Wavewalk Kayaks

UK researchers recently published an article about the beneficial effect of good posture in the British Medical Journal . According to this work, about half the UK population suffers from back pain from time to time, with up to 15% having chronic problems. They found that back pain is the second biggest cause of sick leave.
These British researchers found that long-term back pain can be relieved through encouraging sufferers to adopt good posture through the Alexander technique, which teaches patients how to sit, stand and walk in a way that relieves pain by focusing on their coordination and posture.

-Why are these findings important to kayak fishermen?
Because it’s likely to assume that most people who suffer from back pain are adults, and the older one gets the more likely he/she are to suffer from back pain. This means that if children and young people can afford to overlook bad posture when paddling kayaks and fishing from them, most adults can’t ignore them, and they should give these issues some serious consideration.
The time you spend paddling and fishing is when your back should get a relief from stress induced by bad sitting postures during long hours at the office or in your car. This time should be used for relaxation and easing your back problem rather than aggravating it.
The traditional L kayaking position is worst for your back than just sitting in the office or in car, which is why most people who fish from kayaks feel uneasiness and often even pain just from staying in this position. Kayak fishermen often experience a strong urge to switch positions, stand up, stretch their legs and ease the pressure in their lower back and the fatigue in the upper back, neck and shoulders. However, regular SIK and SOT kayaks don’t offer any relief for this problem.
This can help us understand why some W kayak fishermen have called their W kayaks ‘back saver’ and ‘back therapy’ - By this they mean that a good posture and the ability to switch between positions makes them feel good, and this is really important for them.

Ben is a fly fisherman from Pennsylvania who opted for the W kayak.

In a new review he tells about the things he’s doing with his new 2008 W kayak, and about the way he rigged it to be a perfect fly fishing boat.

Among a lot of interesting things Ben has to say about his W kayak fly fishing experience, this is what struck me the most -“I’m loving the W– after 12 hours in it in a short period my back still feels good, although I suffer from chronic back issues. After 8 hours Friday I knew when to quit, when it started getting tired.”

Anyone who’s suffered from chronic back pain could appreciate this.



First, some basic mechanics:
According to Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Action and Reaction, whenever a body exerts a force on another body, the latter exerts a force of equal magnitude and opposite direction on the former.

In other words, when your legs push your feet against your kayak’s foot braces (or footrests) they also push your lower back against your seat - and as a result the seat pushes back against your lower back with an equal force.
Your legs have the most powerful muscles in your body, and they constantly generate this force from the moment you sit in your kayak until you get out of it.
The L kayaking position deprives your legs from their natural role, and together with the seat and footrests turn them into a source of ergonomic problems for your back.
All that unnatural pressure is bad for your legs as well, and this is why you suffer from leg numbness, poor circulation and sometime pain and even chronic injuries.