Sunday, August 10, 2008

Rojak Day

I began the day by paddling a kayak with a single blade paddle and trying out various maneuvering techniques such as the bow rudder, and draw strokes. The canoeing J-stroke just seems odd to me. I have a natural tendency to convert the forward stroke into a stern rudder where the powerface is towards the kayak. But in the J-stroke, the back face is towards the kayak.

Switched to an unfeathered double blade paddle later on to get used to the 0 degree feather angle in my attempt to be versatile. Still not used to unfeathered blade so I experienced some aching in my arms when paddling about 2km to the Sheares bridge with Aaron. Had to race back to shore due to lightning and waited about 30min before the rain clouds dispersed.

Sam went down in the water with us after the rain and the focus switched to rolling and some experimentation. We took out the playboat and K1 for him to try.
Greatest achievement of the day was when I managed to place my body perpendicular to the boat when doing a balance brace. Usually my body is near to the stern.
Still unable to do forward ending hand rolls consistently though.
But Im more or less able to perfom a cross bow hanging draw consistently with a wing paddle.
Noticed that Sam uses the back face of the paddle when he does the blade when doing a cross bow hanging draw. After some pondering I realise that this might be better as it places the wrists in a more neutral position.
Sam managed to do an Angel roll, but because his Epic paddle has a foam core, its like cheating! I gave it a go using his paddle and it was SUPER easy.

*Rojak = Local dish that is a varied mix of ingredients eaten with sauce;
Used in Singapore slang to mean diverse or messy.

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