The Duffek Maneuver

The Duffek Maneuver

A Carolina Paddler Article

By Alton Chewning

The Duffek Stroke is one of the most enigmatic techniques in the history of kayaking.  The stroke itself is hard to pin down.  It has many names:  bow draw, hanging draw, pivot stroke, bow rudder and more but some people don’t even consider it a stroke alone but a maneuver or a series of actions to make a quick directional change with minimal loss of speed.  While the stroke is widely attributed to Swiss/Czech racer, Milo Duffek, some maintain it was “invented” before Duffek introduced it, that he only popularized it.  Duffek himself makes few claims on the originality of the stroke.  Oddly, the Duffek stroke could have descended from a flatwater canoe technique and then made it’s way into whitewater slalom racing via Milo, perhaps others.  After dominating the sport for years, the stroke slowly declined in use and settled back into the quiver of techniques for traditional river running.  The history of the Duffek stroke is complex but then so is the story of Milo Duffek, the person.

Milo’s tale is one of the most dramatic ever told in international racing, involving cold war politics, secret weapons, subterfuge and a life-changing race.  Milo (pronounced Mee lo) Duffek was born in Czechoslovakia in 1928. After World War II, the nation was enveloped in the communist sphere of influence under Soviet Russia.  Milo was born into an affluent family and wanted to become a doctor like his father but at that time the communist rulers frowned on bourgeois society and impeded his chances of higher education.  Milo determined athletics were his best path forward.  Throughout his life Milo excelled at various sports but skiing and ski racing were his early media.

 

He became interested in paddling while marching alongside the kayak team in a May Day parade in Prague.  He rapidly excelled at canoe slalom but despite his obvious skill, the governing boards did not allow him to compete in international events.  In 1949, he accompanied the Czech flatwater team to Geneva and saw his first white water race.  At age 22, he converted to white water slalom racing and in 1951, as the best Czech racer, Duffek was allowed to compete in the Internationals in Austria.  He again excelled and by 1953 the stage was set for Duffek to exhibit his remarkable skills on an international level in Merano, Italy…  and to debut his secret weapon.

As Bill Endicott, noted writer, racer and coach, tells the story, Duffek’s innovation came while practicing high brace rolls.  Duffek started to tip over and caught himself with a high brace.  He found he could subtly alter the angle of the supporting blade and change boat direction while bringing the boat closer to the paddle.  This progressed to using a nearly vertical positioning of the paddle with one hand at forehead height (or above) and the other holding the paddle close to the water and feathering as needed to effect directional change.  The paddler uses his or her body to draw the boat to the paddle during this sequence.  More will be said on the technique and use of this maneuver later but at Merano, in 1953, this promised to be a game-changer.

The International competition in 1953 took place in a river town, Merano, Italy, where German is spoken more than Italian. Bill Endicott beautifully describes the setting of the 1953 Championships.

“The Passer River flows right through the middle of the town and it is possible to sit high above the river at a café while watching the antics below.   An ancient Roman bridge, the Ponte Romano in Italian, spans the river, providing a spectacular setting for the championships of one of the most colorful of sports.  Flower gardens abound in the area close to the river and in the distance one can see the mountains that are such an attraction during the ski season.”

As Endicott tells the story, Czech authorities were reluctant to allow Duffek to compete in Merano in 1953, for fear of his attempting defection.  Apparently Duffek was displaying an independent spirit at this time.  To humble Duffek the communist organizers said he could only compete if he beat the East Germans in the preliminary races.  The East Germans were the elite K1 paddlers of the time but Duffek persevered and won, frustrating the authorities but gaining a position on the team for the International Championships.  His participation came with a catch.  Milo would be accompanied at the competition by a guard who would spend every minute, night and day, with him.

In this breathtaking scenery and tight security, the secret weapon was unveiled, the Duffek stroke.  In the practice runs, competitors from other countries saw Duffek and other Czech paddlers using a series of moves that allowed quick turns around gates.  Up until this time the accepted method of turning the long kayaks was the reverse sweep which was effective but speed killing.  Duffek’s method allowed for tight turns followed by immediate forward strokes. The Duffek stroke and its variations are fairly advanced and no doubt other racers experimented with it in the time before the race; however, the consensus was Duffek would win the event handily.

