Using edge control to drive a boof stroke on the first drop of the Upper Palguin.
You might be asking, why should I improve my edge control? The answer is simple : If you can’t control your boat, you are not going to be able to control where it goes.
Everything in kayaking comes back to the most basic skills, especially edge control. Edging your boat teaches you balance, and it makes you more comfortable with your boat. How you weight your edges determines how your boat turns and interacts with the water, whether it is a skill as fundamental as peeling out of
an eddy or attempting a McNasty.
One drill I really like to work on edge control in the flat water is practicing tilting your boat on edge while keeping neutral and centered. This is a great drill to try to do without having your paddle in the water. Keeping your paddle out of the water teaches you balance, and forces you to use your abdominal muscles.
This is what you are going to do. Keeping your body neutral, pull your right knee up, keeping your left edge in contact with the water.
To make yourself more stable, make sure that your body position isnice and forward over your cockpit. Look straight ahead, finding a point to focus on. Some coaches will have you look down towards the water, to emphasize the proper body position for this drill, and to clearly see how far you can maintain holding your edge out of the water.
Try and balance without placing your paddle blade in the water! If you need to brace, or start to lose your balance, decrease the amount of edge you are using.
Once you have this drill dialed on both sides, try rocking your boat once you have it balanced on edge. You don’t do this by thrusting your paddle back and forth in the water. Your body weight is responsible for the movement of your boat. Your paddle is only there to give you a little extra leverage.
Start trying this drill without using your paddle first. You want to hold your boat on edge, while throwing your body back and forward, first towards the stern and then towards the bow. It is easier to throw towards your stern first because your stern has less volume, and is easier to slice underwater. The momentum from throwing back will help slam your bow forwards and under. This will help to transition into working on the double pump.
Another drill I like to do is when you are on edge, try paddling in a circle while maintaining the edge. If you have your right edge engaged, you are circling towards the left, and visa versa. This is a great drill to try in a pool, where you can easily pick visuals to guide your circle, starting and stopping in the same spot. I always have people start by trying to only paddle on the outside of the circle. This is because having your paddle on the outside of the circle helps guide your boat into the circle more easily.
David Miller is happy to be back on the water in Chile!
After spending time at home in the midst of a Canadian winter for 6 weeks I was very ready to come back to Pucon, one of my favorites places in Chile. When I found out that we would only be here for 5 days I was a little disappointed but I knew it was going to be a great 5 days to say the least. The hostel has changed since we have been here last semester making it even safer and more comfortable. There are more places to lock up your gear and electronics. There is even another dome which we use for morning workouts and hanging out in. The boy’s dorm is finished as well. It looks great! There are big rooms with many beds and beautiful paintings on the wall. The family-like atmosphere of the hostel is even better with more paddlers and more students. We have two new additions to our school this semester: Paul and Keaton. They joined us to take part in the gap year program at NRA. They take a few classes with us and paddle with us everyday!
Another thing that was scarce in Canada in the winter was paddling. It was so great to get back to Chile and paddle the first day right in our own backyard. On the Rio Trancura there is a fun play hole that we paddled our first day with our new coach Stephen Wright. Not only is he one of the best playboaters in the world but he is also an amazing creeker. He is extremely well qualified to teach us both playboating and creeking and has already taught me and everyone else so many new things. He was able to help me improve my bow stall immensely by saying a simple two words. We are definitely lucky to have !Stephen! as a coach. The first day we were back on the water we had every student out there paddling which is a rarity for us. It was an awesome way to start off the quarter.
As much as we love the hostel we won’t be here for long. In two days we are leaving for the Fuy to meet up with the parent trip before returning to Pucon. The Fuy is about two hours away from Pucon. The section that we will be running is a class 3+ creek with a few drops. It is a few hours south so it may be a little bit more chilly. After the Fuy we will be back in Pucon for a few days then we are heading to the Futalafu. The Futa will be a long journey for us. It is about and 18 hour drive south so it will definitely be colder in Futa. On the Futalafu we will be doing lots of playboating. It is a big volume river with lots of fun play waves. Can’t wait to make it to these other two destinations but I will sure miss Pucon.
