Re: [Paddlewise] bracing and power

Dan Henderson at Cascade Canoe and Kayak seems to be THE person doing  
research on the efficiency of different paddling styles, at least in the Seattle 
 area. He is the one you should contact about these questions.
                   Pam in Washington State
 


But, maybe a long paddle actually works best for
his particular physiology.  Maybe he has especially strong slow twitch muscles
and few fast twitch  ones. I'd like to see him get into a kayak where the hull
speed limit could  not be reached (so friction was the main resistance) and
then see if he was  faster in a sprint using a longer paddle or a shorter one.
Next maybe we  could hook him, and several other paddlers in turn, up to a mask
that  measures oxygen uptake and see if he is more energy efficient using  a
longer paddle than a shorter paddle at a given speed over a given  (long)
distance. Next we could compare him with the oxygen uptake curves of  lots of
other paddlers using different length paddles (to find the ideal  length paddle
for each of them). Does anybody know which field of science  would do this kind
of research? Sports Medicine? Physiology? There might be  a Master's Thesis in
it for some budding university researcher. That way we  could get something
better than anecdotal evidence to argue about. Or we  could agree on that
aspect of paddling and go back to just arguing if  bracing a kayak is better
with a longer or shorter  paddle.
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