[Paddlewise] Joint troubles

I would greatly appreciate some numbers to go with the sciatica, wrist etc
use problems.

 

These would include stroke rate (strokes per minute), boat speed, paddle
length and degree offset of the paddle blades.

How do you paddle? Arms up or arms and elbows down?

 

I believe such data is directly related to the joint/sciatica problems
currently under discussion.

 

On one day trip in Frenchman Bay, ME, we had a somewhat inexperienced
paddler with us. After a few miles, he was starting to sweat. All arm
paddling, we could see his forearms bulging with successive strokes. He was
a linebacker kind of fellow, clearly much stronger than any of the rest of
us. He said, after suffering for a while, why are you guys killing me but
you don't look like you are doing anything? We all paddled arms/elbows down
with torso rotation and driving from the feet on the foot braces, a
studiously relaxed style of paddling for long distance touring. We were
never dawdling!

 

My father-in-law paddled from New York city to Albany, up the Hudson River
(that would be UP STREAM) using a long (9ft) paddle in record time of 36 hr
45 min on October 15-17 , 1921. That is a distance of 110 miles. He had to
hurry at the end in order to catch the ferry running back to NYC. We have
the boat and the paddle.

 

Thanks,

Chuck Sutherland
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