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Posted by dw on 10:08:28 29/04/08
In Reply to: Newbie questions posted by Kevin Whilden
1. You want your boat to be an extension of your body with important contact points being a) your butt, 2) your hips, 3) your knees, 4 and in some cases your thighs. My personal opinion is to be quite tight in the boat with very little wiggle room for these contact points. You can glue some thin foam into the knee pockets, thin foam under your butt. Carve a nice curved backblock from minicell to support your back and prevent you from sliding backwards. You can fashion a C@CK block from minicell to prevent you from falling forwards. Make some nice hip pads from minicell. Thats about it. You can also carve a heel pocket or hole through the front wall to allow more room for you heels.
2. some do, some don't. I would say that for any type of downriver paddling, almost everyone wears a PFD. for destination mystery boating, its probably 50:50 but that is very destination dependent and you must know your locale well to make the decision to remove your PFD. Wearing your PFD should not hinder you in your manouvers or underwater at all or your roll. It is good practice to help you with your control and balance to wear it at all times.
3. You will gradually develop the fine muscle control in your trunk which will help with your balance. I often find first-time squirt boaters cannot relax properly and let the water do its thing. Often people tend to fight to hard with balance. Check out some squirting videos or books. There are lots of freestyle resources from which to learn to cartwheel. Its basically an issue of learning to utilize trapped buoyancy and proper timing and paddle position, control and timing.
Good luck
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