Look mom no paddles

I started hand paddling rather abruptly and unsuccessfully after loosing my paddle on a class 5 run. The carcass of my boat is still lying next to the Shirley in Norway. The silver lining is that I was alive to nurture my bruised ego. What followed was a terrible few months without a boat, during which I got so desperate that I was often forced to borrow Piranha boats from friends while waiting for a proper boat to be ship from the Fluid factory. The lesson was clear. Learn the basic of hand paddling. Sooner or later you will find yourself up a creek without a paddle. It was way to cold in Norway to really experiment but as soon as I got to the Nile I thought I would take a week to learn the basic’s with my state of the art NRS web gloves. (liberated from my previous employer and promoted from their commercial body boarding duties.)

A video of Hendri running some Norwegian creeks, handpaddling

I immediately realized how absolutely terrified I was at not being able to roll instantly. I learnt to paddle on the Zam, where you could run almost anything with a good roll. ( almost, I have scars to prove it) The confidence of a good roll is pretty much what my boating is based on. Suddenly I had neither confidence or a good roll. I could hardly remember the last time I had missed two rolls back to back. Now I went down the river floundering from left to right in search of a great big gulp of air to power the next round of splashing about. Small rapids consisting of two parts became mayor challenges. Long rapids became multi-sports event of freediving and swimming. Turns out pro kayaking is for pussies, if you want real terrorization go kayaking without a bomb proof roll.

My sudden and rapid decent back to gumby status wasn’t pretty but in a sick sort of way it was fun. In my new world I got “the buzz” from most rapids. There was no need to risk my life anymore. I had my hands full with the commercial rafting run. I started leaving the paddles at home more but it wasn’t until I swapped the gloves for some proper Power Paws that I realized there was more to hand paddling than a bit of fun. Apart from the fact that I feel like The Wolverine every time I strap those bad boys on there are some other pretty cool aspects. Rolling? fugedaboutit. Any place, anytime. It is two paddle blades for support instead of one. Submerged into a seam line or melting the top drop? Paddles don’t come close, dual suspicion wins every time. Boof? Latino style baby, slap your hands down like you mean it, thrust your hips and send postcards to the ladies. Running waterfalls? Say goodbye to those nose breakers on a misplaced shaft. Lose my paddles? I don’t think so. They are strapped to my hands. It takes the Shirley episode that got me into hand paddling in the first place out of the equation.

Which bring me to a important question, Will I run the Shirley with hand paddles? To be honest I would rather have my paddle, but that’s just because I am not tough enough, yet. One day when I am big (and on a lowish flow) I hope to do so. Hand paddling is fine for creaking and big water, in some case preferable. The most notable drawback is powering through holes. You simple don’t have the punching power, meaning you have to avoid them. A clever trick on that off-road track called the Shirley.

Which brings us to why? Why give up all that leverage? Why loose all that power? Why make it harder?

One answer is simplicity. By removing the paddle you become closer to the water, which was the original goal in kayaking after all. By having both hands in the water you can feel the currents better, and rotate your body around them more intimately. The fact that you have less power makes you boat smarter. I would like to say that hand paddling has made me a better boater but to be honest it probable hasn’t. It has only made my hand paddling better. The best thing hand paddling did for me was to force me to re-read the local runs and to recalculate my limits. Dressing kayaking up in a brand new red ribbon.

It has taken me a while but for the first time now I feel that I can run almost at the same level without a stick that I can with one. Not that it matters one bit. I am learning as much as I did in the first few years and having more fun in my boat than I have for years.

In fact now that i think about it, paddles are probable for girls...