Last year, my wife and I took a day-long kayak trip to the tip of Point Reyes, a peninsula just north of San Francisco formed by the San Andreas Fault that pushes a portion of California out to sea.
Thirty minutes after we left, just off my bow, the water exploded with a whoosh and what appeared to be a gray school bus passed below us. A mother gray whale and her calf were taking a rare break from their journey north to grab a snack.
They wandered around, watched our boats, and even breathed on us (whale breath is not pleasant). Motorbikes often scare animals away, but our two little boats seemed to blend in with their surroundings.
It was just one of a hundred transcendent natural experiences I’ve had in a kayak, all within no more than a few miles of the dock. And while we were tired by the end of the three-mile ride, at no point did I worry about exhaustion or injury—not because I was in shape, but because I knew my paddling technique was correct and gentle on my muscles and joints.
kayak sales they have exploded in recent years, thanks in part to the pandemic. Many of those boats are now available to steal on Craigslist and other sites, as users find kayaking harder or harder on their bodies than they expected.
It does not have to be like that. Changing just a couple of elements of your stroke can allow you to paddle further, avoid injury, and turn your day on the water into a life-changing adventure.
Why kayak?
There are several reasons beyond whale watching to try kayaking. On the one hand, it’s a good low-impact aerobic exercise for seniors or those who want to get in shape easily.
That’s because it doesn’t engage the body’s largest muscles, such as the thighs and buttocks, said François Billaut, a professor of exercise physiology at Université Laval in Quebec and a former chief physiologist for the Canadian national kayak team. The bigger your muscles, the more oxygen they need, which is why running hard, for example, leaves you breathless.
Second, he said, it’s one of the few outdoor exercises that works the upper body, especially the chest, back, and core, which includes the abs and other deeper muscles around the midsection that are difficult to train outside of a gym. Dr. Billaut said that he would think of rowing as a partner to cycling or running.
“For people who just run and bike, they tend not to have a lot of muscle mass in their upper body,” said Dr. Billaut. “The kayak offers a balance.”
But that doesn’t mean you have to have big arms or back muscles to start with.
“Most people get in a kayak and immediately think you have to use your arms, you have to be super strong and you have to hold on to the water aggressively,” said Alicia Jones, a New York artist and graphic designer who started kayaking. paddle five years ago. she does, despite having a shoulder injury. But “it became a full body workout after I learned the techniques.”
Hug the pizza box.
The first thing to understand about proper kayaking technique is that the motion is twisting, not pulling.
“Your arms are not as strong as many other muscles in your body,” said Greg Barton, Olympic gold medalist in kayaking and founder of Epic Kayaks. “The more you can bring your whole body into the punch, the faster you’ll go.”
Before you even get into the boat, stand up and hold the oar in front of you with both hands, a little more than shoulder-width apart and elbows straight like you’re a mummy or maybe a zombie. Imagine that the square space between your arms, your chest, and the paddle is a pizza box. Now pretend to row, but don’t break the pizza box.
The point is to keep your elbows relatively straight and rotate from your torso. When the elbow bends, the arms take over and that means exhaustion and shoulder pain. Standing next to the boat, simply twist your hips from side to side so that the zipper on your life jacket swings back and forth. This is the move you want.
Now get on the boat and hit the water. It’s crucial to have good posture in the boat, “sitting up straight on your head, like there’s a rope pulling on your base,” said Lynn Petzold, a veteran NOLS wilderness school instructor.
If you’re worried about capsizing, be comfortable in shallow water (or a pool) with how much you can twist and wiggle in the boat. Fear of flipping paralyzes your paddling technique. If you have a flat-bottomed sit-on-top or recreational kayak (with a wide cockpit that allows your knees to stick out), you’ll be surprised how difficult it is to flip.
If you’re still worried about capsizing, sign up for an introductory kayak course and learn self-rescue.
Spin is everything.
Rowing time. Get into the same pizza box position, with the paddle held in front of you, chest-height, and hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Start by cutting the oar into the water, next to the boat hull, at foot level. Don’t pull it toward you, keep your elbows straight and twist your torso so the paddle slides along the boat until it’s level with your butt, and then pull it out.
“One of the first things I learned was torso rotation. That phrase is etched in my brain forever,” said Ms. Jones, who now teaches at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse. “If I forget anything else in life, I won’t forget torso rotation.”
This is the secret, the difference between frustrated exhaustion and effortless paddling: Hold the paddle with your arms but use your core to move it. If you keep your elbows relatively straight, you should feel the pull in your stomach on each side as you twist.
Getting the legs involved helps. If you’re paddling to the right, push your right foot onto the pegs or footpegs to lock in your core, Barton said, as he maintains good posture.
“You want to push on the same side you’re rowing,” he added. “Instead of just rotating from the waist up, you’re actually rotating from the hips.”
Don’t grip the paddle too tight, Mrs. Petzold said; It’s about position, not power. In fact, she doesn’t grab it at all, but circles her thumb and forefinger, like lobster claws.
“That’s where the palette rests. And I keep my other fingers loose on a paddle when I push,” she said, adding that with the right technique, she has seen beginners row 45 miles in a single day.
It’s a strange feeling, twisting your torso while looking straight ahead, and don’t expect to get it right the first time. Try to find a rhythm. When you get the hang of it, one stroke flows into the next. As you master the punch, you’ll notice that your arms don’t tire as quickly anymore; you will also feel a burn in your core.
It’s time to turn the tables.
Turning a kayak means more than just repeatedly paddling from one side, it requires a different motion that extends from the front to the rear of the boat. Now that you feel your body twisting, pushing through your feet, and activating your core, try the twist punch, often called a sweep punch, to really lock down your torso.
Start on the right side again. He twists his torso to the left and reaches back for the right blade with his feet. Now sweep the paddle out, this time to the back of the boat. Hold the pizza box in place and feel your stomach twist.
Watch the right paddle blade hawk-like from the beginning to the end of the stroke. To do this, you will need turn your body completely. Use this stroke to maneuver around or occasionally during your forward stroke to stay on course.
Once you’ve mastered these strokes and are engaging your core, Dr. Billaut recommended a few simple intervals to get stronger. After warming up, he rows hard for five minutes, then rests for three at a slower pace. He repeats this three or four times.
As you tire, wait for your technique to drop and pull your arms and shoulders back. Dr. Billaut said good technique can protect you from joint injuries, so be realistic about how far he wants to go.
If done correctly, paddling a kayak can take you farther than you can imagine. You can take it to rock gardens, through sea caves, and over playful gray whale calves. You can surf the rolling waves of an Alaskan cove or gently break the glassy surface of a perfect Baja California morning. Or you can row in the middle of a city.
“Have you thought about the fact that you can kayak down the East River or the Hudson River?” Mrs. Jones said. “Once people hear about it, they want to see it, they want to experience it.”
