Gordin wrote: <Snip>>>>>>Now my legs are burning, my lungs have collapsed and I'm not even a third of the way down when I planted my right pole directly onto a rock. I felt the shock right through to the bones in my elbow.<<<<<snip> Thirty some years ago my solution to those hard pole plants was shock absorbers in my ski poles. I was skiing (Freestyle) for Hart skis and Allsop bindings at the time. I told my idea to someone at Allsop when I was up in Bellingham getting some more bindings and having the release on them checked. They were concerned that I had been able to carve on my boots to make their bindings a lot less likely to prerelease on me. The had never seen such high release numbers on their bindings and didn't want to blemish their (at the time) "no broken legs" record. (Their rep broke his leg on a pair shortly thereafter). They must have thought the shock absorber poles were a good idea though because they came out with just such a thing by the next season. I got a couple of pair from the new rep and I just loved them. No more wrist and elbow pain on those hard pole plants in icy moguls. I have used them ever since (not the same pair though, I break poles about as often as skis--about once a season). Every once in a while I hit a pole plant hard enough to bottom out the shock absorbers and am instantly reminded just how much I would miss them. Several years ago Allsop suddenly quit producing the shock absorber poles. Since then I have bought any I could get (for $5.00 or less at thrift stores and garage sales). I also buy other poles that I like the baskets and tips on (the lightweight kind with points or jagged ends that don't skip on ice--like the newer cupped Allsop ones do--and I then mount the Allsop shock absorber handles on those better poles). BTW I bought my first pair of shaped skis at a garage sale for $25 last year. I don't see any $1000 pair of skis in my future either but I'll keep looking for a bargain priced replacement pair for those I have now as I do really like how confident I can be that they will carve quickly when I set them on edge. Of course, I've been thinking what would even shorter and smaller radius skis do to maybe make even quicker carved turns. I may have to find some slalom racing demo skis to find out. It is hard to pay more for a rental than I pay for a pair skis though. As to your paddling around the island: my advice would be to not aggravate your injury and risk making it chronic. If you must go, get a battery powered propeller system, a motorboat, or paddle a double kayak with a strong and sympathetic paddler to help (so you can slack way off). Do we have any Paddlewise volunteers from your area? Don't all speak up at once. Doug, are you out there? 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/ ***************************************************************************
At 08:01 PM 4/6/2004 -0700, Matt Broze wrote: >Gordin wrote: ><Snip>>>>>>Now my legs are burning, my lungs have collapsed and I'm not even >a third >of the way down when I planted my right pole directly onto a rock. I felt >the shock right through to the bones in my elbow.<<<<<snip> > >Thirty some years ago my solution to those hard pole plants was shock >absorbers in my ski poles. I was skiing (Freestyle) for Hart skis and Allsop >bindings at the time. I used to have a pair of Hart Freestyle skies. There have only been two times while skiing that I have fallen and hurt myself enough that I had to stop skiing for the day (I've been skiing for 33 years). One of those times was on those old Hart skis. I was having a really good day and was skiing some large moguls on Red Dog at Squaw Valley. I was really letting it hang out and got too far back on my skis. My flight through the air with both skies tips pointing skyward was abruptly terminated when my pole planted on a bump and the end of the pole jammed me in the ribs. > They must have thought the shock absorber poles >were a good idea though because they came out with just such a thing by the >next season. I got a couple of pair from the new rep and I just loved them. >No more wrist and elbow pain on those hard pole plants in icy moguls. I've got a pair of light shaft shock absorber poles in the basement. I also discovered shock absorber poles early on and never used anything else. My other injury was also pole related. It was on the 4th day in a row of skiing with a regular skiing buddy that was a former instructor, his brother, and his brothers girlfriend (who used to patrol at Whistler). We were skiing "Olympic" at Kirkwood (California) which at one time used to be rated the 4th longest/steepest run in North America. It was bumpy and icy that day. I was following my buddies brother down when he crashed in front of me. I made a quick turn to avoid skiing over the top of him and came out of my binding. When I attempted to step back into it I discovered a portion of the heel piece had broken clean off. I gave my ski to my buddy and attempted to ski the rest of the run on one ski (I'd done that before after breaking a binding at the top of a two mile run at Vail). I picked my way down slowly without incident until I got to the flats. Then I crashed and jammed a pole in the snow and bent my thumb back. It was so painful I couldn't old a pole and continuing the day with one ski and one pole didn't seem like a good idea. Even worse was that I had a hard time holding a beer down at mahogany ridge. >BTW I bought my first pair of shaped skis at a garage sale for $25 last >year. Still haven't done that. I'm still skiing on my old 203cm Rossignol 3G Kevlar GS skis. > Of course, I've been thinking what would even shorter and >smaller radius skis do to maybe make even quicker carved turns. When I started skiing on longer skis (going from a 190cm to 207cm) I did so because I was getting tired of making quick carved turns and wanted a ski that I could do more cruising on. I wanted something that was more solid when making wider radius carved turns and the one time I tried a pair of those shaped skis (at Chamonix last year) I didn't feel like they did that well. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 20:01:50 -0700, Matt wrote: >Gordin wrote: ><Snip>>>>>>Now my legs are burning, my lungs have collapsed and I'm not even >a third >of the way down when I planted my right pole directly onto a rock. >I felt the shock right through to the bones in my elbow.<<<<<snip> > >Thirty some years ago my solution to those hard pole plants was shock >absorbers in my ski poles. <snip> My solution to "tennis elbow" (in my case from weight training) is to use one of the ProTec http://www.pro-tecathletics.com/home.htm products. I've used their knee bands and forearm bands for 5 or 6 years and my problems have been reduced/eliminated. HTH -- cheers, Stephen *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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