The flat water loop

Just over a week ago I posted up some tips to take you through the motions of the bow stall, as the first stage in nailing the flat water loop, so having had a bit of time to practice its time to start bobbing up and down and going for the full loop! If you are still having trouble with the bow stall or are new to the blog then you can always look up the blog archive for previous tips and techniques.

Obviously going from a static bow stall straight into a loop doesn’t work that well so the first thing you’ll have seen people doing is bobbing up and down before going for the loop. Above I’m pulling back on my paddles (which were under the water) through my body at the same time as pushing down on my feet to force as much of the boat into the water as possible, in the hope it will pop out as high as possible. Keeping my head up and paddles maintaining a triangle of stability with the boat is key (much like a head stand in that your hands and head make a triangle).

Notice how far I’m popping out of the water – a full arms reach away – as a reaction of the volume needing to get back above the surface. To help the pop out I’m shoving my backside in the air as I lean forward and push my paddles into the water, as we know from the bow stall technique this helps in the bow being rejected out of the water. At this stage if you don’t feel ready to go for it then practice ‘bobbing’ for a while o get the hang of it!

I find it’s always best to commit to going for the loop on the second bounce. Look how far ahead of the boat I am above – my head is up with the paddle raised as a pivot point to try and jump over while the boat is just starting to rise. This is so that as the boats volume pushes it out of the water my jump for the loop gives an extra boost of pop. As opposed to thinking of jumping up, think of jumping out, away from your boat to start the motion and maximise pop.

Again I’m ahead of the boat, it’s just starting to come over but I’m tucked forward towards my knees. Imagine you can see my legs in the boat, I’m tucked through my waist and torso so that at the optimum moment I can straighten out in a quick snap which will throw my legs (and the boat) over my head.

Mid snap, also using the paddle to give extra resistance in the water, giving more leverage for a faster loop and also helps to push through the resistance when the stern hits the water. From here on out you’ve nailed it!

You can see here that in snapping the loop over my head by unwinding from the tuck, my body position has ended up quite far back but as its always the case, keeping ahead of the boat is essential so I’m moving back into a stable body position before the boat is fully flat again.

Hope this helps those trying to get this move nailed!

Catch you on the water… Falls of Lora pics coming in the next couple of days!

Ed