Whitewater Kayaking: How To Spin in a Hole

Learn how to spin your whitewater kayak in a friendly hydraulic with this narrated video from whitewater kayak instructor Anna Levesque. She guides you through how to enter a hole successfully, stay retentive and spin with ease.
This video is part of a blog post for mindbodypaddle.com

[@philipoakley5498]

Great stuff.
One thought that I'd picked up from another video is also to think of the upstream flow as being like a boof where one keeps the bow high, and sometimes practice by wiping ones bow over a rock, etc (get the bow round, past, over, ..). One of many potentially useful visualisations;-)

[@MichelleTennantMA]

This is great Anna yeah I probably don't look up stream long enough like you say to I'm going to try this

[@AnnaLevesque]

Thanks for your comment Michelle! Most paddlers turn to look over their opposite shoulder too soon so you're not alone. Let me know how it goes when you start looking upstream longer! Have fun!

[@cindyfrost3520]

Love how this is from the rider’s perspective!

[@kevinhill.8]

Thanks for this! Most videos are about spinning in playboats on waves, which is similar but not exactly the same. I love that you concentrate on the head, since that’s where I’m having trouble. I’ll practice holding upstream view longer, then come around quickly. Maybe spot something upstream to help.

[@AnnaLevesque]

Great Kevin! Let me know how it goes when you try it.

[@kevinhill.8]

@@AnnaLevesque my issue is usually getting stuck about the point where I’m facing straight downstream. At that point I usually get pulled in backwards and then either pushed out, driven into a tailee, or endered, depending on the situation. Any advice for preventing this?

[@AnnaLevesque]

@@kevinhill.8 When you're facing straight downstream is when you want to switch your vision and look over your other shoulder. When you do that you'll also switch your edge automatically (if you're rotating). If you're getting back endered it's because you're either looking straight downstream or staring at your bow. When you're spinning you want to spot just like an ice skater or a dancer would do when they're spinning. You never want to look downstream. You're looking upstream and then when the time comes you switch really fast to look back upstream over the other shoulder. Hope that helps!

[@northernwing]

I have just subscribed you. I am learning kayaking but I had some internal injury in my right arm now I can’t even Paddle properly. You think you can make a video on types of injury that can occur while kayaking and ways to avoid it. Thanks

[@AnnaLevesque]

Thanks for the suggestion. That's a big one so I'll give it some thought.

[@AwestynJaxxxson]

We have the same boat lol

[@AndrewMoizer]

I was wondering which boat that is/was.