"Quick Shift" from Quickblade - Choking Down on the Paddle

[soulsurfmedia]

Hey Fellow Paddlers - Just finished this little video for Quickblade that discusses what has become known as "the Conner" stroke- where you choke down on the paddle and change gears so to speak. Morgan Hoesterey came by QB for lunch and we created this little video of Jimmy coaching Morgan and using a new style of grip he has been working on that is coming out from QB in a few weeks....hope you find this informational, we may put out a few more clips from this day as Jimmy was presenting a lot of great info, we just could not include all of it into this video without it becoming a short film!

Quickblade SUP and Outrigger Paddles: Lunch With Jimmy EP3: "quickshift"

[suprbowl]

Well done! Love the easy to understand science explanations. That training pool is really cool too! Looks like a good craigslist project to make one. Thanks for posting.

[sup_surf_giant]

I met Morgan yesterday at Dog Patch. Mellow.

[NoSaltSuper]

Great stuff as always from Jimmy.

I really liked the analogy to changing gears on a bicycle, makes total sense that way.

[sup_surf_giant]

Great stuff as always from Jimmy.

I really liked the analogy to changing gears on a bicycle, makes total sense that way.

It's true. That concept has helped me to be more stable too.

Deep/hard pulls while going slow upset my balance.

Short/shallow pulls in the (little gear) while going slow keep balance until I'm moving then I "switch gears" to the deeper pull.

Subtle changes make big differences.

[Marcelo]

That is really interesting to see the vid.

I have been doing that choking the paddle but while surfing during the super low tides because there is a lot of kelp where I surf, If I do a regular stoke, the paddle goes too deep in the water and get's stuck on the kelp, when I choke on the handle, just the tip goes in and it does not get stuck as much, plus the board glides a little more and the fins release the kelp a little more.

[Tom]

Jim, love your shirt. I guess you're fully sponsored by John Deer now.

[pdxmike]

Thanks for posting.  I like hearing his thinking and that shaft grip looks like it could work well.

What I think would be interesting to try would be a paddle whose shaft adjusted on the fly.  Instead of needing two hands to press the metal pegs or twist a collar like other adjustables, you'd just say, squeeze the handle and push down to shorten the paddle.  Then when you wanted it taller, you'd just squeeze the handle and pull up.

Not saying it's practical, and wouldn't create other problems, but it would be interesting to try it.  That way you could "choke down" without having to resort to grabbing the shaft instead of the handle.  I still think holding the shaft instead of pushing down on the handle is a less-than-ideal position.

Some camera tripods with sectional legs come close to doing what I'm thinking of.  Photographers would go crazy if it took as much effort to shorten and lengthen their tripod legs as it does to change the length of an adjustable paddle.  

[Chilly]

PDX: That's an excellent idea! An instant 5" change in shaft length. Two gears, High and Low

The problem I see with the Quickblade shaft grip is that, I like to slide my bottom hand up the shaft when changing sides and the thing would get in the way.

Thanks for posting Soulsurfmedia.

[gorgebob]

Interesting idea of the classic bike handle bar grip. There is the added handle unit as well. I like PDX's idea as well the trick is to keep the handle at 90 and not fly off when pulling it back to full length.

[EgoSmitty]

I agree with Jim Terrell, Ive never felt like I had control over the paddle when I choke down on it. What I do like to do, however, is bring my top hands palm flat against the paddle while my fingers are still on the handle. If I can stretch the fingers out so the palm rests even an inch or so lower on the shaft but the fingers stay on the paddle then I am good. I feel like I get the same benefit of the choke but with more control over the paddle and a quicker recovery when I am done doing the stroke.

I know that placing your palm and bending your wrist is not considered good form and can be fatiguing on the wrist but I think that in small bursts it is ok. Remember that Connor is a very unconventional paddler but these things work for him. For me the flat palm technique that I just explained works great for breaking through surf and catching downwind bumps.

I played around with that technique quite a bit today in SoCal from the Strand to San Clemente Pier with 8kts to my back. The fun part was heading back to Dana Pt afterwards.

[PonoBill]

I like Jim's solution, it's simpler and more elegant than the choke handle I was working on last summer. Mine had a release button that would let you slide it up and down the shaft. Of course there were limits since the Ke Nalu shaft is tapered, but that actually working in it's favor since I could set the maximum slide by adjusting the lower diameter of the moveable handle.

It worked pretty well, but I didn't take it into production.

The choke approach has another benefit--you engage your muscles in different ways

[Sam1]

Cool video and a brilliant grip. When I want to shift gears and engage new muscles group into play I twist my wrist and place the palm of my hand with my thumb pointing down on the shaft like in the picture. Kind of the same hold you might use on a Double-blade paddle. I'm using this technique with a large blade size (675cn) for about 5 minutes every 15 minutes of regular paddling technique. It is able me to put a lot more power into the water and increase cruising speed considerably. Took 10 minutes off from my 8 miles regular course using this technique. Anyone else using or tried this technique? Never seen somebody else using it on a SUP.    
       

[johnrg]

IMO ergonomically speaking, I would like to see a top hand throttle tube mounted so the upper hand rotates as your arms come down, keeping your parts in a more natural position (if you hold your hands/arms in a paddling motion it's easy to see your body gets in the way, even with twisting and your inside wrist naturally wants to rotate). Since the bottom hand is most secure near the blade with less handle a directional grip might be benfitial purely to keep the blade from twisting when "choking down".  Ulitmately though, like a car steering wheel, bicycle wheel, etc... I want self centering paddles, so there is no twist, smacking rails etc... Choke down, use bad technique and always find the blade self centers (granted certain stroke techniques and steering might not work so well but heh, just a thought). Once we have that we can go back to simple, primitive, effective, without all the bells and whistles. The beauty of this sport is it's primitive simplicty. Grab board, paddle and go. Just my thoughts while in the water closet.

[hbsteve]

Sam1--A few months back, there was a video of a racer, Annabel?, using thumb down.             About every 5 minutes I take 20-50 strokes with top hand thumb up and then same with thumb down.  I don't time any course.  But, today it seemed like speed picked up.