WWTCC News

Sunday lunch.

After another hard week at work this Sunday proved to be something of a surprise for two reasons! 1. The weather was quite nice & 2. Both Amanda and I were free! So we loaded ourselves into a Ultimate 14.5 (a really good boat! fast, stable, easy to paddle, great for picnicking, the seats even come out!)and set off up the river for a day of food and fun.

Shepperton is a great place to paddle locally, plenty of easy parking easy access to the river and loads of back channels and weirs to explorer!

There are always plenty of great places to stop for a bite to eat and have a quiet few minuets rest. Another great point is that there are alway loads of like minded people out enjoying the river, one guy stopped us as we were drifting along and asked for a few pointers on going straight. I know this is going to open a can of worms about what is right or wrong but here are a few tips for good forward motion.

To start with, you should make sure that you have good upright body position
in your boat. It's important that you sit up in your boat. Don’t slouch back in your seat! Your never be able to make an efficient forward stroke from back there. So with a good upright body position make sure that your feet are right up against the footrest. Then rotate your shoulder back, this will pull your arms on the paddle. You will need to push with your foot on the same side as you rotate, right paddle stroke, right push with your foot!
Next, have a look were the paddle goes into the water. The blade should enter near where your feet are in the boat. This does not need to be exact, but stick to it for a ruff guide.
While you are rotating/pulling through the stroke with your lower arm try to maintain a steady push through the whole length of the stroke with your top hand/ shoulder. This will make you rotate your whole upper body. You should take the paddle out of the water as the blade lines up with your hip, again this does not need to be an exact science but use as a ruff guide.
Try not to grip the paddle too tightly; relaxing your grip on the paddle, this just makes it easer to maintain your paddling pace.
Remember to make sure that you are paddling close to the kayak; this is a forward stroke not a sweep stroke! And that your stroke is going deep (your blades are that size for a reason, use it all!).
Follow these simple steps and your forward stroke will be as efficient as it can be. Now stop reading. Go and do it!

(Pete eating!)

One last thing. Can squirrels swim? Answers on a post card please.

posted by Pete @ 3:43 AM