Lots of good suggestions on this topic already, but I'm intrigued that you don't notice the problem at all until you get out of the kayak. Usually, with this sort of thing, if it is caused by pinching a nerve you are well aware of the pain long before you can get out of the kayak. Based on this, I suggest that it is probably the lack of leg movement while you are in the kayak that is the major cause of this problem. Even when paddling hard and bicycling with my legs on the foot pedals during a kayak race I've found those times I have to get out and run to the finish (or a hand-off point in a relay) have been real killers and the toughest part of the race. I theorize that this is because I haven't been using my legs as much as my arms (even though I do bicycle on the foot pedals) and therefore most of my blood has been busy feeding my arm and torso muscles and less has been circulating in my legs. Since you are crammed too tightly in your kayak to even allow you to straighten your legs, much less bicycle on the pedals, your leg muscles are probably have even less circulating blood in them after paddling and it takes awhile to get the circulation going in them again. It seems like you are already on the last notch of the foot pedals and have already moved them as far forward as you can, so I'd try using the bulkhead as your footrest by padding back as much as necessary so you don't have to keep your legs in a bent position all the time. You should be able to straighten your knees while the balls of your feet are still on the footrests and also be able to point your feet some to force your knees up to grip the kayak. Novice paddlers often assume incorrectly that they should grip the thigh braces tightly at all times when in a kayak and therefore often find that their legs go to sleep in a half-hour of so of commencing paddling. You are being forced into a somewhat similar position by your too short foot pedals. I'd try to loosen up as much as possible in your cockpit (or get a boat with more room) and after paddling try to get you legs moving around to get the blood circulating in them again before (or upon) getting out of the kayak and expecting your legs to work as they usually do. Maybe you could use the bulkhead/foot pedals for normal paddling and move them back to the foot pedals if conditions are such that you really need to use the rudder. Matt Broze www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** 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 May 14 2003 - 20:12:42 PDT
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