On Sep 6, 2004, at 5:58 AM, PeterO wrote: > That leads me to yet another question - How do legs contribute when top > kayakers (and even average kayakers like myself) pump them to go > faster? I came to paddling from sculling. In rowing, the legs are everything. The great efficiency of the sliding seat is that at least 80% of the force applied to the oars comes from the longest and strongest muscles in the body. I naturally tended to apply sculling technique to paddling with the result that my paddle stroke is driven more by my lower body than anything else. I am also most comfortable with the shallow angle that accompanies a 9 foot oar. I use a 240 cm bent shaft paddle with a relatively large blade, pushing with an almost stiff extended upper arm, twisting at the waist and driving with my leg against the foot peg. The lower arm is little more than a fulcrum or oarlock. At 62, (and every bit as arthritic as the next old man), I am able to sustain a cruising speed of near 5 knots for a distance of 20 miles with virtually no effects to my upper body. It is my legs that get sore, never my shoulders or arms. I see no reason ever to change to a Greenland paddle and suspect that if I did I would be compromising with respect to acceleration, bracing and possibly the force required for a quick turn, (aided by a sweep for example). This approach of course entirely precludes the use of a rudder, (the value of which I seriously question anyway). It is evidently very counter-intuitive since I have had little success in teaching it to others but this is probably more about my patience than the difficulty of the technique. BTW: Reading this thread one might get the impression that the contributors do all their paddling only in heavy winds and seas and only to windward. I change styles, feather angles and sometimes even paddles to adapt to different conditions and venues. For example, I feather only to windward. Since I also tend to plan my paddling ventures to avoid paddling to into the wind as much as possible, I rarely if ever have to deal with wrist problems or concern for appropriate feathered technique. Am I therefore a wimp? Cheers, Michael in Florida *************************************************************************** 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 Mon Sep 06 2004 - 05:36:11 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:17 PDT