing down again when you sweep the forward blade wide and backward. Bring your trailing elbow in close to your body so the trailing blade tips up out of the water and doesn’t drag.

The Sweep and Snap
Begin to sweep the blade wide and toward the stern of the boat. As you sweep, pressing downward and backward, snap your hips so your body tilts to the opposite side. This rotates the hull of the boat upward and starts it rolling the right direction  Resist the urge to bring up your head till you complete the hip snap.  Keep pulling the sweep as you snap your hips.

The Recovery
As the hull rolls up, press hard on the end of the sweep stroke and let your body be pushed out of the water and back to the vertical position.  The boat will jump forward. Immediately bring the opposite blade down and take a strong stroke to get the boat moving and stabilized.

Tips
Practice this a lot.  It should become second nature so that you pop back up almost without thinking about it. There are three other standard ways to do this or you can make up your own way, but this method is the easiest, requires less finesse, balance and physical strength to perform (a natural choice for big awkward klutzes like me then).

Always wear a helmet when kayaking and especially when practicing this skill.  In the river, it’s even more important because the bottom can be rocky and quite close to your face.  Also, helmets don’t bleed and attract piranha, gators or those big mosquitoes they grow here in East Texas.

References:

These links show how to perform the standard roll.


Eskimo Roll

Gorp:  Four Elements of The Kayak Roll

Aquabatics Kayak School: Sweep Roll Tutorial

Patagonia Kayak School:  Kayak Roll Identifier and Troubleshooter

Pick the Perfect Kayak Blade

Overview:
When you choose your kayak blade size, shape and shaft length, two factors come into play.  The first is your height and corresponding arm length.  The second is your paddling style.  How you do most of your straight-line paddling will determine the most efficient shape and size for your blade and the optimum blade and shaft length.  The angle at which your blade strikes the water dictates the shape. If you are an inexperienced paddler, you'll want to take a paddling class first.

Materials:

• Tape Measure
• Kayak paddle samples
• Kayak
• A Nice Lake somewhere
• Choosing a Blade

Paddle Length

Choose a good paddle length based on your height.  There are 3 optimum ranges of paddle shaft lengths.

Paddler Height                                                           Paddle Length Range
Shorter than 5 feet 2 inches.......................................  188 to 194 centimeters
Five feet to 5 feet 8 inches........................................   191 to 197 centimeters
Taller than 5 feet 6 inches.........................................   194 to 200 centimeters

Boat Width
Measure the width of your boat at the center.  A wide boat is over 25 inches.  A 22 to 25 inch wide kayak is considered middle width and anything under 22 inches is narrow.  This will impact how you select a comfortable blade length.  Wide boats tend to require a longer paddle.  Narrow boats favor shorter paddle lengths. If you have a wide boat, choose toward the longer end of the range above.  Narrower boats would lead you to choose toward the shorter end.

Paddling Style
Your paddling style will affect the length and shape of the blade itself.  Experienced paddlers tend to favor a specific angle of attack when paddling.  The angle of attack is the degree of slant at which the paddle enters the water.

A high angle blade enters the water almost vertically. It's most commonly used in whitewater or close quarters paddling.  The low angle style is used primarily in flatwater paddling with a wider boat.  The mid-angle style is a compromise between the two styles.  Use your paddling style, boat width and paddle length to determine the optimal shape of the blade.

• A low angle blade tends to be narrower and longer to sweep through the water more effectively at the shallow depth of a low angle stroke.

• A mid-angle blade is a compromise between the two - narrower than the high-angle, but wider than the low angle. A mid-angle paddler also wants a blade that lengthwise, falls between the high and low style blade lengths.

• A high angle blade calls for a shorter, wider blade that grabs lots of water without having to plunge the paddle too deeply into the water - very important if you're in shallow rocky whitewater.  The shorter, wider blade is far more effective when a high degree of maneuvering is called for, but also calls for some arm strength that a low angle paddler may never need when making deeper power strokes.  

Testing with Your Own Boat
Your boat's width will determine, to some extent, your angle of attack when paddling.  Wider boats calling for lower attack angles and narrow boats allow for higher angles.  So grab any old paddle of the approximate correct length and take your kayak out on the lake. Take the boat you will use most and take off in a straight line without thinking too much about it.  After you've taken 8 or 10 strokes, observe the angle at which the blade strikes the water when you paddle.