Now we enter the shrouded reasoning of Milo’s mind.  He was a gifted athlete who had dedicated his life to success in his sport.  Duffek had met political resistance and persevered.  He was on the world’s largest stage and was set to make history, not only for his prowess in paddling but also for his innovation in technique.  He had beaten the Austrian and East German racers considered the best in the world.  Surrounded by all these glorious possibilities, in the final run of the competition, Duffek failed.  He placed fourth or was it 27th?

The Duffek mystery fogs the recorded history of the event.  In any event, he lost.  How?  Duffek, on approaching Gate 14, a relatively easy flatwater gate, brushed it with the bow of his kayak, resulting in a then-standard 100-second penalty.

Why did this happen?  Duffek was known to be somewhat careless in his paddling at times, of displaying nonchalance to the outcome once his superior skill was evident.  As Endicott noted, “Milo was a flashy racer, capable of brilliant moves, but he lacked consistency; some said concentration.”  Later, in the 1959 Internationals, Milo was significantly ahead of the competition, when he simply missed the last gate, going right past it.  So, in Merano, in 1953, was this what happened to Duffek, a mental lapse, a lack of concentration?  Or did he have another angle on the race?

Milo had spent time considering other plans beyond unveiling his new stroke or winning the international competition.  Years later Milo said he felt winning his division would draw too much attention, making his new plans of escape to the West more difficult to realize.  So, if he is to be believed, the Duffek maneuver, the Duffek deception led to the Duffek “Duffection.”

Some versions of Milo’s throwing of the race have him missing the final slalom gate and continuing to paddle on to Switzerland and freedom.  Considering the gate he missed was no. 14 and not the last, and that the Passer River flows into the Adige River, which empties into the Adriatic Sea in northwestern Italy, Milo could not paddle on to freedom.  His departure, his Duffection, came soon after the concluding festivities.  By now, Milo’s bodyguard was invested in Milo’s success, acting not only as an overseer but also as an assistant, helping him move boats and other gear.  The guard took Milo’s defeat to heart and during the celebrations drank morosely and liberally.  The story goes… Milo excused himself, went to the Men’s room and escaped from a bathroom window.  Milo hid with the Swiss racers and left with them to begin his new life in Geneva.  The fate of the bodyguard is not recorded.

The Technique of the Duffek

Let us consider how the Duffek stroke is used in present-day whitewater river running. Larry Ausley, noted ACA instructor teacher,  shares his views on the Duffek move, “I consider a Duffek more of a maneuver vs. calling it a stroke…. The stroke itself I’d define as a static bow draw. That’s coupled with a body/boat maneuver that’s boat dependent. In slalom boats/slalom racing it’s frequently paired with a outside-tilt pivot turn in a gate to change direction. In shorter, rockered boats, it’s paired with a forward weight shift to lift and release the stern and shift the boat’s center of rotation forward to enhance the rate of turn against the fulcrum of the planted blade. In either case, the static bow draw is planted, the boat/body maneuver completed to turn to the desired heading and the bow draw stroke immediately converted to a forward stroke to both lock in the new heading and retain forward momentum. The degree that the power face of the blade is opened depends on the balance of amount of turn desired vs. amount of conservation of momentum desired.  A very open face of the stroke begins to brake momentum (which may be desired in a tight slalom gate). A slightly open face retains much more momentum but affords less heading change (frequently used in fine-tuning heading in river running). “

Ausley feels the Duffek is more suited to eddy-out moves as opposed to peel outs.  Peel-outs from an eddy require a strong, forward stroke to power past the eddy line.

Since the Duffek stroke or maneuver is a simple but complex notion, we asked Paul Scrutton, an ACA instructor, to offer another description of the stroke to broaden our understanding.   Paul:  “Paddle, vertical, placed at the bow, on the side that you want to move the boat to. Working face of the blade facing towards the boat. You put the paddle in the water. Then you can use either the force of the water/boat rotation to get the boat to spin around the paddle, or a light sculling motion to create force and use your body to move the boat to the blade.

If you are rotating the boat into an eddy you can rotate the blade some to alter it to continue to face the boat while under the rotation of the boat.  You don’t want to over-angle the paddle and have the paddle blade go under the boat as you will likely follow.  While the Duffek has many applications, in shallow water it would not be a good choice as it does require the whole blade to be immersed. In rocky shallow water, you could hit the paddle blade and damage it.”

