River racing is for me the ultimate kayaking experience. Just imagine paddling a 4.5 metre long down river racer, which has no rudder, through a big grunty grade IV rapid. There are rocks the size of large vans sticking up out the river that you need to weave through, big stoppers/holes that will easily back loop your kayak if you drop into them and then there's the waves, not little waves but big ones standing over 2 metres tall. You can't see what's on the other side until you fly off the top of it, then only for a fraction of a second through water filled eyes, you see the racing line before crashing into the next wave. Now thats heaven!

Most people are afraid and intimidated by the river and so was I in the beginning. However, there are several basic principals that must become an unconscious actions before you really begin to relax and enjoy this new found pleasure.

Good technique brings many positives

• A stable platform, where you can with one stroke put 100% of your body weight into the power phase to move or steer your kayak in the right direction.
• The ability to reach over the top of waves and paddle on the back of them, to maintain a level trim.
• An early exit of the blade, so that it does not drag water behind the hip causing instabilities etc etc.

Pictures above are from the Avon Descent (great race a must do). On the left what happens when your paddle exits behined you. It would have been a sore swim, its a fast moving shallow rapid. On the right how I did it. Nothing fancy just good basic technique.

Core stability.

• Swiss ball exercises will help a lot with your stability in unstable water however, you still need to get those stabilizers working whilst in the kayak. This is the same as with off road running, where you are required to fine tune your ankle stabilizers by practising on uneven ground. Also, after spraining an ankle it looses its memory so you need to start again. Another example is learning to ride a bike for the first time. Our parents put additional wheels either side to stabilize the bike and prevent injury to ourselves until we have built up that memory, whereby setting us free to master the next challenge.
• So we start out in entry level kayaks, but these won't develop abdominal stabilizers (propreceptors) because the kayaks are too stable on flat water. When they are used in rough conditions, it's either all or nothing due to the design of the kayaks, great primary but no secondary stability, so it's common to experience or see those big power flips in rough water. you know the ones. Using a faster and narrower kayak on flat water is a great way to activate abdominal stabilizers but you need to constantly keep doing this to keep those propreceptos activated. By doing this then the brain knows where the position of the kayak is and can react to any sudden movement before its too late. So its up to you if you want to learn this in a matter of days or weeks then start paddling K1's if you want to take a couple of years then thats cool as well and continue to paddle your entry level kayak. Hay we all know how much fun it is to learn new stuff, right and how much confidence you will have come to race day. So there you have it the secrets to stability.

Reading river patterns.

• This is no different to the likes of mountain biking looking ahead to see what the terrain is like in the next 50 to 100 metres so we can react before it happens. With kayaking, you need to look 100 to 200 metres even further ahead because the kayaks take longer to position correctly. This must be done smoothly to maintain boat speed and stability, so the earlier the moves are planned and initiated the better.

Look where you are going.

• Its the same for most sports. If you look at the rock, tree, bluff, another kayak etc, you're going to hit it or mistime a stroke so plan your lines and look towards where you want to be 100 metres ahead. A perfect example can be seen in the picture below where I have positioned myself incorrectly sideways in the middle of Keith's Rapid (Grade IV) on the Fish River South Africa in a K1. I did survive.

Want to become more confident on rivers? I would recomend that you paddle with instructors or kayakers that have the above skills in racing kayaks (that's different to short plastic play boats). You can also contact TopSport to find out the availability of guilded river trips.

Downloads

Click here to download a 400k video of a Down River Racer (DRR) performing a sky rocket though a large hole.

Click here to download a 47k pdf file of French DRR training.

Click here to download a 157k pdf file on stroke development for down river racing..