Hi All!

Does this term just mean that when I dig the paddle in for a hard push, the kayak tends to go straight, and not wag the front end side to side? I like the idea of maximizing my paddling stroke in the forward direction, which by definition makes turns harder.

Uhm...here I go again, possibly writing too much. If short anecdotes are discouraged, let me know:
BTW, once I rescued two paddlers who were floating with the tide, way out there about 1 1/2 miles, not moving around at all. I couldn't figure out what they were doing, but there were definitely two people. I glassed them for twenty minutes, then went out to see what was going on. One guy in his mid-sixties was overturned and his boat was completely swamped, and he was clinging to the cockpit rim of his friend's boat. His friend didn't know enough to wave his paddle for help. They didn't know how to empty swamped kayaks at sea, and the wet guy was hypothermic to the point that he couldn't talk, so he couldn't have made a wet entrance anyway. They didn't know how little time they had left. All this to say, 'carry flares on your life jacket'. The victim did not recover enough to show his personality by the time they were loaded and going home. But he wrote to us, very happy that he survived such a close call, and offered to do veterinary care on our animals for free forever. Nice person. It was a good ending.

Roger