Speaking of damage, another focal point of the Duffek stroke is the height of the upper arm.  David Kurtz, another legendary racer and coach, makes a point of the Duffek being done with the top arm not above the shoulder.  Having the arm above the shoulder could risk dislocation if a boater hits a rock.  Brendan Curson asks us to consider the A-frame formed by the Lower Arm, Torso and Upper Arm.  “With the bow draw (Duffek) the movement of the boat is accomplished through a 45-90 degree rotation of the torso.  So although the Upper arm is higher than the head, the bigger torso muscles are doing the work. “

Did Duffek Invent the Duffek? Not many strokes or maneuvers in paddling are associated with a particular person or group.   Another example is the Pawlata Roll, an extended paddle roll.  The Pawlata was popularized by Edi Pawlata, an Austrian kayaker and according to writer Derek Hutchinson, was the first roll used in Europe (1927.)  Duffek himself says the “Duffek” move evolved from flatwater paddling techniques.  He feels a French international team was using a version of it in slalom racing before his introduction.

Changes in Slalom Technique

Slalom racing has changed dramatically since the race in Meran in 1953.  Some of the noteworthy changes are shorter, faster courses;  shorter, more tapered boats and greater exposure of racing through television coverage.

In order to adapt to these changed conditions, slalom paddling techniques have also modified but maybe not as much as one might think.

In 1953, K-1 boats were foldboats 400cm long.  The current Olympic rules dictate the kayak or canoe must be 350cm long, which means faster turns and different maneuvers.  Current slalom boats must weigh no less than 8kg.  Since a new carbon boat can be made lighter than 8kg, the minimum weight is met by adding extra ballast weight under the seat.  This allows the boat to rotate faster since less of the hull is in the water than if the weight was evenly distributed along it’s length.

Newer boats have less volume and tapered sterns that can be buried in the water, allowing for quicker turns or pivots.  In response, gate poles were raised from 10 centimeters off the water to 25 centimeters, presumably to make them less of a hazard.  This distance over flowing water is flexible, sometimes allowing more clearance for sliding the tips of sterns under the poles.  Brendan Curson, slalom coach, notes, “Duffek innovations created a pathway for new boat designs.  Boat design has continued to improve, enhancing the speed in getting around slalom gates.”

Courses have changed.  Many racing events now occur on man-made, predictable courses. Man-made courses are typically in cities, not remote countryside.  Older courses were 600 meters. Newer ones have to be between 150-400 meters.  Race times have changed accordingly.  Older times were 2.5-3 minutes.  Current times are 85-95 seconds.  Endicott points out man-made courses are better suited to media coverage, especially television.  “The first time slalom was in the Olympics, in 1972, it was on a totally man-made course.  And after that, this became the Olympic standard and pretty much the world standard at the top level.”

Much of this evolution was to make the slalom racing a more aggressive, dramatic event, thereby attracting more interest from racers and audiences.  Television was the next step in the progression.  While some race events could boast a large in-person audience, see the accompanying article on the first American slalom race on the Arkansas River, CO. , any demographics pale in comparison to modern television and internet coverage of racing events.  Television brings more money to the sport including sponsorship of the athletes.  With globalization, new markets become possible.  Countries with huge populations like China or India could start taking an interest if only a single national racer or two become popular.   These numbers become very persuasive to race organizers, advertisers and racers and thus modifying the sport for television became an acceptable innovation.

Differences in Turning on Upstream Gates on Slalom Courses.

Slalom canoeing and kayaking involves racing as fast as possible through a course of 18-25 gates, or sets of two parallel poles, suspended over turbulent whitewater, without touching the poles.  The minimum width of a gate is 1.2 meters and the maximum is 4 meters. Penalty points of two seconds per gate touch are added to the time and lowest time wins.  There are downstream gates, with two gate poles painted green and white and usually placed in the current. Six or eight gates must be upstream, typically placed in eddies and painted red and white.  Upstream gates involve moving from the current into an eddy, circling through the gate and turning back into the current as quickly as possible without touching the gate poles.

In Milo’s early days, the object was to maintain momentum on the eddy turns around the gates.  His “Duffek” turn combines a static bow rudder positioning of the paddle, followed by a forward stroke to maintain speed.  The force of the water contributes to the turn of the boat into the eddy.  The bow draw gets the boat back into the current quickly.

