August 2010 Blog Posts (27)

This “how to” is a little tid bit on safety on the river. One of the big things that needs to be part of a boaters knowledge is how to throw a throw rope. It can help you in emergency situations and just help pull

your buddy out of the river quickly.

The first step is picking a throw rope of a good…

6 inches of rain fell in upstate NY last weekend. The Black River in Watertown, NY rose to spring levels and Inner City Wave came in. The wave comes in at 10,000 cfs and hovered around that for 4 days. I called some friends to come and surf it and we had an amazing time. Inner City is probably one of my most favorite waves to surf. It has a ridiculous sweet surfers right shoulder so left tricks go huge and there's eddy service!

Here's a video from the…

The stroke I'm going to present now has been one of the most complicated maneuver to teach and to learn. The aim of this post is to put order and, why not, physics, to understand what I call the draw rudder. I use basically only this stroke to change direction because is the most efficient way not to loose speed and to avoid the drifting effect.

For most kayakers this theory could sound quite different to what they learned in the kayak courses. I built up this theory to give a good…

Don’t you hate not knowing an efficient, easy way to store your boats? Tired of all the excess space they take up. Well, I have a solution for you! Don’t worry this isn’t some corny infomercial type of deal about some

miracle product. It’s just a simple storage solution that works. So, your hulls

stay “unoil-canned” and your boat stays out of the way.…

How to make a grip on the shaft of your paddle?

I think the better way to do it is to create a handle over your shaft with the shape of your hand. In this way you can control much better the angle of your paddle. You can use this system in any paddle on the market.

To make it you need to clean the shaft with sand paper and alcohol.

Then, with two nuts of paste for car body, you need to create a grip with the shape you prefer using also…

This is the first technique article which aims to show what I do to have the best results in class V or races. What I'm presenting now is one of the first stroke to control curves with creeks and freestyle boats.

The rudder is the most efficient stroke to control the direction and keeping speed during a curve. This stroke prevents the kayak to move side wise and thus to loose energy.

To make a rudder you have to begin with straight speed and suddenly leave the…

Nordic Champion

The 2010 season has been more than good for me. I have enjoyed international trips, coaching, competing, river explorations, and over 150 days on the water so far. Every year seems to get better and better.

A huge highlight to my summer was claiming the title of…

The competition circuit that takes place in Colorado is quite an amazing experience. It all begins with the small town competition in Buena Vista, Colorado, the CKS Paddlefest. The Buena Vista Whitewater Park is

one of the best whitewater parks I have ever been to. It keeps getting better

and better. Last year, they had only 4

features and this year they added one new feature, a wave making it the fifth

feature in this already exciting park. That wave…

Photo: Chad Daugherty

The last photo ever taken of this particular Habitat.

Photo Copyright: Robin Carleton

Step…