On Thu, Jul 23, 1998 at 07:46:23AM -0400, Michael Neverdosky wrote: > Applying information from racing to recreational pastimes is of limited > usefullness at best, and may be flat wrong at worst. I strongly disagree. Many of the innovations in boating have come from racing: in particular, the duffek stroke, squirt boating, and the sweeping changes in PFD design over the past couple of years all came from slalom racing. Those are completely obvious -- but there's also a more subtle transfer of technique going on. I do a fair amount of river paddling in addition to racing, and one of the things I've noticed over the years is that it's pretty easy to tell who the racers are while on a trip. They're the ones who can put their boats anywhere they want to -- catch any eddy, surf across any wave, and so on. They're also the ones with energy left over at the end of the day. Most of that is due to their use of correct techniques which maximize their paddling efficiency and boat control. Recreational paddlers who learn those techniques are often amazed at the difference that it makes -- I know, I teach them. > The test in racing is winning. To win you must go as fast as possible > while still being able to finish the race. Efficiency only enters > the equation in the being able to finish part. Not true. Efficiency is necessary in racing in order to go fast *and* conserve energy for critical moves. (In downriver, that might mean "running the big drop"; in slalom, that might mean "avoiding hitting the gates in the hole".) Nearly *everyone* can finish -- so that's not much of a factor at all. ---Rsk Rich Kulawiec rsk_at_gsp.org *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jul 23 1998 - 05:23:48 PDT
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