From: "Kirk Olsen" <kolsen_at_imaginelan.com> > The issue for my friend was that he had carpal tunnel when he started paddling. > > Using an unfeathered straight shafted paddle exacerbates his carpal tunnel. > He felt the options were to get a different style of paddle or stop paddling. I switched to a bent shaft, variable feather paddle and it alleviated a lot of strain and soreness problems. The bent shaft helps straighten the wrist and adjusting the feather helps reduce the wrist flexure for whatever paddling technique (high, low, whatever) he uses. I think it would be worthwhile to at least try such a paddle for a while - borrowing would be better than renting, which would be cheaper than buying. If a rental fees can be applied to the purchase price, so much the better. If he can't find a variable feather paddle, just push in the button on the join and set the paddle angle as desired. Then use some duct tape to hold it in position; he might find that friction alone will suffice. Keep changing the angle till the wrist flexure is minimized (approx 25-30 degrees for low angle and 50-60 degrees for high angle is a likely starting point). Make sure that he's using torso rotation for power and not arm flex. Good luck to him! Mike *************************************************************************** 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 Mon Feb 25 2002 - 11:45:30 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:50 PDT