Champion slalom canoeists use this world-class maneuver to “win the gold” in many competitions. With advanced blade and boat control, and balancing the forces of canoe and current, you’ll be able to merge angle and momentum into —if you nail it just right—a perfect one-stroke ferry.

Uses
Move across a current without heading downstream to: position your canoe to run a rapid, laterally eddy hop, set up for a scouting viewpoint, or move onto that perfect wave for a sweet surf, ferry a rescue line from shore to shore, assist a swimmer to a “safe eddy,” or tow a boat to shore.

Focus Points
Position: Start low in the eddy near the eddyline to generate adequate speed to cross the eddyline current and maintain position. If ferrying across waves stay on the down slope, and gravity will be your friend.
Angle: This is the key element in any ferry. Set your angle based on the current flow, not the riverbank. The principles are: start with less angle and open it up according to the distance to your destination, how much you want to go downstream, and the speed you need. It is easier to maintain a small angle and more challenging to hold an opening angle. The trick is to find the perfect angle and hold it with a minimum of strokes.
Target: Look where you want to go! Analyze the complete route and look for adjustments dictated by current seams, hesitation eddies, and river features.
Lean: Hold a lean downstream and toward the target. Lean less in slower current and more in faster current.
Stroke: Generate momentum by keeping power strokes in front of your body (forward + cross forward), set and maintain your angle with static draws or strokes in the stern close to the hull of the canoe (stern pry, stern draw + stern rudder).

Sam Fowlkes is chair of the ACA Safety Education and Instruction Council.