Forward Stroke Tip

My son, David, and I were recently paddling on the Hiwassee River, a lazy class II white water river in North Carolina. During our downstream adventure I noticed he had developed a bad and lazy habit. As a result, his forward stroke had lost tremendous power. He was lucky, being a young and very strong fellow, and on a lazy river, it had worked out for him. Here's what he had done. He had let his forward stroke become lazy. He did not extend his upper arm properly before, nor during the catch phase of the stroke. He had started each power phase of the stroke with his upper arm bent. Eegads! Can you imagine such a faupaux? His upper arm was supposed to be straight or nearly straight before he applied force in his forward stroke. But, it wasn't anywhere near straight. It was bent to less than 45 degrees. This resulted in the paddle face pointing down instead of back at the start of the power phase. He had lost a tremendous amount of his power and force. Thank goodness we caught it before he tried to do something that needed real power, much less the wasted energy he expended during each stroke. Upon seeing this I called a family council meeting. Neither of us got voted off the island, but I did share my observation with him. And, he immediately started working on it. So, if you have fallen into this habit, like David, and are not extending your upper arm before or during the catch phase of your forward stroke, stick it out there dude, and reap the benefits yourself. Update: David and I recently paddled the Nantahala, another easy Class II river, but not lazy at all. He had worked on extending his upper arm during the catch phase of his forward stroke and improved enormously. Now he had the power to move his kayak against the fairly fast current of this river. His ferry glides had become effortless. He powered his way boofing over rocks. And he powered his way through a hole that had been grabbing him lately.