Well I just spent a half hour re-watching ten second segments over and over. Thanks for posting Mark! These technique videos are super useful. One thing I notice is that Dan takes an outside stroke just before the eddy, which causes his turn to be much tighter than just allowing the currents to initiate the turn. I tend to drift out the other side of an eddy, so this technique will help.
Thanks James. Planting the final stroke on the downstream side does make for super quick eddy turns. Partly it helps initiate the turn but perhaps even more importantly it allows the last decent stroke to be in fast green water and from this you can gain a lot of power. This power can be used to lift the bow up and over the eddy line / eddy zone and really drive the boat into the eddy. In spots where the water drops quickly beside a rock you can use a boof stroke (simply a more dynamic stroke with full body commitment) to drive the packraft up and almost over the rock whilst getting a lot of power out of the stroke. You then initiate a fast edge change and plant strokes on the inside of the turn. In micro eddies you need to plant that inside stroke right in the sweet spot of the eddy. The boat should then snap around this stroke. Sticking to the inside for additional strokes then maintains the edge and allows you to carve back out again. If you go for a stroke on the outside the boat will flatten and be more inclined to spin and/or drift rather than carve forward towards the top of the eddy or exit point.
Hi Scott. Yes it is. It is actually Kokopelli's 2019 advanced whitewater prototype and is not a Nirvana at all (despite the labelling). I think at the time Kokopelli was considering calling it the 'Nirvana Pro'. Both Dan and I are fortunate to have each had one since mid 2019. They are awesome to paddle and we both love ours. As you might be able to tell they are quite narrow and hence tippy but this makes for super quick edge to edge transitions and assists in carving. They also boof better than any other packraft I have tried and are quite fast. It is more like the 2017 Nirvana self-bailer but faster and is nothing like the 2018 and later Nirvana's or the Recon, etc which have minimal rocker and are very rectangular. This prototype rides over seams, boils, holes and drops amazingly well. They are currently in the process of further testing additional prototypes based on this model so hopefully next year we will see something similar available for purchase.
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This is great to recap the course and watching Dan at half speed is awesome to review his technique. I (a mere mortal 😃) can only dream of such grace.
Well I just spent a half hour re-watching ten second segments over and over. Thanks for posting Mark! These technique videos are super useful. One thing I notice is that Dan takes an outside stroke just before the eddy, which causes his turn to be much tighter than just allowing the currents to initiate the turn. I tend to drift out the other side of an eddy, so this technique will help.
Thanks James. Planting the final stroke on the downstream side does make for super quick eddy turns. Partly it helps initiate the turn but perhaps even more importantly it allows the last decent stroke to be in fast green water and from this you can gain a lot of power. This power can be used to lift the bow up and over the eddy line / eddy zone and really drive the boat into the eddy. In spots where the water drops quickly beside a rock you can use a boof stroke (simply a more dynamic stroke with full body commitment) to drive the packraft up and almost over the rock whilst getting a lot of power out of the stroke. You then initiate a fast edge change and plant strokes on the inside of the turn. In micro eddies you need to plant that inside stroke right in the sweet spot of the eddy. The boat should then snap around this stroke. Sticking to the inside for additional strokes then maintains the edge and allows you to carve back out again. If you go for a stroke on the outside the boat will flatten and be more inclined to spin and/or drift rather than carve forward towards the top of the eddy or exit point.
Is this a prototype Nirvana? Will they update their boat soon?
Hi Scott. Yes it is. It is actually Kokopelli's 2019 advanced whitewater prototype and is not a Nirvana at all (despite the labelling). I think at the time Kokopelli was considering calling it the 'Nirvana Pro'. Both Dan and I are fortunate to have each had one since mid 2019. They are awesome to paddle and we both love ours. As you might be able to tell they are quite narrow and hence tippy but this makes for super quick edge to edge transitions and assists in carving. They also boof better than any other packraft I have tried and are quite fast. It is more like the 2017 Nirvana self-bailer but faster and is nothing like the 2018 and later Nirvana's or the Recon, etc which have minimal rocker and are very rectangular. This prototype rides over seams, boils, holes and drops amazingly well. They are currently in the process of further testing additional prototypes based on this model so hopefully next year we will see something similar available for purchase.