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[00:00:00.00] A man paddles. Text, L.L. Bean. How to Paddle a Kayak.

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[00:00:04.85] Hello, I'm Kevin. I'm here in Freeport, Maine today. I work for L.L.Bean's Outdoor Discovery Programs. I'm a sea kayak, stand-up paddling, and canoeing instructor.

[00:00:12.56] Today, we're going to talk about kayaking, a little bit about how to hold the paddle, and some basic kayak strokes to get you on the water. So when you grab your paddle, you're going to find the center seam where they go together in the ferrule there. Place it on top of your head carefully and bring your hands out until you can make nice right angles with both arms.

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[00:00:29.96] He holds a paddle.

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[00:00:31.19] Then bring the paddle down in front of you. Make sure that the power face, that curved part of the blade, is facing you. And I'm going to make sure the last set of knuckles is lined up with the top edge of the blade on both sides.

[00:00:43.31] Lightly grip with the first finger on each hand, and the rest of them, a nice, slight grip on the paddle shaft, just like so. Now, one of the ways that you can be really efficient is to use your torso when you paddle for torso rotation and using your core muscles. So if I put my paddle down right here in front of me, my elbows are down and relaxed.

[00:01:00.12] And then I just raise up the paddle to about waist level. I have my forearms extended, but my elbows are relaxed by my side. Right now, this is forming what I call paddler's box.

[00:01:11.13] So if I keep my arms like this with whatever strokes I take and then rotate my body by winding up and unwinding, this is called torso rotation, which will be far more efficient and a lot more miles that you'll enjoy without paddling as hard. The length of your paddle that you choose to kayak with is very important. It all depends more on the width of the kayak than the height of the person.

[00:01:34.17] So if I'm paddling in the sea kayak here to this side of me-- it might be more like 23 to 20 inches wide-- I might paddle with a 210-centimeter to a 220-centimeter paddle, something like this, if I'm paddling in more of a recreational kayak off to this side, I might paddle with more like a 230-centimeter paddle with more length just to get over the sides of the boat. It is a big difference. Take a look.

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[00:01:55.92] The paddle on the right stands taller than the one on the left.

[00:02:00.29] Kevin paddles out onto the water in the kayak.

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[00:02:03.90] So the first strokes we're going to teach are a forward and a reverse sweep to turn the kayak because they don't always go straight. There's wind, water, waves, current and operator-related errors. So for the forward sweep, one of the first things you think about is this is a low shaft angle.

[00:02:18.47] The paddle shaft's almost parallel to the surface of the water. I'm going to reach out towards my toe and then unwind my core, torso rotation, carving a big smiley face from my feet all the way to the back edge of the boat. Forward sweep, we use the power face. Reverse sweep, we use the back face.

[00:02:35.78] First thing I'm going to do is torso-rotate towards the stern of the kayak and put the back face flat here. The reason I put it flat here because it's supportive. If I get tipped to that side, I can just about brace off that.

[00:02:46.58] Back face is flat as I torso-rotate to the stern. Unwind my core, carving a big smiley face just under the surface all the way to my toes. And the last little bit on that reverse sweep is that it's a climbing blade angle. Let me show you what that's like out of the water.

[00:03:01.34] Back face starts flat. And as it unwinds, that climbing blade angle with a smiley face all the way out of my toes like that. So when I put that in motion under the surface, it looks like this for a reverse sweep. So those are the forward and reverse sweeps to help turn your kayak.

[00:03:19.82] So the next stroke we're going into is the forward stroke. We use it about 90% of the time just getting from point A to point B. The key points are this.

[00:03:28.16] First off, it's a 45-degree shaft angle, so it's steeper off the surface of the water. I'm going to dip in at my toe with that 45-degree shaft angle, unwind my core just to my hip using great torso rotation for a super short stroke. 45-degree shaft angle, dip at the toe, unwind to the hip for a super short stroke using great torso rotation. Let me show you what that looks like, cut it out.

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[00:03:54.54] He dips the paddle into the water at 45 degrees on each side as he paddles across the water.

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[00:04:01.30] So the next stroke we're going to talk about is the reverse stroke. It's great to be able to back out of areas that you may not be able to turn around in. For a reverse stroke, one of the first and most important things I need to do is torso-rotate towards the stern and look over my shoulder so I can actually see where I'm going.

[00:04:17.76] Next up, I'm going to put the back face flat just off my hip. I'm going to unwind with torso rotation to my knee with a climbing blade and shaft angle for a super short stroke. So as I said, the first thing, look over the shoulder.

[00:04:31.92] Torso-rotate towards the stern so you can see where you're going. Back face starts flat with a low shaft angle. And then I unwind my core with a climbing blade and shaft angle.

[00:04:42.72] Once again, climbing blade angle starts flat, ends up vertical. Low shaft to a 45. And each stroke, we're looking over our shoulder, torso-rotating to the stern. Next, I'm going to show you how to stop.

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[00:04:57.63] He holds a paddle in the water on one side to slow to a stop. Text, How to stop.

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[00:05:02.57] To stop, you're basically going to take three short reverse strokes right off our hip. Back face flat, little climbing angle. Back face flat, little climbing angle. Back face flat, little climbing angle. And that will help ease you to a stop and keep you in the direction that you were headed.

[00:05:19.13] Today, we learned a little bit about how to hold a kayak paddle, how to use it, some basic strokes to move your kayak around on the water. If you want to learn more, come out and join us for one of our classes. Hope to see you soon.

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[00:05:31.69] Kevin paddles the kayak across the water as trees stand on the shore in the distance. Logo, L.L. Bean. Be an outsider.

[00:05:40.17] A hiker hops across a high rocky ridge as other hikers follow behind and the sun sets in the background.