In the illustration, the kayaker is leaving the slack eddy and breaking out into the main current which is moving to the right relative to the kayaker. The bow of the kayak has just started to cross the eddyline and is at a 45 degree angle to the eddy line with the bow angled into the oncoming current. This is generally the safest and easiest plan for crossing an eddy line in order to break out into the main current. Prior to reaching the eddy line the kayaker should accelerate in order to get as much momentum as possible. The faster you are going the quicker you will get across the eddy line and the less the current will spin your kayak downstream. Also the kayaker should low brace on the right (the low side of the kayak) and the faster you are going the better a low brace works and the longer you can lean on the brace. The kayaker needs to brace on the right because he or she also needs to edge and lean the kayak to the right (lift the left knee and left sit bone while tilting your body to the right) and the brace will keep you from falling to the right if you happen to lean too far or too early. If you don't lean enough or you lean too late you can fall over to the left (the most common mistake). So it’s better to lean too far and too early and use your brace on the low side of the kayak to keep you from capsizing on that side.
The other piece of the strategizing is to decide where you want to cross the eddy line - high near the top of the eddy or some distance lower down the eddy line? This depends on the situation. Where does the eddy line look less intimidating? Far enough down from the top of the eddy the eddy line will eventually fizzle out, but is that where you want to be once you've crossed it? Sometime the eddy line is simpler to cross up high where it is clearly defined and narrow. Weighing these factors takes experience. Take a lesson that gives you practice crossing eddy lines over and over in different places and with various speeds of current so you can get a calibrated eye for where is the easiest place to cross a given eddy line and how much you need to edge and lean your kayak while crossing it.
