Yeah! Jim thanks for confirming the Romany is a bit slower than the Solstice! In our kayak club these are the two most popular boats. The Solstice has more length on the water line and I think the rocker and Skeg box on the Romany slow it a bit more as well. Now I can rest assured that I am not just another turtle. That said technique is still the main part of the equation. When our club did a two mile sprint race the fastest boat a Solstice SS finished at an average pace of 6.2 miles per hour, and I finished as an out of shape later 30s weekend warrior at 6.0 miles per hour. All the advice about keeping your torso tilted bit forward, good torso rotation, focusing on the catch so you get power from the very beginning of the stroke is good. However the mistake that I see most beginners making that drastically hurts their efficiecy is that they try too hard! When they want to go fast they yank hard on the paddle which usually results in a lot of splash and energy wasted in turbulance, and very often a stroke that is long on bent arm pulling and short on the balanced push/pull torso power that we all strive for... Worst of all this short violent yank of the paddle makes the boat shoot forward in a sudden surge of speed and since the effort required to move the boat at progressively higher speeds is exponential, trying to surge your kayak from 5 miles per hour to 10 with a mighty yank of the paddle is like hitting a brick wall - it ain't gonna happen. I try to get students to focus on smooth steady pressure on the paddle blade. You want to pull hard and fast enough to "catch" the water so you can pull your boat past the blade without much slipping, but not pull so hard that you force the blade to slip or make the hull speed surge up and down. A great drill for this is to pick a safe place to paddle and close your eyes for ten or more strokes and focus on how the paddle feels. This paddle sensitivity also helps paddlers learn to go straight without having to constantly do turning strokes to correct. Night paddling is great for this also if you can safely run for a bit without any lights. Paddle feel is everything when it comes to deliverying smooth steady power. You need to keep the paddle working as much as possible with steady force that is just enough to get good propulsion, but not enough to make it slip and thrash the water. To pick up speed just boost the cadence and when you get up to 65-70 strokes a minute you will either die of exhaustion or decide you need some big Greg Barton style racing blades. Blade size and shaft length are to some degree personal since the size and length that is optimal will depend on how vertical a stroke you chose to use and how fast a cadence you feel comfortable using at a give power level. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jan 31 2001 - 23:50:28 PST
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