I think bent shafts are over-rated. If you don't grip the paddle tightly and don't bend your wrists the contorted shaft paddles only offer disadvantages and I wouldn't recommend them for feathered paddlers because they tend to pry one hand open on the push side of your non-feathering hand. If you insist on persisting in the folly of stressing your wrists by gripping the paddle too tightly they might help take some of the bend out of your wrists while they are under a load. I also find them limiting for moving my hands further apart or further to one side of the paddle when I like. I'm 6'1" and have very long "ape" arms and a long back. I like shorter paddles (mostly I use a 220 and have flirted a bit with 215 lately) but I'd be careful of going less than 210cm for a sea paddle except for a very small person in a narrow small kayak. You might find the stroke rate uncomfortably (uncoordinatedly?) high when moving fast even if the blades are short enough and shaped well enough to still clear the hull easily without constantly banging the boat at the start of the stroke. 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 Fri Jun 06 2003 - 21:30:07 PDT
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