To help picture the line , I ’ ll imagine that the camera ’ s taken a still shot of both zoomed in and zoomed out . The still shot allows me to slow things down and consider my next steps ; If my next steps are to paddle the rapid , I ’ ll imagine the camera ’ s taking a video rather than a still . Either of these approaches can be done from the bank or your kayak ; if you ’ re in your kayak , try to ensure it ’ s not time-pressured . Middle of a rapid might not give the time needed to visualise , whereas , sat in most eddies , you can visualise for as long as you need .
The markers
If you ’ ve managed to intentionally and productively change your focus with the method above , can you see any markers that help you remain on line ( something to aim for ) or mark a key move on the river . It could be as simple as the feature that creates the eddy you ’ re after . Something as simple as highlighting a tree branch a foot off of your line changes your intent in the water , moving you from passenger ( floating with the flow ) to purposeful ( I ’ m driving toward the fixed feature ). You often see groups doing this by having someone on the bank hovering the blade above the line for you to aim for . This approach works ; however , your understanding of the environment increases if you do the same with river features .
VISUALISING THE KEY PLACEMENTS When talking about key placements , it ’ s often the blade that gets the focus , hook your blade on the edge of this drop here , put your paddle into the eddy and so on . You can be pivotal with the placement of your boat and body ; getting these all aligned is the real aim . I ’ m not going to go into the technical details of how to edge reliably or engage positive drive simultaneously ; instead , this is about visualising these key placements of boat , body or blade .
Arguably picturing the perfect placement is easy ; picturing yourself achieving it could be a different story . Why not think of this as a freeze-frame . How should it look if the movement is frozen in time for a split second ? If you ’ re going to do this , try to keep it simple ; if you can have one or two things to picture in action , it becomes easier to keep the focus .
You can be pivotal with the placement of your boat and body ;
getting these all aligned is the real aim
ThePADDLER 131