Maxim and Option video edit

milkman · Post by **milkman** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:25 pm

If it's all about the boat, in a slalom race of sub-10' OC1s, I'd bet on the Zoom or a Prelude and hire Kevin as the jockey.

FullGnarlzOC · Post by **FullGnarlzOC** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:27 pm

I bet Kelvin in his Zoom would be pretty hard to beat if the course gets run clean

Smurfwarrior · Post by **Smurfwarrior** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:04 pm

I've owned a Zoom and a Maxim. The Zoom is a much faster boat. What boat was the designer of the Maxim last known to paddle? Yeah, a Zoom. Wish there was a lightweight PE version of that boat.

cheajack · Post by **cheajack** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:07 pm

Ats what I'm sayin'. Its all about the bloke!

milkman · Post by **milkman** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:12 pm

No need to bash the Maxim's speed here. We just got off on a tangent regarding Kevin's slalomesque moves and what sub-10' boat would be best for running a slalom course.

It would be interesting to hear a comparison of the Maxim versus the Option on a variety of paddling characteristics.

KNeal · Post by **KNeal** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:51 am

FullGnarlzOC wrote:down right sexy on the river..... Nice work Kelvin.

Glad to read Kelvin has the right stuff.

Cheeks · Post by **Cheeks** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:48 am

I didn't realize we were crapping on the Maxim too, I thought it was just Tommy's editing skills?

Just kidding dude, give it time, it takes a while to learn how to edit with a new program. My final cut pro work looked like total garbage until I got the hang of it.

I do wonder why there is such hostility towards the Maxim

gumpy · Post by **gumpy** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:54 am

ok, enough of this disappearing KELVIN garbage...you can't just chime in and tell us we suck, then not say WHY...even when so many ask. what gives? just trying to sell some video? hoping to make maybe 50 bucks or so? where are you? oh, kelvin, you're my hero! the disappearing canoeist! OWN UP.

Cheeks · Post by **Cheeks** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:28 am

gumpy wrote:ok, enough of this disappearing KELVIN garbage...you can't just chime in and tell us we suck, then not say WHY...even when so many ask. what gives? just trying to sell some video? hoping to make maybe 50 bucks or so? where are you? oh, kelvin, you're my hero! the disappearing canoeist! OWN UP.

It's cuz Tommy's video didn't have Europop techno.

jakke · Post by **jakke** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:41 am

With the risk of moving on slippery ice here... .

From Tommy's video I personally think you can see he's used to paddling big stuff. You see power, you see active paddling and certainly no fear of features and waves. But I also think there is room for improvement in finesse on this kind of grade II water. *Not claiming that my technique is better btw!*

What has drawn the most attention to me in Kelvins edit is the way he does his eddy turns. Sure, he's presenting a very clean technique, plays with weight shifts to bow and stern... . But look at the way he approaches the eddies. He's taking away turning momentum by his angle. Having lots of rotation planting his blade, and doing that -as it looks like to me on the video- at the middle or slightly behind the center of his canoe. Then comes the slicing forward of the paddle, weight shift to the bow, ... . It would probably become harder to do that in longer canoes, but the shorties do fine. I haven't seen much of the more classic approaches (90° angle, duffec kind of stuff).

I suppose Kelvin will pop up and explain some more

.

Kelvin · Post by **Kelvin** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:07 am

Morning All,

Ok, here we go.

This text is taken from one of the articles. 'Guiding with the blade' I have adapted it as there are no photos here. Should get these online by the back end of next week.

''Often, whilst observing a good boater executing a dynamic eddy turn important
subtleties are missed. What visually looks like the boater doing everything in their
power to spin the boat, can, in reality, be quite the opposite. With this in mind we
are going to look at how to widen a turn first.
Before we look at this let's recap on what else will make a turn wider: a narrow
angle in relation to the eddy line, a subtle initiation, a solid drive on the inside of the
turn and a conservative edge. So what can the blade do?''

Wide and tight are then looked at.

''Now we have looked at both ends of the large spectrum, what sits in the middle?
Let's go back to that good boater executing a dynamic eddy turn and analyse the
subtleties.

Dynamic eddy turns

1. The eddy line is approached with an appropriate degree of speed and downstream
angle, as we know this will add up to a wide turn.

2 and 3 The boat is then driven across the eddy line with a powerful stroke on the inside, this also widens the turn.

4. The blade is then held momentary towards the stern, again widening the turn.

5 and 6 The blade is then sliced forward and the edge is increased, the turn is starting to tighten.

7.The bow is then pulled towards the blade; this tightens up the turn even more placing the paddler exactly where they wanted to be in the eddy.

8. A forward stroke is often used to finish, this sets the you up for the next manoeuvre.

I often think of this: you can always tighten up a turn, but when you have been spun you have been spun!''

This will make more sense with the rest of the articles and photos.

Comments as usual are much appreciated.

Kelvin.

outrage dave · Post by **outrage dave** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:15 pm

I co produced the 'EURO TECHNO' for the trailer and although not the best music around it was the only piece of royalty free music that I had at the time. For you music critics out there the music was taken from a stoner rock band that I used to play in and we put a dance beat behind it. Now back to talking about paddling.

Craig Smerda · Post by **Craig Smerda** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:39 pm

FullGnarlzOC wrote:btw - I'd take the Maxim > the L'edge in the Slalom race - remember, it all about the boat.

I'll take that bet

I think there's a lot of good things to be seen in either FG'z or Kelvin's video regarding useful skills and techniques for people to see and learn from regarding the actual useage of a short OC.

From my perspective and from what I've learned over the years the sub 10ft boats require people to use the water, the rivers features and their own river sense more than anything else... especially "speed".

FullGnarlzOC · Post by **FullGnarlzOC** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:01 pm

Craig - if your piloting the L'edge - your on sucka!

6-pack of Golden Monkeys for the winner - Don't worry I'll come to you here soon enough on your home course

Let me explain why I think craig should just go ahead and buy the 6-pack now, while applying it to this discussion and keeping this relevant(because I'm just in that kind of mood

)

I've read Kelvin's post over a few times, making sure I understand what is being said and suggested. To me, they are general guidelines to a solid eddy turn - however there is a couple this you just won't see me doing - 1) using my 'paddle in the back of the boat to widen a turn'...I've always been cab foward in my boat - always keeping my paddle in front of the boat - as this is how I steer and propel the boat forward. 2) Using a conservative edge while executing an eddy turn... You generally won't ever catch me doing anything conservative in regards to eddy turns - this is just style - using cross strokes to propel forward - always doing 'forward momentum' strokes to control the angle of the boat - hitting hard inside edge eddy turns (maxim loves this) and hitting outside edge turns - because sometimes I don't like putting my paddle in the water when I cross an eddy line - maybe a shredder chick is watching?

Kelvin's post allows those without all the parts to begin to put key elements together - But I doubt that class V paddlers are going to find the information useful.

I say I can scour class II because I can - that's the benefit of paddling turbulent high gradient ceeks - everything else is easy...controlling every inch of my boat at all times - this is why I won't touch any gates when Craig and I race the great race of Maxim vs L'edge 2012.... Even if Craig doesn't touch any gates...I'm 26 years old, in peak shape, and I have the better boat for the job......

BOOOOM

TheKrikkitWars · Post by **TheKrikkitWars** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:18 pm

I sincerely hope those last two paragraphs are some kind of very subtle self-depreciative caracature of your former self...