Paul, I thought the podcast on bracing was very helpful and well done. I would like to see some info on Greenland rolling and beginner surf. I am starting a SOF workshop with Turner Wilson this Friday and will finish up with a rolling class with him and Cheri after the boats are finished. Thanks……….Dave W Edgewater Fl.

Nice job Paul, really enjoyed it! You have a very natural teaching style so I certainly enjoyed that aspect. My wife Shauna (total rookie kayaker) watched this with me and she thought you did a great job and understand all the concepts you covered.

A couple notes I took:
Since I’m also a newbie, it would have been helpful to have some core definitions explained (e.g. ‘low bracing’). You did an excellent job demonstrating what it was. At about minute 00:01:33 you used a word (perturbation?) to describe I think water conditions that might cause one to use a low brace. Anyhow, I wasn’t totally familiar with the word so it would have been helpful to give a couple examples of what type of water conditions would necessitate a low brace.

Looking forward to more great content!
Ben Potter

Nice job for a first try. Here’s a thought I haven’t seen mentioned yet. Get a remote mic and clip it to your lapel. I’ve used a wired mic because they’re dirt cheap at places like Radio Shack. The 20′ wire might get in the way, but you should be able to find a reasonbly priced wireless.

Paul,
One suggestion I would like to make, based on trying to teach people low bracing ( in whitewater or sea kayaking) is this ( a little unorthodox, but here goes):

Low bracing is almost always taught as a stroke for recovering from a near capsize. New paddlers find that concept intimidating. I find people much more responsive to learning it when I teach it as a default stroke. I tell them that if they’re not doing a forward stroke or some other stroke, that they should get a flat blade on the water in a low-bracing position. Yes, low bracing is a recovery stroke, but I prefer to view it as a comfort stroke. Get that low brace down if you’re not doing anything else and you will feel more comfortable on the water.

Then to work on a more aggressive low brace, I teach them how to stop their boat using low braces on each side. I have them get the boat moving then put down that low brace while edging (and eventually leaning) to that side. I find this situation very helpful for new learners because the moving water gives them a lot of support on the blade. I work toward convincing them that they are more stable while low bracing and edging to one side versus being perfectly upright. When they are low bracing, they are in control of which way the rough water might try to tip their boat, and they’re ready for it. When upright in rough water, the water can push you to either side. That concept comes in very handy when working on using the low brace to enter and exit an eddy (ie, put that low brace down on the downstream side even before the current tries to push your boat). It is intimidating for a new paddler to have to be ready to low brace on either side at the water’s whim, and it causes people to think that they have to react to every little wave that comes along. If you put the low brace down first, then you’re in command of the water, rather than the other way around.

Just some thoughts.

Dave W, will do. Thanks for the suggestions. It’s important to know what people want to hear about. Rolling and beginning surf will definitely be future topics. Enjoy your new boats.

Ben, I really appreciate hearing about what I could have explained better. I’ll cover it in the next podcast. I can describe the conditions that may require a low brace. Also, taking your questions along with what Ken said, I can set more context and describe how the low brace stroke can fit into other paddling strokes, including a low brace sculling stroke to add stability while sitting stationary on bumpy water, and the low brace paddle position between sweep strokes. Also I skipped over the concept of edging, which plays into this.

Ken, I agree completely with your suggestions. Thanks for adding the detail. That’s fertile ground for some additional explanation.

Danl, that’s 2 suggestions for wireless mic, counting the one on paddling.net. I will definitely look into that. Thanks.

Good stuff. Thanks for all your comments. I may not address every comment explicitly in future podcasts, however I will integrated your thoughts into what I believe will be better lessons/presentations because of your insights.

I’ve also received some great encouragement, comments, and suggestions on paddling.net and by email which I’ve also appreciated.

Thanks again.

Paul

Nice job Paul. I’d like to vote for a couple of your ideas for upcoming podcasts: VHF radio usage and PC nautical chart software. Thx!

Paul. I thoroughly enjoyed your podcast. Reading the other comments, I’d agree with the clip on mic. Lighting you’ve already discovered. Kevin Donavon and David Dahlby along with their better 1/2’s have been rolling at the Tualatin pool Sundays and they had an underwater digital camera which produced great images of me rolling…a photo is really worth a 1000 words for teaching. So any of the mentioned topics would be a value for the remainder of us. Thanks.

ditto on a lavalier mic. next time, try to demo in a swimming pool. you can get someone to sit on the side and hold the point of your boat to keep you in position out in the pool and have your camera on a tripod behind them. Work on a step by step delivery and post a written transcript of the podcast. Visuals of how a boat responds to your actions is very helpful for anyone working on technique….Good job…keep trying !

Getting into the presentation details; I’ll try not to rub my nose or scratch my head next time ; ). And don’t look down when I don’t need to; look at the camera. And maybe switch out the jammer bottoms for pants. (We’ll see on that last one.)

The camera mic was hissing even worse later last night, so I gotta get another camera.

I’d love to get a camera that can feed into a monitor for realtime feedback as I’m recording. I don’t know if that’s possible. I was lucky I was positioned pretty well in the frame, and I thought the hand motions were pretty clear. I couldn’t see any of that until after the take, and I wasn’t about to re-take last night.

I had cut the prelude and put on a title page in MS Movie Maker, but it somehow didn’t save, so I just posted the raw footage. I’ll get more familiar with editing software over time. My main goal was to produce some good info, and I figured if the icing was a little smudged, that’s OK.

Figured out the editing a bit this morning. Put on a title page and cut the rambling prelude. Next time I’ll do a nice, succinct 5-10 second intro and move on.

Couldn’t figure out right away how to cut the very end and do a fadeout while I’m still sitting down. I’ll figure that out later.

Some other nit picks as I look toward refining the presentation:

Be more careful to use precise language.

“Just like with paddling” –> “Just like with forward stroke.” (It’s all paddling.)
“I’m a Greenland paddler” –> “I’m a Greenland style paddler.” (I’ve never even been to Greenland.)
“Center of verticalness” –> I dunno, but verticalness isn’t a word.

Be careful not to get too self centered in the presentation. It’s about my viewers; it’s not about me. Avoid phrases like “the natural me.”

Use a script, maybe just bulleted topics that I want to address. Will help the flow. (Thanks for that comment from paddling.net)