I glass as well as possible dry, then start laying on epoxy about four feet from the bow and work toward the bow. As the glass wets out toward the area that won't conform dry I make sure to get it wet out right to the edges and it slides relatively easily into shape. Just keep gently pulling the edges hanging past the sheer and gently squeegee till it is nice and flat.

Then I go back to my starting point and work toward the stern, where I perform the same trick.

When the glass fibres are saturated with resin they get very slippery and will slide over one another and take on quite convoluted shapes. It helps the distortion if you wet out the glass right to the edge, even beyond the sheer, as any dry glass on the edges will inhibit its ability to take on new shapes.

The recurve on a baidarka though is not quite doable.

I am fairly sure almost everyone does a fairly close variation of the above