The PaddlerUK magazine September 2015 issue 4 | Page 5

STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES

The fonics of

freestyle

There can’t be a sport on earth that has
changed as much, or as quickly, as kayaking.

As recently as the early 90s, there was really no such thing as ‘freestyle’. OK, so there
was ‘rodeo’, performed by bearded men in nasty boats, some of them brilliant paddlers
given the limitations of the day. A wonderful bonus on the (must-have) Dudh Kosi DVD
shows American paddlers Rob Lesser and John Wasser throwing prototype ‘endos’ on a
standing wave on the Snake River, then rolling up fast to retain; and repeat.

These were the days (mid-80s) when merely
performing an Eskimo roll on flat water was a
trick in its own right, and frequently used as a
victory salute after a hard section of water.
Without the web, names were necessarily
localised. Getting stuck in a stopp er and trying
to juggle had no name. In fact the only
standardised names for anything that I
remember were the shudder rudder, the ender
(or ‘endo’) and the pirouette. We spoke also of
intendos (intentional endos) and unintendos
(accidental ones). This was the era of the Game
Boy after all.

Corran Addison

Just 15 years later, everything had radically
changed with the advent of short boats, YouTube
and horrendously complicated moves named
after masturbating monkeys, crashing jetliners
and Greek mathematicians. Paddlers had lifted
moves from other balance sports like surfing and
skateboarding and suddenly the whole thing had
become dynamic, aerial and (debatably), quite
cool. These days, some of the names for moves
are just off the scale in their originality and
weirdness.
The names of freestyle (or ‘playboating’) moves
can be divided quite easily into three genres:
literal, derivative and original. I have listed them
here under these categories. Kayaking is not a
sport that records its history well, and I couldn’t
track down every current move, let alone the
many, like the rail-grab-based ‘limerick’, that have
fallen into disuse. All those on the ICF
scoresheet are here – and a few others if they
have interesting names. I’d like to thank those
who helped with my research, namely Corran
Addison, Eric Jackson, Billy Harris, Ken Whiting
and Brendan Marks. If you want to know what
the moves are, or how to do them… ask
someone else. I can’t even loop – yet!

PADDLERUK 5

Photo:
Eric Jackson
competing at the
GoPro Mountain
Games
Steffan has been
paddling on and off
since 1988, when he
first stepped into a
Perception Mirage.
He is a keen
historian of the
sport and author of
Circle Line: around
London in a Small
Boat (2012). These
days, he paddles a
dark blue Jackson
AllStar (2010). He is
a full-time yachting
journalist in his day
job.