PADDLER 28
PADDLER 28
Hull speed
The longer the craft, the higher its hull speed. So, if you put a sea kayak next to a short boat or a surfboard, then the sea kayak will always be capable of moving at a higher speed. In the surf, this means that a sea kayak can catch a wave much earlier than a short boater or a surfboarder. Catching a green wave when it is still a shallow swell gives the sea kayaker a huge advantage over other surfers, but on a crowded beach, it’ s not something that should be overdone unless you want to be the most unpopular person in the sea.
However, in the right situation, an early take-off gives you a little more time to think before you need to act. Catching a wave as a green swell is also much smoother than catching a white-water wave with all of its turbulence. In a perfect world, a slow-moving, small green swell is ideal for a sea kayaker to develop their surfing skills.
WAVE CHOICE
Waves come in all sizes, and to be honest, a lot of those sizes are scary! And if you’ re scared, you won’ t be thinking. If you’ re not able to think, you won’ t be able to develop and refine a new skill.
So don’ t practice in scary surf. If the surf is only very small, you might be able to practice on green swell from the start, but most of the time the surf is too big, and you’ ll be much better off practising on small white-water broken waves, which have lost some of their energy. Additional benefits of riding small white-water waves are that you aren’ t wasting loads of energy trying to paddle out through large breaking waves constantly, and if you do take a swim, you won’ t be far from shore; in fact, you’ ll probably be in standing depth.
ACCURATE TAKE-OFF
There are two sorts of accuracy when it comes to taking off on a wave. The first is choosing the best stage of the wave’ s evolution, and the second is your take-off angle.
A wave will go through a series of stages as it approaches shallow water. First, the swell becomes distinct but with a shallow slope. Next, the slope becomes steeper, and then it becomes so steep that the wave crest starts to break; the whole wave then crashes down on itself. Finally, the entire wave becomes a tumbling mass of white-water, getting smaller and calmer as it approaches the shoreline.
Ideally, choose a surf spot where these phases run through as slowly and predictably as possible. A shallow-sloping sandy beach will often create these conditions.
Try to be accurate with your observation, positioning and selection of which of these phases you choose to catch the wave. Try to catch a wave too early in this evolution, and the wave’ s slope will be too little to push you along. Leave it too late and catch a wave as it breaks, and you’ ll be out of control from the start. From experience, I would recommend catching either a sloping green face that is just steep enough to catch or play safe and catch the wave after it’ s broken and has turned into a smaller, uniform white-water wave.
The second element of accuracy is the angle of your kayak as the wave catches you. We all know that you’ ll need to paddle hard and fast to catch a wave, but often this is done too aggressively, causing the kayak to wiggle violently as you accelerate onto the wave. It is so critical that you are as close to 90 degrees as possible when the wave takes control that this wiggling can really mess things up at the very start of your ride.
My advice would be to accelerate hard in front of the wave to build up speed; four to six hard paddle strokes should be enough, then, as you start to feel the wave lifting your stern, focus more on calming down your paddle strokes to maintain a smooth 90- degree angle to the wave as you are caught. Your last paddle stroke is critical and should be all about maintaining a straight take-off rather than accelerating. The closer you can be to 90 degrees, the more time you will have to control your ride before the wave turns you to one side or the other.
Beachward rudder