C-Forum

Hello Lennart,

why don'n You go to the ECBA in Swiss

look fo info on http://www.wildwasserboard.de/t1831f5-ECBA.html

there will be some very good tandem paddlers like bushpaddler too

My brother end I will be there also, hope to see you again?

Robert

I know florian and Martina , I have met then a couple of times of the river. I just checkes it is 750 km from them to us .. or the other way around.. and most rivers are not between us and them but even further away.

Thanks Robert For the heads up, I will probably be working that week. I hope to get to kringelfieber this year. that is my main thing for spring this year.
my paddling buddy has a thight scedule and for sure can not take that week of as well.

We need to be in touch for sure.

Hi Lennart,

There are at least 3 tandem teams in the Netherlands that paddle whitewater on a more or less regular basis, so well within your range of 500 km.

See you at Kringelfieber,

Wouter Kieboom (half of a tandem team)

I just remember you thanks for that and I know robert and michel. Geoff and Val are paddling well in the Ardennes, but anything above gr 3(-) I can not see then do that.

@wouter give me a couple of dyas on holibu or similar and we are ready for dwd. Do you want to join?

hopefully I can make it to kringelfieber.

Hi Lennart,

and if you go to the alps make sure to drop a line and hopefully we'll find some time paddling together!

stay safe
Flo

It is interesting that there are tandem and solo paddlers in the Netherlands. What is a travel day for canoeing? Are there runs close enough for day trips or do you usually weekend/camp further away?
Just interested in how other people in other places put their canoe trips together.
Einar

Hi Einar,
Thanks for your interrest, As far as I know there is not much of a group of oc or c paddlers. There are a number of them who enjoy the rivers elsewhere in Europe. In the Netherlands there is only an artifcial gr 3 course (one similar to the one in being for the olympics). Whitewaterpaddlers from here drive in winter to belgium or germany if the rivers are filled. That can be done in a day for most about 3 hours 1 way. A lot make trips for the weekend. the rest of the year we will drive to the alps /norway/soctladnd /pyrenees most of those trips are a week or more most of those places take around 10 to 14 hours drive.

There's a reason they call these Dee-Vorce boats...

But that said, in my racing days, especially Mixed OC-2 and C2 I often paddled bow and my female partner was stern. My favorite racing partner and I didn't need to talk a lot - Our stroke rates matched fairly well, She was very comfortable making corrections and letting me set cadence and initiate big turns.

She was a very experienced paddler - major help.

I was always considerably heavier than my partner, so boat trim was important - lots of up front time marking waterlines and adjusting saddles.

We spent a lot of time just playing on the rivers - really let each of us be comfortable with each other's balance, leans and reactions.

Hi Lennart,

Let me know if you go to DWD, I might join in . (btw, tandeming DWD, that's already quite an achievement!)

I think the non-verbal communication is quite important in a tandem canoe. Read the boat, your partner and the water.
I've spend a day with James Weir in a Blast and Vertige-X, and we had a blast! Fortunately our timings matched quite well, naturally. And most of the lines we wanted to do very similar things, if not the same. That way, tandem paddling can be really really fun.(a lot more then I expected it to be).

I know Kelvin has been working a bit with Team Bushpaddler, so I'd guess he has a better understanding of tanden whitewater paddling now as well.

For OC tandems in the 14’ or longer category, it’s hard for the bow partner to sense how much boat and momentum is behind them. The stern paddler has a much better view of the overall boat angle. Experienced bow paddlers tend to paddle like they were solo and make it hard for the stern to react to quick changes in course. What tends to work best overall is to have the stern set the entry to rapids and general line to take while the bow acts when quick changes in bow placement are needed. The bow position is the better place to learn to read whitewater and that experience makes it easier for an inexperienced paddler to transition to solo paddling.

Slightly bow heavy trim shouldn't be a problem in an open boat, but as the bow goes down the ride becomes wetter and the stern tends to swing out more making it harder to keep a line. That can be counteracted with closer paddler placement, but most 14’ outfitting I’ve tried isn’t close enough to do so.

A key communication point is to say where you want to go and not what you want to avoid. Communication works more quickly if it’s one way, but whitewater involves the unexpected and tandeming consistently with success depends on cooperation.

ezwater wrote:John Coraor: "It's possible for a petite 5'2" paddler to man the stern behind a 6'4" middle linebacker, but put them in a close cockpit C-2 or OC-2 and it won't take long for that tandem team to steer straight into trouble."

John, did you ever see Hoppy and Mary Eager race c-2? Hoppy was near 6' 5" and strongly built. Mary was maybe 5' 3" and about 105 pounds. Hoppy paddled bow. They had offset cockpits so Mary could look under Hoppy's left armpit. She was strong for her size, stroked hard enough to help balance Hoppy's effort, and ruddered as needed.

I'm drawing a blank on Hoppy & Mary Eager; I don't believe I know or ever met them.

P.S. I'm sure it's possible for a team like Hoppy & Mary to paddle...but I wouldn't say it was the most logical and effective choice of paddling positions for that team given the dispartity in size.

John