By Vladimir Brezina
Balance is easier with some support…
A contribution to Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge, Balance.
Copyright
Wind Against Current by Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Authors
Vladimir Brezina (RIP)
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.Johna Till Johnson
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.Recent Comments
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Wind Against Current 
Great technique! I avoid the edge of my boat like the plague, but I know I know, I need to get comfortable with it…comfortable with BALANCE. I like the top shot best.
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It’s a lot easier in a relatively narrow sea kayak—indeed, you can’t really paddle it effectively without edging. With wide, flat-bottomed recreational kayaks, you can’t comfortably edge them—and that’s where danger lies, if the waves become large and steep enough….
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Balance is indeed easier with some support….a walking stick, even…
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And in this case the paddle moving through the water…
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I still have not kayaked out of our bayou. After seeing this, I might never make it beyond those safe waters! Amazing!
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It depends a lot on what kind of kayak you paddle. If it’s a relatively long and narrow sea kayak, you are soon forced to pick up some techniques like this just to be able to control your kayak. If you paddle a wide, flat-bottomed recreational kayak, on the other hand, you probably won’t be able to edge it like this, and will feel comfortable sitting flat on the water even if the waves pick up—up to a point ;-)
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a nice braced turn
must come in handy :-)
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In this case Johna is sculling for support, but yes, to turn her boat efficiently she does need to put it on edge…
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Lol – as I have been learning with timid adventures on a blow up kayak!
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With a typical inflatable kayak, which is likely to be much wider, you probably won’t be able to do this, and that’s perfectly ok: different types of kayaks require different strokes…
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Indeed, but good balance is required for getting in & out of it ;)
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I’ve seen this in books and some photos, however, this is a nice reminder to learn some new techniques, because you never know when you might wish you knew how to do that. Thanks!
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It depends on what kind of kayak you have, but in most sea kayaks, which tend to be long and narrow, you soon learn, almost instinctively, to edge your boat—you have to, because without edging it you can’t really respond to waves, or even turn your boat sometimes…
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OMG! She cuts it fine! I stay in the center of the kayak. I know I need to take more lessons, especially the rolling class. I just need to find a one on one class with a really good teacher.
Wow!
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Yes, if you learn to brace and/or roll, you’ll be much more comfortable edging your kayak like this when you need to. Go to a pool session, or to one of the many kayak symposia…
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WOW I am impressed ( and terrified)
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No need for either! It’s easy to get the kayak this far over on its edge… the hard part is to keep it from going further ;-)
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wise words
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:-)
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