How Bad Is My Paddling?

memaquay said:

I'm not sure of the evolution of term Goon Stroke, if anyone knows, it would be an interesting bit of info. I know that dedicated practitioners of the Goon ( and there are probably more Gooners than J'ers) like to call it the "stern pry". In no way should this be construed as someone covering up a fault, such as saying "I just passed gas" instead of "man I just ripped out a deadly fart". Indeed, I would hazard to say that millions of miles of canoe trips have been successfully completed by dedicated Stern Pry aficionados. I was one myself for many years, and put untold thousands of miles on an assortment of canoes SP'ing my way across countless lakes and rivers.

My evolution to the J Stroke was weird and wonderful. I had been practicing lucid dreaming, the act of waking up in one's dreams, and taking control of the situation. One night, my dream had me standing in a huge field of untouched snow. I had my paddle in my hand, and was wondering how to proceed. So I dug my paddle into the snow, and using a perfect J, I propelled myself over the snow in huge jumps. Eventually, I arrived at a snow shrouded river, and my last paddle-jump landed me in an icey-dicey wreck of a canoe. Still using the J, I took off, paddling into the winter wonder land.

In real life, it was the spring, the snow had just left, and the next day I put a canoe in the water, and The J came completely natural, like I had been using it my whole life.

However, magical dreams or not, I still can't J on the right hand side. I'm a dedicated lefty, only switch sides for pries or draws. It works out well for tandem travel, as most bows people seem to prefer the right. I can't even goon it on the right anymore. This in no way reflects my political orientations, it's just a physical quirk.

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Mem, the first time I heard the term "goon stroke" was I'm pretty sure early '80s in the Bill Mason films, but I could be misremembering. Doesn't mean he invented the term, just spread it far and wide(?). I see the films are from 1977, but I didn't see them until the local canoe club aquired copies very early '80s sometime for showing at meetings. I see there's also a book out, published January 1980.

We also called it the stern pry. The whitewater I was paddling at the time simply required the stern pry. Bill's (or whomever's) goon stroke mainly refers to flatwater use, I think, which most people refered to as the "rudder stroke," performed with the blade usually farther back behind the paddler than a stern pry. My earliest canoeing experiences were guided Boundary Waters and Quetico trips, something like 6+ year's worth, so I learned the J, and it's a natural for me in flatwater, lakes and easy streams. In the very early 1970s I did a little marathon racing, where I learned hit and switch and the early renditions of "cab-over" technique, which related more to to later solo paddling. The J and typical stern rudder stroke work in flatwater, not in whitewater. Whitewater, at least what I became used to later, requires more power than a rudder stroke for immediate onside turn moves (like them gotta-catch eddies), and the stern pry, which is done closer to the paddler than the rudder stroke, is what works for me as well as paddling companions of the time. The rudder stroke works fine with likely thousands or more miles on it than the J, which is slightly more efficient, I think. But that goon works.

Does this make any sense?

In the '90s sometime I learned to refine the cab-over technique for solo paddling and also the "inside circle" from a Tom Foster clinic. Unfortunately my arthritis didn't allow that much longer. I was sore for a week from that weekend clinic, and shoulders rebelled when trying to make it work on rivers for real, so I just used rudiments after that. I think the "inside circle" has evolved to newer techniques now that I'm not up on as I haven't been paddling since Covid.

Many years ago I took a whitewater canoeing course, in which the instructor introduced us to the “River J,” which is the goon stroke for a more powerful correction, which is sometimes needed to grab a small eddy while hurtling on by. Powerful yes, but shoild be quick and short so as not to lose too much momentum. I still generally preferred the regular J, though.

What I learned from master instructor and freestyler Caleb Davis about teaching newbies how to paddle straight, is to not worry about teaching the J too soon. let them rudder stroke, try holding the paddle with blade vertical close behind, then hold it as far back as they can reach, behind the stern if possible. Be sure to keep the blade fully submerged, as not doing so seems to be a common error. With instructor standing knee deep in floatable water, give the canoe and stern paddling learner a push to some moderate coasting velocity. Let the student control direction of travel by holding the paddle at a slightly outward rudder angle away from the hull (resulting in turning toward the onside), or by holding it tight to the hull the grip hand extend outward (which should tend to turn them to the offside direction). More subtle control may be demonstrated by Noting how a slight left or right rotational tip to the vertical blade when held directly behind can cause the canoe to shift bow left or right, regardless of which side of the canoe it is on.

The stern paddler may then give just one power stroke and then resume this ruddering position. This should give enough confidence that he/she can control direction at will. I like to say: "if you know and understand how to turn your canoe, you will automatically know how to keep it going straight."

Now link more power strokes to keep up moderate speed with the ending pause to do the right amount of rudder control Once the stern paddler understands this amount of steering control, If tandem, have the bow paddle give one or two strokes to keep the speed up. When they are ready and confident, proceeding to implement the J and more advanced linked strokes follows fairly easily with a similar process.

Note that the pitch stroke is essentially an early initiated J, perhaps with some amount of "C" at the catch. The Canadian is essentially a delayed and very elongated J with a mainly underwater recovery.

A bit more of an advanced observation: I note that in my lighweight solo canoes, that if I do a moderate torso rotation with shoulders and upper body duing the power phase of the stroke, then when I unwind during paddle recovery, that puts an opposite torque on the canoe, which helps it return the hull almost entirely to the original straight line direction.

Just take up whitewater canoeing. Every whitewater canoeist "goon" strokes on whitewater except they call it "the river J". The theory is it is a much stronger steering/prying stroke in moving water. EDIT PaddlingPitt beat me to it.

I am a lifelong and dedicated "goon".

On flatwater or modest river current 2 or 3 power strokes followed by a relaxed pry with a brief pause

recped said:

I am a lifelong and dedicated "goon".

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Whew... thanks for going first!

Me too. Goonstroker. Miles and miles of it. My wrists just wont' bend that way. I learned to paddle whitewater first, and no one told me I needed to learn another way!! Now it's too late. You know.... old dog/new tricks sort of thing.

And then there's this, a favorite quote:


memaquay said:
I've tripped with people who can clock off a 30 mile day without batting an eye, and they are prying off the gunwale with a goonstroke and burying the posers.

PaddlingPitt said:

Many years ago I took a whitewater canoeing course, in which the instructor introduced us to the “River J,” which is the goon stroke for a more powerful correction, which is sometimes needed to grab a small eddy while hurtling on by. Powerful yes, but shoild be quick and short so as not to lose too much momentum. I still generally preferred the regular J, though.

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Thing about the river j is that the recovery goes naturally into a bow draw if that's what you need - which is often the case.

Wow! Lots of great information thank you all.
I'd like to wish everyone here a great Thanksgiving.