The modern practice of the Duffek is now usually called a draw, a more aggressive version of the stroke that uses the paddler’s core muscles to pull the boat through the direction change.

Of course, each situation is different.  On some gates, the racer charges directly towards the gate, throwing in a backstroke to make a quick pivot turn, burying the stern and vaulting out of the gate without losing momentum. While so much has changed the main turning strokes are still the forward sweep, the reverse sweep, the bow draw and the bow rudder.  The Duffek falls into a combination maneuver of the bow rudder-bow draw.

So, is the Duffek stroke still relevant in slalom racing?  Brendan Curson says, “Yes, the Duffek (aka bow draw, bow rudder) still has a place.”  Olympic coach Lee Leibfarth notes,” It could easily be argued that modern slalom technique is still based on the classic “Duffek” stroke.”   And Curson again, “Duffek innovations created a pathway for new boat designs.  Boat design has continued to improve, enhancing the speed in getting around slalom gates.”  Faster turns means quicker speeds on older courses and the push to make newer courses more compact and exciting, thereby garnering more attention to the sport.

Duffek in Later Years

The Duffek story is full of odd turns.   We’ll digress to one now.  In 1955, two years after his defection, Duffek participated in the next Internationals.  He was now paddling for his new home country, Switzerland.  The Championships were being held in Tacen, Yugoslavia, another communist country.  We wondered how Duffek could participate there and not risk being arrested by authorities?  Yugoslavia was semi-autonomous from the Soviet Union, and had their own strong-man ruler, Tito, but they were still closely allied with the rest of the Soviet bloc.

Endicott agreed with this point but offered this. Yugoslavia was composed of several essentially different regions, some more enthusiastic about communism, some less.  Tacen is in an area called Slovenia that was much friendlier to the West.  So, apparently, in 1955, Duffek parlayed his fame and the host Slovenians’ hospitality and western tilt, to compete in their races without fear of arrest. Another Duffek maneuver.

Which comes first?  Politics or competition?  Endicott was with the US team in Tacen for the 1991 World Championships.  Following the competition, his group was leaving Tacen to go to another ICF race when his party passed lines of tanks and armored vehicles rolling into town.  The Slovenian separatist revolution had started.  At the race that week in another country, no Slovenian paddlers were present.  They had to stay home to serve in the army.  A week later, at another race event, the Slovenians were back.  “We won the war, we are independent now, we can paddle!“

Later Endicott learned the president of the Slovenia region/country was also the titular head of the Slovenian paddling team.  Since much organizing work had been done in setting up the prestigious World Championships in Tacen, he decided to postpone the revolution until after the matches.   “Race first-Revolution later!”

Duffek did well in Tacen, Slovenia in 1955, finishing second in the K1 folding kayak division.  He would never place higher in International competition and he very well didn’t care.  He continued to race into the nineteen sixties.

Throughout his paddling days, Milo spent nearly every day swimming in order to familiarize himself with his element, water.  As Endicott observed, Milo was one of the first kayakers to become almost one with the boat and the water.  Other paddlers of the time tried to maintain balance by cutting down on leans.  Duffek would steer his boat by exaggerated leaning, knowing that a strong lean reduced the length of the submerged boat in the water, freeing the bow and stern and allowing quicker turns.  This required committing his weight to turns without fear of capsizing.  In the event of spilling, Duffek’s roll was immediate and certain.

Duffek’s rolling ability is another aspect of his legacy.  He is thought to be one of the first boaters to do a hand roll in turbulent water.   In a Winter, 1964 American Whitewater article, there is a description of Duffek giving a workshop on the Feather River in Colorado.  Milo is paddling a borrowed boat, and draws near an exploding wave.  He flips his paddle to the bank and tips the kayak over.  In seconds he’s back up, hand rolling to the surface and gracefully eddying out.  Later, on flat water, he demonstrated a one handed roll.   One spectator opined, “Duffek could hand roll in cold molasses.”

A Swiss Canoe article describes Milo Duffek as “Polysportive.”  His first athletic love was skiing, then ski racing, then paddling, slalom racing, bicycling, volleyball and on and on.

In later life, he took up hang-gliding.  When at 82, his legs failing, he switched to a monoskibob-a seat mounted to a ski-and scuba diving.  Always he is teaching and providing an example.  Milo:  “It’s important to be versatile in sports, but in general-otherwise you get inflexible.”

