TexasKayakFisherman.com

A friend and I did the Buffalo Bayou Regatta last weekend in Houston. It was 15 miles down the bayou ending in downtown Houston. It was a lot of fun and a lot of paddling.

I have a question for river runners though. We are novices in a tandem kayak but when we hit a hard turn with rapids or hard current, the current pushed our rear end around until we were sideways and then ended up paddling backwards. During the turn, we both paddled on the on the same side (trying to turn) and I even tried to dig in on the opposite side but nothing helped. We did have a cooler in the back the and back was heavier (load not centered).

How should we have handled the turn without spinning around doing 360's in the middle of the bayou?

more pics

Looks like fun. Water was a little murky though.

Back paddler stab a paddle for braking on the side you want to turn toward and front paddler paddle like h*** on opposite side to get the front over. If you line up right on the current ahead of time rudder with the paddle or j stroke for alignment ( back paddler ) A lot of times if you start turning like that you were already getting side ways with the current before the fast water - obstacle.

Just caught weight in the back. Center up the weight.