Pros and Cons of Hand Surfing - Owen Rafey

Pros and cons of hand surfing. Many kayakers of varying experience have attempted to challenge themselves by “hand surfing”. Hand surfing is just what it sounds like, it’s surfing in your kayak without a paddle. One of the pros of hand surfing is that in big powerful holes like those found on the Ottawa you are less likely to injure your shoulder. Also some kayakers feel that hand rolling is simpler than paddle rolling. So when you are in a beatdown situation it’s much easier and takes much less time to setup a roll. The cons are that you have less power in the water to control your boat and to brace off of. Hand rolls are less reliable because with less surface area you can’t transfer your hip snap to the water as efficiently  and do you can’t roll as consistently. Finally, once you flush out of the feature you don’t have a paddle so it is much harder to catch eddies and make moves. And as a bonus hand paddling makes a great challenge and I would highly recommend it to any one.