“What advice can you give folks who are frustrated with their progress in playboating?”
This question was asked during my ‘Playboating 101’ webinar last month.
My advice for folks who feel stuck in any area of paddling (or life) is to invest in coaching, AND
there’s another element that’s really important for playboating – location, location, location.
There’s a reason that the best freestyle boaters in the world travel to, and spend time in certain places like Columbus, GA, the Ottawa River or Notthingham in the UK.
It’s difficult to improve your freestyle skills when you don’t have a well formed wave or hole that has easy eddy access, and deep water behind it for rolling up.
Not only, that, but being able to park and play so you can pour all of your energy into working on your surfing is also a game changer.
What are you committed to?
If one of you paddling goals is to improve your playboating, which may include:
- Controlling your boat in a hole and/or wave.
- Staying retentive on waves and in holes.
- Feeling confident moving around a feature and setting up for tricks.
- Performing the fundamental tricks like spinning, carwheeling and roundhousing – and maybe even the more advanced tricks like looping, blunting and more..
Then I strongly suggest that you carve our time and take a trip to a well known playspot like the ones mentioned above. It will be worth your time and investment, and even more if you add coaching to the mix.
To be sure, if you’re stoked with your current playboating skills, and aren’t that committed to getting better, then great!
If you’re like the person who originally asked this question, and are feeling frustrated with your progress and dream of experiencing the stoke of completing your first loop or getting big air on a wave, then it’s time to commit to what you want and take action in that direction.
Take action
Remember that there’s no point in getting frustrated about something when you aren’t taking the action steps to changing the situation.
That’s why interrupting your frustration with coaching and a different location is a step in the right
direction.
If this post resonates with you, then I invite you to take action now and join me on the Ottawa River at Ottawa Kayak School for a week of amazing playboating development and FUN! CLICK HERE to learn more and register.
