The Low Brace and its Cousins or
How to avoid the upside down thing...
By Michael Gray
Bracing, it keeps your head in a gaseous oxygen environment. The
low-brace is your primary defense against flushing those sinuses
unexpectedly. It should be automatic, much like catching
yourself with the flats of your hands from a slip on an icy
sidewalk. Automatic, as in don't think about it, just do it. Its
part of your basic skills toolbox along with your forward stroke
and sweep stroke.
Here's how its done:
Basic low-brace: used for recovering from slight
instabilities caused by boat wakes, waves and reaching for
things you dropped.
You hold the paddle with the back face of your blade down,
paddle shaft resting across the cockpit with your knuckles down
and your elbows up...pretty much a push-up position. Your paddle
will be tucked right in close to your navel to get this body
position. Now that we have our paddles and torsos in place,
let's get our tails into the action. Maintaining a vertical
torso, gently tilt your pelvis to the left (this will tilt your
boat) just enough to simulate a slight tip. As your boat tilts
to the left, stop this tilt by gently pushing the backside of
your paddle blade flat against the surface of the water. You
should hear a gentle "kersploosh" when your blade hits the
water. This action will arrest your fall long enough for you to
right the kayak by tilting your pelvis back to a level position.
Oops, hey, that pesky paddle may still be stuck just below the
surface of the water now...not a good time to pull straight up
on it. Try simply rolling your hands upwards to slice the blade
back out. In review: push up position, boat tilts, arrest this
tilt by kersploosh of the back of your paddle blade, right the
boat with your backside, slice the paddle back out. Okay, now
practice this on the other side. Not once in a while either, but
every time you paddle, practice your low-braces slowly on each
side, so that your body develops a memory of its own.
Key points:
- Maintaining a vertical torso. You're not a buoy with
lead in your tush to hold you upright, so only tilt your
boat.... keep your body and head right over your center of
gravity. Pretend you're suspended from a rope or watch the
bows of your kayak...both are useful devices for maintaining
that upright position.
- Elbows up, knuckles down.... there will be a test.
- Low paddle position: the more parallel the surface of
the water your paddle is the more leverage you maintain
against it.
- Brace on side that you are tilting toward.
Basic Variations:
Skulling low-brace: used for adding stability while
tilting the boat to one side during a flurry of confused waves
or inconsiderate jetski activity.
First, tilt your boat slightly to one side, so you know which
way it will go if it wants to capsize. Next, back to your basic
low brace body position. Now, glide your paddle back and forth
gently on the water's surface in about a 30-45 degree arc...just
like frosting a cake. The key is to tilt the leading edge of the
paddle blade up a few degrees so it glides across the surface
rather than diving. Put more energy into sliding the paddle back
and forth than into forcing an angle into the blade...the paddle
will often readjust its own angle if you're gentle and let it do
its job. This works well and, well, it looks pretty cool....so
practice, practice, practice.
Low brace return for sweep strokes: Refer to the last
article in "Guidelines" for the sweep stroke and this little
enhancement will open up a whole new world of snappy turns for
you and your boat. Turning your kayak by doing a whole lot of
sweep strokes in succession on one side takes a lot of effort.
We've learned that we can edge the kayak slightly to one side
and it will turn away from our tilt. So, I am doing a forward
sweep on the left and edging my boat to the left to carve a turn
to the right. Okay, got it...although when my stroke exits the
water to come forward for a second forward sweep, I feel a
little unstable tilted like that. Enter the low-brace
return....simply return that paddle blade back to the bow in the
low brace position, rotating forward with the back face of your
paddle blade just above the surface of the water. It'll be right
where you need it to catch you if you start to fall. Remember to
practice this on both sides, forward and backward.
Michael Gray has been helping people keep the open-side-up
at Uncommon Adventures since 1984 and is available for
instructional clinics in NW Michigan and for multi-day skills
training programs wherever you are. email:
kayakmichael@voyager.net
or on the web at
www.uncommonadv.com
