Irish Whitewater Forum

As it says in the title!

There is NO place in modern river running for sculling for support.

In time honoured fashion....

Dascuss.

Til you get stuck in that monster hole on your first alpine trip!
Then you wish you'd practiced it

I'll echo Dave's sentiments, except it wasn't my first alpine trip but I was stuck in a nasty (previously fatal) hole and was dam glad of my sculling ability. Happy to be able to scull a few pints afterwards too.

I have to ask but where the hell did someone get the notion that there's no need for sculling for support?

Sean / Dave,

I pulled the quote from hear and was wanting to see folks reactions. The conversation was in relation to weather or not sculling for support should be included in the BCU 3* syllabus.

Ref here

Simon Westgarth wrote:For the hole and wave example, simply sit up and pull on your paddle blade. Modern boats edge very easily and so long as your weight is balanced over the edge of the boat, you'll not been to place your weight on the blade and scull. In terms of aiding the recovery of a roll, sculling the final part is an option if your main attempt did not work. Yet in terms of the traditional teaching and use of sculling for support to stabilise yourself in a hole, and thus placing your weight onto the active blade, this has NO place in modern white water kayaking.

Adrian

I'd have to agree as well, I once found myself caught in a very shallow hole on the Nile in Uganda and only for being able to scull my way back to where it flushed I would have had a very nasty swim out.

A guy the following day swam in the same hole one didnt make it out alive.

I think its a skill everyone should learn cos lets be honest, we're all gonna end up getting it wrong at some stage...

Justin wrote:I'd have to agree as well, I once found myself caught in a very shallow hole on the Nile in Uganda and only for being able to scull my way back to where it flushed I would have had a very nasty swim out.

Buuuut... (devil's advocate) if you were using your paddle to move yourself then you weren't sculling as such were you? You were just paddling on one side while keeping your boat on edge. Sculling for support keeps you stationary.

muirs wrote:Buuuut... (devil's advocate) if you were using your paddle to move yourself then you weren't sculling as such were you? You were just paddling on one side while keeping your boat on edge. Sculling for support keeps you stationary.

Yup, sculling is pointless. How is sculling supposed get you out of a hole?
That said i think its very useful to teach beginners as it helps them with boat balance and blade movements that will benefit rolling

Yup, sculling is pointless.

I agree, one should always drink in moderation;-)

Just came accross this one.

I aggree with Muirreann.
Sculling is passive, stationary stroke. the ability to hold an edge while dragging your ass to the flush point of a hole is a much better option, in my opinion.

I think people get mixed up when talking about this because we've all 'draggged our ass' out of holes in the past. This is'nt sculling tho.
As the last bit of a roll? its handy to have....kinda.

I'd dissagree about teaching it to beginners. I'd go more down the route of teaching better edge control. Let people find how far they can push the edge, once they know their limits they can progress with a bit more confidence.


Just out of interested, has anybody been on one of those sessions where everyone gets on the water, and a few people are like, 'look at me! I can scull right down till my head gets wet!!'?

Always smile when I see that one.