RE: [Paddlewise] Paddling a Kahuna in the Hawkesbury Classic

From: PeterO <rebyl_kayak_at_iprimus.com.au>
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 23:01:13 +1100
Alex wrote: -
>Same impression.  Easy to paddle, and probably it
>is the fastest folder of this size, but you'd better
>not compare it with 16-17 ft hardshells.

G'day Alex.

I'm used to paddling heavy boats with a slow cadence. It needs a faster
cadence to keep up with the 16 foot hard shells and I don't know how long
anyone could sustain this.

Also found that after 40 or 50km I got tired of using body lean to steer the
boat and started compromising the racing stroke with small paddle sweep
corrections. In other words the high angle entry started to become
shallower. Natasha spotted this as I finished and I'll have to learn better
stroke technique with the Kahuna or use a skeg.

At the end of the race I was overtaking people in much longer boats
including doubles because I was far less tired and some of the reason for
that was the light build of the Kahuna. Of course I was one of the slower
paddlers in this race - I was conserving energy and finished with plenty to
spare. Next year will work harder and try to make a seriously good time.

As far as length of boat and speed is concerned some of the fastest boats in
the race were in the short rec class. These boats were built for speed and
paddled by very expert 50+ year olds:~). One of the boats in this class
finished in 10 hours.

All the best, PeterO
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Received on Mon Nov 10 2003 - 04:03:42 PST

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