Straight-line paddling is a good standard from which to determine your style, since you'll likely do more straight-line paddling than anything else. If the paddle is at 45-degree angle or less when you pull, you are paddling at a low angle.  If you tend to paddle at more than a 45-degree angle, you are middle angle paddler.  If the blade is nearly vertical when you pull the blade through the water, then you are a high angle paddler. Flatwater kayakers will tend to paddle low, while whitewater or surf kayakers tend to paddle high to get deep power strokes or shallow control strokes in tight spaces.

Choose Your Blade Shape
If you've got the length of your double-bladed paddle right and you know what your most comfortable angle of attack is, it's time to choose the blade shape for your paddling style

The low angle blade shape is longer and thinner and the tip may be angled.

The mid-angle blade shape is symmetrical and not too wide or too long, but somewhere in the middle.

The high angle blade shape is shorter and wider for quick control strokes.

Feathering

Because the two blades are connected by the shaft, if you wish to feather the recovering blade, it needs to be set at an angle to the opposite blade so that when one blade is pulling through the water, the blade in the air is angled so that wind resistance is kept to a minimum.  Blades are typically canted 30 degrees to 90 degrees from one another.  The best way to figure out which feathering angle is best for you is to try it out. Two part paddles often can be assembled at adjustable feathering angles. 

Tweaking

If you paddle low and have a wide boat, choose the longest lengths. If you paddle low and have a mid-width or narrow boat, you will tend toward the middle of the range.  If you paddle high and have a narrow boat, a shorter paddle will probably suit you better. If you paddle in the middle position, the boat width will probably extend or shorten the length you want by a few centimeters either way, but not likely all the way to the end of the range.  This will give you a guess that's probably accurate to within a centimeter or two. Try out some paddles in the length that is closest to the length you've calculated might be best.  See how the blade feels when you use it before you buy it if you can.

Drip Rings

One of the problems, especially during cold weather is that with a double-bladed paddle, when one end is digging into the water the other is lifted high out of the water (hence the need for feathering your blade). When the high blade comes up, gravity sends a stream of water running down the paddle shaft, up your sleeve and down your pants till you are sitting in a puddle of cold water freezing parts of your anatomy you'd prefer not to have frozen. You can buy commercial drip rings that deflect these icy rivulets away from the cockpit of your kayak. You can also make some handy home-made ones like the ones in this article from foam swim noodles. I highly recommend some kind of drip ring in any case.

Tips

Paddling styles are not set in stone. Allow yourself time for paddling experience to help you turn the basic style you learned in beginner's class into your own personal paddling style. As a beginner, blade shape and size doesn't much matter since you are still finding your "style". Find your style before you pick that perfect blade shape.

References:

Making a Custom Double-Bladed Paddle
http://hubpages.com/hub/Making-a-Custom-Double-Bladed-Paddle

Rutabaga Paddlesport Shop: How to Select a Kayak Paddle
http://www.rutabaga.com/page.asp?pgid=132

Werner Paddle Sizing Guide
http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/Werner_Paddle_Sizing.asp

Topkayaker Net: Choosing a Kayak Paddle
http://www.sit-on-topkayaking.com/KayakData/BuyGuides/PaddleChoice.html

Resource Websites:

American Canoe Association          http://www.acanet.org/
United States Canoe Association    http://www.uscanoe.com/
World Kayak Federation                http://www.worldkayak.com/

Padding Your Rack

A New Way to Use Fun Noodles

You've seen those Styrofoam swim noodles that children play with in the pool.  These things are very handy for canoers.  We're always building canoe racks and car toppers so we have some place to put our canoes while we are paddling them. In order to keep the wooden or metal racks from rubbing holes in our boats we need to pad them.  Styrofoam noodles work well for that purpose.

To pad a support bracket, slice a Styrofoam noodle down one side.  Use the type with the hole down the center.  This makes it easier to wrap the noodle around the board, pipe, angle iron or tube steel you've used as a support.  Slice only half way through to the center hole.

Pry apart the the noodle and wrap it around the pipe or whatever support structure you are using as shown in the diagram below.

You can also use Styrofoam noodles to cover the top edge of a metal pipe support.

Styrofoam noodles also work with tube steel supports.

Metal angle iron or a T shaped metal support can also be covered by the noodle.

You can also clamp the foam noodle over the top of a 2x4 or 2x6.  Any thicker board won't work.

Finally, to fasten the foam around the support, use zip ties or duct tape to secure the Styrofoam noodle in place.  If you do a lot of canoeing, kayaking, sailing or other boating, grab a supply of Styrofoam noodles at the end of next year's swim season. They make great boat bumpers and a nice soft paddle rack or sail rack.

Flat Canoe Rack

Easy Canoe Rack for Lakeside

This easy to build canoe and kayak rack is simple to build and use, though it does take up a little more space than some of the other designs I've posted here.  It's pretty easy to build:

1.  Dig 4 post holes.  Each pair to which you will bolt a cross member should be as wide apart as you want the rack to be (3 feet times the number of canoes you have).  Put the pairs about 9 or 10 feet apart. That's half to two-thirds the length of most canoes and kayaks and supports well enough so that summer heat doesn't cause the boats to sag and distort the hulls.  Use treated posts. They should stick up about 2 to 3 feet depending on your comfort level and be treated.  Pour concrete around them to set the posts.

2. Lag bolt a 2x12 pressure treated cross member to the posts as shown in the picture.  Pad the cross member to protect the boat.  I like to buy used fire hose from local volunteer fire departments and screw it on top of the cross members n accordion pleats. The pleats keep the canoes from sliding around on the rack.

3. The canoes sit upside down on the cross members. You can mix canoes and kayaks. If you get more canoes than you planned you can nest them and get more canoes on the rack.

4. To make tie-down easier, screw some eyelets to the face of the cross members to create attachment points for bungee cords.  Tying down the canoes prevents them from taking flight in a wind storm.

Lakeside Kayak/Canoe Rack

If you’re like most canoeing enthusiasts, your starting to collect a pile of them in the yard.  If you live by the lake, you’ve probably got your canoes and those of several friends.  Instead of leaving them piled up against the garage where snakes can nest in them, check out this easy to build canoe rack.  This requires a few basic tools and some concrete, lumber, bolts and screws and a couple of hours.


Materials List:

Two 9 foot telephone poles or 4x4 posts
Six 6 foot pressure treated 2x6’s (2x4’s will work)
Six 6 inch long ½ inch carriage bolts with washers
Eighteen small 2 inch lag screws
Nine screw in eye bolts
Four bags of pre-mix concrete
Twelve 18 inch long metal straps with holes in the ends.

Setting the posts:

Find a nice spot with plenty of room around it.  You’ll need lots of space to maneuver canoes onto the rack without stumbling over things or bumping into garage walls.  Dig two 3 foot deep post holes eight feet apart.  Set your posts in them so they stick up about 6 feet above the ground.  Mix up your concrete in a wheelbarrow and pour it into each of the holes around the base of the posts. 

While the concrete is still wet, prop the posts up so they are vertical.  You can do that by propping them up with boards and temporarily nailing them in place.  Don’t drive the nails all the way in, because you’re going to want to pull them out when the concrete sets.

Once the posts are set, mark them at 2 foot intervals from the ground to the top of the post.  This will mark the top of the crossmembers you’re going to bolt into place.  The lowest member will be two foot from the ground.  The highest will be even with the top of the post.

Drill holes in the center of each six foot 2x6.  I used 8 foot 2x4’s for mine, but I’ve never really needed the extra width.  If I had it to do again, I’d use 6 foot 2x6’s for the firmer support.  Mine rocks a bit when loading and unloading. 

Clamp the cross member in place, drill a hole to match into the post.  Unclamp the cross member and finish drilling the hole through the post.  Reclamp the cross member and bolt it to the post.  Once you’ve got all the cross members in place, set them horizontal with a T-square and then add a couple of long galvanized screws to hold them firmly in place.

This still won’t be enough to keep the crossmembers from wobbling when you plop a heavy canoe on them.  On the side of the post where the cross member is bolted, lag screw the ends of two of the metal straps  into the post about 14 or 15 inches below the top of the cross member.  Next bolt the other ends of the metal straps to the back of the cross member on both sides to form a “V”.  This will give you good support without taking up so much space it scrapes against the hulls of your boats.

Now screw eye bolts into the ends of each cross member on the horizontal face.  Don’t stick them up or out from the ends as they will catch on the gunwhales of your canoe.  I know from bitter personal experience.  Put one eye bolt at the center of the crossmember or into the vertical post itself if you don’t want to drill any more holes in the cross members.  These eye bolts provide handy tie-down points.

When you put the canoes on the rack, always, at the very least, drop a bungee cord over the top to hold them down.  You’d be surprised what sort of lift a stiff breeze gives to a canoe hull.  You don’t want to wake up the morning after a thunderstorm and find canoes on the garage roof.  The eye bolts make it easy to keep your boats tied down.

This design is compact and versatile.  I’ve got kayaks, canoes, sail boards and the mast for my catamaran stored on mine.  It took me about 2 hours total to put it all together not counting the time it took the concrete to set. 

(c) 2009 by Tom King - All rights reserved

All images copyright 2009 by Tom King

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