Seven steps to Huge Loops

Looping is really big fun and the newest playboat designs have made this once elite maneuver attainable and within reach of aspiring playboaters everywhere. Loops may be performed in virtually any type of hole or wave-hole. Here are seven steps to get you looping like a rockstar. Remember, the best way to learn is to practice by getting out to your local playspot and going for it. Oh yeah, make sure its deep!

Step 1- Lining up at top of pile

1) Begin at the top of the pile

Step 2- Shift body

2) Shift your body weight to the back of your seat by bending slightly from the hips.

3. Accelerate down the face of the feature

3) Accelerate down the face of the wave or wave hole, making sure to keep your boat angle perpendicular to the incoming greenwater. At this time shift your weight rapidly to the front of your boat by bending forward at the hips and forcing your heels down.

4. Jump up

4) This will cause your boat to “initiate” in the greenwater upstream of the hole. As you feel your boat start to pop or ender out of the water jump straight up as quickly as possible. Tip: As you jump look up at the sky

5. The Snap around

5) As soon as you are standing, snap back forward bringing your chest towards the front of your cockpit while trying to throw your heels over your head like a forward somersault.

6. Use your paddle to help bring the boat around

6) As the front of your boat passes over your head pull back on your paddle to help it along.

7. Finish the maneuver with a forward stroke

7) Finish by sitting up straight with a recovery forward stroke!

Cheers and happy looping!

Be Safe

Andrew Holcombe

Cartwheel Pointers and Progression

Learning to cartwheel is like learning to ride a bike. Both are learnable skills, but not necessarily teachable ones. Think about it - no one taught you how to ride a bike, you finally just did it, although you probably crashed numerous times before reaching that “I got it” moment. Cartwheeling is the same – there are some pointers we can give you, but ultimately it is something you must just “feel” for yourself by building muscle-memory through repetition – lots of repetition. And, like riding a bike you will of course crash many times along the way.

The good news is that you don’t need to learn any new strokes to cartwheel– the forward and reverse sweeps are the only strokes you’ll need, and I’m sure you already have those in your paddler’s toolbox. Even the magical “double-pump” is nothing more than a forward and reverse sweep linked together while on edge.

Before we get to the strokes though, let’s focus on vision and rotation. When running a rapid, vision is of paramount importance. The same is true for cartwheeling – lead the move with your eyes. Your eyes should be looking at the next “point” before your paddle blade gets there. I cannot stress the importance of vision enough. Good vision serves a two-fold purpose – it aids in the all-important edging and also facilitates the body rotation required to generate enough strength to get the ends down. Yes, cartwheeling requires some strength. If you’re only using your arms (with those puny bicep muscles) to execute a sweep stroke it will be very difficult to get the ends down. Engage the larger muscle groups like your pecs, abs, and obliques. The easy way to engage these muscles is to rotate through your sweep strokes.

Here’s a cartwheeling progression we often use with our novice playboaters, and something that is best done on flatwater. Pick a side to practice your cartwheels on – we’ll choose the right side for this example.

Stare at the front right portion of your bow while at the same time edging towards that “quadrant” as well. While maintaing that edge, do a reverse sweep on the right, trying to get water to wash over the front-right portion of your bow. It’s ok if you can’t get a lot of water over the bow right now. (See picture on right)

Now, look over your right shoulder towards the back-left portion of your stern. This will help you weight this back-left edge. Now do a forward sweep on the left, (while edging and looking in that direction), trying to get water to wash over the back-left portion of your stern. This stern point is much easier to sink under water than the bow. (See picture on left)

Once the stern goes under, switch your edge back to the right, weighting and staring at the front-right portion of your bow, while doing a reverse sweep on the right.(See picture on right – look at the rotation and vision) Can you see that you’re back to the starting position? Congratulations, you have just done a low-angle cartwheel, or “pinwheel” as we call them. Practice this progression very slowly, concentrating on your vision, edges, and rotating through the strokes. Once you have this muscle-memory down you can speed it up. Don’t worry if you don’t get the bow down right away – concentrate on getting the stern down.

The Hop Blunt

The blunt is usually the next move playboaters learn after the flatspin, and one of the more versatile playboating moves as it can be done in a hole or a wave. Learn the blunt on a small wave or the corner of a small hole to start with, as the mechanics of the move will be easier to figure out on a smaller, slower feature first. Here's a couple of points prospective blunters should keep in mind:
1. Lots of people struggle with the blunt because they forget the basics - start high on the foam pile and angle your boat away from the direction you will be blunting. For example, if you're blunting right, point the bow of your boat to the left.
2. Body position is important. Lean back slightly to get the bow to raise, and then lean forward aggressively into the reverse sweep to get the bow down and ensure stability. Remember to edge into that sweep stroke.