Thursday, March 5, 2009

Avoiding Stall Outs in an Outrigger Canoe (OC1)

An OC1 Tip by dmehling from Surfing Technique at http://www.ocpaddler.com/forum/

Another major thing I learned was to steer around stall outs. By this, I mean that you need to anticipate when your canoe is in a situation where if you keep going, you are going to stall out (i.e. burry your nose into the wave in front of you, not have enough umph to carry you over that next bump, or when you are going to miss a wave and have it pass underneath you). Whenever I feel my boat is about to stall out, I steer around that stall out (usually right to keep the ama down-wave) and keep as much momentum as I can.

By steering around stall outs, you can change the angle of your canoe relative to the waves and prevent being completely perpendicular to the wave. When you “see-saw” (i.e. your boat is perpendicular to the wave as the wave rolls under you), you lose all your speed as the tail will not release until the nose starts to point down again, lifting the tail. By the time that happens, you have lost all your speed and missed a wave. If you don’t do something different, you’ll likely miss the next wave too.

Instead, try to steer right or left so that your canoe is at an angle to the wave. By doing this, your tail won’t get sucked down as your nose goes up. Your tail will release sooner and you’ll maintain more speed, allowing you to catch that next runner instead of missing another bump.

In short, steer around situations where your nose is going to be pointed up instead of down. Avoid going “nose up” any way you can; you’ll surf faster and link more rides.


Whosus (picasa) - Balmoral Saturday Open Water Session (more here) - Sat 04 Apr 09 (PD's Photo Album)

Whosus (picasa) - Balmoral Saturday Open Water Session (more here) - Sat 04 Apr 09 (PD's Photo Album)

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