C-Forum

Brought to my attention last weekend that the forward stroke is the strongest brace. Any opinions or comments? I happen to aggree with this ( in most situations ) saved my self quite a few times last paddle, shooting some diagnal currents over some small drops.

A low brace definitely seems to slow your momentem and make you more vulnerable, especially in a foam pile situation. What do you think?

I don't think I would call it the strongest brace, but more often than not it's all you need.

Any aggressive stroke is usually better than a passive bracing stroke.-M-

I agree (mostly).

A low brace is reactive, to be used after something went a bit wrong. By getting support from a forward paddle stroke (and you will get some from a cross deck stroke too) you can stay in control and driving and avoid something going wrong in the first place.

Something I often tell beginners whether in OC1 or kayak, when I see them stop paddling at the start of a rapid and either freeze or adopt a defensive brace position, is to try to relax and keep on paddling because they will get more support from continuous paddle strokes than they will from a blade hovering ready for a low brace, and they have a chance to move the boat where they want to go instead of the river dictating their path (which is usually into a hole). Each stroke probably has less support, but you have a lot more of them.

Also aside from the support itself, if you keep on paddling you will stay loose at the hips and biomechanically be in a better shape to deal with the challenges the rapid throws at you.

Traditional canoe technique seems to be a lot more defensive, I think this is why many people find it harder to transtion to C1 or OC1 from canoe than from kayak....
My dad told me off for paddling his canoe too aggressively (we were paddling tandem), funny but the only WW swim I remember taking from a traditional canoe was a few minutes later after he tried to slow end his end (the front) down and go the opposite side of a hole to what I told him - we started off on a great line to right eddy, and ended up dropping into the hole with the bow pointing left....

This summer a good instructor made the same comment to me; in short, quit over bracing, paddle forward.

Kinda took me aback at the moment but, over time, I agreed. There was nothing wrong with my act of bracing
but it was capping, limiting, my choices; sort of a nice safe dead end.

The context/set up was the 4 students were trying to ride across a long really fast diagonal wave using an offside paddle. If you made it to the small eddy on the other side great, if you didn't then I would end up in the squirrley outrun and brace like mad. After a number of near successes but my not finishng up, he commented, paddle forward in the squirrley, thin out the bracing.

Later on I decided that his comment on bracing was probably also a comment on how I wouldn't hold the offside move just quite long enough (I jammed out, reached my mental limit on the move). It wasn't just the bracing he was criticizing, it was my whole attitude, that I was attempting a hard move with tentative (over prepped for defense) attitude, an unproductive mix. I wish he had been more blunt at the time- bring 'A" game paddling to an "A" game move, but eventually I got it, but later on, on the drive home.

I still brace, always will, but I'm more aware when my bracing reveals a defensive attitude going in. Nothing wrong with that, if that was all I wanted to accomplish.
Probably a pretty individual story, someone else might see it differently but it has changed my paddling.

dan. https://youtu.be/Gj1cDcEQJvY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for all the helpful info.

Paddle forward strokes only with no bracing in a c-1 wildwater boat

https://youtu.be/vpylDx3VQnQ

[quote="KNeal"]Paddle forward strokes only with no bracing in a c-1 wildwater boat [/quote]

Cross bow at ~ 0:53, don't blink