How to Clean Cartwheel

By Stephen Wright

The Clean Cartwheel is the a fun move alone, but is also a gateway
move to lead to lots of other fun tricks as well. By learning the clean
cartwheel, you’ll also be learning edge control, balance, and torso rotation
in a way that will eventually help you throw more ends in a row, superclean
cartwheel, back blunt, and even flashback! You should be able to do a
normal cartwheel before trying this, and I find that smaller or slower holes
are often easier for learning this (or perfect your skills in the flatwater
first!). Here’s how to do it–All direction will assume that you’re going
right because that’s the direction that Clay is going in the photos:

1. Set-up at the top of the foam, as spot where you want to initiate your
bow.

2. Angle your boat slightly to the left (11:00 o’clock) as you reach back
for your reverse sweep on the right and lift your left knee.

3. Push down on your heels to bury the bow at the same time you push on the
right reverse sweep to push the bow under you with a little more force than
you would for a normal cartwheel.

4. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. Once vertical, take the stroke out of
the water, and twist your torso and paddle aggressively back to the right
ahead of the stern end. You will also need to switch edges as the stern
falls into the water–your right knee should be up as it hits. ***The
faster and more aggressively you snap your torso twist ahead of the turn,
the easier the stern will come through***. Think about crunching your bow
up into the air as you twist so that the stern is sliced through. I focus
on looking upstream and trying to sight my right elbow upstream as the clean
stern comes through.

5. Flatten the boat out as it comes around to forward again, and put it
down with a right forward stroke to stay on the wave.

A few Jedi secrets passed down over the centuries:

-If you feel resistance on the bow end (it’s hard to push it through), it
almost always has to do with your angle to the hole. Think of it like this:
If you are cartwheeling right and initiate angled right at all, the first
part of your boat to hit the water is your right bow HULL rail. Since your
hull is hitting the oncoming water first, the water will try to flatten your
edge out, rather than pulling you more vert. Whereas if you angle left a
little bit when you try to cartwheel right, the oncoming water will first
hit your right DECK on your bow rail. This will pull you into more edge and
more vert and make the end go through with very little effort.

-Practice cartwheel moves in the flatwater if possible. REALLY focus on
that torso rotation ahead of the stern end. Your goal should be that your
torso literally DRAGS the stern through.

-If you fall over on the stern end a lot, it’s also probably the fault of
the angle of initiation on your BOW end. When you try to go right angled
right, you will not only feel resistance, BUT ALSO be pulled upstream into
the hole as bow goes through. This will make the stern engage way too far
upstream (and with WAY too much angle left). So you’ll be pulled over on
your head before you can get vert.

Hope this helps! Enjoy the pics of Clay at that fun little hole just above
the take-out of the Upper Gauley. Happy Clean wheels!

Live from Cathedral Café in Fayettevile, WV,

Stephen Wright