Re: [Paddlewise] Legs Are Everything

On Wed, 8 Sep 2004 09:32:18 +0100
  "Colin Calder" <colin.calder_at_abdn.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> Sprint boats never have back bracing - in order to drive with your legs you
> need to be able to move glutes and lower back around in the seat. Foot
> bracing is ideally just a bulkhead with a slot in it for the tiller bar

Correct -- no back bracing in sprint boats (or hip or thigh bracing either).

A slight quibble with the foot board, though.  So that both legs can assist (although one 
only drives with one leg at one time), the foot board is designed to permit one to use one's 
feet to brace.  New foot boards have a lip at the top that curves back, under which one 
places one's toes/tops of one's feet.  As one foot pushes hard against the footboard, the 
other foot resists being pushed away by bracing against the curved top of the foot board. 
 In older boats, this was done by way of a strap across the foot board into which one 
insered one's feet.

Cheers,
Richard Culpeper
CCA/OCSRA Sprint Racing Instructor
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