C1 on waves I.- offside carving/balance

Hey again,
This article is related to other articles that have already been published here. Articles were on Onside roundhouse and Offside roundhouse.
These articles are primarily concerned with freestyle moves. This article should show you the techniques that are essential for successful basic movements like surfing and carving which are essential for successful onset for moves on big waves.

C1 paddlers have serious disadvantages in freestyle paddling. We, however, have advantages as well and bigger waves offer many opportunities to use these advantages to the maximum.

First how do we deal with the disadvantages.

For many C1res the main disadvantage is the absence of the second blade and resulting inability to brace on the offside. The problem with crossdeck brace is that while it can be done on flatwater, in a hole or in the foamy part of a wave it cant be done on the green part.
But we have hands dont we?? The basic technique for regaining balance and/or for carving control is to use the palm of your hand either letting loose of the T-grip or just stretching the fingers while still holding the grip between the thumb and the palm.
Another technique is simply to avoid getting of balance. This is done by keeping your weight center above the boat.
But how to do this while carving to your offside (carving is initiated on the edge by putting weight on it). The essential thing is to shift your shoulders to your onside. So now your lower body part puts weight on the offside edge while the upper part shifts to your onside thus keeping your balance as well as the carving.

bounce for an onside blunt- offside carve/shoulders to the onside

Carving to the offside weight of the upper body above the boat

The same again: shoulders to the onside, your knees pushing the offside rail, head leads the way

Onside cleanblunt landing, notice the desperate effort to keep all weight possible above the boat.


Watch this video to see how to do that. Notice the shoulders are actually mirroring the movements of the lower body part (i.e. going in opposite direction) while the body leans forward to put weight on the offside rail thus initiating the carve. Also notice the arms are copying the direction of the carve and the offside hand controls the carve by touching the green.



More coming soon...
So long and keep practicing. Also let me know if the article helped in any way... or whether anybody actually reads this stuff.
Jan

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Hey,
This message is meant for frequent readers, fans of this website, C1 enthusiasts and basically for all of you who like this site or whom this site helped in any way.














As you probably know I frequently compete in the C1 division in competitions around Europe. I also try to train on different spots as frequently as I can. All this requires money... Being a student I am not able to save enough money for both competitions/training trips and equipment. The fact that I have a paddle manufacturer and local bar for sponsors (free paddles and cheaper beer woohoo..:)) doesn´t help much.

Currently I am sorting out the money needed for the trip to the European Championship... I haven´t actually been able to go to any of the previous Champs (be it World or European) mainly because I lacked funds for the trip...

So if you would like to help me go to the this year´s EuroChamps held in Ourense-Spain (23-26 July 2008) continue reading. If not, thanks for visiting this website. I hope you enjoy it and that it has been and will be of use to you...

The amount needed for the air ticket is approximately 7000 CZK ( app. 410$ ) the registration fee is 60 euros (app. 94 $.

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1. You can just send me an encouraging email and say you like my site or whatever... Every single positive comment I ve read helped...

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How can you send me the money?

1. You can send it by bank transfer. My bank account details are here:

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Plattling OC1 style

The event in Platling (German Champs)was great. The organizers used session format which was awesome. The session format meant that for every heat the paddlers had 2 x number of paddlers minutes for their rides. Another rule was that a single ride could not exceed 30 secs.

I borrowed an OC1 form German paddler Markus Hilbel... Thanks again Markus!
It was a CU-Fly from Robson. I really enjoyed paddling it because it was something completely new to me. To my surprise it rolled very well and I was even able to do splits/cartwheels in it.

Anyway, it was my first time hole paddling in more than half a year (actually like 9 months...). My practice rides were not that bad so I thought I might be able to do good rides in the competition. It was not so... bugger that the whole event was fun and I rediscovered the joy of holeriding and got enthusiastic into building my own OC1.

In the OC1 I finished second in C1 I came 5th ( I managed to fuck up every single ride in the finals :)))

More photos here

So long

Cartwheeling wooohooo

Me and Daniel Shank sessioning

C1 footage from Lyon

I quickly stitched this together... It is not the true best-of since the best shots were taken on a different camera and I still havent been able to get that stuff from cassettes to computer...
I, however, think this might be somehow educational as the video shows some of my struggles with the wave especially setting up for moves.

As soon as I get all footage from Lyon and Uganda I will do some sort of my best-of from the waves... It will include Hawaii in Lyon, Nile Special (Uganda) and hopefully Malalu (also Uganda).
Till then you must content yourselves with this :)

Thanks to Jelen who recorded this on his brand new waterproof digital camera (he is not a paddler though :))

Music by Hail Seizures... awesome band and awesome friends... http://hailseizures.net/

Lyon session 08

It was an awesome week at the Hawaii sur Rhone.The water levels were quite nice, especially since Monday. The wave was better for right moves as usual but if you waited for some time it usually pulsed (especially when the water was rising ) and allowed you to land a left trick. The locals also showed up and we could see they are really one with the wave.
I strongly recommend you to go there. Although there is no eddy service the wave is worth portaging your boat all the day. Especially when the levels are 0.7 m + . You can find more on this playspot on playak.com.
See you there someday....

Here are some photos... enjoy (Courtesy of Jakub Sedivy and Eric Bui)