Comoxpaddler said:
Mike
The stern rudder as tiller thing is a trick I'm trying to get but it is so easy to slide back into using it justas a pry. Some more hints on this would be welcome. From my memory of the TITS footage, lots of body rotation and try to hold the blade further away from the boat and parallel to it so that you can subtly pry and draw.
I cannot speak for Mark and Gordin, but speaking personally I would be very happy indeed to hear Top Tips # 5-10 as wel!!
the stern rudder stroke, when properly executed, allows you to change or maintain direction without losing any forward speed.
practice this on flat water
1 - turning to face your work, place your blade in the stern rudder position with a neutral, slicing blade. this will keep you running straight.
2 - if you would like to turn towards the left, cock your control hand (the lower hand, top hand is an anchor hand only with a loose grip) SLIGHTLY forwards. this will push the bow around. combine this with edging with your left knee up, driving with your right foot on the right pedal and you will affect pretty good turn with minimal loss of speed.
3 - turning to the right, do the opposite! cock control hand backwards, edge with right knee up, drive with left foot on left foot brace. you are in effect drawing the stern around on this one.
practice this on flat water, wrist motion onnly until it becomes second nature, then experiment with edging added in. give yourself some challengtes, sch as running through a gap straight, turning before an obstacle etc.
when you are comfy with all of the above, practice in light friendly surf or wind waves, moving along until you hit that big daddy wave again at the Okisollo some day, using all of that, but in a high angle position!
remember, practice makes permanent! therefore perfect practice makes for pretty good performance!
3 - to turn right, do the opposite.