Today is our fourth day in the small surf town of Pichilemu, on Chile’s coast. We drove here from the Maipo valley earlier this week after an unforgettable night camping up in the mountains. We had driven up to the site where (if it were to be built) the proposed dam on the Maipo would begin. This 70km bypass would destroy countless amounts of wildlife and beautiful scenery in what is (in my most humble opinion) one of the most beautiful places on this planet. The mountains surround the valley like massive walls, and their snow capped peaks help to illustrate their shear size, some even have glaciers on them. The entire area seemed like something out of lord of the rings; huge boulders lying strewn about a valley, mountains, constant landslides, and perilous roads seemed commonplace. It’s unfathomable to me that someone could even consider destroying such beauty for the sake of something so material as money. But, unfortunately, such is the case here. In september the dam will be finalized, and once again we will destroy one of the worlds wonders in our quest to expand and flourish. Their is some hope for the valley and river however, the locals here are rallying to raise awareness and stop the relentless march of progress. A small group lead by Soco (the owner of the house we stayed in whilst by the river) is organizing events such as the one we participated in to bring people up to this incredible place and show them the injustice of the damming project. I can only hope the people realize what a wonder they are losing in time to stop the project from going through.
After much time spent viewing the scenery and interacting with others from ‘No Alto Maipo” we left for the 4 hour drive to the coast. The drive took us back through the mountains, and out into the agricultural valley below. We passed by Santiago and what seemed like endless miles of vineyards and farmland until we finally began to rise once again into the the hills which flank the ocean. The feeling was electric when we finally glimpsed the vast body of water- massive waves, relentless surf, and long dark beaches. We had finally arrived at our play boating destination; Pichilemu. This small town would be our base for the next 5 days as we tested our skills on the ocean waves. We managed to get out on the surf the first day, however we took it easy and went directly out as opposed to going to the large point break which forms farther down the beach. The waves surprised me in their size and magnitude, they made arial tricks not only possible, but almost hard NOT to throw! Our second day was even better, we headed out to the point break and caught some of the big waves there. Here they dwarfed us in our little play boats and frequently caught us and tossed us around, it seemed that the wave was demanding a toll for every trick. Most of the time we caught them but on occasion one of us would get close, miss, and go head over the heels into a tumble lasting a couple seconds, making for some hilarious wipeouts and beat downs. Fortunately we had 2 GoPros with us, meaning we got plenty of footage of tricks, and the subsequent beat downs. On one such occasion I threw a Pan-Am, (a trick I have been working on all year) and caught it on camera (finally!).
The surf might be the thing that brought us to Pichilemu, but it was the lifestyle that has enticed me to want to come back. The towns culture is unlike anything I have ever seen. A kind of cross between California surf culture, and small town Chilean customs. There is a big main strip consisting of everything from surf shops, to empanada stands. Horse’s and carriages parade around the town, enticing tourists and locals alike, and coffee shops dot the sidewalks offering a temporary reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the surfing lifestyle.
And that brings us to where we are now, sitting in a cafe writing these blogs and updating our Facebook, preparing for another day of paradise and surfing, we leave for the Rio Claro tomorrow, and though I will miss this place, I cannot help but be excited for the next leg of our trip; the infamous Pucon.
My name is Paul Raymond and currently, I am sitting in a restaurant on the banks
of the Rio Maipo in San Alfonso, Chile. How I got here is a very long,
complicated story filled with violence, depression, exodus, and triumph.
Kayaking is my outlet for everything I have ever been through and this trip is literally
going to save my life. That is the hope at least.
portaging "Sunshine"
I have come here looking
to come to terms with myself and my past through kayaking. This is my 40 days
in the desert, it is my chance to figure out who I am and what I will do in the
world, and why. I hope to realize the faults I’ve made throughout my life and
what I can do to fix myself. Other than that, I am just going to kayak as hard
as I can and become as good as I possibly can, with the hopes that kayaking
will free me from the chains that have been holding me back all my life.
We have been lucky enough during our break to stay over at Pucon Kayak Hostel, which is owned by David Hughes. The hostel is located on the banks of the Trancura river, only 15 minutes outside of pucon. The Trancura, which is our prime run right outside our hostel has one of the best big water rapids in the Pucon area.
Earlier this year when the water was higher, Mariman, combined with “last laughs” is normally the portage of the run but with lower water levels, and having spent a lot of time on the Trancura, those two rapids are now our favorites.
The rapid consists of two boofs. The first one bring you over a reactionary that leading to the bad side of the hole. The second one is needed to get through the river wide hole seen in the pictures below. As Eric Bartl discovered the the last time we ran the rapid it is very shallow on the left side of the hole. An unlucky line resulted in several skinned knuckles and a rock in his back.
The rapid is very manageable and it is super fun. It is amazing training run and rapid for big water paddling.
