Re: [Paddlewise] (un)Feathered paddles in surf

-----Original Message-----
From: K. Whilden <kwhilden_at_u.washington.edu>
To: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net <paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net>
Date: Tuesday, April 27, 1999 2:13 PM
Subject: [Paddlewise] (un)Feathered paddles in surf


<BIG SNIP>
>Of course, one distinct advantage of the unfeathered paddle mentioned to
>me by George, is that once the swim does occur, and assuming an unbroken
>shaft, the unfeathered paddle is a tremendous body surfing aid, whereas
>the feathered paddle is quite a hindrance. The unfeathered paddle can be
>used to support the body weight while skimming across the green water in
>front of wave. I haven't tried this, but it does sound like fun.


Could you (or George) elaborate on this technique?

>Still, I think it is best to choose the feather angle according to the
>style of sea kayaking that one prefers, and not according to the surfing.
>Unfeathered paddles are easier on the wrists and more neutral in the wind,
>whereas feathered paddles have industry momentum and have an advantage
>paddling into the wind and a disadvantage paddling downwind on across the
>wind.


With low hand control (pushing with the paddle shaft, wrist, elbow in a
straight line)feathered paddles are no harder on the wrists than
unfeathered.

What do you mean by more neutral in the wind?

Paddling across a very strong wind a feathered paddler needs to be careful
not to raise the blade too high or the wind can catch under it. This is easy
to compensate for and once the danger was recognized I never had to let go
of the upper blade (or twist it to spill the wind) again even in exteme side
winds. I will speculate that if one had to do a quick brace as a side wind
gust pushed you of balance, reactions rather than reason would take over and
you might well find yourself doing a sudden high brace. Now the unfeathered
blade would be inadvertently exposed to the high wind. This would tend to
counteract the brace, pushing you further over to the side you from which
you are already trying to recover. Letting go of the paddle with one hand
(or twisting the shaft to spill the wind) won't be able to help you here.
Blade speed is roughly 2.5 times boat speed. A paddler paddling 4 knots into
a 10 knot wind would have (4 x 2.5) ten knots of additional paddle blade
speed to add to the wind speed (and doubling the relative wind creates 4
times the resistance). Turning around and ignoring that you would be moving
faster downwind for the same effort (which is working even more in my
arguments favor) a blade moving at 10 knots downwind in a ten knot following
wind would gain no benefit from the wind. At best the penalty for
unfeathered into the wind is far greater than any benefit garnered going
downwind.

>Sorry for all the run-on sentences today. I must have had too much coffee
>this morning. :)

 Coffee is an addictive drug, I'd try to quit. ;-)
Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.com

>
>Kevin
>
> ___________________
> /   Kevin Whilden   \
>       |Dept. of Geosciences ___
>       |University of Washington \
>       |kwhilden_at_u.washington.edu|
>        ________________________/
>
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