For decades, Duffek continued to paddle, compete and to instruct, traveling the world to share his gifts and insights.  Frequent companions were his wife, Irmgard, an accomplished paddler and instructor, and their son, Milo Duffek, Jr., who would go on to compete in International slalom events for many years.  When not engaged in an athletic pursuit, Milo taught geography, another way of exploring the world.

In 2013, Milo was inducted into the International Whitewater Hall of Fame as,

“… paddling’s great champion of sportsmanship through international exchange and instruction.”  Bill Endicott observed, “Duffek never won a gold medal.  At the world’s in Merano, Italy, he won something even more precious… his freedom.”

In 2019, Dave Kurtz was in Europe to watch one of his students competing and made a side trip to Geneva to visit his old friend.  Milo, then 91, still lived in Geneva with Irmgard and Kurtz spent the night with them.  In the morning they went outside to the atrium balcony of their fourth floor flat.  Irmgard began pitching bits of food up over the broad expanse and on cue birds swept down and plucked the food from the air.  Milo, sitting in a wheelchair, watched closely the swooping and diving of the winged acrobats.

We will leave the coda on Milo Duffek to Bill Endicott, a man, like Kurtz, who has seen many accomplished paddlers.

“In short, Milo Duffek was the first “water creature.”  After watching him paddle for a while, one had the impression that it wasn’t really a man and a boat out there, but some primeval fish.  Those weren’t really paddle blades you saw, but two fins.  And the glistening hull of the boat and shining leather bicycle helmet looked suspiciously like the scales of some aquatic creature.”

 

Thank you to the following people who gave significant assistance to the preparation of this article:

Larry Ausley has extensive credentials as a top level ACA Kayak/Canoe Instructor Trainer in whitewater canoe and kayak and coastal paddling.  He is retired from a career as a water quality biologist and continues to regularly paddle boats and pilot planes.

Bill Endicott is a renowned Olympic slalom paddler and coach, a writer, historian and advocate of international paddling cooperation.  He has degrees from Harvard, was a Marine captain and is retired from political administration in Washington, DC.

David Kurtz has a long career in Olympic slalom racing, coaching and paddler development.  He maintains a paddling academy, Mach One Slalom, and a museum, the David Kurtz Kayak & Canoe Museum near State College, Pennsylvania.  He was instrumental in starting whitewater programs with Penn State University and the Boy Scouts.

Kent Ford has been an Olympic slalom paddler, titlist, coach and announcer and excelled at all of these.  His teaching company, Performance Video, has done numerous instructional and documentary programs, including the classic, “The Call of the River,” where I first learned of the Milo Duffek story.

Brendan Curson is a Canadian national slalom coach and is active in International Canoe Federation endeavors.

Lee Leibfarth is a Olympic slalom coach and instructor and a financial officer for Nantahala Outdoor Center.  He has a background as a financial analyst and has written books on the subject.  His daughter, Evy Leibfarth, was on the 2020 US Olympic slalom team.

Paul Scrutton is a ACA instructor and the Educational Chair for the Carolina Canoe Club.  He has extensive background in various wildwater, surfkayaker, snowboard and other polysportive competitions.

Wayne Dickert, Ed Gertler, Lee Thonus and Tom Womble also made valuable contributions to this article.

And to Milo, for living this story.

Credits:

“The Call of the River” documentary

Directed by Kent Ford
Performance Video, Inc.

Release Date: 2009

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Section on Milo Duffek

 

“The River Masters”

By William Endicott

Self Published 1979

pp 16-21

 

Heinzerling, William. “Milo In America“  American Whitewater journal, Volume 10, Number 3, pp. 4-13.

https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Journal/show-page/issue/4/page/4/year/1964/

 

Suisse Kanu.ch

Swiss Canoe

https://www.swisscanoe.ch/sites/default/files/docs/skv_jahresheft10_v5.pdf

 

Ausley, Larry.  Personal communications. October 3-4, 2022

Curson, Brendan.  Personal communications. October 15, 2022.

Endicott, William.  Personal communications. October 5 to December 13, 2022.

Ford, Kent.  Personal communications. November 3-8, 2022

Kurtz, David.  Personal communications.  October 13 to December 14, 2022.

Leibfarth, Lee.  Personal communications.  October 28, 2022.