Forward and reverse sweep strokes

It might sound quite obvious that to make the kayak turn, you just have to paddle harder on the opposite side. But actually that technique mostly just increases the overall speed and does very little to turn the kayak. We need to modify our forward paddling stroke a bit and do a so called forward sweep.

It is a good technique to be your primary steering stroke, because it doesn't slow you down and makes it easy maintain your paddling rhythm.

Forward sweep stroke can be done when the kayak is moving, or when it is standing still.

First take a regular forward paddling grip from the paddle. Place the blade into the water as forward as you can easily reach and keep the power face of the blade pointed away from the kayak. Keep the other hand fairly low.

 To make the kayak turn rapidly on its place, a good addition to forward sweep stroke is a reverse sweep stroke. It is just a forward sweep done backwards, starting from the back and ending close to your toes.