The Double Pump involves pulling the stern of your kayak underwater to create more energy for throwing your bow underwater. Mastering this skill is a major step towards any of the advanced moves that involve getting vertical.

Step One: The first thing you need to do is get your boat on edge and keep it there. Keep you weight over the boat and lift up with one knee while pushing down with the other.

1. Get your boat on edge

Step Two: Take a powerful forward sweep stroke and shift your weight back slightly to pull the stern of your kayak underwater a little. Now when your bow reaches it’s peak height and starts falling back to the water turn your forward sweep into a back sweep and pull you bow under a little. Focus on turning your whole upper body to lead each stroke. The power for this move comes from your torso muscles.

Step Three: By repeating the motions you should be able to bob back and fourth from bow to stern. If you find your paddle is being pulled under your boat and flipping you over use a sculling angle for each stroke. This means cocking your wrists back when you take a forward stroke and forward when you take a back stroke.

3. Take a back stroke to sink your bow

Step Four: Once you’ve got a good bob turn your torso aggressively towards the water and take a big back sweep to pull your bow completely underwater. You can do this on your stern too, just remember to use the power of your torso. Once you reach half way switch edges by lifting up with your trailing knee and pushing down with you leading knee. If your doing everything correctly your boat should go vertical and drop back down on the other side.

4. Try going vertical on your bow and your stern

Step Five: Practice doing the double pump on both sides as it will help speed up your learning curve.