How far are your hands apart?

[Wetstuff]

... it seems that I may have had too wide a grip on the paddle?!  I took 'shoulder wide' (O.D) as gospel, but it seems I get a better catch, deeper paddle and more power (based on watching the bow wave) by moving the shaft hand up about 3-4".

I am also a little torn/confused about "paddle as a stationary pole" and "lower hand as fulcrum" stroke style.  I seem to be able to punch or force the top hand past the lower hand to make a quicker, strong short stroke vs. the pull along style.  ..or perhaps they are condition dependent?  (my primary interest is surf, but I can flat water a creek out my back door, so will do both)

It's exhilarating as hell, but still a little confusing.  (which is good...)

Jim

[PonoBill]

Any technique works for a while, the issue generally is what will take you the furthest, fastest. Not just today, but in the future. If you learn to paddle with poor technique you'll either have to adapt to it really well or relearn and work to overcome it. Makes sense to try to get it right from the start.

How wide the grip should be is somewhat condition-dependent, but shoulder wide is more or less a minimum. If you're getting a big reach through shoulder stacking and torso rotation you get the most power into the first few inches of blade movement with a lower shaft grip.

Punching your upper arm forward is a valid stroke, some people swear by it, most paddle coaches swear AT it. You're using relatively small muscles when you should be recruiting your core muscles. All the same, why you start getting tired, having an alternate stroke in your trick bag is a good thing.

Learning the stroke Dave Kalama teaches on his website puts most of this stuff to bed. And if you practice that and then treat yourself to a Kalama Kamp or Klinic you'll be set. A good stroke is as important in surfing as it is in racing. If you're scratching for a big wave that you can't afford to miss, fluffing your stroke is a bad idea.

[Wetstuff]

Copy that - PB.  I have learned a lot of bad habits - especially being self-taught.  Rick posted this: this guy has a nice fluid stroke...  Makes him look like 120lbs.

Jim

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[Wood_Ogre]

Punching your upper arm forward is a valid stroke, some people swear by it, most paddle coaches swear AT it. You're using relatively small muscles when you should be recruiting your core muscles.    My observation here is paddlers who use the Punching upper arm forward are the slowest paddlers in the water and can not maintain for long distances. Have tried it and find it worthless.

[PonoBill]

A lot of paddle coaches say put your arms out straight from your shoulders, bend your arms 90 degrees--that's how wide your grip should be. It's about where mine is.

The guys stroke is fluid, but he's pulling pretty far back, and he's dropping his upper hand to recover, which costs time and energy. Better to push the blade up out of the water like drawing a sword, except you use your lower hand to push it up rather than pulling with the upper. And feather the blade at the same time to help release it from the water.

[Wetstuff]

Here's a tutorial my visual brain can appreciate.. Jim Terrell from Quick Blade Paddles


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"Better to push the blade up out of the water like drawing a sword, except you use your lower hand to push it up rather than pulling with the upper."   ...those sorts of analogies are things I can process.  Thanks.

Jim

[shankfoo]

A lot of paddle coaches say put your arms out straight from your shoulders, bend your arms 90 degrees--that's how wide your grip should be. It's about where mine is.

I seem to be most comfortable when my arms and the paddle are forming more or less an equilateral triangle...  I'm guessing that's the configuration where forces are roughly balanced across all the 'vertices' (wrists+shoulders) during the power phase.  It's roughly the same as the 90-degree elbow thing.

Watch that video again, if you're like me you'll start to see people form nice regular triangles on the catch, esp. with the nice orthogonal side view Mr. Terrell has set up.