Re: [Paddlewise] paddles, beer, true science (humor)

From: Dan Hagen <dan_at_hagen.net>
Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 22:27:30 -0700
Very insightful post by Craig Olson, but he neglected to mention an
obvious biomechanical advantage of his system. To be specific, Craig
wrote:

> 2)  Having a cold one on both port and starboard helps ensure that 
> I will look in both directions frequently, thereby ensuring that I 
> get maximum scenic pleasure from the outing.

If you actually try this (first thing I did after reading Craig's post)
you will find that looking at each beer with each stroke promotes proper
torso rotation! Using my knot meter, as verified by my differentially
corrected GPS (with "heads up" display), I determined that the improved
stroke mechanics resulted in a 7.3 percent improvement in
efficiency--defined as per Taylor--about equivalent to the improvement
realized through the use of a wing paddle.  I suspect a further
improvement could be obtained if one were to supplement the beers with a
bottle of Aquavit dangling from a pole mounted on the bow, rather than
an apple. (An apple?!? Who ever heard of an apple with a beer chaser?) 

I should note that I used a "Euro" paddle. One can only guess at the
remarkable improvement to be had if this technique were to be combined
with a Greenland stick. 

Skål!

Dan Hagen

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Received on Mon May 21 2001 - 22:30:36 PDT

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