Remember, the backrest is not for leaning back on—it’s there to make it easier for you to sit up straight. If anything, you should be leaning slightly forward, especially when paddling hard.
Your legs should be in contact with the thigh braces, although relaxed. This way, you can easily grip the deck with your legs should you hit some rough water. Of course, on long outings, people move their legs around. You’ll often see the telltale bumps under the spray deck when their knees come up. But be ready to grab the deck with your legs should the sea conditions start to deteriorate.
One key to efficient forward paddling is to focus on your feet. Push against the foot pedals as you paddle. As you stroke on the right, push with your right foot and left arm, and vice versa. This technique is a back-saver at the end of a long day of paddling. It’s also particularly important if you’re trying to sprint, say, through a surf zone.

Both arms are always working during the forward stroke, and both arms are always resting! This results in a stroke that can be continued all day. While the top arm pushes, its pulling muscles relax. While the bottom arm pulls, its pushing muscles relax. As your body becomes more accustomed to paddling, the inactive muscles will learn to relax more and more.
Initiate your stroke with the top arm—let it be the leader, the driver—while the bottom arm pulls against the push of the top arm. Reach forward with a long lower arm and plant the blade beside your feet. Pull back until the pushing arm is straight, then release the blade, which will be beside your hip. As you push forward with the top arm, the inactive blade will naturally move toward the starting position for planting the next stroke.
The wrists should be in a position of function throughout the stroke—that is, in line with the forearm. Some paddlers keep their arms too low while paddling forward, with their wrists cranked up as if they were feathering the paddle on both sides. To avoid this, the elbows should not drop too low.

I tell people to stop their top hand at the centerline, down low, near the front of the cockpit. On an extreme high-angle stroke, like one used to punch through big surf, the top hand might cross over, but not for touring. If you watch someone paddle by you, it looks as if they’re placing the paddle in the water in front of their feet, pulling back to their hips and releasing. If you could watch this from underwater, you’d see that the blade is planted and nearly stationary, and the kayak slides past it. Learn to feel the blade’s connection to the water, and pull no more than that connection will allow so that the boat slides forward, rather than the paddle being pulled through the water. When I was learning to paddle, I focused on using as little effort as possible. Later, when I needed to sprint, I was already in the groove, and adding power to my stroke resulted in increased speed, not turbulence off the paddle blade.
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Torso Rotation
Most arm muscles are relatively puny compared to the mass of muscles in our backs. You can use those larger back muscles to power the kayak by focusing on torso rotation. Lock both elbows and keep your arms straight. Rest one hand at the front of your cockpit rim. Find a way to move the other hand down to the front of the rim without bending either elbow. You’ll find that you have to rotate your torso. Next, relax your elbows so they’re not locked, but keep your arms long, and try to get the same feeling in your torso as you paddle forward. I like to switch around throughout the day, using my arms, then my back, then both, so I don’t become tired.
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My preference is for a long, skinny blade. The major advantage of a skinny blade is that it puts less stress on the joints of the hands, wrist, elbows and shoulders. My blade is so skinny that I never need to feather it because of the wind, which helps reduce the risk of tendonitis developing in the wrists.
The only time I find feathering advantageous is for large paddle blades in strong wind. In terms of paddle length, I believe it is a matter of personal choice. I tell people to try a variety of blade shapes and shaft lengths to see what works for them. We provide our students with 230-to-240-cm paddles with 4-to-6-inch-wide blades.
Hands on the paddle should be a comfortable width apart—at least shoulder width, and preferably a bit more. The wider your grip is, the more leverage you’ll have. You can vary your hand spacing using a wider grip for more power when conditions require it. Play around to find what’s comfortable for you. A common problem is gripping the paddle too tightly. The paddle can actually just rest on your thumbs. Your fingers should be loosely curled over the shaft and really only engage when your hand pulls back. Opening the fingers on the pushing (top) hand ensures that you are not gripping too tightly. Once you learn to paddle with a relaxed grip, your fingers don’t have to actually open unless it’s really cold out and you’re trying to keep them warm.

Paddle Position
I keep my paddle shaft down low for touring—my hands stay well below shoulder height. Keeping the arms low makes it easier for the heart to provide blood to the arm muscles. I’ve paddled with advocates of a high stroke angle, but my observation is that after five or six hours of paddling, they have their paddle shaft down at a relatively low angle like everyone else.
There are definitely times when a high paddle angle during the stroke is appropriate—for example, when you’re late for a ferry or sprinting against a strong current. At this point, I raise my top hand to eye level. Play with the differences, become proficient at both, and you’ll have more tools in your toolkit to allow you to adapt to varying conditions.
Being able to vary your forward stroke between a relaxed touring stroke and a sprint stroke means you are ready for a variety of conditions and situations and can utilize different muscle groups throughout the day to maintain endurance.