Paul Reavley Jul 8 #31984

https://youtu.be/mFNhHHbgUrQ

Legs out save in breaking cross wave at :55

Dennis Mowry Jul 9 #31985

Nice waves and rides.

My thoughts are throwing the legs out is a bad habit to develop and rely on. (Yes in can be useful from time to time?). Also his foot strap is too loose, allowing his foot to pop out, not allowing a solid foot contact with the foot brace, to control the boat. Maybe his foot slipped out unintentionally and can be considered as a safety technique? A good reason for grip pads on the foot brace.

Then again, he might know more and have more experience than I do. I'm still learning, although I don't think I'll practice it unless I have to.

:D'

Paul Reavley Jul 9 #31986

Hey Dennis,

I expected that some folks might respond against this practice - as in “just paddle through it keeping power in your stroke for stability”. There is no doubt in my mind that keeping paddling with feet in the straps is the objective. But I don't think that is the only sound practice for every paddler in all conditions. I believe there are more than a few paddlers who just do not feel comfortable with tight foot straps. At least it is worthwhile remembering that one can throw their feet in the water before actually falling in, even if you don't try to do speed saves like this paddler. (You just have to know that you will lose most of your speed and will have to climb the hill again to get up to speed with your stroke technique working and getting all of the benefits that a full stroke with feet in the boat can provide.) Larry Bussinger often says that his fall back when he discovers he is in situations like too much slop near the wall is that he can always put his feet in the water if he has to. I do notice that the paddler in this video keeps paddling through rough conditions elsewhere in the video so it does not seem to me that this necessarily is a bad habit on his part. It is my impression that he throws his feet out that one time when he also has to do a hard brace which was costing him most of his forward speed anyway. He probably used a lot less energy than he would have if he had huli'ed.

Ben Dorrington Jul 9 #31987

Growing up in New Zealand, and doing surf life saving as a kid, we were taught the legs out technique.

Usually it was used when coming back through the surf zone on a spec ski. If you let the ski drop down the face and gain too much speed you’d often (momentarily) outrun the wave. When it caught back up with you it was a roll of the dice if you would sneak in to the beach or get a thrashing in the shore break. As the foam ball catches up and speeds you back up, quite often a ski would naturally want to turn away from the beach and try to broach. The only real way to save yourself was to go legs out and brace hard. You’d often end up with the ski sideways to the wave, skipping your way to the shallows… but still moving. If you got rumbled it was a slow recovery… no leashes on spec skis.

Ben

Larry Bussinger Jul 9 #31990

I’ve spent 5 min with my legs out in the big stuff at the hatchery getting thrown around but never went in. I’ve paddled for mile along the “wall” in B’ham but never went in. In my mind, it’s better than trying to self rescue. Sometimes you just get messed up.

Larry B

zach 6:57am #31991

Many years ago in MN we were doing a DW across Mille Lacs in MN. Its a circular lake 15 miles across with no island or bail out points if going straight across the middle as we were that day. This guy Pat was with us in the original think evo. 2 miles offshore the waves were already too much for him. We offered to paddle back to the car with him but he refused. So he paddled the next 13 miles both legs out. Waves got to about 4 ft. That guy never figured out surfing but he was hard as nails. So now we call paddling with feet out “Patling”.

Reivers Dustin 8:30am #31992

“Patling”!!! OK everyone, let's paddle 13 miles with our feet out. That is hard like a boss. gracious sakes.