>The idea of having each paddler test two paddles and using a difference >stat might have merit - I'm not sure. There are probably some underlying >assumptions that may/may not be valid - things like the relationship >between aspect ratio and performance being a constant relationship across >the whole range of values - is it linear? curvilinear? Does this change >for each paddler for some unknown reason? People testing different >portions of the range might be problematic - some might test two very >similar paddles (and those may be high or low in the range), others two >very different paddles with regards to aspect ratio. At any rate, it >might solve part of the problem but it might introduce 'noise' of a >different type. I suppose the original suggestion to use a standard >paddle contains some of these same ills. I come back to my original suggestion. The most controlled situation is asking members of a local club to try, at their convenient time 3 or 4 paddle models. You only need to get one model of each paddle and give it to them and they will time their effort with them and report the relative results. That will cancel boat type, etc. 20 paddlers reporting good tests should give a good relative behavior, which would have to be normalized somehow in order to be able to plot all the results in one chart. A better placer to do this test would be where there is some kind of Olympic track or good quiet lake. Best Regards, Rafael el cayucochief www.mayanseas.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 Thu Jun 12 2003 - 08:34:07 PDT
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