The "unfeathered," or "traditional" paddle came first. As I understand it, the feathered paddle was developed as a racing thing in the belief that the upper blade of the feathered paddle would create less wind resistance. It was later adopted by the white water slalom community who were often paddling into stiff headwinds as the result of the canyons which the rivers are usually found in. In kayak racing, whether it be flat-water or whitewater, the difference between winning and losing is often measured in a fraction of a second. That being the case, I have no problem believing that using a feathered paddle in any king of a headwinds can be an advantage to the racer. A lot of white water paddlers were responsible for pioneering modern sea kayaking. They brought with them the paddles they were most familiar with, for better or worst. Now let's go a little closer to home. I paddle with both feathered and traditional, or unfeathered, paddles. I remember a trip I did in Baja some years back where we got a late start and hit the stiff afternoon headwinds. We hit an exposed area during a crossing which was particularly bad where we worked for about an hour without making any headway at all. We decided to feather our paddles, after which we noticed a marked improvement in our crawl forward. The feathered paddle made a significant difference in that situation. I also use a feathered paddle for surfing. I believe that the feathered paddle is more conducive to using shorter paddles with a quicker stroke. However, the main reason I use a feathered paddle for surfing is because I know for a fact that punching through a large wave, the kind where you actually go under water, is considerably easier with the upper blade of the paddle angled to slice through the water rather then push against it. But you can believe whatever you like. Scott So.Cal. *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Sep 09 2004 - 16:32:06 PDT
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