Skills Practice: Strokes and Techniques On The Real Ocean

This session with David Mercer and Joe Berkovitz is about getting your boat to do useful things in the real marine world! At the right time, in the right place. That’s what makes for successful boat handling. Don’t we all want to know how to improve our game in that area?

There will be a few aspects to the session. Which ones come into play will depend on the conditions we have available to work with that day.

- We’re going to review a few fundamentals: forward, reverse, sweep strokes and edging. This will happen in protected water, so not conditions dependent.
- If we have some wind, we’ll get out into open water and look at how these techniques behave when wind is affecting your kayak. In particular we will look at ways to:

• turn upwind and downwind successfully and efficiently
• Prevent crosswinds from turning the boat off course

- We’re going to introduce some additional families of strokes you can use (learning and practicing in protected water):

• Draws (pulling a part of the boat sideways)
• Prys (pushing a part of the boat sideways)
• Rudders (stopping a part of the boat from moving sideways)

- We’ll look at how to incorporate these techniques into our paddling in real-world conditions of wind and waves.

The event will take place at Odiorne SP Boat Ramp (details below).  Please plan to arrive around 9:30 in order to be ready for a 10:00 am beach briefing, and subsequent launch. We will be returning to the launch between 2 - 3 pm.

Location and Date:  Odiorne State Park Boat Ramp, NH-1A, Rye, NH 03870
Register using this link: https://forms.gle/nkNXkfG8rFM3XZyC6

Please make a parking reservation in advance at:
https://www.nhstateparks.org/find-parks-trails/odiorne-point-state-park

What You Need to Bring:  Kayak with bulkheads, a spray skirt, and deck lines. PFD, paddles, hat or helmet, dress for immersion, sunscreen, lunch, snacks, and water.

We use ACA insurance for skills sessions.  You need to either be an ACA member (join here for $40/year) or pay a $10 event fee here. 

That's it! We hope to see you there!

Questions? Please post to this thread.  Thanks!