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

-----Original Message-----
From: K. Whilden <kwhilden_at_u.washington.edu>
To: Matt Broze <mkayaks_at_oz.net>
Date: Tuesday, April 27, 1999 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] (un)Feathered paddles in surf


>
<Snip>
>>Matt:  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.
>
>Kevin: I would disagree with this on principal, since a highly feathered
paddle
>will always require a constant bending of the control wrist for every
>stroke.

I never have to bend my wrist to paddle unfeathered. I use a well balanced
paddle that doesn't have a heavy side which constantly wants to twist in
ones hand due to gravity. While raising my forearms (with my wrists
straight) I loosen my grip slightly with both hands and the rotating moment
(from pivoting from the elbow --caused by raising the upper hand) spins the
paddle in my hand enough to never bend my wrists. Actually when I
demonstrate this I can often make the paddle pivot more than 360 degrees and
then catch it in the right position to take the next stroke.  This "low hand
control" also can help an unfeathered paddler who releases the grip only on
the upper hand (so they don't have to raise their elbow to remove the 45
degree rotation induced by pivoting the hand up from the elbow--which is
much less work than raising the elbow). George came up with this to counter
my argument that unfeathered paddlers were working a lot harder because of
raising their elbows (unless using a low Eskimo style stroke). My
observation was that most feathered paddlers throw straight punches but
unfeathered paddlers were throwing left and right hooks (unfortunately most
still do but I think George is on to something here. We agreed LOW HAND
CONTROL works best.  Feathered paddlers should quit using that dainty little
push with the palm of their hand forward and a bent wrist on their "control"
side. You will have a much more powerful punch to your stroke if the bones
and the paddle shaft are all lined up in the direction of the punch. I came
to paddling with bad wrists from years of bone jarring pole plants in icy
moguls. I learned the usual "control hand" nonsense as a  whitewater paddler
but when I sea kayaked 20+ miles a day my wrists became very painful. It
came down to aborting a two week trip or changing something. After two hours
of paddling by carefully pushing with a straight wrist and loose grip my
painful wrists were on the mend and I had settled in to the technique I have
used ever after. I haven't had a wrist problem due to paddling in the 18
years since then and on one occasion paddled over 70 miles in one 24 hour
period with no wrist problems at all.
For those feathered paddlers who can't easily break the "bent wrist
syndrome", you can force yourself to push with a straight wrist by wearing a
wrist brace on your former "control hand". I don't expect many who have
habituated to unfeathered will try this.

>By highly feathered, I mean 60 degrees or more. I just practiced
>with an old 80 degree feather paddle that I own. I could not keep my
>control hand wrist from bending backward (in the up-down plane)and out of
>a straight line from my forearm when paddling on the opposite side.
>Perhaps there is something that I am missing, and you should elaborate. It
>certainly is possible to keep the control wrist and forearm straight in
>the side to side plane by relaxing the grip, and this is of course
>recommended with all paddles feathered or not. However, there are some
>times when relaxing is not an option when things get really hairy.
>
>Less bending of the control wrist in the up-down plane is certainly an
>advantage of an unfeathered paddle, but for the most part the difference
>is trivial. This is really splitting hairs, just as with the likelyhood of
>a paddle breaking in surf. The difference on the wrists however is finite,
>but usually other factors dominate. Still, for tendonitis prone people or
>those who can't relax their wrists, an unfeathered and even bent-shaft
>paddle is the way to go. I had acquired tendonitis from that old 80 deg.
>paddle after I applied protective rubber strip to the blade edge. This
>increased the swing weight was enough to push my wrist a little too far. A
>45 degree bent-shaft AT paddle cured my tendonitis almost immediately.

45 and 60 degree feathers are just about perfect on a calm day but they have
this awful tendency to lift and dive in a strong headwind and I haven't
found any way to easily compensate for this effect.  I won't feather less
than about 75 degrees, where I find this problem has reduced to
insignificance.
>
>>
>> What do you mean by more neutral in the wind?
>>
>
>I mean that is easier to unconsciously predict how the paddle will react
>to changing wind directions. Feathered paddles have an inherent 0
>that can make for different paddle responses to cross winds from opposite
>sides. A asymmetric or even spoon shaped blade could exacerbate this
>effect. At least with an unfeathered paddle, the response to wind from all
>angles is bilaterally symmetric along the long axis of the boat. Again,
>this is splitting hairs, but the difference is finite in my mind.

HUH, could you translate that for my eighth grade mind?



>I like your idea to calculate the wind drag of the feathered vs.
>unfeathered paddle. Hopefully somone with more time will take it on. I
>personally favor the Greenland style of paddling into the wind... just
>slide the paddle over so that there is much less blade and lever arm going
>against the wind.  Also, I am amused by imagining your debates on this
>topic with George, perhaps as only someone who knows you both can do.
>Incidently, an unfeathered paddler around here with reflective tape on
>his/her drysuit is a dead giveaway for a former George Gronseth student.
>:)
>
>Cheers,
>Kevin
>
>> 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. ;-)
>
>I have, many times. But school always seems to resurrect the habit.
>
>> Matt Broze
>> www.marinerkayaks.com
>>
>> >
>> >Kevin
>> >
>> > ___________________
>> > /   Kevin Whilden   \
>> >       |Dept. of Geosciences ___
>> >       |University of Washington \
>> >       |kwhilden_at_u.washington.edu|
>> >        ________________________/
>> >
>>
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>

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