BOOF Stroke

Mr.DeadLegs · Post by **Mr.DeadLegs** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 2:47 pm

What is the best way to get a good launch off a drop in a coal barge (12' boat)? Just speed, paddle stroke at lip, raising knees? What works and why?

greybear · Post by **greybear** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:00 pm

Speed works for me and timing of the stroke. Sometimes it works and sometimes well not so much. I had a nice boof on New Years Day on Whitetop in a Viper 12.
Greybear

Dooleyoc-1 · Post by **Dooleyoc-1** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:01 pm

1. Speed coming in will make a big difference. 2. Grab the lip of the ledge drop or waterfall with your paddle. 3. Take a powerfule stroke and do a huge hip thrust to polevault yourself out and prepare to land flat. You can cheat in a big 12' canoe by turning the boat away from your onside with your boof stroke to land a little sideways at the bottom. That's a trick I use sometimes when I'm boofing the spark.

tokebelokee · Post by **tokebelokee** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:39 pm

All you need to know said above by Dooley. You probably want to be sure your are in the outfitting pretty well or you won't be able to transmit your paddle stroke energy into moving the boat. Just like rolling, you are "grabbing" the lip of the drop, water, etc. to anchor yourself for the hip/body motion, which is the thrust or bow raise in this case.

http://vimeo.com/13661255

00:15 is decent, 00:48 is kind of poor, but both basically dry landings. Paddle stroke is early at 00:48, but the sloping nature of the drop combined with the boat length made it feel like the bow would already be going in if I got the actual lip of the rock. The length and bow volume of the long boat will take care of you as long as you have some success in keeping the bow up and projecting it out off of the drop so you don't just pencil.

tokebelokee · Post by **tokebelokee** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:56 pm

better example from this guy for sure...

http://vimeo.com/11167273

2opnboat1 · Post by **2opnboat1** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 4:30 pm

what dooley said the only thing that I would add is Dont lean back If you lean back you are really pushing the nose down.

Post by **sbroam** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 5:19 pm

I can't say I've ever successfully boofed -short boat or long - except where the rocks / water helped me out. However, I can definitely say that I've leaned back lots of times and it *never* helps. It's a reflex I'm working to overcome...

doomroller · Post by **doomroller** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 5:41 pm

At what height of waterfall would you abandon the boof, and try to "plunge" on the landing? I would assume that as some point, the impact would be too great for a boof on bigger drops.

TheKrikkitWars · Post by **TheKrikkitWars** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 5:45 pm

sbroam wrote:I can't say I've ever successfully boofed -short boat or long - except where the rocks / water helped me out. However, I can definitely say that I've leaned back lots of times and it *never* helps. It's a reflex I'm working to overcome...

Depends, if you lean back coming off the drop it's generally trouble brewing. But if you lean back in the process of taking the boofstroke and then move forwards as your weight begins to move into the free space that's fine.

It's important that you don't just lean your weight forwards either, that's inviting a headplant. The "lean forward" should be more of a stomach crunch in which you actively use your abdominal muscles to bring your head and knees closer together.

yarnellboat · Post by **yarnellboat** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 10:37 pm

If you don't mind taking class IV advice from a class II paddler who never boofs anything, here's my 2 cents....

I don't think of it as "speed" so much as timing or acceleration - the point isn't just how fast the boat is going, but more that you're active in paddling it at the time.

And, in addition to the leaning back, leaning/landing onto the brace seems to result in a lot of flips - it's obviously tempting to favour landing on our brace, but I think it's common for people to overdo that, and end up flipping to their on-side or needing a huge brace and swamping in the process. So for landing, I'd suggest trying to plan for another forward stroke and think less about a brace.

Pat.

markzak · Post by **markzak** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:58 am

I would add that the biggest mistake people learning to boof make is usually related to their actual stroke. The way people describe "grabbing the lip" of the drop is important. BUT, way more important than that is how you effectuate your stroke to grab the lip. Too many boaters don't get their paddle dead vertical and dont put their body weight into the paddle stroke. Putting your weight into the stroke prevents you from sweeping and prevents the boat from turning as your boof.

Its a complex stroke that comes with practice. You can practice in flatwater. Take a stroke with good form, keeping the paddle vertical and pull from as far forward as you can reasonably reach to your knees. Stop at your knees, if you pull back any further you're almost forcing yourself to lean back as you come off the boof. It doesnt have to be a fast quick stroke at all, just good form.

If you practice in flatwater and find that the boat is not going straight during this stroke, keep practicing. Before a really important boof, I will practice that stroke in the eddy over and over again until I feel confident with it, the timing, power, etc. then I peel out. I also support everyone else's advice so far.

rockyboater · Post by **rockyboater** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:12 am

I found the best way to dial in my boof is off the tops of waves while running down a river. When you start getting it you can get full air of a small wave.

jakke · Post by **jakke** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:14 am

I don't have a good boof -yet- but I do second the boof waves strategy. It's a great way to work on your timing and stroke quality.

I do get up to such a boofs:

Next is to move out to small drops. I do have the impression though that short canoes boof better then longer ones.

philcanoe · Post by **philcanoe** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:33 pm

This link was from a couple years ago... and will work fine with a 12 footer.
A good bit of which has been mentioned.

http://cboats.net/cforum/viewtopic.php? ... c&start=11

Bob P · Post by **Bob P** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:47 pm

My two cents...

Many times, the last stroke will have to be a shallow sweep because you're in a shallow area, so my second-to-last stroke will be an offside sweep. That starts my boat turning to the on-side to compensate for the last stroke's effects.