Michael Wrote: No seat at all. Not even a foam pad. Thighs are sandwiched between the hull bottom and the under side of the massiq. This allows me to paddle w/ my backside about 8 inches fwd of the aft end of the coaming/back bulkhead. No back band at all. Legs are totaly extended and flat on the bottom of the hull, relaxed except when extra effort is needed I draw back on the tops of my feet. My folders are a tight fit similar to Michaels boats, and like him, I sit directly on the floor with my legs straight ( not much room to raise my knees) . I paddle with a 1/2" foam pad or no pad at all, and contrary to what you might believe, this is quite comfortable once you get used to it ( like everything else). My toes do push against a cross section ( remember, this is a folder)., and I use a self inflating cushion at my back. This makes paddling very comfortable. A friend of mine with a Baidarka, took his comfy fiberglass seat out and tried paddling while sitting on the floor. He liked it so much, he has never used the seat again. When I was racing many years ago, I used the footbraces as essentially pivot points that allowed me to transfer power during a racing pace. Watch the leg motion of an Olympic sprint paddler and you will see what I mean. In fact, I recall using so much driving force through my legs that on a couple of occasions I separated the footbraces from the hull ( Probably my fault for not attaching them properly in the first place). Today, I still push against the footbraces (cross section) while paddling, but not for power, but rather from habit. It just doesn't feel right to me if my feet aren't anchored. Tom *************************************************************************** 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 Tue Sep 07 2004 - 09:52:17 PDT
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