Kit Reviews, Travel and Advice
If any of you have ever tried an Exo kayak (or a plastic GuiGui), you’ve probably noticed how easily the backband pops out. It’s very difficult to lock the rope into the cleat properly, and just when you think it’s finally secure… it pops out again! If this happens mid-trick or mid-boof you can waste […]
Hey guys, given that there’s been a lack of people at Pinkston recently I thought I’d write a little guide to the course, and maybe I can persuade some of you to give it another go (especially for freestyle) before Bren’s Park Jam at the end of the month! I’ll go from the top to […]
Hello everyone! I know it’s been a while since my last blog post – and this one is quite niche – but hopefully we’ll be getting back into the swing of it this summer with some more widely applicable posts. I have owned a GoPro Hero (2018) for around two years now, but after fiddling […]
Moving on from my tutorial of how to Lunar Orbit on flatwater, I’m now going to explain how to do it on whitewater – something I recently learned myself. For the purposes of this tutorial I will be explaining the steps to do a lunar orbit on a steep feature (as pictured below) – a […]
So far my flatwater tutorials seem to be going down quite well, there are a few left to write and still more tricks for me to learn before teaching you guys. One thing I’ve been doing for a while now is linking multiple tricks and I realised that it’s not necessarily that obvious how one […]
I realised that one tutorial which would probably help with some of my other recent posts like how to tricky woo, lunar orbit or double pump would be how to cartwheel. Continuing with the same layout as previous posts, a cartwheel is officially defined as “at least two consecutive ends in the same rotational direction, […]
In this post I’m going to go right back to basics and explain how to surf in a hole/stopper (which is where water pours over a submerged object causing the surface water to flow back upstream towards the object). Whether you’re interested in freestyle or river running this is probably one of the first things […]
Following on from my previous tutorials I’ll be explaining how to flatwater Tricky Woo. This is a trick I’ve been able to do for a while on my right, but learning how to do it on my left reminded me how confusing it can be and how a few little tips here and there can […]
Today I’m going to be explaining how to McNasty on flatwater which is a trick I’ve been focussing on a lot over the past month, even working to get it down on my offside (something I’m normally quite lax about). To be able to do the trick you need to know how to double pump […]
It occurred to me after publishing my previous post that learning how to space godzilla is the natural next step after learning how to loop – the two moves are very similar in their execution, the amount of points that they are worth (90 for a space godzilla, 60 for a loop and 90 for […]
In this post I’m going to be following on from two of my previous tutorials (https://patrickyak.blog/2020/05/08/how-to-double-pump/ and https://patrickyak.blog/2020/07/02/how-to-bow-stall/) and will explain how to loop on flatwater. Once you can confidently double pump and bow stall, learning to flatwater loop isn’t particularly difficult and could be learned within a few hours if you really put your […]
The lunar orbit is a freestyle trick that you can do both on whitewater and flatwater, but while it is an advanced trick on whitewater, on flatwater it is considerably easier and can be learnt alongside the cartwheel, tailey and bow stall. In this post I will only be focussing on the technique involved in […]
Consistency is an important part of sport in general, not just for kayaking and not just for freestyle. It doesn’t matter if you manage to do something perfectly unless you can do it again (or someone filmed it so that you can pretend you can do it again). In this post I’ll describe how I’ve […]
Everyone is stronger on one side than the other and it’s tempting to forget about your off-side, it’s weaker, it’s slower and it’s more difficult – right? However, you won’t become a balanced paddler thinking like that and it will stunt your freestyle development in the long run. I put off learning tricks on my […]
iMovie is my go-to piece of video editing software – it’s free, easy to use and includes all the tools I need to make a great edit. I used to work with GoPro studio but it had a couple of annoying quirks which I’ll explain as I go through. This is a short guide as […]
Last Saturday I went to Chertsey and spent the day there. I’m going to go over what I thought of the feature, give a few tips as well as explain the typical things like how to get there, safety and whether I think it’s really worth travelling to in order to train… Chertsey will be […]
It’s been a while since my last tutorial post (How To Double Pump) so I thought I’d do a follow up article explaining the next step – how to bow stall. Some people manage to figure this out almost immediately and others take months, I found that the process requires three key steps and once […]
I recently made a presentation on this subject for my academic symposium at school, everyone made a slideshow on a topic that interests them and that relates to their intended university course (which for me is physical Geography). I became aware that a lot of people are against hydropower and reservoir creation – mostly because […]
The double pump is pretty much the first thing you should learn if you’re trying to do any sort of flatwater freestyle. Effectively it’s the first end of a cartwheel and it sets you up to learn more complicated tricks like a tricky woo or loop. Some people learn how to tailee beforehand but I […]
Sometimes you see GoPros in the weirdest of places – on dog harnesses, on a unicorn mount or even being held in someone’s mouth. Having tried quite a few weird ideas myself including mounting a GoPro inside of a lobster pot and on the end of a stick for my dog to chase along the […]
I know that some people don’t bother practicing freestyle on flatwater, maybe it never occurred to them or they don’t think there are any benefits so they never tried it. This post is dedicated to persuading such people to try training on flatwater, maybe before a session on whitewater or simply for convenience because it […]
One of the most common mistakes I see people making (not only for freestyle but for kayaking in general) is that they’re not looking where they want to go. I make this mistake all the time and it’s annoying seeing myself in a video later and realising. Sometimes you’re tired and you just forget, or […]
Head-to-toes winter checklist – I’ve tried wearing a couple of different bits of kit and some of it works really well and some of it doesn’t (I just have to wait for it to break so I can justify getting something better); I’ll recommend the equipment I like and I’ll be blunt about things like […]
In this post I’m going to explain how to loop, going over set-up and finishing as well as body, boat and paddle position throughout the movement with some tips to improve snappiness and height throughout. I will assume that you can comfortably move about on grade 2 or 3 whitewater – by comfortable I mean […]
In this post I’m going to go over how I tie my kayaks to our roof rack, I had some interesting experiences trying to figure out the best way to do this and I’ve seen that there many different ways to do it with either multiple straps, bungees or even just a throw-line. I chose […]
This is one of the hardest tricks to learn but it is also one of the most impressive. A phonics is defined as a “pirouette initiated by a cross-bow stroke in a front surf position, followed by a front loop in one fluid motion,” and it is worth 140 points (190 with air) which makes […]
What do you want for Christmas? If your immediate answer isn’t a neon pink, fluffy dryrobe then read the rest of this post. If your answer was “what else do I want from life,” then I agree with your fashion choices. The first time I noticed dryrobes was at Nottingham during team tryouts. An awful […]
I have spent quite a lot of time outfitting each of my playboats; starting with my original 2016 Rockstar I then progressed to a plastic Jed and now a carbon Jed; I also have an Exo Rexy for river running. Each of these boats has come with slightly different stock outfitting and consequently I’ve had […]
Alright. What is a blunt? A blunt is a 180 degree horizontal rotation at a vertical angle greater than 45 degrees, clear of the foam pile, where the competitor rotates around the bow of the boat. Ignoring boring definitions, the blunt is probably one of first wave moves that you will attempt to learn and […]
I have recently come back from a month on the Ottawa river where I was unfortunate enough to blow my eardrum on the first day. I’m going to explain how I burst my eardrum, ways to avoid doing the same thing and how I coped with the issue while minimising my days off the water; […]
I got my carbon Pyranha Jed around Christmas after a 9 week wait and I love it; in this post I’m going to go through the pros and cons of owning a carbon boat, my boat’s journey from the day I ordered it to the present day and why I think you should get one […]
What to wear on your feet while kayaking is a difficult question to answer, you want something comfortable, cheap and with some grip. I have come up with 3 different combinations: Palm Descenders for river-running, Adidas Adilette Sliders for summer freestyle and Peak UK Neoprene Socks for winter freestyle. Palm Descenders I really like my […]
I got the pink Life Shorts as a present and I liked them so much I bought the Team Edition set as well. Initially you may be thinking – “Damn, £50 for some swimming trunks!” – I can tell you now that these are the best swimming trunks I have even worn, and for kayaking […]
I am going to compare four playboats – the Pyranha “Jed”, Exo/Guigui “2018 Helixir”, Jackson “2016 Rockstar” and the Jackson “4.0”. I have demoed all four of these boats at various locations including: the Ottawa river (August flows), Hurley weir (2 and 3 gates), St Pierre de Boeuf WWC, Holme Pierrepont WWC and Lee Valley […]
In this review I’m going to compare 2 freestyle paddles – the Mitchell “Nemesis” and the Werner “Sidekick.” I have tried both of these paddles on the Legacy course at Lee Valley to get a feel for them and decide each of their strengths and weaknesses (thanks to Above & Below shop). I will base […]
In this review I am going to compare four river-play kayaks – the Pyranha “Ripper”, Dagger “Axiom”, Exo “Rexy” and Jackson “Antix”. I have demoed all four of these boats at the Lee Valley whitewater course on both the Legacy (Grade 2 / 3) and the Olympic course (Grade 3 / 4) to test their […]
Patrick Kyak 