C-Forum

(all the above)

Plus SOMETIMEs you might try lightening the bow, by leaning back and lifting up on your knees.... and then as you cross the eddy-line throw your weight forward... while carving on a edge and throwing a large forward (in unison).... it can either be an upstream or downstream edge depending on amount of desired penetration.

The above will help you really go deep into the eddy, and maybe even shoot you all the way through...but,however,is... this an every time occurrence or just a sometimes thing?

Shep wrote:I think it's silly to teach people the Duffek.

I think you're blinkered.

Once you learn how to plant a low telemark stroke [aka duffek] (or high telemark if you're in a slicy boat and hold a perculiar dislike of your shoulders) you've learned all of the core paddle positioning needed for the bow-draw, bow-pry, the sculled versions of both of those strokes... and most important of them all The Hanging Draw.

Some might say that those are all variations on a theme, and they'd be right... that doesn't mean they should just receive one generic name though (hence my use of the high/low telemark nomenclature), each has a different (potentially very different) outcome... and paddling is all about outcomes!


Now almost everything you can do with a duffek, you can do leaning on a low brace, or just balancing;

The advantage is that you can use the duffek as part of a chain of strokes to achieve your goal. ie, duffek into the eddy and then just scull a pry or draw to help keep you off the eddy line, or come out of the eddy with a little upstream speed, plant a hanging draw, move halfway across the river effortlessly, then turn the blade into a duffek, lean hard downstream, pull on the duffek to form a powerstroke as you reach the desired angle and shoot off with lots of lovely speed!

Madness...........Madness......

i'll admit that i've pretty much not read the other responses. it's the crappy conversion! cfs isn't good enough design to c1.

Josh, if I understand your British accent correctly ( ), either you are misunderstanding me or vice-versa. I don't think you should not teach people how to do the components of the duffek, or not teach them to chain things together. But for a beginning canoe class, why beat people over the head with specific combinations? (and particularly names of combinations!) Just teach them to experiment with combinations and learn how to combine the basics for whatever they need to do, including a duffek. Better yet, use a feature on the river so that they discover the duffek for themselves, and I promise they'll remember it far better than if you told them "Here, this is a duffek. You should learn it."

Shep