Canoes and Kayaks

Canoes and Kayaks are a paddle sport where you can either sit inside the boat or as a sit-on-top.

In part 1, sport and health are mainly writing about kayaks, check out part 2 for canoes.

Many people use a sit-in kayak that has a spray deck, which encloses you in the boat. If you want a sit-in kayak it’s best to learn to roll. So that if you did capsize you can roll back up and out of trouble. The roll is a flick of the hip and a sweep from the paddle to get you back up.

Alternatively you can pull the strap of your spray deck which allows you to push yourself out of the kayak.

History of the Canoes and Kayaks

The first kayaks were made by the Inuit, they used a wooden frame and then they covered it in sealskin. And so when they were ready to go on their journeys they would stitch themselves in the boat, so they wouldn’t get cold. But if they didn’t know how to roll and this would sometimes lead into trouble.

Types of canoes and kayaks

There are many different types of kayaking you can do such as:

• Canoe Polo
• Kayak
• Canoeing
• Quadrathlon
• Whitewater Kayaking
• Surf Kayaking
• Kayak Slalom
• Sea Kayaking
• Sit on Top Kayaking
• Slalom
• Marathon Racing

The basics of learning to Kayak are:

Forward Paddling: To be really good in kayaking you need to have an efficient forward paddling stroke. The best way to improve is to first see how straight you can go. Then you have to make sure you have good connectivity with the boat, you need to make sure your foot fits  right on the foot paddles, your knees are in the thigh braces, your back it nice and straight.

Then imagine your nose/bow of the kayak in half and make sure your opposite paddle doesn’t cross the line. For example if I reach to put the right-side of my paddle in – I don’t go to the left side of the boat.

Now you just need to make sure you rotate you shoulders and reach as far forward whilst submerging the whole blade in the water.

Backward Paddling: You just do the opposite of forward paddling but make sure you look behind your shoulder so you don’t hit anything.

Stopping: This is very important if there are loads of boats in the water. All you need to do is whilst you moving forward time it, and just do 4 big backwards strokes and this will stop you. It is just very important to TIME it.

Moving Sideways: There are many strokes to turn sideways such as the Draw Stroke and the Sculling Stroke.

Turning: You can do a bow or stern sweep, which you just either put the blade at the front or back of the boat and do a 180º turn.

Stern Rudder: This helps keep the boat straight.

Support Strokes: Sometimes when you are kayaking you might happen to capsize, but there are ways you can stop yourself by either doing the high recovery stoke or low recovery stroke. Doing these strokes can sometimes stop you from capsizing.

Qualifications for Canoes and Kayaks

In kayaking and canoeing there are many tests/awards you can do. Starting from the children they can do the ‘Paddle Power’ awards.

Paddle Power: This scheme has 5 different awards which you can get. They are nearly the same of the 1 star, 2 star awards for older people. It is a great way to start getting children into kayaking as most love certificates. Paddle Power is more suited for children under 14 and the Star Awards for most paddlers aged over 16.

Star Awards: The star awards are for BCU 1 and 2 star awards are generic. So you use a kayak and canoe first and then for the 3 star award you can choose a more specific paddle sport discipline. So you can do a 3 star surf kayak or 3 star open canoe.

And then if you want you can start getting into coaching and do the BCU Level 1 Coach course.

Where to go?

If you really get into canoes and kayaks you should try and practice rescues, as you’re guaranteed for someone to capsize. The best way for you to do this is go and join your local BCU club. To find out where your BCU club is go to: http://www.bcu.org.uk