Canoe Basics

Paddling Strokes - The Draw Stroke

by Red Rock Wilderness Store

Ok, this is the other main canoe stroke that you absolutely need to know. It is, for all intents and purposes, the exact opposite as the J-Stroke. The J stroke pushes the back of the canoe away from the paddle and the Draw Stroke pulls the canoe to the paddle. Using the two strokes together allows you to stay on the same side of the canoe and change the canoe's course of direction without switching sides on the canoe after every two strokes. We do this because switching all the time has "pilgrim" written all over it. Sure, everybody has to start somewhere, but, if after 25 years, you are still making the canoe go forward by paddling willy-nilly (see definition), I'm sorry but you STILL don't know how to paddle. And, yelling at your poor wife in the bow about how "she isn't a very good paddler" is just plain wrong. The guy/gal in the back of the canoe is the person entirely in charge of where the canoe is going, period. All responsibility for the direction of the canoe is with the person in the back.

Again, with the Draw Stroke (or any stroke for that matter) sit up straight and reach out to the side, draw the canoe to the paddle and then turn the paddle to push the canoe ahead in one smooth effort. Never just draw the canoe when lake paddling. Always draw to you first and then turn the paddle and apply power within the stroke. Opposite of the J Stroke, last part of the Draw Stroke is the power phase where you are pushing the canoe ahead. The canoe should not slow down appreciably during this stroke.

Bow Paddlers and the Draw Stroke - If you are going to teach your bow paddler anything show them this stroke. They would execute it exactly like I'm doing it in the pictures - it's no different. It is up to the stern paddler to request a Draw Stroke on the right or left of the canoe to pull it into the wind or help turn in a tight river. After a while, some paddlers can read each other's minds and know what to do in a given situation like when a blast of wind hits the bow at an angle and threatens to take the canoe suddenly off course. Don't assume that your paddling partner has mind-reading abilities just yet however. I've met several folks of both genders who have absolutely no sense of what to do when being blasted off course by a sudden gust of wind and you may not want everybody responding on impulse. Sometimes it may be better to maintain total navigational control from the stern and tell the bow hen to draw left or draw right. Practice and training makes the canoe travel quite well.

1. To execute a Draw Stroke while the canoe is moving, you'll turn your paddle blade to run parallel to canoe. The paddle slips freely in the water alongside as you can see above. Note that I'd been draw-stroking trying to catch the various phases of the stroke by the smooth water on the left side of the picture along with waves on the paddle side.

2. In this picture, I'm in the process of using my lower arm to draw the paddle to me. What is actually happening is the paddle ends up being planted in the water and I'm really dragging my butt and the canoe stern to the paddle. A properly designed lake canoe will slide to the paddle with some resistance. A heavily rockered white water canoe would almost spin around in a circle using the draw stroke as hard as I am doing above.

3. Now this is the important part that I can easily never find it in all of the canoe books out there and it's lack thereof is also evident because I meet so many folks who know the "draw" part but not the follow-through. The draw part alone is worthless for efficient lake paddling. To properly do this stroke, observe my top hand in picture 2 and above. Turn your hand so the paddle goes to "push" mode and end the Draw Stroke with a strong push back making the canoe go forward.

Here is closer look of the Draw Stroke with its paddle-blade-path indicated. Reach out, stick the paddle in the water, pull to you and turn the paddle to push in one, smooth, strong maneuver. The back of the canoe will slide in the direction of the paddle and then slip forward as you finish out the stroke. It's easy, effective, and efficient but generally you won't see the red arrow laying on the water setting up the stroke. Sorry there is no template that you can bring along. Just memorize the picture.

Of course to do the Draw Stroke on the other side of the canoe, you switch hands, put the paddle on the other side and challenge your ambidexterity. Practice makes perfect and in the course of about 15 minutes, you should be able to get a good feel for the way the canoe handles and needs to be handled to make it go the way you want.