I'm pretty new (green as grass) to kayaking, and up until now I've borrowed a friends Old Town Rush and never had any problem paddling and steering and generally doing what I please. I just got a Dagger Response, and when I took it out on the lake today all I could do was spin circles, I'd get going and for seemingly no reason cut drastically to either side.

Whitewater boats are not designed to go in straight lines, but you will get it very soon! Of course with a little practise it becomes second nature, trust me. Read through this:

adrian.playak.com/index.php?option=com_c...=view&id=93&Itemid=5

It may help and guide you in the right direction when it comes to choosing a boat..

didn't read the top article.. but keep in mind -> there are different types of strokes, not just forward. but correction, sweep, draws.. etc. you can look those up or try and look up paddling technique.

but I"ll give you a start.

I did the same thing as I'm sure everyone does when they start kayaking. A good forward stroke in the water is a little more vertical than what your used to. I do about 50-60 degrees of an angle from the level of the water and my paddle shaft when doing a forward stroke. You want to initiate at the feet and stop and pull out the stroke before you get to your hips. When you take the paddle blade out it should be a quick movement and you should feel a kind of 'pop' as it bounces and flexes. Your probably spinning because your dragging the blade or doing too much of a stroke. keep the paddle blade relatively close to the boat, the further away, the more your likely to turn.

Correction strokes, think of your boat in this way.. the bow as A the middle as B and the stern as C.. a forward stroke is close to the boat, somewhat vertical, and goes from A to B.. To do correction strokes or a "stern draw", you initiate at B and go to C with the angle of the shaft more horizontal and keeping the blade about a foot further away than the distance of your forward stroke. B to C stroke on the right side will spin or 'correct' you by turning the bow to the left. B to C on the left side will turn the bow to the right.

Now get out there and practice, but read up on technique or get a White Water paddler to show you the ropes.

little waves, winds, currents and your own paddle strokes all help to spin the boat either left or right, ans spinning is what short whitewater boats are very good at. Once the boat has turned a bit too far, its own spin momentum even adds to that.

so a key strategy is to keep the boat from spinning more than say 5° or so. you can do that with very fine tricks that indeed become second nature with time: dufek strokes, j-strokes, sweep strokes etc.

another key strategy is to focus your eyes on the horizon, in the desired direction. if you do this, you'll notice immediately when your boat starts spinning, so you can correct it early....

good luck and let us know what worked for you in the end.

Thanks for the help/ advise! That's another great thing I've discovered about the kayaking community as a whole, everyone is eager to teach/ help beginners!

I definitely noticed that by making the stroke closer to the boat and starting it further up I have more control over the boat and can keep it in line a bit better, I got it out on a river yesterday with some current and none of my friends could keep up with me once I had a current to work with, so now it's just getting used to the new boat and picking up a cheep one to play on the lake with...

Thanks for all the help and advise, I'm sure I'll be back for more!