Kevin wrote >Matt, >You said it twice... unfeathered paddles are more likely to break in the >surf than feathered paddles. Would you mind explaining the reasoning >behind this? Is this during the surfing, sidesurfing, capsize, or swimming >stage? Do you have a statistical basis for this? Or is it simply that >unfeathered paddlers are braver/dumber than the average, and therefore >tend to get munched more often... :) If it is not all the 7 to 10 broken paddles I've seen in the surf were unfeathered it is almost all. My guess is that because the blades are on the same plane they can both "work" at the same time. Going out if you don't get it pointed into the wave it is possible that the breaker can catch both blades at once. George Gronseth did an ender years back and apparently landed on his paddle breaking off one blade and bending the 6061 T6 aluminum shaft into the shape of a bow. One blade of an feathered paddle would have been easily driven into the water most likely preventing the damage. The most common case has been " I don't know, I was upside down in the surf and the paddle broke, I didn't feel it hit the bottom." The paddler who broke the Epic was hanging on to his unfeathered paddle for all he was worth (upside down) as the turbulence tried to pull it away from him (from both sides). The paddle broke at the joint as the blades were pulled away. This wouldn't happen to an unfeathered paddle. Any paddle could be broken if one side hits the sand. I've had them yanked out of one hand this way several times. If you like your graphite (or wood) paddle don't use it to play in the surf. I like to use my WW paddle because the shorter length lets you accelerate quicker to catch a wave and they tend to be built to take more abuse. Acceleration seems to be the major downside to using a Greenland style paddle for any kind of surfing. Matt Broze *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Apr 21 1999 - 23:00:55 PDT
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