Balancing exercises for Kayakers

Despite the naturally stable design of our Fatyak kayaks, the importance of good balance cannot be emphasised enough. Our kayaks cater for all shapes and sizes of paddler, but sometimes even the most seasoned kayak users can sympathise about the wobble one might experience if stepping into a floating kayak.

Luckily, there are a variety of exercises and movements that can be practiced in order to help you keep your balance, and they revolve around the 3 main types of movement that the graphic below shows;

Balance Planes

It’s important to include all three planes when training to avoid the possibility of developing muscle imbalances. Some simple balancing acts that will help you to stay stable on a kayak would logically start from one requiring the least amount of compensation in order to retain balance, and would progress upwards and onwards – for example, from sitting on a chair, to standing with feet apart, to feet together, to one legged, and so forth.

Fabio Comana with ACE Fitness does an excellent job of demonstrating some simple exercises incorporating all 3 planes that could really help to develop skills for stable fatyaking!

If you’re interested in some local training and outdoor expertise, our friends at Exmoor Adventure and Channel Training can certainly offer some great assistance!

Fatyak Quality Control

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We pride ourselves on our high quality kayaks, known and loved by our customers who use them well – and push us to keep improving! And not only are our kayaks of a great quality – we strive to provide great customer service and after-sales support to boot. By ensuring we keep up the high standards we think it results in a good name for the sport, not to mention promoting the goodness of paddle sports to a wider audience; the benefits of which trickle down to all of us. Oh – as well as providing safety and fun for Fatyak owners everywhere.

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You can be content in the knowledge that the manufacture of your Fatyak has been left in safe and experienced hands – and it’s not just our manufacturing workforce that know their stuff. Both our manufacturing workforce and management team have over 30 years of experience in working with plastics in various applications. Daily meetings amongst our team help to keep our process as efficient and targeted as possible, taking into account any suggestions from customers or staff as part of our customer-focused approach.

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To make sure we can back up our claims of a high quality product (as well as the glowing reviews we get from the community!) we implement a 4 stage quality check system throughout the manufacturing process – ensuring that the Fatyaks are fit for purpose in every way. All products undergo inspection for moulding defects, visual examinations by the shift leader, examinations as bagged or stored, as well as an examination on dispatch. Additionally, each Fatyak undergoes a check against 3 key criteria as part of a customer-focused approach to assess potential risk, including;

  • Functionality, such as performance and longevity
  • Aesthetics, considering how the product will meet our customers’ expectations
  • Legal requirements, ensuring that the product complies with or exceeds necessary standards

And if any defects are discovered are recorded against the product’s unique serial number and investigated – allowing us to amend process, implement training, or increase control checks if needed to stop any further failures.

Our quality checking system is independently verified by external auditors to the British ISO 9001:2008 standard, so you know we can be relied upon!