ConstantLearner

A few weeks ago I met a guy named Brian at Spencer’s Hole. At least, I think his name was Brian. I’m not as good at remembering names as I’d like to be. Sorry man, if I got it wrong. I do remember that his dog’s name was Howie. At any rate, Brian is really good at doing cartwheels. He is super smooth and makes it look way too easy. Spencer’s is pretty trashy too, so it’s doubly impressive.

Brian was trying to give me some tips on cartwheels, but I wasn’t even remotely close to doing cartwheels at Spencer’s, so he gave me some tips on spins. It’s pretty easy to do right spins at Spencer’s, and I thought I was pretty good at it too, but with Brian’s tip, I was definitely able to improve upon my spins. Here’s the tip: when you do a spin (either right or left) try to keep your eyes focused on one point the entire time. The idea is to try and spin like a ballerina doing a pirouette. Most of us have a mental image of a ballerina doing a pirouette while practicing in front of the mirror. The ballerina’s eyes are trained on one particular spot in the mirror, and when her body is almost all the way around, she turns her head around really quick and immediately focuses on the same spot as before. So, when we do a spin in a kayak, we start by looking upstream, and initiating the spin with a reverse sweep. Once we see the stern we turn our torso and head around really fast and look at the same spot. This action really brings the spin around and prevents you from getting stuck in a back surf. This tip really stuck with me and I feel like it made my spins a lot more solid.