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Summary: Learn the basics of turning when in a kayak from our expert in kayaking in this free boating video on kayaking and canoeing for beginners.
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About the Expert
Phil Meyer Phil Meyer started his kayaking career in Colorado in the days when kayaks were made in the backyard out of fiberglass and river trips meant stopping in eddie... read more
We're going to talk about turning your kayak. So you want to use a combination of the sweep stroke and your forward stroke to turn your kayak. So what that means, I go ahead, I plant my paddle in the water like this, I'm bringing it alongside my boat. Now, I need to move to one side or the other because the boat's not pointed in the right direction. What I want to do is on that side, go ahead and use the sweep stroke, which means I'm going to bring that paddle back towards the back of the boat like this, which will turn the kayak in that direction. So what I'm going to do now is go out on the water and demonstrate this for you. But basically, again, it's a combination of the forward stroke and the back part of the sweep stroke where I'm sweeping towards the back of the boat, which will turn the boat. Okay, so for a turning stroke, I'm coming along straight, I want the boat to go to my left side. So what I can do is I can extend this right stroke and it's going to turn my boat to the left. The other thing I can do is I can power up more on the right side than the left side. So let me demonstrate that for you one more time.