{"id":3227,"date":"2014-12-30T20:23:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T03:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ireneskayakingblog.com\/?p=3227"},"modified":"2021-07-09T16:24:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T23:24:01","slug":"why-kayak-slalom-will-make-you-a-better-creekboater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ireneskayakingblog.com\/kayak-practice\/why-kayak-slalom-will-make-you-a-better-creekboater\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Kayak Slalom Skills Make You a Better Creekboater"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here’s a sweet video of World Cup champion and Olympic silver medalist whitewater slalom kayaker Campbell Walsh in 2007 slaying it on a slalom course.<\/strong><\/p>\n Notice the incredible directional changes and razor sharp eddy turns, plus a lot of super efficient and effective paddle moves. As the video progresses it just gets more impressive. It’s not hard to see why a lot of the kayakers winning Extreme Creeking races have a slalom background!<\/p>\n In case you’re new to all of this, K1 is regular kayak style and C1 means the paddler is kneeling in the boat – it’s much harder because they’re using a one-bladed paddle and their center of gravity is higher. On the course you’re supposed to go downstream between the green-striped gates and upstream between the red-striped gates. <\/strong> That’s about as much as I know. :)<\/p>\n Having spent a little bit of time getting advice from slalom people I can tell you that they’re experts at using even small river features. I think as we progress on the normal scale of learning we figure out how to use obvious river features to let the river help us get to where we want to go, but I was struck by how they’ll pick out really small ones and use those very effectively.<\/p>\n