USK's Featured Skill

USK's Featured Skill

For those of you who are long time veterans of the USK web site, you will notice that I have changed the title of this page from the "Skill of the Month" to "USK's Featured Skill." Now that I am retired, I have found it difficult to post a new skill each month during these past few years. My sense of order is very bothered if I know I am promising a new skill each month and I am not delivering. Therefore, I have eliminated my self-imposed pressure by not promising a new skill each month. However, don't despair, I will still be posting skill articles for you to read and/or try, but they will probably not be a new one every month.

I have added a new feature to the USK web site as of Christmas Eve 2009. It is called the USK Flogum. I am hoping it will be a place for me and others to share thoughts and ideas about sea kayaking. It is much easier for me to keep up with quick thoughts and ideas than sitting down and writing full articles. I hope you find our new flogum page a valuable resource.

As before the purpose of this page is to educate and motivate. If you have never seen the featured skill before then you will be learning something new. Even if you have seen it before perhaps there may be a different twist or variation in the way it is being presented. Even after I think I have mastered a skill I see a student try it in a new way and I am again reminded that one is always learning if they stay opened to new possibilities.

As an educator and motivator I challenge those who know the "Featured Skill" to get out and try it again. In fact, I ask you to take out a paddler who doesn't and try to teach it to them in controlled conditions. At the very least, you and your regular paddling partners should get out and spend a morning or afternoon playing with the "Featured Skill" and see the many ways you can improve your efficiency in the skill.

Imagine if you were to go out once a month and practice one of the featured skills and/or teach it to others. In one year, which I find goes by very quickly, you will have practiced and improved twelve techniques. The overall skill level of you and your paddling partners will have improved more than you will initially realize.

How often does one get out to practice their skills? Most paddles, once they have taken classes (if they ever have taken classes), spend their time paddling. Unless there is a club where active paddles run training and review sessions it is not common for the average paddler to go out specifically to practice skills. Please do not misunderstand me about going out for a paddle. I love getting out for a an hour, day, or week of paddling. However, the high percentage of my touring is spent doing the forward stroke unless the conditions are challenging. I don't believe most of us take the time to polish up some of our lessor used kayaking skills. If the day comes when you need to use one of those less practiced skills will you be able to perform them? If some of those skills can keep you alive then I suggest you get out and practice them BEFORE you need to depend upon them.

I can say some of my greatest days of kayaking occurred doing multi-hour practice sessions while not paddling anywhere. I just stayed in the harbor or right outside of the surf zone working on my skills. As my skill level improved so did my self confidence and more importantly my understanding of the small nuances involved in skill development.

I would feel very gratified if a nation wide "Featured Skill" club evolved. Not an official club, but groups of paddlers who would regularly go out and practice the featured monthly skill and hopefully many others while out there. If you do go out and find effective variations please e-mail them to us and we will try to get them on the web site. Perhaps starting a local network to practice the "Featured Skill" could help motivate one another to get out regularly for practice sessions.