PACKRAFTING TECHNICAL TIPS #4 - Generating Power (and the Boof Stroke)

One of the main areas that most packrafters struggle with, is generating sufficient power to drive across strong eddy lines.
This video shows how, with minimal but effective strokes, Dan is able to achieve significant power in only a couple of strokes. He does this by edging, body rotation and committing his body to the strokes. However there is a lot more to the forward stroke than just this. This is why developing a really good forward stroke is so critical!
We all know that packrafts are inherently slow compared to kayaks yet speed and power are crucial to be able to cross eddylines and to be able to boof over, or off, features. The great thing about packrafts is that because they are so light, if you know what you are doing, you can get them up to full speed in only a few strokes.
Here fellow Senior Whitewater Kayak Instructor Dan Hall demonstrates the crucial ‘boof stroke’ and its timing, (as well as aggressive edging) to participants on one of our Advanced Packrafting Courses. This combination of strokes allows him to quickly and easily gain an eddy that is notoriously difficult to attain due to the large volume and angle of water moving from river left to right.
If you look carefully you will notice that that as Dan is doing the final boof stroke the boat is slightly edged towards that side, and then, as he crosses the eddyline he swaps aggressively to the opposite (inside) edge. A key advantage of edging is that it enables you to get your paddle blade deeper in the water in order to catch the green more powerful water that is below the aerated water on the surface.
You can also see how effective aggressive edging is in this situation. Essentially the more you edge a boat the more it 'grabs' the water rather than sliding over it and continuing on. Combined with a 'bow rudder' stroke up near the ankles, which acts like an anchor or pivot point, such edging allows you to turn on a dime and quickly catch small eddies.

[@craigpaulus9256]

Great demonstrations. Thanks for posting.

[@bushcraft2997]

💪🏻

[@DanRansom]

You really should do a youtube packrafting course... I'll donate to your patreon.

[@MarkOates]

Thanks Dan. Good to hear from you! I am definitely keen on this oneday when I can find the time........ not sure when that will be though :) I am currently trying to put all my online info and that which I have shared via presentations at a few meetups and courses into a better online space. Will post the Exposure.com link once its live - hopefully in the next few days. Cheers