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C1: freestyle, off side stern squirts

A short, but good article about off side stern squirting, by Scott Wiltshire.

Offside stern squirts are very boat dependent, especially on a "mild" eddy line. Obviously with a reverse sweep on the on-side there is a lot of leverage for squirting, squirting off a cross-draw requires more balance, finesse and timing and is only really possible in a boat with a low volume stern (an atom is probably the biggest boat this can be done in).

The technique is the same as for on-side squirting: cross the eddy line at not quite perpendicular to the current, exactly when the stern rail starts to contact the current (ie when the cockpit is roughly centred over the eddy line or a little afterwards) edge the boat upstream on the stern rail and start the cross-bow draw to lever the stern down. It is important to have your weight to the back of the boat of course.

Further tips:

  • It does require a bit of flexibility to be able to do a cross-bow stroke while having your weight on the back deck rather than forwards. The most common mistake is to lean the whole boat upstream, Wrong! lean just the appropriate stern rail into the current (think of the boat as having 4 distinct side edges and lean to one of them
  • although with modern playboats I like to think of the boat having 6 side edges). Don't rush, just drift into the current, the move requires no speed but plenty of timing.

Offside squirting isn't easy, here are some neat tricks which will turn a lot more heads. These are only achievable in a (short) boat with a lowish volume bow though:

  • an eddy line bow pivot off a back sweep or on-draw (break in backwards from an eddy where you would normally on-side squirt)
  • initiate a bow pirouette from an cross-draw when crossing the eddy line (from an eddy where you would squirt on the offside)

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