>What do we see in the laboratory of competition? >I know just about nothing about racing.... Do any competition kayakers, >flatwater or ocean, use unfeathered paddles? What feather angles are most >popular? Is there any aspect of touring which would make medium-distance >racers' choice not apply for general use? Some time back we had a discussion about this and the one thing that emerged that I found interesting had to do with how the "best" stroke varied with effort. It seems that the racers provide a good example for high output paddling but not necessarily for low output paddling. For example, Bruce Winterbon explained how (in his case) at maximum or high output one set of stroke mechanics seemed to work well but these changed with reduced stroke effort. An interesting aspect of this has to do with which influences which. Does the paddle influence how we paddle or does how we paddle influence the paddle selection and how much of which. My paddles have gotten progressively shorter over time (latest iteration being 80" long) and my stroke more upright. It seems more comfortable to me and seems to produce more power over a longer period of time. As part of a little project of mine I have tested a crossover paddle with a high aspect ratio high lift blade but of short overall length that needs to employ the wing style of stroke. The disagreements we read here suggest that the system has so much complexity (boat, paddle, paddler) that no one dictum applies. I am a bit surprised the Greenland style paddlers haven't jumped right in there as they have always been quite vocal on the "best" paddle and paddling style issue. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ . *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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