The Low Brace Turn...

 Braces, ya' gotta' love 'em. No other technique is so basic, so simple, so instructive and sexy to do. It turns our boats and makes us look competent. It is something I stress in my classes, even with beginners.

 Even when done with scant commitment the moving brace gives some students the first opportunity to feel the ability of the blade to support them. It seems, too, to take little practice and few repetitions before the student is committing more and more weight to the paddle. Rarely some will, in the words of another DS (of British origin)but , get out of the cockpit.

 I always stress that low braces be done at or behind the hip to allow for a dump-saving forward sculling movement should one over stay their welcome over the bracing blade (the opposite with the high brace). Then we practice going straight into shore and practicing varying amounts of pressure on the blade and edging until the paddler can parallel park his/her craft.

Now if I can just get all those guys to keep their elbows up above the shaft.

Paddle safe...

DS