I absolutely love this trick, there is nothing more awesome than the feeling of sliding the tail of your kayak into the eddy line, feeling the power of the river engage on your tail, have the nose of your kayak fly up into the air and be spinning vertically down the river.
The Tailee requires a good amount of practice but it honestly isn’t that hard. Check out the steps below or click on the video link to learn how to do your first Tailee.
First things first, we have to find a spot where we can learn this trick. We are going to be looking for a nice deep, crisp powerful eddy line. Once you’ve found your ideal location it’s time to get vertical!
Step 1
Get some speed up, we are going to paddle from the back of the eddy towards the eddyline.
Step 2
Once the nose of your kayak is about to hit the eddyline, take a sweep stroke to encourage your kayak to spin downstream.
Step 3
Right as your hips are about to cross the eddyline drop your upstream edge (scary I know) and push really hard with the back of your paddle on the opposite side of your kayak and pull up hard on your knees.
Step 4
Celebrate, if you did all of that correctly then you will be perfectly vertical, spinning downstream.
Check out the video tutorial for a more in-depth look at how to Tailee!
See you on the water,
Bren