Words: Bruce Kemp, with contributions from
Paul Klonowski,
Marc Ornstein,
Bob/Elaine Mravetz

Photos: Bruce Kemp,
Jim Lewis,
Rick Lalonde,
Marc Ornstein

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FreeStyle canoeing – it’s not just all about the song and dance. But on the other hand…

Using music to help unleash your paddling skills.

I first became aware of FreeStyle by seeing some performances of paddling routines that had been choreographed to music, aka Interpretive FreeStyle or ‘canoe dancing’. While I had no real interest in the performance aspect, I surely wanted to learn how to handle a canoe and those folks. After my first symposium a dozen or so years ago, I quickly discovered that the manoeuvres and techniques I was learning had a significant and positive effect on my ‘everyday paddling back home’, as we sometimes phrase it.

As my FreeStyle instruction progressed, I unexpectedly discovered something else too – that paddling to music can be an effective and useful practice tool. I don’t mean creating and paddling an interpretive routine, necessarily, but rather just paddling along to the music playing in the background, just as you might have music on around home or at your workplace. I suggest that you give it a try when you’re out for a leisurely hour or so on a local lake or pond, or just generally practising your boat control somewhere, and will describe some ways that it can be helpful.

It is common for newcomers to FreeStyle (myself included, back in the day) to find their Instructor reminding them frequently to slow down. Relax. Don’t paddle so hard. FreeStyle is a body of technique which emphasizes efficient paddling, in this case meaning conserving the physical energy of the paddler by making use of a selection of paddle placements, blade angles, canoe heel and pitch, in various combinations to harness and direct the boat’s own momentum such that it may be used to augment a paddler’s power.

To be sure, there are certainly paddling situations when a paddler needs to pour on the gas – to duck into an eddy on a fast-moving stream, or power through a tricky spot on some churning rapids. But unless you are a hard-core whitewater paddler or a racer of course, then most of the time full-out power is not necessary, and more often than not may be counter-productive. A controlled and relaxed cadence will do just fine and is in fact, preferable for the long haul (see Marc Ornstein’s Cross Post article ‘Slow and Steady’ for more http://freestylecanoeing.com/slow-and-steady/).

Paddling along with some slow-ish to moderate tempo music can be a useful exercise to help slow down your ‘running’ cadence and contribute to developing a relaxed pattern of rhythmic paddling that can be maintained for an extended period. When paddling to a piece of favourite music, you tend to become immersed in it, and VOILA! One tends to fall naturally into its rhythms, and strokes begin to follow the music’s tempo. They become smooth, easy, unhurried, with consistent power and recovery, and you find your boat gliding almost effortlessly.

When my wife Anita and I first started FreeStyle lessons, beginning in solo canoes and then a little later in tandem, there were times when our Instructors would take some class time to have the students do ‘linkages’ – that is, combine two or three FreeStyle manoeuvres into one paddling sequence. Paddle out and do an axle, say, then come back and do a post. And then, well you choose what move you will do as a third element of the sequence. This exercise helped us to become more aware of the ‘aftermath’, as you might say, of each manoeuvre.

At its conclusion, where is your paddle? Where is the canoe pointing? In what direction is the canoe’s momentum tending? And given all that, what might be a logical and efficient choice for another move, either forward or reverse?
Paddling along with music can help a lot to spark your awareness of every manoeuvre you do, where it will go, where it will end up, and when it’ll get there. If you know the song well enough, you can anticipate what you know is coming up next and choose what might be a good move to execute during that high note the singer will hold for a measure or two or that instrumental bridge. A sort of ‘let’s try this and see how it fits’ approach.

Informal practice and experimentation with a musical background can go a long way towards helping you put together smoother linkages and opening your imagination to possibilities, alternate selections of what you might do next. What you might like to do, or what you might need to do out on a river somewhere. All the while keeping in mind the canoe’s movement and momentum and how you might make some use of that and work with it right here and right now.

All of this goes double, if you forgive that choice of phrase, for tandem paddlers. Much of tandem paddling depends on the teamwork between the bow paddler and the stern paddler; the two realize that they are indeed a team and should paddle like one. The bow paddler handled the bow, the stern paddler following the bow, and handled the boat. That teamwork, that concept, is fundamental.

And for tandem paddlers, paddling to music helps a lot with developing that whole teamwork thing. It fosters the smooth and rhythmic cadence mentioned earlier and nurtures the concept of paddling in sync with each other, which contributes so much to efficient and effective tandem paddling. For the stern paddler, in particular, it helps develop a sensitivity to the bow paddler’s actions. Not just with syncing, but also in learning to recognize subtle cues as to what the bow paddler is about to do, an anticipation of what s/he is likely to do in a given situation, and then being ready to respond with the stern in whatever way will be appropriate to enhance/facilitate the successful execution of the manoeuvre. When that happens right, it’s a joy. 

Paddling to music has a goal:

• To foster a relaxed and undisturbed session with just you and the canoe (or two of you and the canoe, if that applies), a chance to get into the zone and shut the rest out.
• To improve your overall familiarity with the tools and techniques of FreeStyle.
• To practice, as you might say, the language of paddling. The vocabulary, the syntax, the grammar and idioms of that conversation between you and the boat.
• To begin to be more ‘fluent’ in that language, more intuitive with your paddling.
• To move more towards it’s all just being natural.

If you’d like to give this a try, then you’ll need to get together a playlist of songs you like – any kind, any length, any genre – just stuff you like. Please put it on your phone or an mp3 player (and yes, there are small drybag-like pouches commonly available made specifically to protect such devices while you’re on the water, but I bet you knew that already). Collect maybe 45 minutes’ worth or so of slow to moderate tempo stuff (waltz time songs are a good choice too – ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ perhaps not so much). Turn on, plug in, and paddle out.

And if you’ve stuck with me this far, and after a few practice sessions with music on your own, I have one final suggestion for your consideration. Try putting a routine together. Not with the idea that you will ever perform it in front of an audience of even just one. Ever! Do it just for yourself. Pick out an ‘appropriate’ piece of music (however you may define that) three or four minutes long, and take it out on the water and try paddling some manoeuvres along with it. Explore some possible linkages, in time with the music’s beat, and keeping in mind the songs’ natural divisions and dynamics. You may just find, as we did, that Interpretive FreeStyle is both rewarding and a whole lot of fun.

I mentioned at the start that some folks refer to Interpretive FreeStyle as ‘canoe dancing’. You will have seen the bumper sticker that says, “You can dance with the river, but you have to know the steps.” Practice with music can help you learn those steps so that you and your canoe will be better partners when you next dance with the river.