Strokes and Manuevers - Colvos Passage

Olalla Bay boat launch, ready to paddle at 9 AM.

There’s much more to maneuvering your boat than just forward, reverse, and braking on one side to turn. Learning the maneuvering strokes allows you to control your boat better in wind or waves, or simply to make the boat go where you want it with the least amount of effort. An efficient forward stroke makes you go faster with less effort and make longer trips. Improving your strokes makes kayaking more fun! It provides you the fundamentals for training later in wind, waves, current, and surf. We will not be practicing rescues, but on occasion students have caught a blade and flipped. 

In this clinic, we start with the fundamentals and “layer” our way up. We’ll cover edging, turning, bracing, sideways movement, forward, and backward strokes.

This years basic class students are welcome, as long as they have had at least one student paddle; but this clinic will not qualify as a student paddle towards a basic badge.