Michele Ramazza's Blog – August 2010 Archive (4)

How to do the "draw rudder"

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…

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Added by Michele Ramazza on August 27, 2010 at 10:16am — 5 Comments

How to improve your paddle grip

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…

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Added by Michele Ramazza on August 25, 2010 at 7:47am — No Comments

How to repair a indented nose

Soon or later, everybody will hit the nose of the kayak in this way:

It's not a kayak fault, it's our fault. However this kind of damages, if the plastic is not broken, are really easy to fix. Now we'll learn to make the plastic malleable and reduce the indentation.

First of all you need to warm up the material either in the middle of the indentation and the edges. You need to be careful to do not melt the plastic, but just warm it up until you… Continue

Added by Michele Ramazza on August 25, 2010 at 7:45am — No Comments

How to do the rudder...

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…

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Added by Michele Ramazza on August